Page 57 of Nobody But You

“Let’s get cleaned up so we can go to work. I’m this close to saying fuck it all.” She laughed at my statement.

“You’re laughing until your ass is up in the refrigerator drinking up all the Gatorade, and we haven’t done shit we were supposed to be doing today,” I said as I finally pulled out and tucked myself back into my sweats.

“Stephon!” She exclaimed, amusement written all over her face.

“Matter of fact, go put some damn clothes on before you find out,” I said, smacking her ass and urging her to leave. She turned her head and smiled before walking out of the room, her hips swaying with each step.

Fucking trouble!

CHAPTER 29

Jourdan

It had been three days since we put the hit out on Miller. As anticipated, he hadn't left his safe house since his arrival. It was a small brick rancher with a basement that sat on a quiet street. Three streetlights lined the entire street, providing us with the perfect cover of darkness. When Stephon and I weren't physically present to watch the house, we were tuned into a feed that tapped into every surrounding security and doorbell camera, as well as the city's.

We’d decided that we needed to go ahead and strike before he decided to switch his routine. He sent a man out every night around seven thirty to get him dinner. He typically returned after about thirty minutes. Like clockwork, we watched as the man exited the safe house and entered his car. While I sat looping the feed on the shitty security feed that they’d set up so that whoever was operating the station inside wouldn’t notice. Rock snuck up behind the man and wrapped his arm around him from behind,snapping his neck. As his body slumped, Rock threw him in the car and backed out of the driveway.

From that point, we had thirty minutes to get inside and handle the situation before any of his men realized that something was wrong. After about five minutes, Rock clicked in the earpiece; it was Morse code. I knew he had run back to the house from wherever he’d left the car, but I couldn’t find him in the shadows, even though I was straining my eyes to see him.

Rock would go in first and take out the men. Then, I would come in from either the basement or the back door, depending on Miller’s location in the house. After about three minutes, Rock had sent me the code, letting me know that I should come in through the basement because Miller was in the living room.

I quickly exited the car, which was a few blocks away, and ran through the shadows until I reached the basement door. I clicked the earpiece so that Rock and I could time our entry. Once he gave me the go, I would enter. Through the tiny rectangular window, I saw that two men were on the couch, their attention focused on a basketball game that was playing. They would be easy to handle. I sidled up to the side of the house until I went down the slight slope that led to the basement door.

A series of clicks came through the earpiece, and I quickly picked the freshly replaced lock. I had to be careful not to make too much noise, new or old; it wouldn’t have kept me from getting in. After a few seconds, I quietly turned the knob and walked in. Both men’s eyes ballooned in shock. Before they could reach for their weapons, I’d fired two quick shots to their heads.

The wiz of the bullet through the silencer must have alerted another man I hadn’t seen. He walked from the back in a daze, looking as though he had been asleep moments before. When he noticed the two men dead on the couch, he reached for his weapon. It was in the back of his jeans. His moments were too slow as I charged him, pulling his reaching arm and cracking it at the elbow. With that same arm, I used it as leverage to pull him down, where his stomach met my knee hard on impact. He kneeled over in pain at the ribs I’d just cracked. While he was down, I let off three more shots, leaving his fate the same as the others. Checking each room in the basement and ensuring there was no one else, I quietly went up the stairs, where I heard Rock talking to Miller.

Stephon

“I figured it was only a matter of time until you showed up. I’m sure you have questions you want to ask me before you kill me. Or try to kill me.” Miller said as I stood before him. It was good that he already knew his fate because he wasn’t leaving here alive. I stood before him as Rock, wearing all black with my mask pulled down over my face. I scoffed at his overconfidence.

I didn’t even have to try hard to get in because the dumbass I’d taken out before entering had left the door unlocked. I was offended when I twisted the knob and walked right in. They’d made this too fucking easy for me. It also let me know that he was probably waiting for me. I drew Smith and Wesson and immediately shotthe first man I saw. His thud to the floor had brought out everyone in the house, to my luck, to where I stood just inside the door. I dropped every one of the five men before they could even react. As I stood listening for movement, I could hear the same noises I had just created coming from the basement.

Moments later, Miller appeared from the back, hands up and stepping over the men I’d laid before his feet. I knew we were good at what we did, but this shit seemed too fucking easy. It confirmed that he knew we were coming. Men like Miller always had insurance plans. I didn’t know if it would come today or return to haunt me later. I holstered one of my weapons and walked over to him, where I held him at gunpoint while I searched his person. Satisfied that he had nothing to defend himself with, I walked us through the rest of the house, checking for anyone else who wanted to die. I led us back to the living room, where I stood with my back towards the front door. I usually would never do that, but I needed to see Lioness when she came out of the basement.

“You’re not going to check the basement?” He asked knowingly. I ignored his question and asked one of my own.

“What did you want with One, Two, and Three?” I asked, growing impatient. I weighed the importance of his answers on a scale against his death. Ultimately, the answers held more weight.

“At first, it was only to find the people responsible for killing my son. His name was Isaac, your brother. I wasn’t shocked that Miller knew who I was, so I rolled up my mask, urging him to continue. I didn’t know what he was talking about.

“He was killed in Fields Boro trying to set up a hit against you all at a bar called the Trap Room. I was told that his killer had two guns that he wore. One under each arm that you still wear today. You stopped wearing them as a proxy but started back when you took over. Hmph,” he said. I thought back to that night when I’d killed the guy as he came through the door of that office. I let the pang of hurt pass through my heart. However, I didn’t have time to reconcile with the fact that the man I killed that night was my blood. I wasn’t a monster, but I pushed the knowledge of what I’d done to the recesses of my mind where all my other dark memories went to reside.

“You killed your son! My brother, as you claim. You sent a cat into a den of vicious dogs and thought he would come out unscathed. You should’ve come yourself. That’s pussy shit!” He continued with his spiel as if he hadn’t heard me.

“Don’t worry, I didn’t tell anyone of your identity. Either of you, now that there are only two.”

“What do you want then?”

“There was something about you the night I saw you at Porters. You looked like someone I knew, or maybe it was the guns. That jogged my memory. I wanted to know more about you, so I began to look. Then I saw you with Adri at the grocery store one night while I was here. From there, I knew you belonged to me. I always knew, even though she thought she’d hidden it. I had Issac by another woman I messed around with on your mother, so I let Sean claim you. She was too good for me, so I let hergo. You don't seem surprised that I'm your father. I take it your mother told you,” he spoke.

“That’s because you’re not my fucking father, but get on with it,” I bluntly stated. He grunted at my response.

“Semantics. That’s something we can work on, son.”

Hmph. So he does the drugs he sells, too. Because he’s out of his fucking mind.

“Anyway, my focus was still drawn to you for reasons I couldn't name. I kept coming up empty until New York. I was supposed to be meeting One. However, there he was, masked up, protecting a woman who chased me down an alley. Then, my concierge at the hotel, Mr. Phillips, confirmed that my son and One were the same after she gave me your description. Don’t worry, I handled that for you, too.

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