“Bro, you good?”
His pacing stopped, and he rolled his neck to relieve the tightness there before glancing at the doorway where his brother stood with pinched brows. Shabu stepped in like he’d been invited and surveyed the area, attempting to find the answer to his question since Relic could only stare at him in silence.
“Where’s Kenn Dog at?”
“Fuck her. Fuck that sneaky, manipulative...”
Relic balled his mouth before his fists followed while his body tremored in uncontainable rage. Shabu chuckled when the situation was far from amusing to his brother.
“What the fuck happened? Y’all were just chilling and shit outside.”
“She knew... and I knew she knew.”
Shabu scratched through his locs with his face twisted up. “Nigga, what? Look, I’m too fucked up for riddles, so you gotta speak like a normal person right now. What did she know?”
“About the job I gave P that he botched.”
Relic threw it out there, and Shabu was slow to catch it. His brows dipped, and he tilted his head like the words needed a better path within his ears for him to process it. After a beat, Shabu flailed up his hands like he was tired of Relic and his bullshit.
“Muthafucka, she knows you set her on fire! And you knew she was holding that shit? Are you out of yo fucking mind? You know what, that’s a dumb ass question ‘cause I know you are!” Shabu ranted trekking further inside the room. “So, what happened, and what did she say?”
“She said her time was up, grabbed her bags, and left. She really fucking left us.”
“To go where, Relic? To do what? We already got the other situations hanging over your head. What if she’s one of them and—”
“She’s not,” he asserted, cutting the mere thought of her snitching short. “She’s a lot of shit, but she’s far from a fucking opp or a rat.”
“Can you be one hundred percent positive of that?”
“I said she’s not.”
“But nigga, are you sure?” Shabu pressed, slapping the back of his hand into his palm. “Can you say that shit with certainty that the woman you set on fire and then set up isn’t going to switch up? Or hasn’t secretly been on the other team since they dragged her into that interrogation room?”
“I’m sure.”
Relic cringed and rolled his tongue around his mouth to get rid of the bad taste that came with his half-truth. He wanted to believe Kennedy wouldn’t stoop to that level or resort to proving she was as sneaky as he claimed. After the stunt she’d just made; Relic couldn’t put shit past her.
“You can’t even say that with a straight face, bro. She just left you for dead, and you’re still trying to save her! You know what time it is. I gave her a pass, and you gave her about twenty. I gotta put her on ice.”
“Shabu, I warned you not to fucking—”
“Nigga, I don’t give a fuck about yo warning! I give a damn about making sure you’re straight and that ain’t no bitch is gon’ be the end of you. What’d you tell me, huh?” Shabu stalked up to his brother, gripping his head like the nigga would do him. “You told me that if you get too lost in her or blind to where you miss some shit, to save you. I gotta fucking save you, bro,” he muttered, meshing their foreheads together. “I know you slipped up and fell into some feelings, but do what you do any other time and put that shit aside. Tell me, you understand, nigga.”
“I can’t.”
“Why the fuck not?!”
“Because she’s my fucking wife, Shabu!”
Shabu released his brother and backpedaled like his touch had scalded him worse than the salon fire had done to Kennedy. Relic stalked to his nightstand, retrieving the key from his pocket before pulling the paperwork out of the drawer to toss on the bed. Shabu mugged him, like he wanted to kill his ass instead, before snatching the papers up to check their validity. His eyes rounded the more he inspected their marriage license and certificate that looked exactly like the ones from when he’d gotten married to his wife. The nigga wasn’t lying.
“I took a play out of your book. We went to the courts and got it done last week,” Relic divulged as his brother continued to stare at the proof like I’d vanish if he willed it to hard enough.
“Because you knew she was a snake, and this was the only way we’d stay off of her ass, but guess what?” Shabu flung the papers across the room. “I don’t give a damn. I’ll let you hate me before I chance her taking you down. This shit alone proves she needs to go. You don’t move reckless like this, ever! I’m finishing what we started, and you’ll be behind bars where you can’t protect her or stop me. You’ll thank me for it later. Now, let’s get back downstairs ‘cause our folks were looking for you.”
A languid smile stretched across Shabu’s face before he fanned his brother along, and Relic remained stuck in place, seeing the side of Shabu he knew sat dormant under the love for his wife, the affection for his children, and the need for brotherly attention from him. That little boy who had shot Joseph, because he was determined to eliminate a problem, had reared its head but for the wrong person.
Kennedy belonged to Relic. She should have been left for him to decide her fate, but Shabu was stepping on his toes.
