Page 34 of Anything Necessary for Her (Crenshaw Kings #9)

JUST TWO DAYS LATER . . .

I heard tires crunching the gravel outside of the warehouse, making me stand to my feet.

Hitting the buzzer to unlock the door, I stepped out, keeping it propped open as Asif exited his vehicle.

I could tell by how dressed down he was what he was on.

I always dressed down, but for today, I made sure not to rock jeans or anything too fucking confined.

I knew Asif well enough to know shit wasn’t just gon’ be a conversation.

“Sup.” I bobbed my head before walking in, holding the door for him.

“Sup,” he replied coolly, following me in. He was the only muthafucka I would allow to walk behind me.

As soon as we got to the room where we usually had discussions and talks, he removed a big ass .45 he had in his waist, setting it atop the table.

“Damn.” I commented on the size of the gun, stroking my beard.

“You already know how shit go, so let’s get it out the fucking way.” He moved from behind the table, and I did the same.

“I do.”

He wasted no time, clocking me in the jaw, and I hit his ass right back before the fight commenced.

I wasn’t the same young nigga from years ago, so I was able to block a few of his hits and get him a nice amount of times.

However, his stamina and power would for some reason always be greater, the result being me losing momentum as he stole off on me, before dropping me.

Before I collapsed to the floor, his arm hooked around my neck, choking me roughly as fuck.

“You done or nah?” he asked, breathing heavily just like I was.

I did a slicing motion since I couldn’t breathe nor speak, making him drop me to the concrete flooring of the warehouse.

Usually, a nigga would’ve kept going, but I never wanted this shit.

Same time, I wasn’t coming up off of Banks, so if I had to fight all her brothers, including the one I had the utmost respect for, then so fucking be it.

Asif helped me to my feet, brushing his other forearm across his mouth to clean away the blood.

I did the same, face on fire from that last few minutes where he fucked me up.

I could taste the blood in my mouth and feel it leaking from my nose, making me wipe it with the hoodie I’d taken off prior to his arrival. My eye socket was also throbbing.

As we sat down, he poured some whiskey into the two glasses I’d laid out, praying this shit didn’t go too left to where we couldn’t still be cool after. I’d already vowed not to allow that shit to happen.

We both took sips in silence, catching our breaths while seated on opposite sides of the table.

“I know you be going easy on me in the beginning.” I smirked and sighed out of relief when he mimicked my gesture before polishing off his liquor then refilling his glass.

“That’s a lil boxing move. Tire the opponent out then knock his ass out.

Make no mistake, though, I could’ve beat yo’ ass in the first couple minutes.

” We chuckled before he drank more, then exhaled.

“Banks is a grown woman, so I can’t control what she do, as badly as a nigga wants to.

Her going behind my back is one thing, and I get her reasons, but you? That ain’t no real nigga shit, Low.”

“I agree.” I nodded. “I wanted to tell you, cuz, but she ain’t want me to, and I couldn’t betray her trust. And like you, I understood her reasons.”

“So you’d betray me before you’d betray her?” He looked at me, pausing mid sip.

“Unfortunately, Sif, I would.” Laughing at how pathetic I fucking sounded, I mumbled, “I’ll do anything she wants me to.”

I watched him snicker subtly into his glass before he replied, “That’s the right answer, as difficult as it is to hear. That’s how shit should be.”

“If it makes you feel better, I haven’t touched her in that way. I couldn’t do it, knowing the shit was a secret. Peep ain’t a woman you love on the low. I couldn’t and wouldn’t be with her in that way until I could tell the world, including y’all, that she was mine.”

“Peep?”

“Nickname. Some inside shit.”

He finished his drink and sat back in his chair like he was thinking, hand resting on his gun.

“You sound serious, but I wanna know are you? Only reason you not laid out with ya fucking brains resting beside you is because she for real fuck with you. My baby sister ain’t generous with her feelings, meaning she picky as fuck when it come to dating.

So the fact that she defending you, going against us, and professing her love for you to me, says a lot and is currently saving ya life.

“I know putting a bullet in you would break her fucking heart more than any knucklehead ass nigga ever could. Had that not been the case, I would’ve had this shit against ya forehead the same night I found this shit out.”

“You know me, Sif. You can answer ya own question on whether I’m serious or not.”

“I don’t wanna answer my own fucking question. I wanna hear it from you.”

“I am overly fucking serious, my nigga.” He chuckled, seemingly against his will.

“Too serious. I think about her all fucking day. Before I make moves, I think about what she would say or if she would like it. I bought her flowers, and you know that ain’t me.

The excitement I feel in my chest and whole fucking body, for that matter, knowing I’m gon’ see her is . . . otherworldly.

“I was struggling as far as my conscience went, keeping this shit from you, but the mere thought of not having Banks, even in secrecy, . . . I couldn’t fucking do it, boss.

I couldn’t.” I shook my head, watching my hands as I spoke not only to Asif but to myself.

“She ain’t gon’ let me slouch when it come to her, and you know that.

I fuck with that. She don’t take no shit.

Told me straight up that her daddy and y’all were good men, and therefore, I couldn’t convince her to accept less.

” I watched Asif smirk as he looked down at his gun on the table.

“I wouldn’t even try to give her less though.

I wasn’t confident I could do what I needed to do to meet her expectations, but I realize?—”

“The right woman will make it easy.” He finished my statement, and it surprised me as I nodded woodenly.

“I ain’t gotta think about it or make myself do right like with Rue. It’s natural, . . . and I ain’t even hit yet.”

Frowning in discomfort, he said, “Keep letting me believe that, aight?”

“I got you.” I laughed. “She a St. Thomas, cuz, so I hope you know it wasn’t all me that made this shit happen.

” I eyed him as he chuckled. “Y’all muthafuckas see something you want and become determined to obtain it.

But y’all niggas, so y’all had to actually chase. All she had to do was just . . . be.”

His smile dissipated before he locked eyes with me, folding his hands atop the table, and saying, “Do right by my sister, cuz. Other than my wife and my kids, she’s my world, and no nigga will be able to freely walk this earth and say he fucked over Banks St. Thomas.

“I’m trusting you with something very important, precious, and special to a nigga.

More important than all this.” He swirled his pointer finger to indicate the drug empire.

“I want you to know though that I’m only trusting you because it’s what she wants, but also because I think you can do it.

I’m a man in love myself, and I know that fucking look you got.

I recognize that thought process when it come to yo’ lady. That’s what I need to see.”

I bobbed my head, not willing to admit how much his belief in a nigga meant to me—with Banks and with the empire.

“I don’ fumbled a lot of shit before, but never will I fumble a blessing such as her. The fact that she even fuck with me or looked my way is enough to make me ensure another nigga don’t get the opportunity to feel the power I feel when she look at me.”

“When it comes to Anastazia, no other woman can pull my attention and love from her. I don’t care what she look like, how she talk, what she talking about, how big of a freak she is, none of that shit will make me look the other way. You on that?”

“Past that,” I half joked.

Asif nodded measuredly, regarding me momentarily before he rose, rounded the table, and dapped me up.

“When the last time you fought and then dapped the nigga up after?” I joked, walking him out after he locked his gun back in his waist.

“Shit, outside of my brothers—never.” He hit the key fob to his Rolls and added, “You like a brother to me too, though, so like with them, this don’t count. Make sure it’s the second and last time though.”

“It is.” I smirked, sinking my hands into the pockets of my joggers, smothering the smile I felt at my biggest inspiration and one of my biggest fans calling me a brother.

To a nigga who came from a fractured family and from a mother who placed an inferiority complex on him, Asif had no idea how good hearing that shit felt. Almost as good as laying up with Peep.

Once he left, I cleaned my face up some, shaking my head at having two fights back-to-back. It would possibly be more on the horizon if the rest of Banks’s brothers wanted to get active, and I was with that. They’d have to smoke me to get me away from Banks.

Her father was a different story. I didn’t wanna have beef with my love’s father, so I would do anything I could to be sure he understood that I loved his daughter, and I was here to stay.

Leaving the warehouse, I stopped at fuck ass Starbucks for Banks, since she’d texted me to, then went straight to her crib.

“Don’t ever ask me to get that shit again, Peep. Had me up there looking stupid as fuck trying to order this shit. Know damn well I couldn’t pronounce no fucking makiata.” I ranted as soon as she answered her door as I slipped past her.