Page 146 of Falling Into Gravity

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

It was a good little walk to the car, so they continued to talk, fingers locked together.

“Tell me more about what you want, baby.”

“I want my business to grow so big that I forget what stress feels like. I want girls trips to Tulum with my friends…but I want family trips too - big ones, where everybody loud and happy and dressed alike on accident.”

“On accident, huh?”

She giggled. “Well on purpose but I’ll let y’all think it wasn’t planned.”

Malik chuckled under his breath. Her voice was magic to him.

Aku stared off into the sky dreamily. “I want a honeymoon I don’t wanna come back from. I want to be the wife that looks too damn good to be somebody mama.”

He squeezed her hand tighter.

“I want a man who fucks me like he worships me,” she added, grinning at the way his jaw tensed. “Who also holds my hair when I’m throwing up. I want it all, Malik.”

“You love to fuck.”

A couple walking by, choked hearing him talk like that.

They cracked up.

“Yes, I love to fuck you.” Aku made sure to make that part clear.

They made it to his car which looked outta place, but Aku didn’t care about the stares. She was on cloud nine walking and dining with her man. Malik was still a hood nigga so he parked in an alley that had added parking for the shops on the street.

He opened her door and helped her in, hand grazing her thigh one last time before closing it gently.

At the driver’s side, he pulled the door open before his head started spinning. Crescent don’t ever let go easy, and some sins had long shadows.

A pistol slammed into the side of Malik’s head. White hot pain shot through his skull, knocking the wind out his lungs before he even hit the ground.

“Malik!” Aku screamed, fumbling for her door handle. She didn’t care if her heel got stuck, didn’t care about shit except getting to him.

“Stay in the car!” Malik yelled, voice ragged and thick with blood. “Get the fuck outta here, Aku! Go!”

She didn’t listen. Of course she didn’t.

Two men stood over him, faces half-masked, eyes mean. One waved a gun toward her while the other kept his on Malik.

“You really out here soft now, huh? Madison fuckin’ Heights? Bitch-ass Crescent nigga done fell in love,” one of them spat, toeing Malik’s ribs.

“I got this one,” the other said, glancing toward the open passenger side. “She bad… might keep her for myself.”

“You know what y’all took…I gotta get it back in blood, bruh,” The man taunted, talking about the soldier the other side lost a few months ago.

Malik blinked through the blood. The world spun. His ears rang. But he could still hear her. Aku was screaming and crying. “Don’t hurt him! Please—please! Take what y’all want. Just don’t kill him!”

She scraped her knees, broke a heel crawling on the ground to get to Malik on the other side of the car. She threw herself over him, her hands trembling as she tried to stop the bleeding at his temple. Her tears hit his face. “God, please. Not him, not this one. I’ll give you the rest of me if you let him breathe. I swear to you, I’ll trade every runway, every show, every single blessing—just let me keep him. Uncle Lunar!” Aku hollered, the assailants just laughed at her. “Please, Uncle Lunar! Talk to God for me…tell him I deserve this!, Tell him, Malik deserves me…please!”

He tried to push her off. “Aku—go—fuck?—”

“No!” she sobbed, shoulders shaking. “You said we’d build together! You said you’d be my husband! Don’t leave me—please!”

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