Chapter 15 #2
Her eyes traveled around the room before making a pitstop on Drish, who was already out of his seat. That was all she needed to see. She continued her search, and her heart caromed around in her chest once locating Sojourney’s ex-boyfriend lurking through the crowd toward them with hatred-filled eyes and a gleaming pendant resting flush against his chest. The worry overtaking Kennedy transformed into fury at seeing him don Relic’s chain.
“He’s here. I told you he’d find me. He won’t leave me alone, Kennedy. He—ouch!” Sojourney winced when Kennedy gripped her arm and glowered at her.
“Shut the hell up whining. Fix your face, and you better not start crying when he gets over here, Sojourney. Grow a damn backbone and take back your power.”
Sojourney nodded in haste, but Kennedy could see the tears pooling on her lids. When Slim neared them, she sidestepped Sojourney and stood in the line of fire. Slim tipped his head with flared nostrils before he grinned.
“Who the hell are you supposed to be? Her bodyguard. Move the hell out of the way before you make shit worse for her. Journey, let’s go.”
“Oh, hell no. What the fuck is going on, and who are you?” Nubia sassed once realizing he’d intruded on their space. “Nigga, you better get the fuck on before—”
Her mouth clamped shut when Slim lifted his shirt to reveal the gun on his hip. “Before what, huh? You gon’ call yo bitch ass family that’s bowling while he left her wide open for the taking? Tell those niggas I got something for them real soon, but in the meantime, bring yo ass.”
Kennedy shrieked, clinging to the bar top for dear life when she almost bust her ass from Slim swiping her aside like an annoying gnat. She snatched up her purse when he latched a hand around Sojourney’s arm and began dragging her out as the poor girl burst into tears.
“Are we going to bank his ass or what? We’re just letting him take her?” Lexi shouted, rushing after them.
The others followed her, and Kennedy glanced back to gain a subtle head bob from Drish before she did the same. Her insides were so knotted up that she struggled to breathe while pushing through the thickening crowd who didn’t seem to notice or care that Sojourney was being hauled out by a nigga who’d beat her to death if he got her alone. When she burst through the entrance door behind her girls, Slim was shoving Sojourney into a haphazardly parked car.
Kennedy’s adrenaline kicked in as she took the lead and ran straight toward him, jabbing him in the back of the head. As soon as he howled in pain and spun around, the girls grabbed Sojourney to drag her away from the car and onto the curb where people lingered to watch the ensuing drama unfold. Before Kennedy could retreat, Slim cocked back a fist to punch her in the face with a force that knocked the air out of her lungs. An agonizing pain shot through her and floaters blurred her vision, causing her to trip on the curb before she hit the cement with a hard thud that didn’t stop her from reaching into her purse for her gun. Tires skirting across asphalt made her stall as she looked up to see a van careening down the street. Everything around her slowed in that instant.
The panicked voices around Kennedy turned to indecipherable buzzing as the van door slid open before the barrel of two automatic guns emerged while men in all black and ski masks aimed at their target. Slim tried to run, but the barrage of bullets ate up the car along with everyone hidden inside it. Kennedy’s soul sprang out of her body when Drish appeared in her peripheral, sending five extra shots at Slim to ensure there wasn’t a chance of survival. He hit the ground like a potato sack before feet clad in black Timberlands trekked on his limbs like he wasn’t of importance.
Her eyes refused to leave the concealed figure as it bent down and snatched the chain off Slim’s neck. She didn’t have to see his face because she knew that powerful gait, thick build, and faint scent of bergamot and sandalwood permeating throughout the night air. Relic had come out personally to send niggas the reminder that he ran shit.
His head remained low so that those anomalous eyes wouldn’t give him away as he jogged to the van and hopped inside with Drish behind him, leaving as fast as they’d come. What seemed like an eternity for Kennedy had been a mission pulled off in under thirty seconds. Thirty seconds that had stunned her, dug up traumatic memories of her past, and proved she’d sunken into Relic’s world so fast and deep that she hadn’t even realized it.
Whenever adrenaline finally wore off, reality always settled in. The aftermath of the night’s chaos had settled in for Kennedy, and she was sick to her fucking stomach.
Her glazed eyes drifted to the passenger seat where Sojourney was knocked out with her head propped against the window. It’d taken almost an hour for the girls to calm her down after parking at the nearest gas station because Kennedy couldn’t drive with the constant screaming in her ear.
Whispers from the backseat sent Kennedy’s gaze coasting to the rearview mirror next, peeping the private conversation between Savvy and Michi while Nubia and Lexi laid on one another, mute. They’d all run to her car since it was closest and peeled off before the police could arrive. Savvy had immediately called her husband to inform him of what’d transpired, but his phone had gone to voicemail, and the same applied to Los when Nubia blew up his line. Kennedy had puzzled it together right then; Shabu was the second shooter like she’d suggested, and Los had been the getaway driver. She was itching to tell the girls but refrained in case they weren’t supposed to know.
Her focus retrained on the road, and she clenched the steering wheel to keep her trembling hands steady. Her body was gradually reacting to the night’s events, albeit she fought it tooth and nail.
“Pierre is calling me again,” Lexi murmured from the back before she answered and put him on speaker phone. “Hello?”
“Where the fuck y’all at, baby momma? I hope y’all ain’t making pitstops. I said come straight to Michi’s crib, so fuck is y’all doing?”
“Nigga, we’re almost there! I told you, we had to stop and calm Sojourney’s ass down. She did just see the guy she was with for years get knocked off. On top of that, Kennedy is driving like twenty miles an hour.”
Pierre whistled before dry snitching as he replied, “Bonnie is in shock. Why the fuck nobody else took the wheel?”
“Boy, that ain’t that damn girl’s name!”
“P, was that what I think it was?” Savvy interrupted their conversation with her vague question she knew he’d understand. The line went dead silent for seconds before he responded.
“Damn. You finally ain’t green nomo’ huh, Whoop? You know the routine. What y’all be saying? Hold tight for my nigga, and give him a day. NuNu, I’ll take you to my folk’s crib to grab the kids in the morning.”
Nubia snatched the phone. “Why are they there? Los is supposed to—”
Her words halted before she glanced at Savvy, noticing her friend’s bright skin flushing as she shut her eyes and inhaled a shaky breath. Nubia sucked in a gust of air as it settled that Los had dived headfirst back into the streets.
“I never thought I’d see the day when Whoop surpasses Nu, but here we are,” Pierre joked to ease their worried minds. “Divorcing my brother must’ve made you a lil’ slow. Baby momma text me when y’all get in the parking garage, so I can meet y’all. Oh, and Bonnie? You aight with me after all.”
His animated laughter at the situation before the call ended caused bile to rise up Kennedy’s throat for the umpteenth time since they’d hopped in her truck. She forced it down and tried erasing the gruesome images from her head.
Whispers started up again between the girls, but she couldn’t listen because her senses were malfunctioning. Her stomach toppled like she’d eaten a Halloween bag full of candy, and her chest ached like someone’s hand was inside of it, squeezing the vital organ that hadn’t stopped palpitating. Each time she blinked, Koda’s shocked features replaced Slim’s, and she wondered if her brother had gone out in the same manner. She hadn’t expected helping Relic to stir up such jolting emotions.
“Kennedy, you’re passing our building!”
Michi shouting that warning knocked Kennedy out of her head just in time, and she mashed a foot on the brakes. She eased it off to roll forward, pulling into the garage lane before lowering Michi’s window so that she could key in her gate code. Her wary eyes coasted to the passenger seat when Sojourney lifted her head, peering around like she was trying to figure out where she was. Kennedy’s last thread of patience snapped when Sojourney whimpered before a fresh round of sobs started.
“Shut the fuck up crying! I do not want to hear that shit!” she spazzed, smacking a hand on the steering wheel. Sojourney immediately choked on a sob to stop, making Kennedy feel like shit. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell, but I need—”
Her sentence broke off because she had no fucking clue of what she needed.
She found the first parking spot available and pulled in, leaving her car running because she had no intentions of staying. Kennedy glanced into the backseat—unsure of why no one climbed out—and tensed at every set of eyes on her.
“Are you alright?” Savvy was the first one to speak up.
“I’m fine. I just need to get home, shower, and get in my bed. Tonight was a lot.”
“You ain’t lying,” Lexi said, pushing open the door. “There goes Pierre. Come on y’all before he starts talking shit, and I have to slap him.”
Relief flooded Kennedy as everyone clambered out of her car. She dropped her head against the steering wheel, hoping to settle her foggy brain that kept shoving flashes of Koda to the forefront—his funeral, Tekken bawling his teenage eyes out, and her first love front and center with no emotion detectable from his expression to his stern stance. It had made her hate him one hundred times more because her brother deserved his one day for everyone to express their love in his death.
A churning in her stomach urged her to reach for the door to get some fresh air, but it flung open before her hand could grab the handle.
“Bonnie, get yo ass out, too. You ain’t going nowhere tonight.” Kennedy lifted her head at Pierre’s order, and he fisted a hand at his mouth with wide eyes. “Oh, shit. Fuck happened to your face? Not the burns, but that big ass shiner.”
“Slim punched her in the face,” Sojourney whispered.
“Oooh, so that’s what the fuck happened.”
“What happened with what? Y’all are talking in riddles and shit, and I don’t like it,” Lexi complained, crossing her arms with her face screwed up. Pierre ignored her.
“Bonnie, take this.” He held out a keycard that gave the elevator access to the penthouse floor. “Relic is waiting for you at the top.”
“Wait, why is Relic here, but Shabu isn’t? Why can’t he come home?” Confusion swarmed Savvy’s hazels as she interrogated Pierre.
“Because, clearly, Relic is bucking the system for Bonnie and her fucked up eye. You hurt anywhere?”
“I can be.”
He spit out a laugh at that before bopping over to Savvy and flinging an arm around her shoulder. “Man, he’ll be back soon. He already said if Relic ain’t ducking off, he ain’t doing that shit either. You’re a Bonnie Jr., though, so you ain’t new to this shit. You’re true to it.”
Savvy’s features pinched before her narrowed eyes shot to Kennedy, who sat in the driver’s seat with a compunctious gaze that told Savvy so much without uttering a single word. Her girl had known. Kennedy had been aware of that shootout well before it had taken place. Savvy snatched the keycard from Pierre and stomped over to her.
“Bitch, you could’ve told me that my husband was in that van,” she hissed.
“Like you told me that Relic had gotten shot?”
Savvy didn’t debate that rebuttal because she’d played that information close to the chest while relaying to Kennedy what’d gone down at the club. Shabu had told her in confidence, so she couldn’t break his trust.
“A point was made,” she admitted as a gentle smile broke through on her face. “Look, I don’t know how you feel, what’s going through your head, or how much you already knew. Shabu never told me his plays, so I’m unfamiliar with this part. What I can tell you from experience is, what you do at this moment will shape what you don’t or do have with Relic. I’ve been there and almost let those conflicting emotions you’re experiencing ruin my relationship. Get out and take care of him, Kennedy. If you still feel like running tomorrow after the dust settles, I’ll understand. Relic won’t, but you know you’re my girl, so I’ll have your back.”
“If you’re my girl, be real with me.” Savvy’s smile fell as Kennedy angled in her seat, pinning her with an intense, unblinking stare. “Don’t be Shabu’s wife or Relic’s sister-in-law. As my friend, tell me what the hell I should do?”
“You picked the wrong friend to ask that because, unlike them, I love it here.” Savvy held out the keycard for Kennedy to take. “If you want someone to talk you out of it or to say run, I can call Nubia, Lexi, and my big cuz over here.”
“Don’t.”
Kennedy sighed before she reached inside to shut off her car, grabbed her purse, and then hopped out to shut the door while hitting her locks. Pierre cheesed when she accepted the keycard and trudged toward them as they started for the elevator.
“Big dog Kennedy! Ain’t that what my folks call you?” he pried with that shit eating grin of his that exposed gleaming grillz and soured Kennedy’s stomach. Her eyes rolled.
“Don’t try to be my friend now, Pierre. Leave me alone.”
“See, I was ‘bout to give you a proper introduction, but don’t worry about it. I’ll leave it for Relic to do the honors.”
“Stop messing with her,” Savvy hissed, slapping his arm as he laughed and hit the button for the elevator to open. They filed inside as she whispered to Kennedy, “It’ll pass, I promise.”
Kennedy didn’t ask what Savvy was referring to because she was experiencing it firsthand. Her palms were so clammy that she rubbed them down her thighs and then leaned against the nearest wall. The elevator jerking upward sent her gut lurching with it, and it refused to settle back into his rightful place. She peered up at the red numbers ticking at a steady motion before stopping as the elevator stalled.
“Michi!” Titan’s voice boomed into the suffocating space as soon as the doors opened.
Kennedy stared as he rushed in, hugging his girl before guiding her out without a word to anyone else. She didn’t blame him. Pierre tossed his head for his crew to exit next—inspecting them for injuries as they passed before he pulled Sojourney to his side but laid his sights on Kennedy.
“You straight?” Sincerity spilling from his tone made her mouth open, but she shut it when no words came up. She nodded her head instead. “Aight, bet. Some quick advice, get your shit together before this elevator hits the top floor. Relic will smell the weakness on you and turn your ass into shark food.”
“I bet you’d love that.”
“I would.” Pierre beamed a smile and stepped back as the doors shut between them.
The air thinned around Kennedy as she tapped the keycard and then pressed the button designated for the top floor. Those antagonizing numbers rose, but Kennedy felt as if she were sinking the further up that she went. Screams and gunshots engrained in her core memories, along with Slim’s body feet away riddled with bullets that could’ve struck her because Relic hadn’t waited for a clean shot like he’d claimed. Her digestive system tried coming up when the elevator slowed to a stop.
That ding as the door cranked open pressured her to push the first-floor button so that she could flee and take her ass home. Kennedy froze up when Relic appeared on the other side, waiting bare chested with the necklace she’d gifted him around his neck.
“Get out, Larenn.”
His order caused her body to waver, but her feet rooted to the floor. She grazed her teeth across her bottom lip and bit down, focusing on that pain versus the nausea that made her plant a hand on her stomach as she grew lightheaded. Her mouth dried as the doors came together before reopening when Relic stuck his hand through it in time.
“That adrenaline wore off, and you’re in shock.” His tone held a softness she’d never heard, but it didn’t convince her to step out. “It hit too close to home because it made you think about your brother, right?”
His accuracy sent her fingers digging into her stomach as she stared, vexed. Relic had known how it’d affect her, even though she hadn’t, but he’d still put her up to the task. She locked her eyes on his and didn’t pinpoint an ounce of remorse about it.
“That’s what trauma does Kennedy. It stunts you. It clams you up, but you can’t let it fuck with your head or get the best of you,” he schooled, tapping a finger against his temple. “You gotta still handle your business through all that shit.”
“You told me, you’d make a move once I was a good distance away. You lied,” she pushed out, and his head shook.
“I improvised. He punched the shit out of you, Kennedy, so I made a move. Not because of that, but because I knew what you were about to do when your hand went inside that fucking purse.”
Relic stalked inside the elevator to snatch her purse away, unlocking it before he peeked inside to see that gun she didn’t leave home without. His gaze lifted to hers as he cupped her chin. Those alluring, dark eyes sent his fucking stomach tumbling as she gazed at him like she needed his validation—like she needed him well past what their contractual agreement stated.
“You almost fucked up the board and your life because you moved too fast off your emotions. I don’t blame you because we don’t tolerate disrespect. You did what you had to do, and so did I.”
“It was him or us, right?”
That term, us , made him stall but he recovered and kissed the bruise around her eye that made him wish he could revive Slim just to kill his ass again.
“Yea, Larenn. Him or us, and we’ll always choose us. When you step out, there’s a trash bin on your left.”
At that simple detail, Kennedy pushed past him as the contents of her stomach came up like they were given the green light. Her palm planted on the wall before she hunched over and expelled the liquor and bit of food she’d eaten at the bar while Relic came behind her to hold her ponytail out of the way of her vomit. Her mind went to Pierre’s advice, and she wondered if throwing up constituted as a weakness.
“You done?” Relic asked when she spit and then stood tall with a deep breath. He inspected her face before smirking as he brushed a hand over her bang to flatten it. “There she goes. I thought I lost you, big dog Kennedy. Come inside.”
Kennedy did as told—trailing him into his penthouse that she couldn’t process the beauty of because his actions were lingering on her brain. His indecisiveness, his call to protect her tonight, and his accusations about her setting him up. The way he’d enforce no feelings but did endearing shit like carry her on his back so her feet wouldn’t hurt or hold her hair while she puked out her guts. Her eyes squinted, adjusting to the dark as she followed him into a master suite while recalling she was the first guest on his boat and the only one privy to his drop site. The exact way Relic had pieced together a secret about her, she’d done the same with him.
Chills coated her skin when he grabbed her hand, sitting on the edge of his bed before he tugged her between his legs. He bent to remove her heels and then yanked on her jumpsuit zipper, lowering it before he peeled the clingy material from her shoulders down to her ankles. A crooked grin lifted a corner of his lips when he let his eyes roam without shame before making their way to her face once she’d stepped out of it.
“Are you tired of me yet, Larenn? Am I too much of a challenge?” he tested.
“Koda’s right hand was my first everything. I left him because some bitch told me she was pregnant by him just before we were supposed to tell Koda about us.”
Her random confession knocked the smirk off Relic’s face as his nostrils flared, and head tipped. He didn’t care to hear about her and another nigga, especially her first love, but he didn’t voice it aloud. Relic let her continue.
“I was so young, dumb, and in love that I would’ve done anything for him. I had done anything for him. When he asked me to keep quiet because Koda wouldn’t accept our relationship, I did it, even though I felt like shit lying to my brother. He asked me to keep it tight for him, I did that, too. He asked me to convince Koda to agree on business moves my brother was wary on, and I made it fucking happen. My brother had taught me the game, but my first gave me the rules on how to be a queen. To protect her king. He also showed me that my loyalty could know no bounds, and a nigga would still spit in my fucking face. How ironic is it that as soon as I convinced him to tell Koda about us, a bitch pops up pregnant?”
Relic pushed out a breath and brushed a thumb over his bottom lip before he grumbled, “He wanted you to know.”
“Bingo! He wanted me to end things so that it wouldn’t sever his relationship with Koda.”
“That’s how a man’s mind works, Kennedy. If we can find a simpler way out of a predicament than dealing with it head on, we fucking take it. That girl claiming she was pregnant and you leaving was easier than him cutting you off or having to tell his right hand that he’s been fucking his sister for years behind his back. He did the damage and let you fix it because it was easier.”
“I realized that, and I realize you’re a fucking coward just like him.”
Mild hatred and anger that Relic was used to swarmed in her heated gaze, but it didn’t pull a reaction or response out of him. He didn’t see a point in debating when her observation was logical.
It was easier for Relic to build barriers to keep Kennedy out—easier to drop her into predicaments where he figured she’d either leave or keep her distance without him having to enforce it. He hadn’t anticipated Kennedy being so goddamn resilient because she loved challenges, and he was the biggest one she’d encountered in her life. Each time Relic spotted an out, he took it to get rid of her before he found more reasons to keep her around. He didn’t miss the irony that the moment he was beginning to accept her presence; she was folding.
“So, what the fuck is this long spiel for, huh? Where are you going with it?” he quizzed, knowing the answer.
“Before I let another nigga use me, fuck with my head, or play me like I’m one of their favorite gaming systems, I’ll bow out gracefully. We’ll keep it professional since you’re willing to do everything in your goddamn power to prevent anything more. To keep me at arm’s length and ignore those feelings you hate so damn much. You’ll break me before you let that happen, right? Even when I haven’t done shit but be solid to you since the day we shook on it. You like winning so much, well, you win.”
“I always do.”
Kennedy grimaced like he’d struck her harder than Slim had, but she regained her composure and nodded while processing his curt answer that told her more than anything he’d said or done since they’d met. She’d given him the chance to prove he was nothing like her exes, but he’d done the opposite.
There was nothing left to converse about as she rounded his bed, climbing in to burrow herself beneath the covers because there wasn’t a way in hell she was sleeping on the couch. Kennedy stilled when the mattress behind her sank in before warmth neared her while an intoxicating scent cocooned her in place. Relic kept his distance, but his hand landed on her arm, brushing back and forth over her scars in that self-soothing manner he’d grown accustomed to while in her space. Kennedy didn’t have the heart to make him stop.
Her gut knotted at the reality that she’d fallen into his world, into Relic, so deep and fast that she’d forgotten to catch herself. The most heart wrenching part about it all was accepting that Relic couldn’t give one damn whether she resided there or not.