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CHAPTER SEVENTY EIGHT :
EL DIABLO IS TO THANK

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NOAH

NEXT DAY

"I'm so glad you're okay!" Noah exclaimed as he hugged Tiana tight. He knew all about that stupid ass man trying to shoot her and he was pissed and confused at the same damn time. Why did he want her dead?! Noah also knew Hakeem took the bullet for Tiana and he wasn't too happy about that either...

Tiana still couldn't believe she almost died. "It was so scary, Noah! When he was pointing the gun at me, my life flashed before my eyes! All I could think about were all of my regrets and all of the people I wanted to speak to one last time!"

"I hope I was one of those people."

"You were the second person," Tiana said.

"Second?" That wasn't sitting right with Noah. "Who was the first?"

"I'd rather not answer that, Noah."

"Who was the first, Tiana?!"

"Hakeem!"

Yeah, Noah knew that was the answer. It always is. Everything is always about Hakeem when it comes to Tiana.

Tiana knew he was jealous. "You can take that sour look off your face. It's not what you think. He was the first person I thought about because he was bleeding out right in front of me! I thought Bella was going to lose her father!"

"Well that guy clearly loves you if he was about to die for you," Noah said bitterly.

"I promise it has nothing to do with love. He just wanted to protect his family. Can you be mad at him for that?"

Noah shook his head. "No I can't be. I'm thankful for what he did, but at the same time, it's not his job to protect you anymore. It's mine."

"Well you weren't there Noah, so what was he supposed to do? Let me get shot?"

Noah sighed. "Look, I'm just feeling concerned again, that's all. I don't wanna lose you to him."

Tiana was getting annoyed with his insecurities. "How many times do I have to tell you that I don't love Hakeem?! But I do care about him and he cares about me too. That's never going to change. And I guess I should also tell you that he and I won't be beefing anymore. Life is too short."

"Oh wow. This situation brought y'all closer, huh?"

Tiana nodded. "It made us wiser for sure. Bella doesn't need her parents hating each other anyway, just like Davis."

"Well like I said before, Star and I are cool so if you want to be cool with Hakeem, fine. I won't stop you."

"Thank you for understanding," Tiana said wholeheartedly before giving him a quick kiss. Then her phone went off.

"Who's that?"

"That's Cookie telling me Hakeem's being released from the hospital right now. We gotta go get him." Then she looked into Noah's eyes and held his face. "But hey, I love you okay? Don't forget that."

Oh he won't forget it. He just hoped she didn't forget it either.

ANDRE

Andre's baby brother was shot two days ago and he hasn't visited him yet. He's been too busy worrying about Anika.

The cops keep showing up at his house with questions. They weren't suspecting him, they just wanted him to help them find some new leads. Andre cooperated with them, but Hakeem's getting discharged from the hospital so he was going with the rest of the family to bring him home. 

He arrived at Cookie's house. "Hey, is everyone ready to go?"

"Andre, where have you been?! You had us worried sick!" Cookie exclaimed.

"I'm okay, Ma. Calm down."

"Well I'd still like to know where you've been! We've been texting and calling you, and you never reply!"

"I've been busy cooperating with the police. They're still trying to find Anika, Ma."

"Do they have any leads?" Cookie wondered.

"No, they're stuck. They might never find her."

Cookie frowned hard now. "Look, I may have hated Anika, but I hope she comes back to you baby. I want at least one of us to be happy."

Oh trust me, Ma. I'm very happy, Andre thought. "Yeah. Anyway, we have to get Hakeem right?"

"Yes we do! He's gonna be happy to see you! Let's go everyone!"

Everyone filed down the stairs—Jamal, Tiana, Bella, and Royalty. They all left the house and got into the car and made their way to the hospital. Hakeem was waiting outside ready to go.

Hakeem got into the car. "About damn time."

Cookie would be smacking him in the back of the head if he wasn't injured. "We're right on time, boy!"

Jamal handed something to Hakeem. "Here."

"What's that?"

"Painkillers."

Hakeem objected. "Na, I feel fine Jamal. Almost like I didn't get shot at all."

Andre spoke now. "Well you did and I still don't understand why."

Tiana explained everything. "He saved me, Andre. That man wanted me dead for reasons I still don't know."

"He's just a hating ass bitch," Cookie spat.

"I know a couple of hating bitches myself," Royalty mentioned.

"Well this isn't about Alex, Ro. This is about your brother."

Hakeem praised his sister. "Aye, I heard you beat Alex's ass though. Good shit."

Andre scolded him. "Really Hakeem?"

"What?"

"Since when do you hate Alex?"

"Since she switched up on my girlfriend. Star's enemies are my enemies."

"Tiana isn't," Jamal countered.

That made Hakeem and Tiana look at each other awkwardly. Then Tiana said, "Hakeem and I worked out our differences. We need to get along for Bella's sake. Right Bella?"

Bella nodded while playing with her doll. Then Hakeem spoke. "Tiana's a different story anyway. She's family. I can't hate her. I can't hate any of y'all."

"Except El Diablo," Royalty quickly said.

"Yeah...except for him." But if El Diablo really did kill the man who shot him, Hakeem wasn't sure if he'd be able to hate him. He was just like him now anyway. A killer.

Jamal chimed in. "Speaking of El Diablo, you wanna tell us what he told you Dre?"

Andre furrowed his eyebrows. "What are you talking about?"

"You two stepped out of the house to talk in private the other day. What was so important?"

"That's exactly what I wanna know!" Cookie inserted.

Well Andre obviously wasn't about to tell them the truth. They didn't need to know that Lucious and Anika were having an affair because they'll probably suspect he had something to do with her disappearance. And they also didn't need to know that he rejoined the cult. They didn't need to know that he joined the dark side. 

So he said, "Oh. Nothing. He was just giving me his condolences."

"For that long?"

"You know our father loves to hear himself talk, Jamal."

Jamal's tone was grave now. "That man ain't my father. Not after he put a damn gun to my head."

Tiana's ears perked up. "Wait what?"

Royalty looked at her. "Yeah you missed a lot, but you're officially family again so you'll get caught up real quick."

"And you're gonna hate being in this family. Trust me," Jamal promised.

And he's right about that. Tiana probably will have a bad time with them. Andre used to, but that all went away when he embraced the devil in him. Now he was living his best life with no worries at all.

But if problems do arise, Andre still wasn't going to be worried. He was no longer scared to get his hands dirty and he had a whole cult behind him. No one can touch them. El Diablo is to thank for that.