“Aight, she just went in, boss man. What you want me to do? The window to make up your mind is closing.”
Drish’s voice reverberating through Relic’s ear canal sent his lids fluttering before his fingers clenched tighter around the burner phone pressed against his ear. His eyes anchored to the dark road as he struggled to focus and not let Kennedy’s pending predicament fuck with his mental more than it had since he gave Drish approval to proceed with their plan. She was their only option, so Relic had to see it through.
He’d much rather have his dick buried in her guts at their favorite spot, but Kennedy had him speeding to her crib instead because she hadn’t used discernment when it came to who she allowed in her space. She’d fucked with the opposition and forced his hand, yet the mere thought of making her a casualty of war again twisted his fucking insides into knots.
His palms grew clammy.
His heart drummed in his ears.
His fucking muscles tensed, and jaw locked, because Kennedy ending up in a coffin made him nervous. A bitch had never caused him to second guess his next move until she entered the picture.
“Let it play out,” he blurted before his mind changed. “Kennedy can handle herself, and I’m almost there. Make sure you light his ass up and grab my bag once that nigga comes out. I’ll go inside to check on her.”
“Got it. It’s two people heading up to her crib now.”
That detail caved his stomach liked someone sucker punched him in it.
Relic inhaled a sharp breath while his biggest fucking distraction tried seizing his brain, sending him reminders of why he shouldn’t use her to smoke out the nigga she’d entertained for months. He disregarded those ineffaceable memories of their time shared since Kennedy was part of the reason his enemies knew too much and had gotten too close. Had he not given Drish the directive to watch her, they wouldn’t have connected those dots as soon as they had.
The background check on Sojourney had led Drish to her homegirl Mea’s brother—Lomar. He hadn’t been hard to find since he popped up at the salon for Kennedy after Relic had gotten shot. It’d taken every ounce of composure Relic owned to not murder them in cold blood after Drish had called to deliver that intel. He’d played it cool since he needed definite answers on whether the woman he called his partner was a snake in the grass like every other bitch he couldn’t trust.
Kennedy had proven his assumption false when she agreed to help set up Slim, and then he recalled that Shabu mentioned her little friend had taken her car on the day of her grandopening to get repaired. After ordering Drish to tail her for a few days, he realized that Lomar was doing the same.
“Fuck is taking them so long?” Drish groused as Relic neared Kennedy’s apartments with a small sense of relief washing over him. “Ain’t a robbery supposed to be quick? You sure she ain’t in on—oh, shit!”
Drish spit out that expletive while Relic’s heart stilled at the faint pop that echoed on the other end of his line.
“What the fuck was that?!” he barked once his shock wore off. “Drish!”
“Nigga, somebody let off! I—shit! It was another one! Fuck you want me to do, boss?!”
“Go and see what’s going on!”
“Wait, someone ran out. I’m ‘bout to catch this nigga and then go in—”
“Fuck anybody that ain’t Kennedy! Drish, I’ll kill you. If a single hair is out of place on her goddamn head, I will murder you and every person you love. Take your ass in there and get my bitch!”
Relic made that command with such an assertion that spittle flew from his mouth before he slapped his burner phone shut and tossed it onto the passenger seat. His foot weighed on the gas because he had to make it there before anything happened to her. She wouldn’t forgive him if he didn’t. Kennedy had pointed out how he didn’t care about Jessica—how he’d allowed reckless niggas to invade his home and kill his baby mother because he hadn’t given a damn whether she lived or died. Relic held Kennedy in a higher regard.
He hoped his presence would prove as much and that she’d believe his intentions weren’t to fuck her over. She was simply his safest and surest bet given the window of opportunity he had to make a move.
The moment he’d seen that familiar car pop back up at Jahleel’s game after they’d searched for Lomar for damn near a month, it’d left him no choice but to devise a plan. A plan he would’ve let Kennedy in on had she not played dumb about knowing the vehicle when she’d seen it. That single lie nullified a portion of the trust she’d earned from him that he hadn’t given any woman prior, so he ignored the gradual hollowing of his insides from using her as bait since he couldn’t let Lomar live after spotting his Achilles heel.
Jahleel.
“Fuuuck!” he raged, slapping a hand on his steering wheel as reality gave him a stinging slap to the face.
He’d fucked up.
The short minute it took him to fly into her complex seemed like years as his wheel axels screamed from him flying over a speed bump. His frantic gaze cut toward his window when a car sped by him in the opposite direction, going just as fast. His nostrils flared as the driver snatched off a black mask to reveal bundles of hair and a feminine face he didn’t recognize but seared into his memory. He took even breaths to remain focused versus whipping his car around to follow her.
His left eye twitched as he accepted the fact that he’d been off his game and shown too much grace while being taken for a fucking joke. Relic decided in that moment; he was going down regardless. He might as well go out with a fucking bang.
“Y’all niggasreally got me fucked up. Take off the goddamn mask!”
Kennedy glared at the man standing before her in all black, with a balaclava mask concealing his features she’d seen plenty of times, and a bloody leg from a bullet she’d sent through it. She wished she’d aimed higher.
Seconds passed before her intruder expelled a breath and snatched the ski mask off his head. Her anger surged because, although the sound of his voice had given away his identity, seeing his face made it real.
