Page 542

“I wasn’t talking about them.”

She got quiet again.

“Seven is fine.”

“Aight.”

I hung up.

Then stood there for another second before getting into my truck.

Detective Jones was right about one thing.

Xay had a lot of problems.

Gambling.

Money.

Women.

Probably shit none of us even knew about yet.

Any one of them could’ve gotten him killed.

And until somebody figured out what happened on Frelinghuysen Avenue, every motherfucker who had a reason to hate Xavier Lawless was going to have somebody looking at them sideways.

Including me.

18

AVERY, HEATHER, LEVIN & SAMANTHA

AVERY

“Okay, Mama. You ready to find out what you’re having?”

I smiled even though my heart had been sitting somewhere in my stomach since I climbed onto this damn table.

“Yeah.”

The ultrasound tech smiled back before turning her attention toward the screen.

“Let’s see if baby cooperates.”

I looked over at the monitor while she moved the wand across my stomach.

I was showing-showing now.

There wasn’t any hiding this shit underneath an oversized hoodie or sucking my stomach in when somebody looked too long.

I was pregnant.

Very fucking pregnant.

And four months ago, my life had looked completely different.

She smiled.