Page 10 of Another Constant

ME:When do you wanna see the dog, sir?

I went to set the phone down, but it vibrated again. This time a long vibration, letting me know it was a call instead of a text. I answered, quickly cradling the phone between my ear and shoulder. Of course this was Kinga and for some reason I was okay with that, knowing damn well I shouldn’t have answered, but instead returned his call in the morning. There I would have been keeping it professional, but we both knew a ten in the evening call was nowhere near professional time, meaning this man didn’t want a dog any more than I wanted to keep any of this professional. It just sounded good to tell myself I was. So hell yeah, I was about to take this late ass call.

Chapter3

Kinga

I glared at Oden with my head spinning. Everybody said I was the hot headed one in the family, but he called me to his crib at three in the morning needing help. I was pissed because I had literally just fallen asleep when my phone was ringing. When I saw it was Oden I answered quick as fuck because he had never been the type to be up at this time of night. Again, my older brother wasn’t the type to be on anything me or Sora was. He stayed his uptight ass out of the way.

“You mean to tell me you walked in the door and they was fucking in your be?—”

“Nah, he was sitting at the end of the bed getting dressed. When I went to confront him, he started shooting first. I ducked and sent shots of my own. When I lifted my head, things were like this,” he responded, eyes leaving my own and landing on the bodies sprawled against the blood stained bed.

I made the mistake of turning and looking as well. His wife Ashley lay sprawled against the top of the bedding while the half clothed buster was laid against the foot. Oden had slumped both of them without even trying or maybe he did. Nine times out of ten had I walked in on my woman in this position, I probably would’ve sent a few shots and asked the corpse questions later.

“What about Aja?” he asked, voice filled with regret. He was referring to my niece, his daughter.

“She's gonna be straight just like you. This is water under the bridge, bro. Don’t touch shit. Matter of fact, go take a shower and put the clothes you are wearing in a bag. I’m about to let B in so they can clean this shit up.”

“Clean this shit up? Like wha?—”

“Yo, let me handle this. Just go shower and gimme your phone.” I held my hand out for the phone.

He placed it in my palm and went into the closet. He then came out with a few items of clothing in his hands and a somber expression. See, this shit right here was about to piss me off. I tried to have patience for others, like my auntie asked me to, but what the fuck was he moping for?

“Um, I’ma use the guest bathroom.”

“Good idea. Stop walking around looking sad and shit. We told you she was a ho when you first brought her home.”

“Fuck you, Kinga,” he gritted.

I laughed. Good to know he hadn’t gone all soft.

About ten minutes later B arrived and I left him with the room. I found my way into my brother’s living room, staring at the pictures he had adorning the small hall. It baffled me how happy they looked only for things to end up like this. I wasn’t just talking mess when I said we told him she was a ho. She tried to kick shit to Nine, and he was a straight shooter, so he told Oden. Like the typical tender fool, Oden didn’t believe him, and now here we were, a dead man and a dead bitch he’d literally just called and told me was carrying their second child days ago. It bothered me that things could look this perfect but be a mess under wraps. Oden could tell me he didn’t know it was happening all he wanted, but he had to have an inkling or something. He had to know she was cheating on him or maybe he was truly oblivious and really believed they were happy. Things like this were why I didn’t fool with no chick past the mattress because there was no way I’d still be aight. I’d have a motherfucker in the trunk of that sixty-eight taking a final ride.

“That was on Aja’s third birthday. Ash told me she wanted to go to Milan. I took her, no questions asked. I made all the rig?—”

“Nah, you didn’t. You forced some shit you knew deep down wasn’t there. It’s cool; I guess we all do that from time to time.” I shrugged like everything that had happened tonight was nothing.

“Not you. You don’t force shit. As a matter of fact, you don’t give a fuck about things well enough to force anything.”

I shrugged. “It’s all in the way you see it, bro.”

“What am I going to do?”

“Pick up and go on with your life. Shit, yo’ wife decided to abandon her child and run off with her side dude. Took ten Gs from you and all. Ain’t nothing left to do, bro,” I responded, already having planned this shit out in my head.

“But what abou?—”

“Nothing. By morning that room will be cleaned out and there will be no fucking trace. You should probably contact your realtor in a few days, tell her you’re looking to sell because you’d like to be closer to family.”

“What?”

I laughed. “We miss your muscle head ass and you damn sure can’t live here no more. That was what, your first body? Get you something in the city. Where is my niece anyways?”

“Ashley’s grandmother. She spends the night with her when we need a baby sitter. When she stays over, she takes her to school those mornings as well. Either Ashley or me picks her up.”

“Good. I’ll slide by and pick her up. Figure out your next move, I got this.”

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