“Your man is handling some business down there,” I smirked.
“Again?” Ghost exclaimed.
I laughed.
“Come on,” I said, leading him back up the stairs.
We reached the top of the stairs and saw Devynn making her way toward us.
“Fifteen minutes,” I told her and shut the basement door.
If Legacy had been anybody else I would have been cock blocking like a muhfucka, but he was my nigga, and I was letting him do his thing before we set out. I sat with everybody in the living room and we all were talking and joking even though we knew it might be the last day we saw each other alive. That just wasn’t a good topic of discussion. After about fifteen minutes, Legacy and Lace showed their faces. We all gave them knowing looks, and they burst out laughing.
“The fuck are y’all looking at?” Lace fake glared at us. “This might be my last day here, shit. A bitch can’t get some dick? Sadie, I don’t know why you and Tyler haven’t snuck off yet.”
I rolled my eyes. Little did she know, Tyler had already broken me off for the day. He smiled at me from the couch he was sitting on and I winked back at him.
“Ooooo!” Devynn giggled like a school girl seeing our little exchange. “Y’all nasty!”
“Devynn . . . I know you aren’t talking with all that noise you and Smoke were making last night,” Adrianna laughed. “Tell me, is he still your daddy?”
Devynn sat looking dumbfounded and everybody else burst out laughing. I saw Tyler and Ghost dap Smoke up. Devynn rolled her eyes.
“Fuck all y’all,” she said, trying to hide the smile forming on her face.
Legacy went into the kitchen and came back with a fifth of Hennessey and a shot glass for each of us. He poured us all a shot and set the fifth down. He held his glass in the air. We all stood up and did the same.
“Let’s toast to us. If we don’t all make it back today, I want you to know I love all of you,” he said.
Although he only said two short sentences, his words meant more than even he knew. He was acknowledging the fact that even he may not make it back alive, but that he was still willing to put his life on the line for The Last Kings. The loyalty we had all instilled in each other in such a short amount of time was felt throughout the room. Lace looked to me and smiled, nodding her head approvingly. She lowered her glass and then raised it up to me; to my surprise everyone else did the same. They were waiting for me to speak, so I raised my glass to them and looked each of them in their eyes before taking a breath and saying exactly what they needed to hear.
“To us . . . Kings forever!”
Chapter 17
Mocha stood in the foyer of Khiron’s home, waiting for him to come from upstairs. He had his driver go and pick her up that morning so that he could take her out for lunch. Mocha was completely thrown off by the gesture but agreed to join him. She didn’t have much say. She wore a long, light blue maxi dress with a big tan hat on her head. She wondered if he was being nice to her because of what was going down that night. Either way, she was on edge. She watched him come down the stairs looking very suave in a V-Neck silk shirt and Burberry shorts that stopped just below his knees. The Burberry aviator glasses and Burberry washed check trainer shoes complimented his outfit nicely, but Mocha would never tell him that. Fuck him. When he reached the end of the stairs he linked arms with Mocha, and that caught her completely off guard. It was something that they once did when they were an actual couple. Instinctively, Mocha removed her arm from his.
“Chill, Mo,” Khiron said, smiling at her, and linked their arms together again.
Once again, she was dumbfounded. He hadn’t called her “Mo” in forever. Something told her to keep her guard up, because things weren’t sitting right with her. Together they exited the house, and Mocha stopped in her tracks when she saw the limousine parked in front of his home. She looked startled at him and her face read pure confusion.
This nigga must’ve smoked something, Mocha thought to herself. Either that or he wants something. Damn, I knew I shouldn’t have left my gun at the house.
“Are you about to kill me?” Mocha asked him bluntly.
Khiron laughed loudly.
“No,” Khiron answered truthfully.
Not now, anyway, Khiron thought to himself.
At one point in time Mocha had been his lady, and although she kept many secrets from him, to the best of his knowledge she had been faithful sexually. For that, he thought it would be nice of him to at least make her last day on earth a pleasant one. The driver held the door to the back of the limo open and Khiron nodded for her to get in first. Mocha sat to the far window, hoping that he wouldn’t scoot too close to her, which of course was exactly what he did. She tried to control the uneasy feeling in her stomach and keep her face as blank as possible. Something wasn’t right. She would be a complete fool to believe that the man who had treated her like less than shit suddenly had a change of heart. It was suspect, but for now Mocha went along with it. If anything happened she was mentally prepared to run and scream bloody murder.
“Where are we going?” Mocha asked.
“You’ll see,” Khiron said, smiling at her.
This nigga is on some funny shit for real, Mocha thought to herself.
She felt like he was trying to catch her slipping. He said he wasn’t going to kill her, but the eyes don’t lie. Although his face smiled his eyes were a dead giveaway of the hate he harbored for her. She swallowed and turned her head so that she could look out the window, focusing on the scenery that whizzed past.
Khiron stared at her. There was no doubt that she was beautiful and he wouldn’t be able to call himself real if he denied the fact that he had once felt love for the woman. The fact remained that to current day he still loved her, and that was the reason he hated her so. Even when he tried to stop loving her he couldn’t; she was his heart. He told her the reason why he didn’t kill her was because she was his trophy piece, and that was true to a certain extent. The full truth of the matter was that he couldn’t kill her, because by doing so he’d be killing a part of himself. He couldn’t be in the same vicinity as her for more than a few hours, and that was why he didn’t house her in his own home. He knew that she had the power to bring him back from the dark that he’d grown so accustomed to. He couldn’t risk that, especially after what happened the last time he let her in. So he kept her locked away. Nobody else could ever have her. He took her in as a whole. From her perfectly arched eyebrows, to her full lips, all the way down to her breasts, thighs, and manicured toes. She was perfect.
Why did you have to do me like this, shawty? Khiron thought to himself. Why did you have to be a part of The Last Kings?
He loved her, but he would never be able to forgive her. He said he was going to kill her after the meeting was done, but he knew he was going to have to hand the gun to one of his goons to complete the deed.
Mocha turned her head and saw Khiron watching her and she felt herself blush. She hated the fact that the man that had become her devil was giving her butterflies.
He beat you, Mocha! She screamed at herself in her head. He makes you fuck him. He treats you like shit. Don’t do that.
Mocha rolled her eyes at him and flinched hard when she saw his arm move. Expecting to feel a sharp pain as he smacked her face for being disrespectful, she grimaced.
“Chill,” Khiron said, pulling his cell phone from his pocket. “I’m not on that right now. We cool.”
Mocha was amazed. Any other time he would have floored her and beat her relentlessly. Mocha felt the limo slow down, and looking out the window she saw that they had reached a park. She noticed a picnic setting under a tree that provided tons of shade and she felt herself smile.
“You remember our first real date?” Khiron asked, taking Mocha’s hand.
He was supposed to be putting on an act of kindness, but as the time progressed he felt it becoming more and more genuine. He only abused her to release the pain that she ha
d caused him. But most times it ended up hurting him more than it hurt her.
“Yea,” Mocha laughed. “That’s the day you set up a picnic for us and tried to cook the damn food yourself.”
“Chef Khy at your service,” Khiron laughed along with her.
“Chef Khy my ass. I didn’t tell you back then, but that shit was nasty as hell! I just didn’t want to bruise your precious ego.”
Khiron and Mocha exited the limo once the driver held the door open for them, still laughing. Khiron held Mocha’s hands all the way over to the tree. The park was full of trees and the grass was green as ever. For it to have been such a nice day Mocha was confused as to why the park was empty. She opened her mouth to ask, but Khiron was already answering.
“Money talks, Mo. You know this. I paid the city to shut this place down just for me and you,” he said, opening the basket of food.
“Oh,” was all Mocha could say from where she sat with her legs bent to the side. “Umm . . . what did you bring? And please don’t tell me you cooked it!”
“You see, I knew you was lying way back then, ’cause a nigga like me don’t cook for shit,” Khiron smiled deeply. “But that’s another reason why I liked you, you weren’t like the other girls. You ain’t just tell me what I wanted to hear, you ate that nasty ass shit too!”
Khiron pulled from the basket two cold cut sandwiches and two bags of chips. He handed her the barbecue ones, knowing they were her favorite.
“Mmm, boy you got us a gourmet meal!” Mocha joked, and Khiron gave her the side eye for her sarcasm.
The two of them ate and laughed, talking about the old times. She almost forgot the world around them. She almost forgot what was to happen that night, and she almost forgot that she hated him. But at that moment he wasn’t being the man she hated, he was being the man that she loved. She was so confused and felt so guilty for enjoying her time with him. But she didn’t want it to end.
“Khiron, why are you doing this?” she asked him finally, once they were done eating their food.
Khiron sat with his right leg propped up and his right arm stretched out over it. He was silent for a few moments, staring across the empty park trying to think of what he wanted to say.
“Because I love you,” Khiron answered truthfully.
Mocha laughed and shook her head at his words.
“You love me?” She scoffed. “You call this love? You kill me every day without putting a bullet in my body. Love doesn’t hurt, so if you love me why do you cause me such pain?”
“Because I hate you,” Khiron told her.
“You hate me for a life that I had before you met me,” Mocha said to him. She felt the pit of her stomach start to boil, and it was too late to try to stop it. She knew all of her thoughts and feelings of hostility were about to surface. “The first day you told me you loved me, I was a Last King. Throughout our whole relationship I was a Last King. I didn’t hide anything from you, I just never had an open window of opportunity to tell you, ‘Hey babe, by the way, I’m part of this underground cartel.’ Being with you was the only get away I ever had, so when we were together I put business to the furthest part of my mind.
“How the fuck was I supposed to know that you and my best friend had any sort of sick connection? My bad, nigga, but at the end of the day my love for you was so pure. In the life that I lived with the drugs and killing, you were the only thing that made sense, the only thing that ever gave me hope! That’s why I chose you. I chose you over my family, Khiron! How can you sit here and tell me you hate me when all I ever did was love you?”
Mocha had tears streaming from her eyes, but she wasn’t done. Her words were now mixed with sobs, and her eyes expelled the hurt that she had kept bottled in for so long.
“How could you put me in that small ass house by myself? How could you demean me and disrespect me? Beat me and take my love forcefully? I loved you Khiron, with all my heart. I never betrayed you, not once. It was you who betrayed me.”
He tried to fight it, but it was no use. Her words touched him in a place that he hadn’t had feeling for a long time. He felt remorse, and no matter how much he wanted to be stubborn and say fuck what she was talking about, he knew she was right. He had been so blinded by anger that he never really took the time to look at the bigger picture. Mocha had been down for him since day one. She turned in her loyalty card for him. He killed her only family, and in turn he shunned her.
“Fuck,” he said out loud and tried to reach for her. “Mocha, I’m—”
“It’s too late for an apology, Khiron,” Mocha said, leaning back. “You’ve already taken everything from me.”
She didn’t mention the fact that Sadie was still alive. She didn’t feel the need to. As quickly as the feelings of love came, they left. Khiron was nothing but a crazy-ass nigga. The man before her was pathetic and he deserved everything he had coming to him. Maybe if he would have turned back into the asshole she was accustomed to she would have still respected him. But the fact that he showed remorse let her know that he was a nigga that didn’t know how to stand by his decisions.
This nigga is the reason I been ho’ing, and he wanna say sorry, Mocha scoffed in her head. Get the fuck outta here!
“I’m ready to go, I have to start getting ready for tonight so I can be your arm candy, as usual.”
Without another word to him, she stood up and started to make her way to where the limo was parked. Khiron shook his head and followed suit, leaving the scene of the picnic behind them. He had made one mistake, and that was showing her weakness.
Chapter 18
Tyreek sat in his car feeling like he didn’t know himself anymore. He looked at the digital clock and saw that he only had a few hours to meet up with Khiron. He wasn’t in his right state of mind and it felt like his car was driving itself. Somehow, he wound up outside of Mocha’s house. He wanted to talk to her, needed to, but yet had nothing to say. He parked his car in her driveway and stepped out to walk slowly to her front door. He knocked softly on the door, and a part of him hoped that she didn’t hear it, but she did. When she opened the door he saw that she was already fully dressed in a red Prada, sleeveless bodycon dress with a diamond choker around her neck. Her hair was pulled up in a bun at the top of her head and the make-up on her face was flawless.
“Hey, ’Reek,” she said, genuinely surprised at his presence. “You’re my driver?” she asked.
“Nah, I just came to talk to you,” he said. “Can I come in?”
“Of course.”
She let him in the house and led him to the living room. He sat down on the couch and she sat on the arm of the love seat across from him, waiting for him to say whatever was wearing on his mind. They both were holding secrets, so there were a few elephants in the room. Mocha wanted to warn him of the blood bath that lay ahead for the night, and Tyreek wanted to relinquish his guilt.
“Nervous?” Tyreek broke the silence, looking into Mocha’s eyes.
“Never,” Mocha lied through her teeth but kept her voice even and smooth. “This won’t be the first time I have had to assume this position. What’s up, though? You said you wanted to talk.”
Tyreek tried to decide whether or not he wanted to tell her. He rubbed his hands together and thought back to the night that he was late getting Khiron from the airport.
The rain was falling hard on Tyreek’s windshield and he could barely see. He looked at his watch and saw that he was making good time to get Khiron from the airport; he knew that nigga hated waiting.
“Damn,” he said when he caught a red light.
Tapping his leg impatiently, he played with the idea of just running the light, but it would be just his luck that he would get pulled over. He didn’t want to give any officer probable cause to search his vehicle, especially knowing he had a couple of concealed weapons inside of it. After a few minutes the light finally turned green again, but Tyreek was forced to stay stopped. His car was suddenly surrounded by four big black trucks. Before he
could react, a small army of men hopped out of the vehicles, all with their guns drawn. He thought for sure he finally met his maker, and cursed himself for not getting bullet proof exterior for his car. To his shock, not one man fired, giving him the opportunity to get a good look at them.
“Italians,” he said to himself, setting his gun on his lap with a finger around the trigger.
An older Italian man stepped forward with one of his men holding an umbrella over his head to guard him from the rain.
“Come,” the man said loudly, waving his hand toward himself. “Let us talk business; I’m sure you’re a man who values his life . . . and your mother’s.”
“Man, fuck you!” Tyreek shouted.
He ignored the idle threat, already knowing that they couldn’t know where his mother was located. Barely anyone even knew his mother was still alive. He never spoke of his family to anyone; not even Khiron.
“Roll your window down so that you can hear this,” the Italian man said, holding his phone up and putting it on speaker.
Tyreek eyed the phone reluctantly, but hearing the screams coming from it he did as he was told. His jaw clenched instantly and his heart beat quickened when he recognized the voice on the phone.
“No! What do you want? I don’t have any money—” the voice was silenced with a smacking sound.
“Ma!” Tyreek yelled. “If you hurt her I’ll kill all you mothafuckas!”
“You sure about that?” the Italian man asked. “It is in your mother’s best interest that you cooperate with us. My guys tend to get a little carried away. Put that gun in the passenger’s seat and get out of the car.”
Tyreek breathed heavily, but knew he had no choice but to do what he was told. He threw the door open with a powerful force and walked toward the armed men.
“What do you want?” he asked when they were patting him down. The rain was drenching his clothes and he had to blink repeatedly to focus on the man who stood before him. He was happy he always kept an extra pair of clothes in his trunk. “What the fuck do you want?”
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