• • •

In all the time that we'd lived together, Coby had probably stepped foot in my room a handful of times.

I was immediately suspicious when he walked in and closed the door behind him.

"Wassup Ken?" He greeted, sitting down at the foot of my bed.

"Hey." I looked towards the door and back to him, "What's wrong?"

Coby took a deep breath, "I feel like we formed a relationship outside of Jai. Like me and you got our own bond."

"I don't like the sound of this chile."

"Nun like that." He laughed, turning more towards me, "I wanna talk to you about some, but Ion want you to tell her."

Coby and I had formed our own bond, I guess, but it wasn't close to mine and Jailyn's. That being said, if I told Jai what he said depended on what the topic was.

"Okay." I agreed.

"I know Eli and his family got they lil thing going, and I'm tryna get in on that."

"What thing Elijah and his family got?"

He ran a hand over his face, "I would ask Eli myself, but we don't never run into each other forreal."

A lie. He saw Elijah nearly every day.

"I'm confused," I said slowly,  still trying to figure out what exactly I was supposed to be asking.

Coby watched me for a few seconds, then his expression switched to that of thoughtfulness, "Just ask him to ask his daddy if I can do some work for 'em. He'll know what you mean."

That made one of us.

I didn't plan on staying in the dark for long, going to Google to search Christian Baker as soon as Coby left my room. A bunch of articles popped up, some hailing him as a businessman, others pointing to the contributions he'd made to low-income neighborhoods.

Majority of the links focused on a recent acquittal of murder and drug conspiracy charges, a case that fell apart when a key witness changed their statement on the stand.

The more I read, the more I wondered, How did this not pop up when I was stalking Elijah?

"And why the fuck Coby wanna talk to his daddy?" I asked, "I'll rather him keep rapping."

Ironically, Elijah was doing something with his dad and I wouldn't see him until later. I tried to assess how I felt about the situation, ultimately deciding that whatever he was doing had nothing to do with Elijah.

Elijah was a lawyer like he said, proven by the report that showed while he wasn't the lead attorney, he was on the defense team along with 2 other people.

Plus, Coby wanted to talk to Christian. Elijah was just the point of contact.

I put the corner of my thumb in my mouth, chewing as I continued to scroll, not really looking for anything else.

My phone rang, an unknown number showing up on the screen. I let it go to voicemail multiple times before sighing and picking up.

"Hello?" I answered in a deep voice.

"Where Ken at?"

I couldn't tell who it was from that sentence, so the disguise continued "Who this?"

"Marc."

"Goodbye, sir." My voice changed back, "Don't call my phone."

He snorted, "I told her you wasn't gone go for it. You ain't even wanna answer the phone I know you not going nowhere with us."

"What she said?" Lani asked in the background.

"Ian ask yet... You do it."

I wish I would've hung up when I had the chance but instead, I gave Lani enough time to get the phone and ask me to go to the movies with them.

While I prepared to decline, she made me feel like shit by saying, "My mama had to go to an appointment and I wanna pass the time."

Here I am about to lie to an 11-year-old because I wanna continue to sit here and stalk Elijah while Lani's having to spend the day with her shitty dad, along with dealing with who knows what else.

She love the damn movies.

"Yeah, I'll meet y'all out there," I conceded.

• • •

As luck would have it, they got the show-time wrong and the movie wasn't for another 2 hours.

I waited to see what they'd do when Lani turned to look at her dad "We can go eat? Or the mall? They opened that go-kart place too."

Marc barely looked up from his phone, "It's up to you."

"Let's get some food first, then the go-karts." Lani made it clear I was included in that when she pulled gently on my arm, "You can ride with us."

I didn't want to.

"Um.. I don't really wanna leave my car."

"Dad if Ken leaves her car will you bring her back to get it?"

That wasn't what I hoped to get out of that, but Marc shrugged his shoulder, "Yeah I guess."

Was there a good way to tell Lani that the thought of being in the truck with her dad made me uncomfortable? I didn't think he'd do anything to me, I just disliked him.

What Marc did had no effect on me directly though, and it was just a ride. I followed Lani to where they were parked, about to get in the back with her when Marc protested loudly.

"I'm not no chauffeur." He refused.

"Lani ride in the front with your dad."

She shook her head, "The way he drives scares me."

We wouldn't be having this conversation if I'd just driven my own damn car.

I sat in the passenger seat, buckling my seat belt and leaning against the door. From there, I took the most uncomfortable trip of my life. Nobody talked, but he also didn't plug in his phone, turn on the radio– nothing.

Besides the occasional laugh from Lani on her phone, only the sound of breathing filled the truck. I'm sure they heard my sigh of relief when we pulled into the restaurant.

It was late afternoon, so the parking lot of the restaurant being nearly empty stood out to me. "Damn where everybody at?" Marc asked as if he were reading my mind.

Lani grabbed his headrest and leaned to look around, "That's better for us."

As we were walking towards the door, she stopped us, "Wait, dad give me the keys I left my charger in the truck."

"You can go get us a table if you want to," Marc said as he watched Lani open the door.

Four. That's how many times my dumb self pulled the door before accepting it was locked. I turned around and Marc was smiling at me, holding a key towards me, "Unlock it."

Whoever got my voodoo doll, it's your time to shine.

"Marc, I-."

"Ken, if I let some happen to you, Eli'll kill me." He once again showed the diamonds in his mouth, "He in there, I just want you to go to 'em."

"I'd rather go home, please. If that's okay."

I looked around his shoulder and Lani was in the backseat of the truck on her phone like she wasn't supposed to be coming back.

I'm not gonna call an 11-year-old a 'b' word, but I want to.

"I swear Eli in there waiting on you. On my daughter."

He don't even care 'bout his dau-

Blowing out a breath, I took the keys and unlocked the door. It was quiet at first, but the deeper you walked in, the louder voices became. I saw them before Zi saw me, a table consisting of him, Elijah, Christian, and other men I didn't know.

When Zi noticed me he first looked at Marc then quickly whispered to Elijah. He could've saved his breath though, as Marc announced our presence by clearing his throat and greeting everyone.

"Wassup?"

I'd like to think the anger wasn't directed at me, and he just happened to be looking at me.

Nobody spoke, likely confused at why I was there. Then Elijah stood up and looked around the table, "I'ma have to catch y'all later."

"You being rude and shit." Marc shook his head, "Y'all want him to stay right?"

"Ion give a fuck what they want."

They looked at him in surprise, and Christian laughed uncomfortably, "It's getting late is all."

Everyone agreed, mumbling goodbyes and beginning to make their way out. Elijah was now watching Marc, still mad as hell.

I just wanted to get back in my bed.

Marc moved closer to Elijah when they were almost out of earshot, "This ain't nun– Ian even started yet. You fuck with mine, I fuck with yours."

"You doing stupid shit now." Christian warned, "This too far even for you."

"Tell Lauren come home." Marc directed towards Elijah

He ignored him and walked to me, pressing his lips to my forehead then tilting my face up towards his, "You okay?"

"Yeah. I wanna go, though."

I answered honestly because Marc was right when he said nothing would happen to me. When I got home I could block psycho and mini psycho, and go about my life.

"Zi'll take you home." Elijah's voice rose so that he would hear, "And I'll see you later."

"Why you not taking me home?"

That outcome would de-escalate the situation, which is what I wanted. It wasn't hard to tell that time I walked outside, something would happen.

But there was the look– the one from that night, only this time he smiled as he shook his head, "I can't right now baby. Later, okay?"

"You ready Ken?" Zi asked.

I don't know why he asked since he spun me around and started walking me out anyway, putting his arm around my shoulder, "How you been?"

Grunting and sounds of chairs falling alerted me to the fact that I was wrong about them waiting til I walked outside.

"Fight like niggas on the street." Christian sighed in disappointment.

We kept walking until we were at the front door, going out to see Lani was staring in our direction and I narrowed my eyes in suspicion. To me, there was no way she wasn't in on the shit.

Feeling played was an understatement. I'm out here tryna be nice 'cause her parents going through it, and she tricking me.

"Whew shit." Zi reached for the cord to connect his phone, "They crazy as hell."

"As hell." I agreed.

"He brought lil Lani and all. That's a bold nigga right there."

Instead of telling Zi that lil Lani wasn't that innocent, I told him where my car was, to which he shook his head, "Gimme the keys. It'll be there later."

"No. Y'all not gone steal my car."

Zi laughed a long unnecessarily loud laugh, "Nobody wouldn't steal that shit even if you left all the doors open with the keys inside."

"It's a freaking Nissan. You bougie niggas don't like Nissans?"

Now that I read all that stuff online, it made sense that they wouldn't like Nissans. If I was related to the head of an organization that made hella money, I wouldn't drive a Nissan either.

Allegedly.

"I'm just talkin'. Eli the one said it don't run right and I told 'em get you a scooter but I guess heon' want to."

"What I'ma do with a scooter, Zi?"

"Ride that hoe." He looked left and right before turning into oncoming traffic, "I see you ungrateful though."

He was doing a great job of taking most of my focus off the fact that I'd been drug into some shit that didn't have anything to do with me.

How can you repeatedly cheat, repeatedly disrespect somebody, then do all this to get them back? I still didn't completely understand the situation, as I was confused too by why Marc felt like Elijah could make Lauren come home.

"Don't worry 'bout Eli and them, neither. They do this all the time."

Their nonchalance didn't make it better, it just showed that they'd normalized behavior that wasn't normal. Your brother shouldn't trick your....

Why the hell Marc didn't go get the wife?

I could assume the answer, but you know what they say about assumptions.

The behavior, Ken. The behavior isn't normal.

Right. You shouldn't trick people into going to a restaurant full of-.

"Who were those people?"

Zi turned down the music, "What people?"

"The people at the table."

"Me, Eli, and Christian?"

Whatever you say, "Bet."

"You was never even 'posed to be in there. Say somebody was watching that, now you a witness– an accessory, Christian prolly won't even risk you-, ZI paused and looked at me out the corner of his eye, "Ian tryna' scare you, I'm just being honest."

Well, I was scared. Whether he was trying to or not didn't matter.

I cleared my throat, "Yeah, you, Elijah and Christian."

Marc was a piece of shit for taking me there. An even bigger piece of shit for having Lani in the car. Just to get back a woman he can't possibly love.

Obviously he does.

• • •

Elijah stood in the living room handing me my car key as I assessed the cuts that littered his face. He spoke to Jailyn who was openly staring, then followed me to my room.

"This isn't healthy," I stated as soon as the door closed.

"I know. He won't even look at you again."

He was talking like he won the fight but I found that hard to believe because of how he looked.

I don't know. He said Leah wouldn't say anything else to me and she didn't.

Lots of excuses.

And for what? Elijah wasn't any closer to being divorced than the last time we talked about it, something that was now starting to irritate me.

Marc was a psycho married to a psycho.

Lani, only a matter of time before she became a psycho.

Christian, Get a list.

Should I have led with the wife? Can't forget that nut.

Besides Leah, these were people who had constant access to him, so yes they mattered.

Also, this was just what I knew. There was no telling what other shit they had to show me.

I could admit that I had feelings for Elijah beyond that of a friend or sexual partner. The things that I didn't care about before, were important.

And it was too much too soon.

"Elijah it's just.... a lot."

He nodded slowly, "I know I got a lot going right now. And I know it's selfish for me to ask you to wait."

There was a 'but' lingering in the air, and I waited somewhat impatiently for him to finish gathering his thoughts.

"But Kensley this, you— that's what I want. Tell me what I need to do to have you."

'Too much too soon' became an entirely different conversation.

Yet another mistake.

• • •

ken & eli are my faves.

thanks for reading 💕

i recently published a new book, 'Pole Etiquette' & i plan on it being a cute love story. the first chapter is up & an update should be out td if y'all wanna read.