by D D Bridges
I knew that this was a bad idea and that being a part of Armando’s plot was suicide. But I also knew that if I played this right then I might be able to have Armando do some of my dirty work and make some money in the process. All I had to do was stay out of the way when the bullets started flying and whatever happened, happened.
Chapter XX- Darius
“Thank you for your purchase, Mr. King, and have a nice day.” The pretty white lady beamed at me as she handed me my bag from the other side of the counter. She then escorted me to the front entrance of the jewelry store and waved as I exited and began to make my way through the mall. That woman had every reason to smile since she was going to get a pretty nice commission off of the purchase that I just made.
When I first came into the jewelry store they were treating me like a typical black man. I guess it was because I was dressed in regular clothes and didn’t look any different than the average guy. But once I told them who I was, what I did for a living, and how much I intended to spend on a very special purchase, they rolled out the red carpet for me.
I had been doing a lot of thinking while I was in Miami and I believed that it was time for me to take a step toward securing the future that I wanted with Natalie. Ever since the day that I first saw her I wanted her to be completely mine. From that day until this one I had fallen in love with her, and I had every intention of proposing to her as soon as I got back to Atlanta. I was sure that after she saw the four-carat diamond ring that I bought and after she heard what I had to say from my heart she would agree to be my wife.
I walked out of the mall and began to make my way across the parking lot in search of my rental. It was my last day in Miami and I had to say that I enjoyed my stay. Spending time with Marcia and my sisters had actually been a lot of fun. Daniella was still a little wary of me, but she was starting to warm up to me little by little. I knew that she needed more time and I promised her that I wouldn’t rush her. As a matter of fact, I gave her my number and told her that when she was ready to talk she could call me anytime.
Though I was ready to get back to Atlanta, I couldn’t help but feel like I was leaving unfinished business in Miami. It bothered me that I had been there for four days and I hadn’t seen D.J. at all. I thought for sure that I’d “accidentally” run into him and get the face-to-face encounter with him that I desperately wanted, but that hadn’t been the case. Based on what Derek told me, D.J. arrived in Miami less than a day after I did and I was pretty sure that his sudden visit had everything to do with me. But for whatever reason he had been avoiding me.
The other thing that was bothering me was the fact that I knew that Francisco was in Miami as well, and he hadn’t come out of his underground hideout either. I knew D.J. and I would have our time eventually, but there was no guarantee that I would have another shot at Francisco. I didn’t want to wait for him to come for me. When dealing with somebody like Francisco I had to make the first move, and I had to make it when he least expected it. Thinking about that caused a plan to begin to formulate in my mind. Francisco had no idea that I was holding a very valuable card that I had been contemplating playing against him.
I got into the Lexus, locked my doors, and opened the glove compartment. Inside there was the car manual, my glock, and the thing that I was looking for at the moment. I retrieved the burner that Janelle had given me a couple of nights before and closed the glove compartment. I held the phone in my hand and stared down at it for a moment. I knew that if I made this call then there was no turning back. One phone call would set things in motion and would lead me down a path that would cause me to eventually collide with Francisco. But at this point I wanted to collide with him, especially if he didn’t see me coming. Neither of us realized it at the moment, but when Janelle asked me for help the other night she had given me exactly what I needed to set up my main target and take him out. By giving me the means to contact her, Janelle had just become the pawn in my plan.
I went to the only number listed in the phone’s contacts and pressed send. I put the phone to my ear and listened to it ring twice before she answered.
“Hello,” she said sounding very calm and relaxed. She actually sounded too calm.
“Hey,” I said after a brief pause. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, I’m okay,” she said and I believed her. “I’m glad that you thought about what I said and decided to call me. I’m assuming that this means that you’re going to help me.”
“Yeah, I’ll help you,” I lied. “But only under one condition.”
“What’s that?”
“We do this my way,” I told her. “This is my last night in Miami and I want to deal with Francisco once and for all. So I need to know where he’s going to be tonight.”
Janelle paused for a long moment, but I could still hear her faint and steady breathing on the other end. Finally she said, “Fine. We can do it your way. But I must warn you, Darius; if you take a shot at Francisco and fail, he will make sure that you never get another shot at him again.”
I sighed and said, “Thanks for the advice, but I got this. I just need to know where he’s gonna be.”
She said, “There’s a card game tonight. There are some major players from around the city that will be there and the buy-in for the game is a minimum of $100,000 in cash. If you manage to get yourself into the game then I can get you to Francisco.”
“And how will you do that? Is Francisco gonna be at the game?”
“He’ll be there but you won’t see him,” she told me. “I’ll send you a text at exactly 12 midnight, and when I do you will need to excuse yourself from the game and ask them to show you to the bathroom. Once you’re in the bathroom send me a text that says red. If you don’t send the text within ten minutes, then the plan is off.”
I thought about the plan that she laid out and I didn’t like it. It sounded way too shady and she wasn’t giving me enough information about exactly how she was going to get me to Francisco. But at this point I really didn’t have any other choice but to pretend that I was going with her plan. I assured her though that if anything felt wrong then I was going to throw her plan to the wind and do whatever I felt I needed to do. That also meant that if I had to leave her behind in order to save myself then I would, and I made sure that she understood that just in case she tried to pull something on me.
She gave me the information on the location of the card game and the password to get in the door. She went over her plan with me one last time and once we were sure that we were on the same page we ended the call. I knew that Janelle thought that she was the one in control, but ultimately she was the one being played. I really didn’t care what happened to her at the end of all of this as long as I got who I was coming for.
*******
Since it was my last night in Miami, I paid a visit to Marcia’s home before I got ready to go handle my business. She had been good to me during my visit and I owed it to her to show up so that I could at least thank her before I left. Besides, she was still holding some valuable information that I needed in order to make this trip a complete success.
I climbed the cement staircase, rang the doorbell and waited until she came and answered.
“Hi, Darius,” Marcia said smiling pleasantly as she embraced me warmly.
“Hi, Marcia,” I said as I stepped inside and closed the door behind us. “I know its kinda late, but I wanted to see you all one final time before I went back to Atlanta.”
“Well that is so sweet of you,” she said. “But the girls aren’t here. Dajah is staying with one of her friends from school. And Daniella… she’s with her boyfriend.”
“I take it that you don’t approve of him,” I said after I noticed how her expression changed slightly when she mentioned her daughter’s boyfriend.”
“Let’s just say that there are some things that I wish she wouldn’t have picked up from me, namely her taste in men,” she said as we began to walk through the house to a destination that was unbeknownst to me
. “She likes those hardcore guys, the same type that your father was before he became a prominent businessman. But even back then I could see that Daniel had potential. The guys that Daniella tends to choose don’t have that special trait that my husband possessed.”
“So my father was from the streets,” I pointed out since I didn’t know this before now.
“Yes, he was. But he was also very intelligent. So instead of building a drug empire he built a business empire. It’s pretty amazing how he beat the odds.”
I soaked in those few facts about my father and relished in the fact that I was more like him than I would probably ever know. Marcia led me down a hallway that I hadn’t seen any of the other times that I had been at the Estate. Once we were about half-way down the hallway Marcia stopped in front of a mahogany door and turned to me.
“Since you’re leaving tomorrow, there’s something that I want to give you on behalf of your father,” she told me. She opened the door and led me into what I realized was a study. I stood in the middle of the plush room while she went over to the bookcase at the far end of the room. She stood on her tip-toes and pulled a black box off of the top shelf. Holding the box in both hands, she walked back over to me.
“This is something that was very important to your father and he always intended to give it to you since you were his first born,” she said. She flipped open the top of the box and laying in a fitted, velvet setting was a diamond encrusted dog-tag hanging from a platinum chain.
I lifted the chain out of the box and held it in mid-air so that I could get a good look at it. I notice that the back of the dog-tag was black and had a silver engraving that said:
Real
Kings
Never
Die
“Wow. Thank you for this,” I said to Marcia while still staring at the engraving. The message that my father wanted to send was clear with the simple words that were written on the jewelry.
“You’re welcome,” she said while she lay the box on the cherry-wood desk that we were standing near. She took the chain from me and said, “Turn around so that I can put it on you.”
I turned around and was now facing a mirror that was hanging on the wall afar off. I watched as Marcia put the chain on me, fastening it at the back of my neck. The neck piece added that extra something to the all black outfit that I was rocking. I fingered the dog-tag and thought about how this necklace was the only thing that my father left me that I could take with me everywhere. I was pretty sure that I was never going to take it off.
“It looks like it was made for you,” Marcia said from over my shoulder. She turned away from me and this sentimental moment was beginning to fade as I prepared to do what I had already planned to do in order to get the answers that I needed from her. The card game was in a couple of hours and I wanted to go in there with all of the information that I needed in order to make smart moves.
Marcia grabbed the box off of the desk and walked over to the bookcase. Meanwhile, I pulled out my glock which had been tucked away in the back waist of my pants. I reached into my pocket, pulled out my silencer, and attached it to the gun. Marcia had just put the box back in it’s resting place on the top shelf and before she turned around I cocked my gun.
She froze for a brief moment but then slowly turned around to face me. We simply stared at one another from across the room. I crossed my arms in front of me so that they made a v-shape, holding my gun low in a non-threatening position. To my surprise though, Marcia didn’t look the least bit unnerved. She actually looked interested to see what I was going to do.
I walked toward her but stopped just short of her so that I could sit on the corner of the desk.
“I don’t want to do anything crazy,” I said. “But I will if I have to.”
Folding her arms and holding her head high she said, “What exactly do you want, Darius?”
“I want answers,” I said simply. “And I want D.J.” Saying my brother’s name made me tense. I was sure that Marcia had no idea how her son had been terrorizing me, at least that’s what I thought until she said,
“I don’t blame you for having a vendetta against my son. What he has put you through has been undeserved.”
My brow wrinkled in confusion. “What do you know?” I asked.
“Everything,” she said with a slight shrug of the shoulders. “I know all about his plan to take over the company by killing you.”
“How do you know about that? Did you put him up to it?”
“No, I would never condone my son doing anything criminal, especially murder,” she said in a pained voice. “But I know a lot more than you may think I know. I know some things that you have yet to find out.”
“Like what?” I asked.
“Soon enough you will have all the answers that you want,” she said. “But I’m assuming that what you would like to know right this moment is where my son is.”
“Your assumption is right. We can do this the easy way or the hard way,” I said stroking my gun and hoping that she would just cut to the chase in order to save us both some time.
“There’s no need to try to intimidate me,” she said as she began to take slow and steady steps toward me. I stood abruptly and put my hand up to stop her.
“Don’t take another step,” I said, keeping my gun at my side. She stopped but then took my outstretched hand and folded it into hers. Still holding my hand she closed the space between us until were face-to-face.
“I’m going to tell you what you want to know because I want to help you,” she said.
“Why do you want to help me? I’m not your son,” I stated.
“No, but I think that you’re the only one that can stop D.J. from ruining his life,” she said solemnly. “And I also want to help you because when I look into your eyes, I see my husband. It wasn’t until I met you that I understood what he saw in you and why he was so determined to make you a significant part of his legacy.”
She released my hand and took a step back in order to create some distance between us. She knew that her statement had disarmed me of any plan that I had of harming her in order to get the information that I wanted. She hesitated for a moment but she finally began to talk.
“There’s a card game tonight,” she said, voicing what I already knew. But then she told me what I didn’t know. “D.J. is going to be there. I know that I don’t have a right to ask, but Darius I need you to get him out of there at all costs,” she said as she began to pace the floor. “D.J. teamed up with this guy named Armando and they plan on sticking up the game. But I have a bad feeling about it. Things are not going to turn out good for Armando and anybody who’s with him if they try to take this game.”
“Wait a minute, how do you know all of this,” I said grabbing her arm so that she would stop pacing and look at me.
“I just do,” she said confidently. “I’m a woman of many resources and that allows me to know everything that is going on with my children.”
“Then why can’t you stop him?” I challenged.
“Because that’s not my place. There’s too much at stake.”
This time I was the one who began to pace. What Marcia was asking me to do was going to ruin my entire plan. Saving D.J. meant that there was no way that I would be able to get at Francisco. I was beginning to think that it might be best if I stayed out of this all together and let the chips fall where they may.
“Darius, please,” Marcia pleaded. “I know that you two hate each other, but if he dies at that card game tonight, then I know that I will never find his body.”
“I came here to kill your son if he is still unwilling to reconcile,” I confessed. “If there’s a plan that is already in motion, then I doubt that I can stop it. But even if I do, I’m not promising that I won’t put a bullet in him myself. If I don’t, then there’s only a matter of time before he puts one in me.”
I detached the silencer from my gun and put them both away since I clearly didn’t need them at the moment. She had given
me exactly what I needed and now it was time to leave. I needed to think about what I was going to do because knowing that D.J. was going to be at the card game as well changed everything.
“Darius,” Marcia called out to me just before I walked out the door. “If you don’t have to, I’m begging you not to kill my son.”
I sighed as I stared at her from across the room. “I won’t kill him tonight,” I promised. “But tomorrow is a new day.” With that, I turned and began to make my way out of the house.
Marcia was definitely a wise woman who knew how to follow her intuition. She was right to be concerned because there was no way that D.J. was going to survive if he was thinking about sticking up Francisco’s card game. But maybe this was going to be the perfect storm. Both of my targets were going to be in the same place and neither of them knew that I was coming to the party. If I was lucky they’d both do the dirty work for me and kill one another. The only problem was that one of my foes was also my brother. Would I really be able to stand by and let him possibly lose his life in what was sure to be a blood-bath?
Chapter XXI- Natalie
I put on my white Prada bikini and went down to the mansion’s indoor pool. The layout of the pool area was very unique and unlike anything that I’d ever seen. The snake-shaped pool was the central piece of a double-leveled gym. On the top level was an extensive array of workout equipment; treadmills, elliptical machines, weight machines, and all the fixings that you would see at a public gym. There was also a walking track and an indoor basketball court on the top level. On the bottom level along with the pool there were steam rooms, showers and a Jacuzzi.
I walked inside with my towel wrapped around me and headed for the Jacuzzi. I planned on relaxing for a couple of hours before turning in for the night. I had brought a bottle of wine with me along with a glass which was all I really needed to get my private party started. I went to the wall and pushed the buttons that would allow me to adjust the settings of the hot-tub to my liking. The water began to bubble and I dipped my foot in the water to make sure that it was the right temperature.
