Page 9 of Dr. Bell

That was Jit. He took a few steps toward Hakeem’s crew. I grabbed him by his collar and yanked him back. He mugged me hard.

Pretty whimpered, “Please don’t hurt my brother.”

Sirens went off in the distance just as Humble rolled up next to the Honda. He emerged from the Ghost with his gun at his side. He was prepared to shoot this shit out with me, but there wouldn’t be any of that tonight.

Glancing at Jit, I mugged him back. “Either you gon’ listen to what the fuck I say, or I’ma leave you to these niggas.”

“Fuck y—”

“Please, no!” Pretty pleaded as I jacked her brother up against the car before he could say shit else. I disarmed him, then shoved him toward the Ghost. “Get the fuck in.”

“Nah, Doc. You know how this shit goes. That nigga took one of ours. He owes Hakeem in blood. That bitch started this shit. She gotta pay us back in blood, too.”

Antonias was already ushering Pretty over to the Ghost. She started crying at Marco’s statement.

“This shit don’t concern you, Doc. If she ain’t yo’ wife, and if he ain’t yo’ son, they belong to us! Especially behind ours.” Marco wasn’t a punk. With the position he held, he was expected to be ruthless.

However, I glanced at Pretty. “Pretty Bell…” I was pleased when she caught my bait. “Get inside the car, baby.”

Humble opened the passenger side door for her. Without hesitation, she scurried inside. Only then did that hard-headed jit follow. The sirens grew closer, and I had to get them out of here.

Marco and the other nigga thought the same shit. If it wasn’t for the dozen or so guns drawn on them, they would’ve tried to shoot this shit out. However, they weren’t stupid.

“Get the fuck off my do’ step,” I told them. “Anybody lay a hand on my jit, or my wife, it’s up.”

Marco growled in anger. He wanted blood but knew damn well I wasn’t the one to start a war with. In the distance, a cop car bent the corner, it’s red and blue lights prompting Marco and that other nigga to scatter.

Glancing at Humble, I said, “Get them home. Stacy will go with you.”

Humble nodded and climbed back inside the car as Stacy took the passenger seat. Staring at the window Pretty sat behind, I followed the Ghost until my attention was averted by the police cruisers arriving at the scene. My crew knew what to do. I placed my gun at my back and released the tension between my shoulder blades.

Both Adir and Dr. Bell had almost taken a back seat to that other nigga inside me. He nearly escaped. Thankfully,prayerfully, I’d go another night without resorting tothat other nigga. I hadn’t seen him in too long, and he needed to stay where the fuck he was. Seeing those guns trained on Pretty almost made me break my streak.

“Russ,” I called to my day one security guard. “Strip the car and bring whatever’s in there inside.” He got straight to it.

Going back inside the building, I placed a call as I went to scrub my fucking security cameras. Russ appeared a few minutes later with Pretty’s purse and two phones.

“Everything else is in the conference room. Judging by the boxes that were in her trunk, she was either in the process of moving, or she just moved here.”

I took the information and tucked it in my brain.

“Good lookin’ out. You down to take lead with her?”

Russ had worked for me since I opened my office. He was a few years older than me and came from the life. He knew the streets as well as anyone who’d been born and raised in them.

He grinned. “Of course. I got you.”

After I was done scrubbing my cameras, I walked back out of the building to a cacophony of blue and red lights.

“What you got for me?” I asked as I approached homicide detective, Wesley Gunner. He stood with his hands on his hips, shaking his head at the wreckage.

“Nothing good. An informant just dropped that Hakeem has two million on the kid’s head.”

“Who’s the informant?”

“Come on, Doc. You know damn well I can’t tell you that. Just know that their info is solid. Question is, what the hell are you gon’ do?” As I walked away, he called, “No wars, Doc. The city is already in shambles.”

Yeah, I heard him. However, as I entered back inside the lobby of my building, I pulled my phone from my pocket and sent a message to my father. A family meeting in the middle of the night wasn’t on my schedule for the day but fuck it.

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