Chapter 17

June 7th 12 pm

Location: Bay's Home in Chino

I stared at Athena's bare body, as she was sleeping but the sight just made me wanted wake that ass up and go for round whatever. She really didn't know just how much her ass really had me sprung, I don't know about love but I do know that I couldn't get her off my mind.

I dialed the number and held the phone to my ear, picking up I said, "Is it set up?"

"Yes, everything is ready and available whenever you need it."

"Preciate' it." I said before hanging up, I turned around to see that she was still asleep, and I could see why because we were at it all night long. I placed a kiss on her lips, "Babygirl you got to wake up."

She shifted around a little bit before opening her eyes, "I barely can even move."

I mean I did tell her I was going to fuck her until I turned them sexy ass legs into jello, her phone vibrated and I turned my attention to it, reading the message I got pissed, not at her but Wark pathetic ass. He had been blowing her shit up ever since that stupid ass date. "Wark dumb ass texted you."

Flipping on her side she muttered, "Text his ass back."

I unlocked the phone and saw that he texted her, "Are you still coming to the party?" I sent him a yes and put the phone back on the dresser. "You still gotta wake up." I said slapping her on the ass.

"Bay." She groaned sitting up in the bed covering herself with the covers. Seeing her look at me with that pissed look made me want to go back on everything I said and spend the day in bed. "What do I have to do today that requires me to get out the bed."

"I want to take you somewhere." I was trying to get control of myself.

Getting out of the bed and she disappeared behind the bathroom door, my phone rang and I saw that it was Dig, "What's up Dig?"

"How's everything going along?"

"Straight, and how is it down there?" My gaze towards the bathroom.

"Good, Wark's men have been ghost, and shit is running smoothly, what about you and Athena?"

"What about me and Athena?"

"I'm telling you Bay like I told you plenty of times before, she is your weakness and if you don't stay away from her, someone is going to find out about you two and they are going to use her to their advantage."

"Ain't shit gon' happen between Athena and I until shit is situated."

"Aight Bay, but watch your fucking back."

"And I always do."

Hanging up I rubbed my face, the Athena subject was getting fucking old, I wasn't going to push play on what was going on between us until I was secure in what the hell I had going on, there was no point in pushing play when I knew that I wasn't going to go all in, I would be wasting hers and mines time.

I just knew I wasn't ready for all of that yet, and I wasn't going to take a backseat to the game especially when I was close as hell to taking over Chino. I felt selfish as hell both ways, I didn't want to leave Athena alone because I would have her on my mind more than I already do but if I leave her alone I know it's just going to piss me the fuck off if I know that she isn't mine because I don't want to take a backseat to the game, if I could just speed up what the fuck I had going on than I could finally say that I was ready to give her everything and handle my shit. I knew that my decision was already made, even though I knew I wasn't going to be cool making it.

Athena walked out of the shower with a towel wrapped around her, "I need to go to my room to change clothes."

"Aight be quick." I nodded trying to keep my attention on her face.

Rolling her eyes, she left the room, I scratched my head, Dig ass was right, she was my weakness.

Athena

June 7th 1pm

"Bay, where are we?" I asked looking at the nice apartment.

"Your back up plan." He said walking up to the front door and pushing it open.

I followed behind him, "Backup plan?"

"If you are ever being followed by him, you're going to need a place to go to, and this is it." He strolled in further and cut on the light.

"This is beautiful, how can you own the house and the apartment without Wark knowing." I looked around the house.

"Wark thinks he owns Chino but he doesn't realize how much flies over his radar because he is so involved with himself."

I followed him around the house, it was gorgeous I mean I didn't expect any less from Bay. "How much shit flies over his radar."

He let out a breathless laugh and said, "Some shit I would never let go down in my city."

I nodded and walked into the bed room, it was gorgeous it reminded me of the apartment bedroom that was back in San Fran. I didn't say anything, I just looked around the room black and white was the color scheme, classic. I walked over to the window and stared out at the Chino view, this also reminded me of the San Fran view I wondered if it was just as beautiful as it was at night. You know when you have downed a whole bottle of Scotch and you want to look out at something so you didn't seem so fucking pathetic.

I turned around to face Bay who was sitting on the bed with his forearms on his knees staring at me, I didn't know how to put into words about how I felt about him. I knew I couldn't just say what I felt about him was just sex, and I felt wrong for feeling this way, I mean I was already crazy but I would seem fucking insane if I expected anything out of this. But he was dead ass wrong for not letting me know where the hell I stood with him, I needed to know this because I needed to know my place and my lane.

"Just ask the question, Athena."

"Bay?" I asked finally breaking the silence.

"What's up babygirl?"

"Where do I stand with you, like what do we have going on here? I confessed.

He put his head in his hands, I guess the same question riddled his mind, "I don't know babygirl, but I know that I can't be what I want for us to be though."

"We don't have to be that Bay, it would be fucking crazy if we were that. I would only be a distraction to you." I tilted my head against the window.

"How you gon' tell me what's a distraction to myself." A crease in his forehead appeared.

"I don't want you to have an option." I brushed my palms together meeting his intense stare.

Anger flickered through his eyes, "There is no option Athena, you were never an option, do you really think I was going to choose you over the game?"

A pang hit me square in the chest, but I didn't let him know that "No you're Bay after all." I turned back around to face the window, we both got our answers and I could waste no more time thinking about him.

----

Location: Bay's Home in Chino

June 8th 1pm

"You need to focus Athena." Jose snapped his fingers in my face.

Opening my eyes, I glared at him we had been at this for damn near three hours, this is how it went. He would ask me something about Wark, I would tell him. After the first hour, I finally asked him what the hell was we doing this for and the answer he provided me was that Bay asked him to do this. He had been avoiding me and I had been avoiding him, what we were doing wasn't going to work out so we just shut shit down.

"You have asked me this question, over twenty-seven times, Jose." I rubbed my temples

He exhaled, "Well it wouldn't hurt to ask again, you need to be flawless tomorrow night."

"What is this a play?" I smacked my teeth.

Laughing, "No but it is damn near close to one."

I stared up at the blistering sun that soaked into my skin like a sponge absorbing water, I was tired of being held up in that house it was like my demons followed me and made sure to suffocate me in every step I took. "We can just talk about something else, like just taking a break."

He half shrugged, "Fine, what's going on between you and Bay?"

I pursed my lips and turned my attention to the freshly cut grass, I didn't want to talk about him mostly because I didn't want to be a bitter bitch, I have went twenty-two years without telling people my problems I think I can go for a little while longer, and I am sure Bay wouldn't want for me to tell anyone about what happened. "So, you want to repeat the question for the twenty-eighth time?"

He huffed, "What position did Wark play?"

"Point guard but he played shooting guard his first two years of high school." I smoothed down my pants and crossed my hands over my chest.

"What colleges offered him a scholarship?"

"Utah, Duke, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Kansas." I numbered them off on my hand.

"Girlfriends?"

"He dated an Asian girl throughout sophomore and junior year, but dumped her in the beginning of his senior year for Becky with the blonde hair and blue eyes."

"Blonde hair and blue eyes?" He creased his eyebrows.

I half-shrugged, "Just assuming."

"Understandable."

"How did he get all of this information?" I cocked my head to the side a bit.

Jose was hesitant before saying, "Wark's dad." My eyes widened and he immediately responded, "Don't ask."

My mouth shut and I nodded, but my curiosity was flaring. Why in the hell was Wark's dad giving Bay any information about the son Bay wanted to kill. Was this a personal thing, was it more than Wark selling shit in his city, did Wark's dad send Bay to kill him. Did this shit go deeper than any of us thought?

"Car parts. Addresses."

That's right, that damn number it was unknown, but the number was etched into my mind, I made sure that I remembered it.

"(909)648-7654."

The text message.

"Tre there is no backing out now if you don't want your shit handled then I suggest you tell us 'where Bay's play houses are located."

Did those two have any correlation, I needed to write this out. My brain could not store this much information without it having the need to explode.

"Hey, can we call it now, I'm tired and we have been doing this for close to four hours now." I rubbed my eyes trying to indicate of my exhaustion.

"Yeah, but we need to go over the layout of his house, we ran the address you gave us and we got a blue print." He helped me up and I wiped my butt of any grass residue. We parted ways when I went upstairs and he went to the living room. I hurried into the room and looked through the drawers, I didn't think to look for it when I first came here because my mind was in other places.

"Yeah very far places."

I opened the drawer to see the notebook, but not my notebook. I wasn't looking for it, because I knew that it was probably somewhere back in San Fran with that damn phone. Taking the notebook, I went in search for something to write with, pushing around I finally found a pen.

Journal Entry,

The unknown person's number was (909)648-7654, did the phone number belong to one of Wark's men because I do remember Wark telling me that he did want to take over San Fran but Bay was stopping him from doing that.

The text message was: "Tre there is no backing out now if you don't want your shit handled then I suggest you tell us 'where Bay's play houses are located."

Why would Wark's men text Tre on his phone that he texts all of his other licks on, if he had a phone that was specially made for Wark. What if this wasn't Wark's doing, what if it was someone else's doing I mean the text message didn't even sound like him or Wark's men.

Wark's people doesn't say that, 'handled', I only heard that type of slang from San Fran, so was I right did Bay have a mole in his group, because only few did know where his main playhouse was, and if only we were not out there they would have hit his playhouse and he could have lost all of his men. Was it a whole other beef between another city or did Wark tell the man to text that number to throw him off.

Nothing was coming back with a possible outcome, it was like a complicated math problem and no matter how many different algorithms and theories I have tried it didn't come to an equal I didn't have any more strategies.

What about the addresses? The addresses, and the car parts. I wish I could have put them all to my memory because if I could remember at least one of those I could find out if they had any correlation with Wark's drugs house.

This may be a reach but what if the two did have correlation and Tre was writing in the addresses and drug houses for the number and what if the number is a person from the FEDS and Tre was a CI, what if they didn't know about the side phone he had, did anyone know about it. Maybe I was reaching too far, I just couldn't believe that Tre would be a rat, I mean he had so much shit on his plate that he would end up putting a bullet to his own head.

Not only was Tre stealing money, he was doing a side deal with Wark, he was stealing from Bay and Wark, he probably was working the cops and to add on to that he was setting me up.

I stopped writing, now why in the hell would he set me up, I mean I did say after all if he was going to kill me he would have done it himself. I remember I did also say that I knew too much, so much that any sane person would kill me. Was I on to something, was Tre an informant for the FEDS and when shit came crashing down he didn't want anything to fall on him and I knew too fucking much so he wanted to shut me up.

"Well what about Wark's dad does he tie into anything."

Another tidal wave racked my brain and I began scribbling back into the notebook:

Resuming Journal Entry,

Another probability is that Wark's father is the number, but I mean why would Wark's father want the locations to Bay's play houses. Why would Wark's dad want to kill his own son, there was so many questions behind him. Like who would have their own son be set up to be killed or why would he want Play House locations, and most importantly how in the hell did he fit into this whole thing?

As a matter of fact, I noticed that none of the questions that Jose asked me was about his Dad, he did ask me about his mother but none about his father.

There a knock on the door before it opened and Jose appeared with a blue print in hand, how long was I thinking about it. "Did you even get any sleep?" Jose sat on the bed.

I shook my head, "How much time has passed by?"

"About an hour." He looked at his watch.

I tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and sat up in the bed, "Where do we start?"

----

4:10 PM

8.4.2017

--A.A.