5. Bay
FIVE
bay
I’m quick to whip the wheel to my left with my palm, throwing Travis back in his seat as I feel the rear tires struggle to grip the cement. It takes a second before they stick and get me safely onto another street.
The current goal—getting rid of the black Mustang who’s been following Travis and me for the last ten minutes.
The surprise—none.
I knew what I was doing when I snuck out of my bedroom window and climbed onto the roof. It was easier than I thought when I balanced myself onto a tree limb just to get onto the neighbor’s roof, then one more, until I found a spot to climb down and into another backyard.
From there, it was easy as pie.
Cairo paced back and forth, deep in his conversations about lack of time and shit I wasn’t paying attention to.
I climbed a few fences, stayed out of the front yards, and called Travis to come get me in a car that wasn’t his.
Obviously, I wasn’t sure what Hot Rod and Juice had lined up, so I acted like the neighborhood was Fort Knox and slithered my ass out.
The only issue was Travis borrowed someone’s van and it wasn’t going to do the things I wanted it to.
So, I may have borrowed someone’s Honda to scoot around in, and now, I’m testing its limits with the way I’m taking corners.
But hey, the thing can scoot if someone is late to a soccer game.
“Bay, maybe we should call that one guy.”
Which guy?
I have a plethora in all the dark corners of this shithole. And each one of them would be a hell no, because it’d be the same answer—stay in your room and wait.
Or eat.
Or fucking wait some more.
I’m too focused on whoever is trailing us to answer Travis’s question. Their skill set of how to drift around corners—or pure luck—doesn’t leave me with a calm and easy feeling.
I don’t think it’s the latter.
I believe it’s someone who’s fucking on to me.
Obviously.
“You got his location down?” I ask, keeping my eyes on the road as Travis fumbles with his cell.
I continue to gun down the rest of the street and pray to God no one blows a light. I’m not exactly abiding by the laws, and a car accident isn’t on my list of shit to do.
“He’s in the area.” My pulse quickens with equal amounts of excitement and dread. By “in the area,” Travis means Juice is somewhere around here. Travis brilliantly tracked down his phone. “Bay…are you sure Levi would be around here, though?”
I lift my shoulders a bit because, fuck if I know, this was a hunch. I figured either Hot Rod or Juice wouldn’t leave his side and Hot Rod is at the port right now.
“I need you to pinpoint him to a T, Trav,” I reply. “And, when the coast is clear, we’ll investigate.”
“But what if he’s gone by then?”
I dunno. I have zero answers.
However, it’s better than sitting at home and waiting for them when they’re not coming fast enough.
When they’re not coming at all.
“Then we’re fucked.” Travis remains quiet in the passenger seat, and I flick my attention to my rear-view mirror for the millionth time. “If I can lose the dude behind us in the next few minutes, we’re good. We might have a window of time.”
Glancing down at the speedometer, I’m going ninety down a four-lane street. I could throw the gas pedal to the floor and likely outmaneuver this guy, but I think a little hardcore action is in play here.
I’m the soon-to-be Queen of The Landings now.
And, go figure, that’s where we are. What better way to make a name for myself if I’m fucking with someone who obviously won’t leave me alone?
“Did you bring it?” I can hear Travis’s heavy sigh of disapproval over the hole in the exhaust, which is killing some of my horsepower, but I’m not going to be swayed. “It’s a yes or no question.”
“Yes, but—” I make a quick left, over-favoring the direction and causing the van to drift. It doesn’t like it but quickly picks up the cement and straightens us out. I could thank the guy or girl for having a decent amount of tread on the tires, but with the way I’m driving it, they might not be saying the same to me.
Not that I’m serious.
“I’m going to drop you off?—”
“ No ,” Travis bellows, angling his body toward me. “Levi is going to kill me when he finds out I not only brought you a gun, but I went with you to find him.”
I think he should be more concerned with Rod and Juice.
Though, they shouldn’t be fully surprised. I gave them an extra forty-eight hours on top of the twenty-four I initially gave them to bring me to Levi, and they failed.
Or they believe I got soft.
This is a friendly reminder.
“Don’t worry,” I reply tersely. “Levi will be too busy riding my ass most of the time. So I’ll distract him and you run.”
“Bay…”
I release the exhale I was holding—had been holding—because I can appreciate Travis’s concern.
However, this is bullshit, and I can’t wait anymore.
Period.
“I need to see him, okay?” I steal a quick glimpse of him before returning it to the road. “I’m not going to sit in the house like a princess in a tower, waiting for the men to tell me what I can and can’t do.” A few seconds go by when I say, “I can do this. I wouldn’t bring you along if I wasn’t sure.”
“Next two streets,” Travis utters. “There’s an industrial street with at least six different ways out. Pull in.”
I do, finding the massive parking lot seconds later. It’s spacious enough for us to get out if there are any more problems than what I anticipated tonight, just like Travis said.
I couldn’t get a solid head count on whoever was in the Mustang, but the Honda can thankfully out-steer it.
And I lost him about a block back.
My palms are sweaty on the wheel as I whip the car around so my front end meets the Mustang’s when it arrives.
There’s no doubt he’s going to see me, and when he does, he whips in, slams on his brakes, and kicks up some gravel in the process.
And, again, fucking Mustangs. His rear-end squirrels a bit before coming to a full halt.
“Stay in the car.”
“ Hell no,” Travis argues as I throw open the driver’s door, and he’s shoving the 9mm in front of me. “Take this. Shoot to kill. That’s what Levi always says.”
The sheer mention of my best friend’s name guts me.
With shaky fingers, I wrap them around the barrel and give Trav a curt nod before stepping out and shoving the weapon into the waistband of my shorts.
Then I latch my focus cautiously on the Ford.
Shoot to kill.
Levi is going to fucking murder me when he finds out where I am, who I didn’t listen to, and the way I always have to do things my way.
But that’s a cross he has to bear for being my best friend.
Mine is him being the King of South Shore.
The black door to the Mustang slowly opens, contrasting with my heart rate as the person behind the wheel steps out and reveals himself.
But it’s not a he.
It’s a fucking she .
And it’s not possible.
Not in my wildest dreams.
“Nessa?” My brows instantly clash together, and I can’t help but say her name to make it known this shit right here is ludicrous.
She closes the door with ease, dressed in tight blue jeans and a white tee hugging her curves. Each step in my direction accelerates my pulse to a whole other beat. One of anxiety and dread.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
“Following you, dummy,” she replies with a small grin, but it’s weak and…not right. Nothing about this is right for many reasons.
One being the fact she doesn’t know how to drive a car like that.
Two, it means she does and hid it well.
Three, how the hell did she know where I was, that it was me, and why is she following me?
We’re not speaking.
We’re still fighting.
This screams everything I don’t want to calculate, access, and come to grips with.
And hiding means lies. Lies mean I’m going to get very pissed.
I stare openly at her and don’t utter a single syllable. There are so many questions filling my brain I’m having a hard time holding them all in one place.
To focus.
However, Nessa being Nessa will eventually fill in the gaps. She can’t help herself.
Never could.
“What’s the look for?”
I quirk a brow because, color me confused, we’re not fucking friends right now. “What look?”
“ That look.” She not-so-innocently narrows her brown eyes on me, but I’m not buying the act. This screams something bigger. Nessa’s newly discovered driving skills are something out of a fucking horror film, starring me. “What’s your problem?”
“Besides the fact you were following me like a bat out of hell? Nothing.”
Nessa rolls her eyes. “You’re being overdramatic. I saw you, and I wanted to talk.”
“This isn’t a good time.”
“Well, when is a good time with you? We need to?—”
“I tried, but you decided to be an immature asshole about everything. And like I said, I’m a bit busy at the moment.”
Nessa lifts her shoulders dismissively, not bothering to give a fuck. “Yeah, well…how would you feel if everyone you loved said they were going to leave you behind?”
Not warm and fuzzy.
Nonetheless, she has no reason not to trust me to follow through on my word. I’ve never let her down before. I don’t plan on doing it in the future either.
However, again, this isn’t the time.
She shakes her head at me through my silence and averts her eyes to one of the large white warehouses surrounding us. “I swear to God, I knew this town would kill us one way or another.”
Speak English and not in riddles, bitch.
It’s what I want to say, but Nessa isn’t one to be intimidated by me or anyone else. She’s South Shore. No amount of screaming, demanding, or threatening will get her to spew out what I want, no matter how hard I try.
“I always thought it’d be us three,” she continues. “Just running around like we always did. I never thought or believed any one of us would leave. South Shore was always home, no matter how stupid or dangerous it got.”
I can’t help but nod. Levi, her, and me, we ran wild, young, dumb, and free. It was a way to get by the hardships. The things we didn’t have. The way we wanted to build a future and do better for ourselves.
It was always the plan.
“We’ve been through this.” I clutch my fingers into tight fists. “Are we done here?”
“If you wanna be.” I immediately begin to pivot back toward the Honda when she throws another curveball of vagueness at me that has me freezing in my steps. “How long?”
The fuck is wrong with this bitch these days?
I sigh impatiently and turn around. She has another minute to get what she needs out before I’m getting the hell out of here. “How long, what ?”
“How long have things been going on between you and Levi?”
My brows instantly clash together because there’s no underlying meaning to her question. It’s more like a bogus hallucination she developed in her head.
“Don’t play stupid with me. The least you can do is be straight up.”
“I’m not. Having this conversation is one of the stupidest things I’ve done all night. And trust me, I’ve already done a lot.”
A haughty scoff leaves her mauve-painted lips. “I have no doubt. But I think I deserve an answer to the questions I’ve been asking for months.”
No clue what she’s talking about.
“You haven’t asked me any other questions.”
“See, this is the same bullshit Levi gave me,” she quips sharply, shaking her index finger in the air. “And I don’t believe you.”
I’m starting to see this clearer now, and I don’t want to.
Not her.
Not the only girlfriend I’ve ever had and kept because she was the yin to my yang.
The only girl who wasn’t a jealous-ass bitch all the time.
The chick who didn’t want to fuck my best friend and talk about it.
Nessa might have her issues, but she was loyal to a fault. I could always rely on her for backup and a night to party. She always made sure I had shit for the girls.
But now, as I stare at her, it’s starting to make sense.
I mean, it’s really the only option I’m working with.
I caught her close to him on my porch the day he got out of jail. She bolted as if she got caught and claimed it was because I scared the shit out of her.
Nessa is always fucking with Levi. She’d sometimes— purposely— shake her ass in front of him, but I always chalked it up as her toying with him and his patience.
Now I’m starting to see the jealousy glimmering in her eyes and how our alleged leaving of South Shore would really piss her off if he wasn’t taking her with us.
Nessa stays.
That’s what Levi wanted for now, and I didn’t question or push as much as I maybe should have. In my head, we’d send for her like Levi and I talked about before.
That was the game plan.
Now, I’m not entirely sure if Levi had a different one. I didn’t suspect anything different. I wasn’t given any clue something else was happening in the background.
I trusted what was given to me, and I didn’t think twice about it.
“You know I’ve always stayed out of this whole bullshit South Shore-Landings war thing,” she states. “And honestly…I thought it would be beneficial. You didn’t need to worry about me, and I could be around for Levi when he needed it. Keep his mind off all the shit he thinks about on a daily basis.”
My skin breaks out in goosebumps, serving as a warning sign for me to tread lightly.
I don’t particularly like how she keeps mentioning Levi. It seems to be the whole purpose of this improv meeting.
“This is the second time you’ve brought him up, Nes, so what’s good? What are you asking me?”
“It’s not so much asking as it is for the truth. Ones you’ve kept from me. Because when it comes to you, girl…” She tsks and brings her long, nude-colored nails to her chin. “He couldn’t and wouldn’t let you go.”
Same .
And now I understand her temper tantrum. The anger behind our decision to leave South Shore.
She wanted Levi.
I have him.
And we’re never going to be the same.
“Just admit it, Bay,” Nessa presses as I blink away thoughts of him—us—and the real reason I’m out tonight. “It’s not like it matters anymore.”
“What does that even mean?” I mutter, my skin crawling with unease.
I need to get to Levi.
I don’t have time for this shit.
Time is ticking, and so is my window.
“He got lit up, didn’t he?”
My blood runs cold at the vacant sound in her voice. The zero fucks ground out in each syllable.
A woman scorned, through and through.
And when you have one of those, God only knows what shit she just did.
“Where’s the other one?” she inquires simply. “The young Wildes asshole?”
I swear I hear her fucking chuckle under her breath. I don’t like her mention of him either. I also don’t enjoy how I just gave a fuck for two seconds.
I’m not scared Pretty Boy will die from his wounds. In all honesty, I never asked about him.
Torin Wildes isn’t done with me yet. He won’t be. There’s a sick obsession that lies between him and me, and while I’ve cut his ass off to my feelings, I know he’s still not done playing yet. He’d never take the pussy way out and die because I’m sure there’s more he wants to do and say that will make me wish he did.
“He took a few bullets for Wallace. Don’t ask me why,” Cairo tells me as we race through the streets to get to them. “I can never fully wrap my head around that asshole.”
That was a question I never got an answer to.
I’ve been molding my feelings for Torin into a ball and tucking it deep into my memory. He’s going to tell me I owe him for protecting Levi, but he won’t take immediate action like Matteo.
No, he’ll torture me and make me wait.
Then he’ll get what he wants.
I guess, in my head, he’s too evil to die.
God would never take him when he’s not done wreaking havoc on my life.
Where he can still drive me utterly insane.
To inflict karma where I’ve fucked up in life because he’d be the perfect resource and consequence.
“Earth to Bayyyy.” My head follows the familiar sound of Nessa’s voice. Taking in her tight jeans and quickly coming up to her face.
It’s cocky, self-assured.
Different.
“You’re getting slow.” She quirks an eyebrow at her own statement, and it’s then the glint of metal catches my eye against the dull street lights illuminating the abandoned parking lot.
She has a gun pointed directly in Travis’s direction. A tell-tale sign I underestimated this bitch more times than I want to admit.
Because that would mean I let a snake in.
“How deep in are you?” I ask, barely able to make my voice audible, but I need to know. Is this just some stupid warning shot because she’s pissed, or is there something more?
“Deep,” she confirms without hesitation. “Levi didn’t want my help. Said that you and him had it handled. Your stupid little ex offered money, protection, and a spot.”
A spot.
“Where?”
Nessa decidedly chooses to ignore the question and says, “I did it because I didn’t have a place, Bay. He gave me?—”
“What spot , Nessa? What did you do ?”
I watch her shift her weight but not the gun. Nor the whiplash she’s about to unload on me when she responds with, “Queen.” I’m barely able to register it when she tacks on, “Of South Shore.”
The barge of emotions I was trying to hold on to suddenly floods my every vein and brain cell.
Rage.
Shock.
Fear.
Revenge.
I stranglehold the last one. Nothing will ever compete with this moment. The girl I used to consider family while becoming my enemy in one fell swoop.
But there’s currently a gun pointed at my friend’s head by an old one who just made herself number two on my shitlist.
“You told Matteo where Levi was.” I piece the puzzle together. “That’s how he knew.”
“I gave Levi one last chance,” she says. “That night, I begged him to open his eyes. I’ve been standing in front of him this whole time, but it didn’t mean shit because you were always his number one.”
“So you had Matteo shoot him?”
She lifts her little head haughtily. “I never gave the order. However…I knew about it.”
I feel all the blood drain from my face.
Why didn’t I see it before? How did I not sense this?
Levi is somewhere, wounded in God knows how many places, and I’m standing here, in the middle of fuck knows where with this bitch.
“This is a revolution, Bay. Old powers and heirs need to be taken down, and everything needs to start anew.”
She doesn’t bother to deny it.
And I’m glad she doesn’t because there’s nothing to second-guess.
I take a step forward, wishing for the gun in her palm to be on me and not Travis. “I’m going to kill you, bitch. You better get a head start now.”
Nessa pulls the hammer back with an unforgiving click. She’s going to shoot Travis, whether I make a move or not, if she’s already planned on it. “Did you hear what I fucking said?”
“Loud and clear.”
My nostrils flare at her nonchalance.
Her betrayal.
Everything.
“Leave town, Bay,” she volunteers. “This is only going to end up bloody and chaotic.”
“I’m counting on it.”
“Bay,” I hear Travis utter to my right, but my focus doesn’t stray to him. I won’t allow Nessa any more of the upper hand than she already has.
“Yeah?”
“Take him with you,” Nessa insists. “Matteo is going to off everyone. You included.”
See, that’s the thing .
He won’t.
Not right away.
He’ll make me watch everything he does, everyone he kills, and he’ll enjoy every single second of it.
“You really are a stupid bitch, Nessa,” I grind out. “After everything I’ve told you about that guy…you still picked the wrong fucking side.”
“Depends on how you look at it. Levi had to go.”
“Because he wouldn’t fuck your stupid, silly ass?” I volley back. “Get a fuckin’ grip. You just outed yourself on why. You couldn’t take rejection, and now you just flat-out betrayed him.”
Her eyes remain placid and cool on me. “You don’t know what he said. It’s everything you didn’t want.”
I can’t help the scoff that rolls from my lips because anything Levi would’ve said didn’t merit him getting shot. “And what’s that?”
“He was still going to kill all the boys.”
That’s a lie.
Levi would never.
“He was going to take The Landings and be done with this whole ordeal.”
I shake my head against her bullshit commentary. “Is this your lame attempt at trying to turn me against him?”
“Bay,” Travis repeats for a second time, his voice shaky and more urgent. “He’s gone.”
“He was going to get you and the girls to California,” Nessa presses on. “He was going to get you far enough away so that you couldn’t stop him. Levi was going to come back here and finish the job.”
He’d never leave me behind in a strange fuckin’ town.
“You’re smokin’ some wack-ass shit if you imagined Levi saying that,” I retort evenly. “Maybe it was to get you to finally fuck off.”
She scowls at me, her forehead deepening with each blink. “You really think he was going to drop this whole town for you? The power and status?—”
“You don’t know him like I do.”
“Apparently. So, I had him taken out for you.”
“ Bay ,” Travis clips out. “He’s dead .”
Dead.
Mindlessly, I crane my head toward Trav, searching for the meaning behind what he’s saying.
I find tears in his eyes, distraught as he looks at me.
“What?” I say ever-so-softly because…I’m so mind-boggled by Nessa’s bullshit I’m not putting two and two together here.
“Levi…” He blinks, and a tear falls aimlessly to one cheek as he stares back at me. “He didn’t make it. They couldn’t…save him.”
Instant tears brim around the backs of my eyes because they couldn’t save him.
No.
No.
That’s not possible.
Men like Levi don’t fall to drive-bys. They don’t die when I’m not there, either. They don’t get snitched on by weak-ass bitches and fall because they’ve lived through bigger and crazier shit.
He wouldn’t because he knows I need him.
He’s not dead.
He wouldn’t leave me.
He promised.
He promised.
He wouldn’t do it because he promised.
I shake my head.
The words Travis clearly spoke aren’t fully mapping out in my brain properly. They make zero sense.
They don’t fit into my reality because the idea is incomprehensible.
It’s not right.
“Well, that solves one problem,” Nessa chimes in. “There won’t be?—”
“Shut up , Nessa,” Travis barks out. “You just got our friend murdered .”
“It was about time he met his match,” she replies boastfully. “He didn’t do shit for this town but for her .”
“Are you out of your fuckin’ mind? You sold him out!”
“ Fuck him. What did he do for you ?”
“A lot,” Travis mutters. “He was always there for me. He—he’s fuckin’ dead, and you ratted him out!”
“Stop saying that,” I whisper, but it falls on deaf ears because Nessa batters up with her clapback.
“He was about himself,” she retorts with steel in her tone. “He was going to leave you, too, while they went off and lived happily ever fuckin’ after. He didn’t give a shit about us. Just his stupid crown, his dumb-ass Titan seat, and whatever Bay wanted to do. So…I took matters into my own hands and shook up the playing field. I made a power move for myself. No one else was going to do it for me. No one else cared.”
“It wasn’t about you,” Travis grinds out. “But how to keep Mae and Ellie alive. And to make sure Bay didn’t lose herself?—”
“Shut the fuck up, Trav,” Nessa barks out. “He’s dead . He’s gone. Good fuckin’ riddance to that asshole. Matteo knows this life and what needs to happen. He made shit move.”
Matteo made shit move.
Matteo.
Fucking Matteo.
We all know what comes over me, so let me give you the summarized version.
Grief.
Fury.
Resentment.
And sheer devastation.
So, no one should be surprised when I reach for the waistband of my jeans and point my newly acquired 9mm at Nessa.
And shoot.