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fifty-one

. . .

“Ouch, E,” Brody hissed, as Eden zeroed in on his cheek. “You don’t have to be so damn rough. Damn. Talk so soft to be so damn strong.”

“I’m not being rough. You're being a little bitch,” Eden grumbled. “I don’t understand how you two are known gang members who have been shot and don’t take care of your damn wounds. Do you want this to get infected, Bransheer?”

Brody smirked boyishly. “I knew you liked me.”

“Don’t get your ass knocked out, nigga, with all that skinnin’ and grinnin’ and shit. And don’t be calling that nigga Bransheer,” Maximus corrected, entering the kitchen where Eden hovered over Brody’s face.

“Boy, shut up. I can’t have the head of security walking around with an ate up face,” Eden grumbled, placing a clean bandage on his face. “You won’t be gettin’ no sympathy pussy from these hoes running around looking like two face.”

“Damn,” Brody grumbled with a laugh. “You could at least go along with it. Give that nigga some heart palpations or something.”

“No, thank you, I sleep with him, and I don’t think I can handle him being mad at me so you’re on your own.”

“Here I was thinking you had him wrapped around your finger. You whipped up too.” Brody shook his head, thanked Eden, and looked at Maximus. “You ready, MB?”

“Yeah.”

“Where we going?” Eden asked, slipping her shoes on. “BGCs?”

Maximus cut his eyes over to Brody. “So all she had to do was bat her eyelashes at you, and you told her everything? And got the nerve to say some shit that I’m whipped. Nigga, you are too. Everyone but Keon following her directions.”

“Actually, Keon listens, too, but I won’t blow his spot up,” Eden spoke with a shoulder bounce. Maximus observed her shield. That guard she put up and had up when he first encountered her. The one used to protect her from any further trauma. She’d had it up since the shootout at Big Rod’s.

Brody continued. “Like you don’t? I'm not lying to her. Plus, if I get her order wrong from Big Rod’s, she’s going down there anyway. She might as well come with us. At least this way, she got two guns with her.”

“I ain’t strapped,” Maximus shared. The statement was loaded. Both Eden and Brody picked up what he was alluding to. Turning to Eden, he asked, “You sure you want to go back down there?”

Eden grabbed her bag and shrugged. “I can let trauma keep me in this house, or I can jump out the window, as you put it.”

Maximus nodded. There was something to be said about the way they pushed and encouraged each other, even when everything said they shouldn’t. They bounced back, they loved, they pushed toward the bigger picture. With Eden by his side, even the impossible was within reach.

“You gon’ listen?” Maximus prompted.

“Yes, I’m going to listen,” Eden huffed, rolling her eyes. “Can we go? I’m on a Staysha-assigned mission.”

“Oh yeah, what’s that?” Maximus questioned as Eden switched past him.

“You’ll see when we get there,” Eden replied. “Can we not bleed all over my seats this time?”

“She got jokes,” Brody muttered, walking past Maximus. “You better put a baby in her or something. Put her ass up before some nigga tries taking her from you.”

Maximus tapped his hand on Brody’s chest. “For that reason, you keeping both eyes on her.”

“Wait...nigga,” Brody cheered, sharing their signature handshake. “Congratulations.”

Maximus let a proud smile shine over his face, and Brody playfully hit his uninjured shoulder. “Ay, nigga, watch out.”

“She really gave you paradise. You know what’s next,” Brody stated.

“I do but let this shit die down first.”

“You know like I know shit don’t ever stay calmed down for long. You got a queen, you crown her; don’t drag your feet.”

“Heard you.”

The pair of friends roamed out of the house into the garage where Eden’s SUV was parked. She was nestled in the back seat, legs crossed, scrolling through emails and reviewing the to-do list Staysha sent her in the wee hours of the morning.

Maximus joined her in the back seat, instantly slipping his hand between her knees. “What Staysha got going on today that she got you workin’?”

“Davina has a one-day Public Relations Leadership seminar she’s hosting in Ganton Hills.

She extended the invite to Staysha, and I told her she needed to be there.

And you know Keon ain’t letting her out of his sight.

I can handle your shit for a day,” Eden commented with a smile. “Question is, can you handle that?”

“The idea of you ruling me all day does something to me,” he grumbled against her cheek, punctuated by a kiss. Eden giggled. “Soon as this sling comes off, your ass is mine.”

“I hear you talking,” Eden hummed.

He leaned his head atop hers. “You sure you cool with going down there?”

“Do you know I passed the corner where my dad was murdered every day when I lived in Magnolia? If I avoid it, I’ll never go back. Big Rod’s is as much a part of me as it is the neighborhood. It’s just another reminder.”

“A reminder of what?”

“That I’m supposed to be here. That I’m doing what I’m supposed to be doing. At least on the right path of what I’m supposed to be doing. That goes for you too,” Eden hummed, relinquishing her phone to lean her head on his shoulder. “I thank you for checking in, though.”

“Don’t thank me for some shit that’s automatic, baby. It’s automatic.”

They rested in the comfort of one another until Brody stopped the luxury SUV in front of Big Rod’s restaurant. Maximus gave Eden’s knee a reassuring squeeze before they got out. Maximus and Brody peeked the scene before opening Eden’s door.

The shots fired through Augustus were heard throughout the hood. It cemented the fact that Trae Way MB wasn’t a man to be fucked with, be it his blood or anyone else. Eden strolled in behind Maximus, in front of Brody. The moment her face came into view, Big Rod’s voice boomed through the space.

“I know this ain’t who I think it is.” Big Rod took in Eden as she skirted past the contractors applying the finishing touches to the inside and outside of his establishment.

Courtesy of Maximus as repayment for how things turned out.

Eden offered him a soft smile as she looked around, the bullet holes gone, the old menu replaced, and new tables and chairs. “It hasn’t been that long.”

“Considering Big Rod’s was at least a once-a-month guilty pleasure, I ain’t seen you since you started running around with this nappy-headed nigga,” Big Rod spoke as Eden stepped into his open arms. “You alright, babygirl?”

Maximus watched on, taking it in. Eden’s father may have been snatched from her at an early age, but Big Rod had, without question, stepped in as a guide. Like he’d done for so many of the kids from the neighborhood.

“I’m okay,” Eden muttered against him.

Big Rod’s hold on her noticeably got tighter, warmer, as if he knew Eden was carrying something precious. “Don’t you ever scare me like that again. You hear me?”

“I do. I promise it won’t happen again.”

“And never in your condition,” Big Rod said, peering down at her with knowing. “And I told your boyfriend I’ll take his head off his damn shoulders if something happens to you.”

Eden chuckled as they retracted from their embrace. “He’s shared that with me.”

“Good, just know it’ll be casket swinging and slow singing. Poppi will not visit me from beyond the grave. Sit down, I got your order coming up. New kitchen equipment put the staff through it this morning,” Big Rod shared, nodding them to their usual spot.

Eden slid into the new booth and looked over at Maximus. “It looks good in here.”

Maximus looked around. “He deserved it. I can’t rehab a business a block over and not look out for him, too. He’s family.”

“He is. He knows, too.”

“He got that fatherly thing going on. Considering he probably thinks we’re his kids.”

Eden chuckled. “Ain’t no thinking. But while we’re here, Jay Lucci wants to shoot the rest of the video for Go Figga in the neighborhood, so locations...”

“That’s on Staysha’s list?”

“She literally put on here ‘tell Max about locations’. Bossy ass. So here, Poppi’s, and BGCs.

Models are apparently handled. She went through an agency for them.

Trae Way t-shirts and cars are handled. It’s going to be a whole lot of Azul Heart and Trae Way flags in the streets next week.

All the politics handled?” Eden asked, her eyes lifting to him from the list.

“Yeah. We told them niggas they gon’ act right and that’s what the fuck they gon’ do,” Maximus replied.

“I hear you, MB. Midnight is open, do you want to shoot there?” Eden quizzed.

“I don’t want to shoot there until the deed is clean.”

Eden rose her brow. Then she squinted. “Was that an El Jefe grab?”

“Nah, that was a Trae Way grab. That and the community center and Magnolia, she was using as a front. All they want is what's owed in taxes. It should be cleared up in a couple of weeks. Money is in escrow.”

Eden bit a smile. “You know, when I thought about my man, I never considered he could pack heat and handle business.”

“You like that shit, don’t you?” Maximus flirted back as Big Rod appeared with their food.

“Uh huh, I do.” Eden leaned over the table for a kiss, earning her a grunt from Big Rod.

“First y’all shoot my shit up and now you swapping spit. That’s how you got like that.”

Eden grinned. “Thank you, Rod.”

“Uh huh. Let me know what else I can get you. I put some extra sauce on the side for you.”

“You got some hot sauce?” Maximus asked.

“Get your crippled ass up and get it,” Big Rod joked. “I was talkin’ to baby girl. Not you.”

“Damn, Rod,” Maximus muttered with laughter, getting up to get his sauce. “That’s how we doing it?”

“Never mind, sit down. You attract bullets, and my shit just got upgraded.”