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"Cause where I'm from we live by the love, die by the love. Live for the love, die for the love. yes I Live for your love, die for your love..."

•

I put on my poker face as I walked into my uncles building. Followed by one of his security guards who argued that it was against the rules to let a 'stranger' like myself into the building alone.

"If it isn't princess Nicki." I heard someone say, I turned on my heels to see my cousin Reece.

"I thought you didn't come round these parts no more."

"I don't but I gotta speak to uncle Q, where is he?" I asked. "Last I saw him he was up on the roof about to smoke somebody."

"How's the baby? She gotta be like 2 now right?" He asked referring to Armani. "Yeah. She's fine."

"You still with your baby daddy?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "Leave me alone Reece I-" I stopped speaking when I heard mumbling in the distance.

"I told you it was her."

"Wow she actually came."

"I guess she done hoeing & decided to remember us."

I looked towards the voices to see two teenage girls I was sure Id seen somewhere before. "Can I help you?" I asked with an attitude they quickly shook their heads, no. "You're staring at me like I got something for you, what's the problem?" They stayed silent and walked away with an attitude.

Once they were out of my sight I looked over at Reece. "Who was that?" "Auntie Jens daughter and her friend." He told me. 'Auntie Jen' was my fathers cousin, she hated my mom, myself and Nico.

"You gotta understand we haven't seen you around here in a while."

"Yeah and you know why."

"This him now." Reece said answering the call. "Yeah I'm here with Nicki. Alright."

"He said we should go to his office, it's on the 12th floor come." I starter breathing heavily in a panic when I heard we were going to the 12th floor, my uncle was notorious for throwing people to their deaths from that exact same floor.

"Don't look so nervous cuz." Reece said whilst nudging me playfully. "That's easy for you to say, I was his baby girl and I abandoned him. He probably hates me."

"Yeah but it wasn't your fault you got a baby to think of."

•

I took deep breathes as I prepared to enter the room, looking down at my hands I saw how sweaty my palms were because I was that nervous to see my uncle again.

"Wassup Unc. Zion, Sharif, Ricky, Jordan, hey y'all." I waved at my cousins trying to act as calm and casual as possible. Instead of them greeting me back I received cold stares, I was shocked that even my favourite cousin Rashad said nothing to me.

"What's going on? Why is everyone so quiet?" I asked, smiling nervously as I spoke.

"Nicki it's time..." Zion announced. My eyed widened in shock and I shook my head slowly in disbelief. "I need a little longer-"

"NO! " my god father also known as Uncle Q yelled making me jump, he never yelled at me and to be honest seeing him like this had me scared. He was my fathers best friend, his second in command and I knew what he was capable of, there was a reason they were feared.

" We gave you 3 years that's enough." He said now speaking in a calmer tone than before. I nodded and bit my bottom lip nervously. "Okay... So when are you going to do it?"

"Tonight."

"Tonight?!" I repeated. "Yeah and we need your help."

"I can't-"

"You do what the fuck I tell you to do." My uncle said cutting me off. "Right?" "RIGHT?!" He yelled, so loud I could feel the base in his voice.

"Yes sir..."

"Now here's the plan-" I raised my hand, interrupting him. "Can I use the bathroom?"

"Hurry up. Ricky follow her." My jaw dropped in shock, he had Ricky following me like I was some kind of stranger, like he didn't trust me anymore. "Really uncle Q?! It's Me."

"Exactly." He replied.

"Wow I can't believe he doesn't trust me. What does he think I'm going to do? Start a fucking shoot out?!" I said sarcastically once Ricky and I were stood outside the office.

"Probably. Look Nic he still loves you he just can't get over the fact that you with dude that killed your own brother."

I quickly started to defend Jace. "He didn't know Nico was my brother-"

"So? That don't change shit! You basically said 'fuck family'." I stayed silent, he was right, me being with Jace had me looking disloyal to my family and most of all my own brother but I found comfort in knowing Jace didn't know who Nico was because it made me feel better about forgiving him so easily.

"Yo what the fuck are y'all doing? My dads in there about to go off! He wanna talk through what's going down tonight." Rashad said jogging over to us.

"Rashad can you try and talk him out of it please, he always listens to you." I begged, he was my last hope, I really needed him right now. "I'm not doing you anymore favours. I've been putting this shit off for 2 years. For YOU"

My bottom lip trembled when I realised I couldn't get out of this. "I don't want to go." I cried

"Tough because he don't give a fuck."

•

As soon as I got home, I called Jace. "Baby I need you and Armani to come home right now! It's important, please hurry." I said leaving a message for him after he didn't answer my calls. I then knew I had no choice but to call my mother.

"Please answer!" I mumbled to myself as the phone continued to ring. "Mom?"

"What is it Nicki?" She asked sounding disinterested in what I had to say. "Mommy." I cried, I never really needed her before but I did now and I was scared.

"Are you crying? What's wrong?"

I sniffled and tried wiping away my tears. "It's uncle Q, he's going crazy, he wants to kill Jace."

"Why would your uncle want to Kill Jace?" She asked sounding confused. It was time I told her. "Mom there's something I have to tell you...Remember when we thought the Garcias killed Nico-"

She chuckled cutting me off. "Thought? Nicki are you feeling okay? The Garcias DID kill him and I don't want to talk about it anymore so bye-"

"No wait! Please I don't have no one else to talk to." I begged stopping her from ending the conversation before I had a chance to explain to her what really happened to Nico.

I guess everything started clicking for her because her next question let me know that she knew Jace was involved. "Why does Quincy want to kill Jayceon?

I blinked quickly trying to stop myself from crying anymore. "It was an accident, he didn't know...Mom Jace killed Nico." I revealed.

"Mom?Mommy."

"You said your uncle wants him dead right?" She asked calmly. I nodded yes as if she could see me. "Yeah." I mumbled softly.

"Good. And since you love him so much, Quincy should kill you too." She spat coldly. "Goodbye Nicki."

•

After hearing Nicki's voice message I tried calling her back but she didn't answer so I dropped everything and rushed home to find her frantically packing up our things.

"You're here! Take this hurry up." She said handing me a bag as soon as I stepped into our bedroom. "For what? Where are we going?"

"Jace please just pack some shit so we can leave." She begged, I had to be honest baby girl was looking a mess right now, her hair was all over the place, she had one lash on and tear stains on her cheeks.

"Nic what's going on you're acting crazy right now." She snapped her neck round to look at me so fast I thought she was about to break it. "Don't call me crazy! I'm trying to protect you!" She yelled.

"Protect me from what baby girl?" She finally stopped packing and sat down on the edge of the bed. "I lied..."she whispered. "About?"

"Baby my father was THE Caine Jackson, did you really think they'd actually let you get away with killing Nico?"

I didn't hesitate to reach for my gun after hearing what she had to say, I held it up and aimed it right at her head. "You setting me up?"

"No! Really Jace? For the last 3 years I've been trying to save you but they won't hold it off any longer."

"Who is they?" I asked, she wasn't making any sense so I still had my piece aimed at her.

"They. Everyone my dads brothers, my cousins- it doesn't matter how long he's been dead they still put loyalty over everything!" She explained, just then her phone started ringing."That's them right now."

"Jace we got to go." I shook my head. "No fuck that let me just call up Tez and-"

"NO! Do you know who you're dealing with here? These are REAL gangsta's, these mutherfuckas kill children and feel no way. We can't stay the only way is to leave." All of a sudden her facial expression changed from being upset to fear. "Wait. Where's Armani?"

"At my moms."

"WHAT?! I told you to bring her!" She screamed. "It's cool I'll just go back and get her then-"

She shook her head. "There's not enough time. We gotta leave her." I looked at her like she had just lost her mind. "Fuck that I'm not leaving my daughter. Are you hearing yourself Nic?"

"I know it sounds bad I don't want to leave her either but we have to."

"Alright we can leave for a couple days and wait for everything to die down. then come back." She nodded. "Okay right now we need to leave."

•

After two hours of driving, I parked in the gas station car park and looked over at Nicki, before I could say anything she started questioning me in a panic.

"What are you doing? Why have we stopped?"

"Relax, were in a whole different state and I gotta use the bathroom." I chuckled but she just stared at me blankly. "Okay just hurry up." She said whilst biting her nails nervously.

I stepped out of the car, then looked back at her. "You want something from in here?"

"No just hurry up. Please."

I was waiting for the Jace to come out when I saw a car slowly appear from around the corner, my heart dropped as I realised what was about to happen. I jumped out of the car and ran towards Jace as shots started going off. For a second it seemed like everything was going in slow motion and I was stuck.

"JACE MOVE!" Using all my strength I managed to push him out of the way. Then everything went numb.

"Shit we got Nicki." Rashad mumbled as he watched his cousin fall to the ground.

"You fucking missed Rashad!" Ricky yelled, he leaned out of the window and aimed for their original target, Jace.

Meanwhile Jace was kneeled down by Nicki's side, he looked up and saw their car, that's when he reached for his gun but it was to late. Ricky pulled the trigger, letting off the fatal shot.

"No wait! I gotta-" Rashad opened the car door so he could go check on Nicki but he was roughly pulled back by his arm. "What are you doing?" Ricky asked angrily.

"Rick its Nicki, our family we can't just leave her there." Rashad cried, she wasn't just his cousin, they grew up as best friends and the thought of leaving her there to die was something he could live with.

"We haven't got a choice. She picked her side and it wasn't us." They nodded and drove off, leaving both Nicki and Jace lying in a pool of their own blood.

"Quickly!" The worker at the gas station yelled into the phone after calling the ambulance. A crowd of people appeared from inside the store to see what had just happened.

Luckily one of them was a doctor who rushed over to see if he could save them. "Is there a pulse?" The worker asked watching as the doctor checked their pulses.

He let out a deep breath, he didn't know he was holding and shook his head slowly. "No pulse..."

"They're dead"

•• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• •• ••

"I pray,

When it's time for me to say goodbye

I'll never forget looking in your eyes,

I pray,

That I feel your touch

And that God doesn't forget our love, I pray, that I see you in another life,

I pray that you still by my side.

Oh I pray."

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