Chapter 23 Rhythm Brooks
RHYTHM brOOKS
My hands shook in my lap while Kodi drove with one hand and kept the gun pressed into my side with the other. Meanwhile, the kids sat in the backseat with their headphones on. Kinsley hummed under her breath, distracted by whatever cartoon song was playing. KJ stared out the window.
“Kodi, please,” I begged. “We can talk. We can talk about whatever you’re feeling. Just slow down and let’s pull over.”
“It’s too late for talking,” he barked with his eyes hard on the road. “You had months to talk to me.”
“Kodi—”
“Nah, don’t start that sweet shit now. You only want to talk because you’re scared.”
I swallowed, trying to keep my tears under control. “I am scared. Because you’re doing too much with the kids in the car.”
He laughed psychotically. “Good. Now you know what it feels like.”
“What it feels like to do what?” my voice shook.
“To lose,” he said. “To feel everything slipping away from you and can’t stop it.”
I looked at his face from the side, and it scared me more than the gun did.
He looked different than he had just months ago.
His cheeks looked hollow. His eyes looked sunk in.
He looked emotionally sick, the way most people do while going through a crippling heartbreak.
But Kodi wasn’t heartbroken. He was jealous and his ego had been bruised.
He was operating from fear that another man had what he fumbled and could not get back.
That kind of fear was the most violent because it was the most desperate to win.
“Kodi, we can —” He pressed the gun harder into my side, making me wince.
“Shut the fuck up.”
My throat closed. I stared ahead and forced myself not to look back at the kids. I didn’t want them to see the fear in my eyes.
The streets blurred past us. Lights went by in a blink because of how fast he was driving.
Then a black truck slid up in the lane next to us. It matched our speed and held it, so my eyes went to the tinted windows first. Then the window on the passenger’s side rolled down.
Legend was behind the wheel. Sincere sat in the passenger seat, with his eyes locked on me.
Sincere’s face was filled with panic, the kind a man got when the woman he loved was in danger and he could not reach her.
His eyes stayed locked on me. They were angry and desperate, searching my face like he was trying to read my expression to see if I was hurt.
His jaw worked like he was grinding his teeth, and I could tell he was holding himself back from doing something reckless right there in traffic just to get to me.
In the back passenger seat, Saint leaned forward into the open window space, and everything about him looked vicious.
His eyes were cold and his posture was forward like he was already calculating where to hit first. He did not look scared; he looked offended, like Kodi had crossed a line that could not be uncrossed, and now Saint was ready to make him pay for it.
Relieved, my mouth opened, but I knew better to make a sound. But Kodi caught it, anyway. He followed my stare, then turned his head and saw them riding right beside him.
His mouth curled as his eyes narrowed. He looked at me again and smiled with no warmth. “Oh, that’s your lil’ boyfriend?”
“Kodi, please,” I whispered.
He started laughing. It did not sound normal or amused. It sounded…unhinged.
“That nigga think he can save you? He gonna play Captain Save a Hoe?” Kodi’s gaze then snapped back to the truck.
He lifted his chin at them, daring them to make a move.
Then he slammed on the gas. The car surged forward so hard my body jerked against the seatbelt.
The gun stayed pressed into my side. He cut between lanes without signaling, forcing another car to slam on brakes behind us.
Tires squealed, horns blared, and drivers rolled down their windows, cursing him out.
“Kodi!” I cried. “Stop!”
He swerved again, barely missing a parked car, then scraped the side of a moving one. The sound of metal on metal was loud.
In the backseat, KJ pulled his headphones off. “Daddy!” he screamed. “Stop! Slow down! You gonna crash!”
“Kodi,” I begged. “You’re going to kill us. Please!”
He did not answer. He drove faster and more reckless, cutting through traffic, forcing people out of his way. Cars swerved. Brakes slammed. People leaned on horns and shouted out windows. But Legend kept up with him.
KJ cried louder. “Daddy, please! You’re scaring me!”
“Kodi, listen to him. Listen to your son!”
Kodi finally turned his head and looked at me fully. His face was blank.
My whole body locked up.
He held my gaze and spoke with a cold voice that scared me more than anything had that evening. “Maybe killing us is what I want to do.”