Chapter 9
Chapter
Nine
KENDRIX
“Seth what the fuck is going on here?” I threw everything on my desk on the floor, making a bigger mess than what we already had on our hands.
Seth’s frustration was evident on his face, someone was fucking with us, with me. I came to my office, the private one that not many people knew of, to find pictures of Sharlene’s dead and bloody body taped to the door. Thank God I owned the building, and there were only two other offices there.
“Man, I’m so confused. There has to be something we are missing here.” I watched the surveillance cameras three times to see nothing. On the screen, the time stamp didn’t move for almost five minutes, and then it resumed like normal. That meant whoever we were working against here was a hacker who overrode my system.
My phone dinged with a text from Brian, that read: SOS, get over here now
In my heart, I knew those flowers from yesterday were somehow connected to this. I scanned the note into my database and ran the handwriting through a special system, but it didn’t pick up anything. The note was abstract, but it wasn’t addressed to Phoenix; it was addressed to me. I pondered the wording again to try and figure out who this person was.
You should know that you’re no good for her; she’s too innocent, and you hurt everything you touch. I won’t let you do that to her. You know Sharlene called your name out, too, when I stabbed her five times; I really wish they would see you for who you really are. But they will soon.
“I have to go. There is a family emergency, but lock this building down, and I’ll come to you to chat soon.” I said to Seth before heading out the door.
God was on my side because I made it across town in under thirty minutes. I went to knock on the door, but it flew open instead. Brian stood there looking pissed off with Levi right behind him.
“Listen, it’s time you tell us what’s going on. This shit is affecting my family, and I can’t have that,” Brian said, shutting the door behind him so that we could sit on the porch.
“What are you talking about B?”
“What I’m talking about is someone sending a threatening note to my cousin over something you got going on. When you came to live with us, I never pushed you too much for information other than what you gave me, but I need every secret you have, Kendrix. We are supposed to be family, and I can’t be blindsided by the stuff you have going on. That’s my cousin in there, the auntie to my little girl and best friend to my fiancée. I love you, brother, and I won’t judge you; I need you to trust me, trust us.” He pointed back at Levi, who was quietly observing me.
“Kendrix, we are your best friends; you can let your guard down enough to trust us to help you out of whatever it is.” They both stared at me, and I remembered the words from the sermon Phoenix, and I watched the other night.
“The problems you are facing right now are because you think you can handle everything yourself, but you can’t. Even Jesus needed the help of the disciples to do his ministries. Is your pride standing in the way? Are you afraid that people will judge you for your mistakes?”
“You guys are right. This is getting out of hand even for me to handle, and I have been holding on to it for quite some time now. It’s a long story, so let me start from the beginning.”
PHOENIX
Brown Sugar will always be my comfort movie, and Taye Diggs embarrassing his cheating wife will always be my favorite part. He was genuinely acting up in that restaurant, and it did the job of lifting my mood. I wanted to see Kendrix, but he hadn’t come inside yet.
I saw the look Levi and Brian exchanged before they went outside, and they’ve been out there for almost three hours now.
“Let me go check on the baby really quick. She’s sleeping, but I still like to look at her and put my hand on her little chest to feel her breathing. I’ll be right back. You don’t have to pause it.” Makayla said after refilling my wine glass.
The door crept open, and I didn’t turn around even though I wanted to see if it was him. That note said a lot without saying too much, but something told me that Kendrix knew more than let on before. He told me not to worry about it and would tell me when I needed to know.
Shouldn’t I know now, especially since it came to my house?
“Hey,” He softly said, taking Makayla’s seat on the couch. I turned to look at him and saw Brian walking up the stairs in the direction that Makayla went.
“Are you okay, Nix? I’m heading out; call me if you need anything.” Levi kissed me on the forehead and walked out the front door.
My emotions were everywhere; I felt many things I hadn’t in a long time.
“Are you okay?” Kendrix tapped my knee softly to gain my attention.
I looked over at him, and he looked stressed; his eyes were red with exhaustion and a tinge of sadness.
“Physically, I am safe, but mentally, I’m not ok, Kendrix. Something is going on here that you know more about than you are willing to explain. I’m somehow involved in it. That note that you didn’t want me to see at the restaurant is probably nothing compared to the one I got. He said that he heard my moans, an intimate moment between the two of us. My privacy was invaded, this person could have been in my home, I have no idea. You need to tell me something right now, Kendrix Morgan. Do you think it’s okay I’m walking around here blindly while some psycho is out loose.” I unraveled the note that I must have read one hundred times and shoved it in his face.
Kendrix shut his eyes tightly and took a couple of deep breaths before hugging me so tightly that even though I couldn’t breathe, I didn’t want to. This is what I needed from him: his protection .
“I’m so sorry, baby. I didn’t… I promise I didn’t know. Please let me hold you for a little while longer, and I will try to explain everything I know.” He pulled me into his lap, and I buried my head into his chest, finally letting the tears that had been hanging on by a thread fall.
My skin stopped crawling, and the feeling of wanting to throw up went away. I was okay, at least for now.
“Are you sure that you are ready to leave here, Phoenix? You can stay with us forever. You know I can protect you.” Brian was standing in the doorway of his guestroom, which I've been holed up in since the incident. He told Kendrix to leave three nights ago, and I haven’t seen him since. I needed some space from him, and Brian wouldn’t let me out of his sight.
I wanted to go past my house and check on some things to see what was happening; this person wouldn’t run me out of my home.
“Yes, I am going to be ok. I need to go past my house and check things out before going to work; I can’t hide here forever, Brian. Don’t worry about me. I will be fine, and it would kill me if anything happened to you guys by me staying here. So home is where I will be.” I walked into his arms and kissed him on the cheek. Brian is the protector of the family, so I know it is killing him to see me insert some independence, but this situation was too serious for them to be involved in.
“Listen, I get it; you're not scared, but I don’t feel good about this whole thing. Can you think of anyone in your life who would want to harm you? Who else did you date besides Ken? We need to find this person before he tries to contact you.”
I am scared; I don’t want him to know that.
“My dating life pretty much only consists of a few people other than Ken. One guy is married. They had a party for him that I saw on social media, and a few guys didn’t get a second date. Cameron is off in prison, and then there’s Kendrix. To my knowledge, the breakups were clean and cut, with no animosity and no harm done. I have no idea who it could be.” This whole situation was really strange, but I have been trying to remain positive about the entire thing.
“I will make a call and check in on Cameron to see if he somehow has anything to do with this, but to be on the safe side, send me the names of everyone else. I will see what I can find out. But you are not going to the house alone. Kendrix will meet you there, so make sure you talk to him so I won’t have to block him for blowing me up all day to check in on you.” Kendrix has been texting me daily, but I didn’t know what to say, so I left them unread. We were due for a conversation soon, so I had nothing to say until we had that .
I hugged Brian and we placed all my stuff in the car before he tailed me home and stayed until Kendrix showed up. Kendrix opened my door for me but stayed quiet as we walked through the door. Even though I was in my house it still felt different… the same comfort that it used to bring now felt spoiled.
Searching through every room, I noticed that when we got to my bedroom, the body wash I had been faithfully wearing for years was missing, along with a tiny picture of me from college that I kept on my dresser. My feet took me to the living room and to my bookshelf, where the unforgotten present stuffed bear that Cameron had given me sat. I walked past this thing and completely forgot to get rid of it. Kendrix must have noticed me staring at it because he inspected it for a while before making a call to someone to meet us at the house.
I didn’t want to sit down, so I paced the dining room and tried to get in my steps for the day, anything to distract me from the feeling in the pit of my stomach. A knock on the door had my heart beating three miles a minute; Kendrix opened it to reveal Johnathan, his coworker and Makayla’s childhood best friend.
“Nix, hi how are you beautiful?” Johnathan walked over to me and gave me a good squeeze. He has always been friendly and we became closer since the birth of Genesis .
I stared into his ocean-blue eyes and felt a calmness that escaped me all day.
“I’ve been better but seeing a friendly face is always good. What are you doing here?” I knew Kendrix called him, but he didn’t say what he saw on the stuffed animal.
“He’s here because I need him to verify something for me before I tell you what I think I know.” Kendrix softly said but the words didn’t land like that instead they felt like missiles blowing up the rest of the delusion that everything was fine in my world.
He handed the bear to Johnathan, and they stared back and forth at each other for a few seconds before Kendrix looked at me and asked me to sit down.
“No, I can’t sit still right now. What is it?” Johnathan walked over to me and squeezed my hand. “When did you get this bear?”
“It was a present from a creep; he gave it to me on our last date almost a month ago. I forgot all about it. It’s been in that spot since it arrived here. Why, what’s wrong with it?!” I forced steel into my voice.
Johnathan squeezed my hand again and brought the bear closer to me so I could really look at it, “If you look closely at the eyes, they don’t look like regular buttons. There are mini cameras in this thing and there is the tiniest bit of red light streaming from it. The red light means that it’s been recording you, I will take it down to the station and have our people look at it. I’m really sorry but I don’t suggest that you stay here, you should go somewhere else until we handle this situation. We will send some people here to check every crook and nanny to see if this is the only camera planted. Try to keep your head up Nix.” He kissed me on the cheek and walked out whispering a few words to Kendrix by the door.
“Go pack a few things, Jewel; you’re staying with me, and I don’t want to hear anything about it,” Kendrix said, all softness gone from his tone. Lucky for him, I didn’t actually have a rebuttal this time.