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Julez tried to convince himself that maybe she had fallen asleep, or maybe she was in the shower and didn't hear the phone, but he ultimately knew that he wouldn't rest assured until he was home and laid eyes on her. Julez pulled onto his block and he immediately noticed that all of the lights were still on in the house. She rarely slept like that. With there being only three homes on the street, and theirs being the largest one, Julez had a clear view of his home. He sped up a bit as he reached the dark driveway, anxious to get inside.

As he stepped out into the bitter cold, he noticed that Jordin had drug out that garbage to the end of the curb on the other side of the house.
Aw man, she gonna be hot wit' me for forgetting to do that.

Jordin was the complete opposite of Noelle, she kept a clean home believing that cleanliness was next to godliness. It was something he admired but still had to get used to. He started up his stone walkway, but heard a muffled sound coming from the street. Julez wrinkled his brow, and as he continued to walk, he heard rustling coming from the bags. “What the fuck?” Walking a bit closer, Julez peered, thinking to see a cat or a possum. However, what he saw took his breath from him.

“
Jordin.” His voice was filled with despair as his eyes fell onto her bloody body crumpled on the ground, appearing lifeless and still. Julez stumbled a bit, feeling weak like he had taken a blow and then he ran over to her and immediately fell to his knees, as he picked her head off of the concrete and cradled it in his lap.

“
Jordin, baby what happened? Baby, who did this to you? Oh my fucking god!” Julez yelled in pain, clinching his fists, as Jordin lay with her eyes closed damn near unconscious. “Somebody help us! Yo, somebody fucking help us!” He screamed erratically. “Please...” he added lowly, his voice cracking and his words getting caught in his throat. Julez tried to think clearly as he reached in his coat quickly and dialed 911 with one hand and he caressed her head with his other. His now bloody fingers stroked her hair and cold face. He yelled and cried to them to please come, she was pregnant, she was bleeding and he had no idea where she was hit and how long she had been there. It was so much blood.

After dropping the phone, he brought his face next to hers and talked to her pleadingly, never feeling this desperate in his entire life.

“
Baby please stay wit' me. Stay wit' me, ma. I can't lose you. I can't lose you, Jordin. I can't live wit' out you...Please.”

Jordin heard him, and she was trying to fight. She couldn't open her eyes, it took too much energy. She wanted to tell him that she loved him, and that she was trying to hang on, that she had been trying to hang on for him, but she knew she only had strength enough for one word, if she even had that. This word was more crucial than anything she could have to say to him. This word was, “Sl-Slim,” she whispered.

Julez had heard her, his ear was right next to her sweet mouth. He didn't answer, he only continued to stroke her hair lovingly. He took off his jacket and wrapped it around her and he held her tight in his arms, rubbing her head and kissing her repeatedly. He didn't say anything but all of his emotions were written on his rigid face. One single tear rolled down his cheek as he silently prayed for Jordin to pull through. He also prayed for forgiveness in advance for the things that he was going to do to Slim.
God, I know that I aint live the best life. I know I did a lot of fucked up shit, will definitely do more fucked up shit, but I aint never did nothing to a man that didn't deserve it. But her...please God, she's perfect. She aint do nothing wrong. She don't deserve this. And God, I know you may want her 'cause she's an angel for real. But she's mine, and I wanna be selfish. I wanna keep her here. Please God let me keep her....

Just as Julez was finishing up his prayer, the ambulance was pulling up onto his street. He squeezed Jordin's hand tight and wouldn't let go even as they tended to her. Julez was still holding onto her for dear life as they loaded into the ambulance and headed toward the hospital. He only hoped that God answered the prayers of sinners as well.

***

“
Sir? ...Sir?” Silence. “Sir...are you here for... Jordin Spears?”

Julez snapped out of his trance and instantly shook his head, jumping up and facing the doctor. The doctor looked at an on edge Julez solemnly. He was sure that he was in fact here for the pregnant young lady who had taken a bullet to her chest, being that her blood seemed to be all over him.

“
Well, some good news... We were able to save the baby. She's of course premature, and she's not yet breathing on her own, but I think she's going to be just fine. I'll let you know when you can see her,” the doctor said with a timid smile, extremely proud at his efforts to deliver the tiny baby without harm. Julez was happy to hear it, ecstatic even, but he couldn't celebrate and be too thankful until he knew...

“
Will...will Jordin make it? ...Is she okay? Is she gonna be alright?” Julez's eyes were hopeful. So hopeful and so filled with fear at the same time. The doctor could tell that he loved her very much. It pained him to not be able to deliver the perfect news that he knew the man wanted to hear.

“
We're... still working on her, sir. Ms. Spears lost an extremely large amount of blood. But we're doing our best.”

The doctor walked away shortly after that, leaving Julez alone in his thoughts. He was happy that his daughter had survived, his daughter, a little girl. He couldn't wait to see her, but more than anything, he couldn't wait until Jordin could hold her in her arms and they can both adore her, together as a family. The thought of Jordin not pulling through made Julez feel like he was suffocating. He needed air.

The minute he stepped outside of the emergency room the smell of smoke protruded his nostrils. Julez wasn't a smoker but he needed something to calm his nerves. He ended up bumming a loosey from a white guy who seemed to be just as high strung as he was at that moment. And as he took his first pull of the cancer stick, his phone vibrated in his pocket with a vengeance. He suddenly remembered that you could hardly ever get service in the hospitals, and he wondered if it was Jordin's parents calling him back or perhaps even his own mother and grandmother. Taking out the phone, he studied the screen but did not recognize the number. He answered it, sounding defeated.

“
Hello...”

There was a silence, but not as if the phone was dead. There was definitely someone there, the sound of dark and cold space filled the other end.

“
Hello...,” Julez repeated. “Yo...who-”

“
Thought you couldn't be touched, huh?”

Julez's jaw immediately tightened as Slim taunted him smoothly on the other end of the line.

“
Hello? Yo, you there...? ...I got the right number? ...I mean, is this the big time, king of the streets, most untouchable Julez Payne I'm speaking with? They still call you that shit, playboy?” Slim cracked, chuckling to himself at having Julez humbled. “I just wanna know, you still feeling untouchab-”

“
Nigga you gonna bleed dry when I fucking find you!” Julez hissed through clenched teeth. The veins in his neck bulged and his adrenaline ran rampant through his body. This was the old Julez, Slim had resurrected him. Slim could hear the truth all in his voice. “Do you know who the fuck you done fucked wit' pussy? Nigga, I
know
you know. You think you can't be
found
? I got mothafuckas everywhere!” Julez kept his voice somewhat low careful to not be heard by anyone, but it was filled with a deadliness, a raw venom that Slim had to believe. He knew damn well what Julez was capable of, everyone did. He tried to play unfazed.

“
Oh, I get it. So you gonna send niggas to merk me, huh Julez? Ya hands too clean to do that shit yaself anymore?”

“
Nigga when I find you, you gonna
wish
I sent some other mothafuckas to kill you! Aint a lifeless nigga ever die as slow as you will. You better off putting a fuckin' bullet in ya own head right now, bitch!” And Julez meant it. Slim was gonna pay, he was gonna pay hard.

“
Well, I guess you gotta find me first, right? And in the meantime, it won't be
my
bitch you'll be laying up with,” Slim added, sure that Jordin had to be dead from his precise shot. “I blasted her ass just like I blasted your punk ass before. And I know you got Freddy hit for that shit, dumb mothafucka.” Slim laughed again and Julez only nodded slowly. He chuckled, ready to end the wordplay. Only play he had for Slim, was gunplay. Before he could get his final word out, the doctor emerged through the double doors to the outside. Julez spun around, the phone still in his hand.

“
Sir! We were looking for you. She's awake! Miss Spears is going to be fine! She's awake! ...I told her the baby made it, she wants to see you!”

Julez closed his eyes and said a quick thank you to God. He sighed in relief and prepared to head inside to see his future, and then he felt the phone in his hand and remembered what he was in the middle of before the good news came.

Placing the phone to his ear he heard dead silence. He looked at his screen. Blank. Slim had obviously hung up. Julez nodded and stared for a few seconds before placing the phone back into his pocket.

Until we meet again, pussy...

And then without another thought to it, he swiftly made his way through the doors ready to see his family.

***

As Slim sat on the bed in a run down motel in the middle of San Antonio, Texas, he silently fumed from what he had overheard.

...She's fine...She's awake...the baby made it...

He couldn't believe it. He was sure that Jordin and the baby would not survive. He couldn't even enjoy the weed he had copped from the Mexicans, the same ones that he had recently began to do low level business with. He knew he wouldn't even enjoy the pussy he was about to get either. All that was on his mind was Jordin, Julez, and the fact that they would now be a family.

As he heard the shower come to a stop and the bathroom door open, he tried not to focus on that. He looked up and tried to focus on her smooth legs on display in her tiny towel. He tried to focus on her as she spoke.

“
First thing's first, when we get the new ID's, we gotta get the hell outta this dusty room. I can't live like this Slim, this is not up to my standards, papi!”

“
She's still alive.”

Silence.

“
What?”

Noelle couldn't believe her ears. There was no way that Slim was saying what she thought he was saying. No way in hell.

“
What did you just say?”

Slim took a deep breath and then he shrugged nonchalantly rubbing his hand over his face.

“
The bitch didn't die, yo. Neither did the baby.”

Noelle shut her eyes in pure anger. All of this... for nothing. She came back to Slim, left her daughter, left her apartment, her job, went on the run with this mothafucka, all of that, just so she can know that Slim would handle Jordin the way she needed her handled. Was that too much to ask?

She really had loved her best friend, she really had. Noelle didn't really understand where the love turned sour. All she knew was that one day, she woke up and her mind was a little different. Things that she thought she could deal with, became impossible. And the thought of Jordin having Julez, and him choosing her over Noelle, became unbearable. She bit her bottom lip, wanting to hook off on Slim for fucking up. But she decided to play her cards right. He was the only person who loved her enough to literally do anything for her. To literally kill for her.

“
It's okay...,” she whispered in a sultry voice that made him weak.

Slim took a long pull and looked up at her pretty face skeptically.

“
It is...?”

“
Yeah,” she said, walking over and straddling him sexily. “We'll....we'll let it go...”

Slim's eyes fell low with lust as he unwrapped her towel with ease, exposing her perfect body.

“
We will...?” He asked in his deep and sexy baritone.

“
Yeah...we will,” she reiterated, rubbing the back of his head as he bent down and began to slowly suck on her nipples.

“
Mmm,” she moaned, closing her eyes. “We'll...shit...” “We'll just... focus on us, papi...,” she said while panting in satisfaction. “Fuck them...ooh... We'll...we'll let them live...”