Sex Empire II

8. Blood Thicker Than

I wouldn't trust my family with my life, they could very well just take it. Roberto Stone

This could not be happening.

Not his sister, dead. Why was his family going through this again?

Everyone met up at his mother's house. Lix, Rosaline, Brandon, Keily, Risé, and all his nieces and nephews, even his great nieces and nephews. He held Zahara in his arms as she cried uncontrollably. Losing her mother, when she just had a baby herself was devastating. He would have to step up and look out for her.

Only nineteen, she should not have to go through this.

"Who fucking killed my child!" his mother yelled, a cigarette between her shaking fingers, smoke filling the area. Her mother had been a chain smoker all his life. He remembered he and Nas sneaking a few when they were pre-teens, then coughing up a lung. Never again for him. Nas still smoked occasionally.

"Ma, let's just calm down some of the fam don't need to hear all this." Lix of course, was taking charge. He looked around the room. "Rosie, take the babies out of here. They don't need to hear any of this."

"Whatever you guys need, I'm here for you," Rosaline kissed Lix's cheek. "I'm family. She was like my sister too."

Prince was not there, probably home with a nanny. But Erica's son Drake, Kendra's son Michael, and Zahara's daughter, Bre'yoncé. That was not even all the babies in the family. Rosaline gathered them all and headed off.

"Who could have done this?" Erica asked.

"Somebody with a fucking death wish!" Jae jumped up from her spot on a rickety chair. "You mess with one Stone, you mess with them all."

"Aye niece," Brandon stated. "Me and your father got this, we fo' sho gonna handle this."

"Bran," his sister Risé stated, already drunk or high from whatever she was still using even though she was supposed to be clean now. "You just got out of prison, we don't need you going back."

"Sis, I'll go back any day protecting my family."

Brandon was a better man than him. He never wanted to see any parts of jail. There were ways to get away with a crime without ending up in jail. The few he had committed over the last year and a half no one ever suspected him. Retaliation for killing his sister...if he knew who had done it, he would strike back soon as possible.

"I need everybody to calm down," Lix stated. "We just need to talk this through. Now, who was the last to see Tamra?"

His eyes went to Nas, his niece that was only seven months younger than him. They grew up together so they were more like sister and brother. Like him, she looked up to Lix and would do anything to please him. She went off to college and studied the same thing as Lix. He took his smarts and started his own IT company.

That was only one of his companies in his empire now. He was also co-owner of SexxRoom, an adult store that sold every kinky sex thing one could imagine. And that was not all he had in store, but the family wasn't ready to hear about that yet.

"She was up at Sextacy with her hands out," Jae said, then turned to Nas. "You went off with her, what did you do?"

Nas hunched a bit in her seat, did not look at Jae, and mumbled. "Gave her money and kept it moving."

"What?" Jae asked, not hearing what Nas said because she was a distance away, but he sat beside her, still comforting Zahara.

"Jae now is not the time to pester your cousin after what they are going through." He rubbed Zahara's back. She had not stopped crying since they all gathered. "Just back off."