The Last Kings

by C. N. Phillips

  * * *

  Ray wanted to move on Coopa but refused to let anger cloud his judgment. He knew Coopa wasn’t going to be stupid enough to come directly at him again, so he felt comfortable in his position. Business would have to continue; The Last Kings were only at the beginning of their rise. Ray sat in the back of Amore, awaiting the arrival of a new potential client.

  Although Vinny was just the connect, he felt a strange draw to Ray. He had been in the world of cocaine all of his life, and it was rare to see things change for the better. He knew from the first day of speaking to Ray that he would bring something to the game that had never been done before. Ray and Vinny spoke often, and he played his best hand in Ray’s business. He wanted Ray’s operation to succeed. When Ray told him about everything that was going on, he could have easily taken Coopa out of the game; one hit. But he knew that this was something Ray must do on his own to earn his rite of passage to the throne. He knew Ray’s eyes were on the prize: Detroit. He also knew that Coopa knew the city like the back of his hand. Meaning, touching him would be almost impossible . . . almost. Since Vinny touched down in Detroit, Coopa had been trying to make contact, but Vinny didn’t want to give him his business. He felt he was too incompetent and foolish to push his work. Vinny made a phone call and set the meeting up, knowing that no one in the city knew about Ray and his connection. He rolled the dice; it was up to Ray to determine what they landed on.

  * * *

  A man wearing Ralph Lauren cargo shorts and a blue Ralph Lauren Polo entered Amore. Although he wore sunglasses to shield his eyes, Ray recognized him as a man he had put in a lot of work with. JoJo glanced around the restaurant trying to spot his contact, and Ray quickly stood up as a tall waiter passed, walking at his pace to shield his body. Once he made it into the large kitchen, he walked quickly to the secret entrance of the club. He thought quickly. JoJo was there to conduct business, which meant Coopa clearly couldn’t have known that Ray was the contact. Ray couldn’t let JoJo see him; he had to find a new connect. Sadie and Mocha were automatically out of the equation. Everyone knew their connection with Ray. Plus, he had them handling a major deal at that time. D and Amann were out making a few drops, and Devynn just didn’t fit the role. When Ray stepped foot in the dimmed lighting of the club, he walked the long hallway in search for Adrianna. He had to find her quickly, before JoJo thought it was a setup and left. Ray passed several rooms. Each had a valuable customer testing his product to ecstasy.

  He found Adrianna in the Money Room counting and bagging. When she saw Ray, she smiled very sexily up at him. Her smile was flawless, and she wet her lips with her tongue. She wore her long silky brunette hair in a ponytail, and her attraction to him read easily on her face, but her actions spoke another story. She was a woman scorned, and she didn’t want to get involved emotionally with another hustler. She knew it wasn’t forever. After being the ride-or-die chick for two big-time hustlers and watching one get tortured and killed and the other’s brains blown out, she decided that she would only be in the game to make her money, not for love. However, being in Ray’s presence proved to be difficult. He was different than any other man she’d ever encountered.

  The rising attraction Adrianna felt for Ray was definitely mutual. Ray was attracted to her ruthless swagger. She wasn’t afraid to die, nor was she afraid to kill an enemy. She was the type of woman who rode shotgun, with a shotgun. Ray saw more than the image she tried to spit out for others to see; he saw way deeper than that. He read her pain easily only because she hid it so well. Adrianna was really just a soft bluff. The way Adrianna looked at him, Ray knew it was best not to get involved. It was clear that he already had one soft spot, Sadie, and mixing business with pleasure was never a good thing. He knew that if he allowed himself to get too close to Adrianna, he would get too attached, and love got you killed, and in Adrianna’s case, she knew that too well. For now, Ray knew that business was all that could be between them.

  “I need you,” Ray started and instantly saw Adrianna’s face change. “Chill, ma,” Ray said not wanting to give her the wrong idea. “Business as usual.”

  Her face dropped, and she rolled her eyes. She wasn’t going to lie; she was disappointed. It was random of Ray to just pop up on her and a little piece of her was hoping he wanted to lay her down on the counting table and have his way with her.

  “What’s up, boss?” she asked, putting extra emphasis on her last word in sarcasm.

  She didn’t mind Ray keeping her at a respectable distance. It made her urges easier to keep under control. The old Adrianna would have gotten at Ray quickly and easily, but she had left the “wifey” life behind. Ray briefed her on the situation, and before he even finished telling her the plan, she was down to ride.

  “A’ight,” Adrianna nodded her head, her New York accent thick. She threw the remaining money stacks into a duffle bag and stood up. “Dude is upstairs now?”

  Ray nodded his head.

  “Yea, ma.” He looked her up and down determining then that what she was wearing was sexy enough to entice JoJo’s tiny brain.

  Adrianna was looking quite edible wearing a Gucci hoodie with red embroidery that fit snugly on her upper half. The Levi jeggings she wore hugged her wide hips just right, and Ray couldn’t help but to notice how beautiful she was. Her almond-colored skin seemed to glow. She wore her hair pulled back, allowing her high cheekbones and bright round hazel eyes to be very distinguishable. With her full lips and plump breasts, she was what most would call a bad bitch.

  “Aye, ma, you got this hard chick act goin’ on. I need you to sexy it up a little for me,” Ray instructed. “Take them sneakers off; Mocha has a pair of Christians in that cabinet over there. Put them on and let’s go to work.”

  Adrianna nodded her head, pleased with the look of lust she saw in Ray’s eyes. It was only there for a split second as he eyed her body, but she caught it.

  “Don’t worry, papi, I got this,” she said sincerely, putting the pumps on her feet.

  She pulled the ponytail holder out of her hair, letting it fall in soft curls around her face. Winking at Ray, she led the way to the restaurant. Her job was simple: flirt with JoJo, make a deal, and then get him to come home with her . . . Well, to a hotel room that evening. Ray knew JoJo was his key to Coopa, and he couldn’t fuck it up. With JoJo’s long list of baby mamas, Ray knew that all he needed was a little liquor in his system for him to take the bait.

  “Don’t fuck up, ma,” he said briefly, grabbing her arm.

  Adrianna paused before stepping through the secret door that led into the kitchen of the restaurant.

  “Like I said, I got this.” She gently removed her arm from his grip and smirked with a wink. “Oh . . . Don’t get jealous, baby.”

  Ray smiled as he watched her sashay away. He didn’t doubt her for a moment.

  * * *

  Adrianna walked seductively to the king-sized bed inside of the bedroom in the hotel suite. The lights were dimmed, and Trey Songz was playing softly in the background. All it took were a few shots of Hennessey in his system, and he was ready to jump her bones.

  This is who Coopa has workin’ his fuckin’ team? Fuckin’ pathetic! Adrianna thought disgustedly, while smiling at JoJo who lay naked on the bed.

  She wore a sexy red bra and thong set and with every little movement, her ass jiggled. She was used to men going crazy over her frame and her smooth almond skin, so the hungry expression on JoJo’s face was nothing new to her. She wanted to laugh. One, because he was ugly as fuck and black, and two, because she wondered exactly what the fuck he thought he was going to do with his tiny five-inch penis. Dancing seductively toward him, she turned around and began making her round ass cheeks clap.

  “You want me, daddy?” she whispered.

  JoJo’s eyes were glued to the two saucers before them; all he could do was nod his answer.

  “Good,” she licked her lips and proceeded to crawl up the bed until she was directly over him. “How do you want m
e?”

  “Just like this, baby.” JoJo gripped both of her cheeks tightly, one in each hand.

  Adrianna giggled and positioned herself over him. She began teasing him by grinding on his hardness, letting him feel her wetness. JoJo threw his head back in pleasure.

  “Damn, ma! I can’t wait to dive into this shit. Fuck!”

  Adrianna laughed, knowing he would never dive into anything ever again except a grave. She placed her hands on his and removed them from her cheeks, and then slid them up the bed above his head. Her body was positioned in an arc, with her knees on the side of his hips. She looked into his thirsty eyes and smiled slyly before yelling . . .

  “Now!”

  On cue, Ray entered the hotel room with the key Adrianna had snuck to him when JoJo made a dash to the restroom.

  “What the fuck?” JoJo exclaimed, seeing the raised gun pointing at him.

  “What up, JoJo?” Ray smirked at the naked man before him.

  He walked over to where Adrianna had undressed JoJo. Taking notice of how luscious Adrianna looked in her lingerie, he kicked JoJo’s clothes to the side.

  “You have thirty seconds to tell me where Coopa is.” Ray cocked his gun, allowing Adrianna time to climb off of the bed.

  “Ray, man—” before JoJo could get the words out of his mouth, he had a bullet in his leg.

  “Twenty seconds,” Ray said as blood spilled all over the bed from JoJo’s oozing leg.

  “Ray, please,” JoJo said in pain, seeing his life flash before his eyes. “I don’t know where that nigga is!”

  Ray shot his gun again. The silencer made a soft “pft” as a bullet caught JoJo in his torso.

  “Ten seconds,” Ray said coldly, aiming his gun at the thing JoJo definitely didn’t want to lose. He wasn’t there to talk or to listen to a begging-ass nigga.

  “Ahh!” JoJo breathed heavily, trying to cradle his wounds. That didn’t stop him from talking shit, though. “Fuck you, nigga! You ain’t shit but what Coopa made you—nothing. I ain’t no snake-ass nigga like you, pussy! You’re trying to take something that ain’t yours, nigga. Did you think war wasn’t going to break out? Coopa is going to dead ya ass, bruh.”

  Ray laughed at JoJo’s words, knowing that he was just a dead man talking. He wanted to see how much about his words JoJo really was. Ray cocked his gun and shot a bullet real close to JoJo’s penis, although he made sure he didn’t hit it . . . this time. JoJo let out a scream so loud Ray would have sworn a little girl was somewhere hiding in the room and just like the chicken Ray knew he was, he began clucking out information.

  “That nigga said he had business to attend to. You may actually know about it,” JoJo was breathing rigidly but still managed to let out a sick smile. “Morgan Towers ring a bell?”

  A red flag went up in Ray’s head, and Adrianna looked at him, already knowing what was wrong. Morgan Towers was where Mocha and Sadie had set out to make a deal with one of their usual customers. It was a run-down apartment building. He rented out an apartment there to do some of his major deals. It was a perfect spot just because it was so obvious, and he’d been using it for years. He’d been using it for so long, he should have known that Coopa would have caught wind at what exactly took place there. JoJo began laughing controllably.

  “You can kill me now,” he said, blood trickling down the side of his mouth. “But your cousin will be joining me soon.”

  He still had a smile on his face when Ray lit his body up with the rest of his clip.

  “Bitch,” he spat on his dead body.

  “Ray, we have to go!” Adrianna said already fully dressed. She grabbed her clutch purse and ran for the door.

  Ray began trying to get ahold of Sadie by calling her cell phone, but it just went straight to voice mail. Same with Mocha.

  “Fuck!” Ray exclaimed as they ran through the hotel trying to make it to the exit.

  Adrianna saw the worry all over Ray’s face. She couldn’t lie and say she wasn’t worried too. If Coopa had gone himself to where Sadie and Mocha were to make a drop, nothing good could come out of it. Coopa was a weak leader, but she knew how merciless of a killer he was. She also knew that Sadie and Mocha were inexperienced when it came to the murder game. She hoped that they wouldn’t become victims.

  Please let us get there in time, Adrianna said a silent prayer, hopping into Ray’s Escalade. They hit eighty across town, knowing that two of their peoples’ lives were on a countdown.

  Chapter 11

  Mocha and I entered the apartment with the key Ray had given me. Larry, the guy Ray had sent us to meet, was supposed to be in the living room waiting for us. It was supposed to be a simple pickup, not more than five minutes. But as soon as I stepped foot in the two-bedroom apartment, I knew that walking back out might not have been an option that we had. Mocha inhaled sharply when she saw Larry’s body lying facedown on the carpeted floor, a pool of blood formed neatly around his head.

  “Sadie—” Mocha started but never finished.

  Four men made their presence known walking from the back rooms. They all had their guns drawn. My heart stopped when I recognized one of the men as none other than Coopa. My mind wrapped around what the fuck was happening. Coopa had to have set us up, and I felt my heart twist into knots. He stared coldly at the two of us standing there.

  “Some bitches?” He eyed us up and down and laughed. “This is how Ray conducts his business?”

  Coopa was a good-looking light-skinned older man, but the way his face was always turned up took the handsome out of his appearance. He kept his head cut bald, probably because he was balding up top, and the goatee on his face was neatly trimmed. He stood before us at six foot two in a tan Armani suit with the matching shoes. Coopa motioned for his men to check us, which they did gladly, removing every weapon we had on our bodies, but they left my clutch in my hands. When they were done, Coopa began to pace slowly in front of us.

  “I heard through the grapevine that there was a new operation starting in Detroit, and I thought, ‘Nah, not my city!’ Don’t no work come through this muhfucka if I don’t know about it! Imagine my shock when I found out Ray was the snake goin’ under my nose trying to take what’s mine!” He waved his hands to the duffle bags of money on the couch that contained the two hundred and fifty thousand we were there to pick up. “Look at this shit! Two hundred and fifty stacks I would have been missing out on . . . Do you see the error in this fuckin’ equation? That’s my fuckin’ money! Mine!”

  Coopa stopped pacing to stand directly in front of me and looked into my eyes. He grabbed my face and, squeezing hard, pulled it close to his. At that moment, seeing the lust in his eyes, I regretted wearing my skinny Miss Me jeans with only a green tank top. The weather was nice. I didn’t expect to have to dress to get robbed. I smelled his scent and knew that too had to be an Armani fragrance, hating how nice it was. I tried to turn away. I caught a glimpse of Mocha and admired the hardened look she had on her face. I knew she was terrified, and I immediately was consumed with guilt knowing it was my fault she was in that predicament in the first place. She looked back at me and gave me a look that said everything would be OK, like she knew exactly what I was thinking. Her head was held high as the men around her tried to spook her with their guns.

  They’d gotten me for all of my weapons . . . except for one. I had a .22 Magnum revolver in my clutch loaded and ready to bust at the right moment. Coopa surprised me by grabbing my ass harder than anyone ever had.

  “Don’t fucking touch me,” I glared at him, trying to push him away from me.

  I didn’t give a fuck about the guns pointed my way anymore. I didn’t like the way Coopa was licking his lips at me. Flashbacks of Nino began popping up in my head, and I wanted nothing more but for them all to be erased.

  “Bitch!” Coopa snatched me up by my neck so fast I barely had time to take a breath. “You working for this nigga who’s stealing from me and you his family. You’re about to pay a small part of his debt to me!”
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  Mocha dashed over to where Coopa had me and jumped on his back, beating him with her fists.

  “Get the fuck off of her!” she screamed and bit his ear like Mike Tyson.

  Coopa yelled in pain before he got control and flung her off of his back.

  “Get that bitch!” he directed his henchmen. “One of y’all should have shot her!”

  One of the men, a fat, dark-skinned man who probably got no pussy, grabbed for Mocha, but she swung and connected with his jaw. The slap he landed on her face was so brutal the sound echoed throughout the apartment.

  “Mocha!” I screamed, trying to push Coopa off of me.

  I saw blood trickling down her nose and wanted to get over to where she was. Coopa laughed at my feeble attempts, knowing I couldn’t overpower him. He picked me up and carried me to one of the bedrooms in the back. No matter how much I kicked or screamed, I couldn’t get free. He tossed me on the bed in the master bedroom like a pillow and locked the door behind him. I wanted to cry, hearing Mocha’s desperate screams of my name over and over.

  “No point in trying to run, ma.” Coopa grabbed my Fendi clutch and threw it to the side of the bed.

  The soft thud it made was slightly noticeable, but Coopa paid it no mind. He was too busy forcing my pants off. I spat on him.

  “I’m going to kill you,” I snarled in an icy tone.

  I sounded so confident that he fumbled with my pants a bit. He regained his composure quickly, however, as he pulled a handkerchief from the pocket of his suit jacket. I knew that Coopa, like Nino years before, was going to take something that I would never willingly give to him. Chuckling, Coopa threw the handkerchief to the side and gave me his pearly white smile.

  “Feisty! And you got a fat ass,” he winked at me. “This should be fun.”

  Coopa then removed his pants and jacket. In those few moments, I made the decision to not fight it. Every odd was against me, and my goal was to get to my clutch. The prize lay inside it. Coopa was slipping by letting me stay alive longer than necessary to get his self-proclaimed money. I closed my eyes and tried not to think about the fact that once again my womanhood was getting stolen from me. I took a deep breath and made a decision. I was going to put on a good show, and then let a round off into his big-ass head. I opened my legs, allowing him to have all access to me, and a pleased look spread across his face.