“Get him up,” Andres commanded. Four men with guns rushed over and hoisted Lobo up into his own leather recliner. Lobo could feel his legs going numb, and the pain in his ass throbbed with every rapid pound of his heart. Lobo recognized the man who’d shot him.
“What the fuck are you doing, Andres? Where is René? What is this about?” Lobo hollered, his body rocking from the pain.
“So you’re going to play stupid now?” Andres gritted, his eyes flashing with fire. He pointed his gun to Lobo’s head.
“What the fuck are you talking about? I thought this was some fucking robbery and then I see you. Where the fuck is René?” Lobo barked, his voice crackling with agony.
“You sent someone to kill my boss and now you want to act like you don’t know shit?” Andres growled, lifting his gun and bringing it down on Lobo’s head. Andres was the Diablos second-in-command and René’s right hand. Andres was much more ruthless than his boss and right now he was out for blood.
“Agh! Wait! What?” Lobo squawked, putting his hands up in defense. “I . . . I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about. René is dead? No fucking way! I didn’t order that hit, I swear,” Lobo cried pleadingly. Lobo panted out a few breaths to try to stave off the pain rocking his body. He couldn’t believe that the head of the Diablos was dead, but he could understand now why Andres had come ready to avenge his boss’s death.
Andres stood back, rubbing his chin as he watched Lobo writhe in pain. Something in Lobo’s eyes told Andres that maybe the sniveling man in front of him could be telling the truth. “I’m going to give you a chance to tell me what you know before I use this gun to blow your head off,” Andres grumbled, waving his gun in Lobo’s face.
“Listen, I . . . I wouldn’t step on our peace agreement, I swear. Everything was going good. We are all making money with no problems. I didn’t do it,” Lobo panted. “Tell me what happened to René. There must be some reason you thought it was me. But, I swear, it wasn’t.”
Andres squinted and pursed his lips. “Someone tied him up, buck-naked, and drove a knife down his fucking throat like he was an animal to slaughter,” Andres reported, his voice cracking with emotion. “On the mirror they wrote this in his fucking blood,” Andres said, putting his cell phone screen in front of Lobo’s face.
Lobo’s eyes hooded over and he began breathing heavily as he examined the cell phone picture of the words written in blood.
LOS ASESINOS STILL LIVES.
“So, you’re telling me that you had nothing to do with this?” Andres said through gritted teeth. “If you didn’t then you have a snake in your crew and you’re getting set up.”
“There could only be one person who would do this, and I will save the Diablos the trouble and handle her myself,” Lobo said, moving to stand up; but he was immediately forced back down into the chair from the pain of his gunshot wounds.
“I want whoever is responsible to suffer and I want proof. If you don’t handle it and prove to me that it was someone else who murdered him, I will come back to you and finish what I started here. Don’t fuck with me or I swear I will be back. The Diablos will fucking murder all of your people and all of their families. We are already at war. There is no turning back now,” Andres said with assurance, getting close to Lobo’s face.
“Now, you better think up a story for the police. Can’t get treatment for gunshots without a story. Maybe you should say your bitch did it,” Andres said snidely as he waved his goons toward the door.
Lobo slid out of the recliner and fell to the floor. He couldn’t feel his legs. Grunting and struggling, Lobo used his arms to drag himself toward the bed.
“I am going to get this bitch and she is going to pay for this shit,” Lobo grunted, out of breath.
Giselle was still cowering in the closet, wondering what the hell had just happened.
* * *
Tiana jumped out of her sleep covered in sweat. She looked around the room realizing she was at her apartment and not locked in a padded room. “Damn, that dream was real,” she panted, laying the palm of her right hand on her rapidly rising chest.
As usual, the other side of the bed was empty. Drake had snuck out again while she slept. Drake had been staying with her on and off, but he was always leaving at all hours of the night. So far things were still cool between them and there hadn’t been any awkwardness.
“This nigga be playing games,” Tiana grumbled. She reached over to the nightstand and picked up the phone Drake had given her. There were a bunch of missed calls. Tiana crinkled her face in confusion.
“Only a few people have this number. What the fuck is going on?” she huffed, placing the phone to her ear to retrieve the voice mails. Tiana listened to the third message and felt like someone had reached into her chest and squeezed her heart until it stopped beating. The pleading voice filtering through the phone spurned her into action.
Tiana sprang to her feet like she had been splashed with ice-cold water. She whirled around in circles trying to find clothes to put on.
“Shit!” she huffed, almost falling over as she put on her jeans. Tiana grabbed both of her guns, holstered them, and put them on her waist. She grabbed two of her father’s knives and threw them into a small black knapsack.
“I’m coming. I’m coming,” she said aloud. Tiana raced out of the apartment building without doing the usual check of her surroundings. She didn’t even notice that she was being watched.
Tiana made it to Mama Hilda’s apartment in less than twenty minutes. She dug for the key Mama Hilda had given her on her last visit, but when Tiana went to put the key in the door, she realized she didn’t need it. The door creaked open.
“Nah,” Tiana whispered, her heart threatening to come up out of her throat. There was no way Mama Hilda would’ve left her door unlocked. She was probably more paranoid and more careful than Tiana’s father on his best day. Tiana quickly retrieved her Glock from her holster before she stepped fully inside.
“Madrina?” Tiana called out apprehensively. “Madrina, you here? I got your messages. I’m sorry it took me so long to come.”
There was no answer, but Tiana could hear a television playing loudly somewhere to her left. Tiana crept farther inside the apartment, but she didn’t see anyone. Tiana moved slowly over to the spot in the living room where Mama Hilda kept her AK. Tiana peeked behind the couch and noticed the AK was gone. Suddenly, Tiana’s body felt cold, like she was standing barefoot on a block of ice. A sharp pain started at the base of her skull and her head began pounding.
“Madrina?” Tiana yelled out, this time louder and more frantically than before. Tiana started moving around the apartment faster with her gun extended in front of her. When she got to Mama Hilda’s bedroom Tiana slowly pushed the door open. The television was blasting the Spanish news channel.
“Madrina!” Tiana called out loudly. Once she stepped all the way into the room her legs went weak and she almost crumpled to the floor.
“No! Madrina! No!” Tiana squealed as she took in the sight of Mama Hilda’s decapitated head sitting atop the television stand.
“Argh!” Tiana leaned over and threw up on the floor and, as she did, she quickly sprang to her feet and stumbled backward to get away from Mama Hilda’s amputated arms.
“Oh, God!” Tiana cried out, whirling around. Behind her was Mama Hilda’s naked torso, missing the legs and breasts. “No!” Tiana screamed, her body quaking all over. As she went to back out of the door, Tiana noticed the message on the wall behind Mama Hilda’s bed written in blood.
I KNOW WHAT YOU DID. YOU CAN’T GET AWAY WITH IT. BE WARNED.
Tiana involuntarily bent over at the waist and threw up again. It wasn’t the smell of blood that had made her sick; she was used to that. It wasn’t even the brutality of the crime; she was used to that too. Tiana felt sick to her stomach to think that her godmother had been brutally tortured like that. She knew shit was only gonna get harder from here on out. The fact that they came after her godmo
ther meant that they must have figured out that she was responsible for Rene’s murder.
Tiana felt like her heart had been ripped out of her chest. She knew she had to get out of there and get herself together. There was no way she was going to let them get away with this.
Chapter 17
Drake rushed into Tiana’s place like he was sprinting to save her life. As soon as Tiana saw his face, she rushed into him and broke down until her knees went weak.
“Whoa, whoa, Tee,” Drake said as he held her in a tight embrace. Tiana melted against him, sobbing. “Shhh. Tell me what happened,” Drake comforted her, rubbing Tiana’s head. He hadn’t gotten the street news about Mama Hilda’s death yet.
“They fucking cut her up like a pig, Drake! They cut her head off and her . . . her arms!” Tiana cried, her body racked with sobs.
“What? Who?” Drake asked, moving Tiana from his chest so he could look into her eyes. “Who?” Drake shook her shoulders slightly.
“Mama Hilda! Agh!” Tiana screamed, becoming weak in the knees again. “I’m going to fucking kill all of them, Drake! I’m going to cut their fucking insides out! She was the only connection to my father I had left!”
“What the fuck? Who would want to kill her now? I mean, with the truce between the Diablos and the Asesinos Sicopata there was no reason to go after her,” Drake said, flustered with disbelief.
“They wanted to send a message!” Tiana said, sniffling back snot and tears.
“But why? Everybody knows Mama Hilda is still connected to all of the cartel assassins in some way or another. She kept her loyalty to Marquez, but they already agreed to leave her alone after the last time they tried to take her out. They lost about ten of their men trying to take her out so they sent out the message that no one was to fuck with her,” Drake said as she held on to Tiana.
“It was a message for me, Drake,” Tiana said, pulling away from him. “I’m telling you, it was a message for me. Somebody knew I would be crushed by this,” Tiana told him, looking at him pitifully.
“Nah. That doesn’t make any sense. People don’t even know you’re back out here,” Drake said. “There’s gotta be some other shit going on.”
“I’m telling you, they did this to her to fuck with me. They all know Mama Hilda was my heart. They wrote a message to me in her blood, Drake,” Tiana said. Her voice quivered and tears started falling from her eyes again. “Shit keeps happening to me. It’s like karma.”
“But why?” Drake asked. “Do you think it has something to do with your list?”
“It was the Diablos,” Tiana rasped, almost whispering. “It was the fucking Diablos,” she said again through clenched teeth.
“Nah. They ain’t got no time for shit like this, Tiana. I’ma keep my ear to the street and find out what happened, but for right now you ain’t going nowhere without me,” Drake said, pulling her back into his chest and holding her tight.
Tiana remained quiet. She didn’t confess what she’d done to René Rodriguez but, in her heart, she felt that Mama Hilda’s brutal murder was payback for that. Tiana was too scared to tell Drake exactly why she knew that the Diablos might be after her. Now, she would have to take care of them before she finished taking care of the people on her list.
* * *
Tiana handed the homeless-looking man a brown paper bag with the cash inside just like he’d instructed. He smelled like a garbage dump, but from what Tiana had heard, the man was paid. There were no words exchanged between Tiana and him, which was fine with her. She snatched the small drawstring bag, slung it over her shoulder, and walked away as briskly and quietly as she came.
Back at her apartment she examined the sticks of explosives like they were bars of gold. “Y’all didn’t know who y’all fucking with,” Tiana mumbled as she bound the sticks into bundles of four. She needed to get her explosives all set and ready. She knew how to make small bombs like the one she had made for Dr. Syed’s car, but this was on a whole other level. She needed to get some legit ones that would get the big job done.
“Mama Hilda, I will never forget you. You will live with me for life. They won’t get away with what they did to you,” Tiana said out loud.
* * *
The next day, Tiana watched from a distance as Mama Hilda was given the grand funeral she deserved. Some of the biggest drug kingpins were in attendance and so were Drake, Lobo, Giselle, the Asesinos Sicopata, and the Diablos. Tiana counted six Diablos, including Andres, their new leader who’d taken the reins after René’s murder.
Drake had insisted on attending the funeral in Tiana’s place. He refused to let Tiana risk attending the big elaborate service, fearful that whoever killed Mama Hilda might be coming around today. If they really had killed Mama Hilda to get to Tiana, they were sure to be waiting for her to show up. He didn’t want to risk putting her in harm’s way. He still wasn’t 100 percent convinced that Mama Hilda’s murder had anything to do with Tiana but, still, he tried to keep Tiana close in the days after the funeral, leaving her only for short periods at a time so he could conduct his business. Tiana took advantage of every one of those times she was alone to get her next moves clearly planned out.
Now, she was bent down behind two huge, ancient-looking slate gray mausoleums; and she dialed Drake’s cell number. Tiana watched from her hiding spot as Drake dug into his suit jacket and walked away from the crowd of funeral-goers to answer.
“Drake, it’s me. I need you to leave right now. I need you,” Tiana whispered.
“Tee, where are you? What’s going on?” Drake huffed into the phone, his head moving like it was on a swivel.
“Just leave now. Get the fuck out of there, Drake,” Tiana whispered harshly. “Leave now for your own good.” From her hiding spot, she watched Drake rush toward his car. Tiana was counting in her head. Everything was a numbers game. Everything was about time. Her father had taught her that lesson over and over again.
Drake was six cars away from the Diablos vehicles. Not enough distance to be sure that he would be safe. “C’mon, Drake. Leave already,” Tiana mumbled under her breath. Drake was seemingly taking forever to get out of there.
“Finally.” She sighed and her shoulders fell with relief when Drake drove away from the long line of cars. She would explain her frantic phone call to him later.
“Daddy and Mama Hilda, they are about to get what they deserve for what they did to y’all. May they all rot in hell,” Tiana said out loud as if her father and Mama Hilda were standing in front of her.
Tiana ducked lower when she noticed the burial service breaking up. Tiana’s heart rate sped up with excitement as she watched the attendees shuffle toward their cars. Tiana got low to the ground and moved downhill in the cemetery until she was sure she was a safe distance away.
She could still see the marks’ cars in the distance. Tiana recognized Andres and three of the Diablos top men as they climbed into the silver Suburban. She was grateful that Mama Hilda had given her a file full of pictures and information on Los Diablos and the new members that had joined Lobo’s Asesinos Sicopata crew before she passed. She wanted to make sure her goddaughter was well informed and up to date with everything that had been going on during the year that she had been at Rollins.
The driver let his bosses into the vehicle and then rushed to the front and climbed inside. The black Escalade in front of them also carried Diablos members.
“Shit!” Tiana cursed when she saw Lobo walk over and knock on the window of the silver Suburban. “You better get the fuck away,” Tiana whispered. Although Lobo was on her list, Tiana wanted to see him in person, later.
Lobo walked away and started toward his vehicle, which was five cars away. Before Lobo fully reached his vehicle, the driver of the silver Suburban keyed the ignition.
Boom! Boom! The blast sent Tiana reeling backward, and a cloud of dust that resembled a huge tornado rose into the sky.
Screams erupted everywhere. The force of the blast sent Lobo face first into the dir
t and several other people were knocked down by the blast. Cemetery headstones were torn from the ground and went flying into the air. The silver Suburban and the black Escalade were both completely engulfed in flames. The entire place erupted into massive chaos with people running and screaming.
Tiana got off her back and raced down the hill on the far side of the cemetery. Her ears were ringing and her head pounded from the sound of the blast, but her mind and soul felt vindicated and satisfied. She was too busy to even notice that there was more than one set of eyes on her.
She made her way to her godmother’s car. She’d taken it the day she found her body. She didn’t plan on keeping it because she was sure she’d be found out quickly if she started driving it around. She drove toward the front of the cemetery and waited for the silver car. As soon as she saw it approaching, she ducked down to make sure the driver or passenger didn’t notice her.
* * *
Lobo’s driver pulled his Infiniti QX80 to the curb in front of their house. Giselle was busy looking at herself in her compact mirror. The explosion at the cemetery had startled her and she was checking her face to make sure she didn’t have any major cuts. Her face was stinging from the dirt and little pebbles that flew into her face when the bomb went off.
Lobo was behaving like nothing had happened. He was on his phone taking a business call. Lobo’s driver was the first to exit the SUV. He nodded at the car behind the SUV as if to say the coast was clear. The driver opened the back door on the side where Giselle sat so that she could exit first. As soon as Giselle put her second foot out of the door and onto the ground, loud cracking noises erupted around her.
“Agh!” Giselle screamed and tried to duck back into the SUV, but it was too late. The noises seemed to get closer and closer until Giselle could hear nothing else. Somewhere in the distance she thought she could hear Lobo calling out to her.
Bullets rained down on the SUV. Giselle was hit at least four times. Her body jerked like she was being hit with bolts of electricity. Finally, her limp form slid out of the back passenger’s side door onto the cold concrete.
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