Page 17

Blair

Wylie leaned his head in the window after handing us the construction vest with the gas company’s log on it.

“I’m right behind you… in the black Lexus.”

I stared at Wylie. “Any reason you’re not on your bike, Wy?”

He shrugged with a silly grin. “They came for the king… can’t let that go with a tap on the wrist, Queen.”

Capri dropped her face into her hands and laughed. “Wylie, this changes the whole plan.”

“Nah… continue with the plan. I’ll know when you and Queen leave the hous?—”

He didn’t get to finish his sentence when a Mercedes pulled in on the side of us. Kincaid rolled the window down and leaned back. “I’m coming.” Mina said.

Capri didn’t seem surprised that Mina knew the plan and had gotten around Papa. He was in his own head and had his own plans he was putting into motion for his brother. Capri had a plan, and I was going with whatever the plan was.

“I could and would never stop you, ma,” she popped the locks as Mina hopped out and got into the backseat of the Audi we were in.

Wylie tapped the side of my window and looked at all of us. “The minute all three of you are back into this car, call me.”

“Okay.”

“Bet.”

Kincaid looked over at us. “After you.”

Capri pulled away from the shoulder and weaved in and out of traffic, heading toward the bridge that would take us into Delaware. The sound of bikes wasn’t that far behind, and I watched as Cappadonna took the front, Capone the side, and Corleon behind us.

With one hand on the wheel, and the other on the gun in her lap, I watched as she swerved in and out of traffic and they kept right up with her. Once we exited the bridge, they all took off in different directions, while Corleon remained behind us.

I pressed the screen when Aimee’s name popped up. “Hey, Aim.”

“Me and Landon are on the block, and everyone is in place… you were able to get in, Don?” She questioned.

“This shit light work for me… turned that bitch off.” He replied as we pulled onto the block and saw Goon, Havoc, and Kiki outside with a few bullies. Kiki was watching them as they further fucked the street up with a clipboard in her hand.

It helped that construction was actually taking place on the block, so it was simple to just cosplay. Capri pulled up to the house, and we put on our vests and grabbed our clipboards. Corleon had parked further down the block but had on a vest and a face mask.

We put our face masks on as well, and Kiki quickly tossed Mina a vest while I gave her the extra facemask. “What is the plan?”

Although she recovered, Mina’s speech often came out slower than usual. She had learned to keep her questions and conversations brief. “There’s a gas leak, ma… we gotta check it out,” Capri smirked.

She smiled, as we exited the car behind her. Capri’s gun was tucked at her back, and I had mine placed in the same position. Capri knocked on the door and then looked down at the blank clipboard we all held in our hands.

The rickety blue home had seen better days. I could tell the covered wraparound porch had been the prize piece of this home back in the day. From the way the owner had let it go, I could tell with the right amount of money and time, this home could have been restored to the beauty it once was.

The entire block was probably a showstopper, and now it was reduced to a worn-down block that drugs were run through.

The peeling white front door finally swung open, and we were faced with a brown-skinned man with a light fade, expensive outfit and a pair of white air forces.

When he looked at Capri, he rubbed his hands together like God had granted his wishes by sending her to him.

“Sir, is this your home?” Capri put on her professional voice, though her voice was muffled from the mask.

He stared at Core, who was taller than all of us. “Who the fuck wants to know?”

“Have you been smelling gas, sir?” Corleon also threw on his fake professional voice, which freaked me out.

We all knew he was a geek, but to hear him talk like one was a different experience. The man relaxed some. “Yeah, my homie been telling me he’s been smelling gas all morning… we don’t have the stove on.”

Capri wrote dick head on the clipboard, faking like she was taking notes. “Can you show us where the boiler is?”

Like a fool, he turned his back and allowed us to follow him. “Is there anyone else in the home?” I questioned.

“Yeah, my homie is upstairs and then my girl is in the next room rolling up.” He didn’t give a damn that we were the gas company and that he just implemented his girlfriend in a crime.

Mina pulled my hand while Corleon continued to follow behind them. The girlfriend was watching some bad filmed reality show with women beating and berating each other as her thick lips secured the spliff she was rolling up.

“Hi,” Mina cleared her throat.

The girl slowly pulled her eyes from the screen and sparked the lighter over the entire spliff. “Can I help you?”

“You have a gas leak and we’re just checking everyone out.” I quickly recovered, since Mina left me to finish the conversation.

“Yo, what the fuc?—”

Soon as we heard his voice, I knew that meant he had been ambushed.

The front door opened, and Havoc came in with Goon behind him.

I nodded upstairs, and they headed up there.

The girlfriend was so busy watching them that she didn’t notice Mina pull her gun and strike her across the face with it, her spliff flying from her mouth onto the floor.

“Argh, what the fuck?” she screamed as Mina wrapped her hands around her neck and adjusted her jaw, removing a razor blade from her mouth.

I should have been in the moment, but it all made sense. This was where Sim had gotten it from. As the woman struggled, I tried to step in, and Mina held her hand up. “No.”

Standing away from where the girl was kicking and screaming, I watched as she slid the razor across her neck as she screamed, and Mina had this lost look in her eyes.

The same look I had seen in Meer’s eyes when he was doing something he would have to ask forgiveness for. Her eyes mirrored her youngest son, as she looked at what she had done. Goon held the back of the neck of one of the men upstairs and shoved him onto the couch.

“Where the fuck is Polo?” Goon snarled, staring him down.

The man spit blood and looked in the opposite direction. “I’m not no fucking snitch… find that nigga like you found this house.”

We all turned to look at the front door when it opened. “I got the pizz?—”

It was the guy that Aimee had been talking to, and Cappadonna kicked his ass onto the floor, his face falling right on the pizza box.

“You dying because everybody know New York got the best pizza, and you buying Delaware ass pizza from a spot named NYC’s pizza.” He was more disgusted at that than the woman with the open neck in the living room.

Corleon walked homie into the living room, and when he saw his girlfriend, he fell to his knees sobbing.

Capone kicked him in the back and looked at him in disgust. “Get the fuck up… you knew this life and what comes with it… we all do. Go kiss her goodbye.” He shoved his boot in his back, sending him flying near the coffee table.

Capri rounded the corner. “We don’t need information… I just wanted to send a message. He’ll get the message.”

“Wrap they asses to the couch,” Cappadonna said as he came back into the living room with three rolls of electric tape.

“The fuck you need all this damn tape for?” Goon took the roll from Cappadonna and knocked brown skin against the head.

This man had all that mouth moments before, but was now in full blown tears, staring at his girlfriend. His heart was broken as he tried to reach out for her and Mina slapped his ass back into the couch.

It was one of those slaps that only a mother could deliver. Those slaps were the ones that would sting for hours after the initial blow. “She’s fucking… fucking gone.”

This was a game to her, humorous even, as the corner of her lips turned up into a smile while the man held his face.

As much as we knew they were just flunkies and probably had no clue as to what Polo had going on, this was the message. Ellis lost his life and Quasim was currently fighting for his, so this message had to be sent.

It needed to be clear, and for them to know that no matter what, we could touch them.

When Sim took his mother from him, I would have thought he would have learned his lesson and knew how he was coming.

We stood and watched as Cappadonna and Goon had them tied to the couch with tape around their torso, and then between their legs over the couch.

Even if they wanted to, they couldn’t move anywhere.

For added measure, Capone wrapped the girlfriend in the chair. She had taken her last breath long before her boyfriend made it back upstairs. Corleon looked down at his phone and then back at us.

Pizza guy started hollering, and Mina pulled her gun out, putting a hole in his head. “That fucking screaming,” she held the side of her head, while her gun continued to smoke.

We all looked over at her. “You straight, Mina?” Capone questioned.

She nodded her head. “I get headaches sometimes… his screams… screaming didn’t help.”

Corleon looked at his phone. “Go on and head off the block. The rest of them just passed Landon and Aimee.”

We headed out the house and piled back into the car, as Capri called Wylie on our way off the block. Everyone had cleared from the block and we headed back to the bridge. No sooner than we turned a few blocks down, it felt like the car had shook and we could hear an explosion.

“I hope he’s going to be alright,” I worried about Wylie.

Capri laughed. “He’s going to be more than fine… Wy knows what he’s doing.”

“Where now?”

“We’ve sent the message… now, we let him resp… respond,” Mina said from the back while she used her shirt to clean the small blade.

I looked at Capri, and we both realized that our husbands didn’t only get their crazy from their father, it ran deep in their mother’s blood as well.