“I don’t need nobody to bow, especially not someone still livin’ in the past.”
Quesha stepped forward. “He killed for me.”
It was a death sentence dressed in pride.
Aku’s mouth twitched.
Low eyes, heat rising in her chest. “That’s what you brag about?” She stepped closer. “You think I’m gon’ back down? ’Cause you got history?”
Quesha squared up. “History got weight.”
“And I’m the future,” Aku snapped. Then she turned like it was over.
But Quesha ain’t let it go. She kept barking. “You just a pretty bitch with a slick mouth. You don’t know him like I do.”
Aku tried to be the bigger person and let it go. “Girl,” she waved her off.
“He killed for me!” Quesha yelled, her chest rising and falling never one to be undone.
Glaring down at her because she was taller, Aku scoffed. “But he gon’ live for me!” She popped Quesha in the mouth, splitting her lip on impact.
Quesha stumbled, wide-eyed, then lunged forward. They hit the wall, shoes scraping tile, nails flying, curses spilling like blood.
“Bitch!” Quesha yelled as they tumbled to the floor, going blow for blow. If she thought because Aku was a pretty girl from a rich family she didn’t know how to tussle, she had been mistaken.
“You don’t love him!” Quesha screamed, yanking at Aku’s collar. “You love the idea of him. You ain’t built for this shit.”
“Iamthis shit!” Aku shouted back, dragging Quesha down by her braids. “I bleed for him! You just made him bleed!”
Hands swinging, bodies rolling over each other on the floor, a chair knocked over. Then a picture frame hit the ground and cracked. Pharoah shouted, his voice barely cutting through the chaos.
“Hey!” he tried. “Yo—stop that shit!”
But they didn’t.
Quesha clawed at Aku’s arm. Aku shoved her knee into Quesha’s ribs. They rolled, wild, breathing hard, hair tangled, shirts half-ripped. The hallway felt too small, the house too silent beyond them.
Pride on full display, neither one of them backed down.
Finally, Quesha grunted, panting, her shirt torn. Aku’s lip was bleeding, but her eyes were wild and alive.
“You done?” Aku hissed.
Quesha spit on the floor. “You ain’t got what I had.”
Aku spun, fire in her eyes, and threw another punch—this time catching Quesha in the jaw hard enough to send her stumbling against the wall.
“No,” Aku panted. “I got what you never will, bitch.” She stood up, wiped her mouth and walked out with her head high, boots still on her feet ‘cause when her enemies watched, she stunted harder. And Aku knew Quesha had her eyes glued to her.
In the car, she pulled her phone out to call Malik but saw he’d texted her and told her, he was already on the plane. That was over an hour ago. Instead of crying like she wanted to do, for no reason other than being emotional in the moment, she pulled off.
chapter 22
. . .
The lock beepedwhen Aku stepped into her condo, but the moment she saw the two bodies posted in her living room, her spine locked up.
“Hey boo,” Solar smiled. It dropped when Aku fully stepped into the condo.
