The Hustler's Daughter Volume 2

by Pinky Dior

  Chapter Sixteen

  Suspicious activity

  One morning, Mercedes was driving to her mother’s house when she decided to make a quick stop at the mall before returning home. After she had done a little bit of shopping, Mercedes emerged from the mall, carrying several shopping bags on each of her arms, weighing her down. She loved shopping, and she did a lot of it when she was bored and had nothing to do. As Mercedes was walking to her car, she saw an unmarked car pull up in front of her and suddenly stop. Mercedes stopped in her tracks, and rolled her eyes as she noticed two white detectives hopping out the car, approaching her with their badges hanging proudly from their neck. It was the same detectives that had snatched her up at the airport, before she made her sweet escape to Jamaica, and the same ones who’d been harassing her ever since Claudia’s death. Mercedes and her mother just ignored them every time they would try to ask them questions.

  “Mercedes Carter?” One of the detectives smiled as he flashed his badge.

  “What do you want?” she asked bluntly, as she shifted all her weight to one side.

  “We just want to ask you a few questions, ma’am.”

  “Okay, a few questions about what?” Mercedes stayed calm.

  The detective pulled out a picture of Milan and showed it to her. “Do you know who this young lady is?” he questioned as he held the picture.

  Mercedes gulped down her spit and answered the question quickly. “Yes, I know her, but I wasn’t really close to her. But I know who she is.”

  “How do you know her?” the other detective asked.

  “Well, she used to work for my father until he was murdered.” Mercedes pursed her lips together. “No one ever looked into his case.”

  “We did, but your father was a big target in New York. Everyone wanted him dead—even me.” The detective had a devious smirk on his face.

  Mercedes wanted to spit in his face, jump in her car and dip off on him, but she held her composure. “Why are you asking me all these questions?” Mercedes barked. “What the fuck does Milan have anything to do with me?”

  “She’s dead, Mercedes!” the officer barked.

  Mercedes had a blank face on as if she didn’t have any clue what he was talking about. Deep down inside, however, she was smiling. I know; I’m the one who killed the bitch. Mercedes stared into the officer’s eyes. “Well, I haven’t seen her around,” Mercedes lied.

  “You little bitch! You think that just because you got away with Emilio’s murder, you will get away with this?” he retorted. “I know it was you, sweetie. First, it was Emilio. You and him were talking and messing around, and you found out that he was cheating on you with Milan! So you killed him because he didn’t want to be with you, and then you killed her just because of your jealous rage!”

  His other partner calmed him down, seeing that he was blowing things out of proportion. “Maybe she doesn’t know,” Detective Hanks said, sticking up for her.

  Mercedes busted out laughing. “You guys kill me! I will never kill anyone over a nigga or anything like that,” Mercedes said bluntly. “It was the other way around. She was trying to get at me, and I’m the victim here.” Mercedes winked at the detective and said, “Excuse me; I have places to go.” Mercedes pushed past the detectives and walked to her car, popped open the trunk, and put her shopping bags inside.

  “Don’t think you’re getting off easy with this one!” the detective yelled as he placed his hand on his forehead in disappointment. He was going to try his hardest to link Mercedes to all the recent homicides in the streets of New York.

  Mercedes looked back at him, hopped in her car, reversed, and peeled off.

  ***

  Romeo pulled up in front of his apartment. He walked in and threw his keys and cell phone on the couch. Romeo ran his fingers over his head. The fact that someone had murdered Felix, and one of Vicente’s workers, Roberto, enraged him and stressed him out. He walked into his nephew’s room and looked around for anything that would lead him to find out why someone would have killed him. He had his phone in his pocket and saw Candy’s name filling up his call list. He walked over to the dresser as he eyed the phone, checking his messages. He spotted a white piece of paper situated on the dresser. He picked it up from the table and he read it. He stared at the name, number and address. His eyes bulged as he noticed what was on the paper. That sneaky little bitch! He automatically assumed it was Candy. He thought she had probably set him up and got him killed. He just didn’t understand how Candy was connected with Maria, but he was eager to find out.

  “I told that nigga not to fuck with that bitch!” Romeo yelled aloud, thinking that the girl, Candy, played a part in his murder. He rushed out of the room, headed down the hallway, walked into his bedroom, and grabbed his MAC-11 from the dresser. He also grabbed his Beretta from the drawer. He checked to see if there were any bullets in it and then slid some extra bullets in his pockets, just in case he needed more.

  Romeo jumped behind the wheel of his rental car; he had to complete the job which Vicente had sent him to do. He had driven the bullet-riddled truck towards the Manhattan Bridge and burned it. Romeo planned to buy another black Expedition, because he loved doing missions in it.

  As Romeo pulled up on the street that was written on the paper, his eyes bulged. The house was familiar to him. It was the same address that he and his men had gone to the other day to search for Maria, but she wasn’t there, and they had killed an unknown female. Something’s going on, and I don’t know what it is, but I’m about to sure enough find out. Romeo noticed a Benz slowly pulling up in front of the address that was on the paper.

  “There that bitch go right there,” he said to himself. He thought it was Candy; the one who he thought had set up his nephew. He held his MAC-11 in his hand and cocked it back as he watched a younger woman close her car door, walk up to the house, and enter it. Romeo waited several minutes before getting out of the car and proceeding over to the house.

  ***

  Mercedes slowly pulled up in front of her house in her Benz. She didn’t think it was a smart idea to do so, but she shrugged her shoulders. The hell with it. Let someone try something stupid. Mercedes grabbed her gun out of the glove compartment and cocked it back as she gripped it in her hand. She exited the car and walked up the path of her home. She saw the bloodstain on the concrete from where Candy had lay there, bleeding to death. Closing her eyes, she tried to block out the memories of Candy being shot. She looked around before stepping foot into her house.

  Tears welled up in her eyes as she noticed that her house was a total wreck. There was still an ongoing investigation as to who had killed Candy. Mercedes thanked God that it wasn’t the same detectives as the ones investigating the other murders, because they would be all on her back, thinking she was involved. Mercedes’s heart was crushed as she looked around her house. Everything was knocked over, her vases were broken, and her furniture was torn up. As she walked down the halls, she noticed the pictures of the Carter family were ruined. She stepped over the broken glass on her carpet. Mercedes carefully bent down and picked up one of the pictures on the ground: one of her, Maria, and her father. It brought tears to her eyes, but she didn’t release them.

  She continued walking upstairs and went into her bedroom. Her clothes were strewn all around her room and her bed was flipped over. Mercedes couldn’t believe that all the hard work she had put into her house was now ruined. She grabbed a couple of outfits and stuffed them into a bag. Mercedes walked over to her closet. She knelt down and opened another door that led into another small room.

  Mercedes prayed to God that they didn’t find her stash. The other night she hadn’t grabbed all the money, just some of it. She walked in and a feeling of relief overcame her. She grabbed a duffle bag filled with money and placed it over her shoulder. The rest of the money was still buried at her father’s mausoleum with the rest of the drugs and guns. But she had taken out one of the duffle bags, so she could buy her mother’s house an
d to get a few other things with it as well.

  After gathering up all of the things that she needed, Mercedes walked down the stairs. She stopped in her tracks when she saw a man standing in front of her, with a gun pointed directly at her.

  “Drop the bags.”

  Mercedes didn’t say a word. She slid the bags off her shoulders and dropped them to the ground.

  “You killed my nephew.” The man nodded his head.

  “I don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!” Mercedes barked as she walked down the last two steps.

  “Bitch, don’t you fucking lie to me!” He stared at her with his gun positioned. “I know it’s you, because your address was on this piece of paper. I know you set him up, you sneaky little bitch!”

  “You got the wrong bitch!” Mercedes smiled from ear to ear.

  “Nah, your little friend who lives here has been chilling with my nephew lately.”

  Mercedes cocked back her head, wondering how the fuck he knew Candy. She looked down and it started to all make sense to her. The other day they had followed her mother to Mercedes’s house, thinking Maria lived there. The night of Candy’s murder, they had come looking for Maria and she wasn’t there. Candy got caught in the middle of it. Mercedes shook her head. How come I couldn’t see any of this coming? How could I be so blind? “Nah,” Mercedes chuckled, thinking it was funny. She looked at him as if he was a psycho. Mercedes just looked at him with a devilish smirk on her face. “Like I said before, you got the wrong bitch!” she hissed, getting tired of him pointing fingers. He needed to get his story right.

  “So who the fuck are you?” he spazzed, thinking she was playing around with his head.

  “Mercedes Carter,” she said with pride.

  His eyes widened. He started at her as if he was trying to figure out where he knew her from. “Mercedes Carter? Carter?” he questioned as he held his gun up to the side of his face, thinking. He looked over and saw a picture on the nightstand.

  Mercedes gulped. He was staring at a picture of her and her mother from when Mercedes was six years old. He reached over and picked up the picture, ran his fingers over it, and laughed.

  “Oh, so you’re the reason why Maria ran away from Cuba?” he smirked. “She had a daughter by the notorious drug dealer…Don Carter.”

  “Don’t fucking speak my father’s name!” Mercedes said with an enraged tone.

  “I can’t believe this shit!”

  “And so? What the fuck does that have to do with you?” Mercedes retorted as she shot him a cold glare and raised perfectly-arched eyebrows.

  “Everything!” he yelled. “You’re the reason behind this all!” He sounded upset. “Vicente searched for his daughter, not knowing why she ever ran away from home.” He shook his head. “Wait ‘til Vicente finds out about this.”

  As soon as Mercedes heard Vicente’s name, she knew this man had been sent from Cuba to find her mother. He didn’t notice she had a gun in her hand, slightly hidden behind her leg. “He’s not going to find about me.” Mercedes pulled out her gun and pointed it at him. They both stood in the living room with drawn guns, pointing at each other.

  “I see that Don raised a little feisty daughter.” Romeo smirked. “I like.”

  Mercedes cocked back her gun, letting him know she wasn’t playing, and that she wouldn’t hesitate to pull the trigger. She wouldn’t have to think twice about that.

  “You gon’ shoot me?” he asked with a sarcastic tone. “You don’t have the heart.”

  “Try me.” Mercedes smirked, still with her game face on.

  “Well, you gonna have to kill me.”

  Romeo let off the first shot and hit Mercedes in the chest. Mercedes roared in agony as she held her chest and busted back at him. She rushed into the kitchen and got behind the table. She removed her hand from her wound and saw that her hand was covered in blood. Ignoring the pain, Mercedes got up and shot off a couple of more rounds, as Romeo tried to hide behind the flipped-over couch. She slid against the back of the table as she ran out of bullets. Luckily, she had some in her pocket and she quickly reloaded her gun.

  “Come out and play,” he sang. He sounded crazy and he let out a hysterical killer laugh. “Come on, bitch, don’t be scared now!” Romeo yelled. “You’re going to die, just like your fucking bitch-ass father did!”

  Mercedes couldn’t believe what was coming out of his mouth. As she cocked back her gun, she released her bloody hand from her wound and managed to get up. She quickly pointed the gun at Romeo. He was already firing several shots at her head. Luckily, he missed, and he looked at his gun after it ran out of bullets.

  “Fuck!” he yelled as he tried to duck to the ground.

  Mercedes shot him several times in his chest, and watched his body drop to the ground.

  “Arghh!”

  Mercedes looked down, and her white button-up shirt was soaked in her own blood. She slowly walked into the hall and picked the duffle bag up off the stairs. She roared in pain from her gunshot wound as she tried to manage holding the heavy duffle bag of money on her shoulder. She was walking towards the door when she saw Romeo’s body fidgeting as he coughed up blood.

  “It’s Carter, bitch!”

  Mercedes let off a couple more rounds in his chest, leaving him for dead. She stepped over his dead body as she exited the house, trying to hurry up and get to her car. However, Romeo was still moving as he coughed up blood, laughing hysterically. Mercedes had to get out of there before the cops came, and she needed to get to a nearby hospital. She popped the trunk and placed the bag in there. She looked around before getting into her car. Mercedes moaned in agony as she drove with one hand on the steering wheel, swerving. She reached for her phone as she called her mother.

  “Ma, I’ve been hit.”

  “You’ve been what?” Maria asked, not understanding what she had said.

  “I’ve been shot, Ma!” Mercedes yelled into the phone. “I’m driving to the hospital in Manhattan now.”

  “Oh my God!” Maria screamed into the receiver. “I’m on my way.”

  Mercedes hung up the phone and tossed it on the passenger seat. Pulling up to the hospital, she parked her car in a garage across the street. She walked slowly, holding her chest, covered in blood. People stared at her as she entered the hospital.

  “Oh my God!” people exclaimed as they watched Mercedes.

  “Help, I’ve been shot!” Mercedes yelled as she held onto her chest, applying pressure to her wound.

  A nearby nurse noticed the bleeding Mercedes walking into the hospital. She grabbed an unoccupied stretcher and rushed it down the hall, and the emergency room staff carefully placed Mercedes on it. They rushed her into the emergency room quickly. Mercedes’s eyes started closing slowly as she drifted away.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Death around the corner

  Mercedes blinked her eyes before fully opening them. She felt a grip on her hand and then a tight squeeze. Mercedes looked over and saw her mother sitting next to her and holding her hand, as Hazel, Shateeya, and Chamari stood behind her.

  Maria held back the tears that were forming in her eyes. She looked at her beautiful daughter, whose skin was so pale. Mercedes looked as if she was in so much pain. They all stared at Mercedes with tears in their eyes, thanking God that she was still alive. After Candy died, they’d taken her death very hard and they didn’t need anyone else dying.

  “Hey, sleeping beauty.”

  “Hey, Mom.” Mercedes cracked a smile. She looked around and her vision was blurry. “Hey guys, thank you for coming.”

  “We are glad you’re okay.” Hazel smiled at Mercedes, wiping away her tears.

  “Yeah,” the girls said in unison.

  Mercedes felt something in her arm. She looked down and noticed an IV line. She was also hooked up to a machine and had tubes running into her nose. She hated the cold feeling that went into her arm. “Why am I hooked up to all of these tubes and shit?” Mercedes asked angrily, wis
hing she could take them off.

  “Mercedes, the doctor had to hook you up to these tubes. They said you could have died because the bullet entered your chest, which caused you to have a collapsed lung,” her mother informed her.

  “Yes, she’s lucky to be alive.” The doctor smiled as he walked in. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to ask you ladies to step out for a little while.”

  “Why? Is there a problem, sir?” Maria threw her purse on her shoulder and stood in front of the doctor with a concerned look.

  “No problem, but there are two detectives outside that have a few questions they would like to ask Mercedes.”

  “Detectives?” Maria shouted as she looked back over at Mercedes. Mercedes rolled her eyes. She wasn’t in the mood to be questioned. “What’s going on, Mercedes?” Maria panicked.

  “Ma, I’ll tell you later,” Mercedes whispered softly as her New York accent kicked in.

  Maria and the girls exited the room as the two detectives walked in wearing plainclothes, flashing the badges that hung around their necks.

  “I’m Detective Morris and this is Detective Hanks,” he re-introduced himself and his partner.

  “I know who you both are!” she shot back.

  “I’m sure you know why we are here.”

  “No. I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Mercedes lied.

  “Mercedes, don’t lie to me!” Detective Morris pointed his finger. “There’s a man who has been shot, lying in front of your house right now! The whole damn NYPD is over there, including the feds!” he barked. “Now if you don’t cooperate with us, I’m telling you, Miss Pretty Lady, your life is over.”

  “Oh, really?” she said bluntly.

  “Yes, really! You nearly killed the man! He has more than six shots to his chest, and I know it wasn’t self-defense! Isn’t one bullet enough?” Detective Morris asked.

  “I don’t know nothing! All I know is someone came up in my house shooting at me!”