Page 65 of Disrespectfully, Relic

Conversation continued around her, but she zoned out to focus on finishing her customer’s hair so that she could call Savvy. The simple update from her that everyone was fine had sufficed for Kennedy until it didn’t. She had warned Relic that he’d been reckless, and the fact that someone got close enough to steal his fucking chain proved her right. Her stomach knotted and coiled at the reality that Relic could’ve lost his life.

She tried steadying in her hands as she pressed the last strand of hair and then sat down her flat irons to wrap her client’s tresses into a beehive. Her heart constricted and vision blurred because she couldn’t help but think about if the call from Savvy had been like the one that she’d gotten about Koda. She’d spent two weeks ignoring it and being pissed with him to not dwell on it, but hearing the stylists gossip about the ordeal as if it meant nothing summoned emotions she tried containing.

It was the very reason she’d steered clear of drug dealers since Koda’s death. Even more so, the reason she’d avoided Relic to fucking begin with. Kennedy hoped he kept his distance and never said a word to her again.

No sooner had that inane thought crossed her mind, the salon’s door chimed, causing her head to lift. Her heart stuttered when Relic barged inside with his piercing eyes free of shades and stoned on her like she’d done him wrong instead of vice versa. The murmurs that filtered throughout the room didn’t help matters as Relic stopped at her station with a tense jaw and threatening posture like he was teetering on doing the one thing she’d warned his ass never to try with her. Kennedy played it cool, refusing to sweat it as she brushed down her client’s hair and then tousled it to check its bounce. The fleeting fragrance of citrus and patchouli sent her pussy in a frenzy as she tried to tune it out.

“We need to talk. Now.”

That request went ignored as she removed the smock from her client’s neck and then proceeded to take her payment as if Relic hadn’t uttered a single word. Kennedy grabbed her phone to ensure it went through, but it was snatched from her hand so fast that her heart tried leaping out her damn chest. Screams followed when Relic cocked his arm and pitched it at her mirror, sending glass flying everywhere.

“Oh, hell no! This nigga is crazy!” her client shrieked, hopping from her seat and dipping past Relic for safety. Kennedy did the opposite.

She was in his face in a split second, standing toe to toe with him like he wasn’t twice the size of her average frame. Kennedy matched his eye contact, causing her lower extremities to throb in need while her knees weakened, making her understand why Jessica stuck around although he wasn’t shit, and why simple ass Logan would’ve jumped on his dick in front of her man if he snapped his fucking fingers. Relic was the worst addiction a bitch could have, and Kennedy was jonesing from withdrawals. That harsh truth fueled her anger. Her searing gaze bore into his before every emotion she’d bottled up exploded in an uncontainable rage.

“You gotta be out of your fucking mind! This is a business, Relic. Your business! Yet your emotional ass is breaking shit because I didn’t move when you said so? I’m not on your damn time!”

“Emotional?” Relic repeated the one word that caught his attention most.

“Yes! Anger is a fucking emotion in case you didn’t know it. The same emotion that convinced you to stroll inside this salon and act an ass. You want to talk? Come on, because I got a whole fucking lot to say.” Kennedy strutted toward her office, stopping short to peer over her shoulder when she didn’t feel him following her. “Nigga, bring yo muthafuckin’ ass!”

Level ten didn’t come close to describing her boiling point as she stomped into her office and clenched the doorknob, waiting for his ass to enter. As soon as he trekked inside, she slammed the door shut before screaming when her back crashed against it so hard that she thought she’d fly through the hollow wood.

“Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to, Kennedy?!” Relic barked in her face with a hand fisted around the collar of her shirt. Her heart dropped into her ass, but she refused to back down.

“You! And let me the fuck go! You want to hit me, Relic? Do it. I fucking dare you to try it!”

Relic’s free hand balled into a fist at her challenge. His lids fluttered in hasty blinks while he tried to close that playbook from his father that instructed him to knock her head off her fucking shoulders. Joseph would already have Judith on the ground in fetal position, stomping her out for trying to grow a backbone and defend herself. Relic could see fear and boldness battling in Kennedy’s eyes, but she didn’t react. She waited like she was giving him the benefit of the doubt. If she were Harmony or Savvy’s bitch ass ex-best friend, she’d have tears streaming down her face while ineffectual apologies fell from her quavering lips. Jessica would’ve swung first since she knew crying didn’t help, and she’d rather have the upper hand.

Kennedy did neither because she was playing the fucking game; she was testing him to see how far he’d go, so she could make her next move accordingly. Relic loathed how good she was at fucking with his mental. His fingers unclasped from her hoodie before he backed away and placed both hands behind his back.

“That’s what the fuck I thought!” She popped off the second he gave her an inch of distance. “I can’t believe you came in here, acting like a little ass boy having a fucking tantrum! You broke my mirror and probably my damn phone.”

“It was either break those or break your fucking jaw, Kennedy. Be glad, I made the choice I did.”

A rebuttal sat at the tip of her tongue, but his subtle foreshadowing shoved it back down her throat, and she allowed it. Relic had gone from irate to calm too fast, and she’d seen those signs before. Kennedy had witnessed her brother and first love go still before flipping the fuck out. She’d learned there were times to stand up for herself and other times to shut up and stand down because she’d have to accept the consequences of pushing someone to their limits. Koda had schooled her that she was in control of her actions but couldn’t dictate how a person responded to them.

“Why are you here, Relic?” She tamped down her emotions to talk to him with sense. “You’re showing your ass and embarrassing me like I did you foul somehow.”

“I hate when people play dumb, Kennedy. It’s an insult to my intelligence. Why the fuck did your manipulative ass put it in my brother’s head that I needed protecting? How did you know some shit would pop off, huh?”

“Manipulative!”

“That’s exactly what the fuck I said. I know me when I see it. You’re just better at hiding that shit, Kennedy, but we’re one in the same. Stop fucking deflecting because it only makes you look guiltier.”

“I cannot believe this bullshit. Are you accusing me of setting you up?”

The incredulity and mild hurt in her tone didn’t go unnoticed, but Relic refused to let it sway his opinion. He stared at her on mute until she tossed her hands in the air.

“I can’t fucking win with you! If I set your paranoid ass up, do you think I’d still be here? You vanished, but I still ran the salon and checked in with Treasure to keep up with the label’s blogs. I arranged the security training classes for the boys you sent to me through Savvy. I didn’t touch a dime of your money either! Two weeks, Relic,” she stressed before holding up three fingers to shove in his face. “And you haven’t fucked me in three, but I still handled business on my end. How the hell are you pointing the finger at me?”

Èske ou vle yon dick gwo anndan ou anko?” Relic’s accented tone thickened like molasses as he asked her a question she couldn’t understand, but it still managed to knock her off her square. Kennedy’s brain muddled as he summarized, “Do you need to get fucked? Because if that’s what it is, we can get straight to that and skip you running your fucking mouth.”

“I’m convinced you need a check. You’re the one that came here spazzing and accusing me of the worst thing a person can do!”

“You know why, Kennedy.”

“And you know why the fuck I did it, Relic!” Her voice croaked, and she hurried to swallow the frog in her throat since emotions would get her nowhere with Relic. He didn’t care about those when logic was his first language. “You want someone to blame for your slip up, but it’s not me. You know why I did it. You know what happened to my brother, so I took extra precautions. I had your back!”

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