Ace laid down Heart down on the couch. While his lady was making us all coffee. Ace stood up and looked at me. “What happened when you got down at the shop?”

“I got a call from Zadok. He told me what happened. I got down to the shop and it was already closed off. I didn’t see the inside. The neighborhood elders was protecting Heart. I didn’t know that at the time though.

Heart looked at me and seemed to click into action. He told me we had a lot to do. Heart went into action with the business shit. He left me to deal with the funeral stuff. We got an appointment with the lawyer at 9:30 today.

Ace stared at me and then looked at Diamond. “What’s the atmosphere like in the neighborhood? Anybody know who did it?”

Diamond shook his head. “Nobody knows shit but everybody has been looking to see who would slip up and give us a direction to hunt. Zadok came by a few hours ago. He told me we can come over to his shop when we’re altogether. He got a gift to give us.”

Ace nodded. “I got you. You two go on up and get some sleep a bit. I’ll watch Heart. I got to think.”

“What about me?”

Ace frowned at me. “I ain’t following you, bro.” He said.

“Don’t you got anymore questions for me?”

“No. Why?” Ace said and seemed honestly confused by question.

“I’ve been thinking. I-I’ve had some trouble with some dudes around the neighborhood and-“

“Stop. You thinking to much Bro. Everyone in this neighborhood loves Momma. You ain’t got the kind of beef with anybody around here for anybody to send fucking warlocks to assassin a sweet old lady. Besides the fact. It don’t matter why they did it. They going to pay once we find out who did it.. That’s all that matters.”

I stared at him. “It don’t matter?! There has to be a reason for all this.. Of course it matters. If I would have been there to pick up Momma-“

“You would dead along side her.” Diamond said bluntly. “Ace is right. It don’t matter why. It’s all bullshit. Whoever did it got to pay. They killed our Momma and they mind fucked our brother. I don’t give a fuck what reason they had to do it. I just need to know who did it.”

Ace held up a hand and took hold of my shoulders. “It ain’t your fault. I’ll say it every day to you if I have to for the rest of my life but it ain’t your fault. I need you to go upstairs and sleep. I need you strong and ready to hunt and Heart needs you to keep together. He needs us right now. He’s hurting like all of us but he can’t unsee what he saw. He needs to see something just as strong to replace the image he saw.”

“What?!” I asked.

Ace’s face turned hard. “Justice.”

Warm regards

Guardiandogg