by W. S. Greer
I was ecstatic the first time I introduced Mike to Kelvin, because they seemed to hit it off right from the jump. I was worried that the age difference between them would be something that would divide them, but Kelvin was extremely mature for only being twenty-two, and the two of them got along quite well and had even developed a little bromance over the past few months. Lexy and I thought it was adorable.
“I know how you feel, bro,” Kelvin said, smirking. “I’m gonna to be sad as shit when I turn twenty-three in a couple of months.”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” Mike replied just as everyone at the table burst into laughter.
“Aww, it’s okay, Sweetie,” Lexy interrupted. “It doesn’t matter that you’re an old man. At least you can still get it up.”
Everyone at the table laughed once again, except for Mike. He was trying to act like he was offended, but struggled to hide it behind his oncoming smile.
“You’re one to talk, dear,” he countered. “A couple more years and you’re gonna to be all dried up down there.” Now it was Lexy’s turn to act offended while everyone else laughed.
I couldn’t get over how awesome the Farrington’s were. Twelve years of marriage had done absolutely no harm to their relationship, and they still laughed and joked with each other like they were best friends. They were the perfect example for Kelvin and me. They had their problems every now and then, but their problems were never enough to break them. Their marriage was based on their undying friendship, and as long as they had that, everything else seemed to come easily for them.
Everyone ordered their food and Kelvin was sure to order a bottle of Chardonnay to accompany our meal, which was brought to our table just as Tony was being seated at a table just a few feet away from us. When the food came, it was brought to us by the same big titted blonde who’d escorted us to our seats. When I saw her again, I wondered why the hell she’d made a point to come back to the table, because she obviously wasn’t one of the servers.
As soon as she put Kelvin’s plate in front of him, I immediately noticed her staring at him while she bent over in front of him, shoving her cleavage in his face. She was so close to him that Kelvin actually had to lean back, otherwise the tip of her tit might’ve touched his lip. I glanced over at Lexy, and she shot me a look that let me know that she saw the same thing I did. Just as I was about to look at Kelvin to see what his reaction was going to be, Big Tits spoke up.
“Can I get you anything else, Hun?” she asked with a flirtatious grin, looking only at Kelvin.
I was fuming, and ready to snatch this bitch up by her hair, but then Kelvin spoke.
“No, thanks,” he said. “I’m good. This beautiful woman right here gives me everything I could ever want.” Then, he leaned over and kissed me softly on the lips.
The look on her face was priceless. She stared at us for a second. Just enough time for Lexy to get annoyed.
“He said he’s good, Blondie. Staring at him won’t make him want you. Go be pathetic somewhere else so we can eat in peace. Your pathetic-ness is making my food taste funny.”
The blonde shot Lexy a dirty look, then rolled her eyes and stormed off, but not before hearing us burst into laughter.
“You are so crazy, Lex,” Kelvin said as he poured his wine.
“What? She had it coming. She was being way too obvious with those tits all in your face. I was glad to see you handle it the way a real man should, though. I applaud you, sir.”
“Thank you, ma’am,” Kelvin replied.
“Girls are always trying to hit on Kelvin,” I chimed in. “One girl actually tried to put her phone number into his pocket without me noticing. I mean, what the hell? Seriously?”
“Oh, don’t act like it doesn’t happen to you, too,” Kelvin countered with a chuckle. “What about the time the guy with the afro tried to use the heaven pickup line on you? ‘Are you tired? Because you’ve been running around in my mind all day.’”
Lexy and Mike laughed as they chewed.
“See, you guys are made for each other,” Lexy said. “You’re both pretty as hell, so it works. Looks like the only one of us who doesn’t get hit on is Mike.”
“Hey!” Mike snapped, still smiling. “I get hit on, you know, like, once or twice every couple of years. That still counts.”
“Aww, of course it does, Sweetheart,” Lexy responded playfully.
We continued Mike’s birthday celebration dinner for another hour or so, constantly laughing at seemingly everything that Lexy had to say. After two bottles of Chardonnay between the four of us, everybody was feeling pretty nice, and ready to go home and enjoy a nice Saturday night with our significant other. Lexy and Mike couldn’t stay any longer because they were paying their babysitter ten dollars an hour, so they were the first ones to admit that it was time to bring the night to a close.
When the check came, Kelvin snatched it up just as Mike was reaching for it.
“It’s your birthday, man. I got this,” Kelvin said before Mike could get a word in. “You guys go ahead and get out of here. I’ll pay for this, then we’ll be on our way.”
I could tell that Mike wasn’t too happy about it. Men and their pride. However, after a nudge and a smile from Lexy, he decided not to argue.
“Thanks so much, Kelvin, and thank you both for a fun night,” Lexy said as she rose from her seat and grabbed her jacket from behind her chair. “Have a good night, and I’ll see you on Monday, Lil.”
“Okay, Sweetie. See you Monday,” I replied as I got up and gave her a hug. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kelvin nod to Tony, signaling for him to go ahead and pay so that he could warm the car up before we got outside. Tony’s server, however, was being slower than any of us would’ve liked and hadn’t been back to check on him for a while, so he had to wait.
As the Farrington’s walked out and climbed into their cab, Tony was finally able to pay for his small meal and got up to leave, but because of the server’s procrastination, Kelvin and I were getting up right behind him. We walked out of the restaurant holding hands, and I smiled at the blonde with the big tits as we passed her on our way out. She didn’t look amused.
When we got outside, Tony felt the need to jog over to the car so that he could start it up as quick as possible. The limo was parked pretty far away since the place was so packed, so Kelvin and I decided to slow our pace so that all of his running wouldn’t be in vain.
“This guy has got to learn to relax,” Kelvin joked, as the fog from the cold air formed a cloud around his mouth.
“It’s you, babe. You make him nervous.”
“It’s not my fault if he’s nervous. It’s probably you who’s scaring him.”
“Why would he be scared of little ole’ me?”
“I don’t know. Maybe he’s just a weird guy who’s scared of girls.”
“I doubt that. It’s definitely you. If it’s not you, it’s gotta be your Uncle Mikey. He’s huge, plus he has that beard that makes him look so intimidating.”
Kelvin and I stepped off the sidewalk just as Tony was getting to the limo. We heard him close the door, and after a brief pause we could hear him trying to start the engine, but for some reason it wasn’t turning over.
“Yeah, I can see how Uncle Mikey would scare the hell out of somebody,” Kelvin said. When he heard the sound of the limo, he scrunched his forehead. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I know this damn limousine didn’t fucking break down right here in the parking lot. Uncle Mikey is never gonna hear the end of this. It was his idea to use one of the limos from the Red Chip.”
Tony tried to crank the engine up again, but it still wasn’t working.
“Sounds weird, doesn’t it?” Kelvin asked under his breath. Then he stopped walking, forcing me to stop with him.
“You okay?” I asked. He looked so confused.
Kelvin opened his mouth to respond, but before he could say a word, the limousine exploded into a giant fireball, sending glass and debris rocketing towards us.
“Oh my god! Tony!” I yelled as Kelvin began pulling me back towards the restaurant.
“It’s too late, Lilliana. We can’t save him,” Kelvin bellowed. “He’s gone. Fuck! He’s gone.”
“What the fuck happened?”
“I don’t fucking know!” Kelvin bellowed as he sat down on the plush red couch. “He was trying to start the car before we got there so that it could start getting warm. It wouldn’t start, and then it just fucking blew up. If we would’ve been a few feet closer, we would both be fucking dead right now.”
“I can’t believe this shit,” Michael Carter said as he sat next to Kelvin on the couch and covered his face with his hands. He was wearing a black button up with red buttons, and the hair on his chin was at least two inches long.
I was still standing next to the door in the lavish conference room at the top of the Royal Flush casino in downtown Chicago. The room was almost identical to the one that I’d seen at the Red Chip when Kelvin first introduced me to his uncles about three months ago. The large mahogany table was centered in the room, with low hanging white lights coming down from the ceiling. There were two large red couches on either side of the table and a fully stocked bar right next to the humongous glass window with the perfect view of the city. Tonight, however, its magnificence was overshadowed by the craziness that had just taken place.
I was still struggling to grasp the idea of exactly what had just happened at Red Lobster. We had sex on the way… we had a great dinner with our amazing friends… and then the fucking limo exploded? It didn’t make any sense.
I leaned the back of my head against the door and closed my eyes as I felt tears beginning to push their way to the surface. I didn’t know Tony, but he was still a person. He was a human being who only wanted to become a part of the Carter family. I thought about how adorably weird it was that he was so nervous about driving us to the restaurant, and I couldn’t help but feel so sorry for him. Did he have a family? Did he have a wife? Did he have kids? What if he had kids? That would just make all of this so much worse. It was all just too much, too sudden.
I felt Kelvin wrap his arms around me and pull my body close to his, and I cried into his chest. Thoughts of the explosion came rushing back to me and I lost it for a second. The room was completely silent as I cried, which was weird because there was six other men in the room, including Kelvin. All of his uncles had shown up to make sure that we were okay. His father, on the other hand, hadn’t shown up.
“Listen, I know this is hard for you guys, but we have to figure out what we’re gonna do here,” Anthony Carter said from his seat at the large table. “We have to figure out who did this.”
“You know who did it, Ant,” Michael snapped. “It’s the other family. I guarantee it.”
“We don’t know that for sure, Mikey” Kelvin’s Uncle Clarence, chimed in. He was sitting at the table with a large, unlit cigar in his hand, and even though his t-shirt was at least an XXL, the sleeves were struggling to cover his massive arms. As usual, he looked pissed. “We don’t know that it was them, so let’s not jump to any conclusions. It’s been months since we’ve heard anything from them.”
“We don’t have beef with anybody else in this city,” Michael said. “The shit between Kelvin Senior and Ivan is still unresolved itself. Not to mention the fact that Ivan is pissed that Junior ordered the hit on his son. You think the Russians are gonna just let that shit go? Not a chance in hell.”
“Well, we don’t have any goddamn proof, Mikey. So until we do, we can’t retaliate,” Clarence said.
I lifted my head off of Kelvin’s chest and looked over at the table of Carters.
“What? Retaliate? What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked, my voice still trembling.
Nobody in the room answered, they just looked at me, and then looked at each other.
“Are you talking about hurting people?” I looked up at Kelvin who had an apprehensive look on his face as he stared down at the thick blue carpet. “Tony is already dead. We don’t need anybody else getting hurt.”
“No one is saying anything about hurting anyone, Lily,” Ant said. “We’re all just upset and thinking out loud. Don’t worry about that. Let’s just cover all of our bases, and go from there. Kelvin, did the police question you at the restaurant?”
Kelvin led me over to the table and pulled out a chair for me to sit down. After I took my seat, he sat in the chair next to me, followed by his four uncles, and a friend of the family, Thomas Black who seemed intent on staying quiet.
“The cops asked me a few questions about what I saw, and about who I thought was responsible,” Kelvin responded.
“And what did you tell them?” Clarence jumped in. His tone was almost accusatory and I could tell that Kelvin didn’t like it.
“What do you think I told them?” Kelvin snipped as he glared at his uncle. I wasn’t used to seeing him so short tempered.
“I assume you told them you didn’t know anything,” Clarence responded, eyeballing Kelvin with his usual scowl.
“No shit.” Kelvin dismissed the uncle who was apparently getting on his nerves and turned his attention back to Ant. “The police aren’t gonna be a problem. They don’t have anything to work with. So, where does that leave us, Uncle Ant? Where do we go from here?”
Ant ran his hand across his bald head and exhaled as he adjusted his glasses. “Well, the first thing we need to do is make sure that you’re protected. I think we should start by having you stay here in the Royal Flush for a while.”
Kelvin scrunched his forehead. “You want me to stay here? Why, because this is my dad’s casino? You think I’m invincible here? And if I stay here, then what are we doing about Lilliana? How do we protect her?”
Clarence put his hand in the air as if telling Kelvin to stop. “Now hold on, Junior. We’re trying to make sure that you are protected. We have to look out for The Family.”
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean? You’ll try to keep me safe, but she’s on her own? They tried to kill us both tonight.”
“I completely understand your concern, Junior, but this is about what we can do to protect The Family. We already lost Fab and we’re not trying to have a repeat of that,” Michael said from the head of the table.
“As much as I appreciate your concern for my safety, you have to understand my concern for hers. If something happens to Lilliana, it’d be worse than if it happened to me.”
I gasped at Kelvin’s show of devotion to me, drawing a little too much attention to myself. After a brief glare from Clarence, the Carters continued their conversation as if I wasn’t in the room.
“I see what you’re saying, Junior. I really do. But, you know how we do things. You know how this works. It’d be best if you didn’t go against the grain on this one,” Michael stated.
“Well, you know me, Uncle Mikey, always going against the grain. I don’t mean to cause you guys any problems, but there’s no way I’m changing my mind on this. If you want to give me extra security until we figure out who was behind this, that’s fine. But, you protect Lilliana too. It was you who told me that we could never be safe unless I told her everything, and that we both had to play by the rules. Well, here we are. She knows everything, and we’re ready to play by the rules. So let’s make it work.”
Michael took a second to think about it. He reached up and rubbed his long chin hair, forcing me to have to hold back a giggle. He looked around at all of his brothers as if he was waiting for one of them so say something. Like he was hoping that one of them would talk some sense into Kelvin. I, on the other hand, knew that Kelvin was not going to budge. He and I had been through so much together, and if there was one thing I knew about Kelvin Carter Jr, it was that he loved me. He wasn’t going to leave here without making sure that I was safe as well.
After an awkwardly long pause, Kelvin’s youngest uncle, Deshaun, finally spoke up. “We have to bring this to Sen
ior. He won’t like it.”
The room stayed quiet for a moment, like they were all letting it soak in. I still hadn’t met “Senior,” but I could tell that all of Kelvin’s uncles were a little timid when it came to him. They seemed to try to get as much business done without him having to get involved as they could, and they didn’t seem to like having to bring issues to his table.
“You’re right, Deshaun,” Mikey said, still rubbing his long goatee. “How do you think Senior’s gonna like this?” He wasn’t looking at anyone in particular, so I had no clue who he was talking to. It took a while for Deshaun to speak up.
“Like I said, he won’t like it. I don’t think he’ll be down for this.”
“I think you’re right,” Clarence agreed. “He won’t like it. Which is why I don’t think we need to bring this to him. You are The Family’s priority, Kelvin.
Kelvin let out a loud sigh before pushing his chair backwards and standing up.
“This is fucking ridiculous. I’m The Family’s priority? Well, she’s mine. So, if The Family wants to protect me, then it has to protect her. Otherwise, I might as well just take my chances on my own.”
Mikey tried to get a word in. “Kelvin, your father—”
“I don’t give a fuck what my father thinks!” Kelvin snapped. Then, we heard the door slam closed behind us, followed by an unfamiliar voice.
“Is that so?”
Kelvin Carter Sr. had just walked into the room. And he looked pissed.
“Everybody get the fuck out,” Kelvin Sr. barked. His tone was extremely harsh and sent a small chill up my spine.
The other members of The Family didn’t waste a second getting up from their chairs and heading towards the door. When Kelvin and I tried to stand up, Senior let us know he had other plans for us.
“Not you two!” he snapped. “Mikey, you stay too. You too, Tommy.” Mikey didn’t look like he wanted to have anything to do with what was about to happen, but he slowly lowered himself back into his seat. Thomas Black hadn’t even started moving anyway, so he just nodded to Senior and crossed his arms.
