Page 40 of Another Constant

I turned behind me and pulled a piece of pancake from his plate and held it to his lips. He accepted it, eyes locked on me in the most seductive way possible.

Our eye contact only broke when Aja returned to the room with her tablet in hand and a frown.

“What’s wrong, Uncle?”

“The fact that I told you that you’re too young for a boyfriend and that’s exactly what it seems like you think you got.”

I ended up checking my emails and text messages while he gave Aja a long, drawn out lecture of what he thought was the game. I managed to keep my composure throughout but lost it momentarily when he told her she wasn’t going to some lil nigga’s house party because shit happened there. I swear this fool was crazy, but he loved his niece. When she began to pout, he offered to take her to the arcade. Of course she accepted and took flight to her room to get dressed while I just looked at him. He was so handsome, so uncle daddy-ish.

“The fuck you getting in the bed for? You're going with us.”

“Uh, why? You said you and her. Uncle and niece.”

He laughed. “Because if you keep letting me between the way you do, you’re on your way to being her auntie.” A wink followed.

“So just because of my sex?”

He shook his head. “Nah, plenty more reasons, but most of all because I fuck with you in a way I ain’t never fucked with anybody else.”

I didn’t respond. I just lay there and looked at him, wondering to myself if his answer sufficed. It did, but I was overthinking, praying I didn’t find myself in the same situation as last time… Thinking everything was fine when, in fact, he wanted a break. Kinga wasn’t that type though. He was the “say what you feel and feel what you say” type, a through and through street dude with no regard for any intention that differed from his.

“Now get your fine ass up before I meet you over there and Aja be mad at both of us ’cause we won’t make it to no damn arcade.”

Chapter9

Kinga

I was at the shop, handling business today. One of my normal tasks was having my latest project towed to me. No lie I was excited to see it considering I was an old school fanatic. I loved to restore ’em and see just what I could do. It was an interest I had somehow gotten from my uncle. My whole life he’d spend morning until night in his garage, building some shit while my auntie was in the crib making the house feel like home.

“Boss, I got Remy on the phone. He’s saying there’s a mess on one of the blocks,” Big Jay called out, interrupting my thoughts.

“Like what? What happened?”

“Somebody came through spraying. Yellow tape and a lot of blue lights over there.” When he said that, my thoughts immediately went to Jewlz and her warning a few days ago.

I was on my feet in seconds, giving the candy apple old school one last look before I turned to Jay. “Anybody know who did it?” My fingers itched and my skull was on fire. I didn’t go messing with nobody, even when I could have. Folks loved to disrupt the peace with greedy hands.Cup handed ass niggas.

“Fool named Kyro who works under Maj from what I gathered,” Big Jay responded. He has worked with me long enough to know I didn’t like questions with no answers. Even if you didn’t have any answers at first, it was best to find some before telling me the situation.

I dropped my tools. “Cool, then where is Maj at?” What irked me more than anything was people thinking we were peers because we weren’t. I ran this shit and earned my stripes. Not a soul walking this earth would ever be able to challenge that.

“Getting a location right now. He hangs out at a lil hole in the wall named Willows near his territory. Making sure he’s there now.”

I nodded. Pissed off was an understatement. Most days all I wanted was to work on these cars, but I was always pulled out of my element, always taken to places where I had to move in ways that were no longer first nature to me.

His phone rang. “We got confirmation. He’s there.”

I nodded. “Then let’s go.”

While Jay drove, I sat in the passenger side of his car with my mind full. I’d always be down with the gunplay, but why didn’t people get tired of it? If we all knew how I was gonna react, why fuck with me when we know how I’ma react every time. I had always been consistent with my reactions. The ride was all of fifteen minutes.

“You strapped?” I asked Jay before we got out of his car.

“I’m riding with you. Don’t I have to be?”

I chuckled. He was right. I didn’t fly off the handle much but I’d handle something in a minute. Let Nine tell it I gave a look when I was about to get busy. I didn’t know what he was talking about, but I did know if something didn’t sound right I got busy and did the talking part later. I didn’t much care for anything coming out of anybody’s mouth because nine times out of ten it was all lies.

“You good. I ain’t on nothing for real,” I assured him as we walked into the restaurant.

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