Page 122 of Quasim III: King Inferno

Kano was protective of his sister, but he also let her rock. Me and Kano went back, because he was part of KEW, so there was an understanding that we all had, that no one else understood. Benzani was the second oldest and had his own shit going.

That nigga was nuts when it came to cars, and always did some wild shit. Sonny raised them up, and they took it fromthere. All three of them raced, with Kano teaching his younger siblings.

“Kano and Ben is already down there… I didn’t want to arrive with them.” She rolled her eyes. “Niggas be doing too much. Fucking up my chances of being some rich niggas’s baby mama.”

Aimee sucked her teeth. “As if you don’t have your own money.”

“I have too much money… said no one ever.”

“Sonny would fuck you up.” I called her bluff, knowing her father and brothers would be on her ass, and whatever nigga tried to step to her.

It would take a different kind of nigga to approach the Cruzari men about Zuri. How Blaze stepped to the Delgatos about Capri, I knew something similar would have to happen when she started dating.

“Wheels up.” The captain announced and we all got buckled in for this quick ride down to Miami.

I wanted to be in and out, so I could go make it right with my queen. Show her how sorry I was. Eat fucking sand if that was what she wanted me to do, because she deserved that from me.

Cappadonna handed me his phone. “Architect sent me those last week. Answer your fucking phone and you would have known.”

I looked over at the blueprints of the home that I was having built for my family. It was a surprise for Anjo, because she’d been complaining that the baby would be homeless. We had the lake house and the option of staying in Ashbourne. As much as we loved Ashbourne, we were ready to be back closer to family.

Elijah loved his new school, but he couldn’t wait to enroll in the school that both Peach and CJ were in. It was all he spoke about, so the quicker we handled business, the quicker my boy could move back closer to the city.

“Yeah, she gonna like this.”

“Think it might help get you out the doghouse?” Blaze questioned, fucking with something on his laptop.

I shrugged and handed Cappadonna the phone back. Cappadonna offered to give me land on the compound, and I wouldn’t accept the land unless he let me pay for the shit. Like he did with Blaze, he went back and forth before agreeing, and even then, he went and put the money into Cherry and Peach’s account, and I was sure it was a matter of time before Elijah and Zayah’s accounts would be laced.

“Michael chased yo’ stubborn ass… I begged you to celebrate pride and you we?—”

“Capp?”

“What up, G?”

“Fuck ya!” I stuck my middle finger up, and his loud ass laugh rumbled through the cabin. His laugh had always been so fucking loud, as he clapped his hands. “She still not fucking with me.”

“Good.” Blaze replied.

“The fuck?”

“Gotta let go of that pride when it comes to your wife, bro. You can’t bring all that hard shit from the streets home. With her, you gotta shed the armor… she wants different when you are behind those walls.” He paused. “She already knows what you’re capable of out there… what you’ve done and carry. What she needs is you… raw, real, and open.”

I took a breath and listened.

“I’m speaking from experience… learned the hard way with Erin. Thought I was protecting her by hiding how sick I was. Didn’t want to look weak, so I shut her out, handled everything on my own like I always had.”

Cappadonna looked away.

“That shit hurt her more than the illness ever did. Ignoring her, moving like she didn’t have to be there in the dark with me…I caused a kind of pain I swore I never would.” He continued, as he and his brother’s eyes met. “Don’t make the same mistake. You can still be strong and still let her in… the king always needs his queen.”

I took in everything that he said as I leaned my head back, feeling our ascent into the air. “We lived to blow another head off.” Blaze said like it was nothing.

“The fuck?” Havoc laughed.

He looked up. “What? I’m blowing that nigga’s head all the way back.”

Karter and Mo were meeting me down in Miami, too. It was the biggest weekend in the street racing scene, so everybody was out this weekend. Polo wasn’t worried about hiding because he thought that because some time went by and money got better that niggas forgot.

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