The Last Kings

by C. N. Phillips

  I stared at Mocha disgusted that she’d chosen dick over me. She was like my sister. Blood couldn’t have made us any closer. I trusted her with everything I had, and there she was, staring down at me in my demise. She looked at Grandma Rae and turned her head so she couldn’t see her until she stepped over her to get to me. She dropped on her knees and grasped my hands.

  “It wasn’t supposed to be like this, Say.” Her lips trembled when she spoke. “I’m sorry.”

  I pulled my hands from hers and spat in her face.

  “Fuck you,” I said and meant it.

  Mocha stared into my eyes for a few more moments, and I saw her heart break. I knew she saw mine break too.

  “No.” She shook her head and stood up and ran up on Khiron, swinging her fists. “You’re not going to kill her! We had a deal!”

  “It’s too late, Mocha!” Khiron grabbed her and threw her hard to the side. He pulled his .45 from his waist and advanced on me again. “You’re going to live and watch what you caused. You won’t get the luxury of death, bitch.”

  He aimed the chrome barrel at me and fired once, catching me in my leg. I’d never been shot before, and the pain was excruciating, but I didn’t scream. I fell back and tried to stomach the pain.

  “No, Khiron!” I heard Mocha scream, and a bullet hole appeared inches away from my head.

  “Get off me!” Khiron said, and I heard another thud and a grunt from Mocha.

  I turned my head in time to see Khiron coming for me, and I tried to get up, but the pressure from Khiron’s foot on my chest prevented that from being possible. So I laughed. I laughed like a crazed person, and I saw the look of confusion on his face. I was about to die. I knew it, but my mouth still worked perfectly fine.

  “You think you can kill me, bitch?” I said through clenched teeth. “Kings. Don’t. Fucking. Die!! You will never be near as much of a boss as me. Even your punk-ass daddy knew that! Fuck that nigga too. I’m glad I had him killed, and guess what? No matter what happens here . . . you’ll be next!”

  The pressure of Khiron’s foot lessened, and he stared down at me as I laughed. His lip upturned, and he aimed his gun at my heart.

  “You took everything from me, so I’m going to do the same thing to you. You’re going to burn. And Ray? I’m about to kill him too.”

  I saw Khiron’s jaw clench just before he pulled the trigger twice more, and I felt heat in my chest and in my stomach.

  “R-Ray,” was all I could get out before I began choking on my own blood.

  “N-n-nooooo!!!” Mocha screamed and tried to get to me.

  Khiron strong-armed her and held her back. He grinned at me, enjoying the sight of me dying slowly. The world around me was becoming dim, and I knew my life that remained on the earth was short. I coughed on the blood that spilled from my mouth, and the pain in my chest was unbearable. My hands clutched my stomach, trying to catch the blood, but there was so much of it, it was no use. I just wanted the pain to stop.

  “Sadie, I’m so sorry!” Mocha screamed. “Why? No! No! No!”

  Her voice grew distant, and my eyes closed. The pain was slowly subsiding, and my last thought before everything went black was Grandma Rae’s voice.

  “Sadie, you’re my special baby. You have a special heart, you hear? You’re going to do great things in this world. My special girl, you make this world. Don’t you let it make you.”

  I let go of the little piece of life I was holding on to in sorrow with sadness and comfort that soon Ray would be joining me.

  Chapter 27

  Ray entered Amore and immediately knew something was up. It was empty. Top and bottom levels. No one was there, not even his workers. It was so quiet he would have been able to hear a pin drop. Gun raised, he went to the secret entrance of the club that was in the basement and found where all of his workers were. They were all sprawled out on the floor—dead, his money and product on the ground around them.

  “Ray,” he heard a voice whisper behind him, and as soon as he turned around to click on the owner, something hit him in the head so hard that he fell to the ground, blacked out.

  When Ray finally opened his eyes, it felt as if no time had passed, but his body felt different. He looked around and the dead bodies of his employees let him know he was still in the same place. But when he tried to move his body, he found he couldn’t. Looking down, he saw that he was bound tightly to a chair, and no matter how hard he tried to fight against the ropes, he couldn’t get free. Around him he saw that he was encircled by a group of men. He recognized none of their faces, nor did he see a Last Kings tattoo anywhere on their bodies.

  “There’s no point, fam,” Ray heard a vaguely familiar voice say. “You ain’t gettin’ free.”

  Ray’s head whipped around, looking for the source of the voice, but with his head injury, that just made him dizzy.

  “Who the fuck is there?” he called out angry that he’d been caught slipping.

  “I told you I’d be seeing you, Ray,” the voice said. “You know who the fuck it is.”

  Ray heard footsteps behind him, then a man appeared in front of him. Khiron stood over him like a man gloating over a big trophy fish that he’d just caught. And that’s exactly what Ray was.

  “I’m not going to make this last too long. I’ve already gotten what I wanted,” Khiron smiled evilly at Ray. “This shit was too easy; easier than I expected. Glad you waited until I got here to come around to your senses. This should be fun now.”

  He laughed out loud and looked above Ray for a split second.

  “You have a really nice house, by the way,” he taunted. “I burned it down, of course.”

  Ray fought harder against the rope around his wrists and ankles but only tired himself. Sadie was in that house. If he’d burned it down with her in it . . .

  “Don’t worry,” Khiron chuckled, pulling up a chair in front of Ray and taking a seat. “She was alive when we left the house.”

  The sick smile he wore like a shirt gave Ray a queasy feeling.

  “Where are they?” Ray growled in a low voice. His tone was deadly. “Where are Mocha, Devynn, and Sadie?”

  “Devynn is dead. I had no use for that bitch.” Khiron shrugged his smile still planted on his face. “And Mocha? Well, see for yourself. Mocha!”

  Mocha then too appeared in front of Ray, confusing him, and when he saw the tears in her eyes, he knew something was wrong.

  “I’m so sorry, Ray,” she whispered.

  “Tell him where Sadie is, Mocha.” Khiron grabbed her and pulled her so that she was sitting on his lap looking directly at Ray. “Tell him about how you gave me the directions to his home. Tell him about how you brought me to his grandmother’s house, and how I blew the back of her head off. Tell him about how you watched me put the bullet in Sadie’s heart.”

  Mocha was shaking as she stared into Ray’s eyes and watched him fight against his restraints at the news he’d just received. That was the only time that she’d ever seen him look any form of weak. He’d always been their rock, their savior. He stopped fighting after a while and looked tired and beat. His dreads hung loosely around his slumped shoulders, and his eyes instantly were filled with pain at Khiron’s words. He knew they were true by the tears rolling down Mocha’s face and the sobs she was choking on. Ray was about to speak, but he had no words to say. He looked around at his establishment and the thousands of dollars on the ground and shook his head. His eyes fell on the entrance of the club, and he saw Devynn and Adrianna’s faces. Devynn had her guns out, ready to rain fire on them all, but he shook his head slightly. If they entered the room, they would surely be dead, especially since Khiron already thought Devynn was. He saw tears form in Adrianna’s eyes, and he thought of his promise to her. Promises, in his eyes, were never meant to be broken, especially if they were made by him. But at that moment, he knew that was the only promise he made in his life that he wouldn’t be able to keep.

  “You shot her in her heart?” Ray turned his atte
ntion back to Khiron. “In my grandmother’s house?”

  He was trying to send Devynn and Adrianna a subliminal message. Get to that house. Saving him was a lost cause unless they all wanted to die together. His eyes averted back to Mocha, and he spat on her in disgust.

  “I took you in because of your loyalty to my cousin. You both better hope that whatever bullet enters my body kills me, or may God have mercy on ya’ fucking souls . . . because I won’t. And I know she won’t.”

  Khiron laughed at the man before him, ignoring his comment.

  “I thought about shooting you, but that’s so old-fashioned, don’t you think, my nigga?” Khiron pushed Mocha off of his lap, and one of the men surrounding them grabbed her by her arm to restrain her just in case she got out of control. “I want to watch you scream. I brought down the best! The Italians are going to have to find another flunky bitch. Look up.”

  Ray did as he was told and looked at what Khiron had glanced at earlier. Hanging from the ceiling was a huge bucket, and a rope was attached to it. Ray’s eyes followed the rope and saw that one of Khiron’s goons was holding the other end of it, an evil glint in his eyes.

  “Acid.” Khiron stood up and backed away. “There won’t even be a skeleton when we’re finished here.”

  “No! Please, Khiron, don’t!” Mocha begged trying to fight against the man holding her.

  Ray’s eyes locked on Adrianna’s, and he smiled. They would never know what could have been . . . what should have been. Adrianna covered her mouth when Khiron gave the man the signal to let go of the rope and turned her head into Devynn’s shoulder just before the liquid hit Ray’s body. There was a spine-tingling scream, but it belonged to Mocha, not Ray. He wasn’t going to give Khiron the satisfaction. He felt his body burning and the pain was unbearable. It didn’t take long for the acid to start to eat away at his flesh, and when Adrianna looked again, she saw his head slump. Ray was no more. It felt like her heart had been ripped out of her chest and thrown into the acid that killed him.

  “And that, ladies and gentlemen,” Khiron whispered just loud enough to be heard, “is how you take over an empire.”

  Epilogue

  “Sadie?” I stared at the woman I’d believed was dead for a year in disbelief.

  The eyes of my former best friend had changed. There was emptiness there. Although my gun was in my hand, I was too petrified to pull it on her. I felt like I was looking into the eyes of a ghost.

  “H-How?” I saw her die. I saw Khiron kill her!

  “What?” Sadie said her voice soft and cold as she cocked her head slightly at me. “You want a fuckin’ hug? What’s the matter, Mo? You look like you just saw a ghost!”

  There was something different in her demeanor. The golden pharaoh on her forearm glistened in the night, indicating who her allegiance was still to and would forever be with.

  “Sadie, I’m so sorry.” I spoke the same words to her flesh right then and there that I thought her spirit was hearing every night. “I never wanted any of that to happen. It wasn’t supposed to be like that.”

  I felt tears welling up in my eyes as I stared into the blankness in hers. The expression on her face let me know that she could care less about my words. They meant nothing to her. I noticed the black gloves on her hands and instantly knew why she was there. I let my grip loosen on Lucy. The remorse I felt for the fall of The Last Kings was unbearable. It was six cartels in one, and because of me, it was over. Instead, the only work that was seen in Detroit was the weak shit Khiron had going. Sadie’s gaze wavered, and for a split second, I saw the rage that was held inside.

  “You want to know how I survived, huh?” Sadie chuckled. “You should have paid more attention to Grandma Rae. I have a special heart, Mocha . . . You remember her saying that?”

  I nodded my head. She said it every day, but I didn’t see how it was relevant.

  “The bullet Khiron put in my chest didn’t penetrate it. My heart is on the opposite side of my chest, unlike the common person. That’s what she meant by saying my heart was special. I found that out after being shot. If Khiron was smart, he would have put more than three bullets in my body; his mistake. But then again, if it hadn’t been for Adrianna and Devynn showing up when they did, I would have been dead—no question. It took six months of physical therapy and being connected to fuckin’ tubes to fully function again.”

  Distantly, I remembered Ray’s last words:

  “May God have mercy on ya’ fucking souls . . . because I won’t. And I know she won’t.”

  “Did it make you happy?” Sadie asked me calmly. “Watching Ray die?”

  All I could do was let the tears roll down my face and shake my head.

  “We took you in, Mocha!” Sadie’s eyes ripped me into shreds. “Bitch, you didn’t have one person to live for, and we gave you that! But then, you choose a nigga over us? Over family? I don’t have anybody now, Mocha. Not Grandma Rae, not Ray. Nobody!” Sadie began walking toward me, a fire burning in her eyes. “My cousin couldn’t even receive a proper burial because there was nothing left to bury. And for what? For this?”

  Sadie waved her arms around the neighborhood as her heels stabbed the ground with each step she took.

  “Bitch, this nigga got you living out of a fuckin’ shoe box ho’ing on the low.” Sadie shook her head in pity. “I could dead your ass, and trust me, it’s so tempting, but I’m not going to.”

  My mouth opened, not understanding. If I was her, I wouldn’t even be having a conversation with me at all. I would have just put a bullet in my brain.

  “I can’t kill you, actually,” Sadie smirked at me. “Just like Khiron used you as his key, I’m using you as mine. And I need you to lead me to someone.”

  “Y-your key to what? And lead you to who?” I found my voice again.

  “Kings don’t fucking die, remember, Mocha?” Sadie was directly in front of my face. “And there’s a peasant running my fucking city. I need it back. Marie’s missing. I know she’s not dead. Tyler isn’t going to rest until he finds her.”

  She nodded down the street, and I noticed an all-black Hummer. Ray’s bulletproof Hummer posted.

  “Tyler’s alive?” I breathed, not believing it. I’d seen his obituary in the newspaper.

  “You’re not stupid, Mocha. You know what’s up. We had to keep a low profile. But now, it’s time to take back what’s ours, and you’re going to help.” Sadie turned her back on me and began to walk away, but then stopped and turned her head slightly. “This meeting? It never happened. The real war starts tomorrow. Play your role. You’ll be hearing from me soon. Oh, and don’t worry, if this doesn’t work, I will kill you, then shoot Khiron’s mother’s house up and make him come look for me.”

  With that, I watched Sadie switch back to the Hummer and pull off into the night. Although she’d just threatened my life, just the mere sight of her gave me hope. I knew I was going to do everything in my power to help her claim back the city: for Ray.

  “Kings don’t fucking die,” I whispered up to the stars before I went inside of my shoe box to prepare for the street war to come.

  To Be Continued . . .