Page 18 of Love & Vendettas
“You good, Z?” Parker asks, stepping out of the conference room next to my office.
I shake my head no. “Family shit has gotten out of hand. Hold everything down.”
“Gotcha, bro,” he replies, following me out to the reception area where the elevators are located.
“Marisa, I need you to send a bouquet of fresh tulips to my wife’s business, to the attention of Georgette Rivers.”
“The message, sir?”
“Thanks for everything. Your loyalty is incomparable.”
“Got it, sir,” she responds, pushing a button on her desk.
The express elevator opens, and I rush onto it and jab the button to take me to the private parking garage. The moment that I step off the elevator, the black Range Rover is waiting for me with the rear door open.
The button that Marisa pushes alerts my driver, Ghalen, that I’m on my way down. He’s always ready to go at anymoment, and if he needs a break or to step away, then Jamal would be the one to replace him.
I hop into the back seat, and Ghalen pulls away.
“Where to, Bossman?”
“Riley’s home.”
He floors the gas.
I have always respected Bayleigh’s wishes to let her handle her family business on her own. What I won’t do is allow my woman to go down for some bullshit that her family couldn’t handle or something that jumps off and pulls her into it like this.
I’ve often told Riley that if she needed protection, an escape, a place to go, money, or anything, all she has to do is say the word. Riley stays because that’s what she chooses.
While she tells her big sister that her husband doesn’t put his hands on her, I’ve always suspected differently. When they were in their twenties, Kenny tried his hand at being a dope boy. He wasn’t cut out for the game, but that never stopped him from messing with several women at once. At the time, Riley wasn’t involved with him, but she was crushing on him. We all warned her to stay away, especially when he got China Houston pregnant. That girl was a whole lot of trouble.
But the moment that he realized that Riley’s attention was all about him, he used that to his advantage to make China jealous. He used to jump on China all the time.
I had one conversation with him in the beginning after learning that he and Riley were dating. I hadn’t had to have another one because he’d never put his hands on her. Over the last year, I began to suspect things had changed, but I’d been so caught up with my business, I hadn’t had time to drop in on them and see how things were going.
What tipped me off that something was wrong was that Riley stopped coming to family events, and she seldom let Bayleigh come to visit her. There was always another excuse:she was tired from working, they were going on a vacation, she wasn’t feeling well, and she and Kenny were heading out.
I hadn’t pressed the issue, but now that Bayleigh has become directly involved, I know there’s some shit in the game.
9 – BAYLEIGH – LOCKED DOORS
I push my R8 to a little over one hundred miles an hour, but as Riley hangs every curve with me and I don’t shake her on the highway, I push it to its max speed of two hundred and five once we hit the mountainous terrain heading toward her house.
There’s not another house close to them, and I know that when she was screaming, no one would have heard her.
I glance in the rearview mirror, knowing that I’ve left her in the distance. Her Mustang can only go one-fifty-five tops.
When I pull up to their little house on the hill, I jump out with my gun in hand, leaving my bag behind and my ignition running.
I try the door but find that it’s locked. I should shoot the bitch off, but I don’t. I bang on the door with the butt of my gun instead.
I hear the fool holler back, “What?”
“Open this door, Kenny! I’m not playing with you.”
“Go on, Bayleigh. I’m not in the mood for your shit. I don’t want any trouble.”
“Bitch, please! You asked for trouble the minute you put your muthafuckin’ hands on my sister.”
