Page 147 of I Don't Want You Back

“I saw that nigga watching Faryn all night and somebody put me down on who he was. Long story short, I followed him when he followed her and handled his ass. I just hope they didn’t have no cameras or nothing out there. I wasn’t even thinking to look for that shit. We were the only ones in the parking lot, so I know there were no witnesses,” Aiden noted.

“Fuck! I’m so sorry baby. I shouldn’t have told you to go out. I feel so fucked up about this shit,” Landon said while hugging her close.

“It’s not your fault Landon. We haven’t seen Jo-Jo in over a year. There was no way you would have known that he would be there tonight,” Faryn said, trying to ease his mind.

“Turn on the news,” Aiden requested.

Landon did as he was asked, but there was nothing on any of the news channels. They sat around watching for over an hour and nothing had been reported. Aiden decided to stay the night in one of the guest bedrooms, and he and Landon were the first to get up later that morning. Faryn was too scared to sleep, so Landon gave her some over the counter sleep aids to help her get a little rest.

Finally, later that morning, the news outlets had started to report that there was a murder outside of a night club at their grand opening. That was a terrible rep for a new club to have, but people would forget about it eventually. Thankfully, for Aiden, the club had cameras, but the ones outside were not activated yet. He was able to relax for the first time since he’d pulled the trigger. There were no witnesses just like he’d assumed and the loud music inside made it hard for anyone to hear the single gunshot. Jo-Jo still had the gun in his hand when they found him, and he had a warrant out for his arrest at the time of his murder.

“Come bring me home man. I need a shower and a bed,” Aiden said to his nephew as he stood up.

“Take Faryn’s Camaro. I’ll bring her to pick it up later,” Landon said while throwing him the keys.

He walked his uncle out and saw him off before going back inside. He checked on the kids first before going in the room to check on Faryn. Her eyes were open, but she was just lying there. Landon climbed into the bed behind her and pulled her close.

“I feel so bad Landon,” Faryn mumbled as she melted into his embrace.

“I know baby, but you didn’t do anything wrong. It was either him or you,” Landon said as he tried his best to comfort her.

“No, that’s not what I meant,” Faryn replied.

“I don’t understand. What do you feel bad about?” Landon asked.

“I know that what I’m about to say sounds harsh, but I’m happy about what happened to Jo-Jo… and Kane,” Faryn admitted.

“Damn,” Landon sighed, not knowing what else to say.

“I hate being afraid of anything Landon, and I was afraid of them and what they might do to one of us. Kane was unstable, and Jo-Jo was straight up crazy. I hate that I feel that way, but I can’t help it. Those were two people who would have never let us be happy.”

“I just want you to be okay baby. That shit that you saw is traumatizing and I don’t want that for you. You couldn’t even sleep last night.”

“I’ll sleep better knowing that they’re no longer a threat,” Faryn replied as she snuggled up closer to him and closed her eyes.

***

Two months had passed since Jo-Jo’s murder and the case was still unsolved. Honestly, Faryn doubted if anyone was even working on it to begin with. She’d had nightmares for the first few weeks, but they became less and less frequent until they just stopped altogether. Harley and Patrice had called her, shocked that someone had been killed at the very same club that they were at. Faryn pretended to be surprised and played dumb, just like Aiden told her to. When Harley and Kyron told her that it was Jo-Jo, she pretended to be equally as shocked as they were. Kyron suspected Jo-Jo’s friend, since he had it out for him for messing with his daughter. There was lots of speculation, but no solid proof.

Faryn and Landon were in a happy place and she prayed that it stayed that way. Landon had finally opened his laundromats and his brother-in-law was doing a great job running them. He still had his job at NASA and he didn’t have any plans to quit. It was easy money, as he called it, and he would have been a fool to let that go. The twins were now six months old, and he and Faryn were approaching their first-year anniversary. Landon was trying to convince her to go on a trip, but Faryn wasn’t feeling it. Makena and Ella offered to stay at the house with the kids until they came back, but she was still undecided.

“Come on London. Come to me. Come on, so we can win London. Stop laughing and come to your big brother,” Lance said, coaching his baby sister to crawl to him.

“Come on Junior. You can do it. Crawl to me. Come on fat boy and crawl to me,” Lennox said, hoping to be the winner.

Both babies had just learned to crawl, but they weren’t very good at it yet. They scooted more than anything, but they were getting around. Lennox and Lance had a blanket on the floor entertaining themselves at their siblings’ expense.

“Didn’t I tell y’all about trying to race them? They’re not cars,” Landon fussed.

“What are y’all betting for this time?” Faryn asked as she put the finishing touches on their Sunday dinner. She thought it was hilarious how the boys used the twins to compete against one another. The babies had fun and it was fun to watch.

“Five dollars,” they both said, making her laugh.

“That’s a damn shame. Using my babies to gamble,” Landon chuckled.

Both Lance and Lennox were doing well in school and he was proud of them. They still spent time with Malia and they were building a stronger bond with her. She and Faryn were far from being friends, but they were cordial with each other for the sake of the kids. Malia had changed back into the person who Landon had first met and that was a good look, in his opinion. She was still in school and working as a teller at the bank. Being with Roman almost broke her, but she bounced back and got her mind right.

Roman and Chad were still the same as they’d always been. They clubbed all the time and had multiple women to choose from when they wanted to. It was crazy to Faryn how they weren’t even thinking about settling down. She was the only one of them who wanted kids because Akira had decided that being a mother just wasn’t for her. Clarence was fine with her decision, since he felt like he was too old to become a father. They wanted to spoil Faryn’s kids and that was good enough for them.

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