Chapter 12 - Relic
“What the fuck do you mean, they can’t find her?! She was at a damn club, so I know muthafuckas got something on camera. Did anyone survive the shooting?”
Relic put on his best performance, pretending that he was enraged as he lounged poolside on a cushioned chaise while listening to Sojourney relay the drama that had gone down with Aura in his absence.
From the time he’d taken his phone off airplane mode, it’d pinged with notifications and calls he wasn’t in the frame of mind to deal with.
Relic hadn’t done so until they returned from dinner and settled in for that very reason.
He puffed the cigar he was smoking and gazed at the night sky, with stars brighter than he’d seen in years, and then at the forest surrounding their beach house, giving it a sense of seclusion.
A splash of water lured his attention to where Kennedy sat at the pool’s edge, dangling her feet in the deep end as she scrolled on social media, searching for information to ensure their names weren’t attached to Aura’s incident in a negative light.
Every theory so far had pointed at Ronnie and Mea for getting Aura mixed in their karma since they were known for setting niggas up to get robbed.
Because of their soiled reputation, Relic’s ruse had gone smoother than he expected.
“...All dead. What should I do? Has anyone called her parents?”
Relic blinked and tapped back into a conversation he had checked out of after the first minute of her weeping in his ear. Sojourney was so fucking weak and useless that it sickened him at times.
“I’ve only been gone twenty-four hours, and I already have a missing rapper and a damn singer crying in my ear more than she does on a track. Give me time to put my ear to the streets and get more information, Saucy. I’ll call you with an update once I have it.”
He hung up, tossed his phone on the table beside him, and then pinched his nose bridge with an exhale. His eyes flitted at Kennedy when she sniggered at his reaction.
“What the hell is funny?”
“You. Why’re you acting stressed when we knew this would be the fallout of it? I hope you have someone with a little sense checking on the package.”
“I was supposed to have someone keep eyes on it?”
Kennedy stared at him like he’d lost his fucking mind before shouting, “Relic! The way those young niggas I saw last night act, they may really do what I said was done to Sonny! Yes, it needs to be monitored.”
“Calm your ass down, Ms. Mastermind. It’s in a safe location, and Drish is on it. What’s our next moves to do damage control?”
“The team needs to put out statements. They’ll all do it tomorrow afternoon like they’re just catching wind of it.
I can get Tek to do his first and then Calm.
Pierre goes last because he’ll do one of his usual, shit talking videos where he threatens whoever did something to her, but then we’ll take it down.
We just need his up long enough for people to screen record it. ”
“Smart. It makes P seem like he gives a fuck, but they know he can’t incriminate himself. I’m sure if he didn’t do that, there’d be talk about him being pussy. Can’t win for losing with the masses.”
“Yep. The only one who isn’t speaking out is you, but that makes sense because you never have. I’ll ask Treasure to write a post on your behalf to put on your page.”
Relic hiked his thick brow while puffing his cigar. He expelled a cloud of smoke before probing, “Since when do I have a page?”
The unenthused seriousness in his question made her laugh before she shook her head at his genuine hatred for social media.
“The music label’s page, Relic. Technically, that one is yours.
That’s the business you’re the face of, regardless of how much you try to make it Pierre.
People know you the most for the record label.
Not my salon, the restaurant, or any other secret businesses you may have.
Now, do I need to change their flights, or is everyone leaving on the PJ? ”
“Why would their flights need to be changed?”
“Because, unfortunately, we can’t be lounging around for days on a trip while your artist is abducted. I’m giving us tomorrow, but we need to head back no later—”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Relic cut in, causing her to gape before shutting her mouth. “Do you hear that?”
Her forehead creased before she replied, “Hear what? It’s quiet.”
“My point, Kennedy. It’s quiet, and so is my fucking head.
You know, I can tell you almost every conversation we had at the table tonight?
I can tell you what I ate. I can tell you who got the most drunk, and who will be getting fucked or fussed out.
If you didn’t know, my brother is the one who ain’t getting no pussy tonight. ”
“Because you snitched on him!” she shouted but then chuckled. A soft smile graced her face before she told him, “I get where you’re going.”
“Good, because for the first time in I don’t know how long, I was present.
I didn’t check my watch, I didn’t zone out to where I ain’t know what the hell was going on, and I didn’t have to look over my shoulder or wonder if today was the day I’d fucking die or get picked up.
I don’t give a damn if they fuck Aura in every hole and dump her ass in a ditch somewhere.
I’m not leaving until I said I was. Shit, I might hang around a bit longer. ”
With that, Relic stood from the chaise, extinguishing the tip of his cigar in the ashtray before he padded toward the pool.
Kennedy studied his every step, mesmerized by his gait that held a giant’s presence and screamed he was a top dog who didn’t care about the peasants beneath him if they weren’t his people.
If his energy didn’t give that vibe alone, Relic declaring he didn’t care whether Aura lived or died damn sure did.
As much as that truth should’ve jolted her, or sent her running for the hills, it did neither since she’d grown used to the nefarious man who stood feet away, shoving down his boxer briefs before he dove into the neon blue, LED lit pool as naked as the day he was born.
Kennedy decided at that moment; he was right.
She was just as twisted as him because the last thing she saw while staring at Relic was a villain or the monster he had been painted as to the world.
Fear didn’t overcome her because she saw a man who was just as vulnerable as anyone, given the right circumstances or the right person to bring it out of him.
Her eyes tracked him as he lapped the pool twice and then broke the surface to swim over to her. Relic mopped a hand down his face as he floated in front of her, bracing his palm on her bare thigh as he stared at with a corner of his mouth quirked.
“Did I give you enough time to figure out a plan that I’d agree with?”
She nodded. “Send the team back. There’ll be way too many eyes on them, and Saucy needs someone there with her before she has a meltdown.
But like I said, their nosey ass fans won’t expect to see you yet, so no one will check if you’re back or not.
Titan and Shabu aren’t connected to the label, so—”
“My brothers and their women can stay with us,” he finished, tossing his hands up like she’d made a field goal. “And that’s why you’re big dog muthafuckin’ Kennedy. I guess you can put them on the PJ for the inconvenience.”
“So, that’s settled, but you can’t stay longer than we’d planned. It’ll mean she’s held more time because you need to be the first person seen with her once she’s back. That’s when people will have their eyes on you the most.”
“Oh, now you understand that?”
“I never said I didn’t, but I didn’t appreciate how you said the shit and then gave stipulations like my pussy isn’t the one you’re actually sliding in. You pissed me off.”
“When do I not, Kennedy? Are you ever happy when you’re with me?”
Kennedy opened her mouth to pop shit back but then shut it as her face fell flat. A dry chuckle spilled from Relic before he swiped her phone out of her hand to sit it beside the pool.
“That’s what I thought. Take off your bra and panties, and get in here.”
Her face twisted up, and she peered around like there wasn’t a way in hell that he was talking to her. She jutted a finger at her chest.
“Me? ‘Cause if you think for a second I’m about to get in that deep ass pool, you’re out of your fucking mind. We can go to the three feet.”
“There is no damn three feet. It starts at five. What the hell are you afraid of when I’m right here? You don’t trust me?”
“Fuuuck, no!” she dragged, making his head fall back in a hearty laugh that put a stirring in her belly. “Hell, you might try to drown my ass if I get in there.”
“The only thing I’m trying to drown is my dick in that wet ass pussy, and I don’t want to hear shit about us being partners either. We’re alone, which means you’re my bitch right now. Get in the damn pool.”
Relic held out his arms like he planned to catch her if she jumped.
Her eyes darted to the pool floor and then at Relic’s pellucid eyes that mimicked the water around him.
She inched forward but then stalled with her heart racing, making his pearly whites pop out at her bitching up about a little water.
When she tried to retreat, he lunged forward to grip her waist and dragged her off the edge.
Coolness shocked her nervous system when the water inhaled her, causing her heart to palpitate before it spit her back out like she was the nastiest thing it’d tasted.
Her feet flailed to stay afloat, and she gasped deep breaths, while a laughing Relic circled his arm around her waist to pull her against his chest.
“Relax. You look goofy as hell, doing all that moving and going nowhere.”
“I can’t breathe!”
“How in the hell can’t you breathe when you’re above water, Kennedy? I’m about to let you go if—”
“Okay!” she whined, hooking an arm around his neck to cling to him as he wiped the water off her face.