--Nine--

We were all sitting around in the living room brain storming about what to do next, while Sofi was in the kitchen making dinner. I started thinking about Nate and why did he leave me that voicemail, basically saying that it was over, if he was just going to try threaten to come get me. All I know is, I don't want to go back there. I want to stay here with Bobby and raise our daughter together.

"What bastard hired these guys?" Bobby said, pulling me out of my thoughts. Him and Angel were looking at the killers' license. "West Marine's by the river, right?"

"Yeah." Angel replied.

"Come on, let's go take a look." Bobby, Jack, Angel, and I got up from the couch.

"All right." said Angel.

We were about to leave out the door when Sofi stopped Angel from leaving.

"Baby." Angel said in an annoyed tone.

"Now, Sweetie. Wasn't there a discussion about a dinner together? Hmm? Because I seem to remember spending two hours in the kitchen." She was getting on my nerves.

"We got some important shit to deal with, baby." Angel rolled his eyes.

"She's so la vida loca." Bobby teased, making Jack and I snicker.

"Man, don't do that right now." yelled Angel.

"Shut up, Bobby!" Sofi yelled pointing her finger at him. I raised my eyebrow at her. "Don't you start with that crap!" I wanted to smack her face off for yelling at Bobby.

"Can ya'll not got there?" Angel yelled. "Don't go there, please."

"Can we go?" asked Bobby.

"Angel." Sofi said softly. "You said this time was going to be different." I put my hand to my mouth from keeping me to laugh in her face.

Bobby put his hands to his heart and said "Aye Mami, You're breaking mi corazon', Chica." Sofi walked away as Bobby stood in front of Angel. "She's getting real comfortable here, huh? What are you doing? I thought you were a macho man. A tough guy." Angel sighed. "You know it's a real shame that my woman and little Jackie's the only ones down to ride. Let's go." Bobby walked towards the door, grabbing his jacket. "Say goodbye to your big sister, Jackie. Let's go."

"You gonna leave me too?" asked Angel and I just laughed, then grabbed my jacket. He looked at Jack. "I just need fifteen minutes, man."

Me and Jack were almost out the door when he turned around to look at Angel, and said in a sing-song voice "She's addicted to what Angel's dick did." then he shut the door and we got into Bobby's car.

Jack got settled into the back seat, while I got in the front, and Bobby drove off. We got there twenty minutes later, I was about to get out of the car when Bobby stopped me.

"Where do you think you are going?"

"Um… with you."

"Stay here… just in case something happens to you."

"Bobby… I'll be fine." he's acting really strange, he had this worried look in his eyes.

"Please… just stay here. We'll be back." he gave me a kiss on my cheek. "Stay here."

"Yes, Sir." I nodded. Bobby got out of the car, then Jack followed him into the building.

Why do I always get left behind, I know how to take care of myself, Geez. During the whole thirty minutes I was in the car, all by my lonesome, I called up my boss, well my x-boss rather, to see what the hell was going on.

He told me that Nate did say those things, but since my position was already filled, there was nothing they could do. Great.

My x-boss did tell me the percentage I was going to get from my 401K, and it's enough to live off of for a while, plus I got my four weeks of vacation time cashed in. At least, I'll have enough to start over with Bobby. I had my x-boss to put on the papers that Bobby was my beneficiary.

Jack and Bobby came back to the car with a big duffel bag. I could only imagine what was in there. He drove back to the house and we were looking thru all the guns he picked up from the apartment.

"SIG Saver .45 auto. That will blow your back out." Bobby chuckled, then grabbed another gun. "Nine millimeter Baretta. Oh, look at this Barretta. It's triple action. Three bullets at once." he gave it to me to let me look at it as he grabbed another one. "They say dead men tell no tales, but they sure do leave important shit lying around."

We heard the door, Bobby pointed a gun in that direction as Jerry walked in and said "Hey, what the hell are y'all doing now?"

"Just getting a head start on next years taxes, Jerry." said Bobby still looking thru the duffel bag of guns.

Jerry looked around and said "Look how ya'll doing to Mama's house! Come on. Look at this table. Come on."

"You know what? You're right. Hey, Sofi, why don't you do me a favor and clean up some of this shit? Make yourself useful." Sofi threw a plate at Bobby. "You missed."

"You better chill out in there and watch where you are throwing things." I warned Sofi.

Jerry walked up to the dining table to see what we were looking at, while Jack was looking at a camera he found while they were there.

"Hey, Bobby." Jack said looking at the camera.

"Where'd ya'll get all of this?" asked Jerry.

"Our friend Stanly the shooter." Bobby said taking the camera out of Jacks hands.

Jerry took the camera from Bobby and said "Let me see that."

All three of them were huddled, looking at the pictures on the camera. "They were tracking mom." said Bobby.

"That's that guy." said Jack. "That's that lawyer guy. That shithead said… he said only met her once, Bobby." I looked over and saw Angel walk in behind the guys, on the look on his face, he didn't look too happy.

Bobby turned around to look at Angel and said "Where the hell have you been? I've been trying to call you all day?"

I saw Angel glaring at Jerry and said "Following up on new leads."

Bobby nodded his head and said "Yep, lets go… Jerry, you coming with us? Don't you want to find out who hired them?"

"Yeah, don't you want to find out who killed mom?" Angel asked Jerry.

"Of course, I do, man."

"Let;'s go. Stop bullshitting. Come on." ordered Bobby. I walked around the table to walk outside with Bobby.

"Can we talk later?" I whispered.

"Yeah, babe." he said opening the car door for me. We waited a few minutes before the guys came out of the house. They got in Bobby's car on his side, then Bobby drove off to the lawyers house. I had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach that something bad was going to happen.

We got to the lawyers house fifteen minutes later, Bobby broke the window on the door, and said " We might have to spend the night in this bitch."

We walked inside the dark house to be greeted by a dog. I picked him up and pet him while the guys were looking around. A few minutes later, Jack went on the lawyers laptop.

"Hey, Bobby, check this out. I found Mr. Bradford's calendar." I put the puppy down and stood next to Bobby. "You don't think 'EM' stands for Evelyn Mercer, do you?"

"You're getting good at this, Jackie."

"November 21st. He met up with her the night she died." Angel said and we looked at each other, puzzled. "Why would anyone meet up with their lawyer at eight o'clock at night?"

"Angel!"

We heard Sofi scream from outside. Jack quickly shut the laptop. Great, she's going to give us away. I wanted to seriously knock her on her ass for being a loud mouth.

"Nice, your girlfriends here." Bobby said getting irritated.

"She's crazy, man." Angel started walking towards the door.

"Well, shut her up then!" Jack yelled.

"Angel! Angel come out! I see you in the window!" Sofi yelled, honking her car horn. "Come out, you idiot, I know you're in there!"

"Ya'll come out here with me. This girl is crazy." said Angel walking outside.

"Angel! People, there is robbers in the house!" she continued to yell.

"Angel, you better put your girl in check before I put my fist in her face or my foot in her ass." I said and he glared at me, then walked over to Sofi to try and calm her down. I looked over and saw Mr. Bradford pulling up in his car.

"Excuse me, what are you doing?" Mr. Bradford asked as Bobby turned around and walked over to the car. Oh, shit. What is Bobby going to do to him.

"How you doing, buddy?" Bobby asked as he opened the car door.

Jerry ran up to him and said "Bobby! Bobby, he's a lawyer!"

"What's going on here?" Mr. Bradford asked as Bobby was pulling him out of his car.

"He's a liar, Jerry!" Bobby pushed Mr. Bradford on the ground. "You fuckin' lied to me. You said you didn't even know my mother, you were the last person to see her alive." Bobby lifted up his shirt to his head, exposing his chest. Then smacked him.

"No!" Mr. Bradford squealed.

"Ooh… look at that, Jerry. It leaves a nice big red hand print, huh?"

"Just ask him the question." said Jerry shaking his head. "Come on."

"No, I'm going to do it again (smack) and again until I find out what I wanna know." Angel reached over and smacked Mr. Bradford as well.

"Oh God!" Mr. Bradford yelled. I think Angel smacked him a little bit harder than Bobby did.

"Tell him!" yelled Angel.

"Okay, okay, I'll explain." Bobby let go of his shirt and pulled it down. "Okay, it's just that I." he paused. I felt so guilty."

"Guilty for what?" asked Jerry.

"I'm not even sure how to say it."

"Say what?" Bobby questioned.

"Your mother and I were… were seeing each other socially." he explained.

"Socially?" Bobby said looking at him funny.

"I didn't want to sully your mothers reputation. She was a fine, fine woman."

Bobby began to help him on his feet and said "I know. I know."

"I have some of your mothers night things if you want." I giggled at the disgusted look Bobby gave him.

"What? No, no, it's not necessary." said Bobby.

"Too much information." Jerry said with a little laugh, shaking his head.

"I apologize, Mr. Bradford. We broke your back window." I walked up to Bobby and put my arms around his waist. "We're just trying to find out what happened to my mother."

Mr. Bradford nodded and said "I understand."

"Thank you. I appreciate that. You have a beautiful home here."

"Thank you." said Mr. Bradford.

After Angel got Sofi to calm down from acting stupid, we went back to the house, and Jerry went to his place. It was late and I decided I would just talk to Bobby tomorrow or something, so everyone just went to sleep. Well, almost everyone.