Chapter 18 Relic #4
“I can’t think of a single thing I need to holler at you about. Get Kennedy in here.”
“You get her in here, nigga. Oh, wait, you can’t ‘cause you couldn’t even get her ass to hear you out on a prepaid line. You couldn’t take a hint, so I’m doing you a favor by setting this meeting up. This is your time to shine, Ezekiel, so make it count because it’s your last.”
“Y’all young niggas crack me up. You hear this shit, Sarge?
” He backhanded his friend’s arm as they chuckled at Relic’s pure audacity.
“If I want to call Kennedy every minute on the fucking hour, I will. If I want to visit her at that salon she runs, I’ll do that, too.
You ain’t scaring me, and you ain’t stopping shit with me and her.
What we got going on has nothing to do with you. ”
“See, that’s the thing,” Relic stated coolly with a clasp of his hands.
He stepped toward Ezekiel and stressed the fact, “Y’all don’t have shit going on, muthafucka.
Now, I tried to keep it player because this little issue goes beyond you thinking you can get Kennedy back, but I tend to get disrespectful ‘bout shit that belongs to me. I know that her pussy is superb, head is lethal, and loyalty unmatched, but ain’t none of it for you, nigga.
Fuck around and die behind my bitch tonight if you want to. ”
“Your bitch? Yea, I can see you’re just fun for her like the last nigga was. A rebound. A mini me. You don’t even respect her, so I know she won’t be with your ass long.”
“Funny how you think you know her, but you don’t even know, Kennedy loves being my bitch.
When she isn’t that, she’s my partner. My right hand and reflection.
She’s my...” He paused and snapped his fingers, pretending like he was searching for the term.
He gazed at Shabu. “What does P call her, bro?”
Shabu smirked. “Your Bonnie.”
“My muthafuckin’ Bonnie! Larenn. The queen to her goddamn king! See, you haven’t had Kennedy like I have her. Never will. I get the boss bitch, the mastermind, and the freak that loves how I show her why I’m daddy when I’m in that—”
Ezekiel charged Relic, sending a right hook to his jaw before he could finish his sentence. Blood pooled in Relic’s mouth, and he smirked because Ezekiel had just made his fucking night.
Another hit connected with his face before they both stumbled backward, falling onto the couch just as he sent a jab to Ezekiel’s nose, hearing that crack of bone before a gush of blood followed.
Pure satisfaction coursed through him. He shoved Ezekiel off him to stand, and they swung at the same time, going pound for pound while fucking up the room in the process.
The couch rammed the wall with a thud after their solid builds bumped it before scrapping in the opposite direction.
Relic heard muffled shouting around him but didn’t care to make it out as they scuffled, colliding with the wall and then falling against the dressing table.
A pain radiated through his jaw when Ezekiel did a bitch move and struck him with an aerosol canister across the face and then head.
His temples pounded as he two-pieced the nigga to frazzle him before slinging this bulky frame onto the dresser.
The mirror cracked when he slammed Ezekiel’s head against it and then flung him to the ground.
Adrenaline coursed in Relic’s veins, charging him up, and he punt kicked Ezekiel in the face before scooping him up just to body slam him through the wooden coffee table.
“That’s what the fuck I’m talking about!” Los lauded, clapping his hands hard as hell. “Thought you was ‘bout to let him beat yo ass folks.”
Relic caught himself as he tripped over Zeke from the table collapsing under the weight. He scrambled to his feet and swiped an arm across his bleeding lips as the dressing room door opened. Kennedy stepped inside, took a look at the faces staring back at her, and froze dead in her tracks.
“It’s not as bad as it looks.”
Shabu broke their silence with that before shutting the door behind her to stand in front of it like he was blocking anyone from going out rather than coming inside.
His gun was clenched in his hand, and after Kennedy observed the others, she noted Los had his weapon out, too, while Sarge stood near a corner, empty handed.
She assumed they had been searched before entering the venue and didn’t have their weapons on them.
“What the fuck you got us roped into, Kennedy?! You got that nigga texting Zeke, pretending to be you. Inviting us into bullshit ass setups!” Sarge ranted, going off. “You supposed to be our family! What’s all this?”
The stare Kennedy leveled at him was emotionless, dull, and unenthused by the chaotic scene before her. Her expression was the exact opposite of what she was feeling in that moment.
She hoped her chest wasn’t rising and falling as fast her heart was beating from seeing Ezekiel and Relic in the same room.
A ball of anger and frustration formed in her gut after hearing Sarge blast what Relic had done, but she didn’t show it because they were a team.
She couldn’t let those niggas see them at odds.
One thing she’d finally learned about Relic was that he never enacted a plan without intent behind it, so she’d wait for his explanation and not move too fast. She’d give him grace because if he wanted to solve her problems and dirty his hands in her name, then she’d let him.
If clearing up the confusion that had her bawling in bathrooms and on beaches while on vacation made him feel like more of a man; who in the hell was she to stop him.
After hearing how his father used the term weakness as a manipulation tactic, she wouldn’t dare belittle and reprimand him in a room of grown men.
She didn’t have it in her to make him feel like that again.
Kennedy turned to Relic and gave him eye contact as she set her independent tendencies and trust issues aside to let him lead like Shabu had just schooled her to do. She just hoped Relic wasn’t about to lead her astray.
“That’s my gift to you,” he stated, pointing at Ezekiel who groaned as he stood up, bloodied and bruised.
The visual reminded her of a cat gifting a dead mouse to its owner. Although disgusting, it was done as an act of affection, so she said nothing.
“Beating his ass was a gift to me, but that’s not why I invited him. You think he killed your brother, right?”
Relic didn’t beat around the bush, and Kennedy was too exhausted from the stress of it all to lie.
“Yes.”
“You think what?”
Her gaze went to Ezekiel after detecting the genuine disbelief in his tone. Agony contorted his swollen features as he looked from her to Sarge, waiting for one of them to tell him it was a joke or defend his fucking honor.
“Koda was my goddamn brother! Why y’all standing there, looking at me like I’m an enemy? Like I’m a fucking opp,” he sneered, glaring at Kennedy. “You’re coming up with delusional ass lies all because I chose another woman over you? Or is it still about the fucking money?”
“Fuck that money! None of this is about that money!”
“Exactly,” Relic butted in, vying for her attention.
He didn’t like her placing it or her energy on another man.
“It wasn’t about the money. When you first told me that your brother died after Zeke broke up with you, I assumed that he did the shit, so he wouldn’t get nixed out of the money if your brother cut him off for what he did.
I wasn’t seeing the full picture ‘til me and Los got into it recently.”
“How the fuck do I keep getting thrown in shit?” Los griped, and Relic grilled him.
“Nigga, shut the hell up. The point is, you were mad that you bowed out, and I didn’t cut you in.
Kennedy, the first time you told me about Koda, you said his partners were home because they’d bowed out, so Zeke had given up his cut beforehand.
He had nothing to lose if he’d told Koda about y’all, Larenn.
Nothing but his friendship, and that wasn’t worth setting him up over. You get what I’m saying to you?”
Kennedy gripped her chest and stuttered an inhale as if she suddenly had a surplus of air that was too great for her to breathe. Her eyes wandered to Ezekiel, who looked heartbroken at her even fathoming the thought, and that alone sent her lids flittering to not flood with tears.
“I don’t get—” She choked on her words but cleared her throat to interrogate Relic, whose eyes hadn’t left her once. “So, you brought him here to tell me you don’t think he did it?”
“As much as I don’t want to admit it to you, Zeke is innocent, and you needed to know that.
To see it. To feel it so that you’ll stop blaming yourself.
I know it was eating away at you. I know how that guilt festers inside to where it makes everything dark, and even the brightest moments aren’t truly enjoyable, like on our vacation.
I live that shit every day, Kennedy, so I know everyone can’t stomach it, and you don’t deserve to.
I couldn’t leave you stuck inside that lonely a space, baby.
I had to bring you proof, so you could know for sure. ”
Kennedy whimpered, fighting back a sob as her entire core rocked from the inside. The faces in the room blurred, but she knew Relic was still there. He was still watching to see if she’d break, and she was trying so goddamn hard to contain it.
“You didn’t unintentionally get Koda killed, Larenn. You didn’t take your nephew’s father from him, or a son from Diane and Butch,” Relic stressed, studying her as she trembled from emotion. “You got lucky, Kennedy. Let it go.”