AHEAD OF THE GAME | BXB

XXXIII

"Hello?" I said dryly, looking around to make sure no one was near me.

"Amore Mio," that familiar accent rang through the speaker. "What's up? How you been?"

I hadn't spoken to Nicolas in so long. It was kinda nice to hear a voice other than the ones I heard on a daily basis.

"I've been better," I sighed. "I need a favor to ask you...a big one. Do you mind?"

He cleared his throat. "That depends on what the favor is baby."

I almost snapped at him for calling me that, especially since KyRon had already worried that we had some secret romance going on that he didn't know about before he got shot, but I decided to keep my cool because if I wanted him to do this for me, then I had to be sweet and sultry.

"I'm assuming that you're at least a lil' bit aware of what's going on right now with your partner Cig?"

"Yeah, just a lil bit aware," he mocked me. "Word on the street is they fucked you and your crew up. Bad."

"Good, you're caught up. Well, if you know all of that then you know that somebody that could ruin everything for us is still alive. I need him dead as soon as possible."

As soon as I said that, Nicolas started to laugh. He laughed like I had just told him the funniest joke of his life.

"Nick," I sighed. "What are you laughin' for? I'm serious."

"Because, Amore Mio, you're fucking hilarious. You want me to take care of your problem for you? Do you know how many officers I have on my back in Chicago right now? If you haven't noticed, they're trying to build a big ass case on me. I fuck with you, baby, I really do, but not enough to jeopardize my whole operation."

"Nicolas!" I exclaimed. "You said that I could ask you for anything! No questions asked."

"Anthony," he replied back as calm as ever. "I'm sorry, but I can't help you this time."

I could feel all the frustration from everything I'd endured in the last few months building up inside of me. I didn't mean to say it, but the words just slipped out of my mouth—

"I'll snitch. I'll go to the cops and tell them everything."

Nicolas fell silent on the other end of the line, and I could almost hear the gears turning in his head.

I hesitated before continuing. "If I go down, you do too. Imma bring everybody with me."

"Amore," he finally spoke, tone serious now. "You don't wanna play that card. Think twice before you go down that road."

Before I could open my mouth to protest, he hung up the phone, and I screamed out in anger.

What the fuck was I gonna do?

I felt like nobody could help me right now — like I was on my own.

And I was, to a certain extent.

How could I involve Ky in any of this right now? He was just starting to revert back to his old self — that same hard hood nigga I fell for — but could he really handle all of this right now?

Slowly, I made my way back to his room and saw Cameron knocked out in his arms. The scene made my heart swell. So much so that I started to burst out into tears right in front of the door.

He looked up, saw me, and immediately got worried.

"Baby," he whispered. "What? What's wrong?"

I sniffled in response and just shook my head. "I'm sorry. I don't need to be putting all of my issues on you right now. You don't need that."