“Then, whatdoyou want? What is my real reason for being here? What is Relic’s master plan with me?”
The amusement gradually drained from his face after she went straight for the gusto, no holds barred. If she had asked at the beginning of their partnership, he could have laid out a masterful blueprint with instructions and a well strategized game plan from point A to Z. His design was perfect until she’d come in and shaken shit up worse than an earthquake with a Richter scale above six. His biggest distraction was just as catastrophic as she was detrimental to his board. Kennedy was a fucking gift and a curse in the human flesh, yet invaluable in both rights.
“I already told you. I need someone who can step up and think logically to keep everything I’ve built standing in my absence. Someone neutral. Someone who won’t pick favorites or put emotions into it. Someone my folks would never in their fucking lives think I’d hand over that much power to. They probably think Shabu will run everything, but a woman? Never.”
“Why me? You have so many women in your family, yet you chose a person you’ve known for months. I don’t get that.”
“Secret for a secret?” he bargained, noting the sudden stiffness of her body against his. “That’s how we do it, and nothing has changed. How bad do you want to know?”
She swallowed hard, and Relic swore he pinpointed a lump of nerves trailing down her throat. He simpered and reached behind her to unclasp her bra, peeling it off before tossing it beside her phone.
“I want to know,” she blurted as he cupped her breast and pinched her peaked nipple. Her body squirmed as she breathed out, “I know what you’re going to ask me. I’ll tell you, but you first.”
Relic nodded before nuzzling his face in the crook of her neck, latching his mouth onto her damp skin while he hooked his fingers in her panties to tug them off. Kennedy caressed the bed of waves crowning his head and emitted a contented exhale as he tossed her panties before nestling between her thighs to bring them skin to skin. She would never confess it felt just as good as him being inside her.
“More than anyone, I trust myself, and I realized from our first conversation, I see myself in you, Kennedy.”
Relic revealed that intricate detail and lifted his head to stare at her face for a nonverbal response. Her dark eyes gave him nothing.
“Reclusive to the point of it being offensive to the people around us. Business oriented and focused on your money. I saw someone as flawed as me who wore that shit proudly, even when she didn’t feel like it inside. A person who withstood pain but still put on her fucking game face every day, so no one would notice she was broken inside... a shell of the person she used to be or thought she would become. Just like me. What others see as damaged, I see as our superpower, Larenn. We’re afraid of nothing and ready for everything because we’ve already been through the worst.”
Kennedy blinked, her expression blank and untelling, but Relic could see she’d heard him and agreed. He knew it. She knew it. There wasn’t shit that she could refute, and he wondered if she was more repulsed or stunned that she was more like him than she cared to accept.
“Don’t think I didn’t second guess my decision or that I don’t have a backup plan because I do,” he added in case shewas finally at her point of running. “I just still believe you’re the better option. The day I told Shabu about going to jail, do you know what he told me? That millions don’t matter when he and Titan won’t make it without me. As a brother, that shit hit deep. As a man who’s worked his ass off to stack those millions and refuses to watch the empire I built crumble to the fucking ground, it told me all I need to know. You know what else did?”
“What?” she whispered, and he cupped her chin with a half-grin.
“The fact that you make sure I know you hate me any chance you get, yet still do your fucking job. You stomach me every day because we know emotions don’t mean shit. The world will keep spinning, so we make the most out of it instead of succumbing to our pain. If anything, that shit drives us to go harder. It motivates us to get whatever we want by any means.”
His declaration was sealed by his tongue diving into her mouth. Kennedy clung to him tighter as he locked her in with his solid build, suffocating her in more ways than one. He was keeping her afloat in water but drowning her in other facets of her life with his beautiful lies, half-truths, and confessions she couldn’t decipher as honesty or Blaise dusted omissions. She braced a hand on his chest to shove him away and gasped for air.
“I need a fucking drink,” she muttered, evoking a low chuckle from him.
“Unfortunately, there’s no liquor in the house.”
“I know, you’re fucking lying! We have to deal with each other for days, and you didn’t think to put liquor in here.”
“Oh, I did, but then you changed the rules on me. No over drinking, remember? Maybe if you shut that big ass mouth unless my dick is in it, we’ll enjoy our trip without arguing.”
“Boy, fuck you!” She flicked her hand in the water to splash some on his face. When his head tipped, she rushed to wrap botharms around his neck while cackling. “Okay, I’m sorry! I don’t even want to play this game with you.”
“That’s what I thought. I was about to sling you dead in the middle of the pool and watch yo ass doggy paddle your way back. My turn for a question, right?” he quizzed, watching her smile fade before she nodded. “When was a time I made you happy?”
Jarred by the last thing she expected him to inquire or care about, she took a beat to find her answer but cracked a smile once she did.
“My grand opening. That day meant a whole fucking lot to me, and the chessboard you gifted me made it all the better. It was like I had a piece of Koda with me there, but it also proved you’re more attentive than you think. I was happy tonight, too. After they stopped worrying about us, it was a good ass time.”
“Seven,” he said, causing confusion to scrunch up her face. “That’s how many times you smiled at me with light in your eyes tonight, so I know you weren’t faking it. You hated me a little less in those moments.”
“My turn.” Kennedy dodged his studious observation to ask, “So, what about your bucket list? Was that just a lie to offer me money to stay, or do you really have one?”
“The bucket list is real... dumb on my part but real. It came after I sat down and looked at what I lacked. The list came from wondering about what life could’ve been like if Joseph hadn’t fucked my head up or Judith didn’t neglect me emotionally. What I’d have if I hadn’t jumped so deep into the game that I’m about to become a statistic of it. The list was me trying to give Jahleel the shit he asks me about when he’s comparing me to his uncles. It was me trying to be normal.”
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’ll never be normal, Relic.”
Kennedy caught the instant tick in his jaw, and recoil of his body, before his eyes flitted side to side like he was strugglingto remain present in their conversation. He was so used to hearing about his worst traits from those closest to him that he assumed her assessment was negative. She snapped her fingers in his face, making him blink before his emotionally devoid eyes locked on hers.
“You will never be normal, Relic, because you are one of a kind. Extraordinary. You have done shit men couldn’t fathom, and your family’s lifestyles were built off the back of the grind you put in. Whether you bow out of the game, or the Feds scoop you up, you’ll forever be a cut above the rest. You’re not normal, and you should never strive to be. Konprann?”
