Chapter 33: KYENNA - A Street King's Widow

After a long day of loving on myself. I decided to end my night going through a few of Rah’s things. His office door was closed, and I promised myself that I would hire someone to go in there and clean things out. Whatever he had going on at the time, I didn’t want to know. That was months ago, and as the days went by, the better I got at grieving. Rah and I were the only ones who could access the office via fingerprint. I walked up to the door and placed my finger on the scanner. The door popped open, and the smell of Rah’s cologne hit my nose like he had just walked out of here.

For a minute, I just stood in the doorway, taking everything in. Rah’s calendar was stuck on the month he passed, and I couldn’t help the feelings that were rushing back. I walked up to the calendar and just started at the date. The number 0714 was written on the calendar again. I pulled the chair out and powered on the computer. One thing about Rah: he wasn’t good with passwords, so I was the one to always set his shit up. It was easy for me to get into emails and things. The picture of Rah and me came to life, causing me to smile. I double-clicked on his email to see if I could find anything connected to the two men in his burner phone.

Rah had business emails and other emails where I assumed he had to keep up with the King’s shit from when he was younger. After a few minutes of digging, I came across an email from WR Capital Group. I went straight to the internet to do my research. The business name was connected to a lot of businesses in the city. It was when I came across a few pictures of a man named Weston taking pictures with a few people. I squinted as I read the article saying he was the owner of WR Capital Group.

“Weston…is he West?”

I searched the internet a little more until I ran across a picture of him with Q.

“He is West,” I whispered as my phone started ringing. Without looking, I answered.

“Man, why the fuck I gotta blow yo’ phone up like I’m some type of thirsty ass nigga?”

I rolled my eyes. Not that I didn’t want to talk to Shameek; it was just that right now I was putting pieces of a puzzle together that they had failed to do for months now.

“I’ve been busy, Meek.”

“All muthafuckin’ day?”

“Yes, all muthafuckin’ day. I needed a day to myself.”

“Aight, that’s cool, but we need to talk ‘bout some serious ass shit. I don’t kno’ who else I can talk to ‘bout it, and it’s fuckin’ wit’ my head.”

Shameek sounded serious, so I bookmarked all the things I found and shut the computer down.

“Your place or mine?”

“Come over here. I need to be here when I talk this shit out.”

“Wait…is it that bad? I don’t know what I’m walking into.”

“Ky, I’m not gonna hurt you. You’re the only person I can trust wit’ this information. I’d rather be home. I don’t know what kinda devices my brother got in his house.”

“Nigga, you don’t care when we are fucking.”

“You got a point. Just come over.”

“Give me a few minutes, and I’ll be over there.”

Twenty minutes later, he was opening the door for me. His eyes were droopy, and he looked like he hadn’t had an ounce of sleep.

“You look a mess,” I said as I stepped in.

“I haven’t slept since I left your house a few mornings ago.”

“Meek, that was like the day before yesterday. What the fuck have you been doing?”

He didn’t say anything. He just walked off. I slipped my shoes off and followed behind him to see he was standing at his bar pouring himself a shot. Whatever it was, it was fucking with him, and I wanted to know.

“You ain’t answered any of my calls or texts, but I bet yo’ ass done talked to that corny ass nigga, Lloyd.”

I turned around and started walking back towards the door. Shameek ran behind me and grabbed me by the waist, spilling some liquor on his marble floors.

“Meek, I didn’t come here to hear about Lloyd. You asked me to come over because you wanted to talk, and here I am.”

“My bad. I’m just a lil’ jealous, Ky. I just kno’ the closer that nigga gets to you, the more he’s gonna fall for you like me. I want you to myself.”

“Meek, you’re drunk.” I pushed him off me. “What is going on? You don’t usually drink like this.” I snatched the glass from his hand.

“It’s Nikki.”

“What about her?”

I figured that she wasn’t going to let him go, which is why I wasn’t taking anything he was saying serious. What woman in her right mind would let a King man go? Shameek probably took good care of her. She wasn’t going to go out without a fight.

“She’s dead,” he blurted.

“What? Are you okay? I know how you felt about her.”

“I killed her,” he said lowly.

“Excuse me?”

“She found out about us. We got into it. She had some shit on me she should’ve never had, started threatening to blow everything up, and I lost it. I shot her.”

I swallowed hard. Shameek killing her for me was not what I wanted. If he would do that to her, this jealous shit he had with Lloyd was making me look at him differently.

“What kind of shit did she have on you that you had to shoot her?”

“Old family business that no one should know about.”

“You killed her because she threatened to expose you?”

“I’m a King. You don’t hold somethin’ over my head that can fuck my entire world up. She knew who I was, but to dig and find some shit because her feelings were hurt was goin’ too far.”

I just stood there in silence.

“Say something.”

“What do you want me to say, Meek? I wasn’t expecting you to break this type of news to me. Like, why the fuck would you not walk away? Killing her was extreme. Do you know how many bitches have gotten disrespectful? Shit, Raya is the perfect example.”

“Things transpired so fast. She was calm, and then things changed. I didn’t have time to think.”

I didn’t have anything else to say. I was ready to go home so I could process what he had just laid on me.

“Now that she’s gone, it can be me and you. You said that if I got rid of her, you would stop giving Lloyd so much of your time.”

“Shameek, you killed that girl. You’re standing here trying to move forward with you and me. We still got to deal with your family. This is not some shit that just happens. We have a lot to consider, and now you have this hanging over your head. Don’t stand here with that girl barely cold and turn her death into a relationship opening for us. And what the fuck, do you expect her family to just be okay that she’s possibly missing?”

“They can think what they want. There are no traces of me in the vicinity.”

“This is crazy. You need to grieve what the fuck you’ve done. You haven’t slept and need to get some rest. When your head is clear, we will talk about it. When you come down off the liquor, the shit is going to hit you hard. Then you’ve got to perform when they come and ask whether you seen her. If you think that is not going to fuck with your head, then I don’t know you very well,” I told him.

“You’re right. I just had to tell someone, and you’re the only one I can trust now that my brother is gone.”

“Your secret is safe with me. Get some rest, Meek.”

I left him standing there as I headed out the door. Did I think Meek would ever hurt me? Probably not. I was sure Nikki’s ass thought the same thing. I made the short drive back to my house, replaying everything Shameek had said. The situation was heavy because I knew he loved that girl. Maybe not enough to give her what she wanted, but there was love there—years of it. For him to pull a gun and end all of that over an argument told me there was a side of Shameek I still hadn't fully seen.

By the time I pulled through my gate, my mind had gone right back to Rah’s office. I parked, went inside, and headed right back to the office. This time the smell of his cologne didn’t slow me down. I sat at the desk, powered the computer back on, and opened the pages I had bookmarked before Shameek called. There were a few investments, real estate buildings, and transportation businesses. The typical shit most of these niggas did to clean their money. He had a few community events he showed up at. Then I dug deeper. I searched WR Capital against every company name I could make out from the old King records.

That took me longer than I wanted. Most of it led nowhere. There was at least one company that kept coming up. Legacy Transportation Holdings. I clicked through the filing history. WR Capital had been one of the investors. King Family Holdings had been another. There were two more LLCs I didn’t recognize. I opened the first one, and there was nothing. As I clicked the second one and the name popped up, D12 Entertainment, I paused, trying to figure out where I knew the name from. I clicked the registered owner to see Quincey Harris. I leaned closer to the screen like the name was going to change.

“Muthafucka.”

I printed all the pages. D12 Entertainment had invested in Legacy Transportation years ago, back when King’s distribution structure was being reorganized. That didn’t mean that Q killed Rah. I had to keep telling myself that. It meant Q had money tied into the same operation Rah was trying to pull himself out of. That was enough to make me uncomfortable. I grabbed some paper from the printer and started writing down the connections. After I finished, I sat back. Averie crossed my mind.

Averie had finally started allowing herself to live outside of work and motherhood. Now, Q’s name was sitting in front of me, connected to old King distribution money. I didn’t want this for her. Hell, I didn’t even know if there was anything to want yet. An investment was not murder. Q owning a piece of some old transportation company didn’t mean he knew what happened to Rah. I grabbed my phone and thought about calling Averie. What the hell was I going to say?

I opened Rah’s email and typed in D12; the only thing that came up was a promotional flyer and a receipt. When I typed in Q’s last name, a lot of emails popped up. One email I opened caught my attention. D12 money clears Friday. Once it does, east route is fully funded. This wasn’t some passive investment into a transportation company. D12 money was connected to a route. I printed that email out. I typed in east route, and more emails popped up. I printed them all.

“Rah, you really left shit in a mess. You always leave something for me to clean up,” I said as I shut the computer down.

I was no longer chasing a ghost. I had some direction, and the direction was leading straight towards a man sleeping with Averie. Tomorrow, I planned to find out exactly how deep Q’s money ran through the King’s distribution. Until I knew more, nobody was getting a warning.