"Ricky I just need to fucking talk to you. Stop fucking fighting me." 

"I don't wanna fucking talk." I growled, shoving him away.

I'd found Kuza sitting in the alley when I got back. I had no idea how he figured out that I was here. 

"Ricky, please." 

He grabbed me and pinned me to the wall.

"I don't care. I need to talk to you." He said. "No one's heard from you in months."

"I don't wanna talk." I whined. 

"Just give me 5 minutes, okay?" 

I sighed. "Fuck. Fine."

He let go of me, watching me cautiously. I sat down, looking up at him. 

"You should come home." He said. 

"No."

"Why?"

"Because I don't belong there. That's not my life." 

"You're not safe out here. I know you're stuck working for that shithead pimp..." He sighed. 

"I won't be working for him for very long."

"What do you mean?"

"I only started working for him so he wouldn't kill me. I'm only working with him now so I can get close enough to kill him."

"You can't just kill him."

"Why?"

"It's just not a good idea. You don't know enough about him. You don't know if he has friends who will come after you, or if he has other contingencies in place, should he die."

"So, I'll kill them too." 

He sighed and shook his head. "Whatever, Ricky. I can't stop you. There's something I gotta tell you anyway."

I looked up at him. "What is it?"

"TJ's dead."

"What?"

"He was killed in a drive by last week."

"What happened?" I asked. "Who was it?"

"We don't know yet. We were at the house and we were attacked. Andy and Remington both took a bullet, but they were fine. Tj didn't make it."

"Jesus Christ. I thought you guys all split up?"

"We did, but it wasn't really working for any of us. So we said fuck it and just went back to how we were." He said. "But, we're doing a thing tonight for TJ. You should come. I won't make you stay, I just want you to be there."

I sighed. "Alright. I'll come."

"Thank you." He hugged me.

"Hey, can you get rid of that bounty?"

He moved back. "What bounty?"

"Ash told me that you picked her up yesterday, looking for me, and you told her that you put a bounty on me because you wanted to talk to me."

"I didn't pick up Ashley. I don't like her. And I didn't put any bounty on you. She must've confused me with someone else."

"Fuck. I'll talk to her. I don't know who would want me alive and unharmed, so I'm kinda worried now."

"I'll look into it."

~~~~~~~~~

I walked up to the door of the house, stopping for a moment. It's been so long since I've been here. I don't know if I'm making a mistake by coming here. As it is, Devin is gonna kill me when he comes looking for money later tonight and I'm not there. 

I don't know if I should be here. I don't think this is a good idea. 

I can't turn back now though. 

I pushed the door open and stepped inside. Kuza told me they'd be in the big ballroom. I headed towards the room, stopping outside. I took a deep breathe before entering. 

The moment I did, everyone turned to look at me. I looked around, seeing some people that I recognized and a bunch that I didn't. 

I saw Andy standing there, supported by a pair of crutches. He came over to me, giving me a soft smile. "Kuza said you'd come. I'm surprised you actually did."

I nodded. "Yeah. I figured I'd come for a little bit."

"It's good to see you. How have you been?" He asked, motioning for me to come sit with him. 

"I've been better, I guess." I said. "Kuza told me what happened. He said you got shot."

He nodded. "Yeah. I'm lucky to be alive right now. I took two. One to the leg, one to the chest. It missed my lung by fucking millimeters."

"Jesus. And you still don't know who did it?"

He shook his head. "We've got nothing."

"I have a guy on the street who knows a lot of shit. I'll see he's heard anything." I said. 

"Thank you."

I nodded. "He said Remi got shot too."

"Yeah, he's okay though. He got hit in the shoulder. TJ died trying to protect the kid."

"What kid?"

"He's some kid that was apparently sent by Chris. He said he got close to Chris while he was in county, and Chris told him to come to us if he ever got out." Andy explained. "He was apparently in there because he killed his cop boyfriend in self defense or something. They ruled it as self defense, and he got out."

"Oh."

He nodded towards a boy standind in the corner. "That's him over there. His name is Matt. Kinda looks like you."

I nodded and got up. Andy stopped me. "There's something else you should know..."

I sat back down. 

"I visited Chris and told him that you left. I gave him the note you left. He was upset. He sent letters almost every week, sometimes more than one, all of them addressed to you." He told me. "This past week and a half, the letters stopped coming. I got a call from the lawyer, saying that something happened. He said he wasn't sure what was going on, but Chris lost visitation rights and he was currently being kept in solitary. He sad that the warden wouldn't tell him much, just that they determined that Chris has some underlying mental disorders that they want to try and fix, whatever that means."

"That doesn't sound good. At all." I mumbled. 

He shook his head.

"Do you have the letters?"

"Yeah. I'll send Spencer to go grab them." He said. 

I nodded and got up. I gave him a hug before walking off, towards the new boy.

I was almost near him before someone stepped im front of me. I sighed and looked up to see who it was. I immediately froze. 

What the fuck was Devin doing here?

"What are you doin' here?" He asked, backing me into a wall. 

"TJ was a friend. I'm just here to pay my respects."

"Shouldn't you be out making me money, whore?"

"I'm not staying long." I said through gritted teeth. 

"If you're not gone in an hour, I'm gonna beat your ass in front of all of these people. Got it?"

I sighed and nodded, pushing past him. 

I was gonna go see the new kid, but I saw Kuza sitting at a table and went by him instead. I sat down and kicked his leg. "You didn't fucking tell me he was gonna be here."

"Huh?"

"Fucking Devin."

He groaned and looked over at Devin. "Fuck. I forgot him and TJ were friends. I'm sorry. If I knew he was gonna be here, I wouldn't have asked you to come."

"Yeah. Because he just threatened to beat the shit outta me right here if I'm not gone soon."

"Fuck, I'm sorry. I'll talk to him."

Kuza stood up and walked over to Devin. They were close enough so that I could hear what they were saying. 

"Hey, I know you want Ricky to leave, but it means a lot to us that he's here. He's part of our family."

"He works for me, and he's not making me money if he's here."

"I'll pay you to let him stay. How much does he usually give you for a day?"

"$200."

"I'll triple that. That's $600. Just let him stay."

Devin was quiet for a minute. "I have girls who make that in an hour. Make it a grand and he can stay."

"Fine."

I let out a breath I didn't know I was holding. 

I watched Kuza pull a roll of cash from his pocket. He counted out the money and handed it to Devin. He looked over at me and smirked before walking away. 

This is gonna be a long fucking night. 

--------------

Comment what you think is gonna happen

~xxLux