Page 28 of Rhodes to Love

I gave him a one-sided smile. I knew exactly what that meant. “I got you, boss.”

“Well, now that’s done, we can eat!” Mrs. Henderson said.

Everybody chuckled. I could see Kingsley and Kane talking quietly off to the side. I wasn’t sure what that was about, but KJ joined them. I went to the kitchen table with my baby, because whatever shit they had going on wasn’t my business. Karima glanced over at them then turned to her dad. He frowned slightly then went over to talk to them as well.

“Mama, what’s going on?” Karima asked.

“I don’t know, baby.”

The doorbell rang, so I knew it was probably more family, like Karima had warned could pop up. Sure enough, a man walked in with an older guy with him. They both looked high. “Hey, Karima, baby. I was on my way home and had to crash y’all family shit.”

She laughed. “Hey, Uncle Jasper! How you doing?”

“I’m high as shit, so I’m good.”

She turned to me, so he followed suit. I stood, and she said, “Rhodes, this is one of my dad’s brothers, Jasper. Unc, this is my boyfriend, Rhodes.”

“What’s up, nephew?” he asked.

“Not too much. You good?”

“Hell yeah, nigga.”

I chuckled. Either he didn’t know the dynamics of what happened, or he didn’t give a fuck. He seemed cool as shit. When the other man joined us, Karima introduced him to me as Jacob. He shook my hand then joined the other men toward the front of the house. Their lil gathering had my nerves on edge. I wanted to go get my heat out the truck.

They finally joined us at the dinner table, and Mr. Jasper and Jacob left. Everyone was pretty quiet until Kane asked, “So what are your plans, Rhodes? I mean, are you here to stay, or do you plan to go back to Nashville?”

“I was only in Nashville because she was there. We’d reconnected here in Beaumont, and when she told me she was going, I decided to go too. I knew she hated being away from her family. We were strictly friends then, but I’ve loved her since high school.”

Kane nodded. I supposed that was good enough for him, until he said, “So you probably planned that fucked up shit you did from the beginning then.”

“Kane!” Karima yelled forcefully. “That was uncalled for.”

Her face was red as the flames of hell. I grabbed her hand and rubbed it between mine. “Calm down, baby. It’s okay. It’s a legitimate analysis, although it isn’t true. I can see why he would think that. Don’t get worked up though. Okay?”

She stared into my eyes like no one else was there and nodded. I kissed her lips then her forehead. Turning my attention to Kane, I said, “Naw. I didn’t. Karima would never give in to my advances. After I moved to Nashville to be with her, I figured she would give in, especially since she’d told me she had been attracted to me for years but was fighting it. When that didn’t happen, that was when I did that fucked up shit you spoke about. However, since we’ve both accepted it and moved forward with our lives, it’s not so fucked up anymore. It’s our country princess, Roselynn Denali Woods.”

Karima leaned against me for a moment as her mother and Cassie smiled. Kane didn’t say anything else. Mr. Henderson had given him the look. The one that said if he opened his mouth again, he was the one gonna be in a fucked-up situation. Dinner was completely quiet after that, and I could tell everyone was somewhat uncomfortable. Karima’s uncle needed to come back and liven this shit up after this.

Once we were done eating, Karima stood to take our dishes to the kitchen then came back and said, “We’re gonna go, y’all. This didn’t really go well. Maybe we can have a do-over at a later date but at my house.”

“I’m sorry, baby girl,” her dad said.

He hugged her along with everyone else. They all gave me head nods, and her mother gave me a hug. When we got outside, I noticed there were quite a few cars passing by. Karima didn’t seem to think that was odd, so I didn’t say anything. There wasn’t usually a lot of traffic on this highway on the weekend. I guess things had changed since more people lived on this road now. After I helped her get in the truck, I walked around to my side.

Just as I opened the door and was about to get inside, shots rang out, one going through the back window of my truck then through the windshield. “Shit! KD! Get down, baby!”

She fell to the floor of the truck as I got my gun from the middle console and ran to the back of the truck and started shooting at the vehicle that shot at us. When I saw it slow down, I glanced down to see I’d gotten the tire. That was what I was aiming for.Punk ass niggas.As I was about to run in that direction, I saw Mr. Jasper in his truck with a big ass gun, and Mr. Kenny was right next to me with his gun.

“Go check on Karima. We got it. Thanks for slowing their asses down.”

I ran to the passenger side of the truck as Karima’s brothers ran past me with their guns and opened the door to see her on the floor in the fetal position with her hands on her belly. She was trembling. “Baby, you okay?”

She looked up at me then quickly made her way to my arms. “Rhodes, I’m so scared.”

“I know, baby. I got’chu.”

I gently rubbed her belly as I heard the commotion down the road. Looking that way, I could see there was a lot of people down there now. I needed to get her out of here. This was probably the shit they were talking about. Them niggas should have warned us about whatever was going on so we could have been prepared for the shit.

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