Bernice

40

September 2
August,

I officially left the drug business. They didn't have to jump me. I had to pay a hefty fine and take an oath that I will never snitch. I got into my car, checked my phone, and saw a message from unknown.

You think you can kill King and jail will protect your life from me. 🤣 I'm taking matters into my own hands. Watch your back August. This week will be a tough one.

All they've done is send messages. I see no action. Maybe they didn't have a plan before they released us. Lonte thinks it's Kingpin's sister who's after us. She's the one who put us there, so it doesn't make sense for her to take us out. I think it's one of his members.

I called Lonte. "You home?" I asked. "Yeah." He said. "Aight. I'll be there soon." I told him. I ended the call. This mystery person seems to love keeping us in suspense. I hate suspense. I wonder what they plan to do this week. I got to Lonte's place in about fifteen minutes. The warehouse is much closer to his place than mines.

"Where's Ezra?" I asked when I walked in. "He's asleep." He said. I went to the kitchen and got a water bottle. "What's up?" He asked. I drank some water. "I got a message again." I stated. His phone dinged and he looked at it. "Now, so do I." He mentioned.

The messages were the same. "What do you think we should do?" He questioned. I haven't thought of anything. "We can sit and wait." I shrugged. He looked at me. "Are you for real?" He furrowed his eyebrows.

"I don't got anything." I mentioned. "I've got a guy who owes me a favor and he knows someone who's good at tracking. I'll contact him to find out who's behind the messages, but it'll take him like a week. We just have to stall them somehow." He informed me.

We can't even run away because obviously they'll end up finding us sooner or later. I doubt there's something that we can do without knowing who is after us. "Call your guy." I poured myself some whisky. I heard crying from the baby monitor.

"I'll be back." He went to go tend to Ezra. I haven't ate since morning and it's four p.m. now. Kaylee doesn't cook. She needs to learn how to. I made myself a turkey sandwich, sat on the dining table, and ate it.

The front door opened and Kaylee walked in. "Hi." I said. "Hi. What are you doing here?" She sat her bag down on the table. "I came to see Lonte." I spoke. I put my glass down. "Ok. Where is he?" She asked. "He's upstairs with Ezra." I told her.

Kaylee wants to work at a grocery store, but Lonte doesn't want her working till Ezra is over one. He'll rather not let a stranger watch him till he's a bit older. I know she hates staying at home with the baby all the time.

"My baby." Kaylee went and got Ezra when they came downstairs. "Did he eat?" She asked. "No. He's just waking up." Lonte responded. She told Lonte to make him a bottle, and he did.

Lonte bought a ring, they had a private dinner where he "proposed". It wasn't really one cause they got married when they were drunk. For some reason, I like seeing them as a family. It's crazy that one day I hated him and the next I didn't.

"What did you do today August?" Kaylee wondered. "Well, I left the gang." I said. Her eyes widened. "That's great. What'd they make you do?" She questioned. I told her the details of what went down. Kaylee always like the juice. She hates the shortened version of anything.

"Lonte needs to." She muttered. I don't think he's ready to. He has never spoken about it before. I thought I'll open a shoe shop when I finally do it. I have to figure out this thing with whoever is after us first.

Lonte came and handed the bottle to Kaylee. "My guy said he can get us the info by Saturday." He let me know. That's five days from now. I'm sure they would've struck by then. We really need to figure something out.

We brainstormed for thirty minutes. We decided to flip the script on the messenger. We sent a message saying, Nice try. We know who you are. You think you're the only one watching, but we've been ahead of you. Keep playing this game, and you'll find out how deep this goes. You've got until the end of the week to back off, or we'll bring this to your doorstep. Your move.

That will buy us time to find out who it is. They will be worried for their safety. They might still strike first or wait for us to. They might think we're bluffing. We"ll wait and see till Saturday. Our houses have cameras outside, so if they decide to strike at any one of them they should be easily caught.

Next day
Bernice,

I gave the kids lunch which was some fried rice with shrimp and chicken inside. It's their favorite meal. "I'm off." I kissed August. I left without saying bye to the kids. They have been attached to me so much these days that every time I leave when they're awake, one of them always cries.

I'm meeting Corine for lunch at a Korean restaurant she picked out. This is my first time seeing her outside work. I've been so busy that I couldn't hang out with her sooner. It didn't take me long to get to the restaurant.

I sent in and found her where she was sitting. "Hey." I said and sat down. She greeted back. "How are the kids?" She asked. "They're good. They've been really clingy lately." I  mentioned. She chuckled.

The waiter came and ask for our drink orders. I ordered a sprite, while Corine got a margarita. We looked through the menus in silence. They were so many good options. We ordered when he brought our drinks.

"What's new with you?" I asked. "Not much. How about you?" She questioned. "I'm getting used to me, August, and the kids under the same roof." I stated. We've had our challenges. I changed the decor in the house, which he didn't like. We argued about it for a couple days till he saw the house has to feel like mines too.

"Ooh. How's that going?" She wondered. "It's going ok now. The kids love it." I smiled. I drank some of my drink. We chatted until the food came.

A guy passed our table. His seems to be mad about something. He walks to a table where it looks like a couple is sitting. "What are you doing here, Sharon?" The guy asked the lady. She looks like she's in high school.

"I wonder what that's about." Corine mentioned. "Maybe she's on a date and got caught by her brother." I shrugged. The guy who walked in seems to be in his early twenties. "Yeah, maybe." She said.