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AS JALEN PULLED INTO THE almost empty parking lot, the only thing running through his head was...
Lani was right.
I shouldn't have come alone.
He had played calm while at his mother's house because Jalen could see that Noelani's stress and fear were right below the surface, waiting to be set off by another familial disaster, but in truth, Jalen was utterly terrified.
Pure, unadulterated dread filled him from head to toe and Jalen was genuinely surprised that he was able to move his body enough to drive.
Jalen was not made for this type of lifestyle, he was just a basketball player, he didn't sign up for any of this shit.
So when he saw the man from the hospital conversing with another stranger whose back was currently facing where Jalen was sitting behind the wheel, all Jalen could glimpse was the grip of a semiautomatic handgun just barely visible from both men's waistbands, he clutched the wheel harder and willed himself not to turn his car around.
Jalen could see his trepidation reflected onto his cell phone's black screen for a second before the device lit up with life. With his index finger, Jalen pressed the numbers 9-1-1, all while flickering his eyes up to his windsheld.
The pair were standing leisurely by the side of a black pickup truck located closer to the arena. The windows were tinted so Jalen couldn't exactly make out if anyone was in the back seat.
"911, what's your emergency?" A serene but masculine voice answered on the other line.
"There's been a, um," Jalen hesitated, not quite knowing how to describe the situation in a simplistic manner, "Something's gonna go down at the Forum. Please send help." Then he hung up without further elaboration.
"Damn it, Leilani," Jalen muttered under his breath and then moved the gear shift to park before grabbing a plain backpack full of rubber-banded money and getting out of the car.
Although the sun had yet to set and the road adjacent made the parking lot visible, the anxiousness that twisted inside Jalen's belly was not letting up.
As Jalen approached the man he recognized, smirked, and then nodded towards him causing who he presumed to be Luke, to turn around.
"Well, well, well," Luke began in a cocky voice, "Right on time."
"Where's your little girlfriend?" The other man asked in a condescending tone and cocked his head.
