“Nigga, shut up.” I laughed.
“It is, though. Let me guess. Y’all fucking again.”
I looked away immediately, and that told both of them everything.
“It wasn’t supposed to happen.” I rubbed the back of my neck, and Jaylen barked out a laugh.
“Nigga, you moved into your baby mama’s house.” I frowned. “And slept under the same roof with shorty. Like she ain’t have you pussy whipped out yo’ damn mind at one point. What exactly you thought was gon’ happen?”
Pops chuckled. “Exactly, Son.”
“What?” Both of us looked at him because Pops rarely agreed with Jaylen.
He shrugged. “Lyrius always seemed like a sweet girl. You were so in love with that girl you couldn’t think straight.” He pointed at me. “She got yo’ son. I don’t see why you are around her tripping off a little sex. You need to be marrying the damn girl.”
“Nah. We weren’t supposed to be on that type of time, Pops.”
“Why the hell not?”
“’Cause Lyrius was sent to feed information back to the people that shot me!”
There. I’d finally said the shit out loud. I looked up, expecting somebody to react. I expected Jaylen to cuss. I expected Pops to say something. Instead, they just looked at me the same way they’d been looking at me this whole damn conversation, and that was when it clicked.
“Y’all knew?” My eyes narrowed.
“Kinda.” Jaylen rubbed his beard.
I pointed at him, and Jaylen sighed. “What the fuck do you mean, kinda?”
“As many bodies as we dropped trying to clean that mess up, you really think her name never came up?”
I stared at him, trying to wrap my head around the fact that he’d known of Lyrius’s involvement this whole time and had never said shit.
“Then why the fuck you ain’t say nothing?”
“’Cause I knew you loved that girl. I wasn’t about to break your heart.”
“You serious?” I stared at him.
“Dead serious.”
I shook my head, and my eyes immediately went to Pops. “And he told you.”
“Nope, but I had my own suspicions.” Pops nodded.
“Wow. All this time, I’m thinking I’m saving face, and y’all already knew.” I shook my head.
“I figured if you wanted to talk about it, you’d say something.” Jaylen shrugged.
“So if y’all know . . .”—I rubbed my jaw—“then y’all get why this shit can’t go nowhere.” My eyes bounced between them. Neither one of them said anything.
“Nah.” Pops shook his head immediately. “I know why you think it can’t. Fear makes people do stupid shit, Son, especially when they think they ain’t got no good options.”
“What you saying, Pops?”
“I’m saying, did she pull the trigger?”
“No.” I looked at Pops, confused.