Page 29 of Sinful Restraint

“Bullshit,” Titan spat, taking a seat. “Dude couldn’t even fuck right, and everything from the file that Rev put together after searching the dark web, and what Cruz’s contact told us, McAllister was a cocky muthafucka who never thought he’d be taken out. He was sloppy, wit’ too much money to waste on inhumane shit. He wasn’t smart enough to have more backup.”

“Especially when they were betta at shooting than his guards that we took out,” I added, flicking the ash from my cigar.

“Do you think Calvin had anything to do with us being set up?” Storm asked me.

“Nah. He was responsible for a lot of crap, but mainly with the cops. Plus, everything he did was because his greedy ass wanted money, not power.”

“I get that,” Storm said. “But a greedy man will never find peace, for his hunger grows with every crumb that he devours.”

I pinned him with a blank stare. “Can you repeat that shit in English please, Professor?”

“Calvin’s heart remained empty no matter how much he took,” Storm explained. “That’s why he kept betraying you. It wasn’t only for the money.”

“But from the thrill he got from fuckin’ me over,” I finished, finally seeing Storm’s point. “Even so, Calvin was accounted for when Rev was killed. I already checked. Doesn’t mean he ain’t have help, but damn, could he have been working for McAllister?”

My jaw tightened at the thought. “We’ve been going through every suspect from rivals and old grudges, to contacts we broke ties with and people on the inside, but nothing is adding up. The hit was too clean. Too perfect. Until Rev caught the bullet that should have never been his. Rev wasn’t just some regular muthafucka. He moved smart when we battled and always stayed three steps ahead.”

“We all were the target on those mountains,” Titan stated, leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms over his chest. “But the shit felt personal with how Rev was taken out. Out of all of us, he was the one hit.”

I nodded, Titan’s words being the thought that none of us had wanted to say out loud. “Like Rev was who they wanted.”

“Yeah,” Titan muttered. “Sometimes the most important piece is the one you never knew was missing.”

“Until you’re standing in the ruins and realize you could have saved it all had you just paid more attention,” I finished, rolling my cigar between my fingers.

“Look who’s sounding all smart and shit,” Storm teased.

“Shut the fuck up,” I spat, nodding to Titan. “He started sayin’ smart shit first.”

Storm leaned forward, placing his forearms and elbows on his knees as he clasped his hands together. “What I should have said is, you gotta get out of your head with this.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“We all had our own unique friendship with Rev.” Storm shared a knowing look with Titan before turning back to me. “But you and him went way back. Titan and I have our own ways and methods of figuring this out, but in order to eliminate more people, we have to look into folks we haven’t considered yet.”

I frowned, playing with my tongue ring out of frustration. “You mean Baarbie.”

Storm nodded. “Yeah. If you remember, it took a while for us to track McAllister, but back when we were trying to find out intel about him before we ever started planning our attack, Baarbie was essential to giving you the information Rev needed.”

“He may have worked for Jeremy McAllister, but that was years ago when McAllister was exiled from his family. If you remember, Baarbie was dropped from the NBA team that the McAllisters owned at the same time that Jeremy was disowned. Baarbie was butthurt, so when he got offered the job at Jeremy’s company, he took it,” I reminded them.

“But he left when he was at one of Jeremy’s events and discovered a room full of women waiting to be sold overseas, only to realize the truth behind why the McAllisters disowned him in the first place. So yeah, he had the intel we needed.

“And it took us a while to track Jeremy down,” Storm recapped. “He sensed the Feds were hot on his tail instead of us.”

I released a loud exhale in frustration when Titan and Storm shared another perceptive look.

“Baarbie’s too strung out to have been capable of setting us up,” I argued, failing to keep my tone even. “I’ll widen my search. We focused too much on who betrayed us, and the bigger issue is that we didn’t kill all the men on the mountains that day. The one who shot Rev may still be out there, and with Ri living with us, we have to keep her safe and away from all this bullshit.”

I dragged my hand down my face. “You both are my brothers, but this shit ain’t right. What about the Foremans? They were our target before McAllister. Maybe they set us up.”

“We killed them all,” Titan reminded, even though I knew that already since I was there and killed most of those muthafuckas with him.

“That don’t mean shit,” I spat.

“A ghost didn’t pull the trigger,” Titan retorted.

“You’re deflecting,” Storm pointed out. “We’re missin’ something big, and we can’t ignore Baarbie as a suspect.”

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