Lethal Competence

Chapter 1

Chapter

One

Reminisce Blac

I lied to keep you from breaking my heart.

I was in the middle of a mean ass nut when Rennix called, telling me I needed to come back to Chicago on the first thing smoking.

That was the equivalent of when they called Craig’s pops and said, “drop everything Craig’s in trouble”.

My mind went blank, because what was so important that he couldn’t say it over the phone?

It was some bullshit and I knew it. I had one of the bartenders, Tandy, cover the meeting I was supposed to be going to and hopped a flight immediately.

When it came to my siblings, I never acted; I just moved.

I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t pissed the entire flight.

About two hours later, I was stepping off a plane in the city I had lowkey grown to love.

No lie, when Rennix and I first got here, I didn’t know how we’d fare, but then we found home.

Shit, any city where my siblings were was home, regardless of my need to hop on a flight from time to time almost four and a half years later.

Jade called it globetrotting while I just didn’t care for being in the same place for too long.

That was why my job worked, because I had no problem catching a flight and being somewhere I knew nothing about for a while.

I was, and always would be, okay with being uncomfortable.

Only recently had my profession become somewhat of a problem as I realized not many made it out alive or even got to have a life outside of it.

Therefore lately, I had been stepping back and spending most of my time in Crescent Falls at Poles & Pastries.

If not there, then I had picked up a little hobby not many knew about, just myself and the realtor who sold me the buildings along with the contractor.

Long story short, my interests were everywhere, including an apparel business I’d never really given a real chance to be anything besides a little something I wanted to see in a storefront one day, not just some shit I owned and had spent too much time in.

I wasn’t a customer service type of nigga.

I didn’t like dealing with people too much.

That was lowkey why I did well with Poles & Pastries.

They didn’t need me much because the place had two general managers and I was looking to hire a third.

The ride from the airport to my twin’s house was thirty-five minutes plus the fact that the taxi driver was taking his sweet ass time like I didn’t see him add seven dollars on top of the fare when I’d first gotten in the car.

He thought I was green from the way he deliberately decided to take the longer route from the airport.

“Yo, do yourself a favor and stop dipping with all these turns before you get yourself fucked up at the end of this ride,” I said aloud, locking eyes with him when he cut the turn signal on. He’d been about to make another unnecessary turn when my brother’s house was a straight shot from here.

He nodded. “Okay, okay.”

I caught him because he damn sure put his foot to that gas seconds later.

A quiet five and a half minutes later we pulled up in front of Rennix’s house and I immediately peeped all the cars outside, hence the open gate.

After handing the driver two twenties, I walked up the driveway to the house.

I didn’t have anything on me but my phone and wallet. I’d hopped a plane naked as fuck.

By the time I reached the door, Caya was standing there with an expression I couldn’t quite read.

“Yo, you good? Ain’t nothing wrong with my nephews, is it?”

She shook her head. “No, I’m actually worried about you.”

I hugged her and stood there. “The fuck that supposed to mean?”

“Exactly what I said, because I promise you, I almost went upside your brother’s head.” She sent her fist into the palm of her hand.

“Yo, what are you talking about Cay? You sound crazy.”

“C’mon, let’s go in here so you can see. Because I promise you almost got your brother killed in this house.”

I didn’t get what she was talking about, so I just followed her into the house where I heard laughter coming from the kitchen. As soon as I entered, the room drew quiet and the look on my brothers’ faces had me worried as shit.

“Yo, somebody needs to start talking and tell me why all y’all asses are in here looking like somebody die—”

“Pynk stopped by earlier and had somebody with her,” Rennix started, too slowly for my liking.

“The fuck you mean she had somebody with her? Why the fuck was she even here?” He had me confused and was pissing me off with all this pausing for dramatic effect shit. “Spit it the fuck out, Rennix.”

“Shit, I can’t. I gotta show you, because words won’t do this justice.

” He walked out of the room and returned less than a second later holding the hand of a child.

It was a little girl with piercing eyes who looked just like our mother…

She also had these high cheekbones and a doe-like nose.

Shit, she looked like Rennix’s ass too, which meant she looked like me. Couldn’t be.

“Damn, you made a baby? With wh—”

“No, fucktard. Pynk dropped lil mama off here for you. This is your child, not mine.” His eyes cut to Caya who was literally studying the entire exchange. She was ready to get down on his ass, which would have been funny as hell had he not been right here telling me the kid was mine.

I looked from the little girl to my brother, then at my other brother. “You fucking lying. Whose kid for real, Ren?”

“Yours. Shorty was standing outside my door yelling and crying because Pynk was tryna ditch her with a note. We opened the door too fast though. Then Cay ran her crazy ass up on Pynk before she could hop back in the rideshare. She was talking a mile a minute.” He cut his eyes at Caya before looking back at me.

When I finally got her to slow down, and this one to calm down, she said everything. ”

“And what did she say?” I looked from the little girl to my brother in disbelief. I needed a full ass explanation because this right here wasn’t on my list of shit to be dealing with. Nothing against the kid, but nah, I didn’t have any kids. If I did, I’d know… Right?

“She said she’s yours and that she’s done. Something about somebody she’s dealing with said he isn’t raising another man’s kid.”

I turned my face up because that pissed me off. “So she’s abandoning her daughter becau—”

“Let me take her in the room with the other kids because she has ears.” Beyah swooped in and grabbed lil mama from my brother and walked her down the hall where the other kids were.

“I called in a favor. We can go up to Suburban and find out instantly.” G spoke, making me look away from the direction Beyah had gone with the child to him.

I waved him off. “Doesn’t matter. I don’t need that. She isn’t mine.”

Rennix sighed. “Denial. You just saw the same child we did. It’s yours, but if you don’t think that, cool. At least get the test done.”

I nodded, deciding to put all their minds to rest, because everybody in here seemed like they were planning a fucking funeral, like somebody had died. “Fine, let’s get this done. Then tell me what hotel ol’ girl is at.” I pointed in my twin’s direction.

He shook his head, like he didn’t know when I knew he did. And if he didn’t, I knew he could find out.

About thirty minutes later, my brothers and I piled into Rennix’s truck headed to the hospital.

I sat in the passenger seat, so of course G’s kid friendly ass was in the back seat with the toddler.

That was good because the entire ride I would have been staring at her, just like I was staring out the damn window.

I was pissed, wondering why out of every messed-up thing Pynk could’ve done, she would have done this.

I’d be lying if I said there was no possibility of it being mine, but she knew I wasn’t messing with her or a kid after all the shit I had gone through with her.

This was some mess. I turned around and looked at the toddler, eyes going from the top of her head to where her little hands tightly held the iPad.

She was watching something with a lot of colors.

When she looked up and we locked eyes, I jumped back, forcing my eyes ahead. Fuck! It did look like me.

“How old is it?” My eyes were on my twin now.

He chuckled and shook his head. “Nigga, it’s a girl and her name is Romance. I think Pynk said she was three.”

I narrowed my eyes, thinking and attempting to do the math.

“Yeah, I did that math too. Around the time we first decided to come here. When you kept telling me shorty was toast because she’d burned you again.”

I mugged him.

“Yo, she burned you and you still kept fuc—messing with her?” G asked from the back seat.

I shook my head. “Man, I loved that stupid ass broad. She could’ve told me anything and I would’ve gone for it like a straight up sap.” I mentally mulled over several times Pynk had played me for a fool and I’d gone for it.

“Um, are you forgetting you went for it plenty of fucking times?” Rennix’s voice interrupted my thoughts, saying what I was thinking aloud.

“And that’s exactly why I ain’t going for this now.

I’m man enough to admit it’s a possibility it could be mine, but I know she ain’t.

Pynk knows better than to play this Orphan Annie shit with me.

I’ll be damned. When we finish with this, be ready to drop lil mama off to her mama, because I don’t have time for these games. ”

“Yo, stop cursing. You gonna have her saying all types of stuff.”

I sucked my teeth. “Not my problem.”

Rennix elbowed me in my shoulder. “Simmer your mad ass down. She looks just like your goofy as…self. If anything, this test is a precaution, or proof of what we already know.”