“Larenn. How’re we doing this, baby? Come with me, or I make you come with me. Either way, when I leave this muthafucka, so are you.”
He kept it simple, seeing no point in elaborating since it wasn’t their first go around. If she wanted him to take it there and prove that she didn’t run shit but her mouth; he gladly would.
Kennedy matched his stare, challenging him because he lost his right to lead her the moment he put her life on the line without trusting her to play her role. Seeing Relic in the flesh gutted her from the inside out, but she put on a brave front because it was senseless to pour frustrations out to a nigga who didn’t care to hear them. If she pointed out the ways he’d wronged her, it’d get lost in translation because none of it spoke to his logic. Her feet rooted to the porch in defiance, refusing to budge as his head tipped in visible impatience.
Relic chuckled at her believing she truly had a choice.
“I see, my dick ain’t the only thing you love to make hard, Kennedy. Suit yourself.”
He stepped toward her, but his advance was cut short when Savvy rushed in front of Kennedy, while his brother did the same to him, pressing both hands onto his chest to stop him from going further. His jaw muscles ticked as his eyes lowered to Shabu’s hands before lifting to stare at one third of his heart in pure indignation.
“I’m not afraid of his ass, so you can move.” Kennedy made that announcement and went around Savvy without waiting. She rolled up on his brother like the big dog they claimed her as before fanning him off. “You can move too, Shabu. And before you try to warn me about your brother, you ain’t telling me shit that I don’t know. What you don’t know is, you should be more worried about what I’ll do to his ass than what he’ll do to me.”
Shabu stared at her like she’d lost her damn mind but moved aside after realizing she was just as bullheaded as his brother. Kennedy stormed into Relic’s face once given the go ahead, and that weird flittering she put in his chest started. Arguing becamethe last thing he cared to do with her after witnessing her stand up to his brother, reminding him of the reason he’d claimed her. Even after what Relic had done to her, she saw him as a human being—an equal and not a monster to fear or stand down to. Kennedy had witnessed his worst sides but refused to bitch up because she loved to challenge him. She proved his notion as facts when she cackled dead in his face, making him frown.
“I don’t think you wanna go toe to toe with me, Relic. You have no idea where my head is at, but I see you think shit doesn’t stink. So be it.”
Kennedy sashayed away, and Relic watched her until she reached the passenger side of his car and climbed in as if she wasn’t just combating him not to go. He didn’t have to wonder why. She had some shit to get off her chest and didn’t want his folks to witness the volatile side of her that had roped him in and made him stamp her as his.
“Man, I don’t know who to worry about more at this point. Y’all need a mediator,” Shabu stated, scratching his locs before cringing when Kennedy slammed the car door shut. “Y’all can stay here, bro. Savvy cooked dinner, and I got more liquor on deck.”
“I’ll sleep in my car before I stay here. I’m good.”
“Well, fuck you too, then. Take your ass home, and if she kills you in your sleep, don’t call my phone.”
Relic chuckled before he left his brother’s olive branch hanging and made a hasty departure. Being around Shabu too long sent his mind on a marathon run and left the door open to discussions that he’d rather pass on. Kennedy and her shitty mood looked more appealing than talking to his brother long enough to acknowledge their familial issues ran deeper than the Mariana Trench. Relic was acclimated to loving Shabu in measured doses and from afar.
As hard asRelic tried to resist it, Kennedy left him no choice but to jot her name onto another list as he pulled up to his home in a tense silence. She didn’t snag the top spot but came in at a close second, making his fingers grip the steering wheel while moisture built between his skin and the cool leather. His body stiffened against the seat as if he were in a courtroom being judged by twelve. He’d bet his last dollar; he’d remain calmer in those circumstances than with an unpredictable woman in the seat beside him.
Kennedy Sutton made him fucking nervous.
He killed the engine and climbed out his car, ambling it to her side before yanking open the door. Relic leaned in to grab his umbrella from between her feet while studying her stoned posture as she stared straight ahead as though he wasn’t there. A small part of him wished Kennedy was yelling since he couldbetter control emotions that he was aware of. Her deafening silence left him little to go on and made him cautious about how to move in her presence.
“So, you have nothing to say? Your mouth was slick at my brother’s crib. Where did that energy go, huh?”
He poked the dormant bear before flipping open his umbrella to hold over his head as it began raining harder. When she didn’t respond, his tongue grazed his top teeth and chest roiled with foreign feelings he struggled to get a hold on.
“Kennedy, get the fuck out this car before I make you sleep in it.”
“Make me. Anything is better than being near you for another second.”
She shut her eyes with her decree, and his gut sank to a new low that made him wish he left her on his brother’s porch. The urge to react prematurely caused him to reach for her hand to brush a thumb over her discolored burns. Relic found comfort in touching the damaged parts of her rather than bruising the flawless pieces like his father had taught him to do when bitches tested his authority.
“I’m trying with you, Kennedy. Don’t make me—”
“Don’t make you do what, huh? What else can you do to me worse than what you’ve already done?” Venom ran through every word as she snatched away her hand. “You make me physically fucking sick.”
His expression dulled. “Is that so?”
“Yes! I hate you. I can’t stomach the fucking sight of you. I—”
Kennedy gagged and slapped a hand over her mouth, springing from the car. She shoved him out of her way as the food Savvy cooked her barreled up her throat without forewarning.
Her eyes skimmed his home before she rushed to the manicured foundation garden and collapsed to her knees. Thevomit she’d been holding back since watching Lomar bleed out burned her insides like acid, cinching her torso as her eyes stung from unwarranted tears. She’d hurled in in the same manner hours after seeing Slim gunned down by Relic, and her reaction had been no different when she shot Ezekiel the day after Koda’s funeral.
Her vomit had been instant then, and she was forced to clean it—along with his blood—while his very pregnant baby mother had whisked him off to the emergency room. Kennedy had realized, the moment another bitch escorted him out the door; Ezekiel never belonged to her. She was simply a young, gullible girl who’d let him convince her to do things he’d never require of his main woman.
Her fingers dug into the soaked dirt as she gasped for a breath once her stomach stopped contracting. The heavy rain soothing her flushed skin convinced her to stay there, but she glanced up when a hand swept her hair out of her face.
