𝐟𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠, 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞 ²

fifty one.

CHAPTER FIFTY ONE
time to retaliate

Jamal

Warren and Tory rushed Jamal home once his wound started bleeding through his bandage. They were all scared, thinking it was something serious, but it wasn't. He was fine. It wasn't a lot of blood anyway.

Tory was nursing him back to health right now. She was cleaning his wound and applying a new bandage. Warren was standing to the side, scowling hard at her for some reason.

"Alright, all done! You're as good as new!" Tory announced.

Warren sounded annoyed. "You know, I'm pretty sure Jamal could've fixed himself up."

"Why should he when I'm here to do it for him?"

Jamal could've sworn he heard Warren mutter, "you shouldn't be here" under his breath. Jamal hoped he had heard him wrong because if he did say that, it was uncalled for. Tory was his friend. She deserved to be here.

Jamal finally spoke. "Well, Warren and I did have that joke saying he'd be the one to nurse me back to health."

Warren glared at Tory. "Exactly."

"Well, I did it for him. Can I get a thank you?"

Jamal thanked her. "Thank you, Tory."

"No problem!" She kissed his cheek and sat down next to him on the bed.

Warren rolled his eyes hard and walked over to the pineapple pizza that had Tory bought. He grabbed a slice and walked back to Jamal. "You hungry, Jamal?"

"Well-"

Warren didn't let him finish. "I don't wanna hear it. You did a phenomenal job tonight, and you deserve to be spoiled with your favorite food. So open up."

Jamal obeyed him because he actually was hungry after using all of his energy to carry that performance on his back. Warren fed him, and he took a huge bite. Jamal moaned in delight. "I will never get tired of pineapple pizza."

Warren chuckled and wiped some sauce off Jamal's mouth. Tory scoffed with a roll of her eyes, which ticked Warren off. "Is there a problem, Tory?"

"I'm sure Jamal can feed himself."

"You fed him before, so why can't I?"

Jamal simply put his hands up. "Aye, I'm not complaining about being spoiled."

Tory giggled heartily while praising him. "You deserve it! You did a phenomenal job tonight!"

"I just told him that, so try again," Warren spat.

"Now I'm telling him."

Jamal could they were about to argue and he wasn't in the mood for it. "Okay, relax. You both can praise me. It's not that serious."

Then there was knocking on the door and they stared at it confused. Warren went to open the door and Hakeem came strolling in. The first thing he did was question Jamal. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I am."

"Good, because I'm here for the after party!"

Hakeem held up two alcohol bottles. Jamal stood up and grabbed them. "Are you crazy? You ain't drinking!"

"Why?"

"Because Ma will kick my ass if she finds out!"

"That's why she's not gonna find out." Hakeem smirked while snatching the bottles back. He popped them open and poured some drinks. "Tiana and Ro are heading up, by the way."

Just as he said that, they heard a bunch of gunshots outside. Some of the bullets hit the window, breaking the glass. They all shrieked and ducked down in alarm. Then they heard screaming outside, and the voice sounded eerily familiar.

Jamal's heart dropped. "Is that-"

Hakeem knew exactly who it was. That was why he ran to the window at light speed and yelled out of it. "Tiana!"

The rest of them ran to the window too. They saw Tiana crying on the ground while holding someone in her arms. Based off of what Hakeem said, Jamal prayed it wasn't that someone.

They wouldn't know until they went downstairs, so they all ran down, and yup, it was just as he feared. It was Royalty in Tiana's arms. She had been shot and Tiana was covered in her blood.

"Ro!" Jamal quickly fell to his knees and held her. He touched her bloody chest and saw how much pain she was in. She was bleeding profusely from her wounds. Blood was even coming out of her mouth.

Jamal put pressure on her wounds because he couldn't do much else. Hakeem was just standing there like he was about to cry, and it was pissing Jamal off. "Don't just stand there, Hakeem! Call 911!"

Hakeem went to dial 911 and Jamal questioned Tiana urgently. "Tiana, what happened?!"

Tiana was crying so hard. "It was a drive by! We were heading inside, but a black car drove past and someone shot at Ro!"

Yeah, because she was targeted. It didn't take a genius to know by who.

He looked down and Royalty was struggling to stay conscious, which alarmed him even more. "Ro, stay with me, okay? The ambulance is coming, and you're gonna be patched up! Just keep your eyes open!"

But her eyes were slowly closing, and Jamal honestly felt like he was about to pass out too. He had so much blood on him now. His sister's blood. He couldn't handle the gruesome sight.

But he had to keep it together for her. He kept trying to make her stay awake, but she was struggling to keep her eyes open. She coughed up more blood, and Jamal knew she was slowly slipping away.

"Hakeem, hurry up!" he yelled viciously.

"I already called them! You know they don't care about our family!"

He was right about that. If their sister died because of those corrupt ass first responders, Jamal was going to raise hell.

It looked like he was about to raise hell because Royalty had went limp. Her eyes were closed, and she wasn't moving at all.

"No, no, no, no..." Tiana shook her. "Ro? Ro?! No...no...oh my god, no! NO!" Tiana broke down and cried on top of Royalty, and Tory and Warren also had tearful eyes. Meanwhile, Jamal looked at Hakeem and he wasn't about to cry anymore. Now he was angry, and so was Jamal.

He and Hakeem didn't have to say the words. They were thinking the same thing. That it was time to retaliate.