To protect you, he'd said. And the tension in his long, muscular body told me he was ready to do just that.
"Who the fuck are you?" he growled.
Shep's spoiled ass decided to test him.
"Man, who the fuck is you, asking questions in my granny's house?" he snapped.
"Some dude yo' cousin fucking, look like. All this shit she done caused, and she being a ho just like Chauncey said, weird ass," his friend Kemp spat.
I jerked violently and before I knew it, Targen was across the kitchen, his hand wrapped around Kemp's neck as he knocked his head into the wall.
"Say, nigga—” Shep started.
But his ass stopped when Targen pulled a gun from his back and aimed it at him in one smooth move, his eyes never leaving Kemp's suddenly scared face. Bitch ass nigga, I thought.
My mind snapped back to the present. I could see the bitterness simmering under Kemp’s surface. My stomach tightened automatically, but I wasn't scared, not like I would've been a year ago. More pissed off that I'd let a bitch ass nigga like this shake me once. Emory immediately moved closer to me.
“The fuck wrong with yo' eyes, nigga?” she demanded.
Kemp ignored her completely, just walked until he was a couple of feet away from us.
“You look good, Theory. Seem like marriage agreeing with you,” he said slowly. “Chauncey thought it would, too. He talked about wifing you up, but I guess a clean-cut nigga like that ain't good enough for a–”
“Watch yo' fucking mouth before I call my husband... or hers,” Em gritted out.
I held up a hand to her, then folded my arms. “Get to the point, Kemp.”
He looked at my ring, then back at my face.
“You know, a lot of people been asking questions. We just a bunch of humble southern Black folks, you know? Your new family make people around here nervous.”
I laughed softly. “You walked into a beauty supply store to deliver gossip? That’s so masculine,” I taunted.
“Mmm.” The sound Hyacinth made was cynical.
Kemp’s jaw tightened. “You think shit funny?”
I shrugged. “I think you bothering women in public during business hours is embarrassing.”
A couple of older women farther down the aisle immediately looked up with interest.
One of them whispered, “Mm-hmm,” like she was already invested in what was happening.
Kemp stepped closer. “You better tell your husband we still looking for Chauncey.”
Everything inside me stopped.Looking? Like there was a chance he was still alive?
For a second, the entire store seemed to go quiet around me. Chauncey was a problem that I thought was handled. Even before I knew about Targen’s Bratva ties, I knew, from the way that he beat up my high school ex at my class reunion, that he was dangerous. Deadly. His handling Chauncey was the reason this ring was on my finger now, wasn’t it?
Kemp kept talking, not realizing what he’d done to my imagination.
“Fucking Russians tortured my cousin this whole year, fucking with his mind, and now he gone? And you got the nerve to bring yo’ weird ass in here, acting like y’all untouchable.”
My stomach dropped.
Alive.
Chauncey was probably alive.
