Kiandra was in pain, exhausted, and scared that she would lose the ability to hear out of her right ear. She hadn’t said too much to me or anyone else. I wasn’t sure if she was mad at me. If she was, she had every right to be. Her family didn’t want to leave her side, so I hadn’t even been back to my own house since she was discharged from the hospital earlier. My parents’ house was where I decided to take refuge. My mother was in the kitchen cooking when I arrived. Normally, I would sit in the kitchen with her while she cooked, but I sat on the couch and stared off into space while thinking of the best way to make Rich worm food. The bad thing about getting at him was I would have to be patient. If he died anytime soon, I’d be the number one suspect. I had already decided to calm down and go legit. Murder wasn’t a charge that I was trying to fight.
My mother brought the smell of marijuana into the room with her. Puffing on a joint, she sat down beside me. “Why you looking all down? Kiandra is okay, isn’t she?”
“Is she?” I continued to stare at the television screen. My eyes had been glued to it for the past twenty minutes and if I had to answer three questions about what was on, I’d answer every single one wrong.
“Don’t you know?”
“She doesn’t have any life-threatening injuries, but she was shot. She had surgery to remove bullet fragments from her ear.I couldn’t tell you how she feels because she isn’t saying much. What is there to even say except her being with me is bad fucking luck.”
My mother hit the last of the joint and smashed the remnants in an ashtray on the coffee table. “You afraid she going to leave you?”
I couldn’t tell my mother the truth. I wasn’t afraid that she would leave me. I was afraid that she would stay with me. I wasn’t what Kiandra needed in her life. Even with me attempting to stop all illegal activities and get my real estate license, I had taken her through enough. She deserved some square ass nigga that her parents would love. A man that would marry her and give her a house full of babies. As long as she remained with me the relationship between her and her parents would be strained. Kiandra had real blinders on when it came to me. She was ten toes down for me, and I wasn’t even in love with her. The shit was sick.
I used my thumb to scratch at my eyebrow. “Nah not really. I’m not afraid she’ll leave me. Just kinda feel bad that she keeps going through shit.”
“What else has she gone through?”
“I’m the reason she got evicted from her place that time.”
“And she got a nice ass house for her trouble. That was years ago, and you were younger. We’ve all done dumb shit. I’ve stood by your father’s side through some things that I was probably called stupid for, but that’s my man, and I wasn’t ready to leave him. Shit happens. You’re not a saint, but you’ve never done anything to purposely hurt her. You can’t help that some idiot shot into your car. He’s the one to blame for her being shot. Nobody else.”
I damn sure wasn’t going to tell my mother that I robbed the nigga. I got $300,000 and four bricks of coke from Rich’s house. I would have been mad as hell taking a loss like that too. But thepussy ass nigga should have had better aim. He wasn’t getting any passes for shooting Kiandra rather than me. If he wanted to do that shit, he should have done it when I was alone.
My father came in the house drenched in sweat. “What’s up, Lucci?” he extended his palm, and I slapped it with mine.
“He’s over here pouting because Kiandra got shot. He feels bad.”
“How is she doing?” my father stood in front of the TV as he talked to me. I knew he was going straight to the shower. My mom would have a fit if he sat on her couch after being out all-day doing yardwork for people in the neighborhood. My pops was a hustler indeed, and it had nothing to do with selling drugs. Tyler and I didn’t come from a broken home. My parents had been together for thirty-three years, and they didn’t do that toxic bullshit. Of course, they’d hit rough patches, and they argued like anyone else, but I never saw my father put his hands on my mother or disrespect her. There were no claims of outside babies from other women, or confrontations with side chicks. My father kept two or three hustles at a time to keep the bills paid and food on the table.
He might work on two or three cars and then go straight to doing yardwork. He retired from a factory job, and along with his monthly retirement check, he worked for himself doing various gigs. My father could fix cars, cut grass, cut down trees, trim bushes, pressure wash houses, etc. he made around $200 a day if not more working for himself, and he loved it. My parents had never bought a home, and they had been renting the same one for the past ten years. Tyler and I always talked about being able to buy our parents a house. My parents weren’t green at all, but if I was going to buy them a house, I knew they’d prefer I got the money legally. They took any money that I offered them but that was for bills, groceries, or vacations. Nothing big like a house or a car. My father prided himself on being able to takecare of his family. I didn’t want to put my mom in a house using money from scamming or stealing.
If I got my real estate license it wouldn’t just be for me. I’d be able to make my parents proud.
“Yeah she’s good physically. It’s just the mental that’s got her messed up.”
“I can imagine. They still don’t know who shot her? Did you get a good look at him?”
“Nah, I didn’t,” the lie rolled off my tongue. “It had to be a case of mistaken identity or some shit because I don’t have any beef. I’m out and about all day every day, and I never had any issues.” The more I lied the lamer I felt. But my parents knew me. If they knew I knew who the person was that shot me, they knew I wouldn’t let it slide.
My father shook his head. “This is a crazy ass world we live in. People shooting in cars at stop lights hitting innocent people and shit. I know Kiandra hasn’t ever done anything to anybody. Her parents been on bullshit?”
“You know it,” I snorted. “At the hospital, her mother actually fixed her mouth like she wanted to spit on me. She better thank God her niece had the good sense to pull her back because if that lady would have spit on me, I know I would have blacked out and gone to her ass. It’s best that I keep my distance from them.”
“I know you fucking lying,” my mother barked. “I’ll beat that bitch’s ass if she ever spits on you. Fuck is wrong with her? And she’s over there right now in a house that you’re paying for. I should go dog walk that bitch.” My mom was so angry, a thick vein was bulging out of her neck.
“Calm down,” my father stated in a gentle tone. “I’m saving, so we can go to The Bahamas. I can’t be taking the money bailing you out of jail.”
“Kiandra’s family better tread lightly then because I’ll go to jail or hell ‘bout mine. I wish she would have spit on Lucci. Baby, nobody would be able to keep me off that hoe.”
And that was one of many reasons why I knew me and Kiandra could only go so far. I didn’t give a damn about a big wedding if I got married, but I knew she would want one. Her parents would refuse to be a part of it. My people didn’t get along with her people, and we could never do anything as a unit. My family welcomed her with open arms, but her people hated my guts, and I could live with that. If we ever had kids, there would be tension. If Kiandra left me, I’d wish her well and still take care of her just because I fucked with her the long way. After all we’d been through, I’d really seem like a grade A asshole if I broke up with her. So, until she came to her senses and decided to walk away from me, we were stuck together.
I pulled into the driveway of the home that I was meeting Breezy at. I didn’t see any other cars, and I was ten minutes early, so I assumed she hadn’t arrived yet. I was looking at houses on a whim, and when I saw one that I liked, I clicked on it. The pictures were impressive as hell, and it was a new build. No one had ever lived in it before. But what caught my eye more than the house was the fact that the realtor that had the listing was named Breezy. I knew there wasn’t any way in hell that more than one Breezy lived in Diamond Cove. That prompted me to go to her website and sure enough it was Ms. Hellcat Barbie herself.
I had no idea how long I’d been staring at her photo before I caught myself. Filling out the form to view the house was almost a reflex because I put no thought into it. The move was impulsive as hell. The house was dope as fuck, but I didn’t have legitincome on paper to drop M’s on a house. I wasn’t a creep, and I wasn’t a fan of wasting people’s time, so while I might not buy the home that I was about to tour, I had another proposition for Breezy. Whether she would take me up on the offer or not would be entirely up to her.
My thoughts became consumed with wondering what living in the kind of home that sat before me would be like. The house I helped Kiandra to get was nice but in comparison to the house that I was looking at, her shit was like a guest or pool house. It began to really sink in that all the money in the world didn’t mean shit if it couldn’t be spent freely. I didn’t have anything in my name thus, I had no credit. I needed something to shake, so I could start getting the things that I wanted on my own terms and not having to get others to put shit in their name for me. Walking into a bank to apply for a home loan with no job history, verifiable income, or record of paying taxes on the money I had would be a dummy mission. The Feds would be at my door faster than I could blink.
I had to do shit the correct way. Kiandra didn’t even have the income on paper to be approved for a multi-million-dollar house. Less than one year of mortgage payments combined was more than her yearly salary. When I heard the roar of an engine my eyes shot to the clock on my dashboard. I had been sitting for three minutes when that blue Hellcat pulled in behind my car. Emerging from my car before she even shut her engine off, I ambled toward her vehicle. Breezy shut the car off, and I reached for the handle to open her door.
