My breath caught in my throat. I wanted to say something else, but the words wouldn't come. So, I just nodded, grabbed my purse, and opened the door.
"Goodnight, Yatta."
"Goodnight, Zurie Maddox."
I got out the truck and walked toward my house, feeling his eyes on me until I got inside. When I looked back, he was still there, making sure I got in safe.
I pulled out my phone and looked at his number saved in my contacts. A smile spread across my face, and it was the first real smile I had in weeks.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Yatta
I sat in my truck outside her crib with the engine still running, something in my gut was twisting and telling me not to pull off yet. I had learned a long time ago to trust that feeling. That was the same feeling that had kept me alive more times than I could count.
I turned the engine off and leaned back in my seat, my eyes locked on the house. The way she declined that call. The look on her face when that nigga Jamie's name popped up on her screen. And the tremble in her voice when she said "it's complicated."
I told myself to wait five minutes. Just to make sure she was straight. Five minutes turned into ten, and that knot in my stomach only got tighter.
Fuck it.
I grabbed my strap from the center console, tucked it in my waistband, and climbed out the truck. The night air was cold as hell, but I barely felt it. My mind was racing, but my instincts were louder.
I crossed the street and made my way up the walkway leading to the house. The porch light was on, casting a dim glow over the front steps. Something about the house felt off. It was too quiet.
I tried the front door, expecting it to be locked, but the knob turned with ease.
I stepped inside, shutting the door behind me. The living room was dark except for the glow of the television, but nobody was sitting on the couch. A lamp had been knocked over, and one of Zurie's shoes lay near the coffee table.
I moved deeper into the house, every sense on high alert. The sound of voices carried from upstairs. It was a man's voice, and he was loud and aggressive. Then I heard Zurie.
Her voice was high-pitched and she sounded scared.
"Get off me!"
Everything inside me went cold.
I took the stairs two at a time, my jaw clenched and my hand resting near my waistband. This nigga was about to die. when I got to her door, I didn't knock. I stepped back and kicked that motherfucker in with everything I had. The doorframe splintered, the lock gave way, and the door flew open.
The scene in front of me made my blood run cold.
Her bitch ass baby daddy a brown-skinned tall nigga, had Zurie by her hair, bending her head back at a painful angle. Her hands were clawing at his wrist, tears streaming down her face. The bedroom was a fucking mess.
"The fuck you think this is!" the nigga Jamie was yelling in her face. "You think you can just come home whenever the fuck you want?!"
Bitch ass nigga was such in a zone, that he didn't even notice me at first.
I crossed the bedroom in three steps and grabbed him by the back of his neck, ripping him away from Zurie so hard he stumbled backward. Before he could even process what was happening, I cracked him across the jaw with a right hook that had every ounce of rage I was feeling behind it and dropped his ass.
Bitch ass nigga hit the floor like a bag of bricks, his body going limp, and he was out cold. I stood over him with my gun now aimed at his chest, with my finger on the trigger. Every instinct in me wanted to put a bullet in him right there. I wanted to end his shit permanently.
"Yatta…." Zurie's voice was shaking.
I looked at her. She was backed up against the wall, holding her head where he'd yanked her hair, mascara running down her face. But what got me was the little boy standing in the hallwaybehind her. Her son was standing there with big brown eyes wide with fear, clutching a stuffed animal. And that's the only reason I didn't pull the trigger.
"Grab yo’ shit," I said to Zurie, my voice deadly calm. "You leaving tonight."
"Yatta, I can't just—"