by Leo Sullivan
“What happened with Teena?” I asked wanting to know what she had done to my friend.
“She saw me at the hospital and I figured you had told her everything. Something told me you had told Buff, but then again I know you and figured you would spare his feelings. Teena threatened to tell Buff everything if I didn’t leave town. I wasn’t planning on doing it, but I told her that I would. After trying to convince her that you was lying, I realized that she wasn’t buying it and left the hospital. That night I went to her apartment to talk to her and we got into it. I killed her, but I didn’t plan to. I really just wanted to talk, but she went off on me and shit. I had to defend myself. It was a good thing her little girlfriend wasn’t there,” she retorted.
“So, you shot her?”
She nodded.
“Where?”
“Why the fuck you wanna know that?” The frown on her face contorted her pretty features grotesquely.
“Just answer the question bitch.”
“In the head,” she said in a frustrated voice.
“So, you thought you were gonna get Teena and Jaz out of the way and then what?” I asked. “What was the rest of the plan?”
Suddenly her face relaxed and a devilish grin wiped away the look of fear she had worn earlier.
“Well, little do you know, but Cynthia and I have been in touch since I left. She is really feeling Zeus, so once we found out…” She rolled her eyes. “Well, we thought you were dead, so she could finally have Zeus and I could get back with Buff. Shit, that nigga was good to me and I was stupid as hell to do what I did. I got more being with him, so that was the fuckin’ plan.”
“Who the fuck is Cynthia?” I asked in confusion.
“The manager at Club Trois. You remember her right? The sexy, ex stripper that Zeus is fucking now. Ooops,” she said sarcastically before covering her mouth.
So she was the “someone” he was with that one time that he didn’t love and wore a condom with. I decided at that moment to let him have that one. It was probably only out of grief for thinking I was dead and Buff being in the hospital. He probably would have told me more, but deep down inside I didn’t want to know at the time, so I stopped him. I wasn’t even going to ask him about it. If he wanted to tell me he would. It wasn’t like he didn’t think I was dead at the time, or did he? My facial expression didn’t change, so she couldn’t think she had one over on me.
“Oh, I ain’t worried ‘bout that bitch one bit. Believe me, but you need to worry right now,” I said standing up. “Get up bitch.”
“What?” She asked holding the cover over her body like I gave a fuck about what she did or did not have on.
“Get the fuck up!” I yelled again letting her know that I wasn’t playing with her ass.
She jumped up from the bed in a pink pair of boy shorts and a matching bra. Why the fuck was the bitch trying to be sexy in the bed by herself?
“Well, you’re gonna be all cute if they find your body.” I snickered at my joke, but got serious again immediately.
She rolled her eyes in annoyance because I was fucking with her. “Shoot me Ze. I know you’re a killer and shit, so do what you do best you crazy bitch.”
I laughed and walked toward her. Her scared ass flinched, but gave me a strange look when I turned the barrel away from her and handed her the gun.
“There you go. Now you got a weapon and I don’t.” The malicious grin I flashed her and what I had just done had stunned her.
I actually took a couple steps backward and watched her finger inch toward the trigger. Before she could press it, I swiftly did a high kick that sent the gun flying across the room.
Her mouth was in a shocked O when I did a round house kick that caught her square in the face. The impact made her crash into the wall like a rag doll. Her eyes rolled around in her head as she literally bounced up from the floor before landing.
I just stood there and waited for her to get up. She was in a daze when she finally tried to stand and used the wall for support. Blood poured from her nose and I knew that she had a nice concussion.
“What the hell is wrong wit’ you?” She asked trying to wipe the blood from her nose with her hand. “You’re really fuckin’ psycho for real.”
“Tell me something I don’t know.” I narrowed my eyes at her. “Fight me bitch. I ain’t got no weapons. Hit me back!”
She inched toward me and then her eyes fell on the gun that was a few feet away. That bitch just didn’t know that I would never let her make it to that damn gun.
“C’mon,” I gestured with my hands.
She ran toward me and screamed before throwing a bunch of clumsy punches that only made her tired. None of them landed, but she landed on her ass again when my fist crushed her trachea. I watched with a smile on my face as she struggled to breathe.
“Get up,” I said taunting her some more. When she finally caught her breath I saw defeat in her eyes, but she still got up.
When she tried to run pass me to get the gun I tripped her ass and then pulled her up from the floor by her hair. Before she even knew what had hit her, I tossed her ass down the stairs. She did a forward roll down each step and then hit the carpeted floor at the bottom in an awkward position. As I slowly made my way down to join her, I could see the tears in her eyes.
They didn’t touch me one bit. They only enraged me more. When I leaned over and grabbed her by her hair again the tears started to fall.
“Don’t kill me Ze. I’m sorry…I’m sooo…”
“Shut the fuck up!” I screamed enjoying the sight of her bloody battered face. Pulling her up from the floor by her hair, I walked over to the huge glass coffee table that sat in front of the television in the sitting room. I could remember the two of us sitting on the sofa with our cereal bowls on that very table when we watched TV.
“Get on your knees!” I barked at her with pure hatred in my heart.
She did as I said and pleaded with her piercing gray eyes. “Please…don’t…I promise to leave Buff alone. I won’t…”
“I’m done talking, so this should shut your ass up,” I said calmly before I used all of my strength to slam her face into the glass table.
That shit bust her grill piece all up and broke her nose. The dark, hot blood was streaming from her nose and mouth like a busted pipe. Her teeth had shattered and she was choking on the fragments. That’s when I reached in my pocket and pulled out a vial and a syringe. I grabbed her arm and lightly tapped her wrist. She couldn’t even hold her head up and I knew that she had nothing left. It was time to finish her.
“Goodnight Peaches,” I whispered as I pierced her skin with the needle that I had filled with cyanide. After I filled her veins with instant death, I stood back to watch my handy work.
Her body jerked and shook as foamy saliva started to fall from her mouth. When her eyes rolled back in her head I knew the bitch was finally dead.
“Good riddance,” I said out loud before leaving the house.
“It’s done,” I told Zeus before getting inside the car.
He got out without saying a word to clean up my crime scene and dispose of the body. An hour later she was dumped down a deep well in the yard of an abandoned house out in the boondocks. We rode back to the hotel without saying a word, but there was a huge smile of satisfaction on my face. I just hoped Buff could finally move on.
* * *
It was hard as hell to convince Zeus to let me go for a drive alone. I told him that I needed some fresh air and to clear my head. Less than twenty minutes later I was sitting in a car in the very spot I had just been in less than a year ago.
It wasn’t Zeus’s car though. I had broken into a very familiar looking blue Honda Accord and I was waiting for the owner. I was patient, but I didn’t have to wait long. When I saw her walking toward the car, I ducked down so she couldn’t see me.
When she got in the driver’s seat I waited for her to start the car up. The loud sound of a Busta Rhymes song vibrated from the speaker
s. That’s when I sprang up and put the gun to her temple. The cold steel made her jump and I caught her eyes in the rearview mirror.
“Yeah, it’s me bitch,” I said with a wicked grin on my face. “Nice to see you again Lexie.”
She let out a gut wrenching scream that would’ve made anybody else’s blood run cold. Too bad nobody could hear her over her loud ass music.
“What the fuck!?” The tears were cascading down her cheeks like Niagara Falls.
“I have to make this shit quick. My man’s waitin’ for me,” I said before blowing her brains into the window. When I got out I looked back and noticed that it looked like somebody had squashed a huge bug. I jumped in Zeus’s car and drove away from the scene. Two names had been crossed off my list in one night, but my killer season was far from over.
When I was on the highway I picked up the phone and dialed a number.
“Hey Girlll!!”
I smiled. “We’re getting outta here and heading to ATL in a week so get ready.”
Makur’s giddy laughter filled my ears. “I am so ready!”
Epilogue
ZEUS
We headed to Atlanta a day after Buff was released from the hospital. Only three weeks had passed by, but we were already settled into a nice four bedroom crib in the suburbs. The plan was to wait for Buff to recoup before going after Black and Roberto.
Mundo was back in NC keeping his end of the bargain while we planned our strategy of attack carefully. Black was so elusive, so I agreed to let Darrick help us. Part of the plan was also to dismantle and bring The Agency down.
Bringing down the people who were responsible for her parents’ deaths was a constant battle for my lady and I was behind her one hundred percent. Roberto wasn’t an immediate threat because he thought Ze was dead and had no idea that me and my brother existed, so blasting him was on hold. Black and The Agency was a totally different story being that they knew about me and Buff.
In the meantime it was time to chill and relax until shit started popping. I wanted my girl to be stress free and enjoy life somewhat after the shit she had been through. I knew that finally killing Peaches and Lexie had lifted a weight from her shoulders, but she wouldn’t be at peace until all of her adversaries were out of the way. As her man I was going to do anything I had to do for her. I still wanted to go legit, get married and have a family with the love of my life.
I watched her sleep peacefully after knocking her out with a few good nuts. She had been shopping all day with her blonde, gay Russian friend. He was cool, but I was glad he had the money to get his own crib. I had no problem with dude since he helped my girl, but I wasn’t trying to live with a fruit loop.
My phone blared and I noticed Cynthia’s number. When I glanced at the hot ass, million dollar gold and diamond embedded watch that Ze gave me, I noticed that it was after eleven pm. I hadn’t talked to her since we left North Carolina. She hadn’t been all stalkerish like I thought she would be at first. After she closed the club down for me, we really didn’t talk much. I decided to not tell her about Zero’s return. Not because I cared about what she thought, but just in case The Agency somehow found her, she couldn’t tell something she didn’t know.
“Yo,” I answered.
“Hey Zeus. We need to talk,” she said in a weird voice.
“Don’t worry. I didn’t forget to pay you. I meant to call to get your account info…but…”
“Uh, that’s not why I called,” she said quickly cutting me off.
“Oh. Okay. Well, what’s up?” I asked wishing she’d get to the point.
She did.
“I’m pregnant,” she blurted out like I gave a fuck. It wasn’t my baby.
“And it’s yours.”
The last part was like a curve ball that had hit me my chest. I looked back at my woman as she slept and got up to leave the room. There was no way I was going to let her hear any of that conversation.
“What the fuck do you mean?” I asked when I closed the bedroom door. “I wrapped up wit’ your ass.”
She gave me attitude when she said, “Nigga, condoms break every fuckin’ day.”
“Shit! It’s no way. I took the shit off and it hadn’t…” Then I thought about her silhouette standing over the trash can.
I couldn’t say shit as I rested my face in my hand playing out so many scenarios in my head. Then I thought about my woman and the fact that I had just got her back. How the fuck was I going to explain that shit to Ze?
“So, I guess you’re gonna be a daddy,” she said and hung up.
All I could do was stare at the phone with a dumb ass look on my face. What the fuck?!
Zero Degrees 4
Is Coming Soon
Turn the page for a sneak peek
of Nika Michelle’s next release
Bout that Life: Diablo’s Story
A Forbidden Fruit Prequel and Saving Sierra coming soon by Leo Sullivan.
Coming April 2014
Prologue
Bout That Life: Diablo’s Story
(A Forbidden Fruit Prequel)
By: Nika Michelle
Even as a lil’ nigga didn’t much scare me. I didn’t realize that the one thing I feared would happen one cold winter night when I was ten. We had just moved out of the hood into a nice ass house right outside of the city of Atlanta. The street we lived on was called Lakeshore Drive and the homes were banging. That was the white area and my bad ass didn’t want to leave the West End where I had grown up.
It was 1984 and I was tossing and turning in my red race car bed when I heard about five loud bangs come from my parents’ bedroom. I immediately jumped up and followed my instinct to see what was going on. Like I said before, not much scared me. Not then, not now. My first thought was to check on my sister Merlia, but the sound had come from my mom and dad’s room, so I had to check on them.
I slowly made my way down the hall and then the sound of their bedroom door opening got my attention. When I saw two men dressed in all black with their faces covered in masks, I decided to quickly run into the hallway bedroom.
“Damn, I didn’t think that shit would be that easy man,” one of them said in a muffled voice. I strained my ears to recognize it, but I didn’t. Something told me they had hurt my mom and dad. I was from the streets, so I wasn’t stupid. Not then, not now.
“The other man spoke up. He said to kill the two kids too. Let’s go upstairs.”
I didn’t recognize his voice either, but my instinct was to make it upstairs to Merlia’s room. She was older than me, but I was her brother. If it was too late for my parents, I would make it my business to protect her. As they walked past the bathroom door I tiptoed out into the hallway and swiftly made my way to my parents’ room. I prepared myself for a bloody scene because my street sense told me that the loud bangs I heard were gun shots. It almost blew my mind when I took in the bloody, murder scene. My father’s body was slumped over my mother’s which told me that he had got shot first trying to protect her. He was a light sleeper, so he must’ve woke up, but it was too late. My mother appeared to be sleeping peacefully on her stomach, but I knew better.
Regardless of what I saw I had a plan. I could hear my father’s voice telling me that I was the man of the house now. He would always tell me that if something happened to me it was my role to be the man and take care of my mother and sister. The life he led made him a target every single day, but I never expected to lose my mom. I guess it was still my duty to take care of my sister. Finally taking my eyes off my slain parents, I knew that I had no time to waste. I reached inside of the drawer and grabbed my father’s .45. It took me less than five seconds to load it like he had taught me so many times.
I was fast on my feet, so I made it to the second floor of our spacious house in no time. When I stepped into the hallway I saw the two men leaving my bedroom. I hadn’t heard any more gun shots, so I was convinced that they hadn’t found Merlia yet. If it was up to me they wouldn’t be breathing long enough.
“That had to be the lil’ nigga’s room. I wonder where the fuck he is,” the taller gun man whispered loudly.
“I think there’s a girl too. Let’s deal with her first and then we’ll find him. Check that bedroom over there,” the other one said pointing toward my sister’s bedroom. I had to act fast. I couldn’t let them see me and being that it was two of them, I would have to try to kill them both as fast as possible.
I was only ten years old, but my father had taught me how to load and shoot a gun for the first time when I was seven. He knew that it may be a time like that night when I needed to protect my sister’s life as well as my own. Years of target practice was going to be put to the test in less than sixty seconds. As I slid into a closet, I made sure that they heard me. I wanted the attention off of Merlia. It was dark, so they didn’t see me or where I was hiding. The closet door was slightly opened and I could see both men through the crack.
“What the fuck was that?” I heard one of them ask.
“Must’ve been the boy. Come on out lil’ man.”
That fool must’ve been crazy or on crack if he thought I was just going to run out there and get shot. They walked right past the closet and then I pointed the gun through the slit and shot one of them in the arm. He dropped the gun and the other gun man looked around in shock.
That mug had no idea where the gun shot had even come from. As he looked around I shot him in the leg and he hit the floor. When he dropped his gun it slid across the floor close to where I was. I kneeled down and opened the door wide enough to grab the gun. It was huge and looked like something I had seen in the movie Rambo. It was too big for my hands, so I just slid it in the closet.
“What the fuck!” The one I had shot in the arm yelled as he kneeled down to grab the gun he had dropped. “Shit! Get up nigga.” He said to his partner.
“I can’t get up muthafucka!” He spat angrily. “That lil’ fool shot me in my leg!”
Before he could reach the gun I swiftly made my way out of the closet. As long as one of them was unarmed and one couldn’t walk, I had a chance. Before he could reach his gun I shot him in the back and he dropped to his knees. I let off one more aiming for his head, but it hit him in the neck. It was okay though, because that shot made his limp body hit the floor.
