Maniac
Luxe: I’ll be there in an hour. Just touched down.
Slipping my phone into my pocket, I climbed out my car and shut the door behind me. Strolling up to the entrance of the building, I pushed the door in. Lacey’s eye’s cut in my direction, and I hit her with a head nod.
“He’s in his office,” she said, already knowing why I’m here.
I tread down the hallway and stopped in Murda’s office door. His eyes shot in my direction, and he said, “It ain’t ready yet,” and turned his attention back to the computer.
“Where it’s at?”
“In the garage.” Getting up from his chair, he rounded his desk and exited the office with me right in his tracks.
I followed him out the door to the garage and he snatched the cover off of Wren’s truck. “This mufucka needed more work than I thought,” he said as I rounded to the driver’s side.
After I saw that Wren’s truck didn’t want to start, I paid a couple young niggas to go steal it for me and bring it to Murda.
She ain’t willingly want my help, so I had to force it on her.
I could’ve easily told her that I took her truck, but to watch her squirm was fun as hell.
She’d been using Ubers and Lyfts to get around.
That girl so damn prideful that she ain’t want me to do nothing.
I offered her my Maserati and parked it at the trailer, and it’s been sitting in the same spot where I left it with the keys in the cupholder.
This truck was just a piece of junk to me.
Something that I thought she was holding onto because she couldn’t do better.
Once I found out that it really belonged to Big John, I knew I had to do whatever it took to make sure the shit was running up to par.
Her losing her father had to be devasting.
It doesn’t matter how old she was when he died.
I’d almost lost Pops a couple times and felt like I was gon’ go insane.
“How long before you think it’ll be back up and running?”
“Give me a couple days to make sure that everything’s good. I’ll hit you when it’s ready and deliver it wherever you want me to.”
“’Preciate it.” I dapped him up, and he covered the truck back up. “I gotta go meet up with Luxe right quick.”
“She’s back?”
“Just touched down.”
“A’ight.”
I exited the garage and hopped into my car. Pulling to the gate, it opened, and I whipped out onto the street.
To keep shit a secret, I was meeting Luxe at her penthouse.
I ain’t want everyone all in my business.
There’s a job I need for Luxe to do for me.
It’s extremely rare that I’d come to her for something.
What I needed, I wanted it to be one of its kind, so I had no other choice but to go to her.
Luxe is one of the best black-market appraisers there is.
She also handles legit shit, but if you wanted to get your hands on something that no one else has, she was your girl.
Pulling up to her building downtown, I stopped in front of the door and hopped out.
Valet rushed in my direction. “Keep her close. I won’t be long,” I made known and entered the building, passing two women on my way to the elevator.
They both gazed in my direction, but I wasn’t here to entertain them.
Pressing the up button on the elevator, I waited for the shit to come down so I can get on. A couple stopped alongside me. The woman clung to the man for dear life. She glanced over at me just as the elevator beeped.
I stepped on first with them directly behind me.
I pressed my keycard to the elevator and then pressed the top floor.
The guy leaned over and did the same and then pressed the fifth floor.
He took his attention back to the woman, craning his arms around her waist. His mouth buried hers and they fell back into the corner.
“Get a fucking room,” I told them.
“You hear that?” the guy removed his mouth from the woman long enough to ask.
“I don’t hear nothing,” she replied, cutting her eyes in my direction.
“That’s what I thought,” he responded, and the elevator beeped.
They stepped off and headed down the hallway. I got off behind them and strolled, keeping distance between us.
They made it to a door and he unlocked it. The door pushed up behind them and I caught it with my hand.
“Wha—” he started and shut up when he realized it was me standing there.
“What was that shit y’all was talking, nigga?” I asked him, roughly gripping him by the collar of his shirt and backing him up into the apartment. Clearly, he didn’t know who he was talking to. I backed his ass over toward the balcony doors.
“What are you doing!” the woman yelled, pulling at my arm. I yanked away from her.
“Y’all thought shit was sweet, huh?” I opened the balcony door and backed him up against the railing.
“I’m calling the police!” she screamed from behind me.
“Call ’em,” I tossed over my shoulder and lifted this lil nigga from his feet.
“Please?” he begged.
“All I did was tell yo’ ass to get a fucking room. Don’t ever fucking pretend like I’m nobody. Return to sender,” I said as I tossed his ass over the balcony. The woman rushed toward it, just to see his body crashing to the ground.
“Oh my God!” Her head whipped in my direction. “You’re fucking insane!”
Ignoring her, I sauntered out of their apartment and headed for the elevator. “Good afternoon,” this elderly woman spoke as she stepped off.
“Afternoon,” I replied and caught the door above her head as it tried to close behind her.
Getting back on the elevator, I took it up to Luxe’s penthouse. The doors opened and I was met with the scent of floral. My feet graced her marble as I strutted toward her bedroom where she most likely was since I didn’t see her.
“Luxe?” I called out her name, letting her know that she wasn’t alone anymore. “Luxe?” I said her name again when I didn’t get a response the first time.
Entering her bedroom, I found her sitting in the center of her bed. “Yo, you don’t hear me talking to you?” I touched her shoulder and she jumped.
“Kairo.” Her right hand reached to her ear, and she adjusted her hearing aid.
Ma told her ass several times about turning that shit off.
Luxe went deaf when she was ten years old.
I’m not sure what happened to her. Her hearing had started to fade more and more every year starting at five years old.
Our parents took her to the doctor to see what was going on with her.
They’d be talking to her, and she wouldn’t be too far away from them and still wouldn’t hear what they said.
That’s when they found out that she was slowly going deaf.
They did everything they could to try to prevent it, but it was inevitable.
Luxe lost her hearing, but she didn’t let that stop her from living her day-to-day life.
Whenever life got too much for her, she’d turn her hearing aids off and drown out the world. Shit, I’on blame her though. In the Saint-Mercier’s household, shit seems to get hectic sometimes. People always said that Luxe was the only sane one in the mufucka.
Climbing out of bed, she trekked over to her dresser and grabbed a hair tie. Brushing her chestnut, curly brown hair up with her hands, she placed it in a ponytail.
“What did you need to meet with me for?” she asked when she turned around.
“I need yo’ services. I’ll be paying top dollar for it too.”
“What do you need?” She stopped in front of me, standing at a good five four. For her to be the oldest, right behind Wicked, she was the smallest out of all of us.
“I want a ring.”
“A ring?” Her perfectly arched brow rose to her hairline.
“Yeah, I need you to find me something one of a kind. The best of the best. I’on give a damn what it costs. I need that shit. I trust yo’ judgement.”
“Kairo, what do you need a ring for?”
“I’m finna propose.”
Saliva sprayed from her lips when she erupted in laughter. “Wait…” Her hand stuck out between us. Tears filled the brims of her eyes from laughing so hard. “Don’t you need a girlfriend to propose to someone?” She wiped her tears with her fingertips.
“I do got one.”
“Since when?”
“Why don’t you mind yo’ business.” I frowned.
“I think it is my business. You’re dragging me into it, but I’ll look for yo’ ring.” Stepping around me, she grabbed her MacBook off the nightstand and headed down the hallway. “When do I get to meet this girlfriend of yours?”
“At the launch party.”
Luxe stopped in her tracks and turned to face me. “Kairo, I’ve only been gone a month. How did you meet someone that fast to be wanting to marry her? It isn’t…”
Luxe hated the ground that Nylah walked on.
She’d only met her once and that was enough for Luxe to let her distaste for her be known.
I wasn’t even intending on her meeting her in the first place.
We’d ran into her while we were out. That’s when Nylah and I had first started messing around.
She thought it was a bright ass idea to approach me while I was out with Luxe to later end up with her feelings hurt.
I stopped fucking with her ass for a couple months after that shit.
Nylah learned her fucking place after that.
“You know damn well…”
“Good.” She pranced down the hallway to the living room and got comfortable on her white sectional with her right leg resting underneath her. She flipped her MacBook open and looked up at me. “I’ll find you some options and run ’em by you.”
“I told you, I trust yo’ judgement. Just find me the best and hit the card for it. You got the info,” I told her and sauntered to the elevator.