by T. Styles
“Sure she was,” Nine said firing into his groin. She was tired of looking at him and he was worth no more of her time. When she was finished, she raised the gun and fired into the center of his forehead.
Suddenly Isabel’s posture stiffened. Looking upon the bloody mess at the table, she said, “I guess what I heard about you was true. You are violent.”
“There is an ounce of truth to every rumor. But be careful what you believe.”
Isabel squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again. She was horrified and exhilarated at the same time. “Well, this has been quite an event, hasn’t it?” She looked over at Banker and then down at Nine. “So what are we going to do with her?”
“I have a plan. We are just getting started.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”
- William Shakespeare
Nine lay in the bed until she heard someone enter her home. Although she was upstairs, many square feet away from the front door, it was eerily quiet and she could hear it all. Every floor creak. Every swoosh of air rushing past the windowpane and most of all, intruders. After taking care of Banker and Galileo, she required much sleep and now it had been broken.
Upon hearing the noise, Isabel, who was sleeping in the bed next to her, popped up. “You heard it too?” Isabel asked rubbing her eyes before yawning.
Nine eased out of bed. “Heard is past tense. I’m still hearing it.” She was about to move toward the door when it opened and the light flipped on. Suddenly she was staring into the eyes of her husband. In his arms, he was clutching Julius, who was draped in a warm red North Face coat and new Jordans.
The moment she saw their faces, all of the anxiety she had experienced was removed. Although coolness became her, she was now trembling, realizing in that moment that she was blithe to see him. Without a word to his wife, he laid Julius down in the crib and removed his coat, tossing it on the chair across the room. When he was done he took off his black jacket also.
Before moving to Nine, Leaf looked over at Isabel and then back at his wife and said, “So I guess one cousin isn’t good enough for you.”
“Do not be rude, Leaf,” Nine said as she sat on the edge of the bed and looked up at him. “At first I was happy to see you but do not make me change my mind.”
He sat next to her. “We have to talk.” He looked back at Isabel. “Alone.”
“I’m gone,” she said as she hopped out of the bed. “Welcome back, Leaf. Glad to have you home.” She ran toward the door and out of the bedroom.
He looked over at Nine again.
“Prophets are everywhere these days.”
“It is not like that, Leaf. So get that noise out of your head.”
He smiled. “I’m just kidding.”
Nine sighed, looked down at her fingers and back at him. “I need to know who she is, Leaf. You never gave me the benefit of an answer and I need to know now. Instead, you treated me like—”
“I haven’t treated you like anything, bae! You’re the one who’s been disrespecting me. I don’t need your fucking money, Nine. I come from dough! I’m in this marriage, as fucked up as it is, because I love you. But if you can’t love me back…”
“All I want to do is love you, cousin. That is all I ever wanted to do.” She paused. “Where were you?”
“I went to see my parents,” he responded in a low voice. “My mother is dying of cancer and…”
“I am so sorry, cousin,” Nine said compassionately. “Is there anything I can—”
“I don’t want to talk about it. Not right now anyway.” At the moment, for the sake of Corrine, he and his father were on speaking terms but the relationship was far from repaired. But no matter what, he would not keep him from his mother.
She nodded in understanding. “How is Julius?” she asked looking over at him sleeping in the crib. “Do you think he misses me?”
“I know that he does. At first he would not cry when he saw my face but when I tried to pick him up after a few days, he wouldn’t stop hollering. My mother couldn’t even calm him and she’s cool with kids.”
“You know when I heard that noise, I thought you were somebody breaking in. So much has happened since you left, Leaf. I do not have any money and all of the men who are usually here left and I am unprotected.”
Leaf felt bad although he was right. He predicted this moment. The moment she lost the money, her men would abandon her. “As long as I’m here, you’ll never be unprotected.”
“Then do not go away again,” she said holding his hand.
He winked at her.
“Wait a minute,” he said as if he remembered something. “You didn’t make the noise when I was bringing the baby upstairs?” He paused. “That’s why I came inside.”
Her eyes widened. “No. I mean…I heard something and then you came in.”
“Naw, bae. Little man and me been here for at least an hour. I got in late so I was about to chill in one of the other rooms and then I heard something moving inside of the house.”
They took a moment to look at one another, realizing the ultimate. Someone without authorization was still in their home. Could it be the Russians? On cue, she grabbed her weapon and he snatched his. But before they could react, the room was flooded with a small army of men, with Antonius leading them. Leaf pushed Nine toward the back of the room and he drew his revolver and aimed in their direction.
Nine’s heart beat rapidly because she could not believe Antonius was about to betray her, when out of all of her men she loved him the most.
“Nine, what is going on?” Antonius asked. His voice was full of so much concern that she was suddenly relaxed.
“What do you mean what is going on?” Nine asked. “You busted up in my house!”
Leaf stood in front of his wife, preparing to hit as many niggas as he could with a bullet before they killed them both. “Yeah, fuck you doing in our house, man?” Leaf asked with authority while still aiming. “I would’ve thought this would be anybody but you.”
“I’m here because Nine wouldn’t answer the phone.”
“So you keep trying,” Leaf said. “You don’t break in somebody’s house.”
“But it’s been days!” He paused. “And I got tired of waiting…so I…so I…”
“Broke in,” Leaf responded, finishing his sentence.
“No, man. It’s not like that. We’re here to protect her.”
“Even if it were true, I still do not have any money to pay you, Antonius,” Nine said speaking from the heart. “Or the men.”
“You’ve done more things for us than anybody we ever pumped coke for. You didn’t want us to just tote a gun. You taught us the importance of family and honor. Why wouldn’t we protect you at a time like this? We reward loyalty with loyalty,” Antonius stated quoting what Nine told him the night she found his missing daughter.
Nine wanted to weep but thought it would be considered soft. Still, the loyalty they were displaying was top notch and much unexpected. “How many others feel like you?” Nine asked.
“About thirty of us are here but nine hundred of the original thousand remain loyal.” He paused. “Listen, we don’t give a fuck about the money. We know we’ll get that back when the time is right. The only thing we care about right now is protecting you. And if we have to lay a few niggas down for free to make that happen, then so be it.”
Now Leaf was relaxed although confused. He knew Antonius and out of all of the men in Nine’s camp, he respected him the most. Finally, he lowered his weapon. “What you mean lay a few niggas down for free?”
Antonius’ eyes widened. “Wait, you don’t know?”
“Know what?” Nine questioned.
“We got word from the Kennedys that the Russians are sending some niggas over here as we speak to attack. We have to get ready. We at war!”
****
Darkness acted as a cover as the Russians’ soldiers appeared on foot, down a road that led to the
Prophet Mansion. Arkadi, the leader who had recently lost a brother due to the Kennedy Kings’ vengeance, realized that he needed to disable the Kennedy Kings operation like they had his own.
So he aimed for the Kennedys’ most powerful ally.
The Prophets.
Slowly, fifty men descended upon the walkway leading closer to the acres of land the Prophet mansion sat on. Confidently, they continued down the way until they reached the gate. One man after the other, with automatic assault rifles in hand, approached.
To their surprise, the iron gate surrounding the land was open at the entrance as if it were beckoning them to come inside. The leader of Arkadi’s army, a 45-year-old navy seal, placed a finger over his lips to silence his men and to warn them to move slowly and cautiously. He was listening for the sound that indicated that they were not alone.
Feeling as if the coast was clear, he motioned for them to merge onto the Prophet compound. But the moment the first boot stepped past the gate, bright lights spilled over the land, exposing everything in sight.
“Wait,” the leader yelled, raising his fist at his men. The fog would not allow them to see a foot in front of them and he wanted to spare as many men as possible.
When the ex-navy seal saw red dots all over his soldiers’ foreheads he knew what was happening, they were in danger. Within seconds, gunfire blasted from the mansion, killing every soldier in sight, except the commander.
With the souls of his dead men in the air, the smell of gunpowder and blood enveloped him, and a cloud of smoke made it even more difficult to see the mansion. Suddenly he heard a calm feminine voice. “Put down your weapon.”
“No,” he yelled as he aimed into the thick fog. “I’m not letting you kill me!”
The woman giggled. “Look at your jacket, soldier. If I wanted you dead, you’d be gone now."
When he glanced down, he saw his jacket was speckled with red dots as if he were a Christmas tree. Slowly he lowered his weapon and raised his hands. After a few seconds, from behind the smoke came Nine. Dressed in a chocolate fur coat, she moved closer to him.
He didn’t know if he was enamored by her beauty or fearful of her quiet power. Either way, she had his attention.
“I am Nine Prophet and I will let you live,” she said calmly.
His knees felt weak by the octave of her voice.
“On one condition,” she continued.
Trembling as if he never served a day in the military in his life, he said, “Anything.”
“You tell your boss that what happened here tonight is only a fraction of the power I possess. You let him know that I can touch his family and anyone else he cares about if he ever comes back here.” She paused. “I am a dangerous woman and he should heed my warning.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
TWO WEEKS LATER
“We know what we are, but not what we may be.”
- William Shakespeare
Alice paced the floor in the conference room of the attorney’s office and she was in an unspeakable mood. Victory, Noel, Blake and Marina were sitting around the table waiting on their lawyer who called late last night for an emergency meeting. When asked what the conference was about, they were told he would explain everything later.
“I don’t know what the fuck he wants,” Alice grumbled as she stopped moving and sat down in her chair next to Noel. Her leg jiggled rapidly.
“Did he say anything else to you?” Victory asked. White cat hair sat on the table in front of her and on her black dress jacket, even though no animal was in sight.
She sighed, her heart thumping wildly in her chest. “No. Just that we all needed to be here. And on time.” She paused and stood up again. “Fuck!” she yelled startling them. “And then nobody has seen or heard from Nine in weeks. I just hope she doesn’t have anything to do with this.”
“Alice, just shut the fuck up,” Marina yelled rubbing her arms rapidly. “For five seconds, please! You’re making me antsy and I need a hit. Messing with you, I’ve had to do things to get my medicine I never dreamed. All because I don’t have any money. If this doesn’t work, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
Alice’s face turned downward. “I’m sorry, mama. Didn’t mean to upset you.”
“Don’t be sorry! Just don’t fuck up!”
Alice twisted the watch on her arm.
“This is not good,” Blake said to himself as his gaze darted from the door to the space in front of him. “Not good at all.”
When the door finally opened, Brett Jones walked inside and tried to avoid eye contact with the worried family. But Alice was all over his ass the moment he sat down. “What the fuck is going on? We’re all here now what?”
Brett sat a manila folder on the table and pushed it to the side, before clasping his hands in front of him. “There’s been a problem.”
“A problem?” Alice said as she tugged on the collar of her shirt. “How you figure?”
“Yesterday morning Nine was able to meet with the judge and had him lift the freeze on all banking accounts by having the majority Prophet rule. I don’t know all the facts yet but somehow she was able to put the case back in her favor.”
“Put the case back in her favor?” Alice repeated. “How?”
His legs moved restlessly under his body. “She was also able to prove to the judge that not only was she not crazy, but that she was being poisoned.”
Alice’s foot bounced around as she thought about everything she’d done up to that point. From the moment she met Banker and gave her the Phenethylamine poison to put in the wine a little at a time, she had been manipulating the situation. She didn’t want Nine dead, not yet anyway. If she died, the money would be left to Julius or Leaf. She had to keep her alive and convince the courts that she was not suitable to be at the head of the estate.
Whatever happened to her after that would be an accident.
“Poisoned by who?” Alice asked.
“By you,” he responded.
The moment he made the statement, she knew who betrayed her. Her least favorite cousin, Noel. Instead of looking at her, he lowered his head and closed his eyes as if he were praying. “I couldn’t do her like that, man,” he said softly, gazing at his family. “You didn’t tell us you was poisoning her. She’s good people; you just have to—”
“Son, why didn’t you tell us you was going to do this?” Blake asked. He released the navy blue tie from around his neck and tossed it on the table. “You knew she fired me. I was depending on this money to take care of myself. We could’ve jumped on board with you!”
“Oh, my God, Noel. What were you thinking?” Victory continued. “How selfish do you have to be to go behind our backs and not even alert us?”
“Because this way he comes out as a hero,” Alice responded coldly. “And we look like the bad guys.” She paused. “You’re a snake! After everything we went through. I was the one who taught you how to fuck. How to make a woman feel good and this is how you repay me? You were nothing without me, Noel! Remember how you begged me to stick my finger in your asshole so you could cum quicker? I don’t even think you like girls!”
Although the Prophet family was surprised to find out that Noel and Alice had slept together, it wasn’t a big deal in the scheme of everything.
It was Brett Jones who was at a loss for words.
“You said something else,” Victory responded trying to take her mind off of her dysfunctional family. “About Nine getting the majority Prophet rule. How is that possible?”
He cleared his throat. “I don’t know. Are there any other Prophets with your bloodline?”
“Yes, but I know they wouldn’t help her.”
“Are you sure?”
“I can’t be sure,” she said in a defeated tone. She was more upset that she allowed Alice to convince her to get involved with the plight than anything else. “But my brother Justin, her husband’s father, is still out there somewhere.”
“Yeah but he doesn’t respect our side of
the family,” Marina said as she appeared more fidgety due to going into withdrawals. “I can’t see him helping her.”
“Me either,” Blake responded. “He doesn’t have anything to do with our family or Nine so I can’t see him getting involved.”
“As of now, there are eleven living Prophets,” Victory explained. “Five are here (Blake, me, Marina, Noel, Alice) and three more are my daughters. So we have the majority.”
“But where are your children?” the lawyer asked.
“Bethany and Samantha are at home on house arrest and Isabel…” Blake looked over at Victory. “Isabel is staying with Nine.”
When Victory’s phone dinged, she saw it was a text from Bethany. ‘Mama, something crazy is on the door. Where are you?’
She ignored the message.
Brett sat back and looked at all of them. “Well, someone is assisting her. That you don’t know about.” The expression on his face showed he’d given up on helping them. They were a lost cause.
There was a slight knock at the door and in walked Nine, Leaf, Isabel and four other people whose complexions were lighter than theirs and could be confused for white.
Although Alice and the others didn’t know it, they were full-blooded members of the Prophet family.
Always a man of great appetite, many years ago, Kerrick had an affair with Bridget Danker. A beautiful black woman with skin so light she could pass for white. The moment he met her, she was a breath of fresh air. Not because of her beauty but because unlike Victoria and Fran, Bridget was an adventurer.
Through her he was able to pursue the wilder side of life and he found himself at home in her energy, in her presence. Whether it was skydiving or rock climbing, she was a child in a woman’s body always looking for a new rush.
And then she got pregnant.
The first child, Lisa, she hid from him by causing a petty argument over him speaking to her harshly about a meal she prepared for dinner one night. The disagreement was foolish and planned because she needed a reason to break ties. Young Kerrick would’ve snapped her neck for disrespect but Bridget caught him at an older age.
