Last Ones Standing
book 2
Status Quo:
The Merger
By Monique Chanae
Status Quo: The Merger © 2018 Monique Chanae
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except for brief quotes used in reviews.
First Printing May 2018
Printed in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.
Formatting by Monique C. Tillman
Editing by Danielle Grant
Graphic Design Work by Angel Bearfield of Dynastys-CoverMe
Dedication
This is to my sister; the last of a dying breed of real ones
Ms. Danielle Nicole Grant.
You know why ??
Chapter 1
The atmosphere inside Trent Stevens’ home office was thick enough to be cut with a switchblade. He and his associate had been sitting holed up in the office for the last forty-five minutes trying to come to some sort of agreement.
“Come on, Trent, you know me. Just sign on to do this little joint venture with me and it’s nothing but progress from here on out on both our ends man, I’m telling you.” The associate slapped his hands again as if to really drive his point home.
“Your offer sounds tempting and if I was some other cat I just might take you up on that but you and I both know why me signing that contract would never happen. Not after last go ‘round.” Trent took a sip of Cognac from his signature glass and eyed the man in front of him. The man raised his brows in surprise before speaking.
“You mean to tell me you’re going to pass up a half a million-dollar deal for Jason Hennessey? That kid is trailer trash, Trent you know that. You can take him out the ghetto and clean him up all you’d like but Hennessey will always be poor white trash in any other man’s eyes and plus, he’s weak compared to you and I so come on, man stop playing around and sign your John Hancock on the line.”
“Hey, watch your mouth about Jason, alright!” Trent warned through clenched teeth. “He’s loyal, he’s got this crazy, unmatched drive , he takes no shit from anybody and if anything ever goes down I know that that’s my man a hundred grand. Say what you want about him but that’s my rider, always has been.” Trent’s associate scoffed and chuckled a bit.
“Remind me to pitch that line to some CBS soap opera someday. But come on Trent, let’s be real for a minute. You and I are cut from the same exact cloth. Our dads have both been locked up for more than half our lives. We’re kids from the gutter - we come from the same gritty ass streets, we’ve popped the same guns on fools who tried to play us and now we’re hustling for bigger and better things. We’re trying to make enough bread to get us on up out of Illinois for good. Ain’t that what you want? Hell isn’t that what you’ve always wanted?” his associate was getting agitated with Trent turning down his offer. Trent was the premier arms dealer and money launderer in the Midwest and he was holding it down on his side of town. He wasn’t big time just yet but with Trent’s cosign he could surely get there. He couldn’t for the life of him figure out how Trent was turning down his offer all in the name of friendship.
“Of course, I do what kind of question is that? Look, I’m fine where I’m at right now and with the way Sven Power is moving we could be moving globally instead of just locally. It’s time to think bigger than Illinois man.”
“Who said I wasn’t going for the gold? I met this Peruvian cat a while back and his people are looking to put up a lot of money to work with somebody in the States exclusively. That could be us, Trent. If we merge Sven Power and the Guerilla Cartel, we can bless the world with a weapons conglomerate the likes of which they’ve never seen.”
“If the circumstances were different, man, maybe I’d consider it but I’ve got a wife and kid to look out for. My partnerships will in some way affect them somewhere down the line and I refuse to go down for some of your shit should things go awry. Besides Jason and I are doing just fine on our end. So, thanks but no thanks.” Trent pushed the legally binding contract back across the table to his associate and sat back in his seat. He was tired of this back and forth. He had said his peace and he was done with it.
“That’s a lot of money you just slid back across the table.” His associate said as he folded up the contract and stuck into his inside jacket pocket.
“I’ve got more than enough money as it is. More money more problems, you know how that goes.” Trent replied sarcastically standing to his feet. He was getting ready to show his associate to the door. There was nothing else for the two of them to discuss. His associate followed suit and the two men began exiting the room together with Trent leading the way.
“Wait, Trent, you mentioned Nefertari earlier – how is she?”
“She’s good. Why?”
“Oh nothing, you just made mention that any decision you made would affect her and your son somewhere down the line… That cause and effect starts now.” Trent stopped dead in his tracks at the threat from his associate’s lips and he quickly turned to face him.
“What the fuck did you just say?”
“You heard exactly what I just said. The moment you declined, you set your fate. Now Tari and Kiyan have to deal with the backlash.” Trent swung a mean left hook that connected with his associate’s jaw. He stumbled backwards for a moment but quickly regained his composure. The two men began to physically assault one another and pretty soon both of their blood splatters coated the office’s floor.
“Get the fuck out of my house!” Trent yelled.
“Gladly! Say hi to Saint Peter for me.” Before Trent could question his statement, the associate pulled a gun from the small of his back and shot Trent in the chest. The kickback from the gun dropped Trent to his knees and the associate let off one more shot to his chest cavity before he reached for Trent’s planner on the desk and sifted through it looking for a specific address. Finding what he was looking for he tore the page out and quickly fled from the Stevens’ home. Trent’s phone fell out of his pocket when he hit the ground and he tried to drag himself over to where it had fallen but he was losing blood faster than he could control.
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Nefertari Stevens took the steps one at a time as she balanced a few groceries, her purse and a bottle of champagne in her hands. It was a Friday night and the first time in months that she and her husband were child-free for the weekend. She had dropped their six-year-old son Kiyan off at her best friend Chase’s house for the weekend and she had mapped out the next two days perfectly for her and her husband. Holding the champagne bottle up against the wall while she tried to get her key in the lock, the door slowly eased itself open and she thought nothing of it. Maybe Trent saw me pull up in the driveway, she thought to herself but the minute her stilettos crossed the threshold, she got an eerie feeling and she knew something was wrong.
“Trent, baby where are you?” she called out to her husband and stood in the foyer waiting on him to respond. When he didn’t respond after a few seconds she sat the liquor bottle on the end table in the hall and slowly reached inside her purse for her pepper spray. Slowly, Nefertari walked through the house peering inside each room for signs of her husband or an intruder.
“Tari, help me.” She heard Trent faintly call out from his downstairs study. Nefertari ran into the study and searched wildly for her husband, f
inally finding him sprawled out in the middle of the floor with blood oozing through his white dress shirt.
“Oh my God, baby, what happened to you?” she cried dropping down to her knees and touching his stomach trying to find out where the blood was leaking from.
“Snake Motherfucker shot me baby.” Trent forced the words out of his mouth as he grimaced in
“What? Trent what are you talking about? Who did this to you?”
“Tari, the panic room! Go downstairs baby and get out of here. I nixed his deal and he shot me. No doubt he’ll come back for you. Kiss my boy for me.” Trent’s breathing got heavier and heavier as he tried to get out instructions to his wife before he slipped away for good.
“No, I’m not leaving you. Baby please stay and talk to me.” Nefertari was crying hard as she hovered over Trent’s body and literally watched him die in front of her.
“Nefertari, I love you.” Trent was fighting as hard as he could, but he knew in a few moments, it would all be over.
“I love you too, Trent.” A single salty tear fell from her tear ducts as she cradled his head in her palms and watched as the blood began draining from his face. “Baby please don’t leave me. I need you. We need you, Trent. Please don’t leave me.” Trent’s eyes had fluttered for two more seconds before they finally closed for the last time and his once labored breathing had stopped.
Nefertari laid her head on her husband’s chest and sobbed loudly disregarding the fact that he was covered in blood. After several minutes she leaned over to kiss his lips one last time and out the corner of her eye she saw a piece of paper balled up beside him. Reaching over and uncrumpling the paper, she discovered piece of a torn contract, but the details were fuzzy to her. The name of the business was missing but after searching around the floor, she found another torn piece of paper and she could tell the page had been ripped from Trent’s planner. On it was an address, a time and shipment information and Nefertari’s heart stopped for a moment.
It was a no brainer that someone had obviously killed Trent because of the information written on those pieces of paper. The only thing that baffled her was the who. In order for someone to get close enough to Trent to kill him inside their home, they only got in because Trent trusted them. He was way too secretive to conduct business where he rested his head and whoever he had put his trust in did him dirty. Her husband wasn’t randomly murdered, it was all part of a larger scheme of things and she knew right then that she had to second guess their inner circle and avenge her husband.
Chapter 2
As much as Nefertari wanted to keep her husband’s body at home she knew she couldn’t. She knew if she called the police they would label her home a crime scene and God only knew how long it would be before she and her son were permitted to reenter. She went through the rolodex on her husband’s desk until she found the contact information for a clean-up crew she knew Trent had used once or twice before. Trent was a professional money launderer and weapons dealer and sometimes, there were casualties - anytime there was bloodshed, he called in a special clean-up crew to make sure no traces ever came back to him or his business. The crew would come on command, fix the original crime scene, stage a new one in a different location and their track record so far was one-hundred percent foolproof.
When the clean-up crew arrived at the Stevens home, they were at a loss for words. This one hit way too close to home. Trent wasn’t just the man who helped fatten their pockets, he had become family to most of them. They were a crew of older cats who use to run with Trent’s father Terrence and his partner Skip Townsend back when they were running the streets. They had watched Trent grow up and come into his own as a man, not on the back of his father or his legacy and they respected him for getting it on his own. He had become their nephew and with uncles like these, the streets were sure to start squealing. They had cleaned up many a crime scene but this one wasn’t just another part of the business, this was for family and it was on that day that they vowed to help Nefertari find out who murdered her husband and make them pay.
Once the house was cleaned up and the body was moved to its new location, Nefertari okayed it, made a phone call and went back home. As she passed by his office, the scent of his cologne was mixed in with that of Clorox but he still lingered heavily in the air and it killed her. They had been married for nine years but had known each other all their lives. They grew up as next-door neighbors and best friends back in Rockford, Illinois and there wasn’t a milestone in life they hadn’t experienced together. They went from two kids in the heart of the ghetto to superstars living the lavish life on the heels of the government. While Trent worked underground, he also maintained several legitimate businesses to keep him and his family afloat and Nefertari stayed on the radar as a financial advisor and bank manager for one of Chicago’s largest bank branches. But tonight, all that was put in jeopardy and Nefertari refused to let everything they worked for be stolen from them.
Nefertari looked at the time on the wall clock and it had been almost five hours since she had come home and found her husband laying on his office floor dying. His words still rang loudly in her ear and she knew now was not the time to sit in one place and grieve. Her tears would have to wait. Grabbing one of Trent’s gym bags out of the closet, she headed for the panic room they had had built down in the basement.
With all of Trent’s illegal dealings he always believed in having plans set in place if things ever went awry. The panic room housed all their most important documents, emergency funds, clothes and anything of value they ever had. It took Nefertari several trips to unload each file cabinet with Trent’s clientele lists and accounts information. It took several more trips for her to retrieve their personal documents and photo albums. Lugging everything to the backseat and trunk of her Navigator was making her tired but there was one last thing she had to do. The last thing she grabbed was toys and clothes from her son’s bedroom that she knew he would ask for. They wouldn’t be coming back here anytime soon and she wanted her son to keep as much normalcy to his life as possible. Heading back into their bedroom, she opened her antique jewelry box and retrieved the keys for a condo she and Trent bought on the outskirts of town. It was their secondary home just in case something ever happened here and at first, she thought Trent was being overly cautious but tonight she saw that he was preparing them for the future.
On her final walk through of the house, she went back into Trent’s office and grabbed his laptop from the desk drawer along with some files from his desk, his rolodex and the paper she had found on the floor. She studied the address on it again and knew she had to see exactly where this meeting was taking place and who he was meeting with. Something about her husband’s murder didn’t sit well with her and she had a feeling this address played a major part.
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Close to an hour later, Nefertari Stevens pulled up to a barn in McDonough County. She didn’t remember ever coming here with Trent to set up shop so this area was unfamiliar to her. She cross-referenced the address on the mailbox to the address on the paper to make sure she had come to the right place.
Trent, what the hell is in that barn that is so damn important? Nefertari asked aloud even though Trent couldn’t hear her. No sooner than the words left her lips she thought about a conversation she had overheard between Trent and Jason just a few days prior while she and Chase were in the kitchen.
“So, what’s up with that Sven shipment that just came in, T? We’re running out of space to store our merch and you know just like I do that we can’t stop now. We’re in high demand.” Jason said tossing his can of Miller Lite back.
“I’ve been noticing that but don’t even trip. I got it all under control.” Trent replied matter-of-factly.
“Oh really? I know that tone, T. What’d you do?” Jason asked knowing his best friend all too well.
“I’ve got some property out in McDonough I’m thinking about using for storage. Got to change a few things around first but that s
hould only take a couple days, a week tops. Don’t trip, I got it all handled.”
“Always one step ahead.” Jason smirked.
“My old man says that’s the only way to move forward and stay alive.”
“Yeah that sounds like Terrence, always dropping gems.”
“I know… But check it, the first thing we’ve got to do is work on converting those old barns out in McDonough.” Trent grabbed his car keys from the kitchen counter and a few moments later, he and Jason exited the kitchen. Both men kissed their wives on the cheek and left the house. Chase turned to Nefertari and asked her, “Tari, what is your husband up to?”
Nefertari smirked and replied, “I don’t know but your foolish husband just went on out the door with him.”
Nefertari was jarred from her flashback by the barn door slightly swinging open and then abruptly slamming shut. The air outside was brisk tonight so she bundled up her hoodie, stuffed her cell phone in her back pocket and grabbed her car keys. The door to the barn had been left ajar so Nefertari opened it slowly and felt along the wall for a light fixture. The moment she found the switch, several overhead lights flickered on and Nefertari smiled widely. “Always one step ahead,” she said to herself.
Inside the barn were several small rental trailers with the company name “Stevens Moving and Hauling” printed on the sides. On the opposite side of the wall were several shelves and Nefertari knew what used to be resting on top of them. There was still an empty crate with the name “Sven Power” embroidered on the side. She could tell someone had come into the barn hoping to rob Trent and Jason of their weapons supply, but they came up short. This had to have been the barn Trent was telling Jason that they needed to convert from housing weaponry to one of legitimacy.
Nefertari still did a complete walk through of the barn to make sure things were intact. Once she was satisfied that they were she got ready to call Jason but her call was interrupted by another incoming call on her cell phone. Cautiously she answered and the minute the caller explained who they were she knew she had to get ready to put on the performance of a lifetime.
Status Quo_The Last Ones Standing Page 1
