by W. S. Greer
“What?”
“You’ve missed, like, five turns that could’ve taken us to the Royal Flush without ever touching Madison. I’ve lived here my whole life, I know this city in and out. You’re actually going away from the casino now. So, where the hell are you going?”
“I’m going to the Royal Flush, like you said.”
“No, you’re not. I told you, you’re going the opposite direction of the casino now. What the fuck are you doing, Simon?”
“Don’t worry, Clarence. You’re gonna get to the Royal Flush. We just have to stop somewhere else first.”
“What? I told you I needed to go to the Royal Flush so I can meet with Senior. You don’t decide that we’re gonna go somewhere else first. What the hell has gotten into to you today?”
“Does Ilia ever ask about Viktor?”
“What?”
“Viktor. Does Ilia ever ask about him? It’s been a while and he hasn’t gone back to them. I was just curious if Ilia wondered where he went.”
“Who the hell is Viktor?”
“Oh, I guess you don’t know about that. Viktor Gavlik is a crooked cop who used to work for the Baskovs. He’s the guy your nephew shot in the knees right before he set his car on fire in an alley down the street from your brother’s night club. You don’t remember that?”
“How the fuck do you know about that? I thought that happened before I hired you.”
“Maybe it’s not all coming together for you, boss. Take your time and think about it. Go ahead, I’ll wait, but you better hurry, because we’re almost there.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? Fuck this.”
“Come on, Clarence. There’s no sense in tugging at the door handle like that. It’s obviously got the child safety locks on. Oh, and before you reach into your waistband and pull out the gun that you keep there, you should know that we’re here.”
“What the fuck is this? Where are we?”
“How did you not figure it out, Clarence? Better yet, how have you still not figured it out, even now, surrounded by all these black vans. I know this is gonna be hard for you. To be honest, I didn’t expect it to be so easy for me. I mean, it took six months, but eventually you slipped, and now here we are. Now, after six months, it’s finally gotten easy.”
“You fucking son of a bitch. I fucking knew it. I should’ve trusted my gut. I fucking knew it. You fucking snitch motherfucker.”
“Oh, come on, now. You never had a feeling. If you did, you would’ve killed me a long time ago, or at least out there on that airstrip. You trusted me all the way up until the end. Which, by the way, is right now, but I’m sure you can see that from all the heavily armed police officers that are approaching the car right now.”
“You son of a bitch.”
“Sorry, Clarence. Nothing personal. Got anything else you’d like to say before we do this?”
“Fuck you.”
“Fuck me. Got it. Now, it’s my turn. Clarence Carter, you’re under arrest for the murder of Derrick Malone.”
When I wake up, the room is empty. I find myself realizing that the bed that I’m lying in is the same one that Kelvin and I slept in when he got shot a few months back. Now, it’s my turn, I guess. Oh, the irony, and how times haven’t changed.
I sit up in the bed and look down at my bandaged shoulder. Lauren did an amazing job for a woman who has never been to medical school. I guess living a life surrounded by gangsters has taught her a thing or two about dressing bullet wounds. I don’t know how she does it. Lauren lived every day with this family, and no matter how bad things got, she stuck by Mikey the whole time, and she’s still sticking by him now. Even after Senior had her husband put in jail for absolutely nothing, she’s still here, standing by her man and ready to put up with anything that may come their way. She’s a soldier. She’s a fighter, and I can only hope to be as brave as her.
After all that’s happened, I’m not even sure what I feel anymore. What emotion do you have towards someone who has done nothing but make your life harder? How do you feel when someone shoots you? I’m not sure how to answer those questions, so as I sit on the edge of the bed, staring at my bandages, I’m almost nostalgic. I miss how things used to be for me and Kelvin when we first got together. Back when I was just curious about his enticing mysteriousness. I saw the clothes and the fancy cars, and like any girl would be, I was instantly drawn to him. Then, I got to know his nearly flawless personality and I was hooked. It seemed so much easier then. I miss being able to eat out without feeling like I have to look over my shoulder for someone holding a gun. Even after the truce with the Russians, I still don’t feel safe. I still feel like there’s a war going on that’s ready to reach out and ruin our lives at any moment. For me and Kelvin, the war never ended. For us, the war rages on, and I’m starting to think that Senior is the enemy. He’s the one who’s locked our lives inside this chamber of fear and worry. He’s the one who put Kelvin through all that stress and ultimately had us arguing and wondering if we could make it. It’s him who’s trying to get Kelvin to sell drugs and it’s him who shot me in the arm. There still is a war, and it’s between us. Me and Kelvin versus Senior. That thought weighs heavily on my mind as I climb out of the bed and begin to make my way downstairs.
About half way down the staircase, I hear Kelvin’s voice. He sounds tense. I’m sure all that has happened must have him stressed out, and I know that’s the last thing that he needs. I wish there was something I could to ease his frustration. As hard as it has been for me, I know it must be hard for him to be stuck in the middle of everything. He has his father and family on one side, and me on the other. As much as I know he loves me, I know that has to be hard on him. My job is to make it as easy on him as I can. So, as I descend the stairs, I try to shake off my aggressive hatred for Senior that must be radiating from my skin by now, and I put on a straight face.
“I know, that’s why we have to put in our own money,” I hear Kelvin saying as I hit the last of the stairs. “That way, he thinks that it’s just another turnaround for him, and he won’t get suspicious. He’ll think I’m finally complying…”
When I walk into the room, Kelvin notices me and immediately stops talking. He sits back in his seat and Lauren looks at me like she just got caught with her hands in the cookie jar. Then, I notice that Trey is in the room also. He sits back in his seat and puts his hand over his mouth as if to keep himself from talking.
“Hey,” I say, almost like a question. “What’s going on?”
“Hey, baby,” Kelvin replies as he stands up and gives me a soft, cautious hug. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m okay, I guess.”
Kelvin takes my hand and leads me to the seat next to him, forcing Trey to scoot over.
“Are you having any pain?” Lauren chimes in. I can see the worry in her eyes and it makes me uneasy.
“Yeah, it’s definitely sore. Pain meds may be starting to wear off, but it’s okay, because they kind of put me to sleep anyway.” Nobody says anything for a few seconds and the silence is frustrating. I can tell that I must’ve interrupted something, but I choose not to ask about it just yet. So, I turn my attention to Trey. “How’s Phillip doing?”
“Well, he isn’t gonna die, so that’s something to be thankful for, I guess.” Trey looks livid as he speaks, but I can tell he’s trying not to let me see it. “He’s gonna need some pretty serious surgery, and all we can do is hope that he walks like he used to.”
“Damn. I’m so sorry to hear that. I hope that he turns out okay,” I say. “I’m sure we all do.” Again, no one says anything. I feel a sudden and surprising rush of frustration wash over me. I’m guessing it’s because I just got shot in the shoulder, but I’m really not in the mood for any bullshit. “So, what’s going on? You all are being way too quiet. What were you talking about before I walked in?”
I hear Trey exhale loudly, and Lauren is suddenly avoiding eye contact with me. So, I turn and look at Kelvin, awaiting his an
swer to my question.
“Oh, well, it was nothing. Don’t worry about that. I just want to make sure that you’re okay. Do we need to change out the dressing under the bandage?”
“Hey,” I snip. “We just went through this, didn’t we? Don’t bullshit me, Kelvin. No more hiding, remember?”
Now it’s Kelvin’s turn to exhale as he remembers our agreement, and suddenly looks like he regrets it.
“You’re right. I’m just not sure you want to hear anything like this,” he replies staidly.
“I don’t care what it’s about. I want to know what’s going on.”
Kelvin looks over at his aunt and then over at Trey, who nods his head as if to say it must be done.
“Okay. Well, we obviously have a serious problem on our hands with the shit that went down today. We all came to the conclusion that the reason that bad things keep on happening is because of my father. He’s the one who makes everything happen, and he crossed a line today. A line that he can’t un-cross now. He’s put us all through so much pain. So, the question is, what are we gonna do about it, and I think the only solution to this problem is to eliminate it. We get rid of the problem all together.”
“Umm, where exactly are you going with this?” I ask rhetorically. I know the answer, but until he says it, I won’t believe it.
“I’m saying that we need to kill him, Lilliana. We have to kill my dad,” Kelvin says, suddenly staring me straight in the eye with a straight face. I know that he couldn’t be more serious about this.
“What? You want to kill him? Are you fucking serious?”
“I thought he killed you today. At first, when I heard that gun go off and I watched you fall to the floor, I thought he killed you right there in front of me. I was ready to die right then and there. I was ready to fight him to the death. Then, you spoke and I realized that you were still alive. I felt so relieved, and then I felt a humongous burden on my shoulders. I realized that I haven’t done my job protecting you. This whole time, I’ve been trying to protect you from all this other shit in our lives, when it’s been my father that I should’ve been protecting you from. He’s the one who’s dangerous. He’s our biggest threat, and we have to do something about it, or it’ll never end.”
I lean back in my seat, trying to absorb everything that I just heard. It sounds like the most beautifully terrifying music to my ears. I can hardly imagine what our lives would be like if we didn’t have to worry about Senior coming in and ruining everything as often as he does. To know that we could go through our lives without him just puts a giant smile on my face. Then, however, all I can think about is the fact that Kelvin wants to kill someone. He wants to ends someone’s life. I know how terrible of a person Senior is, and the truth is, he probably deserves to die. There probably isn’t a person out there who deserves to die more than him, and I know that the world would be a much better place without him. But, who are we to play God? It’s not our job to inflict our own form of vigilante justice on Senior. We’re not supposed to kill people, plain and simple.
Then again, this man shot me today, and for all I know the only reason I’m still alive is because he missed his mark. For all I know, he was aiming for my head and just happened to miss because he wanted to make sure that he didn’t hit Kelvin. I don’t know that he shot me in the shoulder on purpose. Then again, does that really even matter? It doesn’t matter if he missed his mark or not, because the one thing that’s clear is that he intended to shoot me. That part we all know was not an accident. And, now that he’s done it once, what’s to keep him from doing it again? What’s to keep him from doing it every time he wants to bully Kelvin into doing something?
Kelvin’s right. Senior ordered Clarence to shoot Phillip. Senior had Mikey set up and sent to prison on those bogus drug charges. Senior is the cause of all of our problems. I remember that I asked Kelvin what he was going to do about the situation before I went upstairs, and now he’s offering a solution. Albeit, an extreme solution, it’s a solution nonetheless.
I feel like I’m being pulled by both of my arms in opposite directions, so I close my eyes and let my heart speak for me. I try to just speak with the truth, and I’m shocked by the words that come out of my mouth next.
“How would you plan on doing it?”
Everybody in the room suddenly turns their heads and stares at me with wide eyes. It’s almost like something out of a horror movie, and I find myself leaning back in my seat out of discomfort. Eventually, Kelvin steadies himself and speaks up.
“Umm, we would have to use this drug thing to our advantage. I’d have to do it when I meet him to deliver the drug money. That’s the only time I can think of that he’ll have his guard down. I’d probably have to do it at the Royal Flush. So, what we do is put some money together and act like we sold the drugs, like he expects.”
I think about it for a second, and then ask a more important question.
“What about Clarence? He’s always there.”
“Yeah, I’m still working on that part.”
“Fuck that! We kill him too!” Trey jumps in. “It doesn’t matter to me that Senior told him to pull the trigger on my brother, he still pulled it. He’s fucking guilty and he needs to get what’s coming to him. So, when you go up to pop Senior, I’ll come in right behind you and pop Clarence. Or, you can do them both. I don’t give a shit how it’s done, but you know you can’t leave Clarence behind, because you know he’ll retaliate if you let him walk. He has to go too.”
“You guys are ridiculous!” Lauren interjects loudly. “Do you hear yourselves? This is a mob family. If you kill Senior and Clarence, then you have to worry about Ilia. If you kill Ilia, you’ll have to worry about his number two, Yosef. It’s a never ending cycle, you damn dummies. You can’t just kill this problem.”
“We can if we make it look like it was a drug deal gone wrong,” Trey says confidently.
“Or better yet, we could make it look like it was the Russians who carried out the hit. Make it look like Ilia and the Russians did it. Make them take the fall for it,” Kelvin says, placing his finger on his temple, thinking as hard as he can.
“You can’t do this, Kelvin!” Lauren bellows. “You’re doing exactly what they would do, don’t you see that? What do you think Mikey would do? You think your uncle would actually try to kill Senior? You think he’d be okay with you saying all this shit?”
“With all due respect, Aunt Lauren, I do think Uncle Mikey would kill him,” Kelvin says. Lauren looks at him, perplexed. “You might find that hard to believe, but I know how much Uncle Mikey loves you. He’d do anything for you. So, I know that if my dad shot you, Uncle Mikey would kill him. It wouldn’t even be a debate if you were the one with the bandage around your shoulder.”
His words seem to hit everyone right in their hearts, and no one says anything for a while. Lauren puts her head down and her face drains of all emotion. She knows it’s true. There isn’t a chance in hell that Mikey would let this slide if Lauren were me. Senior would probably already be dead.
I know it’s wrong, and I know that I never would’ve even thought about this a little over a year ago, before I met. But, I’m in love now. Not just a mushy, infatuated, kinda-sorta love, either. I’m in earth-shattering, ground-breaking, head over heels, us against the whole fucking world love. This is the kind of love that people would die for. This is what so many people never get to experience in their lives. This is real love, and it’s the reason that I’m a completely different person than who I was when I first saw Kelvin at Applebee’s. That person is long gone.
I let the words bounce around in my head for a minute, while the rest of the room is still stuck in silence. The words are all I can think of. I let them make their way down from my mind to my mouth, and I let them sit there for a while too. Finally, after all of the debating and the back and forth, I let them spill out of my mouth.
“Let’s do it,” I say so quietly that I may as well have whispered it.
“What?�
�� Kelvin replies with a scrunched forehead. “What’d you just say?”
This time, I take a deep breath and say the words with more conviction, trying to convince myself and them that I’ve made up my mind.
“I said, let’s do it. Let’s put a plan together, and then let’s do it. Let’s kill Senior.”
“Comfortable?”
“Fuck you.”
“Aww, I know this is difficult for you, Clarence. I know that when you woke up this morning you didn’t expect your driver of the past six months to arrest you. I’m sure that’s hard to deal with. You should also know that I don’t give a fuck if it’s hard for you. It’s been hell for me this whole time. Having to work for you, dropping what I’m doing to run to you whenever you call. Knowing all along that you’re a dirty, ruthless, killer who doesn’t care about anyone but yourself. Yeah, it was definitely hard for me, but I got over it. I’m definitely over it now, that’s for sure. So, you just give it some time, you’ll get over it, too.”
“You’re a fucking dead man, Simon.”
“Okay, first of all, my name obviously isn’t Simon, but there’s two other things you should know. One, threatening a special agent while you’re in custody is a pretty stupid thing to do. You know that whole thing about everything you say being used against you in a court of law? Yeah, we’re not kidding when we say that. So, that was pretty fucking dumb. Number two, you can drop the whole tough guy thing you have going on. That shit won’t do you any good anymore, at least not right now. Not while we’re in here. Maybe once you leave this interrogation room and you’re in general population you can flex those biceps and scare some of your fellow inmates, but I’m not fazed by that shit. Nothing’s gonna happen to me, Clarence. We both know that. Things are certainly gonna happen, but not to me. So, let me just take this opportunity to tell you what you’re up against, then we’ll move on to what we can do for each other. Sound good?”
“Fuck you.”
