Page 45 of Rhodes to Love

She gently rubbed my chest. “You’re perfect for me, even with your flaws. It proves you’re human. There’s only one that’s perfect. I love you, Rhodes.”

“I love you more, KD.”

She laid her head back on my chest as my phone rang. I rolled my eyes. I meant to put that shit on vibrate. Karima sat up, but I pulled her back to me. Shortly after, the doorbell rang. Karima sat up and her eyes widened. “Shit!”

I was trying to enjoy time with my soulmate, and somebody was fucking that up. I got out of the tub and looked at my phone first to see it was a call from Ali. I also had a missed text message from him. When I opened it, I read,We caught a nigga outside your spot. Also, Milana Semien is here. She’s Karima’s cousin.

I frowned. I knew who Milana was, but I couldn’t understand why she was here. Clearly, her mama could handle whatever her issues were. Plus, Karima had told me that Milana had brought bullshit to her doorstep and was threatening to cause even more confusion. Quickly drying off, I said, “Milana is at the door.”

Karima frowned then stood to get out of the tub as well. I went to her, to help her and make sure she didn’t slip and fall, then hurriedly put on shorts and a T-shirt. Making my way downstairs, the doorbell rang again. When I got to it, I checked to see it was Milana and Ali. I opened the door, and she lowered her head. I could see the tears on her face. I invited them both in then said, “Karima will be down in a minute. Make yourself comfortable.”

She nodded and went to the kitchen and sat at the table. Ali and I remained in the front room. He sat in a chair, and I sat across from him. He pulled his phone from his pocket and asked, “You know this nigga?”

When I looked at the picture, I frowned. “What the fuck?” I voiced. It was my boy that I called when this shit first happened. “Yeah. That’s Percy. I been knowing that nigga since I was a kid. I called him before y’all got involved to see if he knew what was going on.”

“Well, obviously, that muthafucka working with them. We brought him to Watchful Eyes to get information out of him. Jungle, Vegas, and Jericho are with him. They plan to FaceTime Ryan. I’m not sure if he was just watching or if he planned to do more, but they will find that out. Rondo caught his ass. Had that nigga tied up like he was a fucking steer in the rodeo.”

He chuckled as I noticed Karima coming down the stairs. I tilted my head toward the kitchen.

“I’m gonna let y’all handle the family business. I gotta go. I’ll call you with what we find out.”

“Okay,” I said and slapped his hand. “Thanks, man.”

I walked Ali to the door and locked it after he left. When I turned to go to the kitchen to check on the two of them, Karima was holding Milana as she cried audibly. Karima glanced at me and slowly shook her head. Before I could walk away, Milana said through her tears, “She told me to get the fuck out of their house. What am I supposed to do? I don’t have anywhere to go, Rima.”

“You can stay at my house for now, Milana, but I don’t want no shit. You hear me?”

“You have my word. The family is going to hate me. My mama hates me!”

She broke down all over again, falling into Karima’s arms again. I made my way back to the couch, knowing that Karima would fill me in once she left. They continued talking quietly, then I could hear Karima praying for her. I swore, my baby was the one all her cousins went to. God had given her a gift, and I supposed it was her job to use it.

After ten more minutes or so, Milana left, and Karima flopped next to me. She took a deep breath then stared at me. “When all this happened between us, I questioned God, wondering why He allowed this to happen. I wondered why He would allow it when He’d already told me you were the man for me. I thought I knew the answer before, but I one hundred percent know the answer to that now.”

I grabbed her hand and gently rubbed it, waiting for the revelation. “My family needed me. Had you not done that, I would still be in Nashville, going to school and working. It would have been more difficult to leave. That was almost five months ago. I would be in my second semester, and I would have surely picked the women for my rodeo team by now. He needed me in Nome. I’m going to have to make a trip out there tomorrow to talk to Aunt Tiff.”

“What happened? I heard Milana say she put her out of their house.”

“Two of the guys that Ace killed was her ex and his brother. Apparently, they made up and decided to seek revenge against Milana. They also happened to be friends with the Anderson guy. My family has beef with the Andersons and that shit is decades old. Aunt Tiff believes she’s partly responsible for why Grandpa got attacked.”

“What do you mean they made up? What does that have to do with Milana?”

“Milana’s ex was cheating on her. She knew he had a brother that he wasn’t getting along with, so she had sex with him, and he caught her leaving his brother’s house.”

My eyebrows hiked up to my hairline. “She fucked her ex-boyfriend’s brother?”

“Yeah. Aunt Tiff knows, because I made Milana tell her. That was when I told you she brought bullshit to my doorstep. That nigga was at my house looking for her and instead of calling her parents, she was going to call Ace, SS, and PJ, Philly’s son. Well, Ace ended up doing what he probably would have done that day. He and his brother were both killed.”

“She was dating a nineteen-year-old? I thought she was like twenty-two or so.”

“She just turned twenty-two and yes, she was dating a nineteen, almost twenty, year old.” Karima slowly shook her head. “Aunt Tiff is already in her emotions because Grandpa just died, but to find out that your daughter’s fuck up partially inspired the retaliation is beyond heartbreaking. I told Milana that she had to accept Aunt Tiff’s reaction to the ratchet shit she did. They already weren’t on the best of terms after she told Aunt Tiff what she did.”

I could feel the heaviness in Karima’s heart as I held her. This was a lot. Tomorrow she would find out her cousin’s fate for blowing their brains out. He’d shot two of them in the head and the other in the chest. The judge would be reviewing everything again.

She pulled away from me and asked, “Why was Ali here?”

“They caught someone traipsing around my property. Turns out it was a nigga I was cool with. We practically grew up together. They are trying to get info out of his ass as we speak.”

“Okay. Well, I’m going to take a shower since I didn’t get to wash up.”

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