Aubrey's POV

"There were two phone calls around the time she was killed—I'm sorry, she killed herself." He corrects himself.

Why the hell is he telling me this?

"One from me and the other from Drake."

"Drake? Me? You gotta be talking about someone else. I don't know no damn Josie." I say irritated. "The fuck..."

"You're so fucking stupid." He says. "She introduced herself as J, the name she gives out to guys at the club. Her real name was Josie Anoai.... And the fact that you don't remember her pisses me off even more."

"J?" I say, trying to remember her. "J...Josie..." I'm drawing a blank. "What did she look like?" I ask

He shakes his head and walks over to the nightstand and picks up my phone. "Oh..." He says, referring to the woman on my Lock Screen. "What's her name?"

"Lilah..."

"Is this the one that's pregnant?"

"No." I say.

He chuckles. "She's hot. I'll give you that. Too bad she doesn't want you. What's the code?"

"I'm not giving you access to my phone." I say

"It's either this or I cut out your tongue." He says with a straight face.

I shake my head. I don't want to give this man nothing. I don't know what he's going to do once he gets in my phone....but he seems serious. Whatever.

"....It's Shawnie's birthday." I say

He looks up at me for a couple of seconds. He stares at me but he doesn't say anything. Honestly he looked like he wanted to kill me. After about 15 seconds he puts it into the phone.

"You're really sick, you know that." He says. "You're stuck someone who absolutely hates the ground you walk on. Let it go."

I don't say anything.

He was on my phone for a few minutes then hr spoke.

"You seem like a guy that keeps photos of his victims. I figured you'd still have pictures of MY girlfriend in your phone so I deleted them. And I permanently deleted them."

I just sit there.

A few seconds later he walks over to me with a photo of his sister on my phone. He holds it up to my face.

".................Ooh." Seeing her face makes me remember exactly who she is. "She was your sister?" I say in disbelief, and confusion. Damn, I remember her.

I stared at the photo for a few long seconds, then he turned off my phone and threw it on the bed.

He reaches behind him and takes a gun out of his waistband then he pulls something else out of his pocket. He starts screwing something on to the end of the barrel of the gun. It's a silencer.

This motherfucker is about to kill me.

He places it in the fireplace ledge next to his phone.

"Don't worry. I'm not going to kill you...unless you run or try some stupid shit." He smiles.

"I remember her...."

"Oh, now you remember her after I pull out a gun."

"No, I really remember her." I say

J was a good girl and I mean literally a good girl. She didn't dance because she needed to, she danced for the art. I could tell she wasn't one of the other girls that just wanted to make money. She danced all her life. All types of dance, not just stripping. I remember the first time I saw her. I was mesmerized by her eyes. That's what initially got me. On top of her being beautiful, she was interesting. I started going just to see her, not for the dances. Yeah, we ended up spending more and more time together, which led to sex and other things. She wanted to move out of her moms house and I funded that. She needed a new car, so I got it for her. But she had problems. She was mad insecure and she was jealous. She thought we were together after only a couple of weeks. We got into a couple fights and she liked putting her hands on me when she got upset. I was only trying to help her by providing what she needed. I did that until I was done. I couldn't take it with her anymore because I knew dealing with her, I was going to end up in jail. I had to ghost her, that was the only way. I did it for my safety.

I don't know if he knew all of that about his sister.

"Prove it."

"She has—."

"HAD." He corrected me.

"She had a scar on her shoulder from when she was a kid. Something about trying to run from something and she fell. I remember because she also told me she wanted to get a tattoo to cover it up."

"....our mom wouldn't let her."

"I liked your sister and I tried being patient but—."

He cuts me off. "You killed my sister and went about you life like nothing happened."

"No I didn't. I didn't even know she had passed away until almost two months later when I went back to the club looking for her. One of the girls told me. I had been calling her, but one day her number didn't work anymore."

"We kept it turned off then I went and had it disconnected." He says. "But back to the issue. You didn't do anything when you found out. You never tried to contact our mother. You didn't even send a flower after the fact. You just forgot about her."

"I DIDN'T KNOW SHE WAS DEAD!" I yell, pleading with him.

"You did know because she went to see you that night. You argued with her. I saw the texts."

"And I thought she was just ignoring me...I didn't think she was dead. Yeah, she saw me that night. I tried to smooth things over with her but we got into another argument. I care for her. I just wanted her in a happy place. I was so patient with her. She ran out and that's why I was calling her. How the hell was I supposed to know that she would kill herself over a simple argument between us?" I try to explain but it seems like my explanation is only making it worse.

He stopped, took a deep breath and calmly spoke.

"I'm gonna leave that alone and continue what I was saying because I feel myself getting angrier and I can't let things go south....So, a few months later I heard you were coming to town for an exclusive, two night show and it was all in the name of charity." He rolls his eyes. "....I showed up to the Wynn, booked a room and I waited. I waited hours...I saw you walk in with your security, Chubbs and two women. I was going to head up to your room, but then something told me not just yet. So I sat back down and I played a few games of poker. It was about an hour later, I was still in your hotel lobby when your beautiful wife made an appearance." He laughs. "I was thinking I couldn't have planned this better. What are the chances?" His face quickly changed. "I was coming to end your life."

"So you got with my wife just to get to me? This was all bullshit?" I say

He smiles, "Actually, it wasn't. I'm very much in love with your EX-wife and we're happy and we're gonna live happily ever after blah blah blah. That's not what this is about." He walks over to the fireplace and picks up the gun then points it at me. "All of this has nothing to do with her." He says. "You need to know what YOU did. You killed my sister." He places it directly between my eyebrows. The steel against my skin was cold.

"......I—If you kill me—."

He cuts me off. "I'm not gonna kill you." He smiled, looking deep into my eyes. "I like to see you bitching up on me though...not so hard now are you?"

I don't say anything. I don't believe one thing that's coming out of his mouth. He thinks I'm responsible for his sister killing herself. I know this could be my last few breaths.

"Why you not talking shit?" He asks. "Just to make you feel better, you should know it's still an option though..." he laughs.

This motherfucker is off in the head. The fuck is he laughing for?

"You should also know, I'm totally fine with the consequences. If I pull this trigger, I'll gladly go to prison..."

"But you love my wife right? What would she say if you killed me? She would be devastated to lose her son's father."

He laughs, "Now Mr. Graham, she can't be your wife and my girlfriend..."

"You know what I mean...it's a habit." I say

"She would be devastated, but she understands my position." He says.

"She knows about this?" I say in disbelief.

"She knows exactly where I am."

I didn't know what to say. Shawnie knows about him coming over here and doing this? She knows he's going to kill me?

I don't have anything to do with his sister killing herself. His sister was a little delusional when it came to the type of relationship that we had. Yeah, I cared about her and I liked her. I was also looking out for her because it seemed like she didn't have anyone else. She never even mentioned she had a brother. I didn't know they were so involved with her life.

I was thrown out of my thoughts when I was hoisted up out of my seat and thrown to the ground. He mounted me, putting all of his weight on me. Damn, this motherfucker is heavy.

"I didn't have anything to do with that." I say, panicking. "Your sister had some real issues. Mental ones. She thought we we're together when we weren't. All I was doing was helping her get on her feet. She took it another way..."

He didn't say anything, he punched my right in my face. My head flew back and hit the hardwood floor.

"FUCK!" I yell

Somebody has to hear what's going on in here. You mean to tell me nobody knows this motherfucker is here?

Worry starts to set in and I begin to panic. What if they really don't know what is happening. I'm just in here with this motherfucker about to kill me. He told me not to yell or bell kill me, so I won't. That's my only chance. But I also don't believe anything he's saying. He might do it anyway.

"I'm sorry." I say, trying to sound calm.

"You're only sorry because there's a gun being pointed at your head right now."

"Yeah, but what do you want me to do?" I ask. "I can't bring her back...."

I shouldn't have said that.

He chuckles a little, but he removes the gun from my forehead. He lays it down on the ground next to him.

"I heard you like to be choked..." he says then puts his hands around my neck. He squeezed hard, blocking my airways. "Remember you choked my girlfriend because she tried to leave you? Or what about in the limo?"

I couldn't say anything, he was literally choking the life out of me.

He stares at me intensely as I fight for my life, then he smiles and lets go but before I could do or say anything he slaps me.

Laughing, "You think doing shit like this is funny? I like slapping you around..."

"Look—."

He cuts me off. "Shut up."

I bite my tongue and don't say anything.

He goes into his pocket and pulls something out. I couldn't make out what it was until he held the chrome blade up to my throat. I could feel the sharp steel cutting my skin as he held it there.

"You don't know me." He whisper yells at me. "You don't know what I'm capable of or what I did before I met your bitch ass. You don't know where I came from. I'll slit your throat and won't think twice about it."

Okay, now I'm scared. It was something about the tone in his voice. He was serious. Like dead serious. I've been fucking with this man for as long as I've known him. Not knowing how unhinged this man actually is.

As I lay on the ground with Joe's blade pressed against my throat, the gravity of the situation hit me like a ton of bricks. I had no doubt that he was fully capable of carrying out his threats.

"You're right..." I stammered, my voice quivering. "I don't know you. I have no idea what you've been through. I made a terrible mistake with your sister, and I'm truly sorry."

"What would be right is to make things even. I need to end your life." He says

"NO—No...Joe. I'm sorry. We can talk about this." I panic. "What about Shaw—."

I feel the pressure of the blade press into my neck.

"DONT SAY HER FUCKING NAME." He says through gritted teeth.

"I didn't mean to—I mean.... PLEASE JOE!" I pleaded for my life.

"You killed my sister and you tried to kill Shawnie." He says. "I'm doing this for them."

"What do you want me to do? I'll do anything I'm sorry. Please!" I begged

Desperation coursed through me as Joe's blade pressed into my neck, and his determination to end my life became clear. My mind raced for any possible way to defuse this deadly situation.

Joe smiled and removed the knife from my throat. Thank god. Now I could get a good look at what he was holding. The blade was only about 4 inches but the handle is what really caught my attention. The only way I could describe it was brass knuckles with a blade attached to the side. Seemed like something a killer out of the movies would have.

He sat up still on top of me. It seemed as if he was going to get off of me but I should've known that wasn't going to happen. The next thing I know I feel a sharp pain on the side of my stomach.

I yell out in pain but almost immediately my mouth is covered, muffling the sound.

Now I definitely knew I was dying tonight.

He bends down next to my face, his weight is almost crushing now.

"Leave California and leave her alone." I nod my head up and down. "Your words aren't good enough for me." He says.

He pushes the knife into the side of my stomach more, I yell but I know no one can hear my smothered cries.

"To ensure you're gone. I will do what I have to do to make sure you're permanently gone from our lives. I will break any link you have to her, including your son."

I couldn't do too much, the pain was starting to take over my body and it was clouding my mindset. I couldn't think of anything else.

"Don't touch my son." I struggled to say through the pain.

"Then stay away." He says. "He's safe and will always be safe. You determine if that changes. Keep your distance. Be the fucking coparent of the year. Only speak to her if it concerns her son. If I hear anything else I'm visiting you again."

"How can you threaten her son?"

"Because that's the only way you'll feel what I'm saying to you."

In the throes of agony, I could only nod in desperate agreement as Joe's relentless pressure and the searing pain in my side overwhelmed me. His ultimatum was crystal clear, and I had no choice but to comply if it meant sparing my life and my son's safety.

"Okay..." I gasped through the excruciating pain. "I'll leave and stay away from her. Just don't hurt my son, please." Tears started to roll down my face.

Joe's threat to my son was a chilling reminder of the lengths he was willing to go to protect Shawnie and seek revenge for his sister. My world had been turned upside down, and the consequences of my past actions were etched in the searing pain of the knife penetrating my side.

"I'll give you one conversation. That's it. If she doesn't want to talk to you, then it's not gonna happen. You're not gonna force anything. If I hear that the conversation is anything other than you're leaving, then we're going to have another problem."

"Okay, just get off of me. I'm dying."

He slaps me in my face. It wasn't a hard-core slap, it was a bitch slap. I'm not even gonna try to defend myself.

"Oh shut up. You aren't dying, I barely touched you." He chuckles

"YOU STABBED ME." I yell. This stupid ass motherfucker. He's fucking psycho.

"It only went on an inch. I've been through worse." He finally stands up, and I feel some sense of relief now that I don't have him sitting on me. The man has to weigh a good 280.

I just laid there for a few seconds. The pain was bad, but I felt like it was starting to subside a little bit now that all the pressure was relieved and I knew I had my life intact.

I tried to sit up but the pain knocked me back down. I can't believe this motherfucker really just stabbed me. I try to look down at my side, but it hurts too much. I just lay back on my back.

I look over at him and he is putting the gun back in his waistband and picking his phone up off the ledge of the fireplace.

"Get the fuck out of here." I said to him. "Your message is clear and I won't say shit but you gotta go."

"I'm going..." he looks over at me and smiles. "This was nothing compared to what I planned on doing to you that night in Vegas. I want to stress the fact that you, being Shawnie's son's father, that shit saved you. The only reason you're not dead right now is because I don't wanna hurt her...but next time I won't be so nice..."

He stepped over me, and he left out of the bedroom door.

***********

Joe's POV

I was seething with anger, though I did my best to keep it in check.  Pissed off didn't even begin to describe the rage that simmered within me. I want to be clear, I have no intentions on doing anything to his son. I would never hurt my girlfriends kids, or any kid for that matter. I'm not a monster, I only said that to scare him into complying. And if I scared the shit out of him, that's exactly what I wanted to do. I had hoped to end his life for what he had done to my sister, but circumstances had taken a different turn. The fact that I had spared his life on multiple occasions weighed heavily on my mind.

I grappled with the conflicting emotions tearing at my conscience. I felt a deep obligation to seek vengeance for my sister, to make things right in her memory. But I also recognized that she wouldn't have wanted me to commit a murder, even in her name. It was a painful internal struggle.

Despite my anger, I kept my composure because I knew that Shawnie needed the father of her son. I couldn't bear the thought of causing her any more pain than she had already endured. Still, the uncertainty of what the future held loomed over me, and I couldn't predict how I would react if pushed to the brink again.

As I walked from Drake's bedroom through the house, and into the common area, where the living room was, there were a couple of his bodyguards and friends sitting there. I looked at them, they looked at me, and I walked out of the front door. No one said anything to me and no one's going to say anything to me. Drake security knows what's up. I can't speak for his friends but they ain't gonna touch me either.

The walk home was a bit overwhelming. I wasn't worried about if Drake was going to call the police on me, or if they were going to come looking for me. I was really having an internal battle with the events that just took place. My sister killed herself because of this man. It seems like she did it because she didn't feel loved by him. I'm not saying they were together and in love, but I think it's pretty obvious that she loved him and he wasn't giving her what she needed. It seems like he was doing the bare minimum. She still got sucked into his bullshit and she fell for him. I'm not saying I think he knew how she felt but my sister wasn't the type of person to hide her feelings about anything so that leads me to believe he knew how she felt. And that also makes me feel like he purposely did things to make her feel a certain way about herself.

The overall situation is just fucked up because she lost her life and it kills me that I couldn't do anything about it. But that shit still tears me up to this day. I know I was put here in close quarters with this man for a reason. I lived in this man's house and protected his wife. I don't believe in all that fake bullshit but I really feel like this is how everything was supposed to go. But I hate it.

The only reason I didn't pull the trigger or push the blade all the way in it's because of Shawnie. I love her, and if I was to hurt her by leaving her because I was hailed off to prison, and I don't know how I would be able to live with myself. I know how much she depends on me and I know how much I mean to her. Losing me would be the worst thing that could happen to her right now. I couldn't do that to her. That would be selfish of me.

I wrapped up that situation with Drake because I wanted to get home to her.

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