As the unfamiliar man stood to face the two, Khari moved Kiara behind him. He didn't know the man or what he was capable of doing. "Kiki who the fuck is this?" Khari asked.

"Remember I told you, I had a crazy, pedophile uncle, well, that's him." She said in fear.

"What you want man?" Khari asked him.

"I just wanted to see my niece." Carlos said getting closer.

"Back the fuck up. What do you want?" Khari asked one last time, this time there was more bass in his tone.

"This is a nice ass house Kiki, I see you've been taking care of yourself pretty well. Proud of you. How come I never got invited?"

"How'd you find my address?"

"It's not that hard, I may be high but I ain't dumb." Carlos looked Khari up and down one last time. "Who's he? He got money." Carlos said looking at Khari's watch. Khari stood still and monitored the mans every movement.

"Kiki,call 911." Khari told her. As soon as Kiara took her phone out Carlos charged in their direction. Khari quickly pushed Kiara from behind him and grabbed Carlos and pinned him against the wall. Carlos used all his strength to get away from Khari, Kiara ran into her bedroom and locked the door behind her. Khari grabbed the man and slammed him to the ground. Khari repeatedly punched on him. Carlos lifted his leg and kicked Khari in between his legs causing Khari to fall over and groan in pain. Carlos grabbed a kitchen knife while Khari built up the strength to get up. Once Khari got off of the ground, Carlos charged towards him with the knife. Khari quickly moved out of the way and tripped him, as Carlos fell the knife stabbed Khari in his leg but Khari ignored the wound and continued to fight. Kiara came out of the room and saw Khari on top of Carlos punching him again. Kiara rushed in her hallway closet and reached on top of the shelf grabbing her pistol.

"Khari move!" She yelled. Khari looked behind him seeing her with a gun pointed at Carlos' leg. Khari quickly got off of Carlos and once he did Carlos got up and came towards her, Kiara shot him once in the left leg causing him to collapse onto the floor, yelling in pain.

"Where the hell you get a gun from?" Khari breathed heavily.

"Me. Gonzalez made sure I got registered when I first moved in." Right on cue the police came knocking on the door. Khari opened the door and they began asking questions and took Carlos away. A paramedic came in and wrapped up Khari's wound, he didn't feel the pain until she began to treat him. Once everything calmed down, Khari sat on the couch and listened to Kiara tell Troy what just occurred. Khari looked around the now trashed apartment, He felt bad for messing up her space but there was no way in hell he was about to let some random druggie attack his women. He threw his head back and pain and frustration. The officers said they could come down early in the morning to file a restraining order. Khari wasn't sure if that was enough, he didn't feel comfortable with her being here alone and a restraining order was just a piece of paper, people don't take those seriously at all.

"Baby." Khari called out to Kiara but she didn't hear him. "Baby!" Khari called out one last time catching her attention. Kiara told Troy to hold on and gave Khari her attention.

"Sorry, you need anything? I have Ibuprofen in the medicine cabinet." Kiara asked sitting beside him and setting her hand behind his head.

"Go pack a bag, you're staying with me." Khari told her as he painfully repositioned himself on the couch.

"Huh?" Kiara asked.

"Pack a bag, matter fact pack all of them, me and Langston or Troy will come back in the morning and grab the rest of your things, you staying with me for now on." Khari told her.

"I can't just move out." Kiara told him.

"Yes you can, I'll pay off the rest of your lease. Go pack your bags." Khari said slowly standing to help her. Kiara walked to her bedroom and packed as much as she could. She grabbed some shoes and her camera and some clothes.

Khari called Langston as she did her packing.

"Yo." Langston answered.

"What you doing tomorrow between the times of 10 and 12?" Khari asked.

"Working, what you mean?" Langston sarcastically asked.

"Ard when you get off, I need you to help me move Kiara stuff to my spot." Khari began.

"Woah, woah, woah. Y'all say I love you and now y'all moving in together? Wow."

"Nah, it's not like that. I'll explain to you later, can you help me or not?" Khari grew frustrated.

"Yeah, I'll help, send me her address and I'll swing by when I get off." Langston said. "What's taking you so long? Come on!" Khari heard in the background. "Ima call you back."

"Yeah do that." Khari said in disgust. He went to go check on Kiara to see if she was ready to head out. He opened her bedroom door and saw her curled up in a ball crying against her bed. "What's wrong mama?" Khari rushed over to her. He held her close to him as she sobbed.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know he was coming and I don't know how he found me. Khari, I'm scared. He's been looking down on me since I was 12. He always told me he'll find a way to get to me and touch me. I don't want him to touch me." She sobbed. Khari pulled her onto his lap and cradled her as if she was a baby.

"It's okay mama, he's not gonna come near you again, ima make sure of that." He reassured her. He kissed her head as she cried in his arms. "Come on. Is this all the stuff?" He asked looking around the room. Kiara nodded and Khari grabbed as many bags as he could and carried them all down to the car. Kiara grabbed her school bag and camera bag. They put everything in and began their ride to Khari's home.

Once they arrived, he looked over at her seeing he asleep. Khari got out of the car and used as much of his strength to carry her up to his penthouse. Even though his leg was killing him, he didn't mind it. He laid her onto his bed and looked in his dresser for a shirt for her to sleep in. He laid it out and quickly ran back down to grab some of her bags. He dropped in the living room and flopped down onto the couch. He dropped his head into his hands and the night replayed in his head. He didn't think he'd have so many people to deal with while dating Kiara but it seemed like the list of enemies grew each day. He had to deal with Prince, who luckily he hadn't heard much about recently, Darien was pissing him off but Carlos was just the cherry on top. He hated him the most. Khari just saw red when it came to fighting him and if it wasn't for Kiara for coming back out of her room, he probably wouldn't killed Carlos with his bare hands.

Khari stood from the couch and walked into the bathroom and dug through his medicine cabinet to find some pain killers. He found some Ibuprofen and walked back to the kitchen to eat and drink something with it. He headed off to bed afterwards.

The next day came and Khari was currently back at Kiara's apartment with Langston and Troy. He left the two upstairs to pack up while he talked to her landlord. Thankfully her landlord was understanding and Khari was able to pay out of pocket right then and there. After getting everything situated he went back up to her apartment and saw Langston and Troy sitting down taking a break.

"What else we gotta get?" He asked joining them of the floor.

"Just that little bit of camera equipment and her bathroom stuff." Troy told him. They all nodded and the room grew silent.

"Did y'all file the restraining order?"Troy asked.

"Yeah, we went earlier this morning." Khari informed him.

"I respect you. You cherish my best friend and respect her. We gon be real good friends." Troy told Khari causing Khari to laugh. The men stood back up and got back to work. Once they were finished they dropped the stuff off at Khari's house and then went out to grab some food before they all went their separate ways.

"So, Kiki told me you were going to school for sports management. I got some friends who work at ESPN and for the Hawks and the Nets. I can give them a call and arrange something for you." Khari said as bit into his burger.

"For real? Thanks man, I just been doing some internships for some small management companies."

"No problem, matter fact, you who wanna talk to? My dad knows the dude who manages Kyrie Irving. I can get you a job at his management company." Khari added.

"Yeah, I think he'll like it better there." Langston added.

"It's your pick. I can set up netting with all of them, just let me know." Khari offered.

"Yeah, I'll definitely let you know, I plan on leaving here."

"You can manage and live anywhere your heart desires." He told him. "But what's up with you and Armani?" He asked changing the topic.

"She my girl." Troy told him.

"You know that's like my sister right?"

"Okay, what's your point, Kiara's like mine too." Troy shrugged.

"You right, never mind." Khari said. They all finished their meals and headed home. Khari made it back home and smelled food cooking. He walked into the kitchen seeing Kiara making a grilled cheese.

"Hey mama." Khari kissed her cheek. "You okay?" He asked going to the fridge.

"Yeah. Thank you." Kiara thanked him.

"For what?" Khari asked confused as he sipped his water.

"For letting me stay with you."

"No problem. I told you, I'm here for you, whatever you need I'll give it to you." Khari assures her as he wrapped his arms around her body as she flipped her sandwich onto her plate. "What you do today?" He asked. When him and the guys dropped everything off Kiara went out with Karla and Armani.

"Nothing, me and the girls just went to the mall and found me a dress for graduation. Then we went out to lunch and then got our nails done." She said biting into her sandwich.

"Oh okay, let me see your nails." Khari said lifting her hand. "Oh okay, you got the grabbers done." He joked causing her eyes to widened the playfully hitting him as she laughed. Her laugh caused him to laugh and they just had a laugh battle in the kitchen. "Can I see your dress?" He asked.

"Nope, you'll see it when everyone else sees it."

"Dammit." He is see his teeth. "But my baby graduating in a month." He cheered and danced making Kiara blush. "Woot woot." Kiara shook her head and exited the kitchen going back into the bedroom. She grabbed her laptop and went back to work. She edited some photos she took a couple days ago for fun to post on her photography page. Khari sat beside her and opened his phone and began to scroll. He glanced over and saw her editing.

Take some pictures of me." He said.

"Khari stop playing." Kiara said. She offered to take pictures of him before and he didn't want to so every once in a while she snuck one or two.

"Nah, I'm being serious. Come on." He said standing and grabbing her camera.

"No." Kiara ignored him.

"I'll be serious, I promise." He pouted. Kiara smiles and gave in. She directed him on what to do and he did as told.

"Turn your head this way." She said. She opened the curtains and let the sunlight bounce onto his skin. Khari got up and grabbed his orange durag and went out into the hallway. He turned his back towards Kiara and she snapped the picture, the sunlight hit his back and made his melanin pop. "This the one." She said showing him the picture. "Yeah, definitely." Khari agreed.

Kiara finished up their mini photo shoot and uploaded the pictures I onto her laptop and let Khari pick which ones be wanted her to keep. The two finished up and just relaxed for the rest of their day.

😁

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