Page 94 of Disrespectfully, Relic

“Judith,” she added, catching the twitch of his eye before he nodded.

“I made them dependent, and now I don’t know if they can survive without me. I think those niggas will be a fucking mess. We don’t have strong women in our family like P and Los have their mother, sisters, and girlfriends to keep them grounded. All we have is me and a mother that could never hold her own because she’s too weak.”

“Well, Shabu has a wife now. Savvy does her thing with them.”

“Why?” he asked, flicking his eyes toward her before chuckling. “Because I made her ass step up. Shabu would’ve taken care of her like we do Judith if I hadn’t put her in the field.”

“Wow, so you knew what you were doing with bringing her in?”

“I tried to do the same with Michi, but she doesn’t fuck with me, and I’m cool with that since she has her own thing going on. Neither are stand up to where I need them to be, though.”

“But I am,” Kennedy surmised, puzzling that final piece into its place. “That’s what you meant by handle everything in your absence. You finally realized that women are fucking needed, Relic. Ain’t this some shit!”

“Shut the hell up,” he grumbled but cracked a smile. It fell before he voiced, “I took Jah’s mom, and I didn’t even have the balls to give him a new one.”

Kennedy’s heart stopped—her eyes bouncing over his face for signs that he was lying or at least remorseful. Relic didn’t crack under her gaze. There was no subtle jaw twitch, forehead creases, or flared nostrils to give away his emotion. It was as if he felt nothing regarding Jessica.

“What did she do?” she breathed, and he licked his lips.

“She tried to keep me away from the one thing I love most on this damn planet.”

Jahleel.

“I didn’t want to kill her. Didn’t mean to,” he said, lifting his eyes to hers. “Pierre was supposed to go there that night and scare her ass into thinking the snake ass shit she’d been doing had finally caught up to her. Once Ifound out, I was going to move her someplace safe out of state while Jah stayed here with me. It was an easy fix.”

“So, what went wrong?”

“P got jammed up that same night. Instead of waiting it out, I sent his friend in without him. Those greedy ass niggas tried to rob me, not knowing I’d moved my shit into the new house already. They lied and said Jessica lunged for the gun, but I knew better. I’d seen how she reacts with a gun in her face.”

He didn’t elaborate on the fact that he was the one holding a gun to her head after Shabu accidentally exposed Jessica for having and hiding his son. Had Shabu not emptied the gun of bullets without him knowing; Relic would’ve killed her then.

“That’s not adding up, Relic.” Kennedy shot him a skeptical glance before she reminded him, “You don’t trust people outside of your family, which is why you sent Pierre. If your plans get thrown off, you recalculate until it’s damn near perfect. You don’t make those kinds of mistakes. You did with her because you didn’t care about her enough to make sure she lived through that play. Maybe a part of you even hoped that it went wrong.”

“Like I said, I didn’t want to kill her, but I figured if it was meant to happen that it would... and it did.”

That was all the confirmation Kennedy needed that Relic had sent in men he didn’t trust in hopes they’d do exactly what they did—fucked it up. He didn’t give the word to have Jessica killed, but he’d done everything to ensure that it was a possibility.

“Do you regret it?”

“No,” he answered immediately and then retracted it. “Yes. I regret taking her from Jahleel because, even though she wasn’t shit, he still loved her. I thought he’d be better off without her, but I made it worse for him.”

“Because Jahleel is one of the few people you show emotions for, and you let those feelings convince you that he’d end up as hurt as you are by Judith if she stayed around.”

“And I was right because he said some shit to me recently that proved Jessica messed up his head, too. Maybe not as bad, but it’s there, and I can’t do shit about it.”

Her heart tugged at the despondency in his voice that was usually monotone and uncaring. If Kennedy did nothing else, she made a promise to herself that she’d always maintain her relationship with Jahleel. He was too damn sweet to deserve the short end of both parental sticks.

“I’ll look out for my little boyfriend,” she told Relic with a warm smile.

“I don’t need you to do that like he’s yours. Give me the bottle.”

Relic reached for it, but she held it behind her back and lowered on her knees between his legs. His eyes flicked between her and the murky waters as she poured a hefty amount inside her mouth, set down the bottle, and summoned him with a finger. He didn’t think twice before bending to reach her, tonguing her sexy ass down.

“You ever got head while steering a boat?” she pulled away to ask, caressing his thighs before moving to his crotch to unbutton his jeans.

“Is that a trick question? I told you, no one has been on here before, so no. I’ve also never gotten sympathy head, but I’m not turning that shit down.”

Kennedy cackled before asking, “How long until we get to where we’re going?”

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