Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
MAKARI “HAVOC” SANCHEZ
A FEW DAYS LATER
Ithought that the weird feeling in my stomach would go, but it hadn’t. No matter which way I looked at it, I couldn’t settle on this feeling, but nobody wanted to listen.
The only reason why I went through with it was because of my brother.
He wanted this more than I could understand, and he asked me to trust him.
So, I stayed silent when Orlando spoke about his grand plans.
I said nothing when he brought in a security company we didn’t know.
I didn’t speak up when he decided to broadcast this party all over social media, making it open for anyone to attend.
Maybe I would have felt a little better if he kept it intimate and exclusively for people we knew, but that was Orlando.
That nigga didn’t know what being under the radar meant.
He wanted to be the loudest nigga in the room, at all times, and failed to see it was the quiet ones that held the real power. The ones people needed to watch!
When we pulled up at the club, the crowd of people waiting to get in only added to my anxiety.
There’s no way they gonna check everyone for weapons, I thought as I passed the line of people. I looked at the security team Orlando was adamant about having for this event.
One of them looked at me and turned away as if he couldn’t handle looking me in the eyes.
“Kelechi, I don’t know about this,” I said, pulling on my brother’s shoulder. He turned to look at me and smiled.
“We’re good, Makari, come on.”
Suddenly, someone bumped my shoulder. It was a short, young nigga with a fitted so low I almost couldn’t see his eyes. He was fidgeting with something inside his jacket. That made me put my hand on my waist.
“My fault,” he said before scurrying away. I watched him because something felt off with him, but my brother waved his hand in my face, getting my attention.
“There’s something strange about that nigga,” I said to my brother and tried to go after him, but Kelechi stopped me.
“Let’s party, baby brother,” Hell said.
He put his arm around my shoulders, and I followed my brother inside because maybe I was just being too uptight. The Cove was filled to capacity when we stepped inside, and there was still a line of people waiting to get in.
I’d never seen it this full before. I did feel a sense of pride that so many people came out for my brother, but also knew that most of them were just here to watch and not really to support.
Orlando had large portraits of Hell posted up on the club walls. I already knew he had to pay Mr. Blair a lot of money to pull that off. I noticed one of them was of my brother posing with a crown on his head. It didn’t get any more obvious than that!
I couldn’t help but think about Sincere and what he thought about this. He may not be responding to the shit, but I knew he saw it all. That nigga didn’t miss anything. I then thought about the night I went to his mansion. Would he have brought up my brother to me?
I sighed, knowing it was best if I didn’t know. As long as he left me out of it, that was all I truly cared about. There was no way I could tell Hell that he was calling me. I normally told him everything, but that was something I would have to keep from him.
Orlando had the whole upper level of the club reserved for us. More photos of Hell lined the walls up here too. I found myself a seat in the corner, facing the stairs, and made myself a drink. I was on edge and needed something to help me calm down.
Sony entered with his group of friends being loud as fuck as usual. He nodded his head at me and went over to Hell. Immediately, they started popping bottles and being all excited and shit. I looked down into the crowd of people and sighed. Maybe I was just overthinking things.
Orlando was somewhere in the building with his old ass friends, probably trying to find some young, naive females to trick outta their panties. I never understood what my mama loved so much about him or why Kelechi’s mama allowed him to play in her face like that.
I knew I didn’t run around in the streets like that with different females because I hated that Orlando did it, and I didn’t want to be anything like that man.
I hadn’t even had a real girlfriend or anything before because every girl I knew had been mixed up in this shit, and I didn’t want that.
I wanted something else—someone else who was mine only. Someone like Kairi.
Although she was still connected to The Society, it was on a much lower scale compared to the other females I had been exposed to.
Like Ocean. Most of the daughters in this shit wanted to be seen and heard and would be out in the clubs doing all types of shit.
On top of that, everybody was fucking on everybody.
I was yet to meet a female from The Society who hadn’t fucked another nigga in this shit except Kairi.
Even my best friend Trini had been with a nigga or two in The Society.
That’s what drew me to her. She was different. Set apart and kept away from it all, just how I wish I could. If it wasn’t for the fact that Orlando was my father and I had Kelechi, I damn sure wouldn’t be anywhere near this bullshit.
I lifted my head and froze when I saw Kairi step into our section.
I hadn’t seen her since I pulled up on her at the Sports Bar and Shakur came for her.
It took a lot of fucking willpower to allow him to take her away from me.
To be handed something you wanted but thought you would never find wasn’t easy to let go of. But I did—for her, not for me.
The selfish part of me wanted to keep her in my life no matter what Shakur, Ocean, or anyone else said about it, but I couldn’t do that to her.
Just like Ocean said she would, she went to her father about us getting married, and now there were whispers about it happening.
Before, nobody cared, but now it was all everyone wanted to happen.
Orlando was all for it, whereas before he simply left me to plan my own shit.
I knew it was because Ocean found out about Kairi, and that was why I let her go.
It wasn’t fair for her to sit there and watch me marry someone else, even if it wasn’t something I wanted to do. She deserved better than that.
Kairi headed for the table with the tray of drinks she was carrying. She hadn’t seen me yet, but she was all I could see in that moment.
Her hair was styled in a bun with a few curls loose.
Her makeup was minimal, and her skin seemed to glow even in the dark club.
Each time the blue and green fluorescent lights bounced across her skin, something in my heart skipped.
My eyes fell to her body, and I felt my pulse quicken, remembering how she felt beneath me.
Her skin on mine. The smell of her skin was forever etched into my brain.
There was no denying I felt something for this girl, and it only made me hate myself even more for being born a Sanchez.
I watched her maneuver around the VIP section as if she was gliding on air and then she looked at me.
Her heart-shaped lips parted in a gasp, her big baby-like eyes locked on my face. She froze, but I could see her body was dying to move and come to me, just like mine was.
Her coworker suddenly said something to her. Kairi nodded while she continued to look at me, and then she left. I let my head fall back, and I sighed. There were so many things I wanted to do and say to her, but I fought my desires and remained in my seat.
For the next few minutes, she came in and out of the section, bringing more and more drinks.
I wondered why the fuck my brother needed all these damn drinks but knew even if I said anything, he was gonna still do him.
Still, at least I was able to look at her a few times.
I noticed Hell tryna be in my business to see if I was looking at her, but I just acted like I was watching what drinks they were bringing into the section.
She came back with the last tray of drinks and glasses. I thought about ordering something random just so I could get a chance to talk to her, but again, I chose to stay in my seat and just look at her.
Sony suddenly looked my way, and I swear he even smirked at me, but I just put it down to my imagining it.
I almost stood to my feet when I saw him pull on her wrist.
“I know what drink you want, Sony,” Kairi snapped, snatching her wrist from his grasp. She then stormed out of the section while Sony laughed with his friends. I narrowed my eyes at him, knowing he was just trying to show off in front of his little bitches.
I noticed Orlando brought his old ass into the section, completely pissing me off.
Hell turned to look at me, and all I could do was shake my head.
No matter what, I didn’t think I would ever be okay being around that damn man.
I used to wonder if he would have treated me better if he wasn’t part of The Society, but I gave up those childish thoughts a long time ago.
I decided to ignore him, since he wasn’t there for me, but I quickly realized I was wrong when he headed my way. My brother was standing between us before I could blink.
“The fuck is your problem now, Orlando?” I barked, mad that he just couldn’t leave me alone. This section was filled with at least thirty fucking people, yet he had to come fuck with me.
“I just came to say that it’s time for you to go now,” Orlando said.
Everyone around us was now tuned into our shit.
I chuckled bitterly. Orlando knew I wasn’t someone who liked being the center of attention, and here he was putting on a show and including me.
All I wanted to do was sit in the corner and have a few drinks until my brother was ready to call it quits. But here comes this nigga!
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked and laughed. I even had to look at Hell to see if he was hearing the same shit. My brother sighed.