Page 50 of City of Gods

“She’s yourmother!” Kenya, who’d been quiet the entire time finally exploded with life, shouting in Sanai’s face.

“She’s lying to us and putting Sanai in a fucked up situation. And did you forget that she put her out of the family business?” Zara barked right back at her sister and then everyone was on their feet.

“She did what?” Mr. Sinclair asked Sanai.

“She kicked me out. I thought you knew. You sure as hell acted like you knew.” Sanai rolled her eyes and folded her arms loosely.

“I knew she was pissed at you for not killing the mark, but I never knew she put you out of the business. Why didn’t you say something?”

“Look, none of that shit matters right now. Y'all can discuss that during family time,” I huffed, letting my voice rise above everyone else’s. “All I want to know is how the fuck y'all plan on taking care of this problem.”

“Because we can take care of it,” Maasai interjected.

“Y'all ain’t touching my mother,” Eli said.

“Somebody’s touching her,” I scoffed. “After tonight, you’re lucky it ain’t me, nigga.” My jaw tightened at the last memory I had of Rob.

“I don’t give a fuck what happened to your boy, we’re talking about my mother.” My fist crashed into his mouth the second the words left his lips. He swung back but I caught him in the ribs. Mr. Sinclair tried to pull us apart, but there was no use. I was fueled by pain, rage, and grief.

Hakim and Maasai held Mr. Sinclair off while the Sinclair women all shouted for us to stop. Well, they shouted for me to stop since I was on top of Eli on the ground, pounding his face until blood splashed from his mouth and he was no longer fighting me back.

“Bakari!” Sanai’s voice cut through the red smoke of fury in my head. Only then did I drop my aching fists.

“Keep Mrs. Sinclair away from my family and away from the Temple. If y'all can’t figure out how to handle her in the next twenty-four hours, I will.” I sniffed and stood to my feet while Eli groaned on the floor like a bitch.

“You just let him beat Eli’s ass like that?” Kenya sneered at Sanai.

“What the fuck was I supposed to do, Ken? He’s three times bigger than me!” She tossed her hands in the air.

“You only got away with that shit because none of us have our weapons on us as a show of good faith,” Kenya told me with anger hardening her brown eyes.

“That’s the fair way to win or lose, isn’t it, Kenya?” I asked, flaring my nostrils. “Without weapons? I thought the Sinclairs were trained fighters?”

“We are!” she snapped.

“Then I guess the Godwin boys are just…better,” I shrugged, smirking.

“Fuck you, Breeze,” Zara frowned. “You didn’t have to beat him that bad.”

“He didn’t have to come out of his mouth like he was crazy either. We all had choices and decisions to make. I don’t give a fuck if I look like the bad guy. What I said still stands. Let us know how y'all plan on handling your mother. She’s about to bring down a lot of heat on her head and if we don’t get her, someone else will.”

“We’re trying to give your family the courtesy of handling her first by your own rules.” Maasai was losing that calmness he always possessed. I heard it snapping at the seams of his voice. It was in the way he shoved his words through his teeth.

“We’ll handle it,” Sanai told him with a pleading look.

“You seem eager to take care of it,” Kenya huffed, folding her arms.

“I am.” Sanai rolled her eyes. “You want to crawl back into her uterus and live there, go ahead but Mother hasn’t been a mother to me for years. She knows the rules of this family. She taught them to us herself. Do what you need to do to come to terms with it.” The intensity crackling between the two sisters was palpable. Eli might not have been the only one to get their ass beat tonight.

Mr. Sinclair helped his son up, trying to keep him steady on his wobbly legs. Blood dripped from his busted bottom lip onto my carpet and I cursed under my breath. I spent a lot of money for that goddamn carpet and I was going to have to have someone come in to professionally clean it. It couldn’t be scrubbed away with prayer and a brush.

“We’ll be in touch,” Mr. Sinclair said gruffly with his arm wrapped around Eli’s middle.

“I broke a couple ribs,” I told Eli, tipping my head up. “I’d tell you to go to the Temple to get checked out but your mother made sure we were shut down tonight.” He didn’t say anything in return, but his eyes were ice cold when he glared at me. “Oh, and I’ll send you a carpet cleaning bill later on in the week, nigga.”

“Breeze, please…” Zara sighed, rubbing her forehead.

“What? You think I can just go to Home Depot or some shit and pick out new carpet?”

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