Nothing Lasts Forever

Chapter Twenty-Three

K A S H M E RE

"If you gon' do this you got to act like shit is cool. Don't be giving him the side eye or getting an attitude wit him."

"I wont," I thought he was done but he continued on.

"I don't need you looking at him funny or saying no slick shit."

I sighed and rolled my eyes and let him continue rambling on. Today was Memorial Day and like every year before Mace was having a party at his place and of course we all were invited. I didn't want to go but I had to because Mace called me up with a personal invitation, me and Kaliyah and whoever else I wanted to bring. I didn't want to be around him so I damn sure didn't want Kaliyah around him but I had to play cool. I even had Braeden and Danielle tagging along with me. The more the merrier.

Two weeks ago when I showed up to see August unannounced I wasn't expecting him to drop that bomb bomb on me. At first I thought he had to have gotten it wrong because I just didn't want to believe it. Yes me and Mace got off to a rocky start when I first met him all of those years ago but he redeemed himself in my eyes. I got to know him better an he was smart, someone that I could look up to. He looked out for me when August got locked up and even before then. He was the last one in August's crew other than Trey I would suspect of disloyal and betrayal.

Guess I was wrong and if I was taking the news hard I could only imagine how August was feeling. After his dad was killed Mace stepped up and was acted like a father to him. He told me about Mace looking out for him and his mom after his dad was killed and how Mace took him in and taught him everything he knows about the street life. Anytime he had a problem one of the first people he would always run to and could rely on to give him advice was Mace. I knew he was angry I could see it in his face and demeanor every time someone mentioned Mace's name around him.

No one could figure what his motive for having Jayceon kidnap me was but no one thought that it had anything to do with me. They thought that it was bigger than me and it was a part of some kind of grand scheme. They didn't want to just kill him because they didn't know who he had on his team and who was working for him. Mace was obviously hiding something but he was keeping August and everyone else that was close to him at arms length, except for me.

"Kash? Are you even listening to me?!"

"What August," I snapped.

He clenched his jaw and shook his head. He didn't want me involved in this at all and was annoyed that I volunteered to help even though the rest of the guys didn't have any problem with it. Since then he was literally on my ass day and night. If it was up to him he would have me, Kaliyah and his mom shipped out of the country somewhere which was his plan anyway. He threatened that as soon as it got hot that's exactly what he was going to do.

He suspected that not only was August keeping tabs on him but everyone around him, including me as well. August just wanted to kill his ass and get it over with but not me. That was to easy, I wanted to bring down the people around him and his whole empire. Make his life hell like he made ours and then once I was satisfied then he could die.

I felt bad for snapping at me because I knew he was under a lot of pressure but I was to. As soon as I pulled up to Mace's I had to play my part, we all had to play our parts or else none of this would work.

"I know your worried but don't be. We talked about this and I told you everything is going to be fine," I assured him.

"I'm just tryin' to make sure shit goes smooth. Were going to be in his house, he's going to have eyes and ears everywhere."

"I know and everything is going to go smoothly. I have to finish getting me and Kaliyah ready and go pick up Danielle and Brae and we'll see you soon okay?"