Page 2 of Riot

He didn’t answer.

That’s when we heard it.

The elevator.

Footsteps. Light. Hesitant.

A man stepped into the penthouse, hands raised, eyes wide as hell when he saw us standing over Raz’s corpse.

“Don’t shoot,” he said quickly. “Please.”

I stepped forward, gun low but ready. “Who are you?”

“I’m his cousin,” he stammered, nodding toward Raz. “I—he texted me. Told me to stop by.”

Riot raised his gun.

“Wait, wait,” the guy said fast, backing up. “I know who you are. You’re Creed and Riot King. My father does business with yours. We’ve never had beef. Please, we can talk.”

“We’d like to keep it that way,” Riot said coldly. “As long as you’re not a pervert.”

“I’m not,” the man said. “But Boaz… Boaz has seven girls chained in his basement. If you let me live, I can help you get to them.”

That made me flinch. What was up with all these rich niggas and their perverted predilections.

“What did you just say?”

“I can help you,” he said quickly. “I know the layout. Security codes. I can get you in. He has seven girls…”

Before I could ask another question—pop.

Riot’s shot rang out fast and final. The cousin hit the floor with a thud, blood pooling beneath his temple.

“Motherfucka,” I muttered, stepping back.

Riot holstered his gun without blinking. “He was a liability.”

“He had information.”

“He would’ve snitched as soon as we left. He was a risk. I don’t take those. Besides, you can’t trust a nigga that’s that quick to give up his people. You could cut off my dick and I’d never turn on my family.”

“Nigga, you gotta stop shooting first and asking questions later.”

“I ain’t got no questions,” he shrugged.

I stared at him.

He stared back.

That’s how it always was with Riot. I thought. He moved. I calculated. He destroyed. I weighed the odds.

And yet… I knew why he pulled that trigger so quick.

He killed Lionel and Pops the same way.

I’d been taking too long. Overthinking. Trying to find the “right way” to deal with our father. Riot handled what he thought was the problem. One clean bullet to the head. No hesitation.

And he wasn’t wrong to kill him. He was wrong in thinking Lionel had disappeared our father, but he was on his way to doing that.

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