In her office, he took a seat in front of her desk while she flipped on the light, dropped her purse into one of the desk drawers and locked it, and turned on her computer.
She picked up the receiver of her office phone, then looked at him. “Do you mind if I make a call?”
“I know you ain’t expected me, but, yeah, I fuckin’ mind. I’ve been sittin’ here for ten goddamn minutes already. Stop with the fuckin’ stallin’, Kendall. If you ain’t wantin’ to talk about how much of a motherfucker Johnnie is, I ain’t bringin’ it up. But I want details on Sunday’s fuckin’ meetin’.” Christopher snapped his brows together. Fuck. On second thought… “What the fuck Bash said that you ain’t wantin’ me to know? What the fuckyouneeded to talk to him about that you ain’t wanted me to hear?”
Returning the receiver to its cradle, she cleared her throat and sat in her executive’s chair. “I didn’t want you to arbitrarily drop into the fucking meeting and fuck up everything. That’s the only reason I went to the conference room.”
“Okay, baby,” he said mildly, not believing her one fucking bit. The lack of creativity she put in her lie disappointed him. “Ain’t able to dispute that since I ain’t in your motherfuckin’ head. Just knowIknow you fuckin’ lyin’. Why the fuck would I fuck up the fuckin’ meetin’ when me and you went over what the fuck needed to be done?”
She glowered at him.
“I gave you the fuckin’ excuse you needed to hide the real reason you went the fuck off script.”
It made him wish he’d shut the fuck up and hadn’t dropped in. The way Johnnie’s bullshit annoyed the fuck out of him left him no fucking choice.
“What do you think I’d want to talk to him about that you couldn’t hear?” she demanded.
“Ma, so shut the fuck up, and stop playin’ me.”
Kendall’s lips tightened and she gave the smallest wince, but he let it go. She was a master of deviousness, able to look a motherfucker in the eye and lie with a straight fucking face. Even if he pressed her, she probably wouldn’t cave. She’d just continue to lie badly. Whatever she’d discovered about his mother must’ve been bad as a motherfucker. He’d discover thetruth in time. Or, maybe, he wouldn’t. Patricia had been dead for almost eighteen years. He couldn’t demand answers from her and any other revelation would just haunt him.
Smiling thinly, Christopher eyed Kendall. “After seein’ that fuckin’ video and hearin’ what the fuck Sharper and Logan said, I know whatever you found out ain’t good,” he baited.
“Why do you say that?” Unable to meet his gaze, Kendall swallowed and cleared her throat. “And in what way do you mean?”
“For most of my life, Ma was a tragic figure to me. A woman forced to accept her lot in life. Too afraid to do anything else and too gentle to defend herself.” Adjusting his position in the chair, Christopher sighed. “If you found out other heartbreakin’ shit about her, you wouldn’t care if I heard. But Sharper said Ma tried to stab Rack and poison Cee Cee. That don’t sound like a gentle woman.”
“She wanted to avenge Zoann.” Kendall pursed her lips and her eyes watered but she soldiered on. “A mother’s love and protection turns a woman into a mama bear.”
Christopher shook his head. “Ma wasn’t that. At least not in front of me or any of my sisters. Around Big Joe and Rack, she was docile. In front of Logan, she tried to disappear. A lot of times, I was her sacrificial lamb.”
“Yet, you loved her,” Kendall said softly.
“I did. I do,” he amended. “I always will, so keep her secrets, Kendall. It’ll be less unanswered questions for me.”
“I’m the one who’s supposed to give you the answers.”
“You could tell me that Ma was a fuckin’ special enforcer like Rebel want to be and it wouldn’t tell me why. Why she tortured the fuck out of me and blamed me for ruinin’ her life? Why she pretended she was so fuckin’ kind and gentle? Upstanding. Why she fuckin’ hated club girls?” Christopherthought for a moment. “Never fuckin’ mind. She hated club girls cuz of Cee Cee.”
Kendall snapped her brows together and asked, “Why would you say that?”
“If they were married, it ain’t stopped Cee Cee from bein’ a motherfucker. He probably fucked club girls and that pissed Ma the fuck off.” Christopher scraped his fingers through the hair on the top of his head. It would be weeks before he no longer had a fade. “I got a question.”
Wariness dropped into her face.
“Fred Sterling. Any of those documents say what happened to him?”
She averted her gaze again.
“At least tell me that, baby.
“He was killed.”
“By?”
Biting her lip, Kendall shrugged.
“Was it Ma or Logan?”
