Carl Weber's Kingpins Read online

  “All that sneaking around got you tired, huh?”

  Kleigh pulled the covers back over her head at the sound of Klax’s voice. She groaned even louder that time and wished that he would go away. When she peeked at the doorway to her room, she saw him standing there with his arms crossed, and she rolled her eyes.

  “I just woke up. Can we do this another time?” she pleaded with him. “You act like it’s a crime for me to want to go out.”

  “It is when it’s a nigga moving against me right now,” Klax said and snatched the covers from off of her. “So, nah, we gon’ do this right now.”

  “Stop! And how am I supposed to know that?”

  The T-shirt and pair of shorts she had on did nothing to keep her warm, and her attitude hit her almost as fast as the cold air did. She sat up and pushed her hair out of her face so that she could glare at him.

  “Don’t look at me like that,” Klax warned.

  “I’ll do what I want. Oh wait, I can’t because I have to stop my life because you don’t have your shit on lock!”

  “Watch your mouth,” he told her. “Until this problem is taken care of, I need to know where you are at all times. That’s not up for debate.”

  Kleigh smacked her lips.

  “Even after you handle whoever has been hitting your spots, I still won’t be able to do shit without running it by my big brother. I don’t want to live like this. Do you know how embarrassing it was to have to leave the club last night after not even an hour?”

  “You wouldn’t have had to leave if you hadn’t come to my spot in the first place,” he said like it was simple. “Be happy I was busy talking to Adonis because if I would have seen you and Bahli, y’all wouldn’t have even got in.”

  “You’re annoying. And when did you even get a club?” Kleigh said, jerking her head at him. “It’s crazy that you want me to run all of my moves by you, but you don’t tell me anything at all.”

  “Those are the joys of being the king,” Klax said with a grin. “And since the king is also your big brother, you won’t ever hear me apologizing for going to extra lengths to protect my baby sister—especially with the streets going as crazy as they have been. There won’t ever be a time that you look out your window, and you don’t see one of my people sitting there. Dad asked me to protect you, and I’m gon’ do that until there is no more breath in me, do you understand?”

  Kleigh rolled her eyes and got up to head to the kitchen, but Klax caught her by the arm.

  “I said, do you understand?”

  “Yeah, nigga, damn,” she said and snatched her arm away. “But if you grab me like that again, I’m calling Mama. And I don’t see why you were so mad about me being in the club last night anyway. I mean, if it’s your club, that should be one of the safest places for me.”

  She walked past him and went into the kitchen to find something to feed her growling stomach. She’d only had a few shots of Patrón the night before, but it was on an empty stomach. From her refrigerator, she pulled out a carton of eggs and a pack of bacon.

  “Since you’re here, without invitation, might I add, you might as well have breakfast with me,” she said when Klax sat at her glass dining room table. “Pancakes or toast?”

  “Toast,” he answered. “And leave a little fat on my bacon.”

  “You got it, King,” Kleigh said sarcastically and got busy over the stove.

  As she cooked, she kept sneaking glances at her brother. As usual, he was clean from head to toe in his usual designer outfit, but something was off about him. He wasn’t the type to wear a continuous frown on his face, nor was he the type to seem worried, and he was doing both right then. When she finished cooking, she made their plates, then set them down on the table and went to pour two tall glasses of orange juice.

  “Here,” she said and handed him his glass.

  “Thanks, baby sis,” he said and took a long gulp.

  She sat down in the seat to the right of him and took a sip from her glass. The siblings ate in silence before it became deafening to Kleigh. She cleared her throat and looked at her brother. He paid her no mind, and it was almost as if he hadn’t even heard her. So she cleared her throat again. That time, she tapped his hand gently.

  “Earth to Klax,” she said and waved her fork in his face. “You good?”

  “Yeah, I’m straight.”

  “Lie again,” she warned. “What’s going on with you? You’re acting strange.”

  “A few hits were ordered on the Bronx and Harlem recently.”

  “Harlem?” Kleigh asked alarmed. “Who would be crazy enough to do some shit like that? Did they get anything?”

  “Nah,” Klax answered, and Kleigh knew she probably wasn’t going to get any more out of him.

  “Be easy. You know you’re going to catch the person responsible. Whoever he is, he’s gonna slip up eventually.”

  “He already did,” Klax said, and suddenly, he stopped eating. He gripped the fork so tightly in his hand that Kleigh was sure that she saw it bend. “He showed up at the club last night. He said . . .”

  “What?” Kleigh asked and leaned toward him. “What did he say, Klax?”

  Klax blinked and looked up as if he abruptly had remembered where he was. He took one more bite of his eggs and stood up from the table. Leaning down, he kissed her lovingly on the forehead.

  “Don’t worry about it. I have it handled,” he assured her. “Enough about me. How’s business at the bakery?”

  “Booming,” Kleigh said proudly. “The mayor just placed a huge catering order for her fortieth birthday.”

  “I guess all Mama’s recipes were some good after all then, huh?”

  “Hey, hey!” Kleigh raised an eyebrow at him. “Don’t give her all the credit. Some of the recipes are mine too.”

  “Whatever you say. Speaking of the bakery, why aren’t you there?”

  “Jasmine has been opening on Fridays,” Kleigh said speaking of her store manager. “I come in a little later in the afternoon. I did want to go in a little early today, though, but I overslept. But, you know, when you’re the boss, you can do shit like that.”

  “I feel it. Anyways, thanks for breakfast. I need to go handle some business.”

  “Whatever,” Kleigh said, rolling her eyes at him.

  “Keep playing, and those things are gon’ get stuck like that one day,” Klax told her walking to the door.

  “Klax! Wait,” she said before he was gone. “Dude coming to the club, is that why you wanted me to leave? Did you think he was gon’ do something to me?”

  “Ain’t nobody ever gon’ touch you. Believe that,” Klax said in all seriousness. He stepped out of the condo and waved a hand before the door shut all the way. “Love you!”

  “Yeah yeah yeah,” Kleigh huffed and dropped the fork on the plate in front of her. “You love me enough to leave me with your dishes.”

  She should have known he wasn’t going to tell her everything that was happening in his line of business. Kleigh wondered if he knew that by keeping her in the loop would be way less stressful for him. Even though she was grown, he still viewed her as his kid sister. She loved how her brother loved her, but sometimes she thought he forgot that he wasn’t her father. Still, she would respect his wishes until the noise in the streets died down. The last thing she wanted was to be taken hostage by some maniac who had a vendetta against her brother.

  Kleigh cleared the table and commenced to getting dressed for the day. When she was back in her bedroom, before she got in the shower, she grabbed her phone from the unmade bed. She figured she’d better call Bahli back before she pulled a Klax Turner and pulled up on her unexpectedly. The phone rang only twice before her friend answered.

  “Bitch, I should have been childish and sent you to voicemail,” Bahli’s terse voice said. “I know you saw me calling you!”

  “I just got up not too long ago. Damn, a bitch can’t even get no sleep?”

  “No! Especially after your brother ruined our
night. You had me get dressed to dance for about thirty minutes.”

  “My bad,” Kleigh said, feeling genuinely sorry. “But going to Diamonds was your idea. But at least we know for next time.”

  “Uh-huh. I guess I’ll forgive you. But only because barely anybody saw me in that dress, which means I can wear it again!”

  “You know what? You are a mess, okay?” Kleigh said with a giggle.

  “I’m just being real, girl. Why was Klax tripping so hard anyway? You would think that since it was his club, he’d feel more comfortable that you were there and not at another spot, you know?”

  “That’s exactly what I said when he stopped by this morning. I guess yelling at me in the middle of the club wasn’t enough. He had to come to finish his point.”

  “That brother of yours is a trip. He acts like he’s your dad or something.”

  “Yeah . . .” Kleigh’s voice trailed off, and she thought about what Klax had said. “Apparently, some dude who’ve been tryna get at him was in the club last night.”

  “Oh, word? It’s like that? What was he doing there?”

  “I don’t know,” Kleigh answered as she pulled a matching bra and underwear set from her drawer. “You know my brother doesn’t tell me shit. Whatever is going on, Klax ain’t at ease about it. I’ve never seen my brother look so old in the face.”

  “Well, whoever dude is, I hope he’s ready to be in a world of hurt. We all know Klax doesn’t play that shit. What did he say about your car?”

  “Nothing at all, shockingly.”

  “Probably because he already put a tracker on it,” Bahli laughed loudly.

  “You know what? I’m about to hang up this phone.”

  “Whaaat? You know your crazy-ass brother is good for it,” Bahli said still giggling. “Bitch, you gon’ be tryna get some dick, and Klax is gon’ pull up like, sike! You thought!”

  “Well, we both know that’s not going to happen anytime soon,” Kleigh said, entering the bathroom in her bedroom and sitting down on the toilet.

  “I wouldn’t be so sure. You saw the way that guy was staring at you last night. The one we saw right before we went into the club.”

  “I know who you’re talking about,” Kleigh told her.

  “His approach was kind of weird, but I think he was really mesmerized by you,” Bahli said in a dreamy tone. “What that nigga say? Something like, ‘I just had to stop and get a better look at you.’”

  “He actually said, ‘I just had to get one last look at you before you walked right past me.’”

  “See! Now, that was cute.”

  “Cute? Just last night you were talking about it was some weak-ass game.”

  “Girl, you know I was just tryna hurry up and get in the club! You should have still gave him your number. Driving a car like that, baby boy is sitting on some mean paper.”

  “Bahli, I don’t need a nigga for his money.”

  “You don’t need a broke boy either. A paid bitch needs a paid nigga. Period!”

  “True that.”

  “Bahli! Would you please come show me how to work the fax machine,” Kleigh heard someone in Bahli’s background call, and she heard her friend groan loudly.

  “Well, baby, duty calls. I’ll give you a call later on today. We can get dinner or something.”

  “Sounds good. Love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  Kleigh disconnected the phone and set it down on the long counter to the sink. She put her hair in two tight cornrows before getting in the shower and placed a black cap over them. After that, she stripped down and got in the shower. As the steaming hot water hit and slid down her body, once again, her eyes went to the guy from the night before. She didn’t know why she wished she’d gotten his name. Normally, she forgot about the guys that tried to holler at her. None of them had left a lasting impression. But he, the person who had only said one sentence to her, had. Maybe it was the fact that he didn’t try to press up on her. What if he was genuinely just complimenting her, and that was it? Maybe he had a wife at home, and that’s why he didn’t press Kleigh for her contact information. That was the only viable reason she could think of for any man not shooting a real shot with her. Kleigh shook her narcissistic thoughts to the side. It was possible for a man to be a gentleman; however, she had just never experienced anything like it before.

  She finished washing up and got out of the shower to get dressed. She dried her body off with one of the soft towels her mother had gotten for her when she first moved in and the moisturized her body with coconut oil. She almost laughed at herself when the steam cleared on the mirror, and she saw herself in her underwear and cap on her head.

  “I look a mess,” she said and picked up her toothbrush.

  As she brushed her teeth, she left the bathroom for a moment and went to her closet. There, she grabbed the long Malaysian lace wig she planned on wearing for the day. It was jet black and silky smooth to the touch with a middle part. She’d named it Megan and took care of it the way she did her natural hair. She went back to the bathroom to spit and brush her straight white teeth. Once she finished, she placed the toothbrush back in its holder and put the wig on her head. She used clips to install it rather than glue because she valued her edges. Once Kleigh was confident that it was securely in place, she smoothed out the baby hairs to give a more natural finish. When she was done, you couldn’t even tell it wasn’t her hair.

  It took Kleigh twenty more minutes to leave the house since she got distracted taking selfies in her full-length mirror. But when she did, she looked as if she had just stepped off a runway. At the bakery, she required her employees to dress in standard work attire, which included a pair of tan slacks and shirt with the company logo and name, Turner’s Bakery. She, on the other hand, wore whatever she wanted. That day, she’d opted for a pair of dark blue jeans that made her hips and bottom pop, with a thin strap black body suit and a black leather jacket. A pair of pointed-toe black Louboutin heels were on her feet, and the red Gucci cross body purse matched the bottom of her shoes and her lipstick. Her hair went down to her backside and swished back and forth as she walked.

  “Hello, Miss Turner,” Donald, the doorman said when he saw her step off the elevator. “Off to the bakery?”

  Donald was a Caucasian man in his fifties with a head full of gray hair. He’d been working as the doorman to the condo since years before Kleigh had even moved in. He wasn’t a bad-looking man, and he always seemed to be in a pleasant mood whenever Kleigh saw him.

  “Yes, I am!” Kleigh said as she walked past him and out of the glass swivel doors. “I’ll try to bring you back a cake. I’m trying a new recipe out.”

  “You know I don’t mind being a guinea pig,” he said and patted his slightly pudgy belly. “Beggars can’t be choosers. Have a nice day!”

  Kleigh waved to him and walked to one of two of her parking spots. The pink BMW M5 Klax bought for her seemed to be waiting for her. She loved that car. Not only was pink her favorite color, but the all-black interior really set the ride off. It was a real-life Barbie car, and she loved pushing it in traffic. When she got in, she paired her phone with the car, turned on some music, and pulled out of the parking garage. She found herself lost in the melodic voice of Summer Walker the entire drive to the bakery in Harlem.

  “I just need some dick. I just need some love. Tired of fucking with these lame niggas, baby. I just need a thug.”

  Kleigh was still singing along with the artist when she pulled into the alley in the back of the building. She got out of the car and entered the bakery through the back door. Turner’s Bakery wasn’t a huge establishment, more like comfy. On the inside was the kitchen, of course, in the back, the hot-and-ready section, the cashier’s counter, and in the front were a few tables for customers to eat at. The aroma of goodies baking hit her nostrils, and she savored it the way she always did, like it was her first time. She walked through the kitchen and headed toward her office in the very back.

  “
Hey, boss!” Eddy, her godfather, and her best baker, shouted.

  Kleigh gave the older man a big smile and waved at him. He was one of her mother’s oldest friends and one of the reasons Kleigh loved baking so much. He was also her dad’s first cousin and the one who had gotten her parents together in the first place. Eddy stood at about five foot seven and wore his curly hair cut short. His smooth, toffee-colored skin was flawless, and he was so pretty and always so well-groomed that when Kleigh was growing up, she would ask him for beauty tips and not her mother. He stood there in his work attire, white apron and white baker’s hat, looking like he was just made for the job. Growing up, he said since everyone always told him he had sugar in his tank, why not load that same sugar into the sweets that everyone loved so much. Little did Klax know, most of the recipes their mother used were Eddy’s.

  “Eddy, today is your off day. What are you doing here?” she asked, going to him and hugging him.

  “I couldn’t leave y’all high and dry with the mayor’s big order tomorrow,” he told her and motioned to his cluttered workstation. “It’s been crazy back here in this kitchen, and I figured while the other bakers are placing regular customer orders, I could get a head start on the big Kahuna.”

  “Thank you! That’s why I love you so much, even though we both know you just want to take credit for the red velvet cake,” she said with a wink.

  “Girl, you know can’t nobody make that cake like me! The mayor’s eyes are going to roll to the back of her head after one bite, I assure you of that!” he said, placing his hand on his hip and playfully rolling his neck.

  “Uh-huh,” Kleigh said with a giggle. “Uncle Charlie must have put you in a good mood this morning.”