CheckMate 4: Winner Takes All

  CheckMate IV

  Winner Takes All

  By: Tiece

  Copyright © 2014 Tiece Mickens

  Published by Write House Publishing

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without prior written consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to the real locals are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents are entirely coincidental.

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  Table of Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  See, What Had Happened Was…

  Candy and Brendon lay facing each other. Candy smiled enjoying the moment to fullest. Brendon couldn’t believe that she actually fell through with coming over and taking things as far as they did. Even though they didn’t have sex they still enjoyed a very nice time.

  “Weeeeell,” she said with a smile on her face.

  “Well what?” Brendon asked.

  “Well, I can’t believe that you turned down this good pussy,” she said laughing.

  “I’m a gentleman first, and I want to make sure that you’re ABSOLULETY CERTAIN that you wanna do this. I like you a lot and I’m not about to get my feelings tied up, and then you go back to my cousin; that’s not gonna happen.

  “I can understand.” She said, liking him even more, because Brendon could’ve easily taken advantage of the situation. He had more than enough opportunity too. She’d been grinding on that nigga so hard till he almost bust one from just that. The sexiest thing was that he held his composure even though his ten plus inches was begging for some attention.

  “I just have to find a way to tell Monty that I’m moving on and for him to know that I mean it.”

  “And when he asks who do you like, what will you say?” He asked with a curious smile.

  “Lord, if I say I’m interested in you we both know that he’s gonna act a real fool.”

  “Tell me about it,” Brendon said shaking his head. “Cuz ain’t gonna be happy about that shit. I don’t want it to seem like I’m doing things behind his back, but shit just happened with us. We weren’t expecting this shit.”

  “I know that I wasn’t.” Candy agreed. “Even our first encounter was strange, but good. We had no clue who was who and I liked you even then. It’s just a shame that some people will look at this sideways because you’re his cousin.”

  “I feel you,” Brendon agreed. “You can’t help who you love though.”

  Candy blushed. “Don’t act like you love me already now,” she teased.

  “I could find myself easily falling for you. Hell, I’m already falling for you.”

  “Is that right?” she asked as if she didn’t know.

  “Come on,” he said. “I could’ve easily had sex with you just now, but I want you to know that I respect you, and I want nothing more than for you to get it together first before we even go there.” Candy leaned over and kissed him. He was more than her night and shining armor. He was sweet and considerate, fine, and smart, and PACKING in all the right places. She couldn’t ask for more.

  Candy got out of the bed. “All this touching, feeling, and rubbing got me hot as hell. I need to go in the bathroom and splash some cold water on my face.”

  Brendon grinned. “Well, I need to take a cold shower when you’re done.” Candy laughed and headed into the bathroom. It seemed like clockwork because Trina was messaging his phone.

  I’m leaving to go back home. I don’t have time for this craziness. I see you’ve moved on and I’ll accept that. I, however, left my very expensive Cartier shades on your nightstand by the bed. I’m stopping through to grab those and I’ll be on my way. All you have to do is hand them to me at the door. The Baddest Bitch

  Brendon looked over on the nightstand and sure enough there were the shades. A minute later, a knock was heard at the door. Brendon grabbed the shades and jumped up.

  “That was fast.” He didn’t have on anything but his boxer shorts so he grabbed his robe and threw it on. “I sure show hope that this is all she wants.” He said making his way to the door. He snatched the door open and was greeted by Monty who just pushed it on open and walked in.

  “Cuz, I need to talk to you,” Monty said hastily. He was fuming from the incident that had happened at MiKayla’s house.

  “Damn Cuz,” Brendon said totally caught off guard. Monty didn’t care if Brendon had company or not. He was there to vent. “Uh, Cuz, it’s actually not a good time.”

  “Cuz, just hear me out and I’ll leave,” he begged, and then started without hesitation. “Can you believe that MiKayla’s ex or husband or whatever the hell he is-”

  The bathroom door swung open and Candy walked out only to come face to face with her baby daddy. Both of them stood watching each other it seemed for an eternity. She was instantly shook up at the encounter and Monty was very stunned to see her there. He looked at Brendon with tears in his eyes.

  “Cuz, what’s going on here?” He asked with a look of anger mixed with sadness. He was very confused as hell and from the look on Candy’s face play time was definitely over…

  ***

  “Listen Cuz, it ain’t what it look like.” Brendon stated while trying to calm the storm before the lightning struck in his direction.

  “What you mean, it ain’t what it look like?!” Monty asked, looking from Brendon then down to the boxer briefs that he had on. Other than the robe, those were the only things that clothed his body. He then looked over at Candy. The look on her face was stunned and definitely priceless. “Are you fucking my cousin?” He straight up asked her.

  “No Monty, please don’t go there.” Candy nervously said.

  He then looked from Candy back over toward Brendon. “So Cuz, are you fucking her?”

  “Naw Cuz, that ain’t what’s going on here.”

  Monty glanced from one to the other and since shit wasn’t adding up for him, he blindside Brendon quickly with a blow in his direction. Once catching Brendon in the jaw with the right handed, solid punch, Brendon immediately grabbed at him. He didn’t want to fight his cousin, but from the looks of things it was going to happen whether he wanted it to or not.

  They swung blows at each other with Candy screaming in the background for them to stop. They knocked over the lamp while triggering a picture that shook first, and then fell off of the wall.

  Seconds later, Trina rushed into the room with two of the security guards that were patrolling the hallway since they’d heard the ruckus from down the hall. They hurried inside the room and broke up the fight. Unfortunately, the damage had already been done. Besides passing playful licks when they were kids, Monty and Brendon had never gone there. Both of them looked at each other with anger of not wanting it to be over. However, Monty was more angered than his cousin as he attempted to get loose a couple of times. Brendon stood there watching him,
unnerved. They could possibly fight each other all day until one of them gave up. They would be much too stubborn to give up and let the other have it. It was a good thing that security had come when they did to stop it.

  Monty was the first to leave the room with the security guy escorting him out. Minutes later, they were followed by the second Security guard escorting Brendon out of the room, after he’d put on his clothes first.

  Trina looked around the room at the things that were knocked over or had fallen off of the wall. She glanced over at Candy, and then back towards the open room door in the direction of where the men had just made their grand exit.

  Trina smugly grinned. “You can never judge a book by its cover. You’re not as sweet and innocent as you look.” She said in a teasing, sarcastic tone. “You got two cousins fighting over you.” She said, but it could’ve very well been a question.

  “That’s none of your business.” Candy snapped. “Some things are more than likely too big for you to comprehend. With that being said, I need to find out what’s going on.” And with that, she quickly exited the room too.

  Trina stood there for a few minutes with her hand on her hip. This was indeed very intriguing as she looked around the room again. Everything wasn’t exactly black and white, not how she’d pictured it to be at all. There were certainly some gray areas and she was going to stick around to see what else was looming from the sweet chick that everybody referred to as Candy gurl.

  “Guess I’ll cancel my flight. Trina won’t be going anywhere.” She said speaking of herself in third person as she exited the room. She shut the door behind her with a devilish smile on her face.

  Chapter 1

  Monty walked inside of his bedroom already pulling his shoes off along with his Gucci timepiece. He chunked his watch over on the dresser then proceeded to take off his white tee-shirt. What had transpired, not a couple of hours prior, had him stunned and definitely caught up in his feelings. Never in a million years did he think he’d catch MiKayla with her ex; a man that was supposed to be dead. Had she been playing him all of this time? He had all kinds of unanswered questions flooding his thoughts. Unfortunately, witnessing MiKayla’s little charade was nothing compared to catching his baby mama in the hotel room with his cousin, Brendon.

  “What the fuck is going on?” He pondered curiously just above a whisper. He was beyond hurt and definitely confused at best. Both women had him stumped in his feelings of not knowing what to do.

  He stared at himself in the mirror while disappointedly shaking his head. The small cut by his eye reminded him of the scuffle that he and Brendon had gotten into earlier after catching Candy in his hotel room. At first he was hurt, and then it all hit him at once. Before Candy or Brendon could explain anything, he’d swung on Brendon out of anger of feeling betrayed. He’d acted out of utter shock and with good reason. To see his cousin half naked while his baby mama was coming out of the bathroom with an undeniably surprised look on her face made him want to snap. He didn’t want to think the worse, but it was clear what had been going on before he got there.

  He took in a deep breath just thinking about the punch he’d landed to Brendon’s face, followed by Brendon trying to grab and hold him in an attempt to not fight him. He’d managed to dodge the hold and swung at Brendon again, this time landing a solid punch to his bicep. He could hear Candy screaming for them to stop in the background, but he was completely overwhelmed with anger and stopping was the last thing that he was thinking about. The only thing he could remember Candy yell out was, “It’s not what you’re thinking!” However, what was he supposed to think? Luckily, he and Brendon weren’t locked in the same holding cell or they would’ve killed each other.

  “Damn,” he said with a disappointed shake of the head as he lay across his bed. His head was banging and his heart was aching. He didn’t know if it came from the lethal combination of being stung twice by the two women he trusted more or if it was the unpleasant blows that he and his cousin passed back and forth from what he now was hoping was just a misunderstanding. All he knew was that feeling like this wasn’t a good feeling at all.

  He took in a deep breath and sighed then looked down at his phone as it buzzed indicating a text message had come through. He shook his head upon seeing who it was.

  “I don’t wanna be bothered with you right now,” he said out of pure disgust, but then opened up the message to read it.

  Please answer your phone. We need to talk. I don’t know where Chad came from, but I was in just as much of a shock as you were. Call me back or answer your phone. MiKayla

  Monty threw his phone over beside him. She had him fucked up if she thought that he would be competing with some dead fiancé or husband of hers. That shit wasn’t going to happen. He looked towards his room door, hearing footsteps coming up the stairs. He already knew who it was and only could brace himself for what he was about to hear.

  “Monty,” Catherine called out as she got closer to his room door.

  “Do we have to do this right now?” He questioned not really in the mood.

  “Boy, don’t you start that shit.” She said as she entered his room.

  I knew that I should’ve closed and locked my room door. He thought while shaking his head.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” She instantly asked. Even though she bailed him out, he chose to catch Mona back to the house since she was driving Brendon back to retrieve his things from the hotel that he’d gotten kicked out of because of the fight. “Brendon told me what happened.”

  “Yeah, and what was that?” He anxiously questioned with a befuddled raise of his eyebrows.

  “He told me that you came to his room trying to talk about something that happened with MiKayla, but before you could get it all out, Candy came out of the bathroom and you lost it.”

  Monty chuckled with sarcasm. “Oh so that’s what he said?”

  “Yes, why?” she asked with her arms folded indicating that she didn’t like what had gone down at all. “Didn’t you talk to him yourself?”

  “No, but I know what I saw. The look on Candy’s face and him standing there with nothing but some boxer shorts on told me differently.” He said with an unwavering tone.

  Catherine could see the hurt in his eyes as she sat down at the foot of his bed. “Son,” she said knowing him better than he knew himself. “Brendon did tell me what happened and I told him that I wouldn’t lie to you about any of it. I love him just as much as I love you. That’s my sister’s child and he means the world to me just like you do. I don’t want y’all bickering and fighting like this. I say that to say this; you can’t get mad when things have gotten out of your control. The truth is that, he and Candy didn’t have sex regardless of how she was looking or what he had on.”

  Monty shook his head in disbelief. “I don’t know, ma. I think that something did happen.” He disappointedly said.

  “I’m not going to say or even try to convince you that nothing at all happened. However, I do believe Bren when he said that he didn’t sleep with her out of respect for her and you.”

  Monty hissed under his breath with attitude. “What is that supposed to mean?”

  “Means that if you want to be with Candy then you need to get your shit together or you can’t be mad if she chooses to move on.” She bluntly stated. If nothing else, Catherine would speak the truth whether they liked it or not. She never sugar coated anything unless it was the rim of her glass filled with a mixed drink of strong Margarita.

  “But with my cousin? Damn ma, that’s your nephew.” Monty quickly responded like he’d gotten pissed off. “That’s foul as hell. Who does that?”

  “Watch your mouth,” Catherine reminded him.

  “I’m just saying, ma. How can she do something so nasty? How can she even think about sleeping with my cousin, my own flesh in blood? That shit is unheard of.”

  “No son, what should be unheard of is a woman taking unnecessary shit off of a man and continuing to put up with it. C
andy is young and she’s going through an emotional time in her life. Have you ever sat back and really thought about how she feels about all of this?” she questioned, but continued. “You practically moved on with MiKayla and left Candy hanging with a baby.”

  “I take good care of my son and I spend a lot of time with him.” He shot her way like that was supposed to mean something.

  “And I’m very proud of you for that, but that doesn’t mean that it lessens the pain that Candy is carrying around seeing that you’ve moved on. That girl has been through a lot, a whole lot. Her father is dead and gone. Her mother is incarcerated for taking his life all because he was cheating on her. Does that not strike some kind of emotion in you? You can’t possibly think that she’s okay with you moving on and her not attempting to do the same so that she’s not caught up in these unresolved feelings.”

  “Well, I don’t care who she moves on with. It just better not be with my cousin.” He bluntly interjected.