“Let me make somethin’ real clear to your goofy ass. I don’t remember you. Not your name, not your face, not a single damn moment you thought meant somethin’. You were justbackground noise in a room I never looked twice at. And even if Nova wasn’t in the picture, hell, even if every woman on Earth vanished you still couldn’t get me. You ain’t got shit I want. You just got delusion… and a front-row seat to your own downfall. Congratulations.” He said, stepping away.
Tears rolled down Kennedy's face the farther Crew got from her. This bitch insane.
“Anything else you want to add?” Kema asked.
“Kill me or let me go. But I got nothing else.” Kennedy said, looking at me with not an ounce of regret.
This was her truth. She actually believed what her brother was doing was okay.
“Where is your brother?”
“I don’t know? If I had to guess somewhere regrouping with my father. He’s the planner of the family.” She said.
“You forgot one more thing.” Mecca smiled coldly.
“What?” Kennedy asked, like she was bored of us.
“Your silence.” She said, before shooting Kennedy between the eyes before I could even process what she was doing.
Kennedy slumped in the chair, eyes unseeing.
Black pulled a phone from his pocket.
“Come clean this shit up.” He said.
Mecca turned to me, pulling off her gloves. “How you feel?”
“Lighter,” I whispered. For some reason I didn’t feel a bit sorry for Kennedy. She picked her side and unfortunately it was the wrong one.
“Good. You held your own.”
They both hugged me tightly. “You family now. Welcome to the dark side, baby.”
Kema nodded.
“The twins said you’ve met our sister in-law Anesia. She’s sweet like you. Had to learn the hard way that sometimes you have to save yourself. In this life we don’t flinch around here. Wedon’t bow. If someone threatens our family, we do what has to be done to protect us. If you're gonna be in our friend group you're gonna have to be ready for anything.” She said.
“Don’t let the cute faces and soft voices fool you. I mean Black and Blue are my brothers.” Mecca giggled.
Tears slid down my cheeks, but I was smiling.
“Thank you.”
“Thank yourself. You stepped in that ring. You didn’t tap out.” Kema said.
Crew walked over and wrapped his arms. After what just happened, I needed this. He kissed me on my head before guiding me to the door. As we walked out, I looked back at Kennedy one last time.
She was lifeless in the chair, head down and broken. But me? I’d never stood taller.
Crew
Nova seemed to be doing okay after what she saw at the office. I kept stealing glances at her out of the corner of my eye as I drove us home. I knew that seeing someone die for the first time could be hard on some people, but she was handling it well. I reached over and put my hand on her knee to comfort her as much as myself. I never wanted this for her. This was the very reason I became a changed man after what happened to Sabrina. All I wanted for Nova were the good things in life.
We went straight to our bedroom once we got into the house. Nova still hadn’t spoken about what she witnessed, and I was starting to worry. I watched her as she stripped out of her clothes without a word until she walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. Everything in me wanted to follow her but I didn’t want to crowd her if she needed some space.
I went into one of the guest rooms, showered and pulled on a pair of pajama bottoms. When I got back to our room Novawas in bed with her back to the door. Her breathing was soft and regular, but I could tell she wasn't sleeping by the way she was positioned. Nova always slept on her stomach or on her back, never on her side. I closed our door and got in behind her sliding in close, putting my arm around her waist and pulling her back into my chest.
“You want to talk about it?”
