Professor X

by Kiki Leach

  "You mentioned Scooter's pussy runnin' her mouth. What the fuck was she sayin' to 'em?"

  He paused and took in a breath. "The long and short of it is that the bitch ratted out your girl bein' the one to snap T; they know you're on lockdown to keep her and the club safe from what they plan to do in return."

  "Jesus--"

  "Bitch found out the truth from Pugh," he interjected.

  "What?!" hollered Tractor. "How the fuck did that asshole learn about it?"

  "He had apparently gone out to the club that same night lookin' for T to talk about the tapes that had you beatin' him to a goddamn pulp. Said when he saw Mariah's car outside, he waited inside his own behind the garage, then watched her take off. He went inside right after and found T on the floor with a pair of scissors stuck inside his head. Gabi was the first person he called 'cause he didn't have anybody else's number from the club."

  "Jesus goddamn Christ." Prez dropped his face inside his hands and wagged his head. "This shit has gotta mean that the Kings got those two held up somewhere."

  "They do," he replied. "Hotel Lavender right outside of Duncan; shit's like a fancier Motel 6."

  "They got those tapes with 'em?"

  "The tapes were locked inside T's drawer at the club after Flex got his hands on 'em. Prefix said those two assholes are bein' looked after by two newbie prospects parked outside and are steadily bein' piled with dope and booze to keep 'em too out of it to take off in fear."

  "We gotta get to 'em," said Xavier.

  "We do, but the shit can't be right now." Prez turned back to LapDog and glowered. "Did this Prefix asshole sound nervous in tellin' you any of this shit?" He shook his head. "Alright, means he trusted you enough to be honest. Listen, I want Cheddar, X and Scooter goin' out there tonight."

  "And me," replied Tractor.

  "No." He lifted his hand and pointed toward the floor. "I'm gonna need your ass here with me and the rest in case shit suddenly pops off with the Kings."

  He sighed heavily and folded his arms across his chest, then shook his head and grumbled. "Yeah, alright, Prez."

  "Good. Now Duncan is less than two hours from here; you three should be able to get this shit done in a goddamn snap."

  Scooter peeked over his shoulder and gulped. "What the fuck are you wantin' done, Prez?"

  "What the fuck do you think needs to be done?" asked Cheddar. "This bitch keeps runnin' her mouth right alongside this asshole, we are fucked with keepin' this club afloat."

  "If Kyla was in the same goddamn position, would you be advocatin' for the same shit?"

  "First off, motherfucker, she wouldn't be in the same goddamn position as your girl 'cause she ain't poppin' pussy between clubs for cash."

  "She was poppin' pussy between clubs before she fuckin' knew it."

  "She stopped with this lowlife fuck as soon as we hooked up. Your girl is a motherfuckin' threat to the club. She's gotta be taken out in the same way as Pugh -- no ifs, ands or buts about that shit. Now I'm takin' my ass to breakfast; let me know when the fuck we're finally rollin' out to handle this shit."

  As he climbed the stairs and closed the door, Scooter returned to X and Prez and jerked his shoulders. "So this shit is just decided. She's bein' taken out regardless of whatever the fuck I say?"

  Tractor spun around to him and sneered. "You need to be lucky that your flat ass ain't gonna be popped right alongside her for keepin' the shit quiet about her and T for as long as you did."

  "I'm sorry," he replied. "But I couldn't tell where the club was gonna go as far as she was concerned with this shit."

  "You knew where the club was goin'; your silence was a way to prevent the shit from becomin' a reality..." Prez turned to X and nodded toward the door. "Me and Trac are headin' back up. Convince this motherfucker that his bitch has gotta go or he can stay here with the rest of us and get the details on how the fuck it happened when you're back."

  X watched Prez and Tractor leave the basement in a quiet huff, then swiped his hand across his face and dragged his eyes back to Scooter; he frowned. "What the fuck, asshole?"

  Scooter stepped forward and gnashed his teeth. "You know the only reason he wants my ass with you and Cheddar is to take her out. You know that shit is sick."

  "It's fuckin' reality at this point, motherfucker and Trac's right in sayin' that you need to be lucky she's the one they wanna put to ground instead of your ass. Why the fuck did you keep quiet on the shit 'bout her and T-Bone when you knew at some point it was gonna have to come out?"

  "I thought she'd say somethin' about it herself to get spared."

  "But you knew that she wouldn't, brother -- 'specially after refusin' lockdown. And then your dumbass continued to lie 'bout the shit each goddamn time you were asked by damn near everybody within this charter. Her pussy couldn't have been that motherfuckin' sweet for you to damn near throw away every ounce of life you've ever had within this goddamn club."

  "I wasn't throwin' away shit, X," he said.

  "Yeah, motherfucker, you were throwin' away damn near everything within this club and the shit that came along with it since we were goddamn kids." He bent forward and wagged his fingers between them. "This friendship included."

  "We are locked down in here with no chance of reclaimin' our coke anytime soon because of your bitch, and no other goddamn reason. Don't ever fuckin' forget that shit."

  "I won't. Just like you shouldn't fuckin' forget the goddamn reason it had to happen."

  He stared into Scooter's face as a flood of memories of their shared life with the Devils suddenly entered his mind, then shook his head and bolted from the basement, returning to the front of the club.

  Chapter Thirty-Two

  Xavier

  By midnight, the brothers had arrived at Hotel Lavender.

  After swerving off the side road and behind a thick row of sky high bushes, X cut the engine on his truck and removed his cell from the glove compartment to check the map for Big Tech's personal layout of the area.

  Cheddar peeked around Scooter to eye his brother and nodded. "You good with this shit?" he asked.

  "Yeah. The signal's alright from back here." He pointed straight ahead and pinched his gaze while staring through the windshield. "LapDog said they were in Room 6 on the first floor. Shit looks like it's near the end on the far left side."

  "Let's see." Cheddar jumped out of the truck and snatched a small pair of binoculars from the inside of his cut; he stepped to the bushes while lifting them to his face and peeked between the leaves before turning back to X and bobbing his head in confirmation. "They've got the lights on in there -- can see 'em both doin' some movin' around through those thin as fuck blinds." He paused. "Goddamn, this shit looks cheap as fuck; there's no TV but a twin bed and single dresser, a lamp and two chairs in the corner. And Gabi looks like she might be strung out and not wearin' clothes. At least not a top 'cause I can see her tits bouncin' from here."

  Scooter dragged his hand across his mouth and grinded his teeth. "What about the prospects?" he asked. "They anywhere around out there?"

  "Looks like two of 'em near the far back of the lot hopin' to keep from bein' seen but not doin' a good enough job with the shit. Dumbasses are wearin' their cuts lookin' like a pair of fuckin' marks."

  "They wanna be prideful," replied X.

  "They wanna be fuckin' dumb. But we can hit 'em good from this angle, nobody will see shit outside of 'em maybe disappearin' for a bit. Way this white trash arena looks, ain't nobody gonna fuckin' care." He tossed his binoculars into the truck, then moved to the bed and shoved his hand into a bag full of rifles, Glocks and silencers. "We need to get this shit hooked up and start movin'."

  "Wait a second." Scooter slid out of the truck and paced the grass. "I need to think on some shit."

  Xavier leaned into his chair and sighed.

  "Jesus." Cheddar groaned and wagged his head. "What the fuck is it, asshole? Ain't like we got all goddamn night with the way Prez didn't want us rollin' out 'ti
l he was sure we wouldn't be seen or heard."

  "I still don't want Gabi goin' out the way Prez and Trac want."

  "We ain't got no goddamn choice out here." He stood in front of Scooter and glared. "Whether you wanna finally cop to it or not, your girl has been a behind the scenes cause of alot of shit that's gone down in the worst goddamn way possible for us; I don't put it past her at this point to be involved with havin' our coke muled through that school."

  "She wouldn't have been involved with everything else if she did."

  "She would," mumbled X. "If she was tryin' to throw us off her goddamn scent like Poke said back at the club. We need to be realistic and assume that she's been playin' every side of both clubs in order to get somethin' more for herself."

  "She was gettin' back in with the Devils."

  X wagged his head and hopped out of the truck. "The shit obviously wasn't enough."

  He reached into the bag for a glock and silencer, attaching each end before rounding the truck and taking position near the front.

  Scooter's eyes expanded in a panic. "You gonna fuckin' do it out here?"

  "He's snipin' the prospects first, dumbass," replied Cheddar. "We need 'em outta the goddamn way to gain access into the room without problem. Jesus, your brain is seepin' through your goddamn ears over this bitch -- fall back."

  Cheddar latched onto Scooter's cut and dragged him along the passenger side of the truck, then reached for his binoculars and tossed them into X's hand.

  X stared into the lenses long enough to manage a clean pair of shots to the back of each prospect's head and dropped the binoculars back into the truck as the men clutched onto each other's bikes and slumped to the ground between them.

  "We need to roll up on their Glocks and phones," he said.

  Cheddar reached for a silencer for himself before tossing another to a hesitant Scooter. "Let's get to movin', brother -- let's go."

  After zipping their hoodies to the neck to conceal their cuts and scurrying around the bushes, the brothers quietly moved into the parking lot and removed a set of burners and guns from the two dead prospects, stuffing them into wide pockets and the waistbands of their pants. Once finished, they strode to Pugh and Gabi's room and stood out of sight as X shot the lock off the door.

  "What the hell was that?" a slightly inebriated Gabi called from the other side. She rolled out of bed and folded her arms across her bare breasts. "Did you hear that noise?"

  "I heard it, don't know what the fuck it was," Pugh returned. "Sounded like a can of something being stepped on or rolled over; crushed or something. Let me look outside for a second." He moved to the window and peeked through the blinds, then shifted his gaze to the end of the parking lot; his mouth fell open as he noticed the prospects had fallen to the ground, bleeding from the back of the head. "JESUS CHRIST!" The whites of his eyes became pale as his cheeks and forehead flushed bright red. He turned back to Gabi and slapped his hands together. "GET THAT BURNER AND SPEED DIAL FLEX!"

  "Oh God." She fell to her knees in search of the phone, fumbling between their clothes with rattling hands and bloodshot eyes as her stomach tightened and sobriety kicked in.

  "Not a motherfuckin' good idea." Cheddar slammed his fist against the center of the door, forcing it open and tightening his grip around one of the Glocks he had stolen from the prospects. As the knob crashed into the wall, he pointed the muzzle between them and stepped inside. "Now what the fuck do we have here?" He scanned every inch of the room before returning to their faces and grinned. "Looks like a whole lotta coke and pussy -- enough for a few charges to be made, yeah? Hookin' and dope ain't legal in Duncan, is it?"

  Pugh fell back onto the bed and covered his bare bottom half with both hands as his prickly, flaccid penis sagged between his legs. "Please don't do this to us!"

  X shut his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose to keep from bursting into a fit of laughter. "Looks and smells like a goddamn brothel in here." He stepped aside and pulled the curtains until they closed as Scooter entered the room and shut the door.

  "This is on the Kings," said Pugh. He covered himself with a pillow and lifted his hands palm side up in defense as Gabi held her hands above her eyes to avoid the look of disgust creeping across Scooter's blushed face. "They put us in here to keep quiet."

  "About what?" Cheddar turned his head and frowned. "I'm curious what the Kings are askin' you to keep quiet about?"

  "T-Bone," he blurted. "The coke, tapes, everything."

  "What fuckin' tapes?"

  "From the classroom?" asked Xavier. "Those the tapes you're talkin' 'bout?"

  Pugh nodded. "Those tapes, yes. And maybe a few others that I saw them put away--"

  "What other tapes would that asshole have?" asked Cheddar.

  "From a set of recorders; maybe from phone conversations -- I'm not sure."

  Xavier grit his teeth and gradually exhaled. "You know what kinda conversations he might've had on a goddamn recorder?"

  Pugh shut his eyes as tears began to flood and swallowed hard enough to bruise the inside of his own throat. "No one knows -- no one in this room or out there. Flex said they were waiting for the dust to settle; didn't need anymore problems on top of what's happening right now."

  "How the fuck long have you been held up in here?"

  "A few days -- I'm not sure anymore."

  As Gabi whimpered in the corner, Scooter moved between his brothers and stepped across the room, lowering his hand to her face and leaning away as she returned to her feet. He eyed her from head to toe, taking note of the fresh needle marks lined between the creases of her elbow, and snatched the crumpled sheet from the bed. "You need to put somethin' on," he mumbled.

  "She needs to do more shit than that," said Cheddar. "She needs to start talkin' about why the fuck she ratted on Mariah to Flex."

  She wrapped herself into the sheet and dragged the back of her hand across the tip of her nose. "He put a gun to my head and threatened to pull the trigger unless I told him the truth."

  "But you ain't the one that found his ass from what we were told," said X. "This plump fuck over here is the one who saw Mariah drivin' away that night, yeah?" She nodded. "So why the fuck was Flex pressurin' you on somethin' that shoulda been directed to this asshole?"

  "Because I'm the reason her best friend and your girlfriend became the true owner of your dead former member's 2% of ACE'S," he said. "She owed me for that shit."

  Scooter whipped his head around to Pugh and glowered. "What the fuck?"

  Xavier dropped back and reached for his forehead in shock. "Jesus. Christ."

  "How the fuck is that shit even possible?" asked Cheddar. "How the fuck would you know about Rocka and our goddamn club like that?" Gabi and Pugh stared at each other in continued silence. "Alright." Cheddar snapped a silencer on the end of his glock and shot a bullet into the floor. Gabi and Pugh flinched. "Somebody better start fuckin' talkin' and makin' some sense of this shit before more bodies start hittin' the goddamn ground."

  "How the fuck do you know about Rocka's 2%?" asked X.

  "T-Bone," Gabi replied. "When he found out that I was getting back in good with the Devils through Scooter, he wanted to use me as a go-between with your clubs."

  "He wanted info in order to continue destruction against us." She gulped and lowered her eyes from his; he sneered. "Was this asshole pumpin' you for specific information on our club?"

  "Yes, but I never had anything to give because Scooter never told me anything outside of what I needed to know. Mariah never did either, in case you were wondering."

  "I wasn't."

  "The shit with this asshole, X and that goddamn job," said Cheddar. "What the fuck had you givin' up info about his taste for young pussy if you knew he was gonna back down and give the position to X with the truth bein' spilled?"

  "I didn't need you suspecting what I was doing," she answered. "But I had to tell T after the fact, which is what led to the shoot-out with hope that X and the Devils would find anoth
er route to get back their coke; one the Kings would've been more prepared for you to take in order to put you all down at once."

  "Guess he figured a goddamn bomb or hail of bullets wasn't enough," said Scooter.

  She looked at him from the corner of her eye and nodded as a single tear streamed her cheek. "I didn't want you getting hurt."

  "Others coulda gotten hurt out there, bitch," snapped a fuming, red-faced Cheddar. "You fuckin' realize that shit?"

  "Yes," she answered in a low, trembling voice. "I do realize that, and I'm sorry--"

  "Fuck that."

  Scooter looked to him and raised his hand. "Pull back on her, brother--"

  "I ain't pullin' the fuck back on this bitch when her high as a goddamn kite lookin' ass coulda got me and my woman fuckin' killed inside a place I've called home since I was ten FUCKIN' YEARS OLD! She coulda got Mariah and X killed -- Bitch coulda had our whole goddamn club wiped out and for what? The fuckin' Kings? Fuckin' T-Bone and his bullshit?!" His eyes rolled back to Gabi as he snarled. "What the fuck did that two-dick prick promise you as a way to keep this shit movin' how he wanted?"

  "Money," she replied. "Just like Mariah, I needed more to stay in school and had no other way to keep getting it from one semester to the next."

  "That's why you started spyin' on her for Rocka?" said Xavier. "Funds?" She nodded. He lifted his muzzle to Pugh's head, pressing the tip between his eyes and sliding his finger across the trigger. "Where the fuck does Rocka's 2% of ACE'S come into play?"

  "The coke," she said, wiping a string of tears from between her lips. "I'm the reason the drugs got onto Wexley's campus."

  "Son of a fuckin' bitch -- I knew it." Cheddar looked to the ceiling and flared his nostrils in ire. "I fuckin' knew your ass was shit the first go round which is why I had no fuckin' problem tossin' it the fuck OUT!"

  Scooter dragged his gaze between Gabi and Pugh, and furrowed his brows. "You hooked Pugh into this shit?"

  She furiously nodded as more tears coated her face and neck. "When I convinced Mariah into becoming roommates, we started talking more about the Devils. She told me about her love for Xavier and past with Rocka... I went to him with anything she told me before he took it back to T-Bone." She stopped to take in a breath and leaned against the wall. "They came up with the idea to push you out by using the women from their club to reroute your dealers and hire record-free peddlers; they asked me about moving the drug through Wexley as a result of needing the whitest of white kids who could get away with selling dope to each other and off-campus undetected. I went to Leonard for help because I knew of his connection to the Kings, and that if he said no, I could use the information about them and the girl against him."