When a Hood Legend Claims It All 4 Read online

  Before her and my children, I only had the streets, my boys and the many bitches that were only around me for one of two things. The streets would always be a part of me, and Ken and Wes were family, but the bitches weren’t needed.

  A few nuts a day couldn’t replace this feeling I had in the home I made.

  Rita

  “Do we really have to go?” Kent whined with the cutest pout on his face.

  Every morning when it was time for them to get ready to go to summer camp they always tried to find a reason to stay home when I was there not realizing when they left I wasn’t going to be there for long either because I work five days out of the week. Being around their father all the time and use to seeing their mother home they didn’t realize adults actually had jobs.

  Kenton didn’t have to punch in anywhere, however their mother simply got money and support just for being their baby sitter. Now that the kids have been with Ken for a while I was certain the gravy train run came to an end. I didn’t really question Kenton about what he did financially for their mother, but I was pretty sure he wasn’t giving anything since he had the kids. He wasn’t that nice.

  “Yes, y’all have a few more days of camp and then we will have a week of us being home with each other before school starts.”

  “That's not enough time with you,” Kenia frowned.

  The way they were eager to be around me had me feeling special. I didn’t think I was that fun to be around, yet, they had me feeling pretty dope.

  “The weekend will be here in no time and we will find a bunch of fun stuff to do,” I tried to reason with them.

  “But you’re going to be at work, so that means we gotta wait all our lives.” Kenia responded with an eye roll.

  “Watch ya self,” Kenton warned Kenia startling all of us. I followed him as he walked in side of the kitchen almost feeling bad for Kenia because he didn’t play when it came to her acting grown. He loved her dearly and spoiled her rotten, but he got on her when she began to act like a brat.

  I had my eyes fixed on him as he strolled inside. When I got up he was knocked out and I had every intention of taking the kids to camp, but he was fully dressed looking like he was ready to start his day.

  Even though her back was facing him, he knew his daughter well. As sweet as Kenia could be she was notorious for moving those eyes in her head. It was something Kenton said she picked up from their mother. Disciplining wasn’t my department, so I wasn’t sure what to say to her once she got in her bag.

  Knowing she was caught; Kenia had a pout on her face and was looking at me to have her back.

  “I didn’t even do nothing.”

  “Those eyes gonna get you in trouble,” Ken said kissing the top of her head and then moving to Kent. When he came to me, he kissed my cheek and lifted a piece of bacon off the plate I was actually making for him.

  I made a quick breakfast of eggs, waffles and bacon, so I can get them to their camp. The one in Philly ended a few weeks ago and we found one in the area that was close and had extended hours. It worked out for the days Ken couldn’t make it and I got them after I was done work.

  “All we want to do is stay home with Ms. Rita. You can’t hog her,” she mumbled the last part and cut her eyes upwards towards her father to see if he heard her, which he did.

  “Hurry up and eat,” he told her in a serious tone, and she dug back into her plate. She had absolutely no lip.

  After eating our breakfast the kids got their stuff together and left with their father. When I got up this morning, I brushed my teeth and went to tend to the kids, so when they left I finished fully handling my hygiene.

  Stepping out of the shower, I wrapped a towel around me and headed inside the room. I walked in just in time to see my phone was ringing on the bed. I picked up when I glanced at the screen and saw it was Ken.

  “What are you doing?” he asked me when I said ‘hello’.

  “Just got out the shower.”

  “Oh yeah?” I smiled knowing that he had that sexy smirk on his face. I heard it all in his voice. “Send me some pics.”

  With my phone pressed between my ear and shoulder blade, I took my whipped cocoa butter and sat on the bed to smooth it onto my body. “I think I might do that.”

  “Shit, I would ask you to stay naked until I get there, but we ain’t never going to get where I want us to go.”

  “Huh? Where are we going.”

  “Chill… just make sure you’re dressed and waiting for me. I got some shit to handle, but I should be back in about three hours.”

  The corner of my lips quirked into a smile. It was attractive as fuck that he was taking the initiative to plan something for us to do. We’ve been around each other a lot but with my work schedule and the kids we truly haven’t had time to spend with each other.

  “Ok, I think I can get a nap in before you come.”

  “I don’t care what you do, send my pics and set your alarm so you don’t have me waiting.” Now I was rolling my eyes. He could be so sweet and then turn back to sour.

  “Keep talking like that, I won’t send you shit.”

  He laughed. “A’ight. I’ll be good to get my pictures.”

  “Bye,” I laughed ending the call.

  I set the alarm for a half hour before he was expecting to be home to give myself time to get dressed and then finished smoothing the body butter onto my skin. After I sent his pictures I was going to take a nap, but I knew it was going to be difficult to rest knowing he had a surprise for us.

  ***

  “What?” An amused expression lifted up the side of Kenton’s mouth as I studied him.

  Not only was I impressed and appreciative, I was turned on by the thoughtfulness of his actions. It was kind of unbelievable. We went from just fucking and smoking to me being in his bed damn near every night, taking care of his kids and actually being a couple. This took the cake. I never thought of Kenton being romantic which was fine. He had his own way of showing that he cared and was into me, but I see he was learning and growing, and I was thankful.

  I wasn’t sure what he had in mind or what he wanted to do, I settled for an olive fitted sundress, gold sandals and spiced it up with gold hoop earrings, a diamond necklace and some gold bracelets.

  My first surprise was a bouquet of roses he brought into the room and then we went to go see this movie I mentioned I wanted to see last week. I was amazed that he even remembered and that had me geeked up on top of the flowers I received.

  It was an early movie, so the theater was damn near empty. I showed him my gratitude by giving him some head mid movie. After the movie we walked around Christiana Mall. I thought King of Prussia was huge. It had nothing on that Mall.

  We were only supposed to walk around since I’ve never been there, but Kenton ended up stopping in stores and picking out what he thought I needed. He spent a few thousand dollars in a couple of hours. In my head I was thinking about everything I could’ve done with that money.

  I wasn’t broke, but I definitely lived on the frugal side knowing that there were possible rainy days ahead of me. I have been without for too long for it to happen again.

  After our stroll and shopping, we were now seated at The Cheesecake Factory enjoying a late lunch with some dessert. We scarfed down our food in no time and were now working on our cheesecake. Ken had a regular slice while I was willing to try something new and ordered the white chocolate caramel macadamia nut cheesecake. He talked so much shit about it being nasty, but he couldn’t keep his fork out of my plate.

  “I’m trying to figure out what’s the catch. We never did this,” I said pointing my fork between the both of us.

  He lifted his fork and swiftly swiped a bit of my cake off of my plate making me frown my face up.

  “I thought it was nasty?! If you want more I’m sure you can order their entire inventory.”

  “It’s good, but it’s not that good. I only like it because it’s yours.”

  I felt my cheeks burning fro
m his comment. I didn’t mean to think nasty but having his fine ass and knowing all the things he did to my body it was hard not to have my mind in the gutter.

  “Don’t change the subject Ken,” I said trying not to smile so hard.

  “What? It ain’t no catch. We’ve been doing a lot of things I never done with anyone. Shouldn’t that tell you something?”

  “It does.”

  “Right, so what’s the issue?” he asked back and I rolled my eyes.

  “It ain’t no issue. I just hope this ain’t no show or way to impress me. If you gonna be this way you better be this way forever.”

  “Impress you? I already got the pussy. The hell I gotta go out of my way to act like anything? I’m doing this because I want to,” he responded. “I never been on no dates and shit and you said you haven’t either. Since we’re going to be together forever, I might as well start scratching some first time shit off our list.”

  Ken went back to eating his plain ass cheesecake while I stared at him beaming so hard my cheeks ached.

  “Stop that shit before I change my mind,” he told me.

  “I can’t help it. You make me so happy, Kenton. Who would’ve known we would be where we are now?”

  I thought he was going to say something smart, but he agreed as well. “I’m glad you’re happy. It means I’m doing something right. I have never been the one to kiss a bitch, so flowers, holding hands, dates and shit is a big step for me.”

  “I know, and I appreciate it. As long as I got all of you, you got all of me. The hoe card has officially been revoked.”

  “Did I have a chance to keep it?” his stupid ass asked, and I frowned.

  “Get hurt if you want to.”

  Kenton burst out laughing. “I’m only fucking around with you. It’s only been you getting this dick. For a long time, I’ve only had the streets ad my kids, so to know how it feels to have someone that thinks about me other than what I can do for them, I realized there was nothing on this earth worth losing it. I got the family I never had.”

  “Who would’ve know little ol’ me could bring out the best in you,” I cheesed, and he shook his head.

  “Don’t take advantage of this.”

  “Trust me I won’t. I love what we have going on.”

  “Which means you love me.” His usual smirk appeared on his face and that familiar scarlet heat warmed my cheeks as I felt butterflies tickling my stomach.

  I’ve never been in love, but everything I felt for Kenton had to be it. From the way I felt, my thoughts of him that swarm mind on a daily and missing him terribly when we were apart. It had to be love. I was just afraid to admit it.

  “Maybe,” I responded eating the last bit of cheesecake I saw him eyeing. He done demolished his and thought he was gonna tear mine up as well.

  “You know you do, just admit it,” he moved his empty plate and placed his arms on the table to lean in closer to me. That wasn’t something I was going to share. Not right now at least.

  It was just my luck the waitress came with the check and placed it on the table. He reached out for it, but he grabbed it pulling it closer to him.

  “Do you have anything else planned?” I questioned changing the subject.

  “Why so you can continue to spend my money?” he shot back. Even though I knew he was playing I grilled him.

  “I have my own money. It might not be as much as what you have but it’s been having me living comfortably.”

  Kenton stood to his feet and dug his hand into his pocket, pulled out some money and flipped through it peeling off a few bills and placed it inside the folder. “I don’t mind spending my bread on you. As long as you keep doing that shit you did for me in the movie theater you can have it all.”

  The waitress that was walking past our table caught on to the tail end of his comment and did a double take peering back at me while my eyes popped wide towards Kenton. He just winked his eye at me chuckling like it was the funniest shit he ever saw.

  “Ain’t no shame in my game.”

  “Let’s go before I end up hurting you and her in here,” I told him. Kenton came over to me and pressed a kiss on my forehead and took my hand in his.

  He was a pain in the ass, but I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

  Mar

  Glancing at my watch, I saw I had one hour before I had to go get CoCo from the salon. She was complaining of not feeling well and decided she wanted to take a half day. I would’ve went to go get her, but her being her, she just didn’t want to walk out of there without making sure she had everything in order.

  Killing my engine, I walked up to the door and knocked. I was taking my chances on coming here alone, but I was pretty sure Yvette had nothing to lose at this point.

  I knew she was just a woman that wanted to regain the empire her father once had, but that ship done sailed.

  “You have some balls to show up at my doorstep,” she sneered with a grimace on her face as she snatched open the door.

  I glanced down at her hand and smirked at the pistol she had her hand gripped around.

  “Yours gotta be bigger than mine coming to the door with that.” I nodded toward the pistol she had in hand. “I came in peace, but if you have other intentions we can do it that way too.”

  Yvette glared at me for a moment before taking a step back and pulling open her door. I stepped right in side enough for her to close the door behind me.

  “So am I really supposed to believe you came here to talk? How do I know you’re not here to kill me, just like how you killed Cloak?”

  My eyebrows furrowed. “I didn’t kill Cloak.”

  “Of course you didn’t. Someone did. She’s done so much coke in her life a pile of it doesn’t just take her out.”

  I chuckled pulling on my beard. It was amusing how she swore she knew the game. Truth of the matter is that this wasn’t her lane. Even with her being born into it.

  “You think you know a lot huh?”

  “I know enough.”

  “I’m glad to hear that. So you must know where Trevor or Trey is. Either you or him or both of y’all wanted to come at me. You were upset Black would no longer supply you, so the next move was to potentially take what I had?”

  The look on her face said it all. Her confidence was also replaced with fear. I wasn’t here to hurt her. This was the first and only pass I was giving out.

  “Where’s Trevor?”

  “I don’t know,” she responded moving her head from side to side. “I really don’t.”

  “So you didn’t know he Kidnapped my sister a few days ago and held her for ransom?”

  Her eyes got wide. “No. Honestly that wasn’t the plan. Trevor wanted to find one of your traps and rob it. He mentioned he was using your sister to get that, but I knew it was more than just him using her. They were fucking. I’m pretty sure of it.”

  Hearing her spew out their plan to attack my organization had me gritting my teeth ready to put a bullet through her head. Even if her intentions wasn’t in hurting my sister, she was still fucking with everything I built from the ground up.

  “Where is he?”

  “I wish I knew. I haven’t heard from him in a few days and when I called him it was going straight to voicemail.” The look I gave her had her stuttering. “Trust me, if I could find him I would. He left me with nothing! We had a joint bank account and every penny is gone.”

  Yvette broke into a high pitched howl as tears fell from her eyes. “I don’t know why I keep putting into these men knowing in the end I’m going to get fucked over! First Pitt and now him! I have nothing, Amare. Nothing at all.”

  Not too sure if I could believe her antics, I watched as she cried her eyes out. I knew how it felt to not have a dime and have to figure out ya next move, however this wasn’t on me to make her feel better, especially since she was in cahoots with this nigga to go after everything that I worked hard for.

  “I might be able to get ahold of him, but we have a small window of op
portunity before he gets rid of the phone you contacted him with. What’s the number?”

  Drying her eyes with the back of her hand, Yvette recited his number and I sent it to the tech guy that Black hooked me up with hoping he would be able to track him.

  After telling her I would be in touch with her, I left out of her place to go get Corryn. The entire ride to CoCo’s shop, I was debating if I made the right choice by letting her live after everything that occurred. For her sake she better not have slighted me because just like I was able to find Trevor I would be able to find her if she fled after giving me incorrect information.

  By time I double parked at the shop, CoCo was coming out. I went around my car, and opened the car for her to get in, stealing a kiss as she got herself comfortable. Closing the door behind her, I walked back to the other side.

  “You alright?” I asked as soon as I got inside, shut my door and threw my car in drive.

  I eyed her as she rubbed her stomach and leaned her head against the door. To me she looked like she was just tired, but I never carried a baby before, so I had no clue how she was feeling.

  “It’s like ever since I found out I was pregnant; I’ve been having crazy morning sickness that goes on into the afternoon. I have a few moments of where I feel better, but then it comes right back.”

  “What does morning sickness consist of?”

  “Vomiting, nausea, lightheadedness.”

  “Sounds like the flu,” I responded.

  “Doubt it’s the flu. It’s just a case of carrying another human being inside of your body. I thought this was a beautiful process?” she whined which had me laughing.

  “It is. I heard it gets easier every time you get pregnant.”

  Her head whipped around so fast I thought it was about to pop off. I was really cracking the fuck up now. “I can’t imagine having another one after this.”

  “You got to. My baby gonna be lonely as fuck.”

  “He or she will have us.”

  “That’s not the same. You know how it felt to be an only child. Meet me halfway with five and I will be happy.”