Chapter 37: KYENNA - A Street King's Widow
By Jenica J.
Ididn’t sleep worth a damn after meeting with Reggie. By the time the sun came up, I had already made my decision. I was done looking at paperwork. It was getting exhausting trying to solve the damn puzzle. I needed to talk to somebody about this shit. I showered, got dressed, and headed to Royal Flush early. I didn’t bother going upstairs to my office. Instead, I went straight into the private room off the back that we sometimes used for meetings when we didn’t want anybody walking in. Grif followed me inside.
“Want some coffee?” Grif asked.
“No.”
“Have you eaten?”
“I don’t have an appetite.”
“What are you about to do?”
I looked at him. “Why do you always think I’m about to do something?”
“Because your face looks like your mind is made up on something.”
“What does my face look like?”
“Somebody is about to have a bad day.”
I opened my purse and pulled out the folder I had been carrying around since yesterday.
“I’m about to call Q,” I finally said.
“Say what? Nah, I can’t let you do that.”
“I looked up at him. “I wasn’t asking.”
“That nigga is connected.”
“I’m aware. So am I.”
“Not like he’s connected, Kyenna.”
“Grif, if I wanted someone to tell me what I should and shouldn't do, I would’ve called Shameek. I need you to do your job and make sure no one comes into this room unless I say so.”
“You bringing that nigga here?”
“Yep.”
“When he gets here, bring him to me, and you stand outside the door.”
“I’m calling Shameek if shit goes left.”
“If you call Shameek, I’ll fire you before he makes it through the front door.”
“You serious?”
“Dead ass.”
He looked like he wanted to argue. Instead, he sighed. “You got one hour with that nigga before I start making executive decisions.”
“You don’t have executive power.”
“I do today. I let Rah down. I can’t let you down, too. Don’t let you being mad make you move stupid.”
“I’m not mad. Now, get out and bring him to me when he arrives.”
I wasn’t mad. I was focused. Once Grif left, I called Q. He answered after two rings.
“Q,” he said into the phone.
“I need to talk to you. This is Kyenna.”
“About?”
“Averie,” I lied.
“What happened?” His voice got serious.
“Nothing happened. I just need to talk to you in person. You got time?”
“I can make time.”
“Royal Flush. Back entrance, so you won’t cause a damn scene in my establishment. My security, Grif, who I know you’re familiar with, will bring you to me.”
“And what time are you trying to meet?”
“Now.”
He paused before responding. “That urgent?”
“Yes.”
“Okay, I’m on the way.”
I hung up. Twenty-eight minutes later, Grif sent me a text telling me he was here. I stared at it for a few seconds before responding. A few minutes later, Q walked into the room alone. He was dressed casually. Black shirt, jeans, a watch that probably cost more than most people’s cars. He looked around the room before taking the chair across from me.
“You scared the shit out of me talking about Averie. She good?”
“She’s fine.”
His ass probably called her to see what it was I wanted before he got here. I kept that in mind when I used her name to get him here.
“The kids?”
“They’re fine too.”
His shoulders relaxed slightly.
“Then what are we doing?”
I slid the first page across the table. Q looked down at it. He didn’t react like I expected him to. I slid the next one and still didn’t react. It wasn’t until I slid his LLC paperwork in front of him.
“What is this?”
“You tell me.”
Q picked the page up and looked through it.
“This shit is old.”
“Oh, I know it is.
“So, what am I looking at it for?”
“Your money.”
“Kyenna, if this is about some old investment, I don’t know what you think you found.”
“I found D12 money funding the east route under Legacy Transportation.”
“That’s old King’s business.”
“I know exactly what it is,” I told him.
“You sure?” he asked, raising his eyebrow.
“Yeah.”
“Aight, so quit the games. What you want to know?”
“How deep were you in?”
He rubbed his hand over his face. “Deep enough to make money.”
“You know damn well that is not an answer.”
“It’s the answer you get if you’re asking me about shit from years ago.”
“It’s funny how everybody gets protective of the past when Rah comes up.”
His expression changed just enough for me to see. I slid him another paper. This time he didn’t even bother to pick it up and look at it.
“Do you know that company too?” I asked.
“Maybe,” he shrugged. “I got money in a lot of shit. I don’t remember every fleet company I ever used.
“What about this fleet?”
I slid the still picture over to him. Q stopped moving, and the room got still. I gave him enough time to look at it. Then I placed the ledger beside it. Q’s eyes lifted slowly.
“What exactly are you accusing me of?”
“I haven’t accused you of anything yet.”
“Yet?”
“That depends on what you tell me.”
He laughed. “You brought me here under the impression that something happened to Averie.”
“I brought you here because I knew you would come if I said her name.”
“That’s foul as fuck.”
“So is sleeping in a woman’s bed while knowing more about her children’s father than you’ve admitted.”
“Be careful,” he warned.
“No. You be careful. Because I’ve been careful for months, and all that got me was a dead husband and everybody around me acting like nobody knows a damn thing.”
Q looked towards the door.
“Yes, Grif is outside the door.”
“I ain’t worried ‘bout no Grif.”
“Good. Then look at me.” He looked at me. “I know D12 had money tied to King distribution. I know Weston Reed was involved. I know Rah was trying to restructure and pull pieces apart before he died. I know one of the SUVs sitting on the road before my husband was murdered was tied to a fleet account D12 helped fund.”
Q sat still, so I continued.
“And I talked to somebody who was working the compound that night. Those SUVs weren’t passing by. They were sitting there waiting. Now I’m going to ask you one time. Why was a vehicle connected to you sitting on the road waiting on my husband?”
Q leaned forward slowly and folded his hand tighter. “You already made your mind up.”
“No, if I had made up my mind, we wouldn’t be talking.”
“You don’t know what Rah was doing.”
He was right. I didn’t have a clue what the fuck he was doing, but that wasn’t the point.
“Enlighten me. What was my husband doing?”
“He was about to blow up a lot of shit. Everybody’s money was about to get fucked up.”
“Yours mattered more, I’m guessing.”
“You muthafuckin’ right.”
At least he was being honest.
“Rah wanted out. Not just out for himself either. He wanted to start pulling pieces apart, shutting routes down, cleaning shit up. That sounds real noble when you’re sitting outside of it. Inside of it? Niggas had millions tied into that structure. Men had families eating off that shit.”
“So, Rah was supposed to stay because everybody else was comfortable?”
“That ain’t what I said.”
“Rah wasn’t asking permission. That was the problem. He was making decisions that affected everybody tied to it and acting like being a King meant he could do that shit alone.”
“He could do whatever he wanted to with his part.”
“It stopped being just his part years ago.”
“So, y’all killed my husband over money.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“My husband drove home that night thinking he was safe.”
“That nigga knew he wasn’t safe,” Q said.
“What?”
“Rah knew shit was getting bad. Blood was the only way out of that shit.”
My fingers curled against the edge of the table.
“Did he know you were involved?”
“I don’t know.”
“Were you involved?” I glared at him.
Silence filled the room. Yet, I waited for an answer. He had been a man up until this point.
“I think this conversation is done.”
“Sit the fuck down,” I told him.
He looked at me. “Kyenna.”
“Sit. Down.”
He laughed lightly before sitting back down. He stared at me for another few seconds. I pulled the photograph closer.
“Were these your men?” I asked. “Did your people block that road?”
His tongue moved across the inside of his cheek. That told me enough, but I wanted to hear it.
“Q.”
“My people were there.”
Everything around me went quiet. I thought knowing would feel like something explosive. It didn’t. The shit felt cold.
“Doing what?”
“Making sure Rah stopped,” he said.
“How?”
“They blocked the road.”
My breathing stayed steady.
“And?”
“They fired.”
There it was. My husband’s last minutes reduced to nothing about wanting to fully go legit.
“You paid your men to shoot and kill my husband,” I said with my voice cracking.
“I was trying to protect my investments. Then I meant Averie and the kids, and my mindset has changed.”
Him bringing the kids into this conversation pissed me off.
“Don’t you dare bring my babies in this conversation. You weren’t thinking about them when you were worried about your investments.”
“I’m being honest.”
“No, you are not about to use Averie as some redemption story while sitting here admitting your men helped ambush the father of her children.”
Q’s eyes dropped.
“You think I planned on falling for her?”
“I don’t give a fuck what you planned.”
“I didn’t even know her like that when Rah died.”
“You looked her and the kids in the face, knowing you helped take the man they loved away.”
“I never touched Rah.”
“You’re saying that like it makes you less guilty.”
“It does matter.”
“To who?”
Q stood again and started pacing.
“My men weren’t supposed to kill him. They were supposed to stop him, shoot up his car, but keep him alive.”
“Then who killed him?”
“I’m not answering that.”
“Why not?” I stood up.
“Because I came clean on the shit I did.”
“I don’t give a fuck about what you're willing to tell me. I want to know who killed my husband.”
“I’m not giving you that.”
“You protecting somebody?”
“I’m protecting myself this time.”
“From what?”
“From saying more than I already have.”
I laughed because I couldn’t believe the nerve of this nigga.
“You’ve said enough to spend the rest of your life in prison.”
“Then call the police,” he said.
“I’m not calling the police.”
That made him look at me differently. I reached under the table, and I pulled the gun out and sat it on the table between us. I made sure he was patted down before coming in here so I knew he didn’t have anything on him.
“You think killing me will bring Rah back?” He asked.
“No.”
“You kill me, you gotta live with what that does to Averie. I love that woman and those kids with all my heart.”
“I’m already living with what you did to all of us. Begging for your life isn’t going to work for me. I’m sure Rah didn’t beg for his.”
“Aight. I’m sorry about Rah.”
“And I’m sorry about Averie.”
His eye closed briefly. That was the only warning he got. The gunshot echoed through the private room. Q stumbled backwards into the wall. His hand went towards his chest. He looked at me like he couldn’t believe I actually did it. He slid down the wall, and I walked closer. He was still breathing.
“Kyenna…”
I stood over him. I watched until his body stopped fighting. I still wasn’t satisfied. My alarm on my phone went off as Grif walked in the room to see the gun in my hand and Q slumped on the floor.
“Now you can call Meek.”