Page 85 of Disrespectfully, Relic

“You almost fucked up the board and your life because you moved too fast off your emotions. I don’t blame you because we don’t tolerate disrespect. You did what you had to do, and so did I.”

“It was him or us, right?”

That term,us, made him stall but he recovered and kissed the bruise around her eye that made him wish he could revive Slim just to kill his ass again.

“Yea, Larenn. Him or us, and we’ll always choose us. When you step out, there’s a trash bin on your left.”

At that simple detail, Kennedy pushed past him as the contents of her stomach came up like they were given the green light. Her palm planted on the wall before she hunched over and expelled the liquor and bit of food she’d eaten at the bar while Relic came behind her to hold her ponytail out of the way of her vomit. Her mind went to Pierre’s advice, and she wondered if throwing up constituted as a weakness.

“You done?” Relic asked when she spit and then stood tall with a deep breath. He inspected her face before smirking as he brushed a hand over her bang to flatten it. “There she goes. I thought I lost you, big dog Kennedy. Come inside.”

Kennedy did as told—trailing him into his penthouse that she couldn’t process the beauty of because his actions were lingering on her brain. His indecisiveness, his call to protect her tonight, and his accusations about her setting him up. The way he’d enforce no feelings but did endearing shit like carry her on his back so her feet wouldn’t hurt or hold her hair while she puked out her guts. Her eyes squinted, adjusting to the dark as she followed him into a master suite while recalling she was the first guest on his boat and the only one privy to his drop site. The exact way Relic had pieced together a secret about her, she’d done the same with him.

Chills coated her skin when he grabbed her hand, sitting on the edge of his bed before he tugged her between his legs. He bent to remove her heels and then yanked on her jumpsuit zipper, lowering it before he peeled the clingy material from her shoulders down to her ankles. A crooked grin lifted a corner of his lips when he let his eyes roam without shame before making their way to her face once she’d stepped out of it.

“Are you tired of me yet, Larenn? Am I too much of a challenge?” he tested.

“Koda’s right hand was my first everything. I left him because some bitch told me she was pregnant by him just before we were supposed to tell Koda about us.”

Her random confession knocked the smirk off Relic’s face as his nostrils flared, and head tipped. He didn’t care to hear about her and another nigga, especially her first love, but he didn’t voice it aloud. Relic let her continue.

“I was so young, dumb, and in love that I would’ve done anything for him. Ihaddone anything for him. When he asked me to keep quiet because Koda wouldn’t accept our relationship, I did it, even though I felt like shit lying to my brother. He asked me to keep it tight for him, I did that, too. He asked me to convince Koda to agree on business moves my brother was wary on, and I made it fucking happen. My brother had taught me the game, but my first gave me the rules on how to be a queen. To protect her king. He also showed me that my loyalty could know no bounds, and a nigga would still spit in my fucking face. How ironic is it that as soon as I convinced him to tell Koda about us, a bitch pops up pregnant?”

Relic pushed out a breath and brushed a thumb over his bottom lip before he grumbled, “He wanted you to know.”

“Bingo! He wanted me to end things so that it wouldn’t sever his relationship with Koda.”

“That’s how a man’s mind works, Kennedy. If we can find a simpler way out of a predicament than dealing with it head on, we fucking take it. That girl claiming she was pregnant and you leaving was easier than him cutting you off or having to tell his right hand that he’s been fucking his sister for years behind his back. He did the damage and let you fix it because it was easier.”

“I realized that, and I realize you’re a fucking coward just like him.”

Mild hatred and anger that Relic was used to swarmed in her heated gaze, but it didn’t pull a reaction or response out of him. He didn’t see a point in debating when her observation was logical.

It was easier for Relic to build barriers to keep Kennedy out—easier to drop her into predicaments where he figured she’d either leave or keep her distance without him having to enforce it. He hadn’t anticipated Kennedy being so goddamn resilient because she loved challenges, and he was the biggest one she’d encountered in her life. Each time Relic spotted an out, he took it to get rid of her before he found more reasons to keep her around. He didn’t miss the irony that the moment he was beginning to accept her presence; she was folding.

“So, what the fuck is this long spiel for, huh? Where are you going with it?” he quizzed, knowing the answer.

“Before I let another nigga use me, fuck with my head, or play me like I’m one of their favorite gaming systems, I’ll bow out gracefully. We’ll keep it professional since you’re willing to do everything in your goddamn power to prevent anything more. To keep me at arm’s length and ignore those feelings you hate so damn much. You’ll break me before you let that happen, right? Even when I haven’t done shit but be solid to you since the day we shook on it. You like winning so much, well, you win.”

“I always do.”

Kennedy grimaced like he’d struck her harder than Slim had, but she regained her composure and nodded while processing his curt answer that told her more than anything he’d said or done since they’d met. She’d given him the chance to prove he was nothing like her exes, but he’d done the opposite.

There was nothing left to converse about as she rounded his bed, climbing in to burrow herself beneath the covers because there wasn’t a way in hell she was sleeping on the couch. Kennedy stilled when the mattress behind her sank in before warmth neared her while an intoxicating scent cocooned her in place. Relic kept his distance, but his hand landed on her arm, brushing back and forth over her scars in that self-soothing manner he’d grown accustomed to while in her space. Kennedy didn’t have the heart to make him stop.

Her gut knotted at the reality that she’d fallen into his world, into Relic, so deep and fast that she’d forgotten to catch herself. The most heart wrenching part about it all was accepting that Relic couldn’t give one damn whether she resided there or not.

A blade.

A dollar bill.

A single baggie of coke.

Relic had been so preoccupied with life that he hadn’t stared at those three items in a while, but they were back in their rightful place because it’d been close to a month since he’d seen his biggest distraction. Money was flowing, business was booming since the weather was breaking, and his name had regained its power after the rumors began circulating about Slim’s death. Still, he taunted himself with those vices because that big fucking distraction clouded his mind and weakened his mental. Relic couldn’t control those incessant thoughts of her like he could his urges for a sniff of coke that’d take him on a blissful high, or his glass of liquor that he hadn’t passed his cap on since fucking her on his boat.

Kennedy was a distraction he craved and a poisonous drug that he yearned to hit again. What Relic desired more than her—and all of the above—was to finish executing the meticulous plan he’d started. If not, everything he’d done since the day he’d locked in with Kennedy was in vain.

“Relic, it’s time to go! What are you doing?” His sluggish eyes flicked toward his bedroom door when the knob jiggled before Jahleel’s voice broke through it. “And why is the door locked? We don’t do shut doors around here.”

---