Maino’s thick brows furrowed. “That nigga held me at gunpoint while you stood right there beside him. That’s how I know. The fuck you meanhow?”
“Listen to me.” Smoky pointed toward him angrily.
“Crown wanted to kill you. But the second I found out it was your address we were coming to, I told him letting you go would be better for him and Niv because she asked him to. Told him that you ain’t have shit to do with this and it wasn’t worth breaking a promise to her. That’s how. And what you do? Go shoot up our fuckin’ clubhouse and ‘bout to have this nigga back on yo’ ass.”
“Fuck that clubhouse.” Maino’s voice cracked with emotion. “Nigga killed my fuckin’ dogs. One you bought me, nigga!”
Smoky fell quiet instantly. He just paced the floor instead. A nigga like him had never been scared before in his life. But tonight, Smoky was shook.
“But you already know that.” Maino continued bitterly. “You don’t give a fuck about Roxy. Just like you don’t give a fuck about me.”
That sentence hit Smoky hard, like a dagger straight to his fucking chest. Because he did give a fuck. Their history alone made him care, even during the moments he wished he didn’t.
Smoky had a love for cigars, a habit he picked up from his uncle who raised him. Many years ago, that love led them to a cigar lounge tucked deep inside Melrose. And even after his uncle’s death, Smoky kept going.
The place served premium cigars, good liquor, low jazz, and offered games of chess and pool. Without his uncle no longer at his side, neither no longer interested Smoky much. A nigga like him wasn’t there to socialize. He kept coming for the peace it brought. Nothing more.
For years, that lounge had been his escape. A place where Smoky could take off his patch, clear his head, and be something other than the Knights’ Sergeant-at-Arms for a few hours. In Melrose, nobody knew him. Nobody expected anything from him.
Then one day, Maino walked through the door. At the time, Smoky didn’t know it, but Maino was searching for the same thing…peace from the chaotic streets. Both men kept to themselves, but that changed the night Maino made a comment about the Saints game playing on the television. Smoky answered, and it started there.
Smoky smoked Maduros. Maino preferred Connecticuts. Cigars became conversation. Conversations became drinks. Drinks led to debates about sports…then eventually turned into a quiet friendship before either of them realized what was happening. Then somewhere along the way, friendship became attraction.
Smoky remembered it like it was yesterday. The first time he looked into Maino’s brown eyes and felt something deeper than friendship, it scared the shit out of him. So bad it damnnear knocked the wind out of him. He had always known he was attracted to men, so that wasn’t what frightened him.
Maino terrified Smoky because, for the first time in his life, he found himself thinking about living in his truth. Out loud.With him.
“Don’t you ever say no shit like that to me. I did the best I could with the cards I was dealt. How the fuck was I supposed to know Boe was your cousin? That Crown would meet Nivéa and that he was her baby’s daddy? What the fuck more did you want me to do? Point my gun at my brother? That was never happening. Never in a million fuckin’ years. It’s Knights over everything. You know me.”
“Yeah…” Maino nodded slowly while taking in a shaky breath. “Thing is, it’s everything over me, Smoke. Crown, the club…Tanya.”
Silence filled the room after that…silence that suffocated both for completely different reasons. At some point, Smoky finally stopped pacing.
“I do care about you,” he admitted quietly. “And I do care what happened. Shit cut me deep. That’s why I came by to check on you as soon as I could get away. You weren’t home.”
Smoky was telling the truth. The day they handled business with Preach, he told Crown he needed to go be with his wife. But truthfully, it was Maino he came to check on after the smoke cleared in the Hills.
He and Tanya had an understanding. He knew what she loved, and she knew what he truly preferred. Tanya came from a broken home consumed with both sexual and physical abuse, and dating him in high school changed her life tremendously. She loved his protection andmoney. Smoky was eventually honest with her in their younger years, fully expecting her to leave him. But she never did. The life he had given her was one she never forgot. It made her grateful. It made her loyal. Shestood by his side and served as his front. Both knew what could happen if the streets ever discovered the truth about him.
So, somehow, it worked.
They loved each other deeply, just not in the way most people expected. Their marriage was open. There were no secrets between them. No pretending behind closed doors. They protected one another and covered for one another. Next to Crown, Tanya was Smoky’s best friend. To the rest of the world,she was his wife.
“Bullshit,” Maino muttered.
“I ain’t never lied to you. I ain’t perfect, but I always kept it a hunnin’ wit’ you. And I’m telling you… I came to check on you.” Smoky’s voice deepened.
“It was your mama’s death anniversary. I knew you was fucked up behind the dogs and her. I called too. Straight to voicemail.”
Maino’s expression shifted slightly at that. He realized Smoky wasn’t lying. That day, he had gone to the cemetery. He spent hours sitting at his mother’s grave talking to her because he felt completely lost. His phone stayed off the entire day as he cleared his head. In the blink of an eye, he had lost everything he cared about. His dogs…Boe. Boe was fucked up, but that didn’t change the love he had for him. They grew up like brothers. And then…there was the betrayal thathe feltlike came from Smoky. That one hurt Maino the most. He had watched Smoky storm into his home like he was just some random nigga off the street…as if he wasn’t someone special to him.
“I had Titan since I was nineteen,” Maino said quietly. “Got Roxy from you a few years ago. Been me and them ever since. Shit fucked up. Somebody gotta pay for that, Smoke.”
“No,” Smoky said firmly, shaking his head.
“Ain’t nobody paying for shit except you if you stay here. Danger already figured out who did the custom work on yourride. He gon’ hit that body shop and raise hell until somebody gives up the owner’s name. Then he gon’ bring that information straight back to Crown.”
Maino’s jaw tightened. If he were in his right state of mind, he most likely would care. He knew what the Knights were like. That’s why he had even warned Boe not to fuck with them. He knew more than anybody…because he secretly dated one.
