“We getting a DNA test.”
“That’s fine.”
“Soon as we out this storm.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “I have nothing to hide.”
“And if he mine . . .” His voice went lower. “I ain’t missing shit else. You understand?”
I nodded. “I won’t try to keep him from you?—”
“Again.” He corrected. “You already did that once.” The coldness in his voice made me feel so small. There was nothing I could say to that. Nothing that would undo it, and I would not pretend there was.
“I can’t change that,” I said quietly. “But I’m not doing that again.”
KO laughed, but there wasn’t any humor in it. “Nah,” he muttered. His head shook back and forth. “Nah . . . You don’t get to do this.”
“KO—”
“All these damn years,” he cut in. His voice was low, but the anger in it was loud. “I would have been there. I’m no deadbeat-ass nigga.”
“I know.”
“You made it like this,” he snapped, and I jumped.
“KO, I?—”
“You know what really fucked me up, though?” I swallowed hard. “You left.”
His words came out calm, almost too calm.
“I woke up with tubes in me. Holes in my chest. And you . . .” He laughed again. “You were gone.”
“I thought you’d hate me.”
“I did.” The honesty knocked the air out of me, but it wasn’t a surprise. “But that’s beside the point.” He stepped closer slowly. “You watched a nigga bleed out while telling me that shit between us was real. Then you disappeared like I wasn’t enough to stay for.”
“It was real,” I said immediately. “Every second of it was real.”
“Whole time, you was just playing a role.”
“I didn’t know they were gonna move on you that night.”
“But you knew who they were.” I went quiet because he was right. KO shook his head slowly, like that answer confirmed everything he knew. “The Organization didn’t do accidents, Lyrius.” His voice lowered. “They don’t change their minds once they’ve locked in on a target. And you still walked me right into that shit.”
“I tried to stop it.”
“Nah, you did nothing, and then you disappeared.”
“I stayed at the hospital,” I rushed out. “I followed the ambulance. I stayed until they said you were stable.”
“You could have stayed and accepted your damn consequences!” he barked.
“I picked survival.”
“And I was worth leaving behind for it.”
That one hurt because somewhere deep down, I knew that was how it looked.