by K'wan
“I am a living weapon.” He grabbed her neck and lifted her. She could feel his metal fingers crushing her windpipe. “Did our first encounter not teach you that I cannot be defeated by a blade?”
“I know,” she croaked.
Golden Arm felt something press into his stomach and looked down. In Kahllah’s hand was Tay’s gun. A thunderous boom sounded when she pulled the trigger. Golden Arm released her and staggered backward. “The rules of combat,” he rasped.
“Fuck the rules and fuck you!” Kahllah pulled the trigger again and again, lighting him up. Golden Arm’s body did a sick dance, spinning this way and that, until the last shot sent him crashing through a window and out into the street. It was finally done.
When Kahllah’s adrenaline stopped pumping, she felt as if her legs were rubber. She had to brace herself against a table to keep from falling. Golden Arm had done more damage than she thought and had likely caused some internal bleeding. She needed a hospital, but first she had to get Dominic out of here. The police would likely arrive soon with questions she wasn’t prepared to answer.
“Are you okay?” Kahllah asked, limping over to Dominic.
“I should be asking you. Kahllah, what is all this?”
“This is why we can never be,” she sighed. “Look, I promise to explain all of this once I get you out of here.” She cut his legs free and then leaned over him to release his chained wrists. At that moment Kahllah paused. Something glinted beneath his torn shirt. It was a necklace of simple gold with a pendant shaped like a magician’s hat. A warning went off in her head, but not before pain exploded in her back. Kahllah threw herself backward and landed on her broken ribs. The pain that shot through her side was so intense she almost blacked out. She watched in shock as Dominic got up from the chair, holding the bloody knife that he had been hiding the whole time.
“You like it?” He brandished the necklace. “I got it a few years back from my cousin Magic. That’s before we fell out. He has one just like it . . . well, had.” Dominic motioned toward Magic’s corpse.
“I don’t understand,” Kahllah wheezed. It felt like the knife had punctured her lung, and she found it hard to breathe. Her mind raced, trying to figure out why this man she cared about had just stabbed her.
“Then let me lay down some history,” Dominic began. “Before I was straitlaced Dominic, I was Red, a wannabe criminal who had gotten in over his head. I had blown my shot at college and burned the only dude who ever looked out for me and was living from pillar to post. I had hit my bottom, as they call it. That’s when Tiger Lily and Golden Arm found me. I was too old to be initiated into the Brotherhood but not totally useless. Under Tiger Lily I got an education that I couldn’t have gotten in ten years of college. She taught me about strength, honor, and, more importantly, loyalty. She cleaned me up and paid for me to go back to school. The only thing she ever asked in return was that I remain loyal. That was more than a fair exchange.”
“So it was Tiger Lily who sent you after me?” Kahllah asked.
“Hardly,” he chortled. “You weren’t even a blip on the radar to my mistress. That was Golden Arm. He hated you for what you had done to him, and that hate was only intensified when we discovered that it was you who had been chosen to take her seat on the Council. He blamed you for taking everything from him that he ever cared about. Honestly, he was quite obsessed with you. I couldn’t understand it, so I had to see what you were made of for myself. You were retired, so I came up with a plan to draw you out, which was no easy task.”
“So you took on the Jerome Yates case just to get close to me?”
“No, that was dumb luck. I really was advocating to get the man released. I know how it feels to be the underdog. When I found out that you were also involved, I took it as the universe giving me a sign. Through Yates I was able to get to know Kahllah El-Amin, though I was more interested in the Black Lotus. Throwing money at you wasn’t working, so I had to take a different approach. I had to use the one thing that I knew you held in higher regard than cash.”
“My honor.”
“Correct. In my time studying you, I came to understand that your reputation was the one thing you would protect at all costs.”
“You kill a cop and try and pin it on me to force my hand. I get that part, but why the wild goose chase with the others?” Her breathing was becoming more labored and her vision was starting to blur, but she couldn’t pass out. Not until she heard it all.
Dominic shrugged. “It’s like I said: I had to see the legendary Black Lotus in action with my own eyes, and let me tell you, you did not disappoint. Watching you kill is like poetry. I can’t help but imagine what could’ve been if you and I had worked together to reshape the Brotherhood. Our children’s children could’ve ruled the Order for generations.”
“You sound like just as much of a nut as Tiger Lily and Golden Arm.”
“Yes, Golden Arm was a bit eccentric, but Lily was a visionary. She saw what could be, as do I. The old ways of the Order must be purged so that we can usher in a new era.”
“Did you ever really care about me?” Kahllah asked.
Dominic weighed the question. “Yes. Maybe not at first, but as I got to know you, I grew to not only care about you but respect you as well. It’s easy for me to see why Tiger Lily wants you out of the way. You represent a threat to what she’s trying to build.”
“She lives then?”
“At this point it’s an irrelevant question. The time for talking has passed. Now it ends.”
“I couldn’t agree more. Did you get all that?”
“Sure did.” Detective Wolf appeared behind Dominic. He was covered in blood, and looked as if he could barely keep his feet under him, but the shotgun he had retrieved from Magic’s corpse was very steady, and aimed at Dominic.
“But how?” Dominic said. “I shot you!”
“Yes, you did, but this old dog ain’t so easy to kill.” Wolf collapsed in a chair. Sweat covered his face, and blood dripped onto the floor from the wound in his gut.
“Well played, Lotus.” Dominic laughed. “So, what now? I’m supposed to go quietly off to prison? I think we all know that isn’t going to happen.”
“Who said anything about prison? Cop killers don’t go to jail, they go to hell,” Wolf said before pulling the trigger and bringing Dominic’s game to an end.
Epilogue
Kahllah would spend the next few days in the hospital recovering from her wounds. She had two broken ribs, a punctured lung, and a hairline fracture to her jaw. Had the ambulance not arrived when it did, she likely would have died at Voodoo.
Of course, the police had a million questions that needed answers. Thanks to Detective Wolf she at least had some semblance of an alibi. According to the report Wolf filed, Cobb had been working undercover on a drug case. He had gotten in deep with a crew that was moving heavy weight. When the guys he was working with found out he was a cop, they killed him. It was a tip from Ms. El-Amin that led Wolf to Voodoo. She was also investigating the cartel for an exposé that she planned on writing. This is how she and her boyfriend, a respected lawyer, ended up being taken hostage. Wolf staged a one-man rescue mission, which resulted in three of the cartel members getting gunned down, him taking a bullet, and the attorney getting killed. Kahllah had been at Voodoo interviewing the owner, and had the files to prove it.
This would explain how she was tied into it, but the rest of the story was shaky at best. Internal affairs would probably be crawling up Wolf’s ass for months about it. But between all the cocaine that had been found at Voodoo and Lieutenant Tasha Grady claiming that she’d signed off on Cobb’s deep-cover operation, there wasn’t much anyone could do about it. Wolf made headlines for the drug bust and catching the cop killer, while Real Talk got the exclusive on both.
It was a win for everybody—so why did Kahllah still feel like a loser?
She was sitting in her hospital bed, reading the article that Audrey had written on everything that ha
d happened. She had to admit, her girl was shaping up to be one hell of a writer. She was proud of her, but having trouble enjoying the moment. Her body was broken, though it wasn’t the first time and she knew her physical wounds would heal. Her heart was a different story. She couldn’t believe she’d been so wrong about Dominic. Love had made her a fool, and it had almost come at the cost of her life. It was just as her father had warned: Promise to love, honor, and obey this sacred Order above all others for the rest of your days. You are a weapon now, nothing more. The minute you allow yourself to forget that, the Brotherhood will remind you. He had been right. A part of her hated him for that, but she would take the lesson to heart. Love truly had no place in her life.
Something else that had been weighing on her was learning that the traitor Tiger Lily hadn’t been killed as rumored. If she was still alive—out there somewhere, scheming—what would it mean for the Brotherhood? More importantly, what would it mean for her? Kahllah had killed two of Tiger Lily’s disciples and ruined whatever plans she had to usurp the Order. Dominic and Golden Arm were the first to come at her, but there would no doubt be others. She was a threat to Tiger Lily’s plans; Dominic had already told her as much.
“Knock knock.” Wolf appeared in the doorway. He was wearing a hospital gown, with an IV bag hooked to his wheelchair and an attractive nurse pushing him. His hair was fuzzy, needing to be rebraided, but aside from that and a few scratches, he looked good. “Can I come in?”
“Sure.” Kahllah waved him in.
Wolf allowed the nurse to push him to her bedside before whispering something to her. She nodded, and then left them alone to talk. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I’ve been stabbed and had the shit kicked out of me.” She smiled; Wolf didn’t.
“You know, you had me kind of shook for a minute. You lost a lot of blood, and for a while they weren’t so sure you’d pull through.”
“I guess this old dog ain’t so easy to kill either. How are you?”
Wolf shrugged. “Lost some blood, and I’ll be shitting in a bag for a while because of the gutshot, but I’m alive, so I guess I got no complaints. Even if I did complain, who would listen?”
“I’d listen,” Kahllah said. “Wolf, I want to thank you for what you did for me back there. If you hadn’t come along, no telling if I’d have made it out or not. You saved my ass.”
“Like you’ve saved mine how many times? I’d say we’re square. I should’ve never doubted you in the first place. I’m sorry for that.”
“I can’t say I blame you. I don’t know if I’d have believed me either if the roles were reversed. That was one hell of a story you spun to make this all sound believable. How’d you get it to fly, and not have to come clean about the Brotherhood and the weapons?”
“To be honest, I didn’t. That was a friend of mine in the department. After the last time one of you went off the rails, they put certain protocols in place.” Wolf thought about what Grady had told him. “No clue what she meant, but I trust that Tasha. She’s got it under control.”
“The stuff you said about Magic being a high-ranking member of the cartel . . . was it true, or just fluff for our alibi?”
“Afraid that part was true. He may not have been tied to the killings, but he was sitting on enough cocaine to make a serious move. Some of my guys on the street cosigned it too. Magic was a player. Sorry, I know you were rooting for the kid to win.”
“Guess I’m not as good a judge of character as I thought. And what about the bodies from inside the club?” Kahllah was wondering if the Brotherhood had come to claim what belonged to them.
“All three of them are tucked in the city morgue.”
“Don’t you mean four?”
“No, there was Magic, his buddy in the coveralls, and your lawyer friend. That was it.”
Kahllah could feel the color drain from her face. She had shot Golden Arm at least four times and knocked him out of a window. There was no way he could still be alive, could he? He had said he was a living weapon. If he was still out there, he would return for another shot at her.
If the day came, she would be ready and waiting.
“Everything okay?” Wolf asked, noticing the change in her expression.
She smiled. “Sure, everything is just fine.”
“Detective, if you’re done here, it’s time for your sponge bath.” The nurse had returned.
“Well, that’s my cue.” Wolf patted Kahllah’s leg. The nurse made to wheel him out, but he stopped her short. There was one last question he needed answered. “What was with the guy we found in the trunk of that Civic you were driving?”
Kahllah clamped her hand over her mouth. She had totally forgotten about the young man whom she had held captive for nearly ten hours. “Long story. Is he okay?”
“Shaken and a little confused, but otherwise fine. Want to tell me what that was about?”
“It’s a story we’ll keep for another time.”
“I’ll hold you to that. Well, I guess I’ll see you on the streets, huh, kid?”
“No, I don’t think you will, Detective.”
Wolf understood what she meant. It would seem his favorite assassin was finally done. “Time will tell, Kahllah. Time will tell.” He winked, then motioned for the nurse to continue.
As Wolf was being wheeled out, another man was walking in. They exchanged curious glances, but neither spoke. The sight of the man immediately darkened Kahllah’s mood. He was tall with a shaved head and a patch over his left eye. Instead of his usual cassock, he was dressed in black slacks and a gray blazer with a white shirt. In his hand was a small bouquet.
“What do you want?” Kahllah said.
“Is that any way to greet a concerned parent?” Priest took the empty chair at her bedside.
“Concerned? I haven’t seen you in months, and you pop up out of the blue talking about concern?”
“You’re right. I should have been here. Had I, this may not have happened. I promise you, those responsible will be made to pay for what they’ve done to you.”
“You’re a little late for that.” Kahllah thought of the trail of corpses she had left spread out across the city.
“Am I?” Priest folded his hands on his lap.
Kahllah wasn’t sure what he was implying, but with him she knew it was nothing good. “Listen, I’m tired. State your business and leave so I can get some rest.”
“Very well.” Priest leaned forward and spoke in a hushed tone: “I know you’ve been through a lot. Take whatever time you need to heal, but when you’re well enough, I have someone who requires the services of the Black Lotus.”
Kahllah shook her head. “The fucking nerve of you! I almost died thanks to you leaving your responsibilities in the hands of a hack, and now you stroll in and have the nerve to ask me to take another contract?”
“This isn’t about money, it’s about blood,” Priest explained. There was fire in his eyes. “I would not bring this to you had I any other choice, but I don’t.”
This got Kahllah’s attention. In all the time she had known Priest, she couldn’t recall ever seeing him this shaken up. She wanted to turn him away but couldn’t. “What’s happened?”
“The bastard child of Harlem has finally gotten in over his head, and I fear it will take our combined efforts to get him out of it. Please, help me save my son.”
K’WAN is the best-selling, award-winning author of more than thirty novels, including the wildly popular Animal series, Black Lotus, Gangsta, Road Dawgz, Street Dreams, Hoodlum, and Section 8. He has been featured in Vibe, King, Entertainment Weekly, and Time magazine. K’wan was the recipient of the 2012 and 2013 Street Lit Book Award Medals (SLBAM) in adult fiction for Eviction Notice and Animal. His credits also include featured commentary in the documentary Iceberg Slim: Portrait of a Pimp (produced by Ice-T) as well as a recurring role as an analyst on TV One’s Celebrity Crime Files. K’wan resides in New Jersey, where he spends his time writing, cooking, and bing
e-watching reruns of The Vampire Diaries with his teenage daughters.
This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are a product of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to real events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Published by Akashic Books
©2020 by K'wan
Hardcover ISBN-13: 978-1-61775-778-5
Paperback ISBN-13: 978-1-61775-767-9
Library of Congress Control Number: 2019935262
First printing
Akashic Books
Twitter: @AkashicBooks
Facebook: AkashicBooks
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.akashicbooks.com
About Akashic Books
___________________
Thank you for purchasing this Akashic Books e-book.
Sign up to our email list to receive special offers, access to free e-book excerpts, and vendor-wide digital sales information. Follow this link to join our list, or browse online to www.akashicbooks.com. Free e-book excerpts are available for multiple platforms at www.akashicbooks.com/subject/digits-ebooks/
___________________
Akashic Books is an award-winning independent company dedicated to publishing urban literary fiction and political nonfiction by authors who are either ignored by the mainstream, or who have no interest in working within the ever-consolidating ranks of the major corporate publishers. Akashic Books hosts additional imprints, including Black Sheep for Young Readers, the Akashic Noir Series, the Akashic Drug Chronicles Series, Infamous Books, Kaylie Jones Books (curated by Kaylie Jones), Gracie Belle (curated by Ann Hood), the Edge of Sports (curated by David Zirin), Punk Planet Books, Dennis Cooper's Little House on the Bowery Series, Open Lens, Chris Abani's Black Goat Poetry Series, and AkashiClassics: Renegade Reprint Series.
