Pretty Kings II

by T. Styles

  Later that night, at the Kennedy Compound, Sarge reported to me what happened. It was just he and I because Kevin wasn’t home. Me and Kevin had gotten into a fight over his baby mother and I was crying, something I preferred not to do especially around other people.

  Sarge gave me a hug and told me everything would be okay. I realized at that moment how much I truly cared about him. He got me out of binds when we were in the service together and he was like a father to me. But when he leaned in and tried to kiss me I knew he looked at me differently. I told him if he promised to never make a move on me like that again that I would forget it. But if he did it again, he would be cut out of my operation and my life forever. He never did.

  After sitting at the house for what felt like forever, Ngozi and some older woman pulled up in a silver BMW. We stooped down a little in our seats to avoid being seen.

  “That’s him,” I said to Sarge. “I’d know that face anywhere.”

  We waited for them to get out of the car and go into the house. When they were inside I sat up straight and said, “Let’s go get that nigga.”

  All of us crept toward the house like we were in the field in Saudi Arabia. I realized I was in my element. War would always have a part of my heart, which was probably why I always found myself submerged in drama.

  When we got up to the house Sarge moved toward me. “How do you want to get in?” he asked.

  I crept toward the front door and kicked it in. “Like this!”

  My men flooded the house and me and Sarge approached Ngozi and the older woman who were standing in the living room. They appeared caught off guard.

  The other soldiers went through the house to make sure the coast was clear. Sarge’s gun was aimed at Ngozi and the woman and I stood in silence, staring at one another.

  “What are you doing here?” Ngozi asked me.

  My head tilted and I stared at him. Where was his African accent? The one Scarlett loved so much because she said it gave him international appeal.

  “The house is clear,” one of my men said as he and the others stood behind Ngozi and the woman. They were armed and ready.

  “Who are you?” I asked Ngozi.

  He cleared his throat and suddenly his accent returned. “I’m Ngozi. I—”

  I smacked him with the butt of my gun and his tooth flew out of his mouth and spun on the hardwood floor like a spinning top.

  “Who are you?” I repeated.

  He stared down at the floor, bloody mouth and all. He resembled a kid who’d been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Except his hand was about to be chopped off instead of slapped.

  “My name is Nathan Avenues.”

  I moved closer toward him and my soldiers tightened in on both of them. “I don’t give a fuck about your name. I want to know who you are.”

  He looked at the floor. “I’m, I’m working for—”

  “The Russians,” I said shaking my head.

  I felt so fucking stupid. How did I not see this coming? It made so much sense now. This dude came into the picture right about the time Kevin and our men came back. The Russians must’ve hired him to get the connect information they wanted from me.

  “I’m sorry,” he said, “I didn’t.”

  I put my hand out to shut him up. “What’s going on with Scarlett? Even if it was about the money, why would you tell her you put a hex on her? I’m not understanding.”

  “We got carried away,” the older woman said in a Boston accent. “She told Nathan, or Ngozi, that she was afraid of the occult. Me and Nathan have been married for five years and when he told me what the Russians wanted I thought of a way to get it. So I brought to life what she was already scared of.”

  I felt my pressure boiling over. “Where’s Master?”

  Nathan looked at his wife. “Master? Who’s that?”

  “The baby. Where is the fucking baby? Don’t play games with me.”

  “On my life I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  I figured he wasn’t involved. Scarlett had some questions to answer.

  “Did you burn down my house?”

  “No,” he said under his breath. “But I’m not going to lie, I did use it to my advantage when she approached me. I figured if she thought I was capable of something like that she would give me what I wanted. The Russians threatened to kill me and my wife. I was afraid.”

  “But there was accelerant all over the house. Only somebody with access to our home could’ve done that.”

  “It wasn’t me. That’s all I can tell you. I did give her the voodoo doll but that was the extent of it. I swear on my life!”

  I don’t know why but something told me he was telling the truth.

  I looked over at Sarge. In my heart I knew he didn’t have anything to do with the baby going missing or the fire but I couldn’t tell Scarlett. Right now there was one thing on my mind, taking him back to the house. I figured if Scarlett heard this dude speaking in perfect English that she would know he was a fake. But that was only the beginning of my plan.

  CHAPTER FORTY

  BAMBI

  Ngozi and his wife were on the floor in Scarlett’s room bound and gagged. Sarge and my other soldiers hung around them in case they made a move. Race stood against the wall and I carefully walked over to Scarlett’s bed and sat down on the edge of it.

  “Scarlett,” I said softly. “I need you to wake up.”

  She moaned a little and said, “What’s going on?”

  “Open your eyes.” I paused. “I have something for you. Somebody I want you to see.”

  She slowly opened her eyes and looked into mine. “What is it?”

  “Ngozi is here.”

  She looked horrified and moved toward the edge of the bed as if he was about to kill her. “What is he doing here? Don’t let him get me! Don’t let him hurt me.”

  “Scarlett,” I placed my hand on her arm, “he’s not going to hurt you.” I nodded toward the floor. “Now look at him.”

  Her upper body rested against the headboard. “How do you know?” she asked shivering.

  “Because he’s a fake. He’s not from Africa or anywhere else. He’s working with the Russians. They were using him to get to you.”

  I looked into her eyes to see how much she knew. I could tell she wasn’t totally innocent. What the Russians didn’t know was that I didn’t leave the connect information lying around. I kept that in the safest place on earth: my mind.

  I walked over to Ngozi and kicked him. I snatched the tape off his mouth. “Tell her. Tell her the fucking truth.”

  Ngozi ran his tongue over his lips I guess because they were dry. “I’m sorry, Scarlett,” he said. “I really am. I didn’t know things would go so far.”

  Race walked over to them too. Up until that moment she didn’t know he didn’t have an African accent or that he was gaming Scarlett. I didn’t have a chance to explain anything to her when we first got here because time was of the essence.

  “Wait, this nigga not from Africa?” Race asked.

  “No,” I said in disgust. “He’s from Virginia, Alexandria to be exact. Not too far from the Woodrow Wilson Bridge.”

  Scarlett sat up in bed. She was still flushed but already she was looking better.

  “So she didn’t put a curse on me?” Scarlett asked looking at his wife.

  “Why y’all not talking?” I asked looking down at the wife. “Tell her what type of shit y’all on.”

  “I’m his wife, Scarlett,” she said in a shaky voice. “And I didn’t put anything on you. I don’t even know voodoo. I knew you were afraid so I decided to play a little with your mind. It was all a game. I wasn’t trying to hurt anybody.”

  “What did you put on my face at the train station?”

  “Spit,” she said with a stupid smile.

  I didn’t know what they were talking about but I knew it was making Scarlett feel better. I could tell.

  “Well if they didn’t do anything to me, why am I sick?”
she asked me as if I were a doctor.

  “Because you making yourself sick. Maybe you got something on your heart that you have to get off. Only you know the real answer to that.”

  “Fuck all that. Where’s the baby?” Race asked Ngozi.

  I raised my gun and shot Nathan before he gave an answer. And then I shot his wife. Their blood drained out of their bodies and into our carpet.

  “Why you do that shit?” Race yelled angrily. “We don’t know where Master is!”

  I don’t know why I chose to protect the fact that Scarlett lied on him about kidnapping the baby but I did. I made a decision to find out from her later where Master was and I didn’t want Race involved. Not right now anyway. Besides, she had her own problems to deal with.

  “I killed him because he didn’t know anything,” I said to her. “I asked him when I picked him up from the house.”

  I sat on the edge of Scarlett’s bed. “I need you to get yourself together. And I need you to do it quickly. You can’t let somebody get in your head like that again. It’s dangerous to you. It’s dangerous to your family and it’s dangerous to our operation. Am I clear, Scarlett? Because there can be no more mistakes.”

  She leaned back in bed and gave me the thank you for keeping my secret look.

  “We’re clear,” she said smiling. She touched my hand. “And thank you.”

  As I looked over at her I realized there were still some unanswered questions. For instance, if Ngozi didn’t burn the house down, who did?

  CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

  *THE DAY THE HOUSE BURNT DOWN*

  Jasmine was in her room playing with one of her dolls on the floor. She was combing the doll’s hair and decided that she wanted to make her face as pretty as her mother’s but she didn’t have any makeup. But she was smart enough to know where some was.

  So Jasmine took her doll and walked downstairs to the basement to aunt Race’s studio where she kept all of the pretty makeup and scary props.

  Ramirez warned Race about locking the door but with everything going on in her life, Race didn’t remember. And because of it a child was able to get into the dangerous area.

  When she made it downstairs, Jasmine placed the doll on the silver worktable and grabbed a small can of red paint from one of the counters. She’d seen her aunt Race use it on many occasions when she would sneak in her studio unnoticed.

  Jasmine twisted the cap off of the paint, grabbed a paintbrush and painted the doll’s lips red. But it was sloppy and not as nice as the work she’d seen Race do so she wanted her mother’s help.

  Jasmine grabbed the cylinder of paint remover she also saw Race use and her doll. She walked up the steps to get her mother. Jasmine didn’t realize that the paint remover was open and leaving a trail from the basement to her parent’s bedroom.

  Jasmine placed the cylinder down along with her doll by the door and knocked hard.

  “Who is it?” Denim yelled while she and Bradley made love in the bedroom.

  Jasmine was scared and didn’t know how to answer so she remained silent. She could tell her mother was frustrated. Denim, thinking someone was playing grew irritated.

  “Who the fuck is it?” Denim yelled louder. “I’m not playing!”

  “Mommy,” Jasmine said softly. “Can you help me?”

  Denim didn’t hear her daughter ask for help but she did hear her say mommy. But Denim was making love to her husband and didn’t want to be disturbed. With the case over Bradley’s head for breaking Grainger’s jaw, she wanted to spend some alone time with him because she didn’t know how much longer he would be free.

  “Wait a minute, Jasmine,” Denim yelled. “Come back later!”

  Disappointed, Jasmine grabbed her doll and the cylinder and went to the kitchen downstairs, spilling the paint remover the entire way. She placed the doll and the cylinder on the counter.

  She was going to pour herself some orange juice but when she opened a drawer she saw some matches in a tiny red box.

  Jasmine had seen her mother fire up blunts when she thought Jasmine was sleep so she knew how to light matches. She opened the small box, removed a stick and struck it against the side of the box. Her eyes brightened when she saw the spectacular orange flame before her.

  Fascinated she blew it out and did it five more times. But the sixth time the match fell out of her hand and dropped to the floor, directly into the paint remover.

  The fire immediately caught onto the carpet and then the kitchen towels. Afraid, Jasmine grabbed her doll and hid in the bathroom, some feet over from the kitchen.

  Because the paint remover was everywhere, it only took seconds for the house to be engulfed in flames. And since aunt Bunny removed the batteries from the fire detector before she was murdered, to enact a future plan to kill Bambi, the detectors didn’t work and the fire ignited.

  Little Jasmine was burned alive in the bathroom.

  CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

  BAMBI

  When I walked into our kitchen, Scarlett was sitting at the table eating the homemade chicken soup I made earlier. The house was pretty quiet. So much had happened since we killed Ngozi.

  Race was looking for a house of her own and told me she filed for divorce. Camp and Scarlett banded together to find their son and Kevin and I barely spoke anymore. Denim was always at the jail visiting Bradley and when she wasn’t there she was over her mother’s house trying to calm her down because Grainger was still missing. My twins were in college with round the clock security even though they didn’t want it.

  Everybody was doing their own thing, but it was virtually impossible to get a day like this because somebody was always coming and going in the cottage. But today was different. It was just Scarlett and me.

  “Hey, Bambi,” Scarlett said before sipping some hot soup from a huge yellow cup. “It’s quiet around here right? How you feeling?”

  I walked over to the counter and grabbed a white soup bowl. Then I walked to the stove and scooped out some soup. I carefully walked to the table and sat down. I tasted the soup. It was just right.

  “I’m fine.”

  She looked over at me. “You don’t look like it.”

  I smiled. “When are you going to tell me what really happened to Master?”

  She sat the soup cup down. “I don’t know what happened to him,” she said under her breath. “But I hope we find him soon.”

  I just stared at her. I wanted her to know that I could see right through her. She placed a thick strand of hair behind her ear.

  “What, Bambi? Why are you looking at me like that?”

  “Where’s the baby?” I asked firmly. “Is he alive or not?”

  She stared ahead of her and a tear rolled down her face. “You always knew me. When everyone else saw around me, you always knew the truth. Why?”

  “Because I care. Now is he alive?”

  “Yes.”

  I looked down into my soup at a piece of celery floating around in the bowl. “Why would you get rid of him like that? This doesn’t make any sense, Scarlett.”

  She sighed. “I have a few reasons. But it was mainly because I couldn’t take care of him anymore, Bambi. I’m dangerous with a child. I don’t trust myself. You know that. I figured this way the baby would have a chance at a real life.”

  “But we would’ve helped you. Your sisters and me. You wouldn’t have cared for him alone. You had three other women willing to pick up the slack.”

  She smirked. “How? I mean let’s be realistic, Bambi. You got your hands full with Melo and Noah and don’t get me started on whatever you got popping off with Kevin. Even if you couldn’t help me let’s suppose I tried to rely on Denim. Who by the way likes me every other day and then hates me the rest of the week. She’s focused on Bradley and the fact that her sister is missing. The only person who’s left is Race. And when am I going to get a hold of her? She stays in the streets checking on the operation and when she’s not she’s out trying to find a new house. There’s no way that you or an
ybody else would’ve been able to help me with Master. I would’ve been all alone. Now imagine a sick mind alone with a helpless baby. I know my limits, Bambi. Trust me. So I had to give him away to protect his life.”

  I put my head down because she was right. “I wish you would’ve come to me. We could’ve figured something out better. Instead you got everybody wearing ‘Find Master’ t-shirts when you know he’s never coming home. God forbid Camp ever finds out what you did with his son.”

  “Well, I guess we all got secrets, huh?”

  “Not me. Kevin knows what happened to his aunt now. I’m secret free.”

  “For now,” she said sipping more soup. “But you and I both know that you collect new secrets everyday.”

  “Where did you leave him?”

  “With a family I found when I first discovered I was pregnant. Before Camp came back.” She sighed. “They are a God fearing family and they will love Master very much. That’s why there were no reports of the baby being found in the news. He’s safe with them. I’ll give you the address so you can check on him from time to time yourself. Just don’t knock on the door or let them see you.” She paused and in a lower voice said, “I’ve driven by the house a lot. Trust me, he has a much better mother than I could ever be.”

  “I hope what you’re doing is right.”

  “It has to be,” she replied. “But look, I don’t wanna talk about that anymore. What’s going on with the Russians?”

  “I thought about them a lot. They couldn’t get what they wanted from me or you so what happens next?”

  She looked up at the ceiling as if she was trying to figure it out. “I don’t know,” She shrugged.

  “Well I do. So pack a bag. We’re taking a trip.”

  EPILOGUE

  The sun was beaming in Monetary, Mexico as Mitch McKenzie, the Kennedy Kings’ connect, blasted Caribbean music in his brick mansion. When his doorbell rang he grabbed the remote control and pressed a button. The music was reduced instantly. He waited for his wife to answer it but she must’ve been in the garden behind their home.