Chapter 4
“I don’t want to go home yet, Relic. Why can’t I hang with you?”
Relic lifted his eyes from his phone to glance at Jahleel in the passenger seat, who stared back with his expression pinched and his mouth full of greasy burger from the fast-food spot they were sitting outside of.
He’d picked his son up after school to spend quality time together since he was working on doing better as a father.
Had Relic known he’d get the third degree for his impromptu effort; he would’ve saved it for a day he didn’t have additional obligations to tend to.
“Stop talking with food in your mouth,” he chastised, making Jahleel’s frown deepen. “I’m meeting with one of my artists, and I don’t want you there in case people try to sneak pictures since we’ll be in public.”
Jahleel swallowed before asking, “So, you don’t want people to see me with you?”
“No. I barely want them to see me, but it’s part of the business. The more I can keep my personal life separated from that bullshit, the better.”
“If you don’t like it, then why are you doing it?”
“The money.” It was as simple as that to Relic, so he didn’t elaborate.
Jahleel nodded like he understood before sipping his drink while his dad resumed staring at the phone glued to his hand. In curiosity, Jahleel craned his neck to check the name on the text thread before he smiled.
“You still ain’t talk to Ms. Kennedy yet?”
Relic whipped his head around so fast that he caught a crook in his neck. “How the hell do you know, I haven’t talked to her?”
“Because Ms. Kennedy doesn’t ignore me. I talk to her every day, but when I ask her if she talked to you, she says nope.” He popped his lips for emphasis, and Relic mugged him.
“Don’t ever do that shit again.”
“I’m just showing you how she said it! I can tell she’s mad at you, but she says she’s not whenever I ask her.”
“That’s because it wasn’t your place to ask. Next time you want to know something, come to me.”
“You’ll just tell me to mind my business or stay in a child’s place like you always do.”
“Sounds about right. Finish your food, so we can go.”
Jahleel huffed a breath but resumed eating while Relic returned his attention to the one-sided exchange he’d been having with Kennedy the past few days since she refused to acknowledge him reaching out.
He wished he’d locked her in one of his spare bedrooms instead of watching from his camera footage as she stole his car keys and fled like a thief in the night.
Relic was learning the old adage, out of sight and out of mind, was bullshit since he hadn’t made it a day without her invading his thoughts.
Even while away, his biggest distraction had learned a new trick—how to stress him the fuck out.
He couldn’t stop his mind from drifting to scenarios of what Kennedy was doing, who she was with, and whether she was acting out in the same manner that Harmony and Jessica used to do whenever they felt slighted.
His eyes squeezed shut at the thought of her giving another nigga some pussy to get back at him.
Seconds passed before he took a breath and peered at his phone again.
He skimmed the number of messages he sent Kennedy, deleted the thread, and blocked the number altogether.
Relic wasn’t in the business of allowing women to make him sweat.
As the days passed, he found it harder not to drag Kennedy home by the curly bundles sewn into her goddamn head, so it was best he stopped reaching out while he was ahead.
His truck door opening reeled him out of his thoughts before his hand flew to his hip out of instinct. He turned in his seat as Jahleel hopped out, grabbing his mess while his brows bunched at Relic’s reaction.
“You didn’t hear me, did you?” he accused, shaking his head with his usual lour. “I told you, I’m done eating and going to throw my trash away.”
“I heard you,” Relic lied. Jahleel twisted his mouth to one side in disbelief but didn’t debate him on it.
Once Relic watched his son jog to the nearby trash bin and dump his bags inside, he started his ride while Jahleel rushed back toward the passenger side, climbing in before buckling up.
Relic checked his wristwatch as he pulled off, noting the time he told Aura he’d meet her at the mall had come and gone.
He’d get there when he got there, and if it were up to him, they wouldn’t have shit to talk about.
His shoulders rolled to settle the stiffness there from Kennedy coercing him into doing bullshit he’d rather not.
“When you pick me up next time, can my sister come, too?” Jahleel asked, garnering his attention as he eased out of the lot and merged with oncoming traffic.
“I can’t take her out of school, Jah. I’m not her parent. Maybe we can talk your grandma into letting her chill one day with us. She can’t stay at my house, though.”
“Why not?”
“Because she’s a little girl, and I’m a grown man who isn’t shit to her. If I were your grandmother, I wouldn’t let her spend the night either. Never trust your sister around just anybody, especially men. You hear me?”
“You’re not just anybody to me, though.”
Relic took his eyes off the road to stare at him. “What does that mean?”
“It means that I’m safe with you, so she is too, right?”
“Life doesn’t work like that,” he explained, observing the unsettled look Jahleel wore.
“You don’t know what the hell a nigga is thinking, and lil’ girls are the easiest to hurt since they’re weaker.
It’s easy to convince them to do what you say.
Young ladies are the same, just older. If you want to protect your sister, then know that there’s no exception to the rule, Jah. Not even me.”
“My granny said the same thing,” Jahleel stated. Relic nodded, already knowing. “She was talking to her church friend and said she didn’t like Jas hanging with our mom ‘cause she might let her man friends do anything to Jas.”
“And that’s one thing I agree with your grandma on. I wouldn’t have trusted Jessica either. If I had a daughter by her—”
Relic stopped himself before he admitted he would’ve put a bullet in Jessica himself and took his daughter before he let a woman like her raise his little girl.
Shabu and Savvy’s overprotective natures over Navy wouldn’t have shit on him if he’d fathered a girl.
Relic was glad he hadn’t because he was an example of the men he’d warned his son about, and that karma was too great to put on his child.
His stomach tightened as he accepted that he played a hand in creating bitches like Jessica and scarring women like Michi, who he was told from Titan was smart enough to not want to bring a girl in this world either.
He blinked rapidly while trying to focus and overlook the real reasons he didn’t want that gorgeous, deep complexioned little girl who crossed his mind on occasions.
“Ms. Kennedy said her brother taught her to shoot a gun, right?” Jahleel asked, and Relic smirked, appreciating his son’s young but sharp mind.
“Before he passed away, yea. Why?”
“Because she don’t seem weak or like you can tell her what to do. Ms. Kennedy protects herself. I’ll teach Jas to be like her, so she won’t need me all the time.”
“Good idea. Since you brought her up, call her.”
“Ms. Kennedy?” Jahleel confirmed with a mile wide smile spreading across his face.
Relic nodded with a grimace, loathing the fact he was resorting to extreme measures just to hear her voice like he hadn’t blocked her number minutes ago. That was the shit Kennedy did to him. She left him unfocused, knowing she was the only distraction that settled him down.
Jahleel didn’t waste time digging in his pocket for his phone—tapping her contact before activating the speaker phone, so his dad could hear. The phone rang twice before she picked up, making Relic frown while Jahleel muffled a laugh with his hand.
“Mr. Gridiron Bully!” she sang with enthusiasm and a raspy voice Relic instantly noticed. His attention swiveled from the heavy traffic to Jahleel’s phone like he could see her as she asked, “What are you doing calling me so early? Your homework done?”
“No, ma’am. I’m not home yet.”
“Okay, you’re lucky ‘cause I was about to be on your butt. How was school?”
“Boriiing,” he dragged, and she laughed before it was replaced with a light cough. Jahleel’s brows dipped. “You didn’t sound like that yesterday. Are you getting sick?”
“A little. I got caught in the rain, so my throat is sore, but nothing major.”
“Well, you need to hurry home then, so me and Relic can take care of you. We can make you the soup my grann made me when I got sick.”
Kennedy hummed but didn’t respond, making it clear she wasn’t taking the bait. Relic swept his tongue over his teeth as Jahleel shot him a pitying glance before hunching a shoulder.
“When are you coming back?” he pressed, looking at his dad to confirm he was asking the right questions. The line silenced before Kennedy sucked her teeth.
“Jah, are you playing middleman right now?”
A reverberating laugh shot from him as Relic’s mouth quirked at her catching on to their schemes. Since he was caught, Relic contemplated speaking but thought better of it in case she decided to hang up.
“I’m not!” Jahleel lied, his amusement tapering off. “I just want you to stop being mad at Relic.”
“I told you, I’m not mad at him. Why is that bothering you so much anyway?”
“Because if you’re not talking to him, then you’ll stop talking to me, too. That’s how it always happens.”
“Who the hell told you that lie? Your dad?”
“No. When my mom had man friends she introduced us to, whenever they went away, she said it was because she didn’t talk to them anymore and not to ask her about them.
She told me and Jas our dads died, so we won’t ask about them, either, but my sister’s dad might be not even be dead since my mom lied about Relic.
When I get bigger, I’m gon’ find him for her ‘cause she’s sad I got one now but she don’t. ”