FAVOR #2
Ready to push the door open, a gunshot whizzed past her head, and she released a high-pitched scream. Instinctively ducking, she prayed he didn’t send any more her way.
“I see you’re hardheaded as fuck.” Bull’s even steps rounded the car, and he towered over her with his gun at his side.
“I’m pregnant!” she blurted out, catching him off guard. “Please don’t kill me.”
“I’m not the mothafucka you need to be worried about. Stand up.” He tucked his weapon in his waistband.
Opening her eyes, she peered up at his handsome face twisted in a grimace. The raging storm outside put her on edge, but she slowly did as she was told.
“Is it Bronx’s?” Bull skimmed her carefully, and she nodded slowly.
With a heavy sigh, he swiped his beard and shook his head.
“Get your shit. We gotta go.” He approached the black Ford Bronco Sport parked nearby and let the visor down.
A key fob fell into his hand, and he sat with the driver’s door open so he could start it.
Toni secured the tote from his front seat and slung the strap over her shoulder.
All this nigga had been doing since she met him was giving her orders.
Bull pushed her door open while he let the car run, and Toni dropped into the seat with her arms tucked over her breasts like a child not getting their way.
He stepped out, unbuttoning his shirt and showing off the tattoos inking his chest and arms. She did her best to look away and not get caught up in the gorgeousness of this man.
He was Bronx’s brother after all. Not an ugly gene in the bunch.
Even Brenda’s evil looking ass was pretty.
Part of her felt like she was being unfaithful just appreciating Bull’s perfectly sculpted body.
Left in a wife beater under his shirt, he opened the back door to go through a duffel bag parked in the seat.
After rustling through it, he located a t-shirt and a black hoodie to slip on.
Kicking off the dress shoes, he stuck his feet in a pair of all black air-forces and checked the Chevy to make sure he hadn’t left anything else behind.
Once he was satisfied, he went to open the main door so he could pull out.
The rain let up some, but it was still coming down.
Bull locked up and got back into the driver’s seat.
Toni decided against trying to make another failed attempt at leaving, given the weather.
There was no way she would survive out there on her own.
Trembling from the cold air, she shot a weary glance at Bull as he pulled off and onto the narrow road where they came from.
“What are you going to do to me?”
“If I wanted to do something to you, it’d be done,” Bull answered. “Calm yo’ paranoid ass down.”
“I’m paranoid, but you just shot at me,” Toni quipped, cutting her eyes across the seat at him.
“It was a warning. My aim is legit, so if I wanted to hit you, I would have,” Bull responded, keeping his eyes on the road. “Those men at your job, they wanted to murk yo’ ass. Not me.”
“And how would you know that?”
“I’m pretty sure Braxton and Brenda sent them after you.”
Stomach jolting, her mouth twisted into a scowl before resting on confusion.
It took everything in Bull not to study her like some creep.
She was one of the most attractive women he’d ever seen, even in that busted ass uniform.
With warm, empathetic eyes that seemed to look right past his hard exterior, her ethereal vibes intrigued him.
He was used to bad bitches who were sure of themselves, what they wanted, and how they wanted you to fuck them.
As far as he knew, Bronx was the same way.
Toni was timid. She still had this bright-eyed innocence that he envied.
There was no way he believed she was some mastermind behind what happened to Bronx and their crew.
“Why? Why would Bronx’s parents want to hurt me?” she asked, spotting the same skull tattoo on his hand that Bronx had, and so did his shooter.
Bull side eyed her and shook his head.
“I’ll let you think about that.”
“I loved Bronx. He was everything to me. I thought he held me in the same regard.” She muttered that last part and stared out her window.
The rain came down in a sideways pattern like they were inside the rain tunnel at the car wash.
“Did you know about Fancy too?” She was so fucking reticent it played on his frustrations.
He went into the pocket of his slacks and pulled out a pack of blunts that he pre-rolled. This whole situation left him fiending for his vice.
“Of course you did.” Toni didn’t wait for an answer. “You’re his brother. The side chick is always the last to know.”
“That’s between you and him.” Bull brought the blunt to his lips and dug a lighter from his pocket to spark it. “I didn’t even know there was a side chick. We ain’t been close in a long time.”
“Well, he’s dead now. I can’t exactly interrogate him, can I?” she quipped, a little more bite in her tone that sent Bull’s attention in her direction.
Maybe there was more to her simple ass than met the eye.
“She said they were engaged. He was staying at her condo. She was tight with the family, and I found his real social media page with her all over it. I can’t believe I was so fucking stupid.” Whimpering, Toni dropped her head in her hand.
Although she was devastated to learn that Bronx was keeping her his dirty little secret this entire time, she was even more fucked up behind the fact that he didn’t think she was good enough to meet his family.
It was all starting to make a little too much sense.
He hardly ever wanted to go out, and when they did, it was always in Stonebridge, never Prospect Pointe.
She didn’t mind since that was her city, but it should have been more obvious.
Bronx was very calculated in how he moved with her.
Sitting there beside his brother was proof that she didn’t know shit about the man.
Not for the emotional shit, Bull continued to blaze as she cried beside him.
All that bullshit was making him anxious.
His brother was a man at the end of the day.
He had a taste for women, and as far as he knew, Fancy was the one woman that he ever talked about spending his life with.
Bull never understood it. The girl was beautiful, but they didn’t seem to really have anything in common.
Fancy came from a middle-class family. Her father ended up cashing in on some lucrative tech deal, though, and got rich.
Even before then, she was role playing. Pretending she came from somewhere she had no idea about.
Bronx appealed to her because he was the epitome of a thug, and it pissed her parents off.
For his brother, she was like a trophy he could tote around, making himself feel bigger than he was.
Bull blamed Braxton and Brenda for that mindset.
Although their family wasn’t hurting financially now, there was a time when his parents were willing to go low for the cash, leaving a wake of destruction behind them as they moved on to the next money-making scheme.
“Clearly from your lack of response, you already know what it is and feel the same.” Angrily swiping the tears from her face, Toni scoffed. “Now I’m pregnant, homeless, and walking around with a fucking target on my back.”
“I’m not going to let anything happen to you or that baby.” Bull was very clear with his words, his thick torso leaning toward his door, smoking his blunt with one hand and steering with the other.
Sniffling, Toni blinked back more tears and looked toward him.
“You have to trust me. You think you can do that?” he questioned, glancing her way.
Something happened when she peered across the seat into his heavily lidded eyes.
There was no way to describe it. No words came to mind, but warmth spread through her as a mixture of other emotions swirled within her chest. Suppressing a shudder, she pried her eyes away from his because he didn’t seem to be interested in looking away either.
“What do I have to lose?” she muttered, staring out at the raindrops cascading down her window.
She really wondered in that moment. With her back against the wall and nowhere else to turn, it seemed the rock bottom she thought she hit before Bronx swooped into her life was nothing compared to what she was going through now.
The next day…
Bam, bam, bam!
The apartment door flung open, and Melinda, Niva’s cousin, poked her head out in alarm.
“Eazy, the fuck?” She looked him up and down, shaken by his sudden presence.
Chest heaving, fists balled at his side, trigger finger itching, he stepped to her.
She wondered why it was ten in the damn morning, and he was dressed to the nines in a black suit and bright blue tie with a matching pocket square.
A tight grimace creased his face. He left the hospital, grabbed a bottle, smoked a blunt, and went to his grandparent’s house to prepare for this morning.
When he got to the church and saw that it was empty, not a soul in sight, he lost it.
Now his eyes were bloodshot, raking over her with fury.
“Where the fuck is she!” he roared, startling her and sending her hand flying against her chest.
“What are you talking about?” Melinda was about to get fucked up, playing with him.
Shoving the door open and knocking her back into the apartment, he took quick strides past her into the two-bedroom space.
“I’m talking about Niva. Where is she? Why is the church empty? Where is the funeral? What the fuck is going on!” Eyes glistening, practically foaming at the mouth, he paced.