"Let's get to the car," I muttered.
"You driving this time?"
"You bet."
My brother and I hastened from Selena's apartment out the door. I'd parked my car on the street and already received a hefty ticket. No matter -- as long as we made it to Selena in one piece. The Valducci family was a large mafia family that had pockets all over the Eastern seaboard. They were known for one thing: their ability to get away with murder.
My father's miserable dealings required contact with them. Since my father had died, they'd been largely out of work. Selena had kept in contact and now she planned on defying the explicit peace agreement we'd come to with Gail Holloway. If she succeeded in harming any of the Holloways, all bets would be off. It would be a summer of bloodshed, espionage, and devastation.
With billions of dollars on the table, there was more than one way to ruin a man. Death might not be certain for all of us, but our resources would be bled dry trying to plug those leaks. The drain of money and of energy could certainly send me to an early grave.
"She couldn't be so stupid..." Ames muttered as I sped down the street.
"She's not stupid -- just drunk."
"Drunk off power," he grumbled.
"Drunk off the power. Drunk off ambition. Drunk off this bloody family feud."
Time is running out. My brother and I rushed to the street into the back of the leather seated town car. Selena was making a mistake. A huge one. If we didn't get to her in time we would both be the ones paying the price.
Gail Holloway had been serious about the consequences she intended to meet out for whoever refused to obey her demands. Peace. Feud or not, we weren't to step outside of her boundaries.
"Can this damn car hurry up..." I muttered.
"Patience brother."
Patience was hard to come by. I had tried to keep what was going on away from Indie but it would only be a matter of time before she found out too. Tempers had bubbled over and I feared my cousin would hurt someone. She had the temperament for it and a fury at the Holloway family that had never subsided.
Selena was rash. While my father was calculated in his rages, Selena was much more unfettered -- an unfortunate family trait.
Through clever and intrusive research we found out that Jamal and Donnie were at a park. This was a place where they usually spent time with a few of their friends, a few blocks away from Jamal's apartment. Once we arrived at the park, we saw Selena's car parked a few blocks down.
"You think she's there?" Ames asked.
I pointed out the car and saw his jaw visibly clench as he noticed it. We had both entertained the naïve hope that Selena wouldn't take her anger too far. Now, we realized that we were wrong. The town car pulled to stop and we swung the doors open, hastening to the park's entrance.
Once we stepped past the greenery at the entrance down a small cobblestone path, the lights in the park illuminated a disturbing scene.
Selena had pulled her hair back into a slick bun and she wore black leggings and a hoodie which did little to obscure her identity. If subtlety had been the goal, she had been unsuccessful.
Standing across from her, a tall dark skinned figure with his palms raised stood -- no words coming out of his mouth. Selena's hand trembled over the trigger. The other Holloway held a gun, pointing it directly at Selena's face.
"Don't you dare pull that trigger. If you shoot, you'll be in deeper shit than you already are," I growled.
"She'd better shoot," Donnie Holloway replied, "If she doesn't shoot, I will."
Who was who became clearer as my brother and I drew closer.
"Donnie," Jamal replied, "She ain't gonna shoot. Her cousins are here. Now put the gun down. If you do this, there's no getting out of it."
So Jamal wasn't crazy. Whatever our cousins had gotten up to had gotten out of hand. They'd pushed their limits and it was up to us, the reluctant patriarchs of our families to set things under control again. My thudding heart steadied as we drew closer.
I wasn't afraid of what could happen. Rather, I was invigorated by the struggle and convinced that we could all make it out unscathed despite the roaring tempers on both sides of the feud.
My brother stepped forward, unperturbed by the fact that our cousin had a gun pointed at the heir of one of the wealthiest families in the country.
She'd actually gone and done it. She'd lost her mind enough to sneak up on Donnie and Jamal. She hadn't anticipated them being ready for her. And now neither of us could be certain we'd make it out alive. I knew Donnie could shoot. So could Selena, but I had my bets on Donnie when it came to marksmen.
My brother attempted to be the voice of reason.
"Selena put the gun down. If you don't put the gun down you're going to go to jail for a very long time and nothing Rich and I do will be able to stop them."
"I'm not putting the gun down, Ames."
"You have to," I added, "I demand that you put it down."
I wasn't used to having my requests denied, but Selena kept her finger positioned over the trigger.
"For what? I'll kill them both and we can get out of here. I'll be solving more problems if there are no more Holloway men on this earth to screw with us. No more feud, no more acquisition, we will finally be free of them. Nothing's going to happen to us. We are Carmichaels."
Her cold response curdled my blood. As deep as our family feud went, my brother and I had never taken it this far. Of course, there had been bar fights. Of course, our father had done some unspeakable things. But thus far, my brother and myself had been committed to Gail Holloway's proclamation of peace. Selena had taken after the founder of Carmichael Inc. and she had taken his cold-blooded mentality to a new level.
Her green eyes glowed almost reptilian beneath the evening light.
"The police are on the way, Selena. Put the gun down," my brother growled again.
We had both been prepared for violence, but neither of us had anticipated murder.
Selena had lost her mind. That had to be the only explanation. Pain seared from my chest all the way up to my head. My tongue went dry as I prepared to issue another scathing command.
Selena considered lowering the gun for a brief moment, but instead, she pointed it with the aim to shoot.
"I will let you go to prison," Ames hissed.
I wasn't going to wait for Selena to decide to have a change of heart. As my brother kept her attention, attempting to talk her down from committing a murder, I snuck up behind her. As I approached a few feet away she whipped around. If I didn't hit her swiftly, she would make quick work of me.
I caught her just in time, grabbing her thin arm that repelled my grasp with immense force. She screamed and pulled the trigger, firing a bullet into the air. Her firing triggered another gunshot. This time, the gunshot had been aimed at her. She emitted an intense shriek and her body crumpled in my brother's arms. My brother rushed her as I grabbed her hand.
"What the hell were you thinking?" I roared.
I wasn't sure if I was talking to her, or to Donnie, the person who had just fired. The shock surged through me with fierce intensity. The sound from the gunshot drowned out the noise of the city and dragged me into unfortunate mindfulness of the moment.
The danger at hand, the life bleeding out of my cousin and the armed Holloways rushed into my reality. Cold and aloof wouldn't do to get me out of this one.
As the realization of what my cousin had started began to set in, I realized that she'd been hit. A bullet had pierced her flesh and a gush of blood erupted from her veins.
She screamed again and blood gushed from the wound. My brother held her as she screamed. She choked and then blood started to erupt from her mouth like a hellish volcano. Her body shook as her blood began to spill back into her mouth.
"DO SOMETHING!" My brother cried.
I had always been the tougher one in emergencies, but I was frozen. Donnie dropped his weapon to the ground.
This was no time for emotion. I had to act. Cars were pulli
ng up next to the park and I recognized one of them. Indie. She was here. And her cousin had just killed my own.
I roared again, unable to contain my anger.
"You can't do this!"
My cheeks grew hot with rage. I could feel my fists clenching against my will. Donnie had dropped to his knees, shaken with surprise by what he had done. Selena convulsed a few more times in my brother's arms, but then the convulsions stopped. I called an ambulance but by the time I called, I knew it would be too late.
Jamal stayed put with his hands in the air. He had no choice. What would the police think, finding a tall black man standing alone in the park at night after a gun had just been fired? Donnie wept, now crying out in loud convulsing sobs.
Shame, rage, and fury bubbled within my chest. Selena. They'd killed Selena. Even if she'd instigated this mess, they'd both managed to escape unharmed. And now, my cousin lay dead. My brother laid her on the ground, propping her head up against his lap as if he maintained some vain hope of resuscitation.
I thrust my hands in my pockets as the blue and red lights drew closer and as Indie Holloway stepped out of her car.
Death Toll
INDIE
I heard the gunshot from a block away. I had prayed that whatever happened at the park, my brother and cousin would remain unharmed. Jamal had messaged me and I had guessed from Rich's hasty departure that something terrible had happened. Or was happening.
I had no clue what to expect but my night had taken a U-turn.
Please, don't do anything stupid, I mumbled to myself as if my brother and cousin could hear me. Any wrong move could start an all-out war, turning this feud into a series of assassination attempts or worse. This sounds dramatic but with millions of dollars at our disposal, it would have been too easy for a battle to involve real lives lost.
My car sidled up to the park where my brother and cousin frequented. I recalled walking over there in the fall with pumpkin spice lattes for both of them. They were too embarrassed to order "girly drinks" and even if I rolled my eyes at them, I'd treat them anyway.
The cops hadn't arrived yet another had the ambulance. The sounds from both rang through the air as they approached, ominous arbiters of the doom that was to follow. The park looked different than it did in the summer. I noticed the scraggly black branches, the shadowy corners and the still silence that contrasted the buzzing in the city.
I stepped out of the car, my legs trembling as I attempted to balance in my heels. This was wrong. This wasn't supposed to be happening. Rich and I should have been well on our way across the country. Instead, I arrived at the park and saw Richard standing, his hands covered in blood. It took a few moments for me to piece the scene together.
My heart thumped so loud, I could barely hear the voices as I approached. Blood pumped adrenaline through my veins as I pieced together the scene.
My brother and cousin stood unharmed. Jamal's hands were in the air but Donnie kneeled on the ground crying out in anguish.
Ames kneeled on the cobblestone earth too. Instead of cries of anguish, he was dead silent. In his arms lay Selena. As soon as I looked at her, I knew she was dead. The gun that remained clutched between Donnie's fingers and I knew that he had been the one to pull the trigger. My stomach churned.
My heart stopped and my head immediately grew woozy. I thought I would faint. The hot smell of a just-fired gun and the iron smell of blood filled the air. Bile rose to the back of my throat.
Before I could say anything, Rich turned away from me. It was as if he couldn't bear to see me. I couldn't bear to look him in the eye either. Our family feud had bubbled up and pierced through our fantasy that we could ever belong together. This is what happens when you put Holloways and Carmichaels together. One way or the other, someone ends up getting screwed.
Ames lay Selena's head on the concrete and then stood with the rage burning behind his eyes. I had only just seen him earlier and he'd betrayed none of this potential for anger.
The gravity of what my family had just done surged through me, but I was in too much shock to make much emotional work of it. I could only watch, astounded, my mind racing as I tried to figure out what to do. What would our mother think, I wondered.
"I'm going to kill you, Jamal. I'm going to kill you right now," Ames threatened.
He wrestled the gun from Selena's now immobile fingers and he pointed it at my brother. I shrieked. Donnie stood pointing his gun at Ames now.
No. There was no way that they believed more bloodshed would solve this.
"Jamal, the cops are almost here," I warned.
"You killed our cousin," Rich growled at Donnie, "someone has to pay for that."
Now I could see why he hadn't looked at me. Rich and Ames had every intention of avenging their dead cousin. Their nemeses were the two people I cared about most in the world.
"All of you stop this!" I shrieked.
The cops and the ambulances were on their way. More bloodshed would only make things worse. It was as if they hardly heard my voice. I felt as if I was screaming into a vast and empty night, my voice billowing over abandoned hills.
The rage that had bubbled up between them had reached a point where it had taken control of any capacity for rational thought.
"You killed her Donnie. You're going to jail. Think about it. Hurting someone else will only make things worse," I cried.
My logical pleas did little to reach him.
"I won't let you get away with this," Ames growled.
He held the gun, but his finger wasn't on the trigger.
Jamal made things worse by taunting them.
"One less Carmichael. He did you all a favor," my brother spat.
I couldn't believe his stupidity.
"You bastard," Ames roared.
Nothing I said could have changed what happened next.
Ames rushed my brother despite Donnie’s gun pointed directly at his pale face. Donnie may have been acting tough, but putting a bullet through the chest of one Carmichael had proved to be enough. Despite his threats he did nothing to shoot when Ames rushed my brother.
Ames kicked Jamal to the ground easily, having the advantage of the element of surprise. The blows began and I screamed again as he punched my brother's chest and slammed his head into the pavement.
I half expected Rich to do something to help me. To take my side.
Instead, he rushed Donnie, snatching the gun out of his hand and hitting my cousin until he fell to the ground. He landed a swift kick in my cousin's rib cage that caused Donnie to cry out.
"Stop it! Stop it!"
I screamed with futility. There was no getting through to any of them. They had all been lost to the animalistic frenzy of our family disagreement.
My screams proved to be ineffective in prying them apart from each other.
Ames had stepped back, perhaps catching hold of his sense of morality. Rich, on the other hand, was unfettered in his expressions of rage towards my brother. He left Donnie on the ground to pursue an attack on Jamal. I screamed as Rich landed a right hook in his face and continued to beat my brother to a bloodied pulp before my eyes. There was blood. Too much blood.
I screamed at Ames, "do something!"
He seemed just as shocked by Rich's aggression as I was. The men who had once been friends during their boyhood were now sworn enemies and the impact of that had evolved into a magnificent mess.
The ambulances came first. They attempted to get Rich to calm down and to stop him from going too far and taking another life. They managed to pull him off my brother, but Jamal was unconscious. I couldn't bring myself to go to him. If he were dead, I didn't want to see his face. And if he were alive, I still would never forgive him for encouraging my cousin to pull the trigger.
I didn't wish my brother to die, but the violence had numbed me.
Of course Rich was angry. His cousin lay lifeless and pale, nearly as cold as the pavement already thanks to the weather. The paramedics pulled the white sheet ov
er her corpse and lifted her like a broken porcelain doll into the back of an ambulance.
Lifting my brother proved to be an entirely different challenge for them. The paramedics had assigned Ames the task of holding back his brother and then the four of them struggled to lift my hefty brother onto a stretcher to put him in the back of an ambulance.
Once they had him secured, I rushed to the paramedics, telling them that I was his sister. They wouldn't allow me to leave with him, stating that they were waiting for the cops to arrive. Until then, they'd try to get him stable.
As they attempted to get my brother stable in the back of an ambulance we waited for what felt like hours for the cops to finally show up.
Hulking NYPD officers swarmed the park. Two black males and a gunshot were enough to call for what felt like an entire squadron.
Rich sat on the ground, his hands coated in blood and his face seething in anger. Ames decided to handle the cops and he approached them explaining everything that had happened. While Ames spoke to some officers, a couple more came over to me intending to make sense of the bloodied scene that had ended in a life being taken. Possibly two.
We would have a long night ahead of us and the night would stretch even longer when I realized that my mother would eventually have to find out everything that had happened here.
She had forbidden warring amongst us. I didn't know who fired the first shot or who took the first punch. All I knew was that a Holloway had drawn Carmichael blood. Having taken the first life, we were the ones who started this. Discomfort settled in my chest and I could barely listen as the officer asked me to recount details of the night.
I managed to run circles around where I had been prior to arriving at the park. They didn't press too much further about my previous whereabouts as what happened on the scene was dramatic enough to capture the majority of their attention. I watched as they cuffed Donnie and took him to the back of a police car, continuing to question the rest of us as we waited.
I should have known what Ames first move would have been. When I saw the gold Cadillac pulling up to the park I was confused at first. Then I realized: lawyers.
Alpha Bait_BWWM Billionaire Romance Novel Page 8
