24. Lennox
Lennox
Cyrus picked a spot on the outskirts of town that nobody paid much attention to who came and went after dark.
By the time Rook and I pulled in, I saw a car was parked near the back of the lot, and Cyrus was standing beside it with one of his men when we got out.
Nothing about the way he carried himself would change the outcome of any of this shit.
“Job’s done,” I told him once we got close enough.
“Good shit.” Cyrus nodded with approval.
“And I threw Mello in for free,” I added.
“Can’t complain about a bonus.” He laughed.
He opened the back door of his car and grabbed the black duffle bag from inside. I took it and passed it to Rook without looking away from Cyrus while he checked the money.
“The rest of what I owe you is there,” Cyrus said. He had this cocky demeanor like he just knew he was that nigga… the only thing is that he was about to be a dead nigga.
Rook zipped the bag and gave me a nod, letting me know it was all there.
“Now we can talk about the other shit,” I announced.
“What other shit?” He frowned.
“Reiana and Rhyse,” I stated.
“The woman and the kid?” He repeated completely confused.
“My woman and my son,” I corrected.
Cyrus stared at me for a second before his expression changed. “Hold the fuck up. Pierce’s woman?”
“She was never his anything that mattered to me,” I told him. “She’s the mother of my son, and that little boy your men dragged out of her truck is mine.” I grilled him.
“Steele, I didn’t know that shit,” Cyrus said quickly. “Everything I had on Pierce showed he was dealing with her. I needed something that would make that nigga stop hiding and answer me,” he motioned with his hands in front of him.
“I know exactly why the fuck you did it.” That seemed to ease some of the tension in his face.
“Then you can surely understand why I did what I did. Pierce touched my money and my product. I applied pressure. If I knew they belonged to you, I would’ve never sent anybody near them,” he pleaded, but it fell on deaf ears.
“Oh, I believe you.” I nodded.
“Then what the fuck are we talking about?” He questioned.
“The fact that your men still put their hands on my family,” I responded calmly.
“Come on, Steele.” His jaw tightened. “ You know how this shit works. Nobody was supposed to hurt them… it was just leverage. You got them back… they’re alive, and Pierce is dead. There’s no reason for this to turn into something else.” He tried to bargain but I wasn’t hearing none of that shit.
The man beside him tried his luck and failed miserably as Rook sent a slug into his forehead before he could even aim his gun. Cyrus looked at me then his dead man before putting his eyes back on me.
“You’re really about to make this shit personal over some shit I’ain even know?” Cyrus asked.
“You made it personal when your niggas broke my woman’s window and snatched her and my son,” I replied. “Whether you knew who they belonged to doesn’t mean shit to me,” I spat.
“So what the fuck was I supposed to do? Ask every nigga in Arbor Point if they had some hidden connection to her before I made a move?” He looked like I was the irrational one in the situation.
“Nah… you did what you thought you needed to do,” I told him. “Now I’m gone do the same,” I clarified, hoping he finally got the picture.
Cyrus went quiet, and I watched him finally understand where the conversation was headed.
“You’on want to do this,” he pleaded. “If you want more money I can do that,” he tried to compromise but I’ain wanna hear that shit.
“There’s something else you don’t know,” I mentioned.
“What?” He squinted.
“Drex hired me to kill you.” I smirked.
For the first time since we pulled up, Cyrus didn’t have anything to say right away.
“Drex?” he finally questioned.
“Yep,” I countered/
“That snake-ass nigga,” he muttered, shaking his head. “We had an agreement.”
“Apparently he didn’t give a fuck about it.” I shrugged, never taking my eyes off of him.
“So this whole fucking meeting was a setup?” He asked with too much attitude for me.
“Nah,” I replied. “I came to get paid. You hired me to kill Pierce… I killed his ass, and you owed me the rest of my money. I wasn’t letting what happened with my family fuck with my money,” I responded.
His eyes went toward the duffle bag in Rook’s hand before coming back to me. “And now you’re collecting on Drex’s contract too?”
“Nah, Drex ain’t got shit to do with why I’m about to kill you,” I informed him. “He could keep every fucking dollar attached to your name for all I care,” I continued. “This one’s free.”
“Steele, hold the fuck on,” Cyrus rushed out. “We can fix—”
Before he could put a period at the end of his sentence, I shot him in the center of his forehead and watched as his body hit the side of the car before dropping to the ground.
“You a cold muthafucka,” Rook laughed.
“Nah, I’m a muthafucka that don’t play about his family,” I corrected as we made our way back to the truck.
“Drop me off at a hotel,” Rook said after a while. “Go be with your family.”
“You gone be good?” I asked him.
“I’m straight,” he assured me.
Instead of arguing, I did as he asked and dropped him off. By the time I got back to Reiana’s, it was late. When I let myself in the living room light was still on and Reiana was sitting on the couch with a blanket over her legs, but the second she saw me, she pushed it aside and stood.
“You okay?” she asked as she came toward me, looking me over like she was searching for war wounds.
“I’m good,” I assured her as I pulled her closer, holding her for a minute before asking, “How’s Rhyse?”
“He’s asleep,” she answered. “He tried to wait up for you, but he couldn’t keep his eyes open,” she simpered.
Knowing he was upstairs asleep in his own bed was enough for me.
“Is it over?” She asked quietly.
“Yeah… it’s over,” I confirmed.
“Dorian?” She asked as her eyes searched mine.
“Dead,” I answered, and when she hesitated, I already knew the next question.
“And Cyrus?” She asked.
“That nigga dead too,” I confirmed. “Neither one of them can bring any more shit to your door,” I responded.
Reiana let out a breath and lowered her head against my chest. She didn’t ask how I did it or what happened, and I wasn’t offering any details. All she needed to know was that the shit that had reached her and Rhyse was handled.
“I’m glad it’s over,” she said after a moment. “I just want things to feel normal again.”
“They will,” I told her as I rubbed my hand over her back. “Might take a minute after what happened, but you and Rhyse don’t have to look over your shoulders because of those niggas anymore.”
“What about you?” She asked.
“What about me?” I questioned.
“Now that you’ve handled Dorian… where does that leave us? He was the reason you came here in the first place, so there’s really no need for you to stay,” she stated somberly.
I looked down at her for a second because I hated that she even thought that.
“Dorian might’ve been what brought me to Arbor Point, but that nigga ain’t the reason I’m still here,” I told her as I pulled her closer.
“I found out I had a son, got you back in my life, and you think I’m packing my shit because the job is done? ” I frowned down at her.
“I didn’t say you were packing your shit,” she replied softly. “I just didn’t know what you planned to do,” she proceeded.
“I plan on staying in my son’s life for one,” I answered. “And as far as me and you, I already told you how I feel… none of that changed because that nigga is dead.”
“You have a whole life in Cannon Hills, Lennox,” Reiana uttered.
“And?” I questioned, keeping my arm around her waist. “Cannon Hills ain’t going nowhere. Neither are my businesses, Lennyn, or anything else I have there. That doesn’t mean I can’t figure out how you and Rhyse fit into my life too.”
“I’on want you feeling like you have to rearrange everything because of us,” she admitted.
“That’s my decision to make… not yours,” I told her. “And I’m not doing shit I’on wanna do. I want my son… I want you. Everything else can get figured out around that.”
“You make it sound simple,” she stated as she looked up at me.
“It is to me,” I replied. “The complicated part was spending seven years not knowing the truth. I know it now, so I’m not about to create another reason for us to lose time.” I kissed her to let her know I was done with the conversation.
I didn’t know exactly what everything would look like yet, but I knew I wasn’t going back to a life where Reiana and Rhyse didn’t exist. That shit wasn’t happening.