Heart of the Hustle

by A'zayler

  “Emelia, you ready to get out of bed?”

  “No,” she answered sourly without moving.

  “You can’t stay in there all day.”

  She turned her head toward him slowly. “I know that.” Her words sounded a lot harsher than what Angel was used to, and he didn’t like it.

  “Yo, I get that you’re feeling some kind of way right now, but don’t take that shit out on me. I’m just as fucked up as you.”

  “Sure, you are,” she told him sarcastically. “I’m ready to get up.”

  “If you think I’m about to help you after you just got done talking to me like I ain’t shit, you’ll be laying your ass right there all day.” Angel walked off and went to shower again.

  Afterward, he brushed his hair, threw on the jeans and T-shirt that he’d brought with him, and went back to where Snow was. She was in the same spot, except this time her face was a little more relaxed.

  “You ready to act like you got some sense?”

  He watched her nose twitch before she nodded. Since she was more compliant that time around, he helped her get dressed and ready for the day. It took them a little longer to get her hair together, but once they did, they made sure all of their things were packed before going to look for her parents. When they found them they were both in the kitchen eating.

  It took everything in Angel not to break Mack’s neck right then, but he composed himself. There was a time and place for everything. He didn’t want to go off, exposing his hand without a plan in place.

  “I thought the two of you were going to sleep the day away.” Zulema was all smiles when they walked in.

  “Just a little tired,” Angel said.

  “Got you some rest, darling?” Mack asked Snow as Angel placed her in the kitchen chair next to him.

  Snow glared at him across the table. “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “I don’t want to talk about it,” she responded.

  Mack’s eyes shot to Angel. “Did you do something to her?”

  Angel turned his nose up at him and said nothing.

  “You know what? I can’t hold my tongue.” Snow spoke up.

  Angel looked at her in alarm. He already knew what she was about to do, because he knew her. All he hoped was that it went smoother than he’d imagined it would all night.

  “Papa, did you have me shot at?”

  Mack stopped chewing for a moment, but resumed upon laying eyes on Snow. “No,” he grumbled out. “I had Angel shot at.”

  “What?” Zulema asked, stunned.

  His honesty shocked Angel. He’d known Mack was a tough old bastard, but he hadn’t known he was that open and shut.

  “Why would you do that?” Snow asked, just as even toned as Mack had been when he answered.

  “Because you’re not focused with him. You’re throwing your life away.” Mack threw his fork down onto the plate. “He’s not meant for the top. I don’t know why the hell Vinny would ever think so. I’d been telling him for years that Angel doesn’t have the heart for it.” His voice raised at the end. “He refused to listen, so the moment I learned he was sick, I decided to take matters into my own hands.”

  “That was not your choice,” Snow spat.

  “How could you do that, Mack? Emelia could have been killed. I can’t believe you’d do something like that,” Zulema fussed as she stood and left the room.

  “She wasn’t supposed to be there with him. That’s the shit I’m talking about now. She’s never doing what she should be doing as long as she’s with him.”

  Angel’s mind was blown as he sat listening to Mack speak about him like he was a nobody, and not the son of his best friend. If he had to be cold like Mack, then they were right, Angel didn’t have the heart to be the king. Never in his life would he have crossed his family, no matter what the case was. Loyalty was one of the main reasons he’d continued dealing with D’Angelo after all of the envious run-ins they’d had over the years.

  “What happened to the loyalty, Papa?” Snow asked.

  Mack picked his knife up and pointed it at Snow. “My loyalty lies with you, not him.” He pointed the knife at Angel. “If it weren’t for him, the whole cartel would be ours.”

  “Ours?” Snow asked incredulously. “I don’t want this shit, Papa. Especially not with people that would do the shit you and D’Angelo just did.”

  “Vinny would have never done no shit like this,” Angel told him.

  Mack’s devilish laughter filled the room. “Well, we’ll never see that, now will we?”

  Angel lunged across the table, quickly snatching Mack from his chair and throwing him to the floor. He had his foot raised to kick him but stopped when Snow called his name.

  “Don’t. Let’s just go,” Snow said.

  Angel looked down at Mack and lowered his foot. “You’re going to get what’s coming to you.”

  Mack struggled to get to his feet. When he was finally back upright, he smiled at Angel. “And who’s going to give it to me?”

  “Me,” Snow stated with finality.

  His eyes darted to hers. “Really?”

  She nodded.

  “Good. I’d rather it be at the hands of someone that I respect anyway.”

  “What’s blood to people these days?” She shook her head in disgust.

  “My dear darling, blood may be thicker than water, but water tastes better.” He chuckled deviously.

  Angel could feel his anger getting out of hand, so before he did something to Mack and hurt Snow forever, he grabbed her from the table and left the kitchen. When they got back to her room, he placed her in her wheelchair and grabbed their things. They needed to get out of there before Mack tried some more sick shit. It was obvious he had no limits.

  “I can’t believe he would do something like this,” Snow whispered as Angel pushed her out the front door of her home. “How am I going to kill my own father?” She looked to him for an answer.

  “Don’t.” Angel wanted Mack just as dead as Mack had wanted him, but he didn’t want Snow to be the one to do it. That would be too much for her to carry.

  “I have to.”

  “No, you don’t. Just leave his lonely ass in California, and don’t fuck with him no more.”

  “That’s not how the game goes.”

  Angel looked down at her as their car pulled up. “You don’t have to stick to the way things are supposed to be. You can make your own rules.”

  Snow’s head shook subtly. “I know my father. I have to do it, or else I’ll have to watch my back forever, and I’m not going to do that anymore. That’s not the life I want as Emelia. He has to go.”

  Angel didn’t know what else to say, so he said nothing. Her mind was made up. If that was how she wanted to handle things, then that was what they’d do. After all, that was how the game went.

  Chapter Twenty-four

  I’ll leave and never come back

  “Shit!” D’Angelo cursed as he hit his knee on the bottom of the bed.

  He was so busy running around his room trying to gather all of his things that he was being clumsy. He already had pretty much everything he would need packed up, but he had a few more things to get before getting out of town. Mack had already called and warned him that Angel and Snow knew what had happened and to be aware, because Snow would be after him. D’Angelo had been running around wildly ever since.

  “Where you going to all fast?” Empress asked from his bedroom doorway.

  D’Angelo stilled and looked at her. “On a vacation with one of my li’l women.”

  Empress walked completely into his room and took a seat on the corner of the bed. “Oh, really? To where?”

  D’Angelo tried to think of something but couldn’t. “It’s a cruise. We’re going to a bunch of places.”

  “Uh-huh.” She crossed her legs and arms at the same time. “You see what you’re doing now? This is why we could never trust you to run the cartel. You don’t have what it takes.”

  That
statement pissed D’Angelo off. “I don’t have what it takes? Let me guess, Angel does?”

  Empress nodded. “Yes, he does.” She sat up on the edge of the bed so that she could give him her undivided attention. “You see, Angel would have never crossed you the way you tried to do him. To him, family actually means something.”

  D’Angelo stilled. How did she know? Too embarrassed to even ask, he continued packing his things to leave.

  “It’s sad that your own greediness wouldn’t allow you to prosper. You could have worked alongside your brother and had just as much as he did, but no. You just had to have it all for yourself.” Empress’s voice broke. “Your disloyalty hurts me to my soul, D’Angelo.” She stood and walked to him. Before he could object, she wrapped him up in a one-sided hug. “I love you, son. I pray you never reap what you’ve sown.” She kissed his cheek once more before leaving just as quietly as she’d come in.

  D’Angelo stood in place for a minute, letting his mother’s words marinate. “Too late now,” he said aloud before grabbing his things and leaving the house.

  He hurried to get into the waiting car before Angel and Snow could catch sight of him. After throwing all of his things in the trunk, he hopped in the back seat. “To the airport, please,” he told the driver.

  “Yes, sir.” The driver pulled away and merged into traffic.

  “Thank God.” D’Angelo exhaled roughly while wiping his hands over his face.

  D’Angelo had done a lot of fucked-up things in his past, but he wasn’t quite ready for them to all come catching up to him just yet. He still had a life to live.

  “Don’t thank him just yet.” The malevolent feminine bass of Snow’s voice raised the goose bumps on his arms. “Save that, you’re about to see him in person.”

  D’Angelo sat with his eyes straight ahead and sweat suddenly pouring down his forehead. Snow was sitting shotgun, but he couldn’t see her because of the seat’s large headrest.

  “Hector, pull over right here, please,” she instructed the driver.

  “Keep driving,” D’Angelo requested, but was ignored.

  Hector pulled the car over to the side of the small dirt road. “The other car is on the way, Ms. Snow.”

  “Thank you. Wait for me in there.”

  Hector nodded, hopped out, and hit the locks. As soon as the door was closed, D’Angelo began snatching on his door handle trying to get out, but couldn’t.

  “You might as well be still. I child-locked all of these doors for your childish ass.” She turned around in her seat, pinning him with her intense gaze. “I told you when I first got here I wasn’t that same little girl anymore, and not to fuck with me. I guess you thought I was fucking around.”

  The sound of a gun cocking sent D’Angelo over the edge. “I’m sorry, Snow. It was your daddy’s idea. I just went along with it.”

  “Shut the fuck up. I don’t want to hear that shit.” She did something else, making the gun click loudly again. “Any last words?”

  “Please don’t do this. I promise I’ll leave and never come back.”

  Snow chuckled. “You’re about to do that anyway.”

  D’Angelo nearly died when he saw the gun in her hand.

  “Now you get to see how my baby felt when you kicked me down that hill.”

  “What bab—”

  His words were cut short by the bullet that ripped through his forehead, splattering his brains everywhere. And just like that, life was over. All of the low-down things D’Angelo had ever done meant nothing to him in that moment. His life was over.

  * * *

  The smoke floated from the end of Mack’s cigar as it sat in the clear ashtray next to his chair. The half of cup of brown liquor next to it held small beads of sweat from the melting ice, while the ring of moisture fogged up the table beneath it.

  Angel could see his hand hanging over the chair as he sat facing the large window in his office. The lights were low, while music played in the background. Like Snow had relayed, Mack was home alone and in his office.

  “Snow sends her warmest regards,” Angel said as he walked around the chair with the gun in his hand.

  Mack’s eyes were cast down to the floor, and his mouth hung slightly open with foam running out the side of it and down his chin.

  “I know this muthafucka didn’t,” Angel said to himself as he reached out and touched the side of Mack’s neck. “You coward.” Angel frowned at Mack’s dead body in disgust.

  The empty pill bottle in his lap was now in plain view, and so was the folded piece of paper. Angel had completely overlooked both of them before but grabbed them that time. He dropped the pill bottle onto the floor and opened the note.

  Emelia, my darling,

  I knew you were coming today. I could feel it. I knew when you left here that day that you would be back. I love you so much that I wanted to save you the burden of killing me. You’re my girl, and I couldn’t have you holding on to that for the rest of your life. I taught you to be tough, so don’t mourn me. I deserved this and so much more. Go on, live your life, and maybe I’ll see you again someday in the afterlife. I love you.

  Papa

  P.S. Don’t worry about your mother, I talked to her about this, she knows. She has a note of her own. Make me proud, my dear sweet Snow.

  Angel wanted to crumple the paper up and throw it away, but just like Mack had known, Snow would need it, so he kept it. Snow was a tough girl, but at the end of the day, Mack was still her father, and she loved him. The note would probably bring enough peace to get her through his death.

  Somewhat grateful he didn’t have to use his pistol, Angel lowered it and exited the house and the East estate. Though the place held many fond memories for him, it was now a part of his past, and that was one place he planned to never revisit.

  Epilogue

  “Angel, get them down from there,” Emelia yelled as she watched her sons climb across the top of the monkey bars.

  “Emelia, get your behind over here and sit down. Let them babies be boys,” Empress yelled after her.

  “I’m telling you, those poor boys can’t catch a break,” Zulema chimed in.

  Emelia rolled her eyes at both of the women without turning around to face them. She got so tired of them always telling her what to do with her kids. They’d had their chance to raise kids and hadn’t done very well, in her opinion, but she’d keep that to herself.

  “I’ma tell them you’re over here rolling your eyes.” Angel walked up to her in his long white doctor’s coat, smiling.

  “They get on my nerves.” She stopped frowning and laughed at herself.

  Angel wrapped his arm around Emelia’s shoulder and pecked the side of her face. “They mean well.”

  “I know, but still.”

  “Try to take it a little easier on them. They’re two lonely old widows that are used to a life of crime. Our kids are the most excitement they get all day.” Angel looked across the park at their mothers. “I don’t see how you let them get to you anyway. They did horrible raising their own kids.”

  “I just thought the same thing.” Emelia giggled giddily as she grabbed onto his waist. “But I think it was just Zulema that did horrible. Empress did a hell of a job. I don’t know where I would be right now if she hadn’t popped that pussy for Vinny.”

  Angel’s head fell back in laughter. “I swear your ass will say anything.”

  Emelia shrugged her shoulders. “Only anything that’ll make you smile.” She pecked his chin. “You think we could sneak away for a quickie?”

  Angel looked around the park once more. “Didn’t I just tell your ass we’re their excitement? They’ll be all up in our business. You know since Vinny passed, my mama be watching all of us extra close now. I think she’s scared we’re going to leave her or something.”

  “It’s a lot to get used to. She loved Vinny more than life itself.”

  Angel wrapped both of his arms around Emelia and kissed all over her face. “Kind of like I love
you, huh?”

  Emelia blushed and nodded at the same time. “Just like you love me.”

  Angel’s head dipped, and their tongues entangled in a passionate kiss that involved a lot of touching and moaning. When they finally pulled away, Angel was smiling down at her with bright red cheeks.

  “When I left you all of those years ago, I never would have thought that you would be my wife and the mother of my kids. I knew I loved you, but I didn’t know that I couldn’t live without you.”

  “I knew it. You were always ambitious, so I knew you would come back, you just had to follow your hustle. I understood that.”

  “But my hustle was different back then. It was for all of the wrong shit.” Angel looked around at their three kids as they played on the playground. “Now you and my kids are my heart. I hustle for y’all on a totally different level.”

  “That’s even better. Now we’re the heart of your hustle?”

  Angel’s handsome face made her heart skip a beat when he nodded. “If I could marry you a million times, I would.”

  Emelia pecked his mouth once more and held up her ring finger. “You don’t have to. Once was enough, Dr. DeLuca.”

  “One lifetime with you isn’t enough for me.”

  “Me either, so let’s die together and live and love again.” Emelia winked at him.

  He winked back. “Let’s.”

  Emelia smiled up at her husband with hearts in her eyes. He was the best thing to ever happen to her. He’d been there for her through every hardship she’d ever had. Angel had helped her get through things she thought would kill her but that ended up only making her stronger. They’d lost family, lost money, lost respect, and a host of other things together, but remained the same.

  Angel was her best friend and did whatever he could to put a smile on her face. He was definitely a blessing that she’d never take for granted. His love was out of this world, and the fact that he was sexy with his own medical practice, making more legal money than they knew what to do with, wasn’t too bad either. He was truly her Angel on earth.