Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Lux was five seconds away from telling my parents everything after I told her. A week into my two weeks without Kain, she and I were finally together on a Friday night.
After a month of blowing off my best friend every time she wanted to hang out outside of school and home, Lux wouldn’t leave me alone until I explained everything.
“You can’t tell my parents!” I rushed to the door of my bedroom to block her path. “They’ll flip!”
“Yeah,” Lux nodded, fully understanding why they would. “I’m flipping! Lauren! What the fuck? Are you dumb?”
“It’s under control.”
“Why? Because Kain says so?”
I glared at her. “No! Because this has been going on for a month. Me against Miami’s most powerful criminal—and look! I’m still here.”
“Oh my God, you are dumb. When did this happen?”
“It started a few—”
“No, I mean when did you get so stupid?” Lux shouted.
I motioned for her to keep her voice down.
“Lauren, can you hear yourself? You are getting hunted by Silas fucking Montgomery. And what do you do? You let Kain fucking Montgomery put a tracking device you. You let Kain fucking Montgomery’s friends follow your moves 24-fucking-7. You let—”
“Kain is nothing like his father. He really cares about me. He’s protecting me.”
“Oh my God.” Lux rolled her eyes. “Have you ever Googled him?” she asked in a way that made me feel like she already had. Something about the way that she asked made me feel like she’d found something about him I wouldn’t like.
“No,” I mumbled as she dove for the laptop on my desk. “Have you?”
Lux nodded as she waited for my laptop to start up.
“I Googled him as soon as you told me you were going out on a date. At first I thought, okay… get it in, Lauren. Your pretty behind doesn’t talk to nearly enough guys.
I didn’t think you two would still be talking.
What the hell. Your first boyfriend—and you choose a Montgomery? ”
“What did you find?”
“This.” She turned the screen around so that I could read it.
Silas Montgomery Setting His Son Up for Succession?
I read the title and immediately rolled my eyes. It was one of those Instagram gossip pages. “Really? You find one Fame-O-Licious article on Kain and—”
“Read it.”
“It’s from two years ago, at that.”
“Read it.”
“Talk about a trust fund baby! Rumored to be the richest black man in Miami, Silas Montgomery made a bold move this past weekend. As his youngest child, and only son, turned eighteen, the Miami billionaire took every dime in his name and transferred it over to his boy. You heard right. Every Montgomery club, bar, and strip club is now owned by a kid who can’t even legally drink yet!
For decades, rumors have swirled that the real source of the Montgomery money comes from drugs, prostitution, and various other crimes.
Insiders speculate that this latest move by Silas is to ensure that if he should ever be indicted for any of the alleged crimes, none of his assets will be seized.
What do you think, Fame Foodies? Is Silas Montgomery using his son to secure his assets for any future crimes he may be convicted for? ”
I looked up from the article and said, “So Kain owns all the legitimate businesses on paper. So what? Everyone in Miami knows those clubs barely make up half of where Silas’ money comes from.”
“Don’t you see?” Lux asked. “Do you have any idea how much faith you have to have in someone to literally give them ever-ree-thing? Silas didn’t transfer anything to not one of his four daughters, or any of his brothers. No one but Kain. That’s trust. What does that tell you about Kain?”
“My parents trust me not to fool around with the son of the most dangerous man in Miami.” I shrugged. “Sometimes our parents have the wrong idea about us.”
“He’s going to get you killed,” Lux warned, almost pleadingly. “You need to tell your parents what’s up.”
“They wouldn’t understand.”
“You mean… they’d see things for what they are. He’s playing you! You’re totally dickmatized!”
“How can I be dickmatized if I’ve never even seen his dick?” I retorted.
Lux stopped just short of her rebuttal. “Wait—this nigga flies from Tallahassee to Miami every week to basically babysit you, and he hasn’t even tried to put the moves on you?”
“Oh, I never told you the full story about what happened on our first date,” I remembered. “So on our first date…” I began to tell Lux about how things got heated, about the conversation we had when Kain realized I was a virgin. “We’ve been going pretty easy since.”
“So what? Y’all sit around, eat chicken nuggets, and play Scrabble?”
“Don’t be funny,” I muttered.
“Are y’all exclusive?” Lux questioned curiously to which I shrugged. “Well, is he fucking with other girls?”
“I don’t know.”
“You didn’t ask?”
“Um… We text throughout the day. He calls me every night. He’s in town every weekend, ready to drop everything if I so much as need to go to the grocery store. I don’t know where he’d find the time to factor in someone else.”
“Hmm,” Lux said to herself lowly. I raised a curious eyebrow. “It sounds like he’s really into you.”
“You don’t have to say that like that’s the most unrealistic thing!”
Lux’s eyes widened. “No! I don’t mean it that way. I’m just saying… He’s a Montgomery, you know. I’m pretty sure I once read that Silas Montgomery has a new woman every two weeks.”
I flinched. “Well like I said,” I muttered through gritted teeth, “Kain isn’t nothing like his father. He’s kind and considerate. A very thoughtful person. I need you trust me when I tell you I trust him,” I told her.
Lux rolled her eyes one last time before giving in, standing to her feet to leave. “I’ll keep my mouth shut. Just… just be smart about this.”
“I’m always smart,” I assured her, leading the way down the stairs.
I held my breath as Lux greeted my parents, updating them on how studying for finals was going for her.
She expressed how much she couldn’t wait for her tests to be over, describing the upcoming family trip to Haiti she was going on in a week.
Every summer since we were kids, Lux was always in Haiti, gone for most of the break.
My mother asked her to bring back a souvenir to which Lux obliged, all the while never once bringing up me or Kain. When the door shut behind me, I let out a sigh of relief, rushing back up the stairs.
When the door to my bedroom opened, a feeling of dread came over me upon seeing who was waiting for me, sitting on my bed.
Morgan yanked me into the room at once.
“So…” My sister gave me a once over, illustrating that she’d heard my entire argument with Lux. “Kain Montgomery, huh?”
***
It wasn’t loyalty that made Morgan keep her mouth shut.
In fact, I was fairly sure Morgan would have loved nothing more than to rush downstairs and tell Mom and Dad exactly what was going on.
However, she couldn’t do that without also telling on herself.
After all, they would want to know how I met Kain Montgomery in the first place.
The dinner table was uncharacteristically quiet that evening. I looked up briefly from my plate, only to be spooked by the fact that my sister was still staring at me.
“It’s quiet,” Dad observed, looking at our mother as though she might have an explanation.
“Your finals going okay, Lori? Momo?” Mom tried to make conversation.
Morgan answered first. “Mine are fine. I’m sure Lauren’s are, too. Right, Lori?”
“My exams are fine,” I replied, looking down at my plate. “This week has been a little stressful is all.”
“Boyfriend trouble?” Morgan asked, her voice sweet as pie. To my right, Dad choked on some of his water.
“What? So mystery boy is officially a boyfriend now? How long has this been going on? Tameka did you know about this?” Dad questioned Mom.
“I don’t have a boyfriend,” I promised everyone at the table. “Morgan is just mistaking a really good friend of mine as a romantic thing, but it’s really not.”
Mom leaned in curiously. “A new friend, huh? The one who’s had your face glued onto your phone screen for the past five weeks? Is his family part of our social group?” By that she meant the bougie black Miami crowd. “Maybe I know his mother.”
My parents were members of the most elite black social club throughout The South, a very important network called The Beauvais.
The Beauvais was a cesspool of bougie classism where people like my mother would gather around with their picture perfect families, and try to outdo each other financially, intellectually, and with the achievements of their children.
Lux’s parents were members as well. Beauvais kids were strongly encouraged to only be friends with other Beauvais kids.
My parents could overlook it if I was befriending outsiders, but a Montgomery…
“His family isn’t part of any of you and Daddy’s clubs,” I clarified. “But even if they were, it’s not like it matters. We’re just friends. He’s not my boyfriend.”
“Does your friend have a name?”
Morgan perked up, “Yeah, it’s Ka—”
“Leb… Kaleb… It’s a… nice… biblical name.”
“Oh, it’s biblical alright,” my sister snickered.
Dad laughed with her, not really knowing what was funny. “Don’t tell me you’re running around with some preacher’s kid,” he joked. “You know… those preacher’s kids can be wild.”
“He’s not a preacher’s kid,” I sighed, cringing at the painful irony of this exchange. “And he’s not my boyfriend.”
“Well, just promise your mom and I if that changes that you’ll bring him by the house,” Dad teased, a na?ve smile stretching across his face.
I almost felt guilty. I had to remind myself that the only thing my parents would hate about Kain is who his father is.
And of all the things about him, that was the thing Kain had the least control over.
I glared at my sister a little. “Okay, Dad.”