Carl Weber's Kingpins

by C. N. Phillips

  “Nah. You said yes because you knew I was gon’ make good on my promise to blow your head off your neck,” Klax told him. “And now I might still do so if you hurt my sister.”

  “Nigga, ain’t nobody gon’ hurt Kleigh. I fuck with her, though,” Tron repeated himself a little more forcefully than he intended to.

  “Does she know who you are?”

  “Nah.”

  Klax was silent for a moment, and it seemed as if even Sunny was holding his breath. His eyes went back and forth to the cold stares the two young men were giving each other. He inched forward so that he was almost in between them just in case they were about to decide to put the ring to use.

  “Then I guess it would be best if we don’t tell her about all this, huh?” Klax said with a straight face. “If you gon’ rock with me, and you say you ain’t have nothing to do with the bakery, then your first job is to find out who did. We can chat about how you ruined my museum plans another time.”

  Boom!

  The gunshot came out of nowhere and struck Sunny in the side. He fell to the ground with a groan, clutching his wound with shock frozen on his face.

  “Pop!” Tron shouted, jumping to his feet to try to rush to his father’s side.

  “Aht aht aht, don’t do it. Let that stupid nigga bleed out,” a voice that he knew all too well said.

  Tron looked at the entrance of the gym and was shocked to see his uncle Kyan standing there, pointing a gun their way. His cold eyes were on Sunny who lay writhing on the ground as his blood dripped into the ring. Kyan looked disgustedly at what was thought to be his best friend as he got closer to them.

  “Unc, what the fuck are you doing?” Tron shouted, but Kyan just laughed at his grief.

  “What does it look like I’m doing, Neph? I’m crashing the party.”

  By that time, Klax too had stood up to face the newcomer. He was still as a board and spoke no words. His eyes never left the gun in Kyan’s hand, even when the older man started talking again.

  “Sunny, is this why you didn’t tell me why you wanted Tron to come home? Because you were tryna form some kind of alliance between my operation and Harlem?”

  “Your operation?” Tron asked.

  “Yeah, boy, mine. Have you ever stopped to think about your position and who put you there? I introduced you to everyone you know. You wouldn’t have shit if it weren’t for me putting you on. Why do you think any of them niggas listen to you? Because of you? Nah. They listen to you because I tell them to,” Kyan sneered and turned back to Sunny. “You always were soft, even back in the day, brother. Always wanting to keep the peace until you got out of the game. But any true hustler knows there is only one way in and no way out.”

  “W-why, Kyan?” Sunny asked through quick breaths.

  “Why did I just shoot you? Easy. Unfinished business. You see, you remember when Kameron approached you about going into business together, and you turned his offer down? Well, he came to me next and put something else on the table. He told me that if I gave him what he wanted, then he would give me my own territory. I believed him. You never wondered how he figured out your address? I told him where you lived and when you would be most vulnerable. But when he didn’t finish the job to boost his own ego, I knew I had made a mistake. The moment you were out of the picture, Kameron went back on his word.”

  “So you’re telling me that my mom and sister are dead because of you?” Tron asked, clenching his fists so tightly that his nails dug into his chin. “You’re the reason for all of this?”

  “Save it, boy. Kameron wanted Sunny bad, and he was gon’ get at him eventually. I just sped up the process. And when that failed, I started my own shit up here in Albany and molded you in my footsteps. I molded you in my image, Tron. I taught you everything you knew about the game. I even put my hunger to be number one in your brain.”

  “You’re the one who told me about what happened to my father,” Tron said as the reality hit him. “You always reminded me of the story because you wanted me to seek revenge one day.”

  “Bingo. See, you’re a lot smarter than you look, you know that? Eventually, after all those talks we had, I saw the poisonous seed I’d planted in your head sprouting. The hatred for Kameron Turner and everyone connected to him ran deep in your veins. You even distanced yourself from your father because you felt that he wasn’t a man for not retaliating. I knew that eventually, you would go after the person who had hurt your family, or the next best thing. His son. It was too perfect.”

  “And what would have happened if I would have succeeded in killing Kameron’s son and taken over his territory?”

  “You wouldn’t have gotten that far,” Kyan said with a grin. “You would have been put to a forever sleep before you even got to enjoy the benefits of your actions.”

  “Once a snake, always a snake, huh?”

  “Never a snake. More like a lone wolf,” Kyan said and aimed the gun at Tron’s head. “This ain’t easy, you know. I love you like a son. But living a lifetime of being second in command just isn’t what I want for myself. I want the world . . . starting with Harlem.”

  “Well, you can’t have it,” Klax’s voice sounded as he brandished a small .22 from the back of his waist.

  Before Kyan could shoot Tron, Klax began letting his gun off in his direction. Kyan was forced to drive back, and Tron jumped out of the ring, going for his own guns. By the time he wrapped his hand around the butt of one of his pistols, Kyan had already run out of the building.

  “Let him go,” Klax told him when he started to go after Kyan.

  Tron wanted to go after him, but Klax was right. Sunny needed him. Tron climbed back inside the ring and knelt by his father’s side. Sweat covered Sunny’s forehead, and his breathing was quick. When he saw his son next to him, he lifted a bloody hand, and Tron grasped it tightly in his own. He unzipped Sunny’s jacket and lifted the bloodstained white T-shirt Sunny wore to get a better look at the wound and winced at the sight. It didn’t look good, and blood was pouring from it like a stream.

  “Here, put this on the wound,” Klax said, removing his hoodie and handing it to Tron. “I’ll call the paramedics.”

  Tron took the hoodie and pressed it firmly on the place where the bullet had entered his father’s body. All he had to do was hold on until help arrived. Sunny looked at his son and gave him a sad smile with bloody teeth.

  “Son,” he tried to say, but Tron shook his head.

  “If you’re tryna tell me goodbye, save that, Pop. You’ll be just fine,” Tron told him, but the crack in his voice said otherwise.

  “I don’t think I’ma make it out of this one,” Sunny told him weakly.

  “Don’t talk like that, Pop. Just hold on until the ambulance gets here.”

  “I’ve held on long enough,” Sunny told him in between breaths. “I got to see you grow into a man, and I’m proud of you, LaTron. So proud. You’ve had me a lifetime. It’s only fair that you share me with your mom and sister now.”

  “Pop, just hold on,” Tron said as his eyesight got blurry and hot tears rolled down his face. “Just hold on, please.”

  Flashbacks of when he was a little boy came to his mind. He remembered seeing his dad get shot in front of him and how he cradled his father’s head until the ambulance arrived. He hadn’t felt such a terror as that since then. But when Sunny survived a gunshot to the head, he just knew his father would be around forever. But forever was cashing in too soon, because there Tron was again, with that same terror in his chest.

  “I love you, son. Don’t you ever forget that,” Sunny said. “I-I’m sorry if you ever felt that I thought you weren’t good enough for following in my old footsteps. But r-really, I’ve always thought you were a better man than I am and was. That’s why it’s important for this alliance to happen. Everything I couldn’t do or finish, you boys can. But promise me one thing.”

  “What, Pop?” Tron said, trying to hold back the sob in his throat.

  “That if y-you ever
have the serious thought about getting out of this life, do it that moment. Don’t wait for o-one more drop. Because that o-one more d-drop will t-turn into a hundred m-more drops. You hear me? D-don’t fall into that endless cycle like I did. D-don’t be like Kyan. I l-love you.”

  “I love you too,” Tron said.

  Those were the last words Sunny heard before he smiled one more time at his son and closed his eyes. Tron watched his chest go up and down as he let out his last breath. He knew he was gone because he felt his hand grow limp in his, but he didn’t let it go. He pulled his father’s lifeless body to him and held him as tightly as he had when he was just a boy. His head bowed, and his locs hid his face as he cried silently. He had never before known such a strong feeling of loneliness . . . no . . . of emptiness. He continued to hug his father until the paramedics arrived, and even then, letting go of his body was the hardest thing Tron had ever done.

  “What happened here?” a woman’s voice asked.

  “I don’t know,” Tron heard Klax tell her. “We just came to get a late-night session in, and we found his father like this.”

  When Tron stood up to his feet, the young white paramedic knelt by Sunny and attempted to find a pulse. Tron wanted to tell her there was no point, that he was gone, but he was too rocky. A hand on his shoulder helped him to steady himself. He turned around and saw that it was Klax standing beside him with a solemn expression.

  “You want to get out of here?” he said in a low voice and handed Tron back all of his guns so no one would see. “I already grabbed all the security footage.”

  “Yeah,” Tron nodded and glanced at his father’s lifeless body one more time. “Yeah, let’s go.”

  Before they could be asked any more questions, the two men left the gym. Kyan’s face burned a hole in Tron’s mind, and all he could think about was how he wanted to empty a clip into it. The true reason for his family’s demise had been so close to them that whole time, and nobody knew it. One thing that Tron had always admired about Kyan was his patience to see things through. Now, knowing that one of those things was him made Tron feel a rage that there was no coming back from. Kyan had planted a seed inside of Tron so that he would self-destruct, and Tron had fallen right into the trap. He’d never forgive himself for playing Pinocchio. The only thing he could do was settle the score.

  “Nah, you rolling with me,” Klax said when Tron started to go to his vehicle. “You don’t need to be behind the wheel right now.”

  “I’m good. I need to go back to my crib.”

  “Cool, I’ll take you. Hop in before the police get here,” Klax said, motioning his head toward the Range Rover Tron had seen when he’d pulled in. “It’s only a matter of time before they show up. We got lucky in there with the paramedics, but you can bet the boys in blue will ask a million questions.”

  Klax headed toward his car without checking to see if Tron had listened. Tron had more than half a mind to disregard his words, but he knew they were true. He didn’t know what he would do if he got behind the wheel of his car. He didn’t even think he would be able to focus on the road with the millions of emotions coursing through him. A part of him wanted to go to the hospital with his father’s body when they put him in the ambulance, but what would he do when he got there? His feet were moving toward the passenger side of the Range Rover before his mind even told them to. He got in, inhaled the Black Ice car freshener, and reclined the seat back.

  “Where to?”

  “New York City,” Tron told him.

  “New York City?” Klax asked as he backed out and tried to avoid hitting the ambulance parked at an awkward angle beside him. “That must be why we couldn’t find you. You were hiding too close.”

  “The best way to do it,” Tron said in a monotone voice.

  “What you need to get from there?”

  “I just need to make sure everything is everything. Kyan knew I was staying there.”

  “A’ight. I’ma take you there. Then you can crash at my crib until we dead that nigga.”

  Tron grew silent and tried not to focus on one thing for too long. He hadn’t felt a loss like the one he’d just experienced in over twenty years. He had forgotten about the pain that came with it. His heart was heavier than it had ever been, and suddenly, everything that he’d done the last few weeks seemed pointless. He thought he was delivering his father’s honor back, but Sunny had that all along. He walked away from what he felt wasn’t good enough for him anymore. And there Tron was, trying to get it back like a fiend.

  “Speak your thoughts,” Klax told him after they were driving on the interstate for a while.

  “I don’t got none.”

  “Fair enough. Then I’ll speak mine,” Klax told him with his eyes on the road.

  “You don’t need to do that; I don’t need your sympathy.”

  “And I didn’t plan on giving you any. All I was gon’ say is I know how it feels to watch a father die in front of you.”

  “You saw your pops die?”

  “Yeah,” Klax nodded. “I did. It wasn’t nothing like what you just saw, but death is death. There was a time when I thought my old man was invincible. I never knew him to lose a fight, ever. I saw that nigga crack a man’s skull with his bare hands before so to see a silent killer like cancer make him so frail and weak did something to me. I guess in a way I would have rather have seen him die from a bullet than to have watched him wither away into nothingness. He wasn’t the best man, I can admit that, but that just helped me to see who I wanted to become. We choose our own paths and create our destinies. The last day I saw him alive, he’d asked to see me alone because he had something important to tell me.”

  “What did he say?”

  “He told me that his death was going to give me the power to be better than he ever had been. That everything he had ever done had been so that when I was ready, I’d have more than one choice of who I could be. Then he gave me a plane ticket to Mexico and told me that when he was gone, go there to clear my mind. And when I was ready, come back.”

  “So what are you telling me? To go to Mexico?”

  “No,” Klax said in all seriousness. “I’m saying that before you dive back in, before we go after Kyan, you need to clear your head. Your father’s death didn’t come in vain. It came with the gift of knowledge. Now you know what you’re dealing with, but before you can handle it, you need to be centered. Kyan knows you, and if what he said was true, you no longer have an army behind you. I can guarantee you that all of those niggas already have orders to dump into you on sight.”

  Tron knew that the words Klax spoke were the truth. Still, he couldn’t even fathom sitting around and doing nothing when Sunny’s death so fresh. He also didn’t care about Kyan taking his army back. Tron would take them all on if he had to.

  “I’m not about to hide from this nigga. So if that’s what you’re asking me to do, you can just save all that.”

  “Two devils battling will only create more fire. You can’t beat the dark with more dark. The only thing that’s been fueling you for this long is hate. Kyan instilled that in you. You gotta let that shit go. What did your father teach you?”

  “To love and forgive,” Tron answered.

  “And that is how you beat out the dark.”

  Klax’s words came full circle, and Tron didn’t just hear them.... He felt them. He replayed them in his mind a few times before, surprisingly, he found himself chuckling.

  “Who do you think you are, G? The Nipsey Hussle of New York?”

  “Nah, RIP, my nigga, though,” Klax said with a smirk. “I’m just saying I need everybody around me to move in sync with me. I don’t jump just because a dog barks. I don’t even jump when he bites.”

  “So, when do you?”

  “Never. I let that dog wear himself down, and then I take him out. Kyan will expose his weak spot soon, just like you did.”

  “I ain’t do shit. I had you shaking on your own turf,” Tron told him.

  “You
think so?” Klax raised his eyebrow in amusement. “Or is that what you thought?”

  “I know so. I don’t have a weakness.”

  “You do. Your thirst for revenge and to be on top,” Klax said simply.

  “That’s not a weakness. You’re supposed to strive to be the best.”

  “The best at whatever it is you’re good at. You wanted to be in my position so badly that I bet you didn’t even stop to think about if it was the right fit for you. The problem with you niggas is that you want power because it’s power. And that’s it. You don’t even put a single thought past that. For you, your hunger to get even fueled your thirst so much to the point where you couldn’t even see that you were being manipulated. And that makes it a weakness. Kyan used that to his advantage, and now we have to make him pay for that.”

  “We?”

  “Yeah, ‘we.’ With the job I have in store for you, I’m gon’ need you sharp and with no baggage, feel me?”

  “I feel you.”

  Tron directed Klax the rest of the way to his apartment complex. There were a few things that he needed to grab before he left the place behind. It wasn’t good that Kyan knew exactly where to find him, and staying there would still make him a target. When finally they arrived, Tron told Klax to hang far back so that he could look out if he needed to. He got out and bounded toward the door, but he didn’t even make it that far before he saw a slew of flashing lights speed into the complex’s parking lot. Police sirens blared in his ears, and when he spun around, he saw that he was completely surrounded. There were about ten squad cars, and the police officers wasted no time in hopping out to aim their guns at him.

  “LaTron Walker, put your hands up where I can see them,” one of the police officers shouted. “Now!”

  In the times they were in, Tron didn’t know if he would even get the chance to raise his hands. He didn’t know if the officers would open fire on him the moment he moved a muscle. He didn’t have fear in him, but he was nervous. Not only because he hated the police, but he didn’t know what they wanted.