"If I could paint a picture, I'd show a image of a dog ass nigga, yeah, a raw ass nigga." - Yo Gotti

JESSICA

"What in the world?" I groan, rubbing my eyes. I look over at the clock on the nightstand. It's almost four in the morning, who in the world is calling me? I look at my phone, then ignore the unknown number. I've never seen that number a day in my life.

My phone starts ringing again. "Who is this?" I immediately ask. "Hello, my name is Dr. James. May I speak with Jessica Ja'Mir Vaughn?" he asks. I raise my eyebrow. I've never heard of this doctor and he's calling me by my full name?

"This is she, how you know my name and number though? Does this have anything to do with my daughter?" I ask. "No, ma'am, I was calling to speak with you about your brother, Darius Montgomery." he tells me. I sit up. My heart starts pounding. He didn't come here and wouldn't answer the many texts and calls. I was so worried. My eyes tear up. I'm scared to even ask. I just know he's dead and he needs me to come identify his body. That's the way it always goes.

"What about him?" I finally ask after a minute of silence. "I'd rather speak with you face to face. I feel like it's better that way, miss. Please, come to Cedars Senai hospital." he politely says. "Please... tell me something." I say, getting out of the bed. "Ms. Vaughn, we have to speak in person." he says. I roll my eyes then hang up on him.

I snatch a pair of gym shorts and a tee shirt out my suitcase. I quickly put my Nike Air Max on and grab my purse. I rush to the bathroom, then brush my teeth. I'm not even worried about my hair, I could care less about that right now.

I rush out of there, then to Ant's room. He has the door closed. I open it up. He's knocked out sleep with Reign curled up in a ball on his chest with Jessie and the twins next to him.

"Ant, get up." I say, shaking him. Reign crawls off of him then goes back to sleep. I slap his chest. He sits up, staring at me. "What?" he sleepily asks, rubbing his eyes.

"A doctor just called from Cedars Senai." I start. "For what? Man, I swear I be in the hospital more than anybody I know." he says in an irritated tone. "A doctor called and told me it was about Darius. He wouldn't tell me what happened, Ant, get up." I demand.

He immediately jumps out the bed. "Nathan and Ms. Regina are here in the other room so let's leave the kids with them. They came about an hour after you went to sleep." he says, putting some sweat pants on. I nod my head.

Ant got ready quick and we immediately left the safe house. We're about three minutes away from the hospital. "I got a confession." he says, concentrating on the wall as he drives. "Please, do not say anything that's dumb. Now ain't the time. I'm a nervous wreck right now." I say, wiping my eyes. "When I found out about Reign getting shot at over his mess with that girl, I got mad and beat the mess out of him. I was gone apologize. He didn't even fight back and the look in his eyes kinda threw me off, I won't even lie." he says. "Threw you off how? Stop beating around the bush." I say. "I know a suicidal person when I see one. I think he killed himself, Jessica." he mumbles.

I look at him crazy then shake my head no. "That can't be it. Darius wouldn't ever do that to himself." I say, in denial. "Naw... you don't understand. I was suicial. Guilt made me do a lot of stupid stuff... I just hope he didn't go down that road. It'll kill me inside." he admits.

I sigh, thinking of the absolute worse as he pulls into a park at the hospital. We both get out, then head towards the entrance.

We're on the elevator headed to the top floor where the guy at the desk told us Dr. James is waiting on us. Ant grabs my hand then takes a deep breath. "Ay, mane, just know that whatever happens, imma be here for you, aight? For real, Jess." he says. I nod my head. "Thanks." I mumble as we stop off the elevator hand in hand.

I spot a tall, extremely handsome guy who I'm guessing is the doctor. He notices Ant and I, then walks over, smiling. "I'm Dr. James. You're Jessica, right?" he asks, looking me up and down as he shakes my hand. I nod my head, yes. Ant punches his hand away from mine. "Ay, nigga, it don't take that long to shake no hand, bruh." he says, stepping in front of me.

I shake my head. Ant's jealousy is so unreal. "Sorry about that, sir. These are Darius' X-Rays." Dr. James says, holding up two medium sized pictures. I gasp then cover my mouth. There's a bullet right above his rib cage on the right side. "Tell me he alive." Ant says, getting pale in the face.

"Well, whoever shot him obviously knows a little about the human body. The bullet perfectly going directly above the rib was not a coincidence. It was a close ranged shot and it seems like it was a very well planned out shot." he tells us.

"Answer my question! Is he alive!" Ant yells at him. "Yes. He is alive. But sir, please allow me to finish talking." Dr. James says, trying to keep his cool. "Finish then, nigga!" Ant yells. "Ant, quit." I demand.

"Darius was responsive. He was brought in by a cab driver. He was shot in aln alley with a homeless couple. They're the ones who saved his life and got him in safely. By the time we got him, he was still responsive and doing fine as the homeless woman held random conversations with him to try to keep him up." he tells us.

"Who did it?" Ant and I ask at the same time. The same thing is on both of our minds which is blood and retaliation, no doubt.

"That's not my place to discuss, I'm just the doctor. However, he didn't want to speak with the officers and detectives who came and neither did the homeless couple who helped him." he tells us.

I nod my head. "Can we see him? And like... were any major arteries hit or anything like that?" I ask. "Yes, you can see him. And no, that's why I said whoever shot him knew what they were doing. The person definitely did not shoot to kill. But follow me, his room is this way." he says, then leads us down the hall.

He opens the door for us. We walk in. I'm guessing the white couple sitting on the couch is the homeless couple the doctor told us about. They're covered in Darius' blood.

"Hello, I'm Constance and this is my husband, Tony. I take it you two are Jessica and Ant, right?" the white woman politely asks. We nod our head, then shake their hands. "Thank yall for making sure my lil nigga got here aight." Ant says, handing them the stack of money he had in his wallet. He just surprised the crap out of me, Ant ain't ever that nice.

They thank him, then leave the room to give us privacy. I look over at Darius then frown a little bit. He's hooked up to a few different types of monitors. "Jessica... they gave me a pee bag. I gotta piss in a freaking bag connected to my dıck." he says, looking disgusted.

I laugh a little. "I'm glad you're okay. Did they give you any medicine yet?" I ask, rubbing his hair. He winces in pain. "Yeah, they gave me some pill... it ain't doing much. This hurts like hell. I never wanted to get shot." he groans, then nods his head at Ant.

"Wassup? My bad for that fight and all. It's all love, D." Ant says. That's the closest thing to an apology Ant will ever give someone other than me. Darius nods his head, accepting his apology.

The door opens, and the valedictorian from Darius' graduation comes into the room in a wheelchair while one of the nurses pushes her in. She has a cast on her arm and her leg is broken too. She has bruises and scars everywhere and she still has on a hospital gown.

"Hi." she shyly speaks to us. I wave at her as the nurse rolls her to Darius' bed side. She stares at him. "Sorry for what I said when I visited you. I was just mad." he says. I have no idea what he's talking about. "Quit being nosey." Ant whispers to me. "Shut up." I mumble.

"Who did this to you?" Liah sobs. "Stop crying. I'm not about to die. But don't worry about it." he answers. Before we can respond, the door opens and Montana comes in with a bear, a card, and balloons with a slick smirk on his face. "Wassup, D? How you feeling?" he asks, sitting the balloons down. He tries to give Darius the bear. Darius glares at him then spits on the bear. "Go to hell!" Darius snaps as his machine starts beeping fast.

Ant, Liah, the nurse, and I look at them in confusion as they glare at each other. "We gone find out who did this to you." Montana says to him. "Die." Darius says, giving him a crazy look.

Ant out the blue lunges at Montana and starts swinging. I stare in shock as they fight, breaking stuff. Montana starts reaching for his gun. "Ant, he trying to shoot you!" I scream as Montana slightly pulls the gun out his pants as Ant beats the crap out of him. Montana can fight and all but he didn't know that Ant is capable of a lot of dangerous things when he's not taking his medicine and pissed. This is why I never wanted them to fight.

Ant kicks the gun out his hand, making it fly across the room. "Yall, quit!" I scream, crying. They're going at it, practically trying to kill each other and I'm so confused.

Montana reaches up, wildly scratching and punching Ant in his face as Ant hits him in his face over and over again. "You beat Jessica but you can't beat me? Nigga, you a punk! On my kids, you a punk!" Ant snaps, punching him some more.

Montana builds up the strength to throw him off the top of him. I rush over to his gun that's against the wall then grab it and take the clip out so nobody ends up shot.

Montana runs at Ant then tackles him to the wall, fighting him harder than he was. They fall over into Darius' tray of yogurt, barely missing falling on top of him.

Ant breaks Montana's nose, but that's not stopping them. I've seen Ant fight so many times, but I've never seen him fight so hard. He looks like he's the devil himself as he throws solid punches at Montana. I'm surprised Montana ain't dead.

The hospital security rush in and pull them apart. "Nigga, let me go! On my life, let me go!" Ant hollers at one of the guards, trying to get at Montana. "You gone see me in the streets, pussy! Bet!" Montana yells, dripping blood everywhere as he tries to get out the security's arms.

Ant swings on the guard. "Let me go!" he screams at the top of his lungs. "Ant, quit resisting." I say as he continues to punch the guard. He slams Ant to the floor, then slaps the handcuffs on his wrists. I sigh. This idiot most likely will be charged for assaulting the security guard.

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Note: I'm trying not 2 cuss and all that cause I cuss so much so that's really why yall didn't just see any cussing or nothing like that.

Another thing, I'm tryin to better myself & all that so imma take a break from it in a while. If yall decide to read a diff book & 4get about this one, oh well. I hope yall can respect my decision when I take my lil break real soon n all that but if not, it's cool.