“Y’all know what to do,” Tyler said.
Tyler and Looney were out the car within five seconds. They were bold and fearless. When it came to war you ran up on anybody, broad daylight or not, and Tyler was a loose cannon operating on nothing but revenge. As they advanced on the Lexus they heard the rental car start up and pull off. The red Dodge Avenger slowed down when it got to the Mercedes, getting the driver and the passenger’s attention. That distraction was all Tyler and Looney needed as they took their final steps toward the vehicle. Tyler’s men then pulled off, and by the time Khiron’s watch dogs realized, the car was a decoy it was too late.
“Shit!” the fat driver exclaimed when he saw the masked men.
He tried to reach for the gun on his lap, but Tyler put two neat bullets in his skull, rocking him to sleep forever. Blood splattered the interior of the car as the bullets made their exit out the back of his head. Looney had already slumped the passenger and was reaching inside to grab the keys that were lying in his lap. Tyler knew that the other two were doubling back around the corner to clean up the mess so he didn’t wait to jet toward the front door. Looney threw Tyler the keys, and it only took Tyler one try to unlock it. He motioned for Looney to go first with his hands and Looney entered the house, ducked down with his gun drawn. Tyler looked back, making sure nobody was watching the scene, and then followed after Looney. They moved so swiftly that you could barely make out their footsteps, but they paused when they were about to pass the doorway to what Tyler supposed was the kitchen. They heard the tunes of a song being hummed, but Tyler knew it wasn’t Marie humming it. Tyler peeked around the corner and saw a short, plump woman in a maid uniform dancing to whatever music was coming from her ear buds. Quietly, they made their way past and continued their search throughout the big house. Every door Tyler passed he would notice it’s double bolted lock, and it enraged him.
This nigga got my baby sis living like a prisoner, Tyler thought.
Even if she wanted to run she wouldn’t have even had a chance. She would never be able to get out the house.
“Oh my God!” They heard a shriek to the left.
A thick woman with a pretty face bounded down a staircase in only a T-shirt and ran straight into the masked intruders. Her eyes were wide open and she tried to scream in hopes to get somebody’s attention. Turning back around she tried to run back up the stairs, but Looney was too quick for her. He snatched her up by the weave ponytail hanging from the top of her head and yanked her back down the stairs. She opened her mouth to scream again, but Looney jammed his gun inside of it.
“Ah, ah, ah,” he told her shaking his head. “That wouldn’t be a very smart thing to do when somebody has a gun, now would it?”
Fearing for her life, the woman shook her head quickly with the gun in her mouth. She knew these men couldn’t be anyone who worked for Khiron. She could tell by his accent that he wasn’t even from Atlanta.
“Now, I’ma remove this,” Looney wiggled the gun slightly. “But if you scream again I’m going to pull the trigger. Understand?”
The woman nodded her head slowly and stared at Looney with untrusting eyes. When he did what he said he would he placed a finger to her lips.
“Whose house is this?”
“This is the whore house,” she said. “We don’t know nothin’. Khiron don’t keep shit here if you after his money.”
“Whore house?” Tyler swole up on the woman and put his hand around her neck.
“Y-yes,” the woman choked, pulling at Tyler’s strong hand with both of hers. “We just hoes. We just do whatever they tell us to do and run these drugs. Please! I-I can’t breathe!”
Tyler didn’t care about her lack of oxygen, he was too enraged that Khiron not only had Marie working for him, but he had subjected her to a life that most women never come back from. Mentally and physically. He pressed his gun to the woman’s temple and cocked it.
“Tell me where all the rooms are and the names of the women in them,” Tyler barked. “Now!”
“Rissa,” the woman gasped for air. “R-Rissa is upstairs with me. Candy is d-down the hall. Elisa is u-upstairs too by the bathroom. Marie is in the basement.”
As soon as she said Marie’s name he let her neck go and Looney hit her in the temple with the butt of his weapon. She crumbled to the floor, passed out, and the men hastily hurried past her.
“I think I saw some stairs this way,” Looney said, leading Tyler through the back of the house.
Sure enough, they came across a stairway that led to the basement of the home. At the bottom of the staircase was a big black door. With his gun drawn, Tyler flew down the stairs, two at a time, with Looney right behind him. Tyler used the same key that he used to open the front door to open that one. He caught his breath when the door opened and he saw the room. It was clearly decorated for a woman. The walls were beige and the furniture was dark brown. There weren’t any pictures on the walls, but there was a fifty inch flat screen TV hanging and underneath it was a glass cabinet full of DVDs. A long wooden dresser was posted along the wall to his right with a tall mirror. On top of the dresser lay an array of makeup, designer perfumes, and jewelry. Confused, Tyler turned his head and saw the walk in closet on his left. He saw designer shopping bags and clothes hanging; some still with the price tags.
“Aye man,” Looney whispered grabbing Tyler’s shoulder.
Looney pointed his finger toward the bed, and when Tyler’s eyes fell on the silhouette figure laying on it, it felt like his heart had stopped. Next to the bed his eyes brushed over a plate that still had white powder on it. He watched the figure breathe and many emotions washed over him. A part of him had felt that he would never see his sister again, but there she was. Looney had once again come through for Tyler. If it wasn’t for his keen ears in the streets, Tyler would have never known about the house that Khiron kept women in. It wasn’t known for sure that Marie would be there, but it was his last hope. That year had been full of so many disappointments, and he had to at least try. Whenever he thought he had her, he didn’t. Getting his hopes up that time was something he told himself he just wouldn’t do. But standing there, watching his baby sister exhale her breath, sent new life into him.
“Marie,” he spoke in a deep voice that startled her out of her sleep.
She jumped up and prepared to scream when she saw the two masked men in her room holding guns. Her low eyes gave away the fact that she was coming out of her high, and she swayed so badly on her bed that she had to put her palm down to steady herself.
“Chill, sis,” Tyler said, trying to calm her down from under his mask. “Has it been that long since you heard my voice?”
He walked toward the bed, sat beside her, and removed his mask revealing his identity. Marie stared at him for a moment and blinked, because surely her eyes were playing tricks on her. She reached and touched the man’s face before her and saw that he was real.
“Tyler?” she whispered, and her lips quivered. “Is that really you?”
Before she knew it, she had jumped into her brother’s arms. She clung tightly to her brother and sobbed uncontrollably into his neck. Tyler hugged her tightly too, as if he feared that if he let her go she would disappear into thin air.
“I thought they killed you,” Marie leaned back and looked tearfully into her brother’s face.
She saw a scar the on top of his head that wasn’t there before, and she knew it was from the bullet that she thought had taken his life. Other than that, and the tired look in his eyes, he didn’t look different at all.
“You know it would’ve taken more than some bullets to put this nigga under,” Looney’s gruff voice said as he removed his mask.
“Loon!” Marie exclaimed and went to hug him.
Looney noticed that her balance was a little off when he let her go, so he tried to hold her steady. He shot a look at Tyler and Tyler clenched his teeth. Tyler knew what went on in whore houses, and he knew that the boss used drugs as a tool to make the gi
rls obedient. Marie had been gone for over a year, and if she had been in that house for that whole time frame it was inevitable that she was a junkie. But Tyler didn’t care about that. He would get her clean as soon as he got her out of there, but the first step was leaving with her and never losing sight of her again.
Marie hurried to shut the door, not wanting any of the housekeepers to see the door open and to notify Khiron. She felt something that she thought had died within her heart: hope. The tears streamed freely down her face as she looked at her brother, alive and well. She never thought she’d see his face again.
“Grab your shit, Marie, it’s time to go home,” Tyler said to her.
She nodded her head and quickly went to her closet to throw some clothes on. Her freedom was so close she could taste it at the tip of her tongue. It had been a day that she dreamt of every night. She stopped packing when she got to the nightstand where the plate with her cocaine was. She looked at it longingly before seeing that Tyler and Looney were watching her.
“I’m−I’m,” she tried to get out the words, but she was too embarrassed. “I don’t know who I am anymore.”
Tyler wrapped his arms around her and nestled her now long hair.
“This isn’t you, Marie,” he told her. “I’m back. I’m going to get you all the help that you need. I promise. Ain’t nobody going to hurt you ever again, you hear me?”
His phone started to vibrate when she nodded into his shirt. He almost sent the call straight to voice mail, but he saw who it was so he answered it.
“You got her?” Sadie’s smooth voice came through the receiver after Tyler said hello.
“Yeah,” Tyler responded. “We’ll be back soon.”
“Good,” Sadie said. “Because we need you. Khiron is meeting with Don Rivera in two days.”
Tyler was thrown off for a second. He knew exactly who Don Rivera was, but he also knew that he was a man who didn’t leave his home often. The fact that he was coming to the states signified that the beef between the Dominicans and the Italians was real.
“Damn,” Tyler said.
“I know. I can’t say much over the phone, but I need you here ASAP. See you soon.”
Sadie hung up the phone before Tyler could respond. He let Marie go and stared at the phone in his hand for a second.
“What’s going on, Ty?” Marie asked, seeing the change in her brother’s face. “Why do you look like that?”
Tyler briefly filled her in on everything that had happened in the past year. She already knew of Ray’s death and Mocha’s betrayal. She felt great relief in knowing that Sadie was still alive as well. However, hearing about the feud between the Italians and the Dominicans made her take a step back within herself. She now knew why Khiron had left, and she understood what Sadie was trying to do. When Tyler was done speaking, she closed her eyes briefly and then opened them again. When she opened them there were once again tears there. But that time, she wasn’t crying tears of joy.
“I can’t go, Ty,” she said firmly.
“What?” Tyler looked at her like she was crazy. “Finish getting your shit, Marie. We have to go. We’ve already been here too long.”
“I can’t go with you,” Marie repeated. “Not now.”
She watched her brother’s face change from confusion to understanding.
“I’m not happy here,” Marie started, “but I’m safe. If you take me now, then somebody will notify Khiron of my absence and tell him I’m missing. He’ll know. Out of all the girls here, I’m the only one that goes missing? He knows my brother was connected to The Last Kings, and everybody who even cares about my existence is supposed to be dead. If I come up missing you will lose the element of surprise. Everything Sadie has worked for would get fucked up. So I can’t go.”
“No,” Tyler said, but his voice was feeble. He knew she was right. “I came here to find you and—”
“And you found me!” Marie interrupted. “I’m safe here. You’ve always protected me from the game, so now it’s my turn to protect you in it.”
“She’s right, bro,” Looney reluctantly chimed in. “It’s a fucked up reality, but she’s right. If we take her, that’s gon’ be a big ass red flag to them niggas.”
Tyler’s mind was reeling at the reality of the situation and the fact that they were right. His mind was telling him to leave and go back to Detroit, but his heart kept him planted right there in Atlanta.
“I’m not going anywhere, Ty,” Marie walked up to him and put her hand on his solemn face. “I’ve been here since the day you started looking for me, you just didn’t know. Now you know where to come back to. Go. Come back for me.”
Marie choked up on her last word and Tyler used his knuckle to stroke her cheek. Although she had gained a couple of pounds, there were bags under her eyes. He could tell that she was a victim of drug abuse and only God knew what else. That was the hardest decision that he had to make, and his heart was heavier now than it was when they first ran into the house. Their union had only caused another painful good-bye.
“It’s not good-bye,” Marie said, reading his mind. She forced a smile to her face. “It’s see you soon.”
She removed Tyler’s hand from her face with the understanding that she was just a small player in a game of blood and war. She wiped her own tears away and Looney smiled at her.
“My nigga,” he nodded, respectfully shaking her hand like he would one of his bros.
Marie laughed weakly and Tyler pulled out his cellphone and charger from his pocket.
“Keep this on silent but check it every five minutes,” he instructed her, handing the device to her. “I’ll be back in three days.”
Marie took the phone and simply nodded her head. She breathed deep and hugged them both one last time.
“See you soon,” she whispered and watched them place their masks back over their faces.
With one final wave Tyler unlocked the door with the keys in his hand and walked in front of Looney. Guns drawn, they silently made their exit up the stairs. Tyler refused to look back, because he knew if he did he wouldn’t have the nerve to leave his sister there.
Don’t look back, Marie thought, knowing her brother like the back of her hand. Please don’t look back.
When they were out of sight, she shut the door and went to hide the phone under her mattress. There was no doubt in her mind that Tyler would come back to her, but she knew those would be the hardest three days in her life. She sighed loudly and turned on a movie.
“Day one.”
Chapter 11
Every hustler would have his day, and that was exactly why Tyreek moved at night. He pushed his cocaine-white Maserati up I-94 toward the Detroit Metro airport, and the sound of Nipsey Hussle flooded the inside of the vehicle. He nodded his head to the lyrics of Nip’s song “Overtime” and vibed out to the words of a real nigga. He was running late to get Khiron—the unexpected always happened when you were in a rush. Many thoughts were floating through his mind as he drove, so he barely saw the interstate lights or heard the hard raindrops beating his car.
Tyreek had been Khiron’s right hand man for the past five years. When they first met, Khiron was cut throat. He was hungry, but not greedy like the man he had become. His boy had to get it out of the mud in order to make his claim on Atlanta. There was no man there that could hold a candle to Khiron, and if they could it was quickly blown out. He was a boss of his own invention, but everything changed when his connect got bumped up and the streets got dry. Khiron wasn’t stupid. As soon as he could he had a meeting set up with who he hoped would be his new connect. That night after that meeting with Ray, Tyreek watched the birth of a man scorned. His anger was uncontrollable, and he wasn’t going to stop until he got what he wanted. Tyreek remembered the night he first realized that Khiron would never be the same.
“These muhfuckas get their work from the Italians,” Khiron spoke in an enraged tone to Tyreek.
Tyreek parked his car on the street behind Khiron’s a
nd hopped in on Khiron’s passenger side. Tyreek could hear the silent rage in his voice when they were on the phone. He had used his GPS to find the location that Khiron sent him. Tyreek came up on Khiron posted in the hood, watching two young cats fucking off with a group of people on the block. Khiron filled him in on what had gone down that night, and Tyreek couldn’t hide the fact that he was surprised at the revelation about Mocha. But then again he wasn’t, there was always something about her that he could never quite put his finger on.
“Damn,” he said, shaking his head.
“I’m going to kill all of them,” Khiron growled, keeping his eyes on the prize.
Tyreek looked at the two men Khiron was eyeing.
“Them?” Tyreek asked, nodding toward where the men stood with laughing faces.
“That’s two of ’em,” Khiron said, and he watched the two men dap up their homies and walk back to their Corvette. “They’re just the first to die.”
They watched the Corvette start up and began to tail it when it pulled off, making sure not to get too close. They didn’t drive far before the Corvette stopped and parked outside of a house in the same neighborhood. Parking a few houses down, Khiron and Tyreek watched the men exit the car and walk through the grass to get to the front door of the house they parked in front of. The door opened and behind it were two hood rats smiling from ear to ear at the sight of them. Khiron reached over Tyreek and opened the glove box. He then handed Tyreek an all black mask and he put his own on his face. Tyreek already knew what was up, and Khiron didn’t have to ask if he was down. Tyreek had lost track of his own body count, so a couple more added didn’t make any difference. He didn’t stop to think about it. All he knew was that if Khiron had beef with them, then they were the enemy. He was trained to go. They waited for five minutes before Khiron decided it was time to move.
“Come on,” Khiron said, and was the first one out of the car.
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