Chapter 2 #2
“Yeah. Actually, I am. You’re not one hundred percent, Mir. What happens if you get out there and hesitate or you’re not as sharp as I know you can be? You get caught slipping again and?—”
“Is that what this is about? One time, one fucking time and?—”
“And you could’ve died, Amir!” I yelled so loud I was sure the windows were rattling.
He sat staring at me with just as much anger and venom in his expression as I knew was in mine.
“You could have died, Mir. What the fuck was I supposed to do if that happened? How the hell could I look myself in the mirror knowing I lost the one person I am closest to in the world? I promised…” I paused and raked my hand down my face, turning my back to my brother to calm my anger.
“Promised what?”
“After Pops died I promised her I would always make sure you were good. It’s the one thing she asked and I promised. Shit like this weighs heavy on me because I feel like I’m disappointing her.”
When I turned to my brother again, his face loosened a little.
“Shit, back then I needed it. That was a long time ago. I was seventeen years old when Pops died and didn’t know shit.
I get it. When I was a kid, that was cool.
It made sense for you to always have my back.
I was wild as hell but I’m not that kid anymore.
I get it. I dropped the ball this one time and it could have cost me, but I’m here.
You also can’t be there every minute of every hour; so I have to stand on my own.
You kept your promise to her. She knows.
You carried me this far but I’m a man now, Sim. It’s not on you, it’s on me.”
I laughed in a cocky manner, raking my hand down my face once more. “It’s always gonna be on me and you can’t do shit about that but I hear you.”
“Do you?” His tone was serious as he stared me in the eyes like he could murder everything moving in that moment. His ego was being challenged.
“Yeah, I do, now calm all that down.” I smirked and he grinned like a kid.
The same kid my mother made me promise to protect.
Though at the time he was a grown ass man, in her eyes and mine, he was still little ass Mir who acted before he thought things through and jumped without a parachute, never harboring an ounce of fear.
That made him brave and stupid at the same time. My job was to balance the two.
After grabbing the chair and pulling it near his bed, I took a seat and watched as he struggled to lay back. I saw the pain he was feeling etched on his face but he didn’t say a word.
“What’s good with Lear? She still not fucking with you?”
“No, Ky went to see her after she left here today.”
“Ky was up here?” My face frowned and he took full advantage.
“Hell yeah, you know she had to come check on me. We’re tight like that.
” There was a little too much amusement in his voice when he spoke about Ky.
Truthfully, she and I hadn’t seen much of each other, and when we did, I was coming in late, climbing between her legs to release some tension, then right back out the door.
I knew it was fucked up but my focus was on other things.
I had to correct our situation as best as I could, which I planned on doing as soon as I left Amir.
Hopefully she would be at my place like she had been since we came back from LA, but if she bailed on me, I wouldn’t really blame her.
I hadn’t been giving her the attention she deserved.
“My fist is gonna be tight too when I knock you on your ass. Don’t play.”
“Damn, you tight or what?” Amir chuckled “….but nah, she’s been cool.
She just stopped by because she knew you couldn’t be here with me or at least didn’t think you could.
Sis was trying to pick up your slack.” He shot his eyes over to me and I chuckled at the thought.
That was one hundred percent Ky. She had her spoiled ways about her but family was important.
By default, Amir was in that category, so she was stepping up. That had me falling for her even more.
“She talked to Learah?”
His face was tight again in a matter of seconds.
“Yeah, she went by there after she left from here. I made sure Ky took her lunch because I know her emotional, overthinking ass isn’t eating.
Ky called me when she left, said Lear looked good but she’s in her head.
She’s scared of losing me which is why she’s keeping me on the outside, like that will make a difference.
She’s mine and I’m not trying to hear anything else but that. ”
“Makes sense, she just lost her sister. You need to think about that and the fact that all this happened because you were fucking around with another woman…”
“I wasn’t fucking off with Nika. At least not when this happened. I just needed to make sure there was no truth to the baby thing…”
“There wasn’t.” He and I shared a look and Mir nodded.
“Handled?”
“Yeah, and one of Kemp’s cousins. I’m sure they’ll surface soon.”
“Fuck. I hate this shit. I need to be out there.”
“You need to be worried about getting better and getting your girl back.”
“Ain’t shit wrong with me and I don’t need to get Lear back because she isn’t going anywhere. She’s still at my place, and even if she doesn’t respond with a damn thing but a one word text, she still answers. That’s all me. She’s just in her feelings right now.”
He spoke so seriously that I couldn’t help but laugh. That earned me a nasty look quick as hell.
“The hell you laughing for?”
“No reason. Sounds like you have it under control.” I chuckled and he gritted his teeth because we both knew he didn’t have a damn thing under control.
All he could do was beg for forgiveness and pray she eventually handed it over.
The same thing I was about to do but at least I had access to Kyori to get it done.
For now anyway, but I had a feeling that was about to change the second I came clean.