by W. S. Greer
“Ssshhhh,” was all Kelvin said, as he slowly pressed on the gas and made a left. We came to another stop sign, and Kelvin made another left, onto my street. He slowed the car down to a crawl, and then pulled over and parked in front of a house that was three houses down from my own, and turned the engine off.
Kelvin leaned forward in his seat and scanned the street. I didn’t know what he was looking for, but I followed his gaze, and I immediately recognized the black BMW parked directly across the street from my house.
I gasped loudly, drawing Kelvin’s gaze. “There’s the car I’ve seen watching my house a few times. The one your dad said he sent.”
Kelvin furrowed his brow and turned his attention back to the street, staring at the back of the BMW like it’d pissed him off somehow.
We sat in the car for about twenty minutes with nothing happening. The BMW just sat in front of my house with absolutely no movement at all, and I found myself confused and bored.
“I don’t understand, Kelvin,” I finally spoke up. “If your dad says he sent this car to check on me, why are we sitting out here staring at the back of it?”
“Because Deshaun told me not to let you out of my sight.”
Suddenly, just as Kelvin finished his vague statement, the driver side door of the BMW popped open. I sat up in my seat and leaned forward so I could see who was about to step out. I was expecting a young black man—someone who worked for Senior—but the reality was much different.
A young white man wearing black jeans, and a black leather jacket stepped out of the car. The road was dark, so I couldn’t see too much of him, but I saw enough to know that this guy probably didn’t work for Senior.
“Who the fuck is that?” I asked Kelvin, who was staring at the man like he was ready to kill him.
“I don’t know who he is,” Kelvin replied with an intense anger in his voice. “All I know is that he’s not one of ours.”
I stared out the windshield in absolute horror as the unknown man walked across the street towards my house. As he walked, I noticed him looking around, seemingly making sure that no one was watching him. If he’d done a better job of that, he would’ve noticed that someone was watching him.
The man walked into my yard and up to one of my windows. I gasped as he leaned forward and placed his hands above his eyes and peered in, trying to see inside my house.
“Oh my god. What the fuck is he doing?” I exclaimed in a total panic.
“He’s looking for you,” Kelvin replied aggressively, his tone low and intense.
We both stared at the man as he continued to look through my window. After a minute or two, he gave up his search and started making his way back towards the car. Just as he reached for the handle on the door, I could vaguely make out the tattoos on his hand. It was the same man from my dream. The cop from Marianna’s.
“Oh my god,” I mumbled to myself, just as the man closed the door, started the BMW and drove away.
“I knew it,” Kelvin said, shaking his head back and forth. “That’s what Deshaun wanted to tell me. That’s why he said for me to not let you out of my sight—because he knew my dad was lying to me about protecting you.”
“What the fuck! What does that mean?”
“It means it wasn’t us who was watching you. It was the Russians. It’s been them the whole time. They’ve been right outside your door, and my dad wasn’t going to do anything to stop them.”
Calm.
There was something different about Kelvin the moment he realized the man in the BMW wasn’t a Carter, but a member of the Baskov crime family. I was expecting him to blow up in a fit of pure anger, and to drive at light speed over to his father’s casino to confront him, but that’s not how it happened. Instead, Kelvin let out a loud sigh, and his face turned into a blank stare as he drove down the street in silence. He was calm.
I sat next to him and thought about what must be running through his head right now. Just this morning, Senior was in the penthouse telling us all about how he was going to protect us and how we needed to trust him, and let him handle the situation. Kelvin told him not to let him down, and in the end, that’s exactly what Senior did—he let Kelvin down, and from the look on his face, it was going to be for the last time.
I couldn’t help but think about how all of this affected me as well. Here I was, thinking that my house was being watched and protected by Senior’s blessing, but the truth of the matter was that I was being watched and followed by the Russians, who could’ve rushed into my house and killed me at any moment. No one would’ve been there to stop them. So, the question for me was, what now? How was I supposed to move on from this? How could I even look at Senior after he stood in the living room and lied to my face about how he hoped we could have a good relationship? And, most of all, what the hell were Kelvin and I going to do without The Family’s protection?
As the questions bounced off the walls in my head, Kelvin drove down the highway in silence, staring out the window with a calm aggression permeating his face. His head was down, but his eyes were up, peering through the windshield. His look was so intense that I was almost afraid to talk to him, but I needed to know what we were going to do next. Everything had just changed, and I needed answers.
“What are we gonna do now, Kelvin?” I asked, feeling my own tinge of anger beginning to build up as I thought about it all.
It took Kelvin a second to answer me. After licking his lips and exhaling, he finally spoke up.
“Not sure yet,” he said in a tone so deep it was almost a growl.
“Okay,” I replied. “So, where are we going?”
“Royal Flush.”
“To talk to your dad? What are you gonna say? What are you gonna do?”
“Not sure yet.”
“Maybe it isn’t such a good idea to go talk to him until we think about…”
“Nah,” Kelvin interrupted. “No more thinking. It’s time to stop thinking and start acting.”
With that, I stopped talking. Kelvin obviously was in no mood for questions or trying to figure out answers. He was in a different zone, and it seemed like he just needed me to support him with my silence. So, I bottled it up, and never let my thoughts or the questions in my head escape my mouth.
When we pulled up to the Royal Flush, Kelvin chose not to go to the entrance and use the valet, opting to park underneath the building himself. It was dimly lit in the basement, just like the one at the Red Chip, and we used a private elevator just like the Red Chip as well.
When we reached the conference room floor, the hallway was brightly lit, but eerily quiet. There were no hotel rooms on this floor, just a long, white hall with no windows on either side, leading down to the massive doors to the conference room that Senior and his brothers seemed to live in these days.
With every step we took, I grew more anxious, but I also found myself becoming angrier and angrier. Thinking about all the things that Senior had assured us on more than one occasion, and how much trust I’d chosen to put into him made me furious.
How could he just stand in his son’s house and lie to his face like that? What kind of father would do that to his own son? I knew that I’d be lying to myself if I believed that Senior actually cared about me, but Kelvin was his son—the only son who survived the shooting that killed his other son. Didn’t that count for something? The more I thought about it all, the more I began to understand why Kelvin seemed to have changed the way he did when he saw the Russian in front of my house. He was fed up, and tired of being lied to by the person who he was supposed to trust and love. He’d had his heart and his trust broken enough, and it was time for a change. So, as I walked next to him, on our way to confront Senior, I agreed—it was time for a change, and I would support him however he wanted to change. I was ready.
Kelvin calmly pushed the door open and stepped through as if it was a normal day—as if he hadn’t just learned his father was a lying bastard. The conference room wasn’t as packed as it usually was. I�
�d grown accustomed to the doors swinging open and seeing all the Carter brothers seated at the oversized table, but today there was only three—Tommy, Clarence, and Senior.
Clarence and Tommy were seated at the table in complete silence. Both of them were wearing black slacks with black button ups, but Clarence was the one wearing a silver tie, while Tommy left his top button undone. The moment we walked in, both of their heads snapped in our direction, giving away the fact that they certainly weren’t expecting company.
Senior, on the other hand, was seated on the red couch wearing an all-black suit with a baby-blue tie, and talking on his cell phone. When he saw us walk in, his demeanor didn’t change at all, but I saw his eyes dart over to Clarence and Tommy, and the two of them responded accordingly as they both got up and walked towards Kelvin and me.
“Hey, now’s not a good time, Junior,” Clarence said as he approached us with his hands out, palms facing us.
“Uncle Clarence,” Kelvin growled, “I love you, but if you put your hands on me or Lilliana, it’s gonna be problem.”
I gasped, and Clarence and Tommy both stopped walking as they stared at Kelvin. When I noticed the startled expression on their faces, I had to look up at Kelvin to see what was going on.
The look on his face was probably the most intimidating face I’d ever seen him make. The weird thing about it was that he didn’t have his brow furrowed. He wasn’t squinting, and his face wasn’t full of the tension that it usually got when he was angry. The face he was making now seemed far less emotional, yet much more intimidating. His eyes had a glare to them that I hadn’t seen in them before. A glare that told all of us who were looking at him that something about him was different, and it wasn’t something to be fucked with. He stared at his uncle without flinching and barely even blinking. He was dead serious, and Clarence and Tommy both knew it.
As the two of them anxiously stared at Kelvin, he turned his attention to his father, who was still talking on the phone. Kelvin started walking towards him and I followed his lead, leaving Clarence and Tommy still gawking behind us.
“Well, as much as I fucking hate it, I haven’t taken my eyes off the bigger picture here,” Senior said aggressively into the phone. “This isn’t about emotions, or people’s feelings. This is about business. This is about money, and it’s about power. So, we’re not letting any other personal shit get in the way, and you do whatever it is that you have to do to make sure that this deal happens. This benefits the both of us, so let’s keep our eyes on the prize. Stay focused, okay?” After a brief pause, Senior continued. “Okay. Great. That works out perfect then, because I have to go. I have company.”
When he hung up, Kelvin didn’t waste a second. “Who was that? Another one of your scandalous business partners? Another crooked scheme you snaked your way into?”
Senior sat back and crossed his legs. “Oh, that was just Mr. None of Your Fucking Business. Now, do you mind telling me why you’re here?” Senior scanned the room behind us. “And why you don’t have James with you?”
“Don’t worry about James,” Kelvin replied. “I’m not here to talk about James… well not just yet.” Kelvin reached behind him and pulled two of the leather chairs from the conference table over to us, and we both sat down in front of Senior. As I made myself comfortable, I looked up and caught him glaring at me. I could tell he was wondering just what the hell I was doing sitting down as if I was a part of this conversation, but I no longer gave a fuck what he thought.
“I see,” Senior continued. “You even brought the missus over here with you. You both gonna talk to me about whatever this is about?” he said with a condescending chuckle.
“I’m here to talk to you, but if Lilliana wants to say something, she can and she will. But, right now, I think it’s important that you focus on what it is that I have to say, and don’t get distracted by anybody else in the room.”
Senior raised his eyebrows at Kelvin in surprise. “Well, you’re looking all boss-like tonight aren’t you? Go ahead, Son, give it to me.”
Kelvin leaned forward in his seat and placed his elbows on his knees. “Let me clue you in on what just happened.”
“I’m all ears.”
“We’d had a lovely night in the penthouse with our friends tonight, and as they were leaving, one of them said to me, ‘Don’t you let her out of your sight.’ When she said it, it reminded me of one of the last things Uncle Deshaun said to me before he went missing. He told me that he needed to talk to me about some stuff, pertaining to you. He told me that I was right about you, and he had some very important stuff to tell me about you, and then he told me that I shouldn’t let Lilliana out of my sight until I talked to him. I never saw him again after that, so he never got to tell what he was talking about. However, his words stuck with me, and I took it as a sign when our friend unknowingly said those exact same words to me tonight. So, I grabbed Lilliana, we jumped in the car, and I drove to her house. When I got there, do you know what I saw?”
“A big blue bunny rabbit, hopping down the street,” Senior answered sarcastically, laughing to himself.
“No,” Kelvin said with a forced, fake chuckle. “Even better. I saw a black BMW sitting outside of her house. It was parked across the street with its lights off.
Now, you might remember a few days ago when I asked you if you’d sent anybody over to Lilliana’s house, because she told me she’d been seeing a car parked outside. And you told me that she didn’t have to worry, because the car was one of ours. You told me that you were looking out for her, and not to worry. Then, you came over to my house and repeated that same bullshit to both of our faces. You said you were gonna protect her, and that I should trust you to take care of the situation.”
“Okay, I don’t have time for this storytelling bullshit, Junior. What the fuck is your point?”
“The guy in the BMW didn’t see that we were parked a few houses behind him. Little did he know, Lilliana’s been staying with me at the penthouse for the last few days, so she hasn’t been home. Seeing that the lights were out, the guy gets out of the car, and lo and behold, he’s not one of your guys after all. He’s Russian. And he walks up to Lilliana’s window and peeks in, trying to see if she’s there. When he realizes that she’s not, he walks back over to his car, gets in, and drives away.”
The look on Senior’s face wasn’t one of panic, but one of defiance. He looked pissed that Kelvin had found out the truth, and I could see that he was about to explode.
“Okay,” Senior jumped in. “So, that wasn’t one of my guys that time, but…”
“Don’t you sit here and fucking lie to me again,” Kelvin barked. “I’ve had enough of sitting next to you and listening to you lie to me. I should’ve known better than to trust you, and my uncle tried to warn me. But I’ve learned my lesson now.”
“Okay. Fine. I didn’t have anybody watching Lily’s house. She’s not a fucking member of this family, Junior. I was only looking out for you. You’re my son, and I wanted to protect you, and I did that, so you’re just gonna have to let the other shit go. I’m tired of having this discussion about this girl that you’ve known for six months. I’m tired of you being all sensitive, like a fucking little baby. Why don’t you man up? Act like a man. Fab would never be as sensitive as you. Your brother knew how to take care of business.”
“You know, you’re right. I’m not like Fab. I used to want to be, but that ended a while back. Right around the time he got killed because he got caught in the middle of some of your bullshit. It was then that I realized that I was proud that I wasn’t like him. Because he was just like you. He wanted the power, and he wanted the money.
I loved my brother, but I knew he would’ve done anything to get where you are. You were his idle, and it killed him. So, no, I don’t want to be like Fab. I’m something completely different. I’m something much better. And that’s why I’m done fucking with you.”
“You’re done fucking with me? You do realize that you’re living
in a casino/hotel that I own, don’t you? The Red Chip is one of my business establishments. So, as long as you’re living there, you’ll do as I say, because I’m the boss of this family, boy. Not you. So, as much as I appreciate you trying to come in here and act all tough in front of your girl, the truth of it is that you don’t run shit, and in the end, you’re gonna do what I tell you to do. End of story.”
“The Red Chip might be in your name, but I’m the one who runs that place. You signed half of it over to me after Fab died, so we both own it, and I’m not going any fucking where. All I asked was for you to protect Lilliana while she wasn’t with me, and you lied to me about it. I wonder what else you’re lying about. Nonetheless, I’m done with you. I don’t need your protection, and I don’t want it.”
Senior began exaggerating a laugh, slapping his knee. “That’s hilarious. Without me, they’ll kill you, and if she’s around when it happens, they’ll kill her too.”
“I don’t give a fuck what you say. Lily and I don’t need to hear any more of your bullshit. I’m not fucking kidding. I’m done with your shit. I’ll run the everyday business of the Red Chip, but as far as this is concerned, we’re done. I’ll handle shit on my own. At least Lilliana knows she can trust me.”
“Don’t be a fucking idiot, Junior.”
“Stop fucking calling me Junior. I’m not your little Junior anymore. I’m not a mini version of you. My name is Kelvin.”
Kelvin rose from his seat and extended his hand for me to take. I took it, and he helped me to stand up. Senior just sat there as we turned around and started walking towards the exit, where Clarence and Tommy were still standing.
“Don’t be stupid Kelvin,” Senior bellowed. “You better be sure about this. You want to be Mr. Tough Shit? It’ll come back to haunt you. The Russians will kill you. Do you hear me? They’ll kill you. You need us. Are you sure you want to separate yourself from The Family?”
