Chapter 20 Relic
“That bitch. That fucking...”
Relic gripped his head and paced in the middle of his room because Kennedy had thrown him off.
She’d strung him along for over a month, making him believe that she had grown genuine feelings for him.
Enough feelings that she would stick it out with him when that boulder fell on his fucking head and sent him to the pits of darkness he’d tried avoiding for most of his life.
He’d done a horrible job of it, but she’d made it better.
Kennedy had shone a little light in his life and then snatched it back after he reached to wrap his fingers around the bright spot.
If anyone ever said that Kennedy wasn’t as much of a fucking monster as him, they were a liar.
She was the type that’d found the last piece of heart in the monster himself only to mince it to dust because she goddamn could.
Relic regretted not offing her to the give the Feds the evidence they craved to put him away for life.
“Bro, you good?”
His pacing stopped, and he rolled his neck to relieve the tightness there before glancing at the doorway where his brother stood with pinched brows.
Shabu stepped in like he’d been invited and surveyed the area, attempting to find the answer to his question since Relic could only stare at him in silence.
“Where’s Kenn Dog at?”
“Fuck her. Fuck that sneaky, manipulative...”
Relic balled his mouth before his fists followed while his body tremored in uncontainable rage. Shabu chuckled when the situation was far from amusing to his brother.
“What the fuck happened? Y’all were just chilling and shit outside.”
“She knew... and I knew she knew.”
Shabu scratched through his locs with his face twisted up. “Nigga, what? Look, I’m too fucked up for riddles, so you gotta speak like a normal person right now. What did she know?”
“About the job I gave P that he botched.”
Relic threw it out there, and Shabu was slow to catch it. His brows dipped, and he tilted his head like the words needed a better path within his ears for him to process it. After a beat, Shabu flailed up his hands like he was tired of Relic and his bullshit.
“Muthafucka, she knows you set her on fire! And you knew she was holding that shit? Are you out of yo fucking mind? You know what, that’s a dumb ass question ‘cause I know you are!” Shabu ranted trekking further inside the room. “So, what happened, and what did she say?”
“She said her time was up, grabbed her bags, and left. She really fucking left us.”
“To go where, Relic? To do what? We already got the other situations hanging over your head. What if she’s one of them and—”
“She’s not,” he asserted, cutting the mere thought of her snitching short. “She’s a lot of shit, but she’s far from a fucking opp or a rat.”
“Can you be one hundred percent positive of that?”
“I said she’s not.”
“But nigga, are you sure?” Shabu pressed, slapping the back of his hand into his palm. “Can you say that shit with certainty that the woman you set on fire and then set up isn’t going to switch up? Or hasn’t secretly been on the other team since they dragged her into that interrogation room?”
“I’m sure.”
Relic cringed and rolled his tongue around his mouth to get rid of the bad taste that came with his half-truth. He wanted to believe Kennedy wouldn’t stoop to that level or resort to proving she was as sneaky as he claimed. After the stunt she’d just made; Relic couldn’t put shit past her.
“You can’t even say that with a straight face, bro. She just left you for dead, and you’re still trying to save her! You know what time it is. I gave her a pass, and you gave her about twenty. I gotta put her on ice.”
“Shabu, I warned you not to fucking—”
“Nigga, I don’t give a fuck about yo warning!
I give a damn about making sure you’re straight and that ain’t no bitch is gon’ be the end of you.
What’d you tell me, huh?” Shabu stalked up to his brother, gripping his head like the nigga would do him.
“You told me that if you get too lost in her or blind to where you miss some shit, to save you. I gotta fucking save you, bro,” he muttered, meshing their foreheads together.
“I know you slipped up and fell into some feelings, but do what you do any other time and put that shit aside. Tell me, you understand, nigga.”
“I can’t.”
“Why the fuck not?!”
“Because she’s my fucking wife, Shabu!”
Shabu released his brother and backpedaled like his touch had scalded him worse than the salon fire had done to Kennedy.
Relic stalked to his nightstand, retrieving the key from his pocket before pulling the paperwork out of the drawer to toss on the bed.
Shabu mugged him, like he wanted to kill his ass instead, before snatching the papers up to check their validity.
His eyes rounded the more he inspected their marriage license and certificate that looked exactly like the ones from when he’d gotten married to his wife. The nigga wasn’t lying.
“I took a play out of your book. We went to the courts and got it done last week,” Relic divulged as his brother continued to stare at the proof like I’d vanish if he willed it to hard enough.
“Because you knew she was a snake, and this was the only way we’d stay off of her ass, but guess what?
” Shabu flung the papers across the room.
“I don’t give a damn. I’ll let you hate me before I chance her taking you down.
This shit alone proves she needs to go. You don’t move reckless like this, ever!
I’m finishing what we started, and you’ll be behind bars where you can’t protect her or stop me.
You’ll thank me for it later. Now, let’s get back downstairs ‘cause our folks were looking for you.”
A languid smile stretched across Shabu’s face before he fanned his brother along, and Relic remained stuck in place, seeing the side of Shabu he knew sat dormant under the love for his wife, the affection for his children, and the need for brotherly attention from him.
That little boy who had shot Joseph, because he was determined to eliminate a problem, had reared its head but for the wrong person.
Kennedy belonged to Relic. She should have been left for him to decide her fate, but Shabu was stepping on his toes.
“I get it now,” he stated, staring at his brother dead in the eyes. “I get why you came to my house and threatened to kill me if I had touched Savvy before she was even your wife. I would do the same shit.”
Shabu laughed as if the lowkey threat meant nothing to him because it didn’t.
“Yea, that shit doesn’t feel too good, does it?”
Before Relic could respond, what sounded similar to a bomb exploded out of nowhere, causing a faint ringing in his ears. Time stopped, and that boulder dangling over his head dropped, as his home’s foundation shook and rattled like his insides before another explosion went off. Screams followed.
He and Shabu took off downstairs as voices boomed around the house’s perimeter, while boots stomped across his clean floors. Relic had barely hit the bottom step when one of the SWAT agents yanked him the remaining way to sling on the ground.
“Back up! Stay back!” the agent ordered Shabu, who glowered while retreating a few steps.
Relic grunted as a knee dug into his spine while his face was squished against the floor.
His arms were bent in excessive force that he didn’t complain about while being handcuffed and read his Miranda rights.
Shrill cries sent his attention toward the foyer, and he spotted Savvy being escorted to the door with a bawling Michi rushing behind her as the agents shoved her back.
Pierre followed her in a set of cuffs with Los yelling that he’d get him straight, and Treasure stood off to side hugging herself while her sister and man were taken into custody.
“Whoop!” Shabu hollered, leaning over the railing to see Savvy better as she was pushed toward the door.
Relic frowned when she glanced back with damp eyes and a frightened but assured nod of her head to signal that she was fine.
“I’m okay. I know you got me.”
“It’s forever up about you, Whoop. Hold tight, and don’t fold on me! You won’t be in there long.”
Relic craned his neck to peek up at Shabu, who glared back with a look of indifference, telling Relic all he needed to know. Shabu had warned his wife about her arrest well before that moment.
His body jerking to one side before being hoisted up in another stole his attention. Relic stood tall, chin up and chest to let them know they couldn’t break him. Then the smallest voice in the room did it for them, and made him want to fall to his fucking knees.
“Relic! Don’t take him. Relic!” Jahleel called out for him, knocking the wind out of his lungs as his chest caved from the pressure of leaving without a goodbye.
Before Relic had time to think better of it, he yanked away from the agent detaining him and darted toward the stairs. Jahleel jumped down the steps he had left, crashing against Relic’s chest and holding tight as additional agents rushed over to break them apart.
“I’ll be back. I won’t let them keep me from you. You hear me?” he whispered to his son before his head jerked back like someone attempted to snap his neck.
A hard punch landed to his face next, and Shabu flew down the steps just to end up tackled, while Jahleel swung his little fists at the agents blocking his path.
“Don’t hurt him! Don’t hurt my dad!” he hollered in a fit, and Relic swore his fucking heart combusted inside his chest. “Dad! Please, don’t leave me. Daaad!”
“I’ll be back, Jah! I’m fucking coming home for you!” Relic vowed and meant every word.
His body was slammed into the wall and then tossed outside onto the porch, scraping the side of his face before they picked him up again and dragged him to the sprinter they happily tossed him in back of. Relic felt nothing.
His eyes were open, but he couldn’t make out a thing inside the vehicle, and the sounds around him were no more than buzzes in his ear. Jahleel’s cry for him not to leave overpowered it all.
Relic would take his last breath ensuring that his son got what the fuck he requested. He’d been checked, but it was nowhere near a checkmate.