Page 65 of Quasim: King Inferno

She smiled. “I want to live long enough to see both my boys get married. One down, and now one to go. Blair would make a lovely Queen Inferno, don’t you think?”

“Don’t get ahead of yourself, now.” I smirked, as I kissed the back of her hands, and she hugged me, kissing the side of my temple a bunch of times, just like when I was a child.

I walked outside with a cup of coffee in my hand and my phone in the other as Capone rode up on his bike with a little trolley attached to the back with CeeCee and Cooper in the back.

“Hi Quazy!” CeeCee hollered, looking up from her iPad, and I laughed because she was the only one that called me that.

“Hey CeeCee and Cooper.”

Cooper was too into whatever his sister had on her iPad to pay attention to anything else. Capone put the kickstand down and walked over toward me, dapping me up. “Daddy daycare out this bitch, huh?”

“My wife on her everythingneeds to gophase, so we giving her ass some space.” He took a seat on the porch with me.

“You live for that shit, though… Erin is your world.”

“Hell yeah. Can’t really imagine my life before she came into it. Excited to make her dream trip a reality. She’s so hands on when it comes to the kids and the house, she need to chill sometimes.”

“I feel you.”

“What’s up with you and Elijah? You gonna really hand him back to his moms after the summer is over?”

I shrugged. “Not like I can kidnap her kid. If she wants him back, I have no choice but to give him back.”

Capone laughed. “Rules don’t exist for niggas like us… I know that little boy went through something, Sim.”

My chest tightened because he had been through something, a whole lot of shit. Some shit that he didn’t speak about, and some shit that I witnessed myself. “I just want him to feel safe.”

“Dad, they fighting over the iPad.” CJ pulled up on his bike and nodded toward his siblings having a shoving match for the iPad.

“Aye… I’ll take that from you both.” Capone hollered and they both straightened up. “And you… It’s Daddy… I don’t know where you got thisdadmess from.”

CJ had this silly grin on the same face he shared with his father, and shrugged. “I’m not a baby anymore.”

“Yeah, I’m knowing it… you know he into John Wick now?”

I chuckled. “If he only knew how his uncles, aunt, and father was coming, he would really be interested. He’s growing up, Capo. As much as the shit is scary, there’s a blessing in that.”

Capone looked over at me. “Shit, my bad, Sim. I’m over here complaining and shit.”

I sipped my coffee. “You straight… bittersweet seeing them come into their own as people. You raising him to be better than we were and do the shit we never got the chance to.”

Elijah and Ryder came out the garage with their bikes. Ry now had two braids in her hair, which meant she was about to give CJ and Elijah both hell. “Bye, Uncle Simmy… Daddy wants me to stop by the house because he says he needs a hug and can’t get out the bed without one from me.”

I chuckled. “Guess you need to go help yo daddy out, Ry. Be careful and stay together.” The lake community was safe, and nobody was getting in this bitch unless they were invited or lived here.

“Later, Sim.”

“Have fun… don’t let her give you too much hell.”

Elijah smiled as he took off behind CJ and Ryder, who were already heading down the block. “Well damn, they not even waiting for me.” Capone realized they had left his ass.

“CeeCee and Coop, you ready?”

“Yesss!” They both screamed, no longer interested in the iPad they had been fighting over. “Start the daddy express!” CeeCee screamed.

Capone laughed as he got on the bike. “Chugga chugga choo choo,” he sounded as he saluted, and rode down the driveway with both his kids cheerfully screaming.

To see this man acting like a conductor for his kids and knowing the havoc he had caused in the streets to keep them protected was always something crazy to witness. With both him and Cappadonna, and then Blaze.

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