The Brightest Star

6. King

King's POV

Leo ended up not showing up for the next few days of class. I honestly hated that it worried me so much. It also seemed like no one else cared about it, which was odd because of how much they fell head over heels for him when he was here. They just all acted like he never existed at all. They didn't ask about him, talk about him, or even worried that he was gone for a few days. It just felt off to me.

I got pretty disappointed when he didn't show up on Friday either. Ugh, this kid was killing me and I hated it. I really didn't want to feel that way and tried to push those feeling out of my head. I don't know, something about that kid just made me care and I still couldn't figure out what it was.

Leaving school, I walked back to my uncle's thinking about how long this weekend was going to be. After seeing that kid so hurt I knew I wasn't going to be able to get him out of my mind until I knew he was okay again.

After passing the guy standing at the corner of my street with a nod, I stopped at the park just outside Uncle Ben's house and sat down on the bench. It's a pretty quiet park, mostly due to the gang life around here but I didn't have to worry about that. It was still a good place to relax. I leaned my head back and watched the clouds blow by before closing my eyelids and soaking in the warmth of the sun. It made me smile.

A few moments passed before something blocked the light, making me quickly open my eyes to see what happened. My eyes were met with the same green eyes I had. My cousin Kiki was leaning over me with her long straight black hair flowing around my head.

"What's got you all happy?" She asked me with no expression.

"What are you doing here?" I asked her in return.

"We have a job to do and you're late. Let's get going." She stood up straight and walked back to the house.

She was three years older than me and way too serious about everything. She doesn't have much of a genuine smile, for as long as I've known her I've never heard her actually laugh either. I've heard her chuckle a little or fake laugh but never a real hearty laugh, even when we were little kids.

With a loud and annoyed sigh, I stood up and walked into the house behind her as my uncle sat in front of 4 computer screens typing away on the keyboard. He didn't even look up to see who walked in.

"Late again King. You know, I'm starting to think this is going to be an everyday thing." He reaches his long thin arms up above his head and stretches his back before pushing his thick, black rim glasses back up his nose. "This is why I made 5 backup routes for you both."

He looks down at his watch and then starts going through a stack of papers on his computer desk. "Let's see," he said, pulling a piece of paper out and turning around in his chair to face us.

My uncle didn't have a whole lot of muscle to him since he just sat around in the house. He hardly ever slept so he always had huge dark circles around his eyes and messy long black hair. Kiki does all the running around for him ever since she was able to drive, making him more of a shut-in.

"This guy is over a week late on his payment. Kiki, I want it now and I'm done playing nice about it so King you can use whatever you want to get it out of him. You'll have to wait until 5 o'clock now. He will be walking out of the gym at 5:45 sharp, so don't be late. And King, I'll remind you one last time to follow the rules."

"I know, I know." I smile at him. "It won't happen again. It was just the one time."

Uncle Ben looked at me through slitted eyes. "One time and it cost me a few thousand dollars." He sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose under his glasses. "I took you in because no one else wanted you. After this, it's the streets. You're 18 now and I didn't have to take care of you but I need someone I can trust to be my muscle and my eyes. I can not lose that so I've moved past that little hiccup. Learn from it. Oh, and you will be paying me back all the money you cost me as punishment."

"What? That little fucker needed to watch where he was going on that damn bike. He almost hit," I stopped myself. They don't need to know about Leo. "He almost hit me. How was I supposed to know he was working for you?" I laughed at myself. I still found it pretty funny he was trying to threaten me with my uncle.

"Yes well, I lost a lot of pills because the cops found his bags. I got you a few fights in the underground ring so you could keep your anger in check. Let's just keep the punching for that and when you're getting my money. Yeah?"

"Yes uncle," I answered before walking down the hall to change out of my ridiculous school uniform into something more comfortable.

Uncle Ben ran a drug-running system just outside the city. Everyone who knows him fears him and to be honest, he does have a dark look that kinda freaks me out too but he's my uncle so I wasn't that scared of him. I know he wouldn't do anything to blood either.

He's been running this part of town for about 20 years now but he's not the only gang around the city that does it. So far they have all been working in peace with each other after all the Turf Wars ended about ten years ago but they all work under one man now. The one and only drug lord in and around the whole city, Mr. Scott. He was the richest and more powerful than anyone around here, sitting on the top. He made everyone do his dirty work. But I guess someone who took control over 8 gangs had to of earned that right.

My uncle had a lot of money too. Sitting at the third seat from Mr. Scott, but you would never know it if you met him. He lived in a run-down house in the more shit part of town and only used his money to pay the bills and things to survive but everyone that worked under him got paid good, shit more than they should in my opinion, but it helped keep their mouths shut if something went south and my uncle was all about 'if you treat your workers good they will treat you good.' It worked this long for him so he must be doing something right after all.

Truthfully, he was all brains and no muscle which is what Kiki and I were here for. His dirty work but I didn't mind. I liked fighting. I just had to finish school before he let me earn more money for myself. That was his one rule besides staying out of trouble.

Kiki walked into my room an hour later dressed in black with her hair tied back high on her head and a black mask hanging around her neck. It made her look like a real-life ninja. "You ready?"

I stood up tall with a smile. "I'm always ready to fuck up someone's day," I told her as I too grabbed my black mask and walked out behind her. This was going to be a nice distraction from that kid.

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Meet Uncle Ben and Kiki. A look into King's home life and what he does but King is still pretty new to his uncle's world and still has a lot to learn.