7. Royal
Royal
When I turned in the driveway at my house, Aaliyah frowned slightly.
I knew she was trying to figure out why we were here.
We were supposed to be going to her parents’ house, so I could confront them as the man in her life and father of their grandbabies.
Whether I was the biological father or going to be a stepfather was yet to be determined.
The point was that I would be playing a vital role in their lives.
I didn’t care about that other nigga. That shit was insignificant compared to living without Aaliyah’s love.
I was truly hoping she would say it back, because I didn’t plan to say it at all.
That shit slipped right out of me. Her pussy had lubed up my fucking thoughts to where I couldn’t even contain them.
When she reciprocated, I wanted to just stay buried in her all night.
I knew she was tired though. They’d been at it almost an hour before I got there.
I got out of the Escalade and went to help her out.
As I did, I noticed Seven pass by. He was building a house two acres down.
Kingsley was almost done building next door.
He honked his horn, and I lifted my hand in the air so he’d know I saw him.
When I opened Aaliyah’s door, I helped her slide out of her seat until her feet touched the ground.
She looked so beautiful in her sundress.
I loved when summer rolled around and she wore shit like this, simply because I knew she didn’t have on under garments.
That ass would jiggle just right when she walked.
I purposely walked a couple of steps behind her just so I could watch that shit.
When we got to the door, I opened it for her, and she stepped inside, then turned to me.
“We’re going upstairs, baby.”
I scooped her up amidst her giggles and cradled her like a baby. “I can’t wait to see what the surprise is.”
“Mm-hmm.”
I was nervous about showing her for some reason, and apparently, she could feel that my nerves were getting the best of me. When I showed her this, she would know that it was something I planned a while ago.
“You okay, Royal? You’re trembling.”
“Yeah,” I said as I stopped outside of the door.
I took a deep breath and kissed her neck, burying my face there for a moment. She always smelled so good. Finally, after gathering the nerve, I lowered her to her feet and opened the door. When she walked in, she gasped. “Royal! Oh my God.”
Tears graced her cheeks as she walked around the room, looking at the browns, yellows, and greens that made up the Jungle Book nursery.
There were giraffes and monkeys painted on the walls, and green rugs that looked like grass on the wooden floors.
She went to one of the wooden framed baby beds and looked inside it to see the giraffe bedding I’d bought, along with the jungle themed mobile hanging there.
She turned to me as I lowered my head. My eyes were still on hers, as I silently tried to reveal to her how invested I was when she told me she was pregnant. She now realized that I was all in from the moment she told me.
“I get it, Royal. I understand why you were so disappointed. I had no idea you were looking forward to this. You were more than disappointed. You were hurt.” She came to me and wrapped her arms around my waist. “It’s so beautiful. Thank you.”
“You don’t have to thank me, but thank you.
You’re going to make me a father. That’s a gift that I can’t top.
I will never outdo that. I wanted to show you when I was moving in, but it wasn’t quite done.
I was waiting for the artist to come in and paint the walls.
It was supposed to be a surprise once we got the DNA results, stating that I was the father. ”
She cried as she laid her head against my shoulder. “Forgive me for not understanding how much this meant to you.”
“You don’t need forgiveness. I didn’t exactly communicate my excitement. I can’t wait until we go to the doctor’s office so we can know what we’re having. We can add more colors when we know.”
She lifted her head and puckered her lips as I caressed her stomach.
I obliged her by kissing her lips, but I believed I gave her a little more than what she was expecting.
I slid my tongue to hers and kissed her like I would never get the chance again.
I had so much passion inside of me that I’d been spreading out to whoever wanted to feel it.
I wanted all that passion to be hers. I wanted her to be the one who could claim me and have my attention.
Even when we were with Nikki and Lareesa last night, I wanted her to see that she always had my attention. They were the side shows. If she wanted it to just be the two of us, I would be fine with that too. She was the only woman I craved. When I separated our kiss, she caressed my cheek.
“Royal, I never thought this day would come. I swear I’ve been wanting you to myself for a while, but I didn’t think you would be cool with that.”
“We have to stop assuming shit about each other. Take a leap and say what you feel. That advice is for me too.”
“I was shocked when you told me you loved me. I was feeling like I had fucked up for a minute.”
“Why? I was doing the same shit you were doing.”
“Right. When I came to that conclusion, I got pissed. Now that we’re in this room, I can see what your emotions were about.”
I kissed her forehead. “Yeah. I needed to get past my ego. My soldiers march hard, but so does other niggas’ soldiers.”
“These are your babies, Royal. I don’t care what the DNA says. You are the only man I want to have that title, despite what my fucking libido was saying.”
I chuckled and kissed her head again. “Come on. Let’s go make these announcements to our parents. Yours first. I owe your dad that much, although he already knows me.”
She smiled as I picked her up again to take her down the stairs. As her feet swung, I realized they looked swollen. “You may need to elevate your feet. They look swollen. We gotta tell Bali about that Monday.”
“Yeah. They started swelling about a week or so ago.”
I walked down the stairs and when we got to the front, I saw Seven standing out there with a frown on his face. “Stay right here, Aaliyah.”
She stopped, then went to the couch and sat as I went to the door. I opened it, and I was pretty sure my frown was matching Seven’s. “What’s up?” I asked.
“Vegas just popped another agent. All those muthafuckas out here, like they trying to see who did it. They asking everybody to stay indoors. So I need to come in.”
I huffed, and he walked inside. “Those muthafuckas will arrest me first.”
“You right,” I cosigned.
When he walked in the front, he greeted Aaliyah, then sat across from her and turned on the TV like he lived here. “Where’s Iesha?”
“She’s in Beaumont. I told her to stay there. They looking for blood. The hunter is being hunted, and they don’t like that shit. I just hope those niggas know what they doing. I would hate for one of them—”
He stopped mid-sentence and looked at Aaliyah. She wasn’t paying him the least bit of attention. She was playing a game on her phone. When she realized it had gotten quiet, she looked up and saw us watching her. “What? Did I do something?”
“Naw,” Seven said. “When you due?”
“August 30th. I’m beyond ready though.”
“Yeah. They say twins usually come early. My mama said she had the twins at thirty-seven weeks.”
Aaliyah nodded. “So we have to stay indoors?”
“Yeah, for right now. An FBI agent got killed, so they’re on the rampage. If they were to stop me, I wouldn’t bite my fucking tongue, so it’s best we stay here, at least until it cools off out there.”
Aaliyah nodded and went back to her game. Everyone in Nome knew that shit was hot because of what happened to PJ. It wasn’t a secret that they all went out there and fucked shit up. Most of them didn’t know that we were plucking those muthafuckas off one by one.
As we watched the news, they informed the public that there were no leads for either agent’s murder.
As she reported, she got breaking news that they found two other bodies.
Seven and I looked at each other with our eyebrows lifted.
Those muthafuckas were efficient. I was willing to bet the cartel got ahold of their asses.
I kicked off my shoes and put my feet up on the ottoman. It looked like we would be chilling out here for the rest of the day and maybe tomorrow too.
“He said he didn’t sleep with her. He wanted to though. She told him no, because she considered him her cousin.”
I blew out a hard breath. Ali patted my shoulder and walked off.
Aaliyah was telling the truth. However, I was gonna confront Ryder J as soon as I saw his young ass.
I was sitting at the diner, watching black SUVs roll down Highway 90 to Liberty, where all the action was going down.
I was glad that shit was out there and not on our home turf.
Saturday, they were crawling all over Nome and didn’t leave until Sunday evening.
They’d questioned my dad, Uncle Storm, Uncle WJ, and Uncle Kenny about if they’d witnessed anything unusual.
Of course, Uncle Storm asked them why would anyone see anything going on in Liberty.
That was thirty minutes away. He knew why they were in Nome, but he was trying to get them to admit it. That never happened.
Kingsley sat next to me with his food. After saying his grace, he said, “What’s up, man?”
“Not too much. You cool?”
“Yeah.”
He wasn’t, but I also knew he wouldn’t say here in front of everyone.
Crew had just walked in, and he had a frown on his face.
Kane was right behind him with the same frown.
I wanted to roll my eyes, but I stayed chill.
They both sat and slapped our hands. I refused to ask what the fuck was wrong with them.
We had enough shit going on. Honestly, Crew, Kane, and Ryder J should have been in their own fucking crew instead of with us.
I had to leave in an hour to meet Aaliyah at the clinic anyway.
Out of the blue, that nigga Crew asked, “So, you just gon’ raise kids that ain’t yours?”
I frowned. I remained quiet, because I wasn’t tryna fuck my lil brother up in front of everyone. Kingsley spoke up though. “That ain’t cool, man.”
“What? I’m just asking a question. I can’t ask my brother a question?”
“Naw, you can’t,” I said. “When it comes to my fucking personal business, keep yo’ fucking two cents to your fucking self, nigga.”
His eyebrows lifted, and he nodded repeatedly. “Oh, I see. I can’t question your decisions. Got it.”
“You can’t fucking judge my decisions, because that’s exactly what you doing.”
I stood from my seat and shoved the chair under the table. I swore that nigga got on my fucking nerves. I was glad I had moved out, because we would have been in there fucking up Jasper and Chas’s house right about now.
I left my food right there on the table, and as luck would have it, Ryder J walked into the diner. I looked him up and down like I was gon’ fuck him up. He frowned hard. “Why the fuck you looking at me like that?”
I didn’t respond to him, because he didn’t know PJ was still alive. Had I said that he was a fucking messy ass nigga, I would have had to say what PJ said. I walked right out of the doors as I heard him and Crew behind me.
“Royal, come on, man. You tripping. Aaliyah fucked anything moving, and you mad that we asking questions and tryna warn yo’ ass about her,” Crew said.
I walked right over to him and got in his face, then pushed him to the ground. “Watch your fucking mouth.”
As I was about to walk off, I saw him about to charge me.
I braced myself and went at him. I put him in a headlock until he punched me in the gut, nearly knocking the wind out of me.
I released him and punched him in the mouth.
Seven, Kingsley, and Kane came running out of the diner, immediately pulling us apart.
Seven turned to Ryder J, and said, “Muthafucka, you was just gon’ stand here and let them go at it? He should have fucked yo’ messy ass up too. Messy like a lil bitch. Swell up like you wanna come at me. Instead of breaking shit up, we’ll fuck both of y’all up out here. Bitch ass niggas.”
They both walked inside as Kingsley shook his head. “What the fuck wrong with them?”
“I don’t know, but I already know his ass gon’ go running to Dad about it.”
I walked away and got into my Escalade, going to Aaliyah’s house instead of meeting her at the clinic. Crew was tripping for real. I couldn’t stand a know-it-all nigga. He may have been my brother, but we seemed to be growing apart these days. It was like he wanted to criticize everything I did.
I whipped into her driveway and got out, slamming my door. That nigga had me hot. She was at the back door when I got to it. She smiled and opened the door. “Hey! I thought we were meeting at the clinic.”
“We were, but my brother pissed me off.” When she looked away, that had alarms going off in my fucking head. “Y’all ever had words or interaction of any kind?”
She took a deep breath. “About a year ago, he wanted to fuck, but I told him no. So I have to assume that he’s salty that I’m with you. I didn’t tell him that me and you were already fucking around because that wasn’t his business.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
“I didn’t want to cause any shit between you and your brother. Y’all seem close. I thought after I turned him down, that would be the end of it. What happened?”
“Nothing. Just him tryna tell me what to do with my life. I’m sick of that shit.”
“It has to be more for you to ask that question, baby. It’s okay though. It must’ve been offensive to me. I’m used to it. Niggas always gotta insult a woman when she don’t want shit to do with him. Real bitches.” She lowered her head. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to speak negatively about your brother.”
“It’s okay. He exhibiting real bitch behavior. Come here.”
She came to me as I leaned against the countertop. “How you feeling? I’m sorry. I didn’t even ask.”
She laid her head on my shoulder, and said, “It’s been a rough day. Your children been fighting for the past couple of hours. They calmed down when they heard your voice though.”
I wrapped my arms around her and smiled. “They know their daddy gon’ get on their asses about giving you a hard time.”
She lifted her head and smiled. It was the first time I referred to myself as their daddy. Like she said, I didn’t give a fuck whose blood was running through their veins. Henderson blood would be running through their hearts and souls.