The Unusual Suspects Book 2

Toya

I was sitting here looking over all the fabric that I had left to complete the boots for Dom. When I tell you, they were gonna kill the scene, I was so here for it. I had been doing good with balancing the parenting with the working. Baby Anthony was sound asleep and her I was measuring and cutting. I glanced at the time and saw it was 10:30pm. I thought Tony would've been back already, but that's okay though. As soon as the thought crossed my mind, there he was walking in the door. He smiled at me.                                   "Hard at work?" he said as he sat down next to me.                                                          
"Always Love." I said as he kissed my cheek. I looked over at him.                          
"I thought you had on white when you left." I said, maybe I'm tired though.        
"I did. We went paintballling, so I changed clothes." he said to me.            
"Makes sense. Did you and the fellas have fun?" I asked him.                              
"Of course, but nothing compares to this here with yall." he said.                      
"Ouuuu talk that shit." I said and we both laughed.                                                     
"Let me hop in this shower, I'll be right back baby." he said as he walked into the bathroom and turned the water on. I finished making the cutout of the fabric and decided to call it a night for real. I had been working on this all day for real. I set everything on the desk and came over and laid down beside my baby. I swear I couldn't get enough of him. I liked being able to witness every little thing. I had been giving more and more thought to not going to school truthfully. I adored everything about being a mom and I was going to be a wife soon. Maybe this is exactly where I was supposed to be and this is why life is playing out the way that it is. I knew not to question God, but I was definitely gonna pray over this decision for sure. Before I knew it, Tony was walking into the room in his shorts and laying down with us.  "How long he been down for?" he asked me.                                                        "About an hour." I told him.                        
"Okay, we need to talk about some things. Can we go in the game room?" he asked me and I nodded. This was different, I wasn't exactly sure of what to make of this at the moment. But we went into the game room and he locked the door behind us. We sat down in the theater seats and for the first time in a while, I started to get nervous. "So...Toya I can't lie to you because I can't build on a rocky foundation. That being said, I didn't go paint balling with the guys today. A situation arose that couldn't be left not dealt with." Lord...
"Okay, is it something that I need to know?"
"Partially...you know I keep you separate from the other part of my life because it will NEVER effect you, but there may possibly be some awkwardness that you feel or witness for a little bit." I'm so lost right now.
"Love, just tell me what is necessary."
"We kinda kidnapped Jay's girl and tied her to a chair until we got some real answers about her."
"Antonio...what?" That poor girl...I just don't understand them some times.
"She runs with the opps." I just stared at him. "She works for a rival dealer and we had to make sure everything was sincere and not that she was planted." He clarified.
"And?" I asked hoping this didn't have a tragic outcome in the least bit.
"She's solid. Everything was by pure coincidence. We just had to be sure. I couldn't allow my best friend to keep encountering things that could possibly set him back. It's too crucial in his life right now to have stability." I took all of that in for a moment and I could see where he was coming from.
"I get it. Justin has been through a lot and that would've set him back mentally. However there had to be a better way than that though." He smiled a little bit at that.
"Sure there was other ways but it had to be done quickly to minimize potential damage."
"Y'all sound like you should've all just went into the armed services at this point. I just don't understand your tactics, but I trust your reasoning. I just want you to be safe out there Babe. We have AJ and the wedding. College is around the corner, I ju..."
"Relajarse. I'm always safe Love. I trust all of them with my life and with you and AJ, I have that much more to live for. Every threat has been neutralized, we are good. I just wanted to be honest with you." I could tell he was trying and I appreciated that the communication was way more open now. I don't know how they get up and live this every single day, but I can see that they do it however.
"I don't want you to feel like you have to hide what it is that you do or have going on. I may not understand how things go, but I'm also not in any situation to judge. But also don't feel obligated to speak on things that you may not want to either. I trust you to do what's best." He leaned over and kissed my forehead. In that moment I feel like we understood each other more than ever. He wasn't ready to let me in on everything and to be honest I wasn't ready to know. I guess we were literally in the same boat. He got up and grabbed my hand as we went back to the room and laid down with our son. I looked up into Tony's eyes.
"You okay?" He asked me.
"Yeah, why did you ask?" I said softly.
"At first I was kinda thinking it was the pregnancy making you nicer." We both laughed. "But now it seems like maybe that's just you."
"Perhaps motherhood has centered me." And maybe that was just it. I lacked that sense because so much in life had hardened me. But I can bask in my feminine energy and newfound motherhood. Perhaps this change was necessary and I never even realized it.