When I wake up, Tupac is still asleep. I get up, as quietly as I can, pulling the cover off of me and sliding off the bed.

I tip toe across the room and grab my bag before heading for the door.

"Adrienne." I hear Tupac groan, making me look back.

"Where you going?" He asks, sitting up.

"I-"

The room is still dark, so its maybe around five in the morning.

I hesitate, suddenly feeling guilty.

"Come back." He whines, I stand there for a while, not knowing what I should do.

"Okay.. I have to pee. I'll be back." I say, before dropping my bag on the floor quietly and going into the bathroom next to his closet and closing the door.

I turn on the light, rubbing my eyes that burn from the brightness.

I stare at myself in the mirror.

I can't bring myself to just leave him, but I can't bring myself to confront him about it either. I know he killed Ricky, I should've connected the dots so long ago.

His eyes. I remember his eyes from when he pointed the gun at me.. His gold plated gun.

God, I'm such a fucking idiot.

I rub my eyes again.

Why can't I say anything? Why am I not more angry? Why can't I do what a good person would do? Call the police, turn him in.. Something.

Oh God and the detective.. Did he kill her too?

I massage my temples, feeling a headache coming on. I hold my hands in front of my face, they're shaking.

Breathe Adrienne.

I take a few deep breaths before reaching over and flushing the toilet. I turn the sink water on for a few seconds before turning it off.

After turning the light off, I open the door. Tupac turned on the lamp beside his bed.

"Hey." I say, walking over to the bed.

"You were gonna leave?" He asks, sitting up and glancing over at my bag on the floor. I just look at him, before sitting down on the bed.

"What's wrong? You been acting off." He says.

I clear my throat. I need to pull myself together, this is still the same man I've been with for a month. He hasn't hurt me or even been aggressive with me. Why do I feel so afraid? How is this even the same man that takes from all these innocent people?

When I don't answer, he stretches out his arms, I scoot over, laying on this chest.

"Baby you can talk to me if something going on." He says, rubbing my back softly.

A lump forms in my throat and tears start to form in my eyes.

Overwhelm starts to fill my body. I'm so tired of being worried, I've been worried about Jamie for weeks and now I have no idea where she even lives, I've been worried about my brother for years and he could care less, and now I'm worried about Lesane.. About us, about how much I love him already.

I don't know if I'm angry or just sad.

Tupac just rubs my back, holding me close as tears stream down my face.

I need someone to talk to about all of this.

~

After leaving Tupac's house, I went home and showered and decided to go to a bar.

I'm not a day drinker but I needed this.

"Can I get some more vodka?" I ask, sliding my glass to the bartender. He pours more before sliding it back to me.

I rest my elbow on the table and my chin in my hand.

Two officers come in and sit a chair over from me. I toss back my third glass of vodka before the bartender takes my glass and pours more before I can even ask.

"Thanks." I say.

I look up at the news on the TV and my eyes widen.

"Two African American males were arrested in an attempt to rob Beverly Heights bank last night around one o'clock AM. Over one million dollars in cash was recovered from one of the assailants homes-"

The officers next to me laugh at the news.

"Man those boys sung like canaries when we brung em in for questioning.." One of them says.

"Hell yea. We moving in on their third party at noon today. We got a search warrant for that club owners house. Chief been wanting to get him for a while, ain't never had enough evidence." The other one says.

They're talking about Lesane..

If they find those bank floor plans they'll arrest him.

I get up from my seat, swaying a little, the alcohol rushing to my head.

"Woah. You alright pretty lady?" One of the officers asks.

I nod.

"See I would put the cuffs on you, cause I bet you're about to go drive under the influence." He says, a smirk on his face.

Is he flirting with me?

"But I'm off duty sweetheart." He adds. I just force a small smile. "Well thanks for your concern, but I can handle my liquor." I say, before grabbing my keys and heading out the door. I have to get to Tupac's house and warn him about the search warrant.

I look down at my wrist watch.

10:37 AM

I don't have much time.

~

"Shit." I mumble under my breath, when I pull into his driveway but he isn't here.

I pull out my pager and page Lesane, hoping he'll call soon.

Shit. Shit. Shit.

I get out of my car, grabbing my bag and dumping all of my clothes out onto the backseat. Hopefully his locks aren't great.

I take my empty bag and walk up the stairs, I pull a hair pin from my bun, bending it a little, before sticking it into the lock of his front door. I wiggle it a little but the door doesn't unlock.

Tupac still hasn't paged me back.

I try to pick the lock again and it opens.

"Yes!"

I push the door open and go into his house, closing the door behind me and locking it.

Renny runs up to me.

"Hey girl." I say, walking past her briskly and into the room with the layouts. I pull open the drawer and grab all the papers, stuffing them into my bag. I look through all the drawers, grabbing anything that might incriminate him.

Once I clear the office, I go upstairs to Tupac's bedroom, opening every drawer in sight.

The amount of guns he has is ridiculous.

I stuff all of them into my bag except the one on his nightstand. Maybe I should take that one too, I know he has one on him wherever he is. I grab the one on his nightstand and drop it into my bag, that's getting heavier and heavier.

I open his closet doors, scanning its contents.

At first I don't see anything, but then a vest catches my eye, a bullet proof vest.

I pull it off the hanger, and fold it. Before I can put it in my bag, a dried stain catches my eye. I know its blood, I stuff the vest into my bag before I can think too much about it.

At the top of the closet there's two shoe boxes. One stands out because it looked full, and the top isn't all the way on.

I pull it down from the shelf and open it. There's a ski mask and another gun in it. This must be the one he used at the last robbery.

I stuff the mask and the gun in my bag before tossing it over my shoulder. The weight pulls me back a little.

When I open the other shoe box, the smell of weed hits me hard. Well now I know where he keeps it.. I take the box and stuff it into my bag too.

I look down at my wrist watch again.

I gotta go.

I had to go pick up a birthday gift for Sek. She turning eighteen tomorrow.

I pull my pager from my pocket.

Damn, Adrienne paged me four times, I hope everything igh. I'll call her when I get in the house.

As I pull into my driveway, my heart sinks into my stomach. There's about four or five police cars, and my front door is wide open.

If the police here that mean Que and Raheem got caught.

They dumb asses must've tried to rob Beverly Heights. That mean all my damn money gone too, and they must've said my name. Mark ass niggas.

"Fuck." I say, getting out of my car.

"Aye, What the hell going on here?!" I say, making everybody look at me. Two officers approach me, standing in front of me.

"We have a search warrant Mr. Shakur." They hold up a piece of paper in front of me.

Fuck. I'm going to jail.

I lean against my car, not even wanting to go in.

I know they found something.

A few minutes later an officer comes out of my house, a disappointed look on his face. He gives a signal, and everyone starts to leave.

"I don't know how you did it." A white policeman says, before patting my shoulder and walking off, he gets into his car and pulls off.

What the fuck.

I lock my car doors and walk up the stairs into my house. The first place I go is in my office. All the drawers are wide open. That's when I see it, the main thing that would've got me arrested isn't there.. The bank floor plans.

Maybe I put them in my bedroom.

I hear Renny barking upstairs, they must've locked her in one of the rooms.

When I get upstairs, I suck my teeth. They tore my bedroom up. There's clothes from my closet all over the floor and my mattress is flipped. These mothafuckas need a swift kick to they ass fa this shit.

I look through my drawers, all four of my guns are missing, including the one from my closet.

My vest gone too.

Where the fuck is all my shit. Ain't no damn way I should still be standing here without cuffs on my fucking wrists.

I gotta call somebody to come clean my damn house now.

I scramble around my house for a while, trying to find any of my stuff that went missing. Then I realize who might have it.. Adrienne.

Adrienne

I look at all the contents from Pac's house. I dumped them all out onto my living room table. I pick up one of the guns, its weight heavy in my hand. I wonder which one of these killed Ricky.

By doing this, I've potentially put myself in danger.

And the worst part is, I don't know what possessed me to do it, to protect this liar, thief and murderer.

I look at my wrist watch.

1:07 PM

By now he should either be in jail or in the clear. But I'm pretty sure if they arrested him I would've heard about it by now.

I put all the stuff back in my bag and go into my room, sliding the bag underneath my bed. I wonder was he ever gonna tell me about it.. Or was he just gonna keep living a lie with me.

So the first time we met wasn't at Black Cotton, it was at my old Job at Fairfield.

I just didn't know who he was yet.. But he knew me.

A lump forms in my throat again.

This whole situation is making me sick to my stomach. How can someone lie to you everyday and still smile in your face?

I don't get it.

But something in me makes me want to forgive him already.

and he hasn't even apologized yet.

~ end of chapter

Hey guys! So what do you think? I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Be sure to follow me if you haven't. Thanks for reading! -Zayla💓