Chapter Fifteen- Sofia #2
“No, but do you know who is about to get shot?” I asked him, shifting my body to the side. Ralph made a face and began to turn around, Snow squeezed his trigger and fired a single shot. Ralph fell to the ground; the gun Luca handed him slid across the floor as he began bleeding.
“Where’s Luca?” Snow asked me, running over with his gun still aimed at Ralph, whose breathing was getting slower and slower.
“He went to the kitchen,” I said, pointing in the direction as I got up from the sofa. Ralph was looking up at me as he wheezed softly. I walked over and picked up the gun Luca gave him before following Snow.
“Oh shit,” I mumbled when I saw Luca sprawled out on the floor. He groaned softly with one hand on his stomach. Snow stood over him, looking at him wondering what happened.
“What the fuck is wrong with him?” Snow asked as Luca began muttering a bunch of incoherent words.
“Arsenic, mamma had been poisoning him for months. I think the effects have finally started to kick in. Where’s Buddha?” I asked. Snow turned to me with an obvious perplexed expression.
“Buddha’s on his way; he should be here soon.
Why the fuck was mamma giving Luca arsenic.
And why the fuck, when Buddha called me to get here earlier, did he say I needed to protect you and my niece?
Why the fuck did he say niece and not nephew?
” Snow’s questions were understandable. I sighed softly, rubbing my eyes just as I opened my mouth to speak; a soft voice made me panic.
“Mommy?”
I spun around to see Rocki standing along with Jax at the kitchen’s entrance. She had tears in her eyes as she looked at Luca lying on the ground. Jax began barking loudly at the chaos in front of him.
“Oh, baby, come here,” I said, rushing over to Rocki.
Covering her eyes, I hurriedly took her back up the stairs, leaving Snow behind.
This was way too much for a child as young as Rocki to witness.
I closed my bedroom door behind me and lay down next to her, singing softly to her until she drifted back to sleep.
Once I was certain Rocki was out for the count, I made my way back down the stairs and was greeted by both my brothers, Snow and now Buddha.
Luca was now in the living room, in a seated position on the ground, his back propped up by the sofa.
He was still alive, but he definitely had no more fight left in him.
Buddha and Snow looked at me as I entered the room. The moment they saw me, they stopped talking. Saying nothing, I walked over to my brothers and hugged them both one by one.
“Thank you,” I said softly, grateful for them saving my life as well as Rocki’s.
“Is Rocki alright?” Snow asked. I could hear the emotion in his voice; he and Buddha had been talking in my absence, I could tell. I nodded my head in response to his question.
“Your niece is just fine. I’m so sorry about all of this.
I should have been honest with everyone from the start, but I didn’t know how to.
Then one lie turned into many, and I just couldn’t bring myself to tell everyone the truth.
I need one thing from both of you.” I said, grabbing hold of both my brother’s hands.
“What’s that?” They asked simultaneously.
“Please, don’t be upset with our mother.” Both Snow and Buddha made a snorting noise at the back of their throats and looked away from me.
“Come on now, I said please. Don’t be hard on her.”
“We’ll think about it,” Buddha answered with an unreadable expression on his face. “As of right now, we need to move Ralph and Luca.” Buddha nodded his head at the two men.
“Ralph is still alive?” I asked, believing that he was dead.
“Yeah, I’m about to have some fun with that mothafucka with what he did to Lotus. Oh, I found Ernesto. They put him in the pantry. He’s alive, but he needs to see a doctor for the gunshot wound in his stomach. Someone will be here in the next ten minutes.”
I placed my hand on the top of my head as I tried to process everything. This shit was insane. I watched as my brothers loaded up Luca and Ralph in the back of Ernesto’s SUV.
By the time Buddha and Snow were about to leave. Ernesto had been picked up by someone who worked for our family. He’ll see a special doctor who also worked for our family.
“Where are you taking them?” I asked as my brothers climbed into the SUV. Buddha smiled at me as Snow started the vehicle.
“Don’t worry about it. Call Dior; she should have been discharged by now.
Tell her I’ll be home as soon as I’m done.
” Buddha gave one last instruction before Snow drove off.
I sighed softly because this had been one crazy ass day.
As I turned to make my way back inside my house to start cleaning up.
A car pulled up and stopped with a screeching halt.
My heart drummed in my chest when Yusef hopped out and made his way toward me.
Running over to him, I threw my arms around his neck and hugged him, wishing this embrace would never end.
“How did you know I needed you?” I asked, holding his face in my hands.
“Your brother called me…Buddha. He said I should come because you needed my support. I thought you told him about us?”
“I didn’t; maybe he figured it out somehow. It’s been one helluva day. Come inside, let me tell you all about it.”
Hand in hand, Yusef and I walked into my home as I began to replay everything to him. One thing I knew for sure was that Luca was finally going to be out of my life, and Rocki and I could start fresh. Hopefully, with Yusef right by my side.