Page 104 of Heavy Is The Crown

Then, smoothly, she turned her head toward him, her dark eyes steady. “You and Krys. What’s this about?”

There was no attitude, no judgment. Just a simple, quiet question that carried a hell of a lot more weight than it seemed.

Kenyatta raised a brow, his smirk slow. “She brought me around, didn’t she?”

Sydnee didn’t blink. “That’s not answering my question.”

Kenyatta chuckled under his breath, shaking his head. “She don’t strike me as the type to bring people around just ‘cause. So, what you really asking?”

Sydnee studied him. “I’m trying to figure out if you understand who you’re dealing with.”

The smirk on Kenyatta’s face faded slightly.

Sydnee continued, her voice calm, controlled, but firm. “Krys is a lot of things. Smart. Independent. Hard to impress. But more than anything?” She tilted her head just a fraction. “She don’t play games.”

Kenyatta let those words sit between them, the weight of them pressing.

“I see that,” he admitted.

Sydnee nodded, but her gaze didn’t waver. “Then you should also know she’s been…selective.”

He caught the slight hesitation in her words, the careful way she phrased it. She was saying a lot without saying too much.

Kenyatta exhaled. “You wanna know if I’m up for the challenge too. Boy, you and Ms. Pam don’t play ‘bout Krys, huh?”

Sydnee’s lips twitched in something that wasn’t quite a smile. “We don’t.”

“That’s good to know. I like that.”

“Good, but are you up for the challenge?”

Kenyatta chuckled, shaking his head. “You ask a lot of questions.”

Sydnee shrugged slightly, tapping her fingers against the porch rail. “I don’t talk just to talk.”

He respected that.

There was something about Sydnee’s energy that reminded him of Krys, but in a different way. Where Krys was fire, blazing, untamed, electric; Sydnee was water. Still. Deep. Watchful.

She wasn’t just feeling him out for fun; she was looking out for Krys.

That motherly, protective energy rolled off of her, unspoken but undeniable. Kenyatta wasn’t sure if it was because of their family bond or something deeper, but one thing was clear, Sydnee didn’t let just anybody get close to Krys. And she sure as hell wasn’t about to let him in easy.

Kenyatta tilted his head slightly, matching her gaze. “What you really tryna figure out, Syd?”

Sydnee took a slow, measured breath, her expression never shifting. “If you’re the type to stick around. Or if you’re just another one of Krys’...toys.”

Kenyatta’s brow lifted slightly. “Toys?”

Sydnee gave him a knowing look. “Krys likes control. She likes things her way. And when they stop being fun for her, she lets them go.”

Kenyatta smiled slightly. “That what you think is gonna happen?”

Sydnee didn’t answer. She didn’t have to.

Kenyatta huffed a small laugh, shaking his head as he looked out toward the yard. “Yeah, see…I ain’t one of them.”

Sydnee studied him for a long moment. Then, finally, she gave a single, slow nod. “We’ll see.”

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