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“Come in,” Darius shouted.
Butchie opened the door and stuck his head in. “Ed Weather’s here,” he said, and before Darius could answer, Ed pushed the door open and stepped in.
“What’s up, Darius? I need your help.”
“I’m there for you,” Darius said, and stood up.
“We need another man,” Ed said as he turned to leave.
“Come on, Butchie,” Darius said as he passed and Butchie fell in behind them.
On the way to what was now the last of Coleman’s gambling spots, Ed Weather told Darius and Butchie how Carter said they were set up and then he told them how Rain wanted it done. Now that everybody understood what they were gonna do, Butchie put a silencer on his weapon. When they got to the spot, Ed told Reynard to wait by the car, while he went in with Darius and Butchie.
When they got to the place, they saw the door man that Carter said controlled access to the spot coming toward them. The second he was close enough, Butchie raised his weapon and fired twice; one to the chest, one to the head and kept walking. Each man put on a ski mask and went inside. Darius raised the AK, pointed at the ceiling and began firing. When he stopped shooting, Ed stepped up.
“Everybody out!” he yelled, raised his AK, and began firing at the ceiling.
As people rushed by them and crowded the door to get out, Darius saw three men with guns coming toward them.
“We got incoming!” he yelled and opened up on them.
The men scattered as Ed Weather and Butchie joined in and kept firing. When one of the men went down, Ed Weather came out blasting as three more men came out the door firing. Ed fired several shots and killed one of the men. One of Butchie’s shots hit another man and he went down and then he took cover.
Once he checked his weapon, he came up firing, but before Butchie could drop back for cover, one of Coleman’s men fired and his shot found its mark.
The firefight was intense, and Ed and Darius were forced to take cover as the four men kept firing at them.
There’s a lot more mutha fuckas in here than Carter said there’d be, Ed thought. With his AK empty, Ed took out both of his guns. Darius put his last magazine in his AK and readied himself to return fire. Ed Weather rose up, fired twice, and hit one
of the men.
When one stopped firing to reload a fresh clip, Ed Weather stood up and hit him with two shots to the chest. The man went down and Ed took cover as his partners began firing at him.
Darius rose up, fired and hit another in the arm as he tried to move in on them. He got up and fired at Darius as he ran out the back door. Darius got to his feet, took out his Beretta and went after him, while Ed exchanged gunfire with the remaining shooter.
Darius ran down the street firing at his prey. When he emptied the clip, Darius reloaded on the run and continued firing. The man kept firing as he ran, until he had just about made it to a car. When he turned and fired, Darius returned fire and hit him with multiple shots before he got in the car. With his man down, he ran back inside.
Meanwhile, Ed went after the shooter. As the shooter stopped and fired at Ed, he took cover and returned fire. When the shooting stopped, Ed Weather stood up and slowly moved out with his weapons raised. He stopped when he heard a noise. With his back to the wall, Ed moved to the corner and peeked around.
There was the last man, crotched down behind a table, trying to reload. Ed stood over him and fired one shot to the head. Then he put one in his chest as Darius arrived.
“I see you got him.”
“Yeah. Go get Reynard, and bring the gas,” Ed Weather ordered.
Chapter Thirty-six
Kenard Turner was a pimp, that’s where he started out. It didn’t take long before he started running with people in Howard’s crew that he got into loan sharking, extortion, and number running. But at his core, Kenard Turner was a pimp. That night, he was at Veneshia’s sampling the new merchandise when Carter and Rain arrived outside and he parked the car.
“Veneshia’s.” Carter took a deep breath. “I haven’t been here in years,” he said, and thought about his incarceration. “I haven’t been a lotta places in years.” He took out his Glock.
“I hear this place got history,” Rain said.
Carter laughed while he checked his weapon. “Veneshia used to be Black’s bottom girl.”
Now it was Rain that was laughing. “I just can’t picture the Mike Black I know pimpin’,” she said.
“He wasn’t a pimp. He rescued her.” Carter saw the confused look on Rain’s face. “You never heard this story?”