Excerpt of Butterfly 2 by Ashley Antoinette

Prologue

The fog was dense as Messiah maneuvered his car through the state park. The sun had barely risen. Orange and purple painted the sky as life began to awaken. He gripped the steering wheel with one hand and kept his other on the pistol in his lap. He knew there was no point in carrying it. He wouldn’t use it. Not on this day. Not on this man. He had tried before to curl a trigger on this target but had failed. He wasn’t stupid enough to make the attempt again. He saw the red taillights to a silver F-150 and then saw Ethic as the driver’s door opened. Stern and moody, Ethic appeared as he always did. Intolerant. Intimidating. He went to the bed of the truck and released the gate. He began to unload buckets and fishing poles, and bait from the back.

“This shit, man,” Messiah mumbled as he pulled in behind the truck. Messiah knew better than to exit the car with his pistol. He stored it under his seat and climbed out, slamming the door.

“It’s 6 a.m. man. We couldn’t do this at no better time?” Messiah asked as he frowned.

“Fish bite best at dawn,” Ethic stated.

Messiah hated the skeptical eye Ethic looked at him with. It was a new light. Ethic had never looked at him with such mistrust two years ago. It made Messiah feel like he wore his betrayal on his forehead. A scarlet letter of disdain that he feared he would never be able to shake.

“Grab that bait,” Ethic instructed.

Messiah snatched up the bucket and followed Ethic down the dock to the boat that sat tied to the end.

“You bought a boat?” Messiah asked.

“For Alani. She wanted one. Something to take the kids out on. She picked this mu’fucka out and it just sits, so I took up fishing to justify the expense,” Ethic said as he climbed aboard. It was a beautiful vessel with a bar, two berths for sleeping, and living space beneath.

“You’ll do anything for her, huh, O.G.?” Messiah asked. “Whatever she asks, whenever she asks. That’s my job. To anticipate her needs before she even knows she needs something. I’m her man so that’s my role. She’ll never want for anything with me, not even attention, not even time. The money is cool but the things I can’t buy she appreciates most. It’s why I buy her everything else too, cuz she don’t give a fuck about it.”

Messiah didn’t know what to say. He hoped to have something like that one day. Even his hope for it was progress because there was a time when Messiah didn’t want that type of connection with another human being at all. Now he craved it. Now he yearned for it. With Mo. Damn how Messiah Williams wanted to buy Morgan Atkins a boat.

Ethic got in the captain’s seat and the motor came alive, chopping up the water beneath them. They didn’t speak as Ethic sailed away from the shore. Messiah took a seat at the aft, leaning over onto his knees, hands rubbing as he held his head low. He was lost, completely drowned in his own thoughts. He didn’t even realize how far out they had gotten until he heard Ethic cut the engine.

He looked around as Ethic lowered the anchor. “You know why we came out here?” Ethic asked.

Messiah bit into his bottom lip and nodded. “You’re trying to decide if I’m going to stay out here,” he answered. He had known the moment he had seen the boat. They could have fished from the bridge. Ethic had taken him out for tranquility. It was a perfect morning to commit a murder and the lake was a suitable resting place. Messiah was on thin ice. He knew it and still he willingly joined Ethic on this early morning boat ride. It would either be his funeral procession or his walk of redemption. Ethic would decide which. There was no avoiding it.

“You’re well? You feeling a’ight?” Ethic broke the silence as he turned his chair to face Messiah.

“I’m breathing,” Messiah answered. “For now.”

From Butterfly 2 by Ashley Antoinette. Copyright © 2020 by the author and reprinted by permission of St. Martin’s Publishing Group.