I held onto her chin. “I want to hear the words… say Daddy, I won’t do it again.”
She laughed. “Daddy, I won’t do it again. I will communicate… I get crazy sometimes.” She admitted something that I already knew.
I could tell this was just the tip of the shenanigans she would put me through. “Long as you use those fucking words, we won’t have no problems.” I pulled the covers back and she climbed into the bed.
Kissing her lips a few times, she held me around the neck a few seconds longer. “Even knowing all of this, you still love me?”
“Love you more… stop questioning my love for you because that shit is real.” I assured her, and kissed her lips once more before going to pray and heading down to the gym.
After my prayers, I bypassed the bar area and doubled back because Kora was at the bar. I looked at my watch, and it was a little after seven, and she looked like she had been here all night.
The bartender looked like he was being held hostage as he poured her another drink. She took it back, as she sat with her legs crossed and stared into space.
“Kora, you straight?” I pulled up a stool and sat beside her.
She snapped out of whatever trance she was in. “Wanna know the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do?”
I figured that they all had shit to get off their chest, and apparently, I was the nigga that was supposed to listen. “What?”
“Witnessing the love of my life be sentenced to federal prison. There was nothing that I could do, I had to eat that shit because there was a plan in place. I couldn’t save him… there was something better.” She pulled a cigarette out of a metal case with the Caselli crest, and lit her cigarette, taking a pull.
I didn’t know much about Kora. Only that she was a federal judge and she lived her life in the shadows. She couldn’t be a Caselli publicly, because that would fuck so much up.
Honestly, the only Caselli I had been invested in was Zoya. I was on her ass bad, so I never paid attention to the rest of them. I knew of Menace, because who the fuck didn’t know Menace. You only knew him when bad shit was going to happen, but luckily, I knew him under good terms.
Wasn’t sure how good of a term it would remain if he continued to hear shit I never said. “Never knew that.”
“Mako… Zoo.” She chuckled to herself. “Even locked up, he never misses a thing. When I swore in as a federal judge… he misses nothing.” She smiled and took another pull.
I stared at her, even more intrigued. “How the fuck did you and Big Zoo even meet?”
“Caselli money didn’t always exist with us. Zoo stepped in when Menace needed him, and Menace never forgets when someone looks out for us.”
She quickly snapped out of memory lane, but I had a shit ton of questions. When Zoo was sent to prison, the shit was everywhere. They made it where he would never see the light of day.
Buried him and slammed the book on his head, because he had informants around him. Men that swore they were hisbrothers and had been with him for years. They turned on him, making sure they threw that key away.
The Kenzotti mafia still ran with their head behind bars.
Niggas still got touched with him being behind bars, and money still moved. I wasn’t involved in Menace’s business, only what I needed to know was what I knew, but some way, I knew he was heavily connected with the Kenzotti mafia.
As Kora flicked the ashes into the ash tray, I peeped the small ‘K’ tattoo discreetly between her thumb and pointer finger. It was so small that if you weren’t paying attention, you would pass it off as a mole or beauty mark.
“You straight after today?” It was clear she was done talking about Zoo, and I respected that.
“Yeah, we’ll be fine,” she assured me.
It was how she said it, as if this was rehearsed. “That shit is fucked up.”
“Life is fucked up. I don’t regret keeping it from her, so you can judge if you want.” Taking a longer pull, she blew the smoke into the opposite direction.
“Not here to place judgment on you or Menace. Probably would have done the same thing to avoid seeing that pain in her face.”
“Seems like we’re always causing her pain to protect her. With you, I don’t see that forced smile she has always worn. That smile that makes everyone believe she’s fine… Zoya hasn’t been fine, and I know, because I wear that same smile.”
“She has a hard time believing she deserves happiness.”
“We all do. I talk with my brother at least once a week… when you’re used to having no one, used to nothing good ever happening, it’s hard to believe you deserve the good in life.”
