Page 49 of Divine II

The sadness and worry in her eyes made my chest hurt. What hurt even worse was that I didn’t have an answer for her. I didn’t know how much more of this I could take.

“I’ll see you later, Divine,” I said, walking away.

I didn’t have time to stand there and try to figure out my feelings or if we were good or not. With the present circumstances, it seemed like none of that mattered anyway. She was parading around with another man to make sure people thought they were in a blossoming relationship, while our already fragile relationship was beginning to crumble.

I knew lives and freedoms were at stake. Those facts helped to keep me from being mad at Divine. In my eyes, losing the woman I loved was all my fault. If it weren’t for that bitch Sherrod running his mouth, I would have never put a bullet through his head. Now someone wanted me dead, and Divine was likely a target too. The uncertainty of it all was eating me alive.

How could we know once the arrangement was fulfilled that they wouldn’t want more? This might never end. In my experience, you didn’t pay blackmailers; you killed them. I wasn’t running point on this shit, so I couldn’t make those kinds of calls.

My biggest mistake had been not doing my research on Sherrod. I knew better than to move without knowing who I was moving against. The only thing I knew about the boy was that he had a smart ass mouth, and he couldn’t rap. Knowing just a little more about him had given me insight on where his real money came from because it damn sure wasn’t from record sales.

Now, I needed to know exactly who the fuck I was up against. I couldn’t keep sitting on my hands while a man was threatening me and my lady. I could handle myself if it were just about me.

If it were just about me, I would have sent that nigga Zane to see Sherrod a long time ago since he wanted to act like he missedhim so much. I didn’t give a fuck about Sherrod, nor did I regret killing his punk ass. As a matter of fact, I still say fuck Sherrod. May he rest in dog shit.

This was about Divine. I should have used my own judgment instead of letting her softness and feminine wiles persuade me not to go to her family and state my intentions with her. Now, I had to play clean up and hope that I didn’t end one war just to start another one with her family.

I had already gone through too much to just lose her. The gravity of the situation gave me pause. I had to move with a cool head. Divine was involved. I had worked way too hard to get her. I wasn’t about to let her go now.

Listening to Stevie Wonder usually took me out of attack mode, but by the time I made it home, I was still ready to kill. Luckily, I was in a good enough head space to know that I had to gather some intel first. I had been playing the sidelines too long. This was my fight.

I should have been the main one in the ring. Instead, I was watching the whole thing play out from the outside like I was a spectator. I needed in. At this point, I was desperate to get off the bench.

When I made it inside, I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and plopped down on the couch. Desperate times called for desperate measures. I searched through my contacts until I came to Psalm’s number. After I hit the button to call him, I put the phone to my ear.

“Yeah,” he answered after a couple of rings.

“I need you to get some information for me. Something ain’t right about that Whitmore cat. I need you to do an extensive dive into him and their companies.”

He chuckled. “I’ve been wondering when you would call me.”

“Really?” I asked, laying back against the couch.

“I figured you would have some questions since the nigga put a price on your head.”

“Can’t go to war without knowing your enemies,” I responded.

“Don’t make any moves without reaching out to one of us, bro. I know who your pops is.”

“With all due respect, if a nigga wants me dead, I’m not worried about speaking to anyone else about the situation.”

“I feel you, but you’re not the only one being factored into this situation. Our baby girl is just as susceptible to the blow back from this shit as any of us. Why do you think we haven’t cliqued up and went to war? This has to be a strategic move.”

“I hear you.” I nodded in agreement.

“You did it, huh?” he asked after a brief pause.

“Yeah,” I confessed without offering any other details.

What was understood didn’t have to be explained.

“Had to be pretty clean. I couldn’t find shit. I don’t see how the hell they did.”

“Me either. That’s another thing I’m working on. There were no cameras out there. I had already assessed the area just in case I needed to call you.”

“Give me a few minutes. I’ll send over what you need. You’ll need a password to open the files. Use your dad’s birthday.”

I almost asked how he knew my dad’s birthday then I realized who I was talking to. They didn’t call the man Jimmy Neutron for nothing. There was no telling how much he knew.

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