Braxton opened the door and kicked his legs, giving them a nice stretch. The pickup location wasn't all that far, yet traffic had made the drive longer than it had to be.

"Nigga you need to do some yoga with yo' tense ass." Darius hopped out the passenger side and walked toward the building. Braxton followed behind him.

"Yoga?" For a while now, Darius had been thinking he was on some zen master type shit.

"Hell yes. This shorty got me doing it." He had noticed that his friend's newfound love interest had him happier than usual. But right now, there was no time for games. He would have to save his questions for Darius and keep pushing until this night was over.

Two of their guys were sent to make sure the building was secure and set up a perimeter. It had been ten minutes since they were sent out, but there was no emergency code or warning sent back. Darius figured they should be good and suggested that the two of them go ahead and enter.

Inside, 18 wheelers stood side by side, toting the logos different companies they used as a front to wash their money. There was a large clearing in the middle of the warehouse, where a couple of familiar faces were. All around them were shelves that reached up to the ceiling, filled with cardboard boxes and other things wrapped in plastic.

Darius approached them, hands out as if he were ready to give them some dap. The three men just looked at him as if he were crazy, making him put his hands down. Their eyes shifted to Braxton.

"Were you followed?" A short, brown-skinned guy by the name of Chuy asked. He worked for Diego, the former head of the cartel, before he was locked up. Chuy had specific instructions on what to do next and how things were supposed to go. Braxton knew by the look in his eyes, Chuy didn't trust him. That didn't faze him all too much; you couldn't trust anyone in this business.

"Nah." Two men dressed in all black standing on either side of Chuy stepped forward to pat the two of them down. Braxton assumed they were checking for wires because they were allowed to keep their guns. After they nodded at Chuy, he began to explain what needed to be done.

"There's ten trucks, each with something different but it's all the same product. One'll have baby formula, one'll have liquor. So on and so forth," he spoke. They often disguised the coke in different forms. It's truest one being the baby formula. The liquor was really cocaine in its liquid state, so that later when it got where it needed to go they could convert it back, or leave it as is. That was a complicated process that Braxton was glad he didn't have to take part in.

"You have the addresses where they need to be driven to." Braxton nodded.

In the distance, Braxton heard what he took to be dull thuds. He didn't think too much of it and tried to focus as much as he could on the man in front of him. Chuy was explaining the process, but Braxton knew the plan like the back of his hand: drive the trucks to the cover businesses so the trucks can "unload", then from there take them to the traps in different cars, on different days. Then, weigh all the product to make sure nothing was missing. He would do a quick taste test, and if passed, it was ready to sell.

"And one more thing," Chuy added before leaving. "I don't know what you got yourself into with that girl of yours. But there's someone looking for her, the price is high."Darius, who was staring off into the distance, now focused his attention on Chuy.

Braxton swallowed hard. He thought that the danger Nadine was in was subsiding, that no one was watching for her anymore. The streets talked, but they stopped talking about her. No one heard anything of anyone trying to get to Nadine, not even Raegan. And Raegan heard everything.

"Whatchu mean? I need to know exactly what it is that you heard."

"I don't have a name. All I know is-"

The thuds Braxton thought he heard in the distance turned into pops that shook his eardrums. Being the owner of a gun, he knew those sounds meant that someone was shooting.

He thought back to the guys he sent to make sure the perimeter was secured. They never came back. He should have known that something was wrong with that. He was just so anxious to get the whole thing over with that he forgot how careful he needed to be. And it didn't help that Nadine was on his mind heavy. The thought of her getting hurt in any way made him itch with anger.

He would just have to get over it and put his mind on right. Because that could be the only thing that would save his life right now.

The doors they had just entered through less than twenty minutes ago busted open. Braxton forced himself not to look back as he and Darius bolted for the exit on the opposite side of the warehouse. Immediately, masked men clad in all black filed into the area one by one. Both entrances were blocked off by the swarm of people yelling, "LAPD, get down on the ground!"

In the heat of it all, he had lost Darius. But he didn't have time to think of where he had gone. He had to find his own way out of this first, then think of everything else later.

He took a sharp right and almost crashed into a stack of boxes sitting on the bottom row of one of the many towering shelves in the building. He shoved himself between two of them, making sure he was positioned where he couldn't be seen.

He breathed in deeply, trying to get a hold of his nerves. Though his emotions were running wild, he only saw red. Braxton saw some of the most careful people get caught up by the police, but he never thought he would be one of them. He tried to think of a way out and forced his anger to the back of his mind.

"Hands where I can see them! Come out, NOW!" muffled voices yelled. He mentally cursed. It sounded like there were at least ten of them in here. And from what he saw, they were heavily armed.

Braxton thought about the day he was ambushed. That day, he vowed that something like that would never happen to him again. Now here he was, stuck in the same predicament. And it wasn't like he could call someone to come dig him out of it, like he had called on Darius.

He felt like a coward, crouched down low, and hiding like his life depended on it. But what else could he do in this situation? The best action was no action. Waiting for the right opportunity was all he could do now.

"You sure you don't want me to stay with you until he gets back? I'on like the idea of you being here all alone." Lorena pleaded. Nadine sat slackly on the staircase watching Lorena in front of her. After making them a hearty meal, which happened to be her best take on Olive Garden, she was full and feeling sleepy.

Hours had passed, and they had spent their time talking and laughing at each other. Lorena would leave tonight having a better understanding of who Nadine was, and the same was true for Nadine.

"I'm alone all the time. You wasn't worried about me then. I'll be okay." Nadine assured her. She liked the idea that someone was looking out for her. It made her feel like she had a friend. Her life felt a little less... lonely. "On top of that, it is getting late. You'n got work in the morning or something?"

"I do. But it ain't nothing to call in."

Lorena was willing to skip work to be with her? A weird feeling spread through Nadine, and suddenly she found herself not wanting Lorena to leave anymore. She liked having someone to talk to. Someone who could take her mind off of all the drama that was going on around her.

Though she wanted them to grab blankets and just curl up on the couch and watch Netflix for the rest of the night, she couldn't be selfish. Lo had her own life to live and her own responsibilities. In her attempt to be a good friend, she was sending her home. Plus, she didn't want it to be awkward when Braxton came back.

"Nah. Text me when you make it back, though." She stood up and hugged Lorena.

She kissed her teeth. "You never want me to be great. I wasn't trying to go in tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah. Don't you got patients to take care of? They so sick, and they really need you," Nadine said sarcastically.

"Don't be tryna make me feel bad." She said goodbye and walked out the door. She waved one last time at Nadine, who was standing halfway in and halfway out to see if Lorena had made it to her car, and entered into the vehicle.

Lorena felt guilty, inside and out. Nadine would be there in his house, waiting all night, not knowing that Braxton may never return. Not knowing that if he didn't come back alive, it was Lorena's fault.

Guessing Braxton's password was easy. Old habits die hard. His own habit was that he made all of his numerical passwords the date that they had moved in together: 032115.

Those six numbers were all she needed to completely finish him. She found loads of information about some sort of drop tonight. To save her ass, and also Darius's, she passed this information on to Detective Brenner. She didn't leave him much time to prepare for an operation, but Lorena knew that Brenner would be making an appearance at the warehouse where everything was to take place.

Snitching on someone she once loved, and still loved, wasn't the only thing that was making her feel heavy with guilt. It was the fact that she sat up there and hung with Nadine as if she hadn't just did what she had done. Lorena pretended everything was just peachy, making Nadine not suspect a thing.

Using only his ears, Braxton knew that they had already taken down the two men that were with Chuy, who was nowhere to be seen or heard. Someone was returning fire to the police officers, and his guess was that it was Darius.

He could sit still in his little corner all night, but sooner or later they would find him.

Braxton carefully crawled out from the tight space and crouched down low. The lights were now extremely dim, almost completely dark, save for the few flashlights that flashed in different areas.

He followed the sounds of the shooter, coming up right behind his partner. He grabbed his wrist, and Darius almost shot him right in the gut. "Nigga what the fuck wrong witchu' running up on me like that?! I could have-"

Braxton cut his whisper-screams off abruptly. Darius backed off and waited patiently for Braxton to say something.

"How many is it?"

"I counted eleven. Popped two of 'em right in they back. Chuy's guys took down four before they got hit theyselves. That nigga Chuy up and vanished, I haven't seen him. So that leaves four niggas left."

Braxton did the math in his own head. "Two plus four is six. Nigga it's five of them left." Darius kissed his teeth. "Whatever, same shit. How we tryna play this?"

Before Braxton could get another word out, one of the pigs yelled out. "Come out and surrender, and maybe we'll cut a deal. If you cooperate, you'll leave here alive."

Darius shifted on his feet. Being so low to the ground was starting to get uncomfortable. Plus, he was ready to just air the place out and hope for the best.

"I need you to make it out and get the car. Be ready to ride the fuck outta here."

"And what you gon' do?" It was dark,  but Braxton knew the confused look Darius must have had on his face. it made him grin, just a little. "You ain't gon' be able to just walk outta here. Something needs to distract 'em."

Without giving more information, Braxton backed away from him and made his way toward the other side of the building. On his way there, he clanked his gun around on the metal shelves, knocking things out of place.

Taking the bait, the LAPD officers rolled in formation toward the sound.

A bullet flew past his ear, grazing his skin as it hit a wall in front of him. He ducked behind a pole and returned fire. Someone yelled out in pain, signifying that he had hit someone.

"Wright. Come out now before things get messy." They using government names and shit? As the officer finished his sentence, Braxton fired four more rounds in the direction of the voice. Some of them zinged off the metal shelves and ricocheted off the walls. He didn't know how many bullets he had left but the clip was beginning to feel empty.

In a quick movement, two officers approached him from behind. His gun went off and luckily shot one of them in the leg. The bigger, and faster, one charged toward him and tackled him to the ground. He opened his mouth to speak, but Braxton held his hand tightly over his mouth. "What's going on over there?"

The officer was big enough to overpower Braxton and flipped him over into a chokehold. The grip on his neck was so tight that the edges of his vision became blurred. He used his elbows to try and get the officer in the stomach, but ole dude was eating up every hit. "I've got him."

With every second, more footsteps were getting closer and closer to where he and the pig were wrestling on the ground. The oxygen supply to his brain was getting smaller and smaller as Braxton found himself running out of time. This was not how he imagined his death to be like at all.

He thought maybe he would see God, or a lomotif of all of the important moments in his life would flash before his eyes. Instead, the growl of an engine rode through the warehouse, returning fire to every armed officer that was threatening his livelihood. They ducked and hid behind anything they could use to find cover.

Braxton coughed and hacked up spit while at the same time trying to take in as much air as possible. Looking up, he saw Darius in the driver's seat of a vehicle he had never seen before. Though the headlights were blasting and impairing his vision, he ran towards the passenger side and yanked the door open, throwing himself in.

"Took you bout long enough." He barely got the words out through all of his erratic breathing.

"Can I get a 'thank you' instead?" Darius zoomed out of the lot and onto the road, taking a series of winding roads to make sure they weren't being followed. Though the air had returned to his lungs, Braxton still felt a heavy weight on his chest. Somehow, everything had gone wrong tonight and it had left him with so many unanswered questions.

"You heard me?"

"Hm?" Braxton groggily rolled his head in the direction of Darius's voice.

"You bleeding." That massive load that he thought was just from the anxiety of the night was indeed a gunshot wound.