Tiana jumped down from the barstool she had been holding down and suddenly she felt a tight grasp on the upper part of her arm. Her body stiffened and she clutched her purse, where she had one of her father’s knives sandwiched between two maxi pads: the only way she could sneak it into the club. Tiana turned to the person touching her.
“I was just going to ask if I could buy you a drink,” the person said, quickly letting her go when he saw the angry scowl on her face.
“You should never approach a woman and grab up on her like that,” Tiana spat, shooting daggers at him with her eyes. “A simple, ‘Can I buy you a drink?’ without you putting your hands on me might’ve gotten you somewhere,” she hissed.
Although Tiana’s nostrils were flaring and her left hand curled into a fist on its own, she couldn’t help but notice how fine the stranger was. His skin was smooth like newly melted caramel, his deep-set eyes were adorned by the thickest, longest lashes Tiana had ever seen on a man, and the dark, tight curls that hugged his head were perfectly cut and lined up. He was also dressed nicely in an expensive French-cuff button-up shirt, Ferragamo belt, and a sleek pair of black slacks.
“I apologize about that. I really didn’t mean to startle you,” the gorgeous stranger said as he looked deep into her eyes. “I usually don’t approach women in clubs. But you’re beautiful. I couldn’t risk you getting away.”
A flash of shame and embarrassment lit Tiana’s cheeks aflame. She shifted her weight from one foot to the other and broke eye contact with the man. Hearing someone call her beautiful immediately sent her brain into defensive mode. The last time she’d heard she was beautiful had been from Dr. Syed right before he forced himself on her for the first time.
“Thanks. But, I don’t take drinks from strangers,” she said flatly before rushing away from the man. As much as Tiana would have loved to sit and chat with him, now was not the time for her to make small talk. She had to stick to her plans and do what she came here to do.
Tiana could feel the heat of his gaze on her as she made her way to an area of the lounge that was closer to the VIP section. Tiana took a seat where she could hear René partying raucously. Women surrounded him as he tossed handfuls of one hundred dollar bills in the air, laughing as the women scrambled around on the floor like hungry dogs trying to grab handfuls of the money.
“You. I want you,” René slurred, pointing to a tall, slim blonde with large, fake breasts. Tiana watched as the girl rushed over and put her balloon-looking breasts in René’s face and then dumped a small mound of cocaine on them. He leaned in and snorted the thin white line. René threw his head back and laughed.
“My kind of woman!” he yelled as he buried his face in her chest. Loud laughter followed.
Tiana watched René snort at least six lines of cocaine and chase them down with shot after shot of Patrón. By the time the VIP section was almost cleared out René could hardly stand. He and the blonde were fondling and licking each other as his crew tried to urge him to leave.
“I’m the fucking boss. I say when it’s time,” René slurred in Spanish. Tiana knew that if it weren’t for his security being so deep she could’ve taken René out right there in the club.
Tiana looked at her cell phone clock. It was already four o’clock in the morning. She remembered Drake’s note saying that René usually opted to stay in the city at the Hampton Inn after wild nights of partying. Tiana left Club Caliente and headed to the hotel. It would take some skill to get past all of the security and get close to René, but she was confident in her abilities.
* * *
“Buenas noches,” Tiana said, smiling sweetly at the concierge behind the desk.
The man nodded at her and smiled politely. “Good evening, ma’am,” he responded.
“Señor René sent me. He’s had a wild night and wants me to prepare his bath and things before he gets here,” Tiana said, sounding as official as she could. The man behind the desk made a face that read a mixture of confusion and suspicion.
“I know it seems strange, but you know him . . . very wild,” Tiana said, using her hands to depict a sexual act. “He told me you might be hesitant, you know, for his protection, so he also told me to give you this and for you not to mention it to his men. They don’t really know some of the things he is into,” Tiana said, sliding five one-hundred-dollar bills across the counter in his direction. The money from her father’s bag was coming in handy.
“Ah, yes, I certainly understand.” The man smiled, quickly placing his hand on top of the cash and sliding it off the counter. “You know how to go from here, correct?” he asked as he handed her the access card to his room.
“Of course,” Tiana sang, winking at the man as she snatched the card and headed for the elevators.
“Shit, I hope Drake was right about it being the entire penthouse floor,” she mumbled to herself.
Almost an hour later, Tiana heard when René and his companion for the night entered the suite. A rush of excitement and nervousness flooded Tiana’s body, causing her skin to feel tingly and sensitive. “Catching someone off guard is not weak; it’s smart,” her father had taught her when he was teaching her the ropes.
Now, Tiana listened to the sounds of smacking and sucking, and she pictured René and the blonde from the club tongue-kissing and fondling each other.
“Let me go freshen up,” Tiana heard the blonde call out in Spanish.
“Hurry up!” she heard René reply.
Tiana’s heart raced as she heard the blonde step into the bathroom and lock the door. Tiana peeked out from a small opening in the pulled shower curtain and she watched the blonde undress. She watched as the girl took her bra off and grabbed her breasts as if she needed to readjust her nasty implants. As Tiana watched the blonde finish undressing, something caught her eye.
Oh, shit! Tiana cupped her hands over her mouth and watched the blonde grab on to his dick, stand over the toilet, and take a piss.
Tiana shook her head. Holy shit! It’s a shemale! Damn, he look better than some women! René the so-called boss about to take it in the ass?
As the shemale finished, Tiana gripped her father’s hunting knife until her knuckles paled. She knew the transgender would probably be coming to take a shower next and would find her standing behind the shower curtain. Tiana was ready.
The blonde went into his purse and retrieved a small glassine envelope of cocaine, dumped a tiny mound onto the back of his hand, held it up against his nostril, and inhaled deeply.
“Ah! I’m going to need this to fuck this old, nasty motherfucker,” the shemale whispered. “And he ain’t fucking me in my ass this time. Ugly-ass motherfucker always walking around thinking he’s God’s gift. Lucky he got some coin.”
“Ay! C’mon!”
Tiana and the shemale both jumped when René banged on the bathroom door and started yelling for the blonde to hurry up.
“I’m coming, baby!” the shemale called out coquettishly. “Shut the fuck up and wait,” the shemale grumbled quietly, grabbing the shower curtain and yanking it back. The blonde’s eyes widened and his mouth dropped open in utter surprise when he saw someone standing in the tub with a knife in her hand. He was so shocked, the scream was stuck somewhere between his lungs and his throat and wouldn’t come out.
“Shhhh,” Tiana warned, putting the point of her knife up against the shemale’s throat.
The shemale closed his eyes and swallowed hard. Tears immediately drained from the corners of his eyes. “Please, I don’t even know him. He’s just a john to me,” he whispered. “I have nothing to do with his business. I’m not the one you want. I just get paid to be here.”
“Get on your knees,” Tiana whispered back harshly, pushing the knife into the blonde’s skin just enough to draw a drop of blood. He silently did as he was told. Tiana reached over and turned the shower on so that René wouldn’t hear anything.
“How many men came up here with him?” Tiana whispered gruffly in the shemale’s ear. The blonde shrugged his sho
ulders. Tiana got behind him and clutched on to a handful of his hair.
“Oh, shit,” Tiana huffed, as the blond wig came off into her hand and scared her. “Fuck,” she panted, tossing the wig into the sink next to her. Tiana quickly recovered and put the blade of the hunting knife to the shemale’s throat.
“I’ll ask you again: how many men are out there?” Tiana whispered through clenched teeth, holding the knife perilously close to the shemale’s throat.
“They’re in the adjoining room. He . . . he wanted to be alone with me,” he sobbed. “Nobody knows my . . . my secret, so he doesn’t allow them in the suite with us. They are all fucked up and probably asleep or fucking some of the whores he keeps around. He was supposed to be here for the night. They said they did a sweep before we came up here,” the shemale relayed. “Please, just let me go. I’m just here to make some money,” he cried.
“I’m sorry, boo, but I can’t let you go,” Tiana said as she pushed the blade farther into his neck. Tiana pulled and slid the knife blade across his throat with so much force she could hear the skin ripping apart. The shemale’s body folded to the floor.
“I just couldn’t risk you running off and snitching,” Tiana spoke more to herself than to the now dead transgender on the floor. She stepped back and watched as the dark burgundy blood ran from the deep cut in the shemale’s throat and quickly seeped onto the floor. Tiana yanked a towel down from the rack and pushed it under the door. She couldn’t afford for the blood to leak under the door and alert René that something was amiss.
“Your turn now, faggot nigga,” Tiana grumbled, taking the blond wig and pulling it down onto her head. When she stepped out of the bathroom into the suite, the room was pitch black. Tiana hesitated a few seconds, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness. In the darkness she could hear loud snoring coming from the bed. Tiana craned her neck and squinted until she could see René’s buck-naked silhouette sprawled out on the bed. Tiana carefully inched to the bedside, picked up René’s tie, a pair of handcuffs, and a black whip that was lying on the floor.
Guess you was about to get your S and M freaky shit on, huh, nasty nigga? Tiana chortled silently in her head.
Slowly and quietly Tiana moved with the sneakiness of a sly fox. When she finished cuffing René to the bed, she carefully climbed on, took his tie, and tied it around his mouth. René finally came alive from his deep tequila-and cocaine-induced slumber.
“Mmm. Mmmm,” he moaned, trying in vain to fight the unknown force overtaking him.
“Shhh, or I cut your dick off and shove it down your throat,” Tiana whispered, an evil grimace tugging at the corners of her mouth. Even in the darkness she could see hints of terror on his face.
René flailed a little bit more, moaning and grunting at Tiana.
“You must be making threats behind that gag, huh? Well, your threats don’t mean shit to me. Yes, I know who you are,” Tiana growled, clicking on the lamp next to the bed. “Seems like I keep catching all of you motherfuckers in bed slipping,” Tiana said, rubbing the tip of her knife close to René’s left eye. “Funny how all of you perverts keep getting caught with your dicks out.” she chortled. “You’re probably wondering who I am and why I’m here,” she said, not expecting an answer.
René moved his head up and down.
“You should know who your enemies are, René. I thought you were a smart man,” Tiana taunted. “This is for Los Asesinos,” she said as she moved her knife toward his heart. René felt the tip of the knife penetrate the skin and his eyes went wide. He began moving wildly, but to no avail. Tiana smiled as she looked into René’s eyes. Seeing the fear dancing behind his drunken eyes fueled her wrath even more.
“So you’ve figured it out?” She laughed.
René began trying to speak through the material of the tie.
“You want to tell me something?” Tiana said in an eerie little girl voice. She sounded like a deranged character from a scary movie. She cut away the material of the tie. Although it was risky, something inside of Tiana wanted to hear René’s last words before she exacted her revenge.
René went to open his mouth but Tiana placed the sharp tip of the knife at his lips.
“Scream and I’ll cut your fucking tongue out,” she warned. “Now, tell me, what is it you have to tell me? Your dying declaration,” she hissed.
“I . . . I have a deal with Los Asesinos. Why have they sent you?” René panted, sweating dripping down the sides of his face.
“A deal? Yeah, right, you fucking liar,” Tiana replied, her eyebrows furrowed. “What deal are you talking about?”
“Yes. Yes. The new deal. The one that changed your crew from Los Asesinos to Asesinos Sicopata.” René rushed his words out.
Tiana’s eyebrows dipped even lower on her face. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“When we took out the Los Asesinos leader so that Lobo could take over and get more money for hits, we agreed to rotate high-priced hits between our crews. When we made the arrangement, we agreed to no more wars. We . . . we are all family now so I don’t understand this attack,” René huffed out. He was speaking like he hadn’t been high out of his mind a few minutes earlier. Tiana had obviously blown his high, but now he was blowing hers.
Tiana squinted her eyes as her heartbeat sped up from the information she was hearing. “Lobo?” Tiana started.
“Yes, yes. See, Lobo set up the Los Asesinos old boss, Marquez. Lobo had started sleeping with Marquez’s woman and together he and the bitch made a plan to take Marquez out. Lobo and some of the other Los Asesinos guys were fed up with the chump change Marquez was paying for hits and they didn’t like that he had so many moral rules about kids and women, so we made the arrangement. Lobo gave us Marquez’s home address, Marquez’s wife gave the signal that Marquez was home and, with the blessing of the top dealers in the city, we went to his home and took him out,” René rattled off, the information flowing from his mouth like a river. Tiana couldn’t believe the way such an allegedly dangerous head hit man was spilling his guts out of fear. Wasn’t there some code they should follow?
Tiana felt like the room was spinning around her and she could no longer control her breathing. The entire place had taken on a red hue like someone had pulled a red veil over her eyes.
“Lobo and my stepmother set my father up?” Tiana asked through clenched teeth. She wasn’t expecting an answer, but repeating what she had just heard made it seem more plausible to her.
“Your father? Marquez was your father?” René replied, shock registering on his face and in his voice. “Fuck,” he gasped. Then he went to scream but before any sound escaped his mouth Tiana drove her knife straight down into it. Tiana pressed the end of the knife until the blade had gone all the way into the back of René’s throat. His body bucked and ghastly wheezing sounds escaped his mouth. Tiana closed her eyes and pressed on the knife handle until René’s body went still. Tiana hadn’t even realized how hard she was crying.
She pulled the knife out and looked at the blood dripping from the end of it. She rubbed her finger over the blade until blood covered her pointer finger. Then she walked over to the mirror over the dresser and used her blood-soaked finger to write a message.
LOS ASESINOS STILL LIVES.
Tiana knew the message would be sent to the Diablos, which would cause a chain reaction that she hoped hit Lobo directly. They didn’t know it yet, but Lobo and Giselle had just made their way up to number one on her hit list.
Chapter 16
The sound of the gunshots snatched Lobo and Giselle out of their sleep.
“Oh my God!” Giselle gasped, leaping out of the bed like someone had shocked her with a thousand bolts of electricity. Lobo rolled off of the bed onto the floor with such a hard thud the wind was knocked out of him.
“Fuck,” he gasped when three more gunshots resounded from somewhere in the apartment. Searching around in the darkness, Lobo located and grabbed the MP-5 he kept at his bedside at all times. “Go,�
� he growled at Giselle. They had talked about this exact scenario more than once.
“I don’t want to leave—” she cried.
“Go!” Lobo growled, cutting her off. She would just make things worse. Lobo got low and waited for the shooters to bust into this bedroom. Giselle made a mad dash for their walk-in closet, where she cowered behind shoeboxes and racks of clothes.
Just like Lobo suspected, his bedroom door came crashing in a few minutes later.
“Ah! Motherfuckers!” Lobo screamed, getting to his feet and spraying bullets at the door. “You come into my fucking house? Huh! You think I’m a fucking pussy! Huh!” he screamed.
After a few seconds and no sign of anybody, Lobo stopped shooting. The eerie silence caused the hairs on his neck to stand up. He slowly inched toward the door, his gun out in front of him. Moving forward like a military officer on a mission, Lobo whipped his head around but didn’t see or hear anyone.
“Don’t hide, putas. I’m right fucking here!” Lobo screamed, raising his gun menacingly. “I’m right fuckin’—”
Suddenly a sharp pain crashed into Lobo’s shoulder like he’d been hit with a sledgehammer. His words tumbled back down his throat like hard marbles and his gun flew from his hands.
“Agh!” Lobo screamed as his body lurched forward and crumpled to the floor. Another searing pain hit him, this time in his left butt cheek.
“Urgh!” Lobo growled from the pain, spit popping from his lips and veins cording against the skin in his neck and face. Breathing heavily and barely able to control his own movements, Lobo flipped onto his back and right away came eye to eye with the source of his pain.
“Don’t shoot me again, please. What do you want?” Lobo begged with his hands up defensively in front of him. “I have money in the safe. I have drugs. What do you want?” he cried, shaking all over.
Out of the corner of his eye he could see the doors to his bedroom terrace swinging open. He had been concentrating so hard on his bedroom door he’d forgotten about the other doors.
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