Chapter 2 #2
She landed on top of the bag of money and choked on her own blood before it suffocated her.
Her body twitched until going limp, and but her eyes remained open.
By the time I got to the car, Chevy had the kids tucked, and she was in the driver’s seat.
I didn’t argue. Tossing the bag of money into the front seat on the floor, I hopped in shotgun and nodded for her to push the pedal so that we could get the fuck out of here.
She backed the car up to pull off between the brush from where we came.
A couple of hours later, we pulled up to the safe house that Free and I had tucked away.
I didn’t want her going home yet until we figured out what we were going to do about the cops.
Having them involved changed everything. If they found that bitch Kitana, they would more than likely link her back to me, so I had to send a few niggas to do some cleanup for me, for a price of course. No body, no evidence, no case. For all they knew, my kids were dropped at a fucking bus station.
After getting the kids settled in bed, Chevy met up with me in the kitchen. I sent one of my men out for some food because a nigga realized he was starving and hadn’t ate all fucking day. When she came in, practically salivating, I was pretty sure she felt my pain.
“Oh my God. Is that Fred’s?” she questioned, mustering some energy on the other side of the island.
“They out?” I asked, sliding one of the containers her way so that she had her own shit.
“Surprisingly, yes,” she said, taking a seat on a chair and lifting the lid to her food. “When can we go home?” she queried.
“I think we need to wait it out, have you lay low a few days. I think it’s time to get out of that house. I’m sure you can find something else. I need some shit like what Free got, a fucking fortress,” I concluded. “This can’t happen again.”
“I love my house, Ledge, and I am not moving.” She was firm when she spoke. “You went back to the office tonight for me?” she bit into her sandwich and asked.
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t like how shit ended with us in the car.
Everything in me told me to just come back and talk to you.
But when I got there and saw everything going down…
I don’t know… a nigga just reacted.” I shrugged, making nothing of it as I chewed on a French fry and the chain of events danced around my head some more. Her ginger-colored eyes softened on me.
“I saw Ivy and Harbor… she’s fucking pregnant. I know what it’s like to be powerless like that,” I acknowledged, lost in my own memories.
“I know,” Chevy replied softly.
She did know. She was the only person other than Frequency that I had ever opened up to about my childhood.
Free and I lived in that same kind of darkness for a long time.
The difference was, he still had people around him to bring him into the light.
For me, it was dog eat dog for a long time.
The shadows was where a nigga lived. My mama was killed during a home invasion.
I would have died too, right along with her and my brother and sister, but I was hidden in a closet and witnessed it all instead.
Imagine being seven years old and going through that.
“Harbor did what anybody who loves their child is supposed to do in that moment. Ivy ain’t even hers, but she put her life on the line to make sure she was safe.
I knew right then that you were right, and so was Free.
And maybe a nigga still carry some guilt about what we did to her, and that’s why I held in all that anger toward her when I saw her. She didn’t deserve that.”
“You analyzing yourself now? Whew.” Chevy chuckled as she continued to nibble on her food.
“I’m gonna go check on the kids and do a perimeter check and call Free.
Make sure you eat, take a shower, and try to get some rest. We can talk more in the morning.
” I wasn’t sure where we stood, and a nigga was too mentally drained to even think about it right now.
On my way outside to the terrace, I dialed Free on my cell.
“Knowledge, the fuck. Where you at? What’s going on?” he asked with urgency.
“We’re good. Everything is handled, and I got my kids and Chevy in a safe place,” I informed him.
He sighed, relieved.
“A’ight. We need to talk. Face-to-face.”
“Okay. But um… how’s Harbor doing?”
There was a slight pause on his side.
“She’s fine. I’m taking her home. Once I get her settled, I’ll come check for you.”
“Yeah. Just hit my line,” I said before hanging up.
We definitely had some things to discuss. I hadn’t acted on any kind of betrayal, but I still felt like he should know what was going on with Arrow. That shit tonight was him coming for us.
Frequency
As soon as we were home, Ivy sluggishly made her way up to her bedroom after mumbling good night.
Harbor and I stood at the bottom of the steps watching her until she disappeared around the corner.
I helped her out of her jacket, and she yawned while staring up at me.
They had eaten most of the food in the car, but there was still some left in a plastic bag, which I set on the table in the center of the room.
“I think you could have at least stayed one more night for observation.”
“Free, I’m fine, and with the way the overflow of that hospital was set up, I don’t need to be there unless I have to. The doctor said I am good. I just need to take it easy, which I plan to,” she argued, rolling her pretty ass teak-colored eyes.
I watched her wobble toward the living room, one hand on her back doing that pregnant woman walk.
Her ass looked good from the back. You couldn’t tell she was even pregnant until she hit that side angle.
She settled onto the ivory sofa and kicked off her shoes.
Stepping into the living room, I peeled out of my blazer, tossing it on a nearby chair on my way to her.
She leaned into the corner of the sofa and propped her legs up.
Grabbing her ankles, I lifted them slightly and sat down so that she could rest her thighs and legs across mine.
“I heard you on the phone. You’re leaving to meet Knowledge,” she said, studying me while propping her hand behind her head and resting her elbow into the couch cushions.
Her hair was wavy and swept to one side, and she looked back at me lazily.
“Yeah. Just gotta check in with some shit,” I replied, reaching for her feet so that I could massage them.
“Did you know that Ivy had me walking around here trying to hide this pregnancy, and she knew?” she asked, shaking her head.
I chortled while rubbing the arch in her foot and watching her close her eyes in pleasure.
“Mmm, damn that feels good,” she purred, making my dick hard.
She was making it hard to tell her what I needed to tell her. No more than fifty yards from where we were seated, my child’s mother was tucked away in the very room I’d held her in. I didn’t know what to do or where to go from here. I just knew that I couldn’t lie to her or Ivy.
“Something happened tonight.” I began.
Her eyes popped open, and curiosity ignited them.
“Something like what?” she questioned, rejecting my massage.
She seared a hole through me, almost like she could see it all. Her soul knew mine, so she was already versed on me. I knew that because it was the same for me. Her eyes usually told everything. Every thought, every fear, every reaction. Whether her face moved was another story.
Turning my head back toward her, I released a sigh.
“I met with Arrow tonight. He revealed a lot to me. My father was there, and now he’s gone,” I implied.
“Gone? You mean—”
“I’m not about to get into the details of this shit with you, Harbor. The less you know, the better. But I did what I thought I had to do.”
“Okay. And Arrow?” she questioned, barely blinking or reacting to the news that I delivered.
“Arrow is handled. He won’t be a problem either.” I kept my gaze aimed straight ahead.
“I can’t say that I’m going to shed a tear over either of them,” Harbor muttered, also looking off. “But… I wouldn’t question you. I trust you to do the right thing, even if it doesn’t feel like it in the moment,” she declared, her soft, slanted irises landing on me once again.
Love filled her eyes. Nobody had ever looked at me like that, and that’s how I knew that I couldn’t keep this from her.
She deserved the truth, the option to do whatever she needed to do for her.
I was confused. A nigga was blindsided by Ivana’s presence to the point where it was leaving me unsettled with my own woman.
Studying every inch of her face, it was crazy that the first time I saw her, something had imprinted on me.
I wasn’t sure what it was at the time. It was one of those things that marked me, something internal that the rest of the world couldn’t see.
Once I was in her presence, she was like a forbidden toxin that I enjoyed inhaling, even if it made me sick or weak.
“You got that kind of blind faith in me?” I questioned.
“You’ve had it in me since the day I met you. You pushed me in a way that nobody ever has.”
Reaching for her hand, I held it between mine before I brought myself closer to her.
Sloping forward, I brushed my lips across hers in a kiss.
I didn’t want to shatter her already-fragile heart.
I knew that what I had to say could possibly send her flying in the opposite direction, and that was the last thing I wanted.
But I couldn’t lie to her, not about this. This shit was a deal breaker.
“There’s something else,” I said, and her brows knitted together in confusion.
“What?”
“Arrow brought someone to me. Someone I never expected, and someone I can’t just… eliminate,” I worded with caution.
“Who?” Harbor asked, anxious for answers.
“Ivana,” I answered, and she remained unflinching.