Belle

by Treasure Hernandez

  “Here,” Kidd said, handing Ollie his gun back and walking inside the house.

  The smoke inside was still clearing, but from the looks of it, everyone was down. In the far back of what used to be the living room was a man Kidd instantly recognized. Percy was still alive and trying to crawl away. His face was covered in debris, and he was bleeding from the many cuts now on his body.

  Bang!

  Kidd whipped around when he heard the gunshot behind him and aimed his gun, but he saw that it was only Ollie. His assault rifle was hanging in his hand, but he had a pistol out pointing at one of the bodies.

  “He wasn’t dead. I saw him move,” Ollie said, shrugging sheepishly. “Go do what we came to do, G. I’ll be right back.”

  Kidd nodded and walked over to where Percy was. When he got close enough, Percy spit a huge glob of blood his way.

  “Fuck you,” he said, staring up with hatred in his eyes.

  “I bet you never would have thought that the last face you’d see would be mine,” Kidd said, aiming his gun at Percy. “Any last words?”

  Percy then surprised Kidd by laughing. It was a deep, hearty laugh, mixed with a few coughs, but still, he must have thought something was hysterical.

  “What’s funny?”

  “You.”

  “I don’t see how that can be possible. From where I’m standing, I should be the amused one. I have a gun aimed at Perseus, the powerful demigod.”

  “You don’t get it,” Percy said before going into a fit of coughs. “After all these years, you still don’t see shit for what it is. Gene has you wrapped so tight around the same finger he uses to fuck everybody else around him in the ass.”

  “What are you talkin’ about?”

  “I’m talking about the man you work for. Your uncle. You don’t know him. Not like I do. He ain’t worth shit.”

  “This coming from the nigga who sabotaged him.”

  “Touché, but I have my reasons to go against him. He blocked a lot of money for me, so I was just returning the favor. But you do know that’s not the real reason he sent you here to kill me, don’t you? If that’s the case, he could have easily done so after he paid me for the job. No. He sent you here because I found out the truth that night he gave me my money.”

  “The truth?”

  “Gene is a monster. I thought I was bad, but he’s the green gunk on the bottom of worst’s shoe. He’ll take out anybody who gets in his way. Even you.”

  “My uncle wouldn’t hurt me.”

  “Oh yeah? How about you ask your mother?” Percy said and laughed again, showing his bloody teeth.

  He reached for his waist, but Kidd was faster. He opened up Percy’s chest at a range so close that blood dotted his black hoodie. When Kidd let off the trigger, Percy’s chin fell to his chest. Kidd leaned toward the dead man and snatched the diamond chain from his neck. Behind him, Kidd smelled gas, and sure enough, Ollie had returned with a gas can. He tucked the chain in his pocket while Ollie poured it all over the house. When the two of them exited, Ollie lit a match and threw it. The remainder of the house was engulfed instantly in flames as they ran to where the car was parked on the next block.

  “Whoo! That shit just gave me a fuckin’ rush, man!” Ollie said when they reached a funeral home that Gene owned a ways away. “After we go holla at Gene, I gotta set me up some pussy for the night. You down?”

  “Nah,” Kidd said, throwing all of his guns into a duffle bag. He held the bag out to Ollie, and he did the same.

  They’d parked in the back of the empty funeral home, and Kidd used the code to unlock the back door. Ollie grabbed a second duffle bag from the trunk of the car and followed Kidd inside. The first place they went was the bathroom. From the bag, Ollie handed Kidd some clothes and took his own into a separate stall. The two men stripped out of all the clothes they were wearing and changed. When they were done, they put the old clothing in the same bag as the guns, and Kidd took them to the crematorium while Ollie went to wipe down the car.

  Kidd, in a fresh silk Gucci collared T-shirt and a pair of jeans, took his time. His thoughts were running wild, and he couldn’t help but replay Percy’s last words to him. What had he meant when he said to talk to his mother? And why had he said it? Kidd couldn’t remember the last time he’d even heard her voice. Whenever he tried to visit her in the past, she denied his visitation form. Maybe it was out of shame, or maybe it was out of resentment. Either way, Kidd couldn’t forgive her for it. At the end of the day, he was her son. Her flesh and blood. Nothing was supposed to be able to keep them apart, not even the walls of a jail. He’d believed her when she told him that she loved him, but after living without her for so long, he wasn’t sure any longer.

  Kidd finished doing what he had to do and went outside to join Ollie. He stood in the dark, staring at the car, and noticed that Ollie had removed the license plate from it. He smirked. Ollie loved that car, and he would cross all t’s to make sure it wouldn’t have to get burned after the job.

  “You know you can’t pull another job in this whip, right?” Kidd said, walking over to the passenger’s side door.

  “I know. I just wanted Sheila to experience one wild ride for the road. Feel me?”

  “I feel that you’re a whole fool,” Kidd said, shaking his head. “Let’s go tell this nigga the deed is done.”

  * * *

  Gene was sitting at his dining room table, reading the paper and drinking coffee mixed with his favorite brandy, having a pleasant night. He was wearing his soft Versace robe over his pajamas and had a pair of slide-on slippers on his feet. His legs were crossed, and he was seemingly carefree. Marvin Gaye’s voice filled the house as it played in the background as he read up on what was going on in the city. The mayor had approved a better meal plan for public schools, which was a shock because he had denied one for years. Gene smirked to himself, knowing that the mayor’s favorite girl, Glitter, had something to do with that. The Bliss Lounge had a way of putting everyone in a good mood, so in a way, Gene felt that he was doing his due diligence for the city.

  When he heard the front door to his home open, he didn’t look up from the paper once, not even when he heard the footsteps approaching.

  “It’s done,” he heard the voice of his nephew say.

  “How do I know?”

  There was a loud clanking sound when something was tossed onto the table next to Gene’s coffee mug. Gleaming up at him was a diamond-studded necklace spelling out the word “God.” With a straight face, Gene pointed to the corner of the dining room where two backpacks sat next to his fine-china cabinet.

  “No point in counting. It’s all there. Fifty thousand dollars apiece. And, Kidd, you are now officially off for a month.”

  “Thank you, sir,” Ollie said, and he instantly went for the bags.

  “No need to thank me. You did a fine job.”

  “You need a ride back to your spot?” Ollie asked Kidd.

  “No, I’m good. I have my Jeep in the garage.”

  “All right, G. I’ma get at you later. Have a good night, boss.”

  When Ollie was gone and the front door shut, Kidd took a seat at the end of the rectangular table and faced Gene. The two men sat in silence for a while, and Gene noticed that Kidd hadn’t made a move toward his money. He took a gulp of his drink and relished the warm feeling trickling down his throat.

  “Is something on your mind, nephew?” he asked, flipping the newspaper.

  “I’m just wondering what’s so interestin’ in the paper at this time of night.”

  “When you’re a busy man like myself, you find that this is the only time to catch up on things.”

  “And what have you found out?”

  “That some crazy woman drowned her baby in the tub, some woman opened a black-owned-and-grown grocery, and the mayor just approved a new meal plan for public schools this morning.”

  “Isn’t the mayor a client of yours?”

  “That he is.”

  “Hmm.
”

  “What’s that for?”

  “I’m just wonderin’—”

  “Seems you’ve been doing a lot of that lately.”

  “Maybe so,” Kidd said. “I was just thinkin’ that if you have all of these people in high places in your pocket, why haven’t you used them to your advantage?”

  “Use them to my advantage how?”

  “Like try to get my mother out of jail.”

  On that last statement, Gene closed the paper and set it down on the table. He looked intensely at Kidd and tried to read his face, only to find out that he couldn’t read his face. Kidd had always been a stony-faced kid, but right then, his expression seemed harder than usual.

  “Believe me, I have tried everything to free your mother,” he lied with a straight face. “But there are some things that are out of even my hands. Why are you suddenly interested in your mother’s release? The last time you spoke about her, you said you didn’t care if you ever saw her again.”

  “Maybe I’ve had a change of heart. I mean, she is my mother. Maybe it’s time for me to hear why she wanted me to stay away for so long. I want to see her.”

  “She denied all of your visiting forms,” Gene said with a smirk.

  “I know you have enough pull to override that, Unc.”

  “Not to override prison protocol,” Gene said, reaching into the pocket of his robe and pulling out a cell phone. “But maybe I can do something else for you.” He dialed a number and pressed the phone to his ear for a moment. It rang a few times before the other end was answered.

  “Hello?”

  “Put her on the phone.”

  He heard shuffling on the other end of the line, but after about thirty seconds, he heard his sister’s voice in the background.

  “What do you want?” he heard her distant voice say to the prison guard.

  “Telephone,” the guard who was on Gene’s payroll said. “Remember the rules and what will happen if you don’t follow them.”

  Gene slid the phone over to Kidd, who hesitated a moment before picking it up and placing it on his ear. “Hello?” he said into the phone, and Gene watched the hard expression on his face melt away within seconds. “Ma?”

  Pause.

  “Don’t cry, Ma. It’s okay,” Kidd said and stopped to listen. “I know it’s been a real long time. Why did you deny all of my visitation forms?”

  Pause.

  “You’re my mom, man. I don’t care what you look like. I just wanted to see you. How you been holding up in there?”

  Pause.

  “That’s good. I miss you,” Kidd said, and his voice cracked as he listened to whatever she was saying. “Nah, I could never hate you. I wanted to sometimes, but I could never really bring myself to. What?”

  Pause.

  “I haven’t been over that way since Unc moved me in with him. I think they tore it down though.”

  There was another pause, followed by Kidd’s laughter.

  “I remember. You used to wear that tattered pink robe. That used to embarrass the hell out of me.” Pause. “Okay. I love you too. I’m gon’ do another visitation form, and you better not deny it. I need to see in person how you’re doing. You might be lyin’ to me or something. I love you.”

  Pause.

  “All right, I will. Bye.”

  Kidd disconnected the phone and slid it back to Gene, who had been watching him like a hawk. His eyes were slightly glistening, but he wouldn’t let one single tear fall. After all those years, Gia was still his soft spot.

  “What did she say?”

  “She just asked how I was and what ended up happening to our old house. She sounded pretty sad when I told her they tore it down.”

  “She didn’t say anything else?” Gene inquired a little too eagerly.

  “Nah,” Kidd said and gave him a strange stare. “Why would she? And even if she did, I’m sure whoever you got on payroll in there will tell you.”

  Kidd pushed away from the table and got up to go grab his money. He patted his uncle on the shoulder in farewell and started toward the front door. Before he reached it, Gene called his name.

  “What’s up, Unc?”

  “I need you to do one more thing for me before you go on your little hiatus.”

  “Like?”

  “The tour bus gets back tomorrow right after noon. I want you to meet them at the Bliss Lounge and make sure everything is everything. And this new girl Aria was telling me about, you’ve met her, I suppose?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And? Is she as beautiful as Aria says?”

  Kidd shrugged his shoulders and looked over his shoulder at his uncle. “I mean, she’s all right.”

  “Just all right?”

  “Yeah,” Kidd said and made a face. “All them bitches look the same to me. Fat booties, big titties, with just enough thought process to operate. That’s how you like them, ain’t it, Unc?”

  Gene studied Kidd for a while, searching his face for any emotion other than the nonchalant one he was giving. When he couldn’t find a lie, he picked up his paper and opened it to the spot where he left off.

  “Hmm,” was all he said. “All right, you can go. Lock the door behind you.”

  Chapter 11

  Three can keep a secret if two of them are dead.

  —Benjamin Franklin

  Kidd couldn’t get his mother’s voice out of his head. He’d gone to sleep to her voice and woken up with it going off in his mind. She sounded so tired, not at all like she used to. She used to be so full of life and laughs. Fun should have been her middle name. She was the type of woman who was always on the straight and narrow. She wanted her son to go to Harvard and be the best he could be in life, which was why it was so confusing when she got arrested.

  He lay in bed, that time alone, staring at the ceiling. He had one hand on his bare chest and the other behind his head. A few things weren’t sitting right with him. One was that his uncle said he couldn’t override prison protocol for a visit, yet he had somehow been able to get a call through whenever he wanted. The second was something his mother had asked about.

  “How is the old house?”

  When he told her it had gotten torn down, she didn’t sound upset like he told his uncle. She was calm. She was also calm when she’d said, “Remember I used to check the mail in my robe every morning?”

  Of all of the memories she could have brought up, why had she chosen the one he hated the most? Neighborhood kids used to give him hell behind that raggedy robe, but his mother refused to let it go. It had been her mother’s before she died and it had sentimental value, she would say. Still, Kidd didn’t care. It used to embarrass—

  “The mailbox.” Kidd cut his own thoughts short and sat up straight in his bed. “She wants me to go to the mailbox.”

  Of course, he couldn’t be sure, but why else would she bring it up in such a way? Kidd thought about how intensely Gene had been watching him while he was on the phone and the questions he asked when he hung up. What if his mother was being forced to talk in code? But why? Nothing was making sense to him. The only thing he could do was go see if his assumption was right.

  The digital clock on the nightstand read ten o’clock, proving that he’d been in bed for too long that morning. He was usually out the door by eight. Kidd stretched long and wide before stepping out of bed and placing his feet in his royal blue Armani slide-on house shoes. He walked over to the long window a few feet from his bed and opened his white drapes, welcoming the natural sunlight into the room before going to the bathroom. On his way, he turned on the sixty-inch television that was mounted on the wall in front of his bed so he could play some music while he showered. Opting for some slow jams, Kidd stripped and got in the shower.

  He stayed in for almost thirty minutes before getting out and grabbing his outfit for the day out of his huge walk-in closet. He paired the cotton Burberry crew neck with a pair of Burberry tan slacks, finishing the look with a pair of matching loafers and a gold
watch. Everything was brand-new, being that Kidd often bought more clothes than he could wear in a year. On his way out the door, he sprayed himself with cologne and brushed his hair. Before he left, he examined his lineup in the mirror next to his front door to make sure it was still crisp. When everything was satisfactory, he stepped out the door and couldn’t help but think about what Belle would think when she saw him later that day.

  Belle?

  Was that why he wanted to make sure he was fly? In the back of his mind, he knew the answer, but he would never admit it to himself. There was no telling what Aria had her on that tour bus doing, and he was almost positive that the Belle he left wasn’t who was coming to Miami. Still, a piece of him yearned to see her. He hadn’t heard from her since the day he’d gone out to eat with Ollie, although he had reached out a few times. He decided to just let it go. Kidd, however, opted to drive her Camaro so that way she would able to get around while in Miami.

  On the ride to his old digs, Kidd wondered if it was a good idea to drive near the crime scene he’d helped commit. Curiosity got the best of him once he arrived in the neighborhood, and he couldn’t help but drive by Percy’s old spot. There were police everywhere, and the remains of the house had yellow tape all around it. Kidd slowed the car by one of the neighbors across the street standing outside, looking at what was going on outside his house.

  “Excuse me, sir,” Kidd said to get his attention. “Do you know what happened over here?”

  “Man, it was crazy!” the older, plump guy said. “Somebody blew the house up, man. There were a bunch of motherfuckas inside, too!”

  “Damn, that’s crazy. Does anyone know who did it?”

  The man looked down at Kidd and raised his eyebrow high to the sky. “You ain’t one of them cops, is you? ’Cause I ain’t no snitch, and ain’t nobody finna come after me and my family.”

  “I look like twelve to you?”

  The man eyed Kidd for a little longer until he was seemingly satisfied that the person in the car wasn’t the police.