Back in Blood

1. Capri

CHAPTER 1

CAPRI

The same smile had been plastered on my face for at least ten minutes. My eyes darted back and forth as my best friend, Dolph, chased my two-year-old-daughter, Caprice around my colossal yard. Before he showed up, I’d been running with her for a good twenty minutes myself, and I was tired. When Dolph pulled up to visit me and took over, my lungs and legs were grateful. It was early October. The mornings and evenings were beginning to be a little crispier and cooler. I welcomed the fall weather even though it had already started getting darker earlier. Caprice’s mom was already planning trips to the pumpkin patch and setting appointments for fall photo shoots, and I was with all of it. When it came to my shorty, anything Robin wanted for our daughter she got. The extravagant birthday parties, photoshoots, and all the other over the top shenanigans.

The door opened behind me and although I knew who it was, I still peered over my shoulder. My fiancée, Robin was leaning against the doorframe with her arms folded over her chest watching Caprice and Dolph run and play. She glanced over at me.

“I already know when I tell her to come in, she’s going to have a full-blown fit, so it would be better if her favorite parent did the dirty work.”

Dropping my head, I shook it, and released a small chuckle. “I think you lowkey do that shit on purpose. You want my favorite parent title so bad. That’s nasty work, shawty.”

“There is no competing with you. I could probably reach up and grab Caprice a star out of the sky, and she’d find a reason not to be impressed.”

“You’re probably right,” I bobbed my head. “Caprice, come here Lil’ Mama!” I had to yell to be heard over her loud shrills. She was having the time of her life doing something as simple as running around the yard.

Her little legs carried her to the porch, and she climbed the stairs with a smile on her face. When she was up on me, she peered up at me with those light-brown doe-shaped eyes framed by long lashes.

“Go in your room and grab whatever book you want me to read for you tonight. Then, go with mommy, so she can give you a bath. When she’s done, I’ll come in for a snack, and to read to you. Okay?”

Caprice would be three in less than a month, and she’d been going to a ridiculously expensive daycare for the past four months. She was smart before she was enrolled. I made sure of that. But since she’d been going to the daycare that ran me $1,700 a month and had a six-month waiting list, I had to admit that I was impressed. Caprice did something at least twice a day to make me look at her in awe. When Robin got pregnant, we’d only been together for a year. I loved her, but I wasn’t sure if I was ready to set aside time to raise a child. It didn’t take long for my fears to dissipate. From the moment that Caprice slid out of Robin’s womb, my entire life had been about being a better man for my daughter and being a present father. Nothing else mattered to me when it came to her quality of life and the love that she needed to thrive.

Caprice nodded eagerly, and Robin kissed her teeth beside me. “Unbelievable.”

I leaned forward and kissed Caprice on the forehead before smirking at Robin. “It’s okay, shawty. Being second best is better than not being anything at all.”

Robin rolled her eyes playfully and scooped Caprice up in her arms. “Come on little fake behind girl.”

Dolph sat down in the black wicker chair that was identical to the one I was occupying. His chest heaved up and down as he tried to catch his breath. “I gotta slow down with the weed. I wasn’t even out there thirty minutes, and you might have to call the ambulance,” he panted.

“That’s the exact way that I be feeling, and I don’t even smoke. I have to get in shape before running around behind Caprice is the death of me. Everything good with you?” I inquired.

Dolph gave a curt nod. “I can’t complain ‘bout shit. My homie out in Cali got back with me though. He can have that Phantom shipped to you at a real good price.”

I sighed and ran a hand over my waves. I had been completely legit for the past two years, and I wanted to stay that way. I didn’t want anything illegal to jeopardize the businesses that I had built. I had a car dealership, an exotic car rental business, and a luxury car service. Dolph told me about a guy that he had out in Cali that had a Phantom he was trying to sell. The car was stolen. The VIN had been changed, and the car had been painted a different color. No one would be looking for the car out in North Carolina but even if they were looking, the car would be hiding in plain sight. Dolph’s friend was selling the car for $30,000 cheaper than I would buy it for from a dealership. If I got the car, I would use it for my luxury car service. Diamond Cove was full of rappers, athletes, businesspeople, and even dope boys that used my car service regularly.

Among my fleet of cars were three Escalades, a Bentley truck, and three Maybach trucks. All of the cars were black with limousine tint on the windows. The exotic car rental business had everything from Corvette’s and Lamborghini’s to Wraith’s and Jaguars. Jet skis and ATVs had recently been added to my inventory. I had fifteen cars that got rented on a very regular basis. And at the moment, I had thirty cars on the lot at my dealership waiting to be sold. At twenty-nine years old, I was doing pretty good for myself. What I generally made in a day from the car rental business was enough to pay my mortgage for two months. Coming from where I came from, I was hesitant to risk it all just to buy a car at a discounted price. Especially since everything I did was for Caprice.

“I’m telling you man, it’ll be straight. I got my Maybach from the nigga two years ago, and I’ve never had any issues.”

I gave it some more thought. “Just this once. I don’t want to make the shit a habit.”

Dolph chuckled. “I remember when we were sixteen stealing cars and shit. Now you’re a legit law-abiding citizen. Growth is a beautiful thing my G.”

“Damn right it is.”

“Kenya been talking about a baby,” Dolph pulled a blunt from behind his ear and fished around in his pocket for a lighter.

“Go ahead and give that girl a baby. You’re good as hell with Caprice. You might as well give her a best friend to grow up with.”

Dolph stared out into the yard. “I’m thinking about it. I just want to be in the house with my child, and you know me and Kenya be on that off and on shit. Having a kid isn’t going to make our problems go away.”

“You’re right about that. Just stop pissing her off, and things will be better,” I jested making Dolph chuckle.

“Man,” he drawled. “That muhfucka gon’ always find something to complain about. I’m tapering off with the hustling and coming home earlier, and she still isn’t satisfied. But when she’s not nagging, she’s talking about getting married and having babies, and I’m confused. How you want to marry a man that stresses you out so bad?”

“The joys of being in a relationship,” I shook my head. “It’s a lot of work, but it’s worth it in the end. We’re getting old fam. Might as well settle down. We started getting women early. Bad ones too. That running through females and shit gets old. At least it did for me. Robin said when Caprice is four, she’ll be ready for baby number two. By then I’ll be thirty-one. It’s time for you to catch up. But I do agree that you and Kenya should try to fix your relationship before taking the next steps.”

Dolph smoked his blunt, and we talked for another thirty minutes or so before I went in to read Caprice a bedtime story and tuck her in. I liked the life I’d built for myself. At the age of eighteen, I never would have imagined myself with one woman and being faithful, running several successful businesses, and being in love with being a father. If I left the room before she was fully asleep, she’d be for sure calling me five minutes after I walked out. I laid there watching her, and when very light snores filled the room, I simpered. Everything Caprice did was adorable. Even when she was throwing a tantrum because she couldn’t get what she wanted. I eased out of bed and went to the master bedroom, so I could take a shower. Twenty-year-old me was rarely ever in the house before midnight. Almost thirty-year-old me was only out that time of night if I had to be.

After a hot, relaxing shower, I brushed my teeth and dressed in pajama pants and a white shirt. Robin sauntered past me while I was still in the bathroom and went over to her side of the sink. She was about to perform her skincare routine, but I was ogling her fat ass. My eyes lingered on her juicy booty in the short pink shorts that hugged her ample backside.

“Like what you see?” She giggled causing my gaze to lift.

“You know I do. I’m on that tonight.”

Robin simply smiled at me through the mirror and turned the water on. I knew it would take her at least ten minutes to do her routine. Longer than that if she put on a face mask. Robin had almond-colored skin that was always prone to blemishes or breakouts, but that didn’t take away from her beauty. Her skin got so bad when she was pregnant with Caprice that she used to cry. I paid for her to get a facial and after she had Caprice, and she faithfully went to the esthetician once a month, her skin began to glow. It didn’t matter how tired Robin was. She did her skincare routine religiously. The same way she wouldn’t miss brushing her teeth or taking a shower, she refused to miss her skincare regimen.

Robin stood 5’4 and was bad as fuck. She had large lips that she used to get picked on for when she was in school, but I loved kissing on those plump muhfuckas. Her button nose and light brown eyes were a few of the features that I loved about her. From the first time I saw Robin in the club, I knew I wanted to fuck her. After a few conversations with her, I knew I would keep her around for more than ass. We slept together and hung out here and there for almost nine months before we made it official. I hadn’t looked at another woman since.

I grabbed a book to read while I waited on Robin. She wasn’t ready for another child, but we damn sure had sex regularly. Lots of sex. Five times a week was normal for us. Sometimes I pulled out. Sometimes I didn’t. She got mad when I didn’t, but pulling out of some good pussy was torture. I wished she’d just go ahead and agree to have another child. I had just opened my book when Robin’s phone screen lit up on the bed. I glanced over at it out of habit, but quickly tore my eyes away. When I realized what I thought I saw, I looked again. My brows furrowed when I saw she had a text message from Dolph.

Dolph was my best friend, and Robin was my lady. Of course, they had each other’s numbers because if there was an emergency, I needed her to be able to contact him and vice versa. Biologically, I had one sister and no brothers. Dolph was my brother, so if Robin needed anything and for whatever reason she couldn’t get to me, I’d want her to call him. But there weren’t any emergencies going on, and he’d just left my crib. So why the fuck was he texting my girl? I had Robin’s passcode, but I’d never gone in her phone unless her hands were occupied, and she asked me to.

I gritted my back teeth together as I unlocked her phone.

Dolph: Will you please just agree to the test? I know what you said, but I can’t sleep at night knowing that Caprice could be mine. If she’s not mine, I’ll let the shit go forever. I don’t want to hurt bro, but I need to know.

It felt as if I’d been punched in the gut. The wind was literally knocked from my body. I felt like a bitch because I couldn’t breathe. My chest was tight, and I had to toss the covers off my legs because my body temperature had risen, and I was uncomfortably warm. All I saw was red. I couldn’t recall a time when I’d ever been more furious in my life, and I’d definitely had my fair share of being pissed off. I had to remember that my daughter was in the house. Or was she my daughter? Robin and Dolph had played a dangerous fucking game. They were better off playing Russian roulette. Even if Caprice wasn’t my daughter, I didn’t want to traumatize her, and that’s the only reason I didn’t grab my gun and put a bullet in Robin’s head.

My heart was pounding at an alarming rate as I stood beside my King bed with Robin’s phone in my hand. When she walked into the room with that stupid ass green mask on her face, the glower that I wore stopped her in her tracks. Robin knew instantly that something was wrong. Her eyes darted from my face to the phone in my hand and back to my face.

“What’s wrong, Capri? Why you looking at me like that?” Her voice was quivering. She was scared. As she should have been.

“You been fucking Dolph?” I walked up in her personal space and shoved the phone in her face so hard that her neck snapped back. That was the closest to putting my hands on her that I would come.

Panic filled Robin’s eyes as her cell phone fell to the floor. “Baby, no. No, Capri. I’m not fucking him. It was once. The same month that I got pregnant with Caprice, but she’s yours. That little girl looks just like you. She’s yours, Capri.” Robin was crying as I watched her with disgust. My chest heaved up and down and on everything I love, I wanted to choke her until her face turned blue.

An evil laugh pushed from my throat. “She looks just like me, huh? That’s how you know she’s mine. Dolph hit you raw? He came in you?” I flicked the tip of my nose. It was at that moment I saw it. I understood how some men could beat the shit out of a broad, but I wasn’t gon’ go there. It just wasn’t in me but Dolph? Oh that nigga was gon’ see me. As soon as he saw me coming, he’d better kill me.

“Listen baby,” snot poured from Robin’s nose disgusting me further. “It was one time. When I was mad that you bought Brittney a drink in the club, and we didn’t speak for a few days. I went out one night and got too drunk. D-Dolph was in the club, and he offered to drive me home. It was in his car. It was a mistake.”

I kissed my teeth and looked at Robin with nothing but contempt. That fuckin’ slut had stood in my face and told me that she had unprotected sex with my friend in his car all because I bought a broke chick a drink in the club, and she got mad about it. Me. A man that hadn’t cheated on her since we made it official. I treated her with nothing but respect, and she got anything she wanted out of me. Caprice was my world, and Robin looked at me every day knowing that she might not be mine. I feared I wouldn’t be able to control myself.

“Let me get that ring off your finger,” I said calmly. “Then, I need you to pack some things and get the fuck out my crib. You will not wake Caprice up. I’ll take her to daycare tomorrow, and you can pick her up.”

“Capri, baby please no. Please don’t do this,” she sobbed.

I kept my voice low, but the venom lacing my tone was clear as day. “I would like to think I’d never do no sucka shit like put my hands on a female, but on everything I love, if you knew how close I was to fucking you up, you’d run. Get the fuck out of my house,” I said each word slowly. I wouldn’t be repeating myself.

Robin walked away crying. I needed some fresh air. The air in the bedroom had turned stale and was suffocating me. I sat out on the porch bouncing my left leg furiously. My best friend. My best fucking friend, and the woman that I’d asked to be my wife. I hadn’t had a drop of alcohol in more than a year, and I stopped smoking weed when I was twenty-five, but I needed something. One of the reasons I quit indulging in both was because I never wanted to be addicted to anything. I didn’t want to feel weak. Nothing should have such a hold over me that I craved it or needed it on a regular basis. There was alcohol in the house because Robin drank.

I walked over to the bar in the den and grabbed a bottle of 1942. When I met Robin, she was drinking $20 bottles of vodka. Now, all she drank was 1942 and Azul. Some shit that ran her $200 a bottle. She was a lash tech and made good money. She could make $1,000 a week in tips alone. Robin didn’t pay any of the household bills. She only bought things for Caprice when she wanted to, because I had that covered as well. I even took her car to the gas station and filled it up for her every Sunday. I did everything for that foul bitch. After pouring a hefty amount of tequila I walked back outside.

Staring into the darkness I sipped my drink and didn’t even flinch at the harsh taste or the warm burn it caused in my throat. Several times. More times than I could count Dolph and Robin had been around one another. They had played in my face like I was some kind of simp. I closed my eyes briefly as the tequila coursed through my veins. I felt a small sense of calm. It wasn’t a lot, but it made me want to put my foot in Robin’s ass a little less. By the time I was done with the alcohol in my cup, I was curious as to why her ass wasn’t out of the house yet. Before I could get up to go investigate, she stepped outside. The street was pretty much dark except for one streetlight. I could see her large Chanel bag tossed over her shoulder, a Louis Vuitton duffel bag on the other, and a rolling suitcase behind her.

“You’re not taking that Benz,” I stated in a gruff voice. “Your raggedy ass let me get you a brand-new car as a push gift, and you weren’t even sure if the child you pushed from your loose ass crotch belonged to me. I think you’ve played with me enough. Walk, call an Uber, call Dolph, I don’t give a fuck. But hand me my keys.”

Robin loved her car, and I was sure she wanted to protest, but she didn’t. Instead, she sniffled and placed the keys in my waiting hand. I stood up and went inside the house, closing and locking the door behind me. I headed for the den in search of more tequila. I needed to drink until sleep found me because the way that I had murder on my mind was scaring the fuck out of me.

I watched in agony as the lab technician swabbed Caprice’s mouth. All morning, I’d been having an internal battle with myself. It didn’t matter what a DNA test said. I would never leave Caprice’s life willingly, so I wanted to think it didn’t matter if she was mine or not. But curiosity was going to get the best of me if I didn’t find out. If the child that I’d been raising turned out to belong to someone that I considered a brother, I had no idea how I would react. From the moment Caprice was born, I started making the effort to be a better man for her. It had been a long time since my savage side had to rear its’ ugly head, but if Dolph and Robin got fucked up for playing with me, it would be their fault. Call it temporary insanity.

“All done,” the technician stated with a broad smile on her face that showed off her coffee-stained teeth.

I gave a subtle head nod. A person wouldn’t have been able to pay me to smile. My mood was terrible, and I didn’t foresee it getting any better. Robin had played the hell out of me, and my dumb ass had let her. I really cuffed a slut and did right by her.

“The results will be sent to the email address that you put on the registration form.”

I once again nodded as I carried Caprice out of the room and toward the exit. “We gotta get you to school Lil’ Mama.” Pretending that everything was fine was one of the hardest things that I ever had to do.

Pulling my key fob from my pocket, I hit the unlock button and opened the rear passenger door of my Denali. After getting Caprice buckled in, I turned the volume up on my radio and ignored the vibrating of my phone. There wasn’t a soul that I wanted to talk to and that had me even more pissed off. I had businesses to run, and I was in my feelings like a female not caring about work or any of my responsibilities. I didn’t like that shit. Gracie’s Corner was playing for Caprice, and she was in the backseat singing along. A nigga was dead ass fighting tears. She meant everything to me and to know she might belong to another man was killing me inside. Females played some dangerous ass games. The fact that Robin was still breathing spoke volumes about how I’d changed.

If Caprice wasn’t mine and Robin wanted to keep me away from her, she could because I wouldn’t have legal rights. The walk inside the daycare felt long as hell. It felt as if I was dropping Caprice off into the unknown. Telling her goodbye had never been so hard. I needed to shake that shit bad, but I didn’t know how. Dolph was going to see me, and that was a fact, but I wasn’t going to holla at him just yet. The thought of going to his crib and dragging him all through that muhfucka had crossed my mind more than once.

After dropping Caprice off, I headed to my car dealership. There were two full-time employees and two part-time employees. One of the full-time employees, Curtis, had been with me since I first opened, and he did a good job of keeping things running smoothly. He made the schedules, scheduled the maintenance on the vehicles, and supervised the other employees. I was generally only there about two days out of the week for three or four hours. We had meetings once a month, and I was satisfied with the people on my team and the way business was going. My goal was to add at least ten more cars to my inventory by the end of the month. We generally sold three to four cars a week. That wasn’t bad for a small dealership.

It was a good thing that I didn’t have to be hands on with any of my businesses because I could take all the time off I needed in order to get my mind right and still make money. I wasn’t an emotional man. Never in my life had I been the type to get in my feelings and let my pockets suffer because of it, but when it came to Caprice, shit hit different. That little girl was my whole heart, and she might not even be mine.

After speaking to my employees, I went in my office and called my credit card companies one by one to have Robin’s name taken off my cards. My days of taking care of her were over. I’d never in life see Caprice go without whether she was biologically mine or not, but Robin was cut off. I wouldn’t piss in a cup and let her drink it if her throat was on fire. She was the worst kind of woman in the world, and Dolph was a whole pussy nigga. The kind to call me brother and look me in my face knowing he had sex with my lady. I guess Capri looked like a sucka to everybody. It was all good though. If I had my way, I was going to get the last laugh.