Chapter 3 #2
His admission snatched the smirk off Kennedy’s face before an understanding stare replaced it. Her brother had been the same way. Koda was tough as nails with the world, but as soft as cotton with her and Tekken. He’d shoot a nigga in broad daylight one moment and in the next, pick her up from school and sing songs with her at the top of their lungs as if he hadn’t just stolen a life. Her brother had always told her that she was his safest space.
“I get that. They’re the ones who you can trust and let your guard down with.”
“I never let down my guard. Now, let’s get to the point of you thinking that you can run my business better than me.” Relic changed the subject because she’d treaded into personal territory that didn’t concern her. “What if I offered you a proposition to prove it? A partnership, so to speak.”
“A partnership where I run your business?”
“One where I teach you the ins and outs, so when I’m tied up with other shit, my tasks can be delegated to you.”
“Does this said partnership mean I’m getting paid? If not, we can end this small talk now before you waste your time. I’m not a bitch that’ll move at your beck and call for free, sorry.”
Every muscle in Relic’s face tensed as he inhaled a controlled breath. Joseph would’ve sent her head slamming against the desk before the snarky rebuttal flowed through her lips if she was Judith. His fingers pinched at his nose bridge, containing that knee-jerk reaction while he debated reneging on his spur of the moment proposal for the infraction. Relic let her insolence slide, knowing the ends was bigger than the means.
“You’ll get paid if you do the work, Kennedy. Since you think you can be a boss, I’m putting you in the field. Savvy has been doing a lot in the background for me lately, but she has the restaurants, my accounts, and dealing with the kids to worry about. She can’t do it all, and you aren’t doing shit.”
“I could be doing a lot if my salon was finished like Nu’s spot is. Mind you, the grand opening is around the corner.”
“ My salon, and it’ll be done. If the contractors aren’t moving fast enough, go up there and check some shit. As far as what I need, are you good with social media?”
“Of course. Did you not do your homework before randomly offering me to run your business? That doesn’t sound very boss-like of you.”
“You need to watch your slick ass mouth.” He eliminated the space between them in a single step while delivering that reprimanding. Her lips pursed while staring at him, unfazed, as he explained, “Savvy did all of that. Now, you’ll do it. I need you to search for a female rapper for the label. I need a makeup artist for Nubia’s spot because the one we hired, moved. You need—”
“Don’t worry about me. I handpicked every stylist for my salon, and you’ll meet them at the grand opening,” she cut him off to divulge with a smug grin. “What else?”
“I need you to find a dress for our date. Revealing but not over the fucking top or tacky. Preferably red, and don’t hide your scars.”
Laughter spilled from Kennedy at his request, but it waned as she stared at his stoned eyes, full mouth, and strong jawline that didn’t flinch. A lump built in her throat once realizing that he was serious.
“First off, check my stats because I’m never tacky. Secondly, that’s not going to happen.”
“Why not? You know, these are a part of you now, right?”
He reached out to pinch her chin between his fingers before she could recoil. Her breathing shallowed as he turned her head, inspecting the unevenness of her damaged skin before grazing the keloid ridges with a thumb.
“You’re stuck with this shit. No matter how much you try to cover it up or hide it, that fact won’t change.”
His words chipped at her confidence while his searing gaze lasered on her facial defect with so much intensity, she almost thought she was back in that life-altering fire. If Kennedy could dissolve into the floor to avoid his studious examination, she would. His hold slackened before releasing her altogether when she shoved away his hand and retreated a few steps to put space between them.
“Keep your damn hands off me, and I wasn’t saying that showing my scars wouldn’t happen. I was talking about the date. No one told you, mixing business and pleasure is a recipe for disaster?”
“So, if I hire you, the date is void? You’d break that sad news to my son?”
“I sure will, and I’ll take him out on a date instead, but this...” She wagged her almond-tipped fingernail between them. “Not happening. I doubt it’d go far anyway, especially since I have my scars, and you have yours.”
Kennedy tapped her cheek and then Relic’s heart to remind him of their short-lived but unforgettable conversation during Shabu’s gala. The gossip she’d heard about Relic since then proved that he hadn’t told her one lie about having internal scars she couldn’t see.
When his gaze dipped to her hand, staring at it as though it were diseased, she removed it from his solid chest while clearing her throat through the awkwardness. Relic peered at her with eyes devoid of emotion and blinked.
“I agree, it wouldn’t work.”
“Good. Now that we have that out of the way, back to this partnership. I need a contract written up, the same as you did for my salon.”
“My salon.” He corrected her again, but she fanned him off.
“Like I said, I need a contract because I don’t do shit out of the kindness of my heart, and I’m not taking your word for it because it doesn’t mean a damn thing to me. I need it on paper.”
Relic gave a subtle nod of approval at her getting straight to what mattered most—the legality side of his offer that would solidify her position. His stare turned pensive as he mentally jotted down another quality about her that most women didn’t possess; Kennedy was about business first and everything else last. They had that characteristic in common.
“In another life, where we aren’t so equally scarred, I think you would’ve chosen the date and been my bitch instead of my partner.”
Relic tossing out that mere insinuation made Kennedy turn up her nose.
“There’s no life where I would’ve chosen dick over money.”
“And there’s no life where I would’ve respected you, if you had. I’ll have my lawyer write up that contract soon.”
“I thought Savvy wrote up your contracts.”
“That’s what you get for thinking,” he jested, sending Kennedy’s eyes rolling. “Contrary to what all you muthafuckas believe, she doesn’t know my every move, and I prefer it that way.”
“Like a game of chess. Every piece in its place for the king’s purpose. I feel you.”
Lines creased Relic’s forehead as he squinted with a tipped head at her analogy. Kennedy smiled. For the first time, outside of a snide grin or lifeless stare, she’d gotten a genuine reaction from him.
“My brother taught me that. Koda used chess to explain his logic when I didn’t understand him sometimes. Savvy is your rook. She has long range for helping bring people into your plans, and she’s the easiest to learn, so you don’t have to question her moves. She’s a strong piece, but not enough to be the queen.”
He shifted gears instead of confirming or denying her observation. “Where’s your brother now?”
“Dead.”
Relic hummed before removing his frames from his pocket to settle over his eyes in case he gave away the fleeting consternation that swept through him. He’d hoped to hear a better outcome but expected the worst.
“So, this brother and Tekken’s dad are—”
“One in the same. The only parent he had left, and my only sibling. Now, it’s just us,” she confirmed, pulling out her phone. “There’s a girl I’ve seen on my timeline who raps. She mostly posts naked pictures or twerking videos that overshadow her talent, but the ones I’ve seen of her rapping sound good.”
Relic moved closer, watching Kennedy scroll through her phone like she hadn’t just redirected their prior conversation back to business. He didn’t press the issue since he would’ve done the same. A palpable silence lingered between them that he chose not to break until her thumb stopped gliding across the screen, and she turned her phone to face him.
“Damn.” He couldn’t hold that expletive in if he tried.
The first row of three provocative images told Relic off bat, the girl possessed the necessary sexual appeal to go far. He grabbed Kennedy’s wrist, holding it steady as he scrolled down while drinking in brown skin only two shades lighter than Kennedy’s deep complexion, and a body that rivaled his baby brother, Titan, girlfriend’s stacked figure. His brows dipped as he noted the flashy purses and shoes the chick wore in the pictures where she was fully dressed. He’d need more intel on her before finalizing a decision.
“Show her to Savvy. She’ll let me know if it’s worth looking into.” He released Kennedy’s wrist before peering up to see one corner of her lips furled while a single brow sat higher than the other.
“Nigga, the way you were damn near drooling over my phone, I’d say she’s an option. What, my judgment doesn’t hold weight?”
“Until you sign the contract you asked for, no.”
“Whatever. I bet, I won’t do shit else for your ass,” she clipped, walking off just as music and laughter flowed into the lobby from the studio door swinging open.
Kennedy breezed into the room while Shabu stepped out with Sojourney in tow. His curious gaze flitted to where his wife’s friend had disappeared to and then toward his brother, whose face gave nothing away about the conversation that had just ensued.
“Ou bon?” he checked.
“Toujou,” Relic assured before focusing on a quiet Sojourney. “What’s up, Saucy? You’re heading out already?”
“Yea. Mea says my boyfriend is looking for me, and I don’t want him finding out where I am. He can’t know about this offer. Not yet, anyway.”
“What are you waiting for?” Shabu asked, making her push out a breath before scratching through her messy ponytail. Her contrite stare gave him an answer without her having to speak.
“She wants her ducks in a row first, so she can leave his ass. He beats her.” Relic voiced the truth he’d concluded from her triggering jump at the table. “Is he going to be a problem, Saucy? My family has enough shit going on, so I don’t need anyone adding to that.”
“Honestly, I can’t say how Slim will react, and I don’t want to bring trouble to your doorstep. I need to think on this and figure some stuff out.”
“You know how to find me once you do. We’ll walk you out.”
Relic went to the main door and opened it for her, leaving his proposal up in the air for her to reach for it whenever she was ready. If he found a better artist before then, and she missed out on the opportunity, that was her loss.
Shabu tucked both hands into his pants pockets to combat the chill and strolled to his brother’s side, watching Sojourney jog down the sidewalk toward a vehicle with a missing hubcap and dented driver door. She hit her locks, dipped inside, and started her car before peeling off without pause. A black Honda pulled out right behind her as he tossed his head.
“Her nigga got her on lockdown. You gon’ have to either get her away from him or cut your losses, bro.”
“You ain’t telling me shit I ain’t peeped, but you know me.”
Shabu scoffed. “You want what the fuck you want.”
“And I’ll get her. If push comes to shove, I’ll put her up somewhere, but I want to wait until shit hits the fan with them. That way, she’ll feel like she can trust me and will think twice about going back to that nigga.”
“So, you’re going to wait until her life is threatened to save her? You ain’t shit.” Shabu shot his brother a condemning glance while Relic laughed before patting him on the shoulder as they headed back inside. “I hope you paid Whoop for that find, ‘cause you know I don’t even like her on social media. I already caught her searching up that fuck nigga’s page since he got my baby with him.”
“She let my niece go with her baby daddy?”
“Yea, and he’s been posting Navy nonstop, using her for damage control ‘cause his fans went in on him ‘bout getting his girl pregnant without taking care of his first kid. Now, Whoop got an attitude, when I told her to tell his folks fuck nah when they asked for my baby. They didn’t even tell her that his bitch ass was here.”
Hatred seeped from every word Shabu spat about his wife’s baby father, making Relic scratch at the stubble on his chin while debating the best advice to give, even if it wasn’t what his brother wanted to hear. Navy didn’t share their blood at the end of the day, so the options were slim.
“Stop whining, and either press that nigga about what’s yours, or keep sharing your family, ti frè. What you’re not going to do is cry about it like a hoe. Bust a fucking move.”
“It ain’t that easy with my baby involved, but this is why I don’t talk to yo ass,” Shabu responded, flinging open the studio door before they entered. “Then, you wanna feel left out when me and Titan exclude you.”
“You’ve been excluding me for years, and it ain’t got shit to do with me not wanting to be a fucking counselor to your problems. Tell your wife, had she picked me, her baby daddy would’ve been in the dirt before the blood test results got back. He’d have never made it to the NBA.”
“Don’t ask Whoop to do shit else for you, bitch.”
A snide smirk unfurled on Relic’s face when his brother knocked their shoulders together, making him stagger, before stalking off because he couldn’t stomach the truth. Relic let that petty shit slide. Shabu would get over it, and he was hoping that he could oblige his brother’s request to not bother Savvy because her replacement would end up better. Relic was banking on transitioning Kennedy into a beneficial position for the family’s sake after doing some research of his own.