Page 22

Quincy ‘Red’ Deville

Tossing the keys on the counter, I kicked my sneakers off and yawned.

I’ve been on go since Polo put the pieces in motion.

I allowed him to think he put all of this into motion because my plan was to remain neutral with my brother and make him believe I wanted to fix things before my early departure from this earth.

With both Quasim and Quameer down, I knew he was somewhere spiraling because his precious psychopaths were now sat down, one of them possibly permanently. Quameer, I could live with, though he was just as touched as his brother and father.

It was Quasim that needed to rest in dirt.

As much as Papa taught his boys the game, Quasim had morphed into something different.

Fear didn’t exist when it came to that man, and he proved it when he dismantled common grounds.

Sent the cities in a spiral, and everyone was trying to get their lick back for shit that happened years prior.

Polo had told me that Quasim was dead, but I needed to hear it from my brother.

Since he hadn’t made a call or a visit, I knew it couldn’t have been true.

Papa was good at hiding his emotions and being cold.

With his son dead, it would be nearly impossible for him to remain neutral and cold.

The cracks would start to show because he loved his boys.

“Baby, where you at?” I knew my wife was home because her truck was parked in the driveway.

I poked my head in the living room and kitchen, and she wasn’t in any of those spots. Pushing the door open to my bedroom, I paused when I saw my brother laying in my bed. My heart sped up as I watched him sleep peacefully in the same bed that I shared with my wife.

Gently shoving him. “Yo, Quinton, you missed your brother so much that you had to fall asleep in my house?” I nervously laughed with him while looking around my bedroom, because why the fuck was he in here?

Quinton yawned, sitting up on the edge of the bed. He looked at me, and I didn’t see any malice in his eyes. He wasn’t here on that kind of timing, so I relaxed some. “Something like that.” I watched as he stretched and then walked out the room to the kitchen.

Following behind him, he helped himself to something to drink. “What’s going on with you? Coming to me is like hell freezing over.”

“It has. My boys, Red.”

“What happened?” I pretended like I didn’t know or had a hand on orchestrating the hit against my own nephews.

He guzzled the water and tossed it into the trash. “Quasim is gone… they took my fucking boy,” his eyes refused to meet mine, and when they finally did, I saw tears in his eyes.

“Fuck, Quinton… you know who is responsible?”

He leaned his head down on the counter. “I don’t fucking know… can’t even think straight. Your place was the only place I came to when they told me the news.”

As he continued to lean his head down, I smirked and pulled my phone out.

Me: Guess you weren’t wrong… he just confirmed it from his own mouth.

Polo: The kingdom falls when the king is dead.

“Wanna know what’s so fucked up?”

“What?”

“My pops is the one who tried to warn him… some shit about the kingdom falls when the king is dead. The boys don’t even know that O is their grandfather.”

“Shit… O knew?”

“Nah… but he heard something.”

The air in the room had become thicker, and the aura changed quickly.

It was darker, and I wasn’t feeling that shit.

“Where’s Niecy? She should be home, her car outside.

She can make us something to eat. Help ease everything going on with you.

” I tried to change the subject, praying it would help with the feeling and emotion that had taken over this kitchen.

The energy had been sucked out the room, and everything felt darker.

Quinton looked up from his hands with this demonic look on his face, flashing his gold fangs. “Bathroom.” Was all he said.

My heart started pumping harder as I abandoned the counter and took off down the hall to the bathroom. I tried to open the door, and it was locked, so I nearly kicked the door down trying to get it open. All the air was deflated from my lungs at the scene that unfolded in front of me.

Des Delgato was taking a piss on my wife, who was in the tub with her neck open while blood poured into her bath water. Her glass of wine remained on the edge of the tub, as Des shook his dick and turned to look at me, almost offended that I kicked the door in.

I knew the horrors and pain that Desmond Delgato inflicted in New York in the 80’s. Everyone knew the rise and fall of Des Delgato, and the fall only happened because he wanted it to.

“Damn, you don’t know how to fucking knock… I’m using the bathroom.” He shrugged, and I watched as he lifted his large ass boot and connected it with my chest.

The force from his kick sent me into the wall across from the bathroom.

Quinton came around the corner with a smirk fixed on his face as he kneeled down to where I had fallen.

“Red, you know I’m a different kind of demon…

you know that I don’t play fair and have never played fair.

Why would you bring shit to my front yard and think I wasn’t going to make you clean it up…

Niecy over there dead because of you. I told you the Infernos aren’t to be fucked with…

now don’t you go tell mama that I sent you with her,” He laughed callously as he stood up.

Des came over and snatched my phone from my pocket. “Fuck you both… you treated this nigga more like your little brother than me. I have the same blood running through my veins as you, and you could never accept that shit.”

Des rested his fucking boot on my forehead as he nonchalantly scrolled through my phone. “That’s where you wrong… I’m fucking older. You never understood how loyalty worked, which is why you and your brother could never see eye to eye. You wanted to run the show, and I just wanted to get money.”

Quinton looked at Des, and they hit that God forsaken IG handshake, then both turned to look at me.

“The last thing your wife said to me was that she chose the wrong brother… told me how she wanted me the first day she met me… you always tried to measure up and never could. Don’t worry about Polo, either… King gonna handle him.”

“Mina was mine, Bitch.”

He looked at me and laughed. “You knew her, Red… knowing her and the woman actually being yours are two different things. Not her fault she saw the older brother and knew the pressure. I also remember when you took her to that diner… nigga shot that shit up while you were with your supposed lady. Yo pussy ass was good with leaving shit how it was… allowing a nigga to disrespect like that. I went after them and reminded them who the fuck they fucked with…. Murder Mina already know she chose right… you chose wrong. My baby always had more heart than you.”

“You will ne—” My words were cut short as I watched him pull the trigger and the bullets leave the chamber.

My vision clouded as everything faded to black.

He won. He had always won.