Carl Weber's Kingpins: Cleveland

Book 4: Kingpins

by Brandi Johnson

Genres: African American Urban; African American Women's Fiction

Synopsis

Ke yoko and Ka yah are identical twins with two totally different personalities. As young girls they formed a bond that could not be broken. It isn t until they become grown women that their loyalty is tested by secrets, deception, and lies. Growing up with a strict and controlling father and a weak and sniveling mother, Ke yoko s only goal is to get as far away from them as possible, even if it means leaving Ka yah behind. Being rescued by Ja Rel is like a dream come true. Ke yoko thinks her world with Ja Rel is perfect until she starts unraveling the truth behind it. To secure her future, Ke yoko decides to get into the dope game with her best friend Nadia, who is the breath of fresh air Ke yoko needs to escape the harsh reality of the fake life she s been living. Ke yoko puts together a crew, all while trying to keep her squeaky clean image. Ka yah, the more laid back of the twins, always has her sister s back, even if it means putting herself and her son last. Having her hands full raising her young son on her own, she always seems to be in Ke yoko s shadow. Just once she wants to come out ahead of her sister, to have something or someone for herself. How far is she willing to go to have that? In a chain of shocking events, Ke yoko finds out the hard way that everyone is suspect. Family and friends mean nothing, and loyalty is just a word. However, Ke yoko refuses to let em see her sweat. She is determined to put on her game face and keep it moving, but that definitely doesn t mean things will be business as usual."

Release date: April 25, 2017

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 288

Sample

“You guys are goin’ to miss the bus,” Ke’yoko’s mother hollered from the bottom of the stairs.

“Here we come,” Ka’yah and Ke’yoko hollered simultaneously. Ke’yoko and Ka’yah rushed down the stairs, giggling the whole way down.

“How come you’re not wearin’ the outfit that I put out for you?” Ke’yoko’s mother looked over at her and asked.

“Mom, I’m almost eighteen years old. Don’t you think I’m too old to still be dressin’ like my twin sister?” Ke’yoko asked.

“Go back upstairs and put on the clothes that your mother laid out for you,” Ke’yoko’s father said sternly as he walked out of the kitchen smoking on a pipe.

“It’s okay, Emi; they are a little too old to still be dressing alike,” Ke’yoko’s mother said letting out a nervous chuckle, and hoping things weren’t about to get ugly inside of the Cho household as usual.

“Do what I said,” her father repeated.

“I don’t wanna dress like Ka’yah,” Ke’yoko stated.

Ke’yoko’s father walked toward her with a frown and raised his hand. Ke’yoko didn’t flinch. She stared into her father’s cold, dark eyes and waited for his hand to connect with the side of her face.

“The bus is here,” Ka’yah yelled, relieved, before her father’s hand could connect with her sister’s face. Both girls ran to the front door.

“You girls have a good day at school,” their mother called out as the girls were running out the front door, leaving it wide open.

Neither Ka’yah nor Ke’yoko responded. They were already out the door and off the porch. Their mother had to walk over and close the door.

“Man, that was close,” Ka’yah said, out of breath from running.

“It is what it is. I ain’t thinkin’ about that nigga,” Ke’yoko said as they boarded the school bus.

“Where did you learn that language from?” Ka’yah inquired as she and her sister took their seats. “You’ve been talking a lot differently here lately.”

“I got it off an episode of Money & Violence,” Ke’yoko said and laughed.

“Money & Violence?” Ka’yah asked, confused.

“Yeah, Money & Violence,” Ke’yoko said and laughed again. “It’s a show that comes on YouTube.”

“And just where are you watching television at? Because we sure don’t own one,” Ka’yah asked, looking at her sister and waiting for her to answer.

“I be watchin’ it on my cell phone,” Ke’yoko replied as she opened up her book bag and pulled out her Mark Cross Grace purse and dug through it, pulling out a new iPhone 6.

“Where did you get that purse and phone from? They look expensive!” Ka’yah asked, taking the phone from her sister’s hand and examining the device.

“They are expensive. Ja’Rel said I deserve all the finer things in life,” Ke’yoko said, smiling at the thought of her newfound friend.

“Who is Ja’Rel?” Ka’yah pried while handing her sister’s phone back.

“You know, the guy I be sneakin’ off to see when we supposed to be at the library,” she replied as she put her phone and purse back into her book bag.

“The tall one with the green eyes?” Ka’yah asked.

“Nope,” Ke’yoko replied.

“The short, fat one with the chipped front tooth?” Ka’yah guessed again.

“Nope.”

“Well, which one is he? Dang!” Ka’yah laughed.

“The one who drives the silver Lincoln MKC,” Ke’yoko stated.

“Oooooh, okay, he’s cute,” Ka’yah said and smiled.

“He sho’ll is,” Ke’yoko said.

“Sho’ll?” Ka’yah asked.

“Oh, sorry. He sure is,” Ke’yoko said jokingly.

“All I can say is you better be careful, Ke, ’cause if Father finds out that you’re sneaking off with some boy, he’s going to kill you!” Ka’yah said, worried about her twin sister.

“So? I don’t care if he does find out! That nigga ain’t none of my real daddy, so he can’t tell me what to do!”

“Why do you always say that?” Ka’yah inquired.

“My poor naïve sister,” Ke’yoko replied while shaking her head.

“I guess,” Ka’yah responded, not really wanting to hear why all of a sudden Ke’yoko had been running her mouth, saying their father was not really their biological one.

All Ka’yah could do was shake her head. She didn’t know what had gotten into her sister the past couple of weeks. She’d been sneaking off school property with her best friend, Nadia, to meet up with these dudes, and lying to their parents about being at the library and sneaking out of their bedroom window when she thought everyone was asleep. Ka’yah didn’t know what her father was going to do once he found out Ke’yoko’s grades were going downhill, too; all she knew was it wasn’t going to be pretty. All Ka’yah could do was hope and pray Ke’yoko would get it together before it was too late. Ke’yoko didn’t seem to care about all the drama she caused with her actions and the backlash Ka’yah took because of it.

“I’m nervous about the test we gotta take in English class,” Ka’yah said, shaking her head as the bus pulled up in front of Laurel, the all-girls school that she and her sister were forced to attend.

“You’ll do okay,” Ke’yoko said while grabbing her things and standing up.

“I sure hope so,” Ka’yah replied as she followed her sister off the bus. “You don’t seem too worried. How do you think you gon’ do? Did you even study for it?”

“Nope,” Ke’yoko said, stepping off the bus and onto the pavement, and waving over to Nadia, who stood across the street.

“Girl, you better get it together,” Ka’yah warned as she started up the walkway.

“Whatever! I’ll see you after school, though,” Ke’yoko said, turning to walk in a different direction.

“Wait, where you going?” Ka’yah asked, confused.

“I got somethin’ to do. I’ll be back in time to catch the bus home,” Ke’yoko turned back around and replied.

“So, what am I supposed to tell Miss Dennis?”

“Shit, tell her anything you want,” Ke’yoko said uncaringly.

Ka’yah watched as her sister crossed the street to join her friend, and a few seconds later, the silver Lincoln MKC pulled up.

Ke’yoko smiled, waved at her sister, and got in the front seat of the car while Nadia joined some light-skinned cat in the back seat.

Ka’yah shook her head in disbelief all the way into the school building.

“What do you mean you don’t know where your sister is?” Ka’yah’s father yelled at the top of his lungs, intimidating her. “You left this house together this morning!”

“I don’t know where she at,” Ka’yah cried, trying her best to convince her father.

“Was she at school today?” her father yelled.

“Yes, she was there,” Ka’yah lied.

“Don’t think I’m not going to call the school in the morning to find out if she was really there! And if they just happen to tell me she wasn’t, you’re going to get exactly what she’s going to get when she gets home! Now get out of my face and go to your room!”

Ka’yah looked over at her timid mother and little brother, Kailo, before heading up the stairs with her brother following close behind. She knew when her father found out the truth about Ke’yoko not being at school, he was going to kill her too! Once again she was caught up in Ke’yoko’s mess.

Twenty minutes had passed when Ka’yah finally heard the front door open, and within seconds it sounded like World War III was taking place down in their living room.

“Where the hell have you been?” their father snapped.

Neither Ka’yah nor Ke’yoko had ever heard their father use that word before.

“I missed the bus so I had to walk home,” Ke’yoko said nonchalantly.

“So do you really expect me to believe that?” her father asked angrily.

“Believe what you wanna believe,” Ke’yoko said smartly and started walking toward the stairs.

Her father snatched her by her book bag, making it fall to the floor. Ke’yoko watched as all the contents spilled out.

“Where did you get this purse from?” her father asked, bending down and quickly picking it up.

Ke’yoko didn’t open her mouth. She didn’t really know what to say.

“Oh, you don’t hear me talking to you?” her father asked as he unzipped her purse and began going through it.

“Gimme my stuff,” Ke’yoko screamed, attempting to snatch her purse out of her father’s hand.

“Where did you get all this money and this cell phone from?” her father asked. “I’m sure you didn’t buy it, did you, Anda?” he asked, looking over at his wife. When she didn’t answer he continued fussing. “Now, I’m not going to ask you again, young lady; where did you get this stuff from?”

Ke’yoko still refused to answer. She stood and stared at her father as if he’d said nothing to her.

“Oh, so you going to stand here and play deaf with me? Okay. You won’t be talking on this,” he said before slamming the cell phone down on the hardwood floor.

Ke’yoko watched as her phone shattered. “What you do that for?” she snapped.

“I do what I want to do around here. This is my house,” her father said smartly while emptying the rest of the contents onto the floor.

“May I be excused?” Ke’yoko asked with an attitude. Before her father could answer she turned to walk away, only to be grabbed by the back of her long, silky hair, and thrown to the floor.

“So you’re not going to tell me where you got the money and cell phone from?” her father yelled as he climbed on top of her and pinned her down.

“Emi, stop it!” their mother yelled. “Get off of her.”

Ke’yoko’s father slapped her across the face, busting her lip in the process.

Ka’yah flew down the stairs with Kailo in tow to see what was going on. Ka’yah watched in disbelief as her four foot five inch mother tried her best to get her husband off of her sister.

“Get the fuck offa me!” Ke’yoko screamed as she struggled to get up.

Ka’yah and Kailo couldn’t believe what was transpiring. Ka’yah wanted to run over to her sister’s aid, but she knew their father would do the same to her if she tried to help Ke’yoko.

“Oh, so now you hood?” he asked before slapping her again. “What are you going to do if I don’t get up?”

“Get the fuck up offa me,” Ke’yoko yelled again.

“You come up in my house two hours after school let out, smelling like weed and alcohol and think it’s supposed to be okay?”

“I’m grown,” Ke’yoko yelled as she struggled to get her father off of her.

“Grown?” Her father grimaced before smacking her again.

“Emi, please stop!” their mother cried frantically.

“Fuck that! She thinks she grown, well, grown people pay their own bills, have their own car, buy their own clothes and, better yet, have their own house!”

“I don’t need you to do shit else for me!” Ke’yoko screamed.

“Oh, you don’t? Anda, pick that shit up off the floor,” their father yelled.

Ka’yah watched in disgust as her mother did as she was told.

“Well, since you’re grown, I’m going to treat you as such. When I let you up off the floor, get your shit and get out my damn house!” her father said as he slowly rose up off her.

Ke’yoko got up off the floor and wiped her tears away. “Give me my shit,” she yelled at her mother.

“No. You won’t get any of that back,” her father said, taking the stuff from his wife’s hand.

“I don’t give a fuck! Ja’Rel will replace everything you took and then some,” Ke’yoko snapped.

“Who’s Ja’Rel, the nigger you’ve been sneaking around with?”

“Don’t worry about who he is! Just know he takes good care of me,” Ke’yoko said, rolling her eyes.

“Well, stop wasting time and go pack your shit and move in with Ja’Rel!”

“Emi, we can’t let her go! She’s too young,” Anda said, frightened for her daughter.

“Oh, so now you wanna speak up for me?” Ke’yoko looked over at her mother and asked as tears steadily flowed. “Where were you at all these years when I needed you to protect me from this muthafucka?”

“Ke’yoko,” her mother called out and tried to reach for her daughter’s shoulder.

“Don’t ‘Ke’yoko’ me,” she said and quickly turned her shoulder so her mother couldn’t touch it.

“This is your father you’re talking about in that language!” her mother said, hurt.

“This corny-talkin’ nigga ain’t none of my father! Hell, he not even black. How the hell did you think you were going to keep passing that lie off? You let his punk ass adopt us after you were raped by our real father. You didn’t think I knew that, did you? Yeah, I knew. Na Na made sure she told me before she died because she knew you never would. I always knew that me and Ka’yah wasn’t fully Japanese; I just never knew what we were mixed wit’. That explains why we’re so much darker than Kailo,” Ke’yoko said, wiping her tears away.

Ka’yah eyes grew big like saucers, wanting her mother to tell Ke’yoko to stop with all the lies, but she never did.

“Ke’yoko, I’m sorry,” her mother said as she tried to catch her breath. The drastic pain she felt, remembering the night she’d been raped by a black man while walking home, hit Anda like a ton of bricks. Having her daughters know the truth, a truth that she had sworn she would take to her grave, hit her even harder.

Ka’yah and Kailo both stood on the stairs in shock from the news that they’d just heard.

“Where you gon’ go?” Ka’yah finally found enough nerve to ask her sister, breaking the silence, as tears filled the rims of her eyes.

“Ja’Rel said I can come live wit’ him,” Ke’yoko replied.

“Good, you can be somebody else’s burden. But I’ll tell you what, when his black-ass gets to disrespecting you, putting his hands on you, or when he goes to the penitentiary because I’m sure he’s going, they all do, don’t come crawling back this way, because once you leave here you are never to return, do you hear me?”

“I don’t give a fuck!” Ke’yoko frowned.

“Please, don’t leave,” Kailo said, sadly.

“I got to, Kailo, and if y’all had any sense, y’all would come wit’ me,” Ke’yoko said.

“They’re not going anywhere with you! You won’t corrupt these two. They will turn out nothing like you! They have a future. You bring shame to the Cho name!” her father spat.

“I won’t be a Cho for long, you just watch and see!”

“This Ja’Rel will never marry you. He’ll just keep you barefoot and pregnant while we hardworking taxpayers take care of all of you!”

“I don’t give a fuck what he does to me. It can’t be no worse than livin’ in this hellhole!” Ke’yoko said.

“Are you done?” her father asked. He stared at the daughter he had raised as his own for all these years. Ke’yoko was spoiled and ungrateful. He was sick and tired of all the heartbreak and disrespect she brought to them. He had tried and failed. All the lies, not coming home for days at a time and now running around with a thug, he was done!

Ke’yoko didn’t respond. She just looked at her mother with pure disgust on her face, then over at her father and wanted to spit on them both, but decided not to. She then looked over at Ka’yah and Kailo, and shook her head. The looks on her siblings’ faces tore her up on the inside. Knowing there was nothing she could do for them right now, she turned and walked out of the front door.

Seven Years Later

Ke’yoko was awakened by a tender kiss on the side of her cheek. She slowly opened her eyes and looked up at her husband with a smile.

“Mornin’, baby.” He smiled back.

“Mornin’,” she replied through a yawn as she sat up and stretched out her arms while looking out the patio doors at the beautiful light blue Turks and Caicos water. “Man, I wish I could wake up to this view every mornin’.”

“It is breathtaking, ain’t it?” Ja’Rel replied, taking in the beautiful view as well. Ja’Rel was a thin, clean-cut dude. He was average height, not quite six foot, with a dark complexion and brown eyes, and he sported a fade with a nicely lined-up goatee. There was nothing spectacular about Ja’Rel’s looks; it was his swag and personality that had attracted and kept Ke’yoko as well as all the other women he messed around with. Ja’Rel stayed dressed from head to toe and smelling good at all times. He had beautiful white teeth, kept a smile on his face, and got a compliment on his thick, sexy lips from all the ladies he came in contact with. Ja’Rel was the type of man who could keep you laughing and make you feel protected: two traits women love in a man.

“Just think, if business keeps boomin’ the way it is, we will be wakin’ up to this view every mornin’ in no time.”

“Do we have to leave today?” Ke’yoko whined.

“Yes, baby, we have to leave today. I got a empire to run.” Ja’Rel smiled at his wife as she pouted.

“You left Ka’yah in charge of the business, so I’m sure everything is runnin’ smoothly,” Ke’yoko said, hoping to get at least one more day on this beautiful island.

Ja’Rel walked over, grabbed his suitcase, and tossed it on the bed. “Look, baby, don’t take this the wrong way: I know Ka’yah is ya twin sister and all, but she ain’t too bright when it comes to certain things and runnin’ a business is one. The only reason I left her in charge is because you begged me to, remember?” Ja’Rel said, opening up the drawers and grabbing some of his clothes.

“That’s not nice, Relly. How hard can it be to answer the phone, take orders, and send the men out to do the jobs? I do it every day.” Ke’yoko laughed, knowing that her sister did act like a straight blonde at times.

“It might not be, but remember the truth ain’t always nice. And here I thought all Japanese people were smart,” Ja’Rel said jokingly as he continued packing.

“That was such a stereotypical and racist comment.” Ke’yoko smiled as she tossed the blankets back. “But don’t forget, our biological father was a black man, so maybe she got her brains from him.”

“Oh, and that comment wasn’t racist and stereotypical?” Ja’Rel asked as he zipped up his suitcase.

“Maybe a little.” Ke’yoko smirked as she climbed outta bed.

“Damn!” Ja’Rel snapped as he looked over at his wife, who was wearing only a teal lace panty and bra set. “Come here, girl,” Ja’Rel said while grabbing Ke’yoko by the arm.

“I . . .