CHAPTER 2

With arms wrapped around her waist, Kane locked lips with Jhene, kissing the hell out of her. Both were standing on one of the spread out mats they had brought for their picnic.

Jhene had been out of the country for a vacation with her parents in Paris and Kane had missed her like crazy. What hadn't they done in the span of one month while Jhene was away? Video calls were an every night thing. Voice notes were not excluded, talk more or less text messages. They did that too. Even the normal phone calls were not left out. 

When she had come back to New York City, she had suggested an outdoor picnic at one of the best and popular resorts as a kind of get together, not only for herself and her boyfriend, but for his friends as well: The Big Four and their girlfriends - those who had and only Iphan had; Summers was her name. 

Baron and Steven were single but still, Baron brought a girl along, one of his fuck buddies, Cali while Alexandra, a friend to The Big Four tagged along as Steven's partner for the picnic. Both were great friends, but Alex had eyes for him and was hoping they could be more than that. 

Steven cleared his throat, startling the love birds. He was coming back with the rest of the gang from a water fountain that was close by. All six were wet and dripping. Jhene and Kane were at the fountain too but had left earlier and dried themselves pretty quick. Slowly, both disengaged from the kiss and Jhene giggled when Kane smacked her lightly on the ass. 

"You both should try getting a room whenever you wanna do stuff like this. You're not the only pair here who are couples. We are too " Iphan said, plonking down into his picnic mat and pulling Summers down to sit beside him and to cuddle her too.

"You both tryna get to us with your PDA" Steven said, laughing slightly

"Now I ain't gonna accept that, buddy. We ain't doing no PDA. We're for real" Jhene said, feigning annoyance

"Exactly. Just do your thing, dude. No one's stopping you" Kane said with a smirk on his face as he sat beside Jhene who had already sat

"Simply take a look at those two" Summers whipped her head in the direction of Cali and Baron. 

Both were so busy with their wild make out session, that they payed no attention to whosoever was watching. Cali's left tit was in Baron's mouth while his hand fondled her other bare breast. Cali was lying on her back while Baron hovered over her, doing his thing and giving no damn whatsoever. 

Alex felt her panties dampen at the sight she saw. She swallowed hard. A great part of her wanted Steven to do what she had just seen to her and even more. She was into him and had been giving him the green light but he didn't seem to notice. She hated the fact that he wasn't just dancing to her rhythm and hoped that he was going to do so soon. She made up her mind to keep on giving him the eye, but at the same time wasn't going to look like a desperado. 

"Now this is more of an orgy than a picnic" Alex rolled her eyes

"Give no fuck, Baron" Kane yelled and everyone burst into gales of laughter. 

Baron chuckled as he let go of Cali's left tit and switched over to the right, his thumb pad working circles on her left tit. She couldn't help but moan.

"Slip 'em panties off. But if you must, get a room" Iphan said, earning a guffaw from all of them 

"Pervert!" Summers smacked Iphan's head, laughing

"Come cleanse me, my priestess" Iphan looked into her eyes

"In bed, you mean" Summers said and pouted her lips invitingly afterwards

"See? Who's the pervert amongst both of us?" Iphan said, tickling her sides and causing her to laugh 

"Enough with the dirty talk, guys. Let's focus on why we're here. Y'all better start eating so the food will digest. The earlier, the better" Jhene said, reaching out to the hamper containing food which she had packaged for herself and Kane. The others had brought theirs too. 

"Yes ma'am" That was Kane

Cali and Baron, to join the rest in their discussion, put a stop to their wild make out session, each bearing in mind that it didn't just end there. Things were going to get real intense whenever it was going to be just both of them. 

"And yeah, lest I forget, my cousin's wedding is coming up next month and y'all are invited. It's strictly by invitation, so here are the cards" Jhene said, bringing out beautifully decorated cards out from a small sized folder she had brought alongside the hamper.

"Hero, please help me pass these round" Hero was Jhene's pet name for Kane

"At your service, milady" Kane said, getting some of the cards from Jhene and passing it to those he could 

"Which of your cousins, babe?" Kane asked as he stuffed his mouth with more fries 

"Tammy Manaois" 

"Oh!" Kane nodded as an image of the said Tammy crept up in his mind

"Is it that same Tammy who tagged along when we celebrated Halloween last year?" Alex asked

"Yeah, yeah, she's the one" 

"Oh! The curvaceous Tammy" Baron exclaimed

"Have your eyes on one bitch, dude" Said a Jhene who was slightly irritated. 

She knew Baron had the hots for her cousin but she also knew that if they ever had a thing, it was going to be nothing more than a fling. 

Baron hated commitment and found it hard to stick to one girl. She didn't want her cousin to be heart broken the second time. The first heart break was enough for her. Good thing Viktor, her cousin's fiancé had come along and he was nothing but sweet. 

"One bitch?" Baron's brows arched

"I don't wanna be no prisoner to one coochie"

"Whatever you say"

"Oh, wow! Who's she getting married to?" Summers asked to ease the tension that was slowly setting in

"Yeah, who's she getting married to?" Cali butressed, munching on her cupcakes. She knew Tammy as well.

"A sweet Russian guy, Viktor Petrova" 

"Hmm, nice to hear. Which means she'll be flying out of NYC to Russia after the wedding?" Steven said

"You got that right"

"From the way this card is designed, dude is fucking rich" That was Iphan

"Man, dude's getting the money in hard currency" Jhene affirmed 

"She's hit a jack pot" That was Cali

"Touché" 

•

"Quit struggling, will you?" Ace yelled with furrowed eyebrows as he shoved a stubborn Karl to the floor

"Let go of me, you son-of-a-bitch" Karl retorted, wiping his nose which was broken. His left eye was swollen and his lower lip was bruised

"Son-of-a-bitch, yeah?" Karl heard another voice and raised his head only for his eyes to meet with that of Baron - an angry Baron

"Boss?" Karl's mouth hung open 

"Surprised, motherfucker?"

Karl's eyes darted from Baron to Ace and back to Baron again. He was surprised because when he had borrowed money from X-habit, precisely from Baron, his mediator was Cage and not Ace. So, when he had been kidnapped earlier, he had fought back and had been rough handled, not knowing it was Baron who had ordered for his kidnap, but with a set of different men, and not Cage and his gang. 

"I ain't got no fucking time, Karl. Where's my money?" 

"Give me some more time, boss and I swear, I'll pay you back with interest" Karl pleaded

"Same old news I heard two months. Give me new lines, Karl" Baron said as he filled his tumbler with Vodka

"Boss I swear, I'll pay you back" 

"Been watching you for three weeks now. Seen you with tons of bitches at different hotels. What you going there to do with them, huh? Pray to the Heavens?" 

"I'll pay you, just give me time"

"You'll pay me back? Then do it NOW!" 

Baron said, laying emphasis on now

"Be patient with me, boss. I'll pay you back, I swear"

"Last time I checked, my last name ain't Patience"

"For the last time Karl, where's my shit?" 

Baron asked, after taking a sip out of the tumbler

"I'll pay you boss, I swear"

"Search him, Ace"

"Yes boss" 

Grabbing Karl by the collar of his shirt, Ace pulled the former up on his feet. After a session of thorough searching which was interrupted by Karl, Ace retrieved a few dollar notes from him, before shoving him back to the floor. Karl fell with a thud, his butt coming in contact with the hard floor. 

"Here's all I found, boss" Ace said, stretching the notes to Baron. 

The latter, after examining the money and seeing that it couldn't even get him a pair of socks, tossed the notes back at Ace. 

"Get yourself peanuts, Ace"

"And as for you" Baron said, referring to Karl

"You just made a monkey out of me, you wrench!" He snarled, throwing the contents of the tumbler at Karl. 

The latter's head dropped as vodka trickled down from his hair to his eyelashes, his nose and then onto the floor.  

"And how I hate liars" Baron said, flinging the tumbler away, it's bits and pieces littering the floor as it shattered

Next, he moved towards Ace and pulled out a gun which was stuck in the waistband of his jeans. Cocking the gun, he pointed it at Karl, aiming directly at the latter's head. 

"Boss please, I've got a six year old" 

"Social Services are gonna take care of the lad. Go rot with your Mama" That said, Baron pulled the trigger, firing several shots into Karl's head.

Blood seeping from the different holes that had been drilled in the latter's head, the corpse slowly fell to the floor and laid still in its own pool of blood. 

"Get rid of the body. As usual, leave no traces" Baron said tossing Ace his gun

"Roger that, boss"