Page 3

K inga

I glared at Oden with my head spinning. Everybody said I was the hot headed one in the family, but he called me to his crib at three in the morning needing help. I was pissed because I had literally just fallen asleep when my phone was ringing. When I saw it was Oden I answered quick as fuck because he had never been the type to be up at this time of night. Again, my older brother wasn’t the type to be on anything me or Sora was. He stayed his uptight ass out of the way.

“You mean to tell me you walked in the door and they was fucking in your be?—”

“Nah, he was sitting at the end of the bed getting dressed. When I went to confront him, he started shooting first. I ducked and sent shots of my own. When I lifted my head, things were like this,” he responded, eyes leaving my own and landing on the bodies sprawled against the blood stained bed.

I made the mistake of turning and looking as well. His wife Ashley lay sprawled against the top of the bedding while the half clothed buster was laid against the foot. Oden had slumped both of them without even trying or maybe he did. Nine times out of ten had I walked in on my woman in this position, I probably would’ve sent a few shots and asked the corpse questions later.

“What about Aja?” he asked, voice filled with regret. He was referring to my niece, his daughter.

“She's gonna be straight just like you. This is water under the bridge, bro. Don’t touch shit. Matter of fact, go take a shower and put the clothes you are wearing in a bag. I’m about to let B in so they can clean this shit up.”

“Clean this shit up? Like wha?—”

“Yo, let me handle this. Just go shower and gimme your phone.” I held my hand out for the phone.

He placed it in my palm and went into the closet. He then came out with a few items of clothing in his hands and a somber expression. See, this shit right here was about to piss me off. I tried to have patience for others, like my auntie asked me to, but what the fuck was he moping for?

“Um, I’ma use the guest bathroom.”

“Good idea. Stop walking around looking sad and shit. We told you she was a ho when you first brought her home.”

“Fuck you, Kinga,” he gritted.

I laughed. Good to know he hadn’t gone all soft.

About ten minutes later B arrived and I left him with the room. I found my way into my brother’s living room, staring at the pictures he had adorning the small hall. It baffled me how happy they looked only for things to end up like this. I wasn’t just talking mess when I said we told him she was a ho. She tried to kick shit to Nine, and he was a straight shooter, so he told Oden. Like the typical tender fool, Oden didn’t believe him, and now here we were, a dead man and a dead bitch he’d literally just called and told me was carrying their second child days ago. It bothered me that things could look this perfect but be a mess under wraps. Oden could tell me he didn’t know it was happening all he wanted, but he had to have an inkling or something. He had to know she was cheating on him or maybe he was truly oblivious and really believed they were happy. Things like this were why I didn’t fool with no chick past the mattress because there was no way I’d still be aight. I’d have a motherfucker in the trunk of that sixty-eight taking a final ride.

“That was on Aja’s third birthday. Ash told me she wanted to go to Milan. I took her, no questions asked. I made all the rig?—”

“Nah, you didn’t. You forced some shit you knew deep down wasn’t there. It’s cool; I guess we all do that from time to time.” I shrugged like everything that had happened tonight was nothing.

“Not you. You don’t force shit. As a matter of fact, you don’t give a fuck about things well enough to force anything.”

I shrugged. “It’s all in the way you see it, bro.”

“What am I going to do?”

“Pick up and go on with your life. Shit, yo’ wife decided to abandon her child and run off with her side dude. Took ten Gs from you and all. Ain’t nothing left to do, bro,” I responded, already having planned this shit out in my head.

“But what abou?—”

“Nothing. By morning that room will be cleaned out and there will be no fucking trace. You should probably contact your realtor in a few days, tell her you’re looking to sell because you’d like to be closer to family.”

“What?”

I laughed. “We miss your muscle head ass and you damn sure can’t live here no more. That was what, your first body? Get you something in the city. Where is my niece anyways?”

“Ashley’s grandmother. She spends the night with her when we need a baby sitter. When she stays over, she takes her to school those mornings as well. Either Ashley or me picks her up.”

“Good. I’ll slide by and pick her up. Figure out your next move, I got this.”

It took B four hours and three big dumb ass contractor bags to remove death from the room. Then, after he was finished, I of course inspected the space and I swear my boy B was worth every penny he charged.

“Have you done this before?” My brother’s voice made me turn around. His newly-soft ass was standing in the doorway of the room.

“Not this, but similar. Tighten up, Oden, Unc would eat your ass for dinner sitting in here acting like you’re finna throw up.”

* * *

I picked my niece up from school and headed straight to Sora’s spot. Nine times out of ten he and Blaze were doing some soft ass homebody shit. I judged it, but I honestly understood. For the right person you did a lot of shit you never intended. Sora’s right person was Blaze, which I loved for him, but it didn’t mean I was gonna stop cracking on him about it.

“Uncle, where is my mommy and daddy?” Aja’s little ass asked as we drove to Sora’s spot. We were right up the block.

“What, you can’t chill with your uncle for a bit?” I asked, eyes trained on the road ahead. I wasn’t trying to lie to her or give any sort of answer because I didn’t know what my brother wanted to tell her.

She giggled. “I do, Uncle. But usually my mommy or daddy picks me up from school.”

“Well today it was me. You got a problem with that?” I asked, pulling up in front of my brother’s spot. What I saw put me on alert immediately.

“Stay in the car, Aja.” I hopped out and moved swiftly to the stone path where Blaze stood yelling at somebody.

The closer I got, the more I heard. From what I could hear, ol’ boy was apparently a delivery driver and he had gone into her food.

“The fuck you mean? No, you’re about to call corporate and tell them I caught you going in my fucking food,” her squeaky voice bellowed.

Ol’ boy was just trying to back away from her but he didn’t see me behind him. He didn’t realize until it was too late and I had his ass by the back of his neck.

“Yo, you good, homeboy?” I asked, not about to let him go, because Blaze was pissed and I needed the full scope of the situation. Shit had to be serious because she was out here in socks with a fucking remote in her hand.

“Yeah, yeah I wa?—”

“About to take off running because I caught you going in my food. Trifling ass.” She was livid.

“Blaze, cool out before you have my niece hyped up.” I gave her a stern expression and focused my attention on ol’ boy. “You ate her fucking food, huh?”

“N-no,” he stammered, attempting to get out of my grasp. His five foot two inch frame wasn’t shit for me.

“Nah, ’cause she ain’t got no reason to lie. Empty your fucking pockets.”

“For what? I didn’t put any in there.”

“You right, you didn’t. But you ’bout to pay for what you ate and call them motherfuckers you report to and tell them you ate her fucking food. If you don’t I’ma beat your ass out here.” He didn’t empty his pockets fast enough for me, so with my free hand I went in them. When I had his wallet in my hand, I dropped him to the ground and started going through it. He had a few twenties and an ID. There wasn’t even a driver’s license in there.

“Blaze, this fool doesn’t even have a fucking license. How are you trusting him to deliver your food?”

“That’s why the app said he was on a bike. But that was the app.” She shrugged.

I shook my head because I hated those food delivery apps with a passion. You never knew what somebody did to your food before they got it to you.

“Yeah, Darelle, this shit is taken. Next time play in traffic before you fuck around like this.” I tossed his wallet back at him and handed the twenties to Blaze. She turned and headed back into the house, while I now stood there waiting for him to call corporate and tell them he got caught eating her food. When he finished, I let him go and went to the car to get Aja. She was still engrossed in her phone, so I didn’t worry much about her seeing what I did. If she had, oh well, she was old enough to know her uncle wasn’t playing with the fullest of decks.

Right when I got Aja out of the car, my brother was pulling into his driveway. He met me at the door and nearly snatched lil mama from me. “Damn, mama, your phone is more important than your uncle?”

She giggled while he tickled her belly. “Nooo.”

When we made it into the house, he put her down on the couch while I went to mess with Blaze. Shorty was still steaming from her food. Sora had told me she was serious about her food, so I shouldn’t have been surprised.

“You good, big homie?” I asked, watching her toss shit around in the kitchen.

“No, because I’m hungry and had your brother gone and gotten me some food, this wouldn’t have happened.”

“I told your ass to wait. This yo’ fault, short stack.” Sora’s voice let me know he had entered the kitchen behind me. “Now what’s my fault?”

“The fact that Kinga just had to yoke my delivery driver up because I caught his trifling ass eating my food before he brought it to the door. Anyway, lemme go find a menu to see what you’re about to get us to eat. Aja, you hungry, baby girl?” Blaze left both my brother and me in the kitchen to talk.

“Yo, what? You know they gon?—”

I shrugged, knowing a lecture was on the way. “Shit happens, now lemme spit with you about something right quick before I head out.”

“What’s up? What did you do?”

“Why do you always assume it was me? Anyway. Some shit went down and we might have Aja back and forth for a minute.” My brother hadn’t said it, but I figured as much. Aja was the spitting image of her mama, and unlike most of my family, Oden had a heart. So I knew nine times out of ten he couldn’t look at her…not right now, knowing what he had taken from her.

His eyes ballooned slightly, then he threw his head in the direction of his office for me to follow. Of course I did, because the last thing I needed anybody to hear was what I was about to say.

“What the fuck happened, Kinga?”

“Don’t be questioning me.” I grimaced, hating his tone because they definitely made it seem like it was always me.

Sora shook his head. “Cool off. You are hostile with me like I did it.”

“Oden knocked off Ash and some dummy she had laid up in their spot. He called me at three this morning.”

Sora’s expression showed his shock. “Where is he at now?”

I shrugged. “I don’t know, but I imagine he needs some time after everything. I told him I had baby girl but didn’t think about the fact that I needed to be at the shop tonight. She's good here with y’all until I’m done with this car?”

Sora nodded. “She's straight. Do you think he’s good?”

“Shit, he doesn't have no choice but to be. I had it cleaned up and everything, so ain’t no evidence. Cars were gone and money moved. You know how that goes, B handles things on the back end and front.”

Sora shook his head because he was in the same disbelief I was in when I first got to Oden’s spot. “We told him she was a ho. Took him six years and a kid to finally peep it.”

“True, but he’ll be straight. Shit, lowkey he doesn't have no choice but to be aight.” We ended up talking for a while longer before I promised my niece I’d be back to get her tonight and headed out. She was cool with that because Blaze had all her damn attention.

When I pulled up to the shop, the only thing I had in mind was that three seater sofa positioned in the corner of my office. A quick forty-five minute nap would have me energized for the rest of the night. I needed that though because I was lowkey looking forward to seeing shorty. We’d talked a few times over the last few days, each conversation starting over the plan for me to buy a dog, but it always evolved past that. She let me get small glimpses of her personality and who she was while still keeping me at an arm’s length. A few times I felt like a bitch because I wanted to know more about her than I ever wanted to know about any chick. I wanted to know her…