Midnights Menace.

09 - when it hurts,

hey icy gang! 🥰

The following day, Mid got up early to handle business. He had to meet up with his lawyer in regards to the insurance claim for his shop. While the police continued on with their investigation, they cleared him as a suspect—which was only protocol to make sure that Mid wasn't trying to commit insurance fraud. His lawyers had mentioned the possibility of moving to a new location, however, Mid immediately shut that idea down.

The area he was in, brought in a lot of revenue and traffic. Before he set down the foundation for his shop, he thought about all of the possible locations that would be a great area to attract all clients of different backgrounds. Also, he wanted the area to be safe as well. He was thinking of his employees safety, but also Jaden's as well since he stopped by the shop and worked sometimes to make some money.

Since he been in the area, the owners of the neighboring shops were extremely nice to him. He had got quite acquainted with the owner of the shoe store, he had recommended a few customers over to Mid's shop as a few mentioned that they were buying shoes to go with their outfit for the night out. Not only that, but Mid also had a great relationship with the owner of the sports bar across the street.

During their lunch break, a few of the employees would go over and order food, or go there after work to get a couple of beers. Sometimes the owner's wife would send food over to Mid whenever they were packed and busy.

Since the ordeal, they all have shown love to him and offered any help, unable to imagine the hell he had to be dealing with or someone sabotaging and destroying their business. He was grateful and expressed his appreciation, but also encouraged them to put up any additional security cameras just to be on the safe side.

While he been out, his mind kept wandering to Lotus. He was still trying to wrap his mind around her being back. Last night he could see that something snapped in her, she wasn't the same person that he known for the past few years. It was like she almost enjoyed what she did, and that alone made him a little wary of her.

Mid walked into Publix with Minnie, she had asked him once he was done handling business if he could take her to the store. He agreed, since he had to go to the store to get a few groceries for when Jaden and Milly returned again for the weekend.

Minnie grabbed a cart, along with a sanitizing wipe and began to wipe down the handle and the top of the cart before tossing the wipe into the nearby trashcan. The store was a little packed, due to Labor day approaching soon. "Y'all grilling for Labor day?" Mid asked Minnie, as they stopped and looked at the shelf with a few items that were on sale.

"Yes sir, Clarence bought a couple steaks and patties, we'll be having some friends over." she explained, grabbing a couple of family sized Doritos. "You gonna be joining us?"

"That's if I don't have anything to handle," he said, grabbing some as well.

Minnie glanced back at him with a grin, "You got something more important to do than to hang out wit' your family?" she slightly chuckled.

"Well, I kinda do. You know Lotus is back?" he told her, Minnie looked at him taken aback, with her eyebrows raised.

"Really? Where has she been?"

"In Texas," he cleared his throat. "She was shot, so she came back."

"What?" Minnie semi-yelled, giving him a crazed expression. "Oh my gosh, poor thing can't catch a break. How is she?"

"That's the thing..." he trailed off, "She's completely fuckin' lost it ma', Lotus was already a li'l crazy in the head, but this really done it for her. But she believes that we're being targeted." he spoke lowly enough for her to hear.