Page 82 of Disrespectfully, Relic

“Oh, my gosh! Add her shit before she pisses me off!”

The bartender laughed. “I swear, y’all sound like me and my homegirls. You two must be the ones who fight all the time.”

“Yes!” Michi, Nubia, and Kennedy shouted in sync, making Savvy crack a smile.

“We don’t fuss all the time. Just one big misunderstanding that we need to work through, is all.”

“Mhm, real big. Her sister fucked my baby daddy,” Lexi snitched, causing their bartender to clutch her pearls with ballooned eyes.

“Oh, y’all shit is real messy, but I hope y’all figure that out.”

She spun around to start their drinks, and the girls glanced at one another before giggling. Savvy decided to extend an olive branch since she’d overstepped—getting up to stroll to where Lexi sat in self-reproach.

“I apologize, Lexi. We could’ve had that conversation at a better time and place, so that was on me. The delivery was harsh, but I meant what I said because I know you have potential that you’re just sitting on. I want you to be happy, but right now, I feel like you’re just doing whatever because you’re not.”

“You’re right about what you’re saying. I’m not happy, but I’ve been trying my hardest to get there again. It has nothing to do with wanting Piere either, but more so figuring out how to live without him. I’m dependent ‘cause that’s all I know. That was my life,” Lexi explained, dabbing a finger beneath her eyes to not mess up her makeup when the waterworks started. “Pierre and Promise were my world. Now, I’m forced to start over and don’t know where to fucking begin because I lost myself in him a long damn time ago. Of course, a part of me is bitter, but who in my position wouldn’t be?”

Savvy swallowed the building lump in her throat and tossed her arms around Lexi while blinking through impending tears. She felt like shit for not considering what the breakup had done to Lexi. Treasure was her sister, so Savvy’s first instinct was to hold her down and say fuck anyone that was against her. She didn’t regret having her sister’s back for one second, but she regretted not seeing the full picture.

“Aww, I love to see it! I was so tired of picking and choosing every time some bullshit popped up,” Nubia stated, sliding out of her seat. “Group hug!”

Michi stood to join them, while Kennedy remained on her stool because she had to draw the line somewhere. They were the closest she’d ever gotten to having genuine girlfriends, but she wasn’t with too much of the mushy bullshit. Her gaze wandered to Sojourney as she smiled, but it dwindled the moment she caught sight of the frightened expression on the girl’s face. Sojourney’s skin was ghost pale, while her fruity drink shook in her trembling hands. Kennedy’s stomach pitted after recalling their real reason for being out.

Her eyes traveled around the room before making a pitstop on Drish, who was already out of his seat. That was all she needed to see. She continued her search, and her heart caromed around in her chest once locating Sojourney’s ex-boyfriend lurking through the crowd toward them with hatred-filled eyes and a gleaming pendant resting flush against his chest. The worry overtaking Kennedy transformed into fury at seeing him don Relic’s chain.

“He’s here. I told you he’d find me. He won’t leave me alone, Kennedy. He—ouch!” Sojourney winced when Kennedy gripped her arm and glowered at her.

“Shut the hell up whining. Fix your face, and you better not start crying when he gets over here, Sojourney. Grow a damn backbone and take back your power.”

Sojourney nodded in haste, but Kennedy could see the tears pooling on her lids. When Slim neared them, she sidestepped Sojourney and stood in the line of fire. Slim tipped his head with flared nostrils before he grinned.

“Who the hell are you supposed to be? Her bodyguard. Move the hell out of the way before you make shit worse for her. Journey, let’s go.”

“Oh, hell no. What the fuck is going on, and who are you?” Nubia sassed once realizing he’d intruded on their space. “Nigga, you better get the fuck on before—”

Her mouth clamped shut when Slim lifted his shirt to reveal the gun on his hip. “Before what, huh? You gon’ call yo bitch ass family that’s bowling while he left her wide open for the taking? Tell those niggas I got something for them real soon, but in the meantime, bring yo ass.”

Kennedy shrieked, clinging to the bar top for dear life when she almost bust her ass from Slim swiping her aside like an annoying gnat. She snatched up her purse when he latched a hand around Sojourney’s arm and began dragging her out as the poor girl burst into tears.

“Are we going to bank his ass or what? We’re just letting him take her?” Lexi shouted, rushing after them.

The others followed her, and Kennedy glanced back to gain a subtle head bob from Drish before she did the same. Her insides were so knotted up that she struggled to breathe while pushing through the thickening crowd who didn’t seem to notice or care that Sojourney was being hauled out by a nigga who’d beat her to death if he got her alone. When she burst through the entrance door behind her girls, Slim was shoving Sojourney into a haphazardly parked car.

Kennedy’s adrenaline kicked in as she took the lead and ran straight toward him, jabbing him in the back of the head. As soon as he howled in pain and spun around, the girls grabbed Sojourney to drag her away from the car and onto the curb where people lingered to watch the ensuing drama unfold. Before Kennedy could retreat, Slim cocked back a fist to punch her in the face with a force that knocked the air out of her lungs. An agonizing pain shot through her and floaters blurred her vision, causing her to trip on the curb before she hit the cement with a hard thud that didn’t stop her from reaching into her purse for her gun. Tires skirting across asphalt made her stall as she looked up to see a van careening down the street. Everything around her slowed in that instant.

The panicked voices around Kennedy turned to indecipherable buzzing as the van door slid open before the barrel of two automatic guns emerged while men in all black and ski masks aimed at their target. Slim tried to run, but the barrage of bullets ate up the car along with everyone hidden inside it. Kennedy’s soul sprang out of her body when Drish appeared in her peripheral, sending five extra shots at Slim to ensure there wasn’t a chance of survival. He hit the ground like a potato sack before feet clad in black Timberlands trekked on his limbs like he wasn’t of importance.

Her eyes refused to leave the concealed figure as it bent down and snatched the chain off Slim’s neck. She didn’t have to see his face because she knew that powerful gait, thick build, and faint scent of bergamot and sandalwood permeating throughout the night air. Relic had come out personally to send niggas the reminder that he ran shit.

His head remained low so that those anomalous eyes wouldn’t give him away as he jogged to the van and hopped inside with Drish behind him, leaving as fast as they’d come. What seemed like an eternity for Kennedy had been a mission pulled off in under thirty seconds. Thirty seconds that had stunned her, dug up traumatic memories of her past, and proved she’d sunken into Relic’s world so fast and deep that she hadn’t even realized it.

Whenever adrenaline finally wore off, reality always settled in. The aftermath of the night’s chaos had settled in for Kennedy, and she was sick to her fucking stomach.

Her glazed eyes drifted to the passenger seat where Sojourney was knocked out with her head propped against the window. It’d taken almost an hour for the girls to calm her down after parking at the nearest gas station because Kennedy couldn’t drive with the constant screaming in her ear.

Whispers from the backseat sent Kennedy’s gaze coasting to the rearview mirror next, peeping the private conversation between Savvy and Michi while Nubia and Lexi laid on one another, mute. They’d all run to her car since it was closest and peeled off before the police could arrive. Savvy had immediately called her husband to inform him of what’d transpired, but his phone had gone to voicemail, and the same applied to Los when Nubia blew up his line. Kennedy had puzzled it together right then; Shabu was the second shooter like she’d suggested, and Los had been the getaway driver. She was itching to tell the girls but refrained in case they weren’t supposed to know.

Her focus retrained on the road, and she clenched the steering wheel to keep her trembling hands steady. Her body was gradually reacting to the night’s events, albeit she fought it tooth and nail.

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