“I’m ready to ride out with you,” Black said to me like the true soldier he was.
“Have a crew clean Blue’s body up, wrap him up, and put him in another van,” I ordered.
His eyes told me he was ready to go to war with me.
“I’ll make sure his body is prepared to go. Sometimes I wish I was a fly on the wall of your brain.”
“No, you don’t. Sometimes I scare myself; no need for both of us to be afraid of me.” I winked and patted his chest.
“Check this out, Kae. We are done. They are lined up, ready to go, and fully loaded. We have a command post and ammunition racks in the back. I think the guys outside can handle these with no problem.” Jacob hugged me around the shoulders.
“Let’s go check them out, shall we?” I smiled at him.
We linked arms and walked to the warehouses at the back of the Lab. When we got to the parking lot, the vans were lined up and shining. The LEDs were set on random patterns for now; the crew was still loaded ammunition in some of them. They really pulled it off. A fleet of armored vehicles and a small army was out front, ready to ride with me. Everything was right on time—the black cube of soldiers moved towards us.
“Good evening, ma’am. I’m Hawk. We’re at your service,” he said as he approached and saluted me.
“I’m not a soldier.” I smiled at him.
“At ease,” he said. In unison, the cube relaxed.
“They are impressive. I appreciate your help,” I said and shook Hawk’s hand.
“Any friend of the Roosters… I mean, Black is a friend of mine.” He smiled, and a solid gold tooth shone in the moonlight.
“Rooster? How do you know ol’ Rooster?” I laughed and peeked at Black.
“Don’t answer that, Hawk. Some things are better left on the field.” Black walked up to us.
Jacob and I chuckled a little bit.
“Hawk, get your men divided into these vans. We need two gunners, two loaders, a driver, and command in each one. Then, if we have leftovers, let me know,” Black said.
He sounded like a general on the battlefield preparing his troops for war. They moved at the sounds of orders being given.
“Who are these guys?” I asked Black.
“These fine men and women are people who don’t have shit to lose. The most dangerous type of mothafucka on the planet. When I fuck with people, it’s always first class, even if it’s dirty,” he whispered in my ear.
The growl in his voice sent a tingle down my spine. I shivered a little bit, and a smile crept across my face.
“I think we bring out the dirty in each other.” I stood in his path.
“We bring out the best in each other. However, dirty the best may be.”
He walked away to catch up with Hawk and Jacob, who showed Hawk some of the fine-tunings.
“I got an army for you, baby. I’m coming for you, I swear,” I whispered to myself.
Chapter 11
Underestimated
-Femi-
“He is not dead. You can clearly tell,” Faraji said with an attitude.
“She could have beat him to death or blown his head off! She is telling us that!” I yelled.
“We killed that little fucker so now-”
“Now nothing! How are we supposed to get the money back, you goddamn fool! She has him; we lost our edge. Don’t you think, Faraji!? Damn it!”
I picked up a paperweight, threw it towards his head, and it shattered on impact. He ducked and flashed eyes of flame my way. I wanted to tear his head off. A part of me wished he would come at me so I would be justified. But, instead, I had to focus on what to do next before she did kill him. Mother will keep her promise, and as soon as she is done with Faraji, my head is next.
“You are lucky you missed.” He continued to watch me.
“Or is it you that is lucky, brother? You say you are a King, but you act more like a peasant. I thought we were on the same page. How the hell did we get here?”
“You failed to show her we mean business! Now here we are. You should have listened to me from the start and been harder on him,” he yelled back.
“We are this close to losing him, and this is the best you can come up with. The city is already at war. I am fighting for my baby brother’s life. I trusted you to have my back, and you go behind it!”
“If I was the leader, none of this would be happening. I would have made him stay home. Locked him up if I had to. Father would have done the same thing.” He pounded his fist on the table.
“I am not our father! You are not our father! None of us are! How could we possibly know what he would do? We have lost control of this branch. If this shit goes global, the loss of respect is greater than profit. Can you not see anything past what is in front of your face? Damn!”
“Do not you dare talk to me about what is in front of my face! What did you do for him? Eh. You let him go back into the world. No security detail, no one following him to make sure he was protected! You are his big brother!”
“We are all his big brothers! And what the hell did you do to protect him? You were ready to kill him to save his life! How asinine is that? You could have done something. Anything!”
“I was following my big brother and-”
“The hell you say! You do not follow me. You do whatever the fuck you want! I am your big brother, and you do not give a damn about what I say. We are his big brothers, and he did not give a damn about what we had to say. So you will not blame this on me!”
I sat at the other end of the conference table.
“Who is to blame for this now? Me? You? Maybe it is Mother’s fault. But, no, better yet, it is our dead fathers’ fault,” he said with pure contempt in his voice.
“Disrespect my mother or father again, and you will show how big of a brother I am. Brother of war.”
I let the words drip from my lips slowly and deliberately as I stared him down.
“Is that a threat?” He sat back and stared at me, wide-eyed.
“I do not make threats. However, if this goes the wrong way, I will stand second in line for a taste of your blood.”
“My blood will not spill for you or Mother to taste. I will get Zuberi back; you stay out of my way. You tend to the war in the streets and let me handle her?”
“I am obviously not standing in your way. You have done what you wanted to do all along now. You always wanted this spot, Faraji. I never thought you would use our brother’s predicament to do it.” I narrowed my eyes on him.
“The thing about a birthright is you don’t have to earn it. You get it for simply being born.” He sucked his teeth.
“If father wanted you to be in charge, he could have done that. It was his right as the head of this family. He knew when we were younger, and all your life. Hotheads don’t make good leaders. They have a tendency to blow everything up.” I walked out of the conference room
-Faraji-
“Fine, walk away, Femi! I have done more to get him back than you have!” I yelled at his back as the door closed behind him.
I was so sick and tired of Femi and his pious attitude. If I was in charge, I would have had Zuberi back by now. Better yet, he would not have been taken in the first place. We had less than a day before the trade. I did not know what she had planned. I did not think she had the balls to come to my base. Who would be crazy enough to go up against a whole army? Black Heart could say anything to fuck with our heads. How could she not know what her wife had in mind? I was going to get it out of her, one way or another. My blood pulsed through my veins. Femi did what he thought he had to do. Well, so was I. She would tell me everything I needed to know. I rode the elevator down to the lobby and drove out to the officers’ barracks. Seraphim was at the security checkpoint talking to another officer.
“Where is she?” I asked her when I came in.
“She is in the second bedroom. I am not sure if she is asleep or not. Sir? What is wrong?” Seraphim replied.
“I have a feeling
something is going to happen, and she knows it. Her wife might come here tonight to get her.”
“Who is crazy enough to go up against an army?” she asked, with surprise on her face.
“We underestimated her, and she kidnapped my brother. She beat him within an inch of his life. That bitch knows something, and I’m going to get it out of her. Do not disturb me!” I stormed off towards the sleeping quarters.
When I opened the door, Black Heart was lying on the bed in the dark. I did not give myself time to adjust to the darkness, rushed in with the light from the hallway, and lunged at the bed. Realized it was pillows when I landed. A crack over the back of my head and a white light blinded me for a split second. Black Heart hit me with something heavy from behind, jumped on my back, and locked me into a sleeper hold. I pushed off the bed and backed her into a wall. I found something else hard and slammed her into it until she let me go. My eyes still were adjusting to the dark; she was a pouncing shadow.
“Bitch, I will get you,” I growled and lunged at the shadow.
She sidestepped me and kicked me in the face. I went forward but kept my balance and was able to turn before I hit the closet. She rushed me around my waist and knocked me back into a desk. Pain shot across my lower back and down my legs. She went for my eyes and again the white light. She tried to search me for my weapon. I pushed her off and punched her in the face a few times. Black Heart stumbled back. It gave me a second to take a breath and push myself off the desk. She came back at me and kicked me in the knee, on my way down, kicked me in the face.
A hard punch to my face made the white light brighter than before. She lept on me, wrapped her legs around my waist, and grabbed me by the throat. Black Heart clawed at my neck like a bear, then squeezed. My neck felt like an inferno. She then used her thumbs to gouge my eyes. I was determined not to let her get the best of me. A weight forced us both backward, and Black Heart’s dead weight fell on top of me. I shook my head and tried to clear my vision in the dark. I pushed her body off of me, she flew into the closet door. The lights popped on, Seraphim stared at me as she stood there with a needle in her hand. Every time I took a breath, there was a pain in my side. There was blood running down my face; my neck was on fire. She had scratched me up like a lion, not a cat. She aimed to kill me as much as I wanted to kill her.
“Get the fuck out!” I glared down at Black Heart.
I stared back at Seraphim with a vengeance in my eyes.
“Sir. You do not want to do that. Come on.” She held my gaze.
“I said get the fuck out!” I unbuckled my pants and moved towards Black Heart’s body.
I was going to teach this bitch a lesson she would never forget. I was the King; she would respect and bow down to me. Seraphim rushed over to me and pushed me back.
“Faraji, what the fuck are you doing?” She kept her body positioned between mine and Black Heart.
“I am your commanding officer, and you will get your hands off of me and get the fuck out of here!” I spat through gritted teeth.
I tried to push her out of my way. The pain in my side made her feel like a concrete slab. She did not flinch, just stared at me like she would cut my throat if she had to. She bent down and dragged Black Heart’s body out of the room by her arms. She never took her eyes off of me. As quickly as she walked out, she walked back in.
“Have you lost your goddamn mind? Your mother is already gunning for your blood. You would do that to her. In front of me, no less?” Seraphim charged back into the room.
“Watch your step, Seraphim.” I groaned in pain as I leaned on the dresser.
“With all due respect, I have stood behind you this entire time. You wanted your shot at the head of the table; I stood by you! I will not stand by this; I refuse!”
“Femi is ruining our family name, and I am trying to make it right. We are the mighty fist around here, and it has to stay that way. If I was the leader, she would have never dared,” I said through the sharp pains.
“There is so much more to it. They saved Zu’s life once before, and that created a solid bond with Amare. It should have been for life. When Femi accidentally kidnapped Black Heart, he should have let her go. Instead, he was as hot-headed as you and staged her death in an attempt to get the jewels back. You fucking men and your goddamn egos!” She rolled her eyes in disgust.
“Put the whole base on alert. She will show up here tonight. I know it. We will be ready for her.” I stood up.
“I will make sure we are at code red level 10. Then, we will make the trade and get him back,” she said to me.
“How did you know about a trade?”
“I did not become a Major in this army without having quiet eyes and open ears. Now come on, we have to get to the medic and clean you up.” She turned to leave.
“I do not have time for that. I have got to get back to the Opal.” I moved towards the door.
“I do not think you want to show up like this.”
She made me face a cracked mirror hanging on the closet door. Bloody hell stared back at me. She drove me over to the medic building. They cleaned my wounds, bandaged me up, and wrapped my ribs. Two of them were broken, a few others bruised. I had two broken fingers, a fractured elbow, a fractured eye socket, a concussion, and a sprained shoulder. I realized if she wanted to kill me, she probably could have, but she was really fighting me. I took a deep painful breath and let it out slowly. Seraphim drove me to the Opal after they were done. I went to my living suite and had a drink before I saw anyone else.
-Seraphim-
“He has gone over the edge now, mama. If I had not been there to stop him, he would have raped her.” I stood in the kitchen talking to my mother.
She was in the kitchen preparing a night meal for Akinyi. I washed my hands and helped her put the tray together.
“I can handle this. Get me the tea.”
“He is my superior. I could not stand there and let him-”
“Phim, you did the right thing; you saved a woman. Akinyi will not let anything happen to you.”
She peeked at me for a minute and then continued to work.
“I have done a lot of things as a soldier I am not necessarily proud of. But, I can atone for those things. I have never let a woman get raped on my watch. Oh, you had to see the pure evil in his eyes.” I sat with my head in my hands.
“There is no doubt what he would have done. You know that as well as I do. Remember what your father said: leave war on the field.”
Mama grabbed the tray, I grabbed the tea, and we walked into the dining room. Akinyi sat at the head of the dining table. I followed her as she unloaded the tray in front of Akinyi. I placed the teapot on the hot pad.
“Thank you. Please have a seat, ladies.” She extended her hand to the seats in front of her.
“Where have you hidden her?” Akinyi asked after she blessed her food.
“She is in the vice-presidential suite—three guards inside and two outside. No one else knows she is up there,” I told her.
“I do not know what is on any of their minds. They are the best and worst of my husband and me. What else do you have to pour yourself into? Your children are a vessel and a vase.” She ate.
“I have always done what you have asked of me, Mother Akinyi. You, above everyone, have my utmost respect,” I said humbly.
“I will hold you to it. Who ordered the bombings?”
“Faraji ordered me to bomb the house in the hills. I am sure it is the house of the man they were searching for originally. No one has seen him or his friend Blue. Faraji assumed they were in the house.”
“My sons are fighting each other and losing the battle. Instead, they should be working together to win the war.” She smiled to herself, but it quickly faded.
“Whatever you need, I will make sure it is done. I want to get Zu back, too,” I said with sincerity.
“Akinyi, we should take her something to eat,” Mama said.
“You are right, Miriam. Prepare her somet
hing to eat. We must check on her,” Akinyi said as she finished her meal.
Mama disappeared into the kitchen.
“Seraphim. Thank you for calling me. I am thankful you showed up before she killed him. She could have bashed his skull in if she wanted to with no problem. I never wanted my family to be in this position.” She sighed heavily.
“What would you have me do?”
“You continue to keep an eye on Faraji. I can no longer trust him to control his ego or his emotions. Come with me.” She stood with determination, grabbed her walking stick. I followed her into the kitchen.
The three of us walked out of the back door of her kitchen and into a hidden hallway mainly used by the service workers. We walked down the hall and to the service elevators. We took it up to the vice-presidential suite. The guard was right outside the door when we arrived and let us pass.
“She is in the bedroom. The meds should be worn off or wearing off by now.”
Akinyi followed me to the bedroom. Mama put the food in the dining area.
“Black Heart. It is me, Akinyi.” She knocked on the door frame.
A groan came from inside the bedroom. Akinyi and I walked in, and Black Heart laid on the bed. She tried to get her bearings. I turned a lamp on. She jumped up, rushed to the bathroom, and vomited a few times. It was a side effect of the meds I shot her with at the barracks. Finally, she came out and stared directly at me; it wasn’t a look of contempt. She was hard to read.
“Don’t try to read me, Seraphim,” she said as she sat in a chair away from us and close to the window.
She used the towel to wipe her face. You could see where Faraji had punched her. It was apparent she had been in a fight, to say the least. For sure, Faraji was much worse for wear.
“I am sorry about-” Akinyi started.
Black Heart held her hand up.
“Don’t apologize for your son. Thank you, Seraphim, for helping me. You didn’t have to stab me so hard, though.” She rubbed her shoulder.
“I must apologize. None of this should be happening right now. But, unfortunately, my sons have failed to take the reins of this situation,” Akinyi said.
Tears of an African violet Page 19
