Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 62497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 312(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62497 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 312(@200wpm)___ 250(@250wpm)___ 208(@300wpm)
“She’s gorgeous,” I say.
“I’d say she takes after me, but let’s be real, she is the spitting image of Kalilah,” he says in a wistful, proud voice. She claps her hands together as he looks back at me. “I came to give you a lift home.”
“Why?”
“Because I think you need it, and I doubt you’ll let Kenzo drive you.” And before I can rebut, he adds, “I’d like you to come to my place for dinner. Kalilah would like to meet you, and Alaska will be there. You’ve met her before. She would have had purple hair then, or maybe it was blue. I can’t keep up with her hair color choices.” He shrugs.
I pull my purse up over my shoulder. “I don’t think…” He steps up closer, and his daughter reaches for me. “Are you trying to bribe me with your daughter?” I raise a brow at him.
“Is it working?” he questions with a hint of a grin. I can see the difference between him and Kenzo. Kenzo doesn’t seem to have much fun in his body, but with Kyson, it just slips from his mouth.
“No,” I say as I take her.
“You want kids?” he asks.
“No. I can’t have kids.”
“Shit, sorry! Didn’t mean to—”
“No, it’s fine.” And it is. Before I even found out I couldn’t produce eggs, I was fine with it. Though to say it came as a shock wouldn’t be too far off. I think I was upset and quite confused for weeks. Until I reminded myself, I never wanted kids to begin with. And that’s okay as an option too. You don’t have to have kids or even want kids to prove you are a woman. You just do you, and everything will work out for the best.
“Well, word of warning… Kalilah can’t cook for shit.” He laughs. “And Alaska is even worse if that’s possible. So I do hope you have already eaten.” He heads out, and I follow him to his car, where he takes the baby from me and places her in her car seat.
“Where is Kenzo?” I ask.
“We have a job tonight, and I doubt he will go if you’re home by yourself.”
“So this is your plan? Persuade me with your baby and drop me with your women?”
“Good plan, wouldn’t you say?” Kyson chuckles before he starts driving. He asks me a few questions on the drive, but mostly, I listen to him talk. Thankfully, he likes to talk, and it makes the drive interesting as I am overwhelmingly tired and finding it hard to keep awake.
We pull up to a lavish home, and he exits the car. He retrieves Lyla—that’s her name, I found out when he was talking about things—who is now sound asleep thanks to the car ride. The door opens before we reach it, and two women stand there. I recognize one of the women from my house—she seemed fine when I met her—and the other I haven’t met. The one I assume is Kalilah, walks down and takes Lyla from Kyson before he turns back to the car and leaves.
“Come in, we won’t bite. Hard,” Alaska says.
And even though I know better I follow them inside.
Thirty-Two
Kenzo
Kyson had to show me videos of her at his place in order to get me moving. He had picked her up and took her there, knowing I wouldn’t leave unless I knew she was safe.
What the fuck else am I supposed to do?
She doesn’t want to talk to me, and usually, this would never be an issue for me.
Yet, here I stand in the tattoo parlor, confused and not sure what the fuck is happening. The tattoo artist inks the last part on my hand, then covers it as I stand. He doesn’t bother telling me what to do next, I already know. My body is covered in ink.
Kyson stands and walks out with me, eyeing my hand.
“You sure that’s smart?” he asks.
“Shut up.”
“Okay, but Zuko is pissed. You know how much he hates cleanup.”
“He’ll fucking survive.”
“Or he’ll kill you. One or the other.” He chuckles as we get into the car. His phone rings, and without even looking, we know it’s Zuko.
“He kept fucking files on us… A lot of files,” Zuko relays.
“Burn it all. You should be familiar with that. Or ask Alaska to do it. She’s a damn pro at burning people’s houses down.” Kyson laughs. I don’t bother, but I get it. She burned Zuko’s house down when he pissed her off, but really, it makes him happy because he got the chance to move in with her.
And let’s be real, that’s all he wanted.
And she gifted it to him on a platter by destroying his home.
“It’s a lot of shit,” he says again. “Even photos.”
“Burn it,” I repeat what Kyson said. “Burn it to the ground.”