Page 156 of Riot

“Ask him,” Carmelo said quickly. “He came to me. Said he wanted to make a name for himself. Said he was tired of being your errand boy. Said he’d prove he had the balls to take y’alldown. I told him he was crazy. But he planned it all. He’s the one who pulled the trigger.”

Riot’s jaw flexed. None of this surprised him. It still felt like Carmelo was lying about his involvement. Havoc may have come to him but Havoc ain’t have no hittas. Those niggas belonged to Carmelo.

I’d never trusted Havoc. Not fully. I wanted to but he was always the outside child. Something always felt off about him.

Still, hearing it laid bare like that?

It hit different.

Carmelo dropped to his knees, hands up. “I swear, man. It was all your brother. He threaded me. Said he’d kill me like you killed my Pops if I ain’t help.”

“Nigga, you lyin’. That sounds like some bullshit. You and your daddy some weak ass niggas.” I held out my gun.

Allure reached for it without a word.

And I let her take it.

She stepped forward, boots slow, heavy like vengeance wrapped in skin.

Carmelo cried now. Real tears. Blubbering about loyalty, about blood, about how she was all he had left.

She raised the gun.

“You’re not all I had,” she said coldly. “You were just what was left after the ones I needed stopped giving a fuck.”

He opened his mouth.

She pulled the trigger.

Once. Clean. Final.

The shot rang out like judgment.

Creed didn’t flinch.

Neither did I.

She handed me the gun and walked out.

And just like that, the past stopped bleeding.

Chapter 53

RIOT

Something was very wrong. I felt it deep within. Despite the victory over Boaz and now Carmelo, we weren’t out the woods. I was so afraid for my cousin.

It was the next day, and still no one had heard from Rollo.

Not me. Not Creed. Not Irina.

His phone went straight to voicemail and his socials were dead. Something had happened to him because he has never gone MIA for this long.

I barely slept. Sat in my brownstone’s office chair ‘til the sun rose, replaying the same three words over and over in my mind:

Havoc set it up.

And now Rollo was gone.

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