Page 31

I’ve been away from my family all day at the office, handling business. I took a two-hour break to see about Zayn’s suit, before dropping him off and heading back out again.

I check my watch and see that I have half an hour before I need to be at home getting ready to leave for Zayn’s banquet. The sun has already set, and it’s dark out.

I step out of the car, followed by Ghalen, and head inside the warehouse through the back door.

Walking inside, I see Kim sitting on a chair, smoking a blunt. Janel is sitting on the floor doing something on her phone.

Malik’s gaze meets mine as I step into the room. He’s on the far side, standing next to the man sitting bound to a chair.

“Terran James. You’ve been stalking me for some time. It looks like you got the meeting you’ve been wanting.”

He scowls at me from the one open eye that still seems functional.

“Sorry about that eye. Seems Malik wanted to gouge both out, but I asked him to leave one working eye. You see, I needed you to see the devastation that I was about to rain on your life.”

I nod at Ghalen, who steps back out of the room.

“Fuck you, Knight. You’re no-fucking-body to me,” he declares, spitting on the floor.

“If that were true, you wouldn’t be working so hard to take down my organization.”

Laughing, he confesses. “You’ve got problems bigger than me, nigga. I’m just the hired hand. Whether you kill me or not, you’ve got problems, old man.”

“Who is it?”

“Fuck you think I’m about to tell you that for? You gon’ kill me, anyway, fucking idiot. Like I said, you've got problems.”

“Your mother should have taught you manners, son.”

“Don’t son me,” he sneers.

Smirking, I say, “That’s fine. Listen…”

I take several slow steps until I come face to face with him. Kneeling, I say, “You fucked with my family.”

“Should’ve fucked that bitch with that fat ass donk,” he snarls.

I see how he tightens his jaw and posture, expecting me to hit him, but I won’t.

“I’m glad to hear that you feel that way.

This little kidnapping business operation that you’re running has come to a dead end,” I say.

“The first thing that I’m going to do is release you from those ropes.

Then I’m going to give you an opportunity to fight me like a man.

Though I doubt you’ll be any good at that.

Little boys always overestimate their power.

Finally, after I kick your ass and leave you here mangled, unable to move or anything, I’ll burn your studio to the ground.

And when I’m done with that . . . my boys here will fuck your bitch. ”

I turn around and point in the direction of the door as Ghalen walks in with a woman who’s wearing a gag with her arms cuffed behind her back.

I walk to the woman and remove the gag.

“Say your final goodbyes to your man,” I tell her.

“Fuck you, bitch!” She spits at me.

“You know,” I say, removing the handkerchief from my front pocket and wiping her spit off my face. “Someone really should have taught you how to behave like a lady. But I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

Turning to Janel, I nod. She pulls a black bag up, walks to me, and sets it at my feet.

“When I was a kid, my mother used to threaten to wash our mouths out with soap if we cursed,” I say, removing a pair of leather gloves from the bag and slipping them onto my hands.

“Bitch should’ve made you choke on the soap after fucking you up the ass with it!” she screams.

“I just don’t like the way that you talk, young lady. Such a filthy mouth. I’ll have to teach you a lesson,” I say.

“If you touch her, I’ma fuck your old ass up as soon as I get free,” Terran snarls at me.

I make a clucking sound with my tongue. “Why do fools always gain heart when it’s too late?” I ask, looking at Malik, who shrugs.

Ghalen carries the woman to a chair opposite Terran and forces her into it. Janel moves beside him and tries to bind the woman’s feet. When she kicks at Janel, she ignores Terran’s curses and punches her in the gut.

Satisfied that she won’t resist further, Janel binds the woman’s feet to the chair, then proceeds to do the same thing with her arms behind the chair.

“Open your mouth,” Ghalen commands as I reach inside the bag, removing a pair of leather cutting shears.

She sneers at him and says nothing. Ghalen grabs her jaw, forcing it open, but she clenches it and refuses to open it completely.

“I love you, Angel. Don’t give these bastards shit!” Terran screams as Ghalen struggles with her. He continues offering useless threats but goes silent when he sees my next move.

Grabbing a Karambit knife from the bag with my left hand, I stab her in the thigh, causing her to scream. The moment she does, Ghalen grips her mouth using her top and bottom teeth to pry it further open and prevent her from closing it. I drop the knife and angle the shears with my right hand.

“No! Fuck no! Don’t do that shit, yo!” Terran shouts as I grab her tongue and cut it out. “Angel!” Terran screams.

Angel’s eyes widen, and I can tell that she’s on the verge of fainting.

“Aigggh! Fuck you, Knight! I’ma kill you!” Terran shouts as spit comes flying from his mouth, and he strains against his restraints.

He becomes violently upset trying to get out of the chair, but the only thing he manages to do is topple over.

Blood pools from Angel’s mouth as she grows hysterical, and tears stream down her face.

“You got any more foul shit to say now?” I ask, staring into her eyes.

She’s straining against the restraints. She looks at Ghalen with a plea in her eyes, but he keeps his gaze trained on me.

I lift Terran’s chair upright again.

“We gave this bitch one chance to tell us where you were when we found her. She was loyal as fuck. You see, I would’ve left her alone, but she said, and I quote, ‘I hope they gang rape your wife, kill her, and then spit on her grave.’ Those were some harsh words coming from another woman, especially considering she had a gun at her head.

You got yourself a true ride-or-die here.

Since she already rode hard for you, I guess it’s about time for her to live up to the latter part of that statement,” I say, turning the gun and shooting his woman in the forehead.

Terran’s eyes go ice-cold and then blank as they swivel toward me.

“Good, muthafucka. I see you’ve got murder in your eyes. Malik, free him,” I say.

Malik looks uncertainly at me.

“Now,” I demand in a low, dark voice.

Malik releases Terran’s hands, and he instantly lunges for me, swinging with a powerful left.

Stumbling backward, I say, “That’s all you’ve got?”

He swings again with a hard right and catches me in the ribs. That hit is followed by several hits to my gut, my jaw, and my sides.

“Come on, surely you’ve got more than that in you,” I taunt, swiping the blood from my mouth.

Reaching inside my pocket, I grab the brass knuckles and slip them onto my hands. Terran is blinded by rage, and he doesn’t pay attention to what I’m doing.

He hits me harder and harder until I fall. He proceeds to kick me in the side, and when he gets ready to kick me again, I grab his foot, pulling it until he falls on his back. Rocketing up from my position on my back, I straddle him and begin pummeling his face with my brass knuckles.

I’ve allowed him to get his feelings off his chest. Now it’s my turn.

“You came after my family!” I roar. “You came after my woman! The one who bore my seed. What the fuck made you think you’d get away with that shit? Huh?”

Another blow punctuates each word.

I split his eye and jaw open and continue pounding his face as it begins to cave in.

“Z!” Kim shouts through the dark fog that’s taken over my brain. “Z!”

I feel arms pulling at me, but I don’t stop until Ghalen lifts me off Terran. Malik jumps between us as I go for Terran again, who’s struggling to get to his feet.

“Z. You want to make him suffer. You made us promise not to let you kill him but make him suffer,” Malik reminds me as Ghalen pushes me away from Terran and over near the bag.

Nodding, I swipe the blood off my mouth as my chest heaves while I wait for my breathing to regulate.

Kneeling, I pick up the bag and begin to zip it up.

“Should’ve raped her,” Terran manages to croak.

Pausing, I look over my shoulder. “What’d you say?”

“You heard me, nigga. I said I should’ve raped her.”

My fingers grip an instrument at the bottom of the bag. Removing it, I hand the bag to Kim, who comes to stand beside me.

“Leave,” I tell my team.

They don’t question my actions but do as I ask. Walking to where Terran is barely standing, I step close to him.

“You’re making sure that I have no regrets tonight, huh? You’re making sure a muthafucka sleeps good as hell,” I rumble in a low voice.

Just as he swings at me again, I bring my right arm up and swing the knife in a wide arc before I bring it down and slice it into his jugular vein.

“That’s the last time you disrespect my family or me,” I rumble as he grabs his neck and falls to the concrete floor.

I kneel beside him and pat his chest.

“You tried it. Thanks for keeping an old man on his toes, though,” I say.

Standing, I pull a pre-rolled blunt from my pocket and light it up. I take a few puffs as I walk to the door and then turn back to see him bleeding out.

“Rest in peace, li’l homie.”

He gurgles his reply, and although I can’t attest to it, I’m sure it sounds a lot like, “Fuck you,” over the blood gurgling up out of his mouth.

Laughing, I say, “Yeah, tell Satan that when you see him, bitch.”

I toss the blunt over my shoulder, close the door, and head out.

I jog out of the warehouse and hop into the car that’s pulled around to the front.

Pulling out my cell phone, I dial Parker.

“Wassup?”

“I need the cleanup crew.”

“They’re half a block away.”

I end the call, and as we pull out of the parking lot, I see two black vans pull in.

“Home?” Ghalen asks.

“Yeah. I need to head to Zayn’s banquet and squeeze my woman.”

Ghalen chuckles. “You a cold muthafucka.”

“Nah. It’s all about protecting my family. It’s all in a day’s work, G.”