Chapter 1: KYENNA KING - A Street King's Widow

It was now after four in the morning and Rah still hadn’t brought his ass home. I grabbed my phone and dialed his number. I let it go to voicemail.

“Rah, I promise on your kids, nigga. If you out doing some snake shit, I’ll go do my time.”

I hung up and dialed his number again. Nothing. I dialed it again. Nothing. Then I went to texting his ass.

Me: Babe

Me: Where tf you at?

Me: Rah don’t make me leave out of this house

Me: Rah quit playing

Even if Rah was busy, I never went unanswered. He would send a thumbs up on text if he wasn’t able to text me right back. My stomach was starting to knot up. He had never gotten home this late. I was starting to get irritated at this point. Going to his closet, I threw on one of his hoodies over my silk pajama set. I slipped on a pair of slides and grabbed my gun. He hated for me to go out late without him or security. I didn’t grab anything else but my keys and hopped in my car. I punched the gate code and waited as the gate slowly opened. Our driveway was long. He built it like this to give us time to set up all our security measures before any enemy had the time to make it to our front door.

I made the left turn because that led to the main road that was almost five miles away. Had I turned right, I would’ve been heading to my in-law’s estate, which was another three miles away from our house. Headlights were the first thing I saw when I got a few feet up the road. I smiled when I realized it was Rah’s truck.

“He’s so fucking stubborn,” I said as I pulled over.

I hit my horn and flashed my lights, but I didn’t get anything back. His driver side door was open so maybe his stupid ass had got out to piss. No, that would be dumb as fuck. My stomach was uneasy. I hopped out my car with my gun and slowly walked towards his truck. As I got closer, something was telling me to prepare myself. Then I saw the blood running and what appeared to be one of Rah’s custom guns he had made.

“Rah!” I screamed, seeing his head slumped.

I dropped to my knees and touched his face.

“Rah, please! Get the fuck up.”

He was cold, and his body was riddled with bullets. His eyes were still open.

“Baby, don’t do this. Please, I’m begging you.”

I looked for a pulse, knowing damn well he was gone. All I wanted was this to be a fucking dream. I started pressing on his wounds as if that would help. It wasn’t until I took a minute to look at his blood on my hands. Reality started hitting me hard. I ran back to my car and grabbed my phone. In this life, there were rules that we went by. I dialed one number.

“Pops,” I said.

“Kyenna?”

I started hyperventilating so I couldn’t talk.

“Come,” I said, breaking down. “Please come.”

“Where you at?”

“Down the road from our house.”

Within minutes, three SUVs pulled up as I sat with my head resting on my husband’s shoulder. My father-in-law walked right up to Rah and fell to his knees. I leaned my head back and rested on the truck as Pops leaned in and placed his forehead on Rah’s. A few minutes later, Shameek, Rah’s brother, pulled up with his mama and sister. Shameek stood there frozen. It was like he was trying to take it all in. His sister instantly broke down, which only made me start back crying.

“Call Doc,” Shameek said. “Lock the muthafuckin’ road down and nobody touch shit else.”

My mother-in-law and Jaharee grabbed me.

“No! I’m not leaving,” I told them. “I’m staying with my husband.”

She pulled me in close.

“Baby…you got to let him go.”

That shit broke me. I didn’t want to ever hear that. I collapsed in her arms. Rah and I had been together for years. His family was like my family. My daddy loved him. Hell, his sister Jaharee and I became best friends. Because I had married Rah, I was disliked by a lot of women. Shameek, who was the middle child, was also very protective of me. I don’t even want to mention Pops, who the city knew as Rod. He was once one of the biggest drug lords in the city. He had since passed it down to Shameek. My mother-in-law, Ms. Lorraine, had seen it all while being with Rod. Nothing was new to her under the sun.

I sat on the floor in my master bathroom just looking at my husband’s blood on my hands. We had just texted and he said he was on his way. If I hadn’t rushed him home, maybe he would still be alive. Then I thought about his security. Why the fuck weren’t they with him? I hid my hands inside of his big hoodie and leaned my head back against the wall. It had been hours now and I didn’t have it in me to clean myself up. I needed this last moment to come back to reality. His mama had come in and ran me a bath and I still hadn’t gotten in. The water was probably freezing by now.

“Kyenna, you got to get cleaned up. It’s been hours, and I need you to be presentable. I know how hard this is because I just lost my fuckin’ son. I’m hurting too, but I’m here for you right now because I know the love y’all had for each other. Can you please just take a shower and you can slip on whatever you want? The longer you sit with this blood on you, the longer it’s going to take you to grieve.”

I looked up at her and back down at the dried blood under my nails. She was standing here talking about grieving and that’s exactly what the fuck I was doing. She walked by me and let the water out of the tub and then walked to the shower and turned it on. She then came and kneeled in front of me.

“Kyenna, for me, please.” She stood up and held her hands out to help me up.

I let her help me up and get me out of his hoodie. When she walked out, I stripped out of the pajamas I had on with the hoodie and got in the shower. For a minute, I just stood there. My thoughts weren’t anywhere in particular, just staring. Knowing that my husband would never make love to me again in this shower, or being able to be there for his kids, hit me hard. After I took a bath, his mama had a glass of water and a sleeping pill waiting for me.

“Have y’all heard anything?” I asked.

“Not yet. I promise you will be the first to know anything. You know I would never keep anything from you. What I need you to do is try to get at least an hour of sleep. Can you do that for me?”

“I’ll try, but if you hear anything while I’m asleep, please wake me up.”

“I will, Kyenna. I promise,” she said, and helped me get in bed after I swallowed the pill.

She closed the door behind her. I laid there hoping the pill would help me rest. I knew damn well it wouldn’t. Who could sleep after losing the love of their life? All I could think about was who would do this to him. Rah was good to everyone. He made sure no one felt left out. There were times I had to get on to him for just giving money away. The local football teams were able to get new cleats and uniforms because of my husband.

I turned to the other side where my cell phone sat on his pillow. Thanks to my mother-in-law, she had cleaned his blood off my phone. My heart was telling me to leave it there, but my emotions wanted to see what everyone was saying. It had been hours and I knew the city was aware of what happened. The first place I looked was social media. Sure enough, bitches were already saying rest in peace. Hated when folks didn’t let the family do the announcement before they had to be the first to say something.

The tears hit my pillow as I read the comments under his last post. He was posted with Shameek doing their secret handshake. It didn’t take me long to start balling. My pillow was soaked, so I grabbed his pillow and that didn’t make shit any better. All I could smell was him. I threw the cover off and sat on the side of the bed. There was no way I was going to be able to sleep, so I threw on a robe. When I opened the door to my bedroom, the doorbell chimed. As I made it to the bottom step, I came face to face with Averie, Rah’s baby mama. Her eyes were just as red as mine.

“Where my kid’s daddy?”

Any other time, I would’ve rolled my eyes at such a dumb question. Considering the circumstances we were in, we all thought it was a dream. Shameek approached both of us.

“He’s gone, Averie.”

Her eyes darted over to me. As his wife, it had slipped my mind to call. Shit, I was still in shock that I found him.

“I never got to say goodbye. The last thing we said to each other was we would see each other tomorrow to exchange the kids.”

“Come on. Both of y’all,” Shameek said.

As he walked us both to the den area, the door flew open. My peace was now out the door as soon as I saw the bitch face. Raya, Rah’s mistake fuck. The bitch he had a baby with while married to me. Still to this day, I hated this bitch, and their baby was three years old. I gave her my husband and put his ass out. He hated her ass as much as I did. Never understood niggas fully. Rah enjoyed it until she got pregnant, and her true colors started to show.

“Who killed my baby daddy? And bitch why didn’t you call us? You’re selfish and wanted him all to yourself. Now what am I supposed to do?” she shouted.

“You better get that bitch out of here,” I told Shameek.

“She is right. Why didn’t you call us?” Averie asked.

If Rah wasn’t already dead, I would’ve killed him for putting me in the middle of this shit. I hated for drama to hit my doorstep. After Rah begged his way back two years ago, I hadn't seen these bitches or heard their voice. He made sure where I stood was safe. If I was going with him anywhere, they need not to show up. They weren’t even allowed to touch my doorstep. Averie and I never had beef because she was years before me. I also understood their chemistry.

“None of this is her fault. Damn! She’s the one that found him. Can we not do this right now?” Shameek said. “My muthafuckin’ brother is dead. I don’t need this fuckin’ shit between y’all right now.”

I walked off and left their ass standing there. Shameek could escort them to the den where the rest of the family was. When I laid eyes on my daddy, I headed straight for him and fell into his arms.

“I got you, Baby. I’m so sorry.”

Shameek walked over to us.

“Sis, my bad for that shit. I’ll keep them away from you. Let’s just get my brother in the ground so we can figure out who the fuck did this.”

Day of the funeral…

A week had gone by, and I was finally putting my man to rest. The journey here had been tiring. From fussing with the baby mamas about their kids, shutting down Royal Flush until further notice, and dealing with my own grief was hard. When I got the obituaries made, I did not include his baby mama’s. I included all three of his children. That was a whole argument because they felt like they should’ve been in there. For what? He never claimed Raya and Averie were ex-girlfriends.

I sat on the front row with my hat low over my eyes. My daddy sat on the side of me, holding my hand. My legs were too weak to walk in with the family. I sat there looking at Rah laying there peacefully while I lived on without him. Once the family started walking in, I prepared myself for any mess that was going to start. As far as I knew, Rah didn’t have any secrets. Averie walked to the casket with their twelve-year-old son, Kaiden, and eight-year-old daughter, Khari. My heart broke watching them both kiss him.

Khari and I were really close. She was like my little best friend. Averie wasn’t a fan of it. She kept that baby away from me since Rah died. Kaiden hated my guts because he blamed me for his daddy leaving them. Rah and Averie were over before I came into the picture by at least a year. Khari was already one when I started dating Rah. Still, I respected that he didn’t like me. When he was at the house, I gave him space. I made sure he ate and his clothes were clean before he went back to his mama’s house.

Raya and Ryleigh came right after. She was three years old and was clueless at what was going on. All she knew was daddy wasn’t coming back, and he was asleep. She was the baby I had to get used to. At first it was hard to look at her because she looked just like Rah. It only reminded me of what he had done during our marriage. As a woman, I had to realize that it was not the baby’s fault that her parents were careless. She had since become my little baby.

“You promised you weren’t leaving me with this baby.”

I closed my eyes and said a quick prayer. Averie got up and grabbed Raya.

“This not about you,” she said.

“The fuck it ain’t! My daughter ain’t got no daddy now.”

“Neither do mine,” Averie told her.

“See, this is why you don’t have babies everywhere,” someone behind me said.

“You got the house, money, and the ring.” Raya cried. “What the fuck my baby got?”

She had a valid question. I stood up and walked towards her. Everyone probably thought I was going to beat her ass. Instead, I took my wedding ring off and held it out.

“You think this means I won?” I asked, as the tears fell from my eyes. “You want it that bad, take it.”

Raya stood there in disbelief as my daddy and security stood behind me.

“Because I’d trade every dollar, house, and car just to hear my husband argue with me one more damn time.”

The church was silent. I sat back for a week and let everyone do and say what they wanted. My mind and body were tired. Rah was gone and there was nothing any of us could do about the shit. I wasn’t about to argue about material things. His kids were in his will. Whatever they wanted when it came to me, they could have. Shameek walked up behind me and picked up my ring.

“My brother put this ring on yo’ finger. It stays there,” he said, placing the ring back on my finger.

“That’s her problem. Y’all baby her,” Raya said.

“Aye…anybody got a problem with Kyenna…got a problem with me.”

“Is she going to run the Flush?” a guy asked.

Again, the church went silent. That was the burning question everyone wanted to know. This was the wrong place and wrong time.

“Get the fuck out,” Shameek told him.

My father-in-law had enough. He stood up and nodded for the security to remove the guy. Even street shit didn’t stop for a funeral. I just wanted to go home and sleep this off. Once everyone was back in their seats, the service went on. I made the program, and I couldn’t tell you a damn thing that happened. My mind wasn’t here as I stared at my husband. I wasn’t even able to give my husband any children. Slightly, I turned my head to look down the aisle at his kids. Though I loved them, biologically they weren’t mine. After today, there was no telling when the next time I would see them.

It wasn’t until my daddy tapped me that I realized that they were rolling my husband out of the church. Seeing his black and gold casket rolling by me made my heart stop. I squeezed my daddy’s hand and took a deep breath as I stood up to walk behind the security. Behind me, were the rest of the family. Because of the tension, I got in the car alone. I did ask if the kids could ride with me, but both of the mamas said no. My heart was broken and not being able to have a piece of Rah, which was his kids was making it worse. As soon as we pulled up to the graveyard, it started pouring down.

“I hate this shit.” I stared out the window.

“I know. Just a little while longer,” my daddy reassured me.

My daddy had been in my life since I came out of my mama. My daddy ran three gambling houses back in the day. He met my mama who was the local whore. She slept with all the niggas as long as she got her bills paid and wore the newest Coogi outfit. My daddy would tell me how much he loved that woman, but she loved money more. Once she had me, she dropped my ass off and took her ass on to the next dick. Occasionally, I would run into her. I had no hate in my heart for her. She did what was right by leaving me in the hands of my daddy.

She was driving a car as nice as mine. Her clothes were designer and she looked good with her old rich ass husband. My mama finally struck the gold she was looking for. The sad thing is that my daddy had just as much money back then. He just had to start hiding it when the Feds started sniffing. When it came to numbers and running cards, I learned that at an early age. My daddy didn’t raise me to be green. Though I knew the game and the streets, he taught me how to be a lady. How to dress and not show niggas too much. He didn’t want me to turn into the woman he fell in love with, and I understood that.

My daddy hadn't fallen for another woman since. He had his lady friends that would come and visit for a day or two, but after that, they had to go. I was thankful for him. There was never a time that I needed him, and he didn’t show up. He tried to step back when I married Rah. That shifted as soon as Rah cheated. My daddy was back on the scene to let his ass know, no matter how powerful he was, when it came to me, he would put his ass in the dirt. Shit, now I was feeling stupid for taking him back. The security came and opened the door with a black umbrella.

I asked the pastor to make this part quick. No one should watch the person they loved go into the dirt. Ryleigh was able to get loose from her mama and run up to me. As soon as her little hand touched me, I broke down. I tried to pick her up and put her on my lap, but her mama snatched her away from me.

“Raya, I would hate to take you to court ‘bout my granddaughter. Everyone out here knows yo’ ass won’t win. Snatch her the fuck again and see what happens. That lil’ girl loves Kyenna, and Kyenna loves her,” Pops said.

Jaharee handed me a tissue. Any other day, I would’ve never let this bitch get under my skin like this. My daddy raised a lady, but I knew how to slap the fuck out of a bitch. Once the pastor got done, me and the kids released doves. It was hard to do so with the rain, but we had already paid for them and they needed to be released. With security surrounding me, Averie approached.

“I don’t want to start drama because, unlike Raya, I have a lot to lose. I do want to tell you to your face that it’s fucked up you didn’t call us.”

“Respectfully, Averie, both of y’all can kiss my ass. I found my husband riddled with bullets. Y’all were the last ones on my mind.”

“Well.” Raya threw her hair over her shoulders. “We should have been the first people to cross your mind. Since we’re the one with the kids.”

“Girl, you make everything about you. Move ‘round,” Jahree chimed in.

“If I don’t move around, then what?” Raya said.

“Not today.” Shameek stood in between us. “If your only concern is if my niece will be straight, she will. I can’t speak for yo’ ass though.” He looked her up and down.

He then looked at Averie. I could tell he was disappointed in her. They had a pretty decent relationship from what Rah would tell me.

“And when it comes to my nephew and niece from you, I got them, too. Let this be the last time y’all get disrespectful to my muthafuckin’ sister-in-law. She don’t fuck with nobody.”

“Is the driver ready? I got to get out of here,” I told Shameek.

“Yeah,” he said. “Y’all walk her to the limo and follow behind her closely. I want one of you muthafuckas outside the gate at all times and another inside the gate,” he stated.

I didn’t even talk to my daddy on the drive back to my estate. There wasn’t nothing left to say. Today was final. The final fucking goodbye. Everyone was worried about themselves. While I was going home to an empty ass mansion. When we arrived, I just sat in the car for a second.

“You want me to stay? I don’t mind,” my daddy said.

“No, I’ll be fine. If I need you, I’ll call.”

“You sho’?”

“Positive.”

He grabbed me and brought me in for a hug and then placed a kiss on my forehead.

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Dad.”

He watched me walk into the house before I heard his old school Caprice crank up and pull off. I slipped my heels off and carried them in my hand. The house was quiet and eerie.

“Everyone keeps telling me to be strong…but they ain’t tell me how to do this without you, Rah.”