Chapter 2
KEEGAN
People tended to call me controlling. In my opinion, people were dramatic as hell. I didn’t build this million-dollar company by being a pushover and not knowing everything about my business, including my employees.
Aight, who was I kidding? I didn’t really give a fuck about my employees as long as they did what they needed to do to keep my company running. Cybersecurity was no joke.
“She left two hours and seven minutes ago,” I muttered.
Jean, my secretary, who had been talking to me about my agenda for the week, paused and scrunched her blonde brows. “Congratulations?”
I mugged her.
“Chyna. She left. Some kind of emergency. I haven’t heard from her since she dropped Liam off this morning.”
Jean’s face melted into a kind smile. She was an older white lady with the kindest blue eyes I’d ever seen.
She’d worked for me for the past decade.
Outside of Chyna, she was probably the only employee I cared about, simply because she pushed past my hard exterior and decided on day one that she would be a second mother to me.
“Ah, now your distraction made sense. You two still dancing around the fact that you’re smitten with each other?”
I snorted. Jean was old school and had been pointing out how smitten I was with Chyna for the past few years. I couldn’t even argue with the lady. She wasn’t wrong. From the moment I met Chyna, I liked her cute ass.
Growing up in the projects in Desmore Bay got me accustomed to a certain caliber of women.
Chyna was nothing like the hoes I grew up around, even though she also grew up in the projects.
She was different. She pulled herself up out of poverty.
Shorty carried herself with class and dignity.
The independence she practiced every day was a huge turn-on.
Not only did she understand me on a deep level because we had similar upbringings, but she also understood what it was like to hustle to have better.
Chyna Drayton matched my fly in so many ways, which was why she intimidated the hell out of me. I wasn’t too bigheaded to admit that. At least to myself. If someone else asked, I’d deny the hell out of that.
“That ain’t what we talkin’ ’bout, Mrs. Jean. I’m tryna figure out why she ain’t call me and let me know what’s goin’ on.”
Jean snickered. “Because you aren’t her man, Mr. Slater.”
I blinked at her a few times before I snatched my phone up from my desk.
I opened my text thread with Chyna to make sure she hadn’t sent me a text, and I somehow missed it.
I knew she hadn’t, but my thirsty ass wanted to triple check.
Sighing, I turned in my chair behind my desk and looked out the large windows in my office at Desmore Bay.
After a couple of seconds of taking in the sunny day, I dialed Chyna’s number.
It only took her a couple of rings to answer, and I grinned at that before my smile vanished from my face at the sound of her voice.
“Hello?”
It sounded like she’d been crying.
“What’s goin’ on, Doll?” There was just a second of silence before I heard sniffles. My frown deepened. “Talk to me, Chyna. I thought you were gonna keep me updated on what’s goin’ on.”
“I’m sorry. It’s been a nightmare. A pipe burst in my bathroom and flooded my entire bedroom and living room. Liam’s room is okay and so is the kitchen, but there’s so much damage . . . I just got to my cousin’s house so I can figure out what I’m going to do.”
“What do you need from me?” I asked with no hesitation.
It was always like that with Chyna. Whatever she needed, I was there to give it to her, no questions asked.
Her ass was so damn independent that it normally took her some convincing to take my help, but she was getting better at it now that we had a few years under our belts.
“I have to meet with my landlord back at my place at five. Can you just bring Liam to me at that time? Or do you have a late meeting today? I know sometimes you work late . . . If so, I can come pick him up—”
“Breathe, Doll. Five is fine. I’ll be there.
You sure you don’t need me to meet up wit’ you before that?
” I asked. She always rambled when she felt like she was a burden on someone.
I’d peeped that early on. I thought it was cute, but I also wanted those independent reflexes of hers to quiet down when I was around.
“I’m sure. Keegan?” she asked.
The urge to say “Yes, my love?” felt more overwhelming than it ever had, but I stuffed it back down and said, “Yeah?” instead.
“Thank you. You’re my superman, I swear.”
My heart swelled with pride at her words, and that smile only she could pull up out of me came back. “I got you. Call me if anything else happens in the meantime. Promise?”
“I promise,” she replied before we ended the call.
I grinned at Desmore Bay as I took in the view with a more positive light.
Jean cleared her throat behind me and almost made me jump out of my skin and yelp like a bitch. My signature frown took over once again as I slowly turned back around and glared at Jean. “Yes, Mrs. Jean?”
She smiled at me goofily and asked, “Are you focused enough to properly go over your schedule for the week?”
I rolled my eyes upward and laid my head on the back of my chair as I looked up at the ceiling. It was only just after eleven o’clock. Five seemed like years away. A brilliant idea came to mind, and I peeked at Jean. “How about we just cancel the rest of the week?”
Her thin lips pursed. “You know better.”
I groaned. If anyone was going to keep me on track, it was Jean. “Fine. Can we at least cancel the rest of the day?”
“Negative. You’re booked with meetings today,” she replied.
“What’s the point of bein’ a CEO if I can’t come and go as I please?” I grumbled.
Jean looked at me pointedly. “If you stopped trying to control everything and hired people you could delegate your tasks to, that would be an option.”
I fought the urge to stick both my middle fingers up at her. Instead, I waved a hand at her and said, “Go ’head, man. Fill me in on my schedule. Just make sure we’re done at four thirty today. That’s nonnegotiable.”
“I can do that.” She smiled at me.
I didn’t return the sentiment as I tilted my head on the back of the chair once again. My mind drifted to Chyna. Hearing the sadness in her tone made me want to run to her. I just hoped if she really needed me, she wouldn’t hesitate to call. Until then, five o’clock couldn’t come fast enough.
I felt tiny eyes on me as I drove down the highway. Every time I looked into the rearview mirror, Liam’s eyes bore into mine. The lil nigga studied me . . . Like, his ass was really studying me. Just as I was about to open my mouth and ask lil homie what the problem was, he spoke.
“You old, Mr. Kee?” he asked. If I didn’t have my own three-year-old son, I probably wouldn’t have even understood his mumbling ass, but I was a pro at toddler babble by now.
I probably would have been offended by his question, too, but I understood kids didn’t have filters.
Even though KJ was like me and thought before he spoke, his little mind didn’t understand a lot, so some of the shit he said had me shaking my damn head at him too.
“I don’t think so,” I replied as I switched lanes.
I still felt his eyes on me.
“You not got gray hairs,” he noted.
How old did this lil nigga think I was?
“Nah, I don’t,” I confirmed.
“My pop pop got gray hairs,” Liam said.
“’Cause ya pop pop is old.”
Liam nodded. “He like a hundred.”
I shook my head. I knew for a fact that Chyna’s dad wasn’t a hundred years old, but I would let Liam have that.
“What’s a pop pop?” KJ asked.
“Like Grandpa,” I replied before Liam could confuse him with his toddler logic.
Technically, KJ’s grandpa was my stepfather, but he was the only dad I ever knew.
If it wasn’t for him, I would have either been a kingpin, in jail, or dead.
Instead, he turned my ass into a businessman. I owed Jerome my life, for real.
“Oh. Yeah, my grandpa is a hundred too.”
“He ain’t a hundred, Junior,” I corrected.
“Yeah huh he is,” KJ argued.
“Aight.” I wasn’t about to argue with two three-year-olds. They’d suckered me into more than a few arguments, and I always lost, even though I was always right.
“Grandpa say gray hairs is wimsdom,” KJ told Liam.
I saw Liam’s eyes grow wide. “What wimsdom mean?”
“He means wisdom,” I corrected, though I didn’t know why I bothered. “It means smart.”
“Oh,” Liam said, and he stayed quiet for a moment before I felt his eyes back on me.
“What, man?” I asked, this time without looking in the rearview mirror.
“Is that mean you not smart?”
“What?” I asked, trying to keep up with their little brained logic.
“You not smart ’cause you not have gray hairs.” KJ came in with the assist and delivered the insult perfectly without even knowing it.
I shook my head and decided to ignore them for the rest of the drive. It really be your own damn kids, man.
My mind, as it often did, drifted to Chyna.
She had texted me a few times throughout the day, just to check in and make sure we were still good for five o’clock.
Other than that, I didn’t really know the status of everything.
I already had a solution in my mind, regardless of what was going on, but I wasn’t sure how she would feel about it.
When I turned onto Chyna’s street, I saw her and another woman outside arguing with an old Asian man. My eyes narrowed. I took in the scene as I pulled up behind Chyna’s car.
I didn’t know what they were arguing about, but I knew I didn’t like it, and I knew like fuck I was about to find out what the hell was going on.
I unbuckled my seat belt and turned to look at KJ. “Ninja Turtle mode, lil man.”
KJ’s eyes grew wide, and I smirked as I reached back and unbuckled his car seat. He slid out of the seat and crouched on the floor of the car with his hands over his ears, looking like a turtle.
Liam looked up at me with confusion. “Why him hiding?”
KJ’s head popped up, and he looked at Liam. “Daddy say grow’d ups be weird.”
As if that explained everything, he got back into position.
“Aye, cover those ears tighter. You shouldn’t even be able to hear me,” I said to KJ before I focused back on Liam.
“Ninja Turtle mode is a game me and KJ play. When I say it, you get as small as you can and cover your ears real tight until I come attack you wit’ tickles.
” I tickled Liam’s belly to emphasize my point.
Liam giggled and squirmed until I stopped. When I did, he tugged at his seat belt. “Lemme out.”
He had the same car seat as KJ. About a year ago, when it was clear that KJ and Liam were joined at the damn hip, I bought two more car seats, one for my car and one for Chyna’s, so we could move around with them easier, especially on days like today when shit wasn’t planned.
I undid his seat belt and watched as he crouched down, just like KJ had done, and covered his ears. Their heads were pressed together, and I fought the urge to take a picture. These lil niggas were too gullible. But I was on a mission.
I quickly got out of the car, ready to fuck some shit up behind Chyna Doll. Niggas didn’t know how I was ready to come behind her pretty ass, but they were definitely about to find out.