False

by U. E. Wynn

  “We wait for him to hit me back with his instructions and then we make our move from there.”

  CHAPTER 21

  Malik poured himself another glass of Rémy and started pacing the room again. He had been waiting for the last three hours to receive a call from the mysterious voice. Within that time, he had been thinking and trying to figure out who could have been behind this.

  His gut was telling him something, but he couldn’t pinpoint what it was exactly. He looked around the room at all six of the men who were scattered about either standing or sitting. He couldn’t help but wonder if any of them had anything to do with Terry missing. Any one of them could have been some type of spy or a snitch.

  Malik pondered that thought as he continued to look at each of them one by one. The longer he looked at them the more he realized that his thoughts were just that, thoughts. None of them were smart enough to do anything like that or dumb enough to fuck with him or his family.

  Feeling satisfied that it wasn’t none of his boys, he left the living room and returned to the kitchen. Nasir was standing near the window talking to someone on the phone, but as soon as he noticed Malik he ended the call. That made Malik’s suspicions kick into full effect. He wanted to know who it was that Nasir was speaking to and why he ended that call so abruptly.

  Terry's missing was starting to make him view everyone differently. He was beginning to realize that he’d turned a blind eye to things that he should have handled—like the time when Nasir called himself checking him because he chewed his ass out for showing up late at the spot.

  Malik even recalled another time when he caught Nasir throwing a menacing look his way when he gave him orders to take care of something. Actions like that would usually get a nigga popped, but he didn’t allow himself to react in those moments. Instead, he made it clear to Nasir who was in charge and kept it pushing.

  As he stood in the kitchen looking at Nasir, he couldn’t help but wonder if he held a hand in his Terry’s disappearance. After all, he was Malik’s right hand man. Hell, Nasir was the one who linked Malik up with the firm who hooked up his security systems for his home and his drug spots. He found it odd that the person who took Terry knew exactly how to disarm his systems and maneuver around his crib without getting picked up on the cameras.

  Malik had cameras that came with a backup battery so his spot would have 24 hour surveillance no matter what happened. Those cameras came in handy a while back when they had to evacuate the city due to a possible storm. The power in the neighborhood was out for two days and there had been complaints about people breaking into houses. Someone broke into Malik’s spot and stole his TV and a few other electronics. When he returned home, he viewed the tapes and recognized the thief. Long story short, he made it so that muthafucka' would never be able to steal anything again by chopping his hands off.

  Malik was convinced that this was no coincidence and that it was an inside job. He boiled over with anger on the inside, but managed to keep a calm appearance. The murderer in him wanted to rear his ugly head and start busting on niggas, but if he allowed himself to get to that point he knew that he would never find his lady.

  “What’s up man?” Nasir asked as he slid his phone in his pocket.

  Malik threw a head nod Nasir’s way and leaned against the kitchen island counter.

  “Nothing. Just trying to keep a cool head.”

  “I feel you,” Nasir said as he smoothed his hand over his head. “I’ve been calling in favors from some people who owe me. I got some men putting in footwork and keeping their ears to the streets for anything they could find out that would tell us where Terry is.”

  “What’s the status with those cops ya’ll tailed?”

  “We got them chilling.”

  “Details.”

  “I had some of our men tail them and watch their every move. We caught some footage of them pocketing the drugs and money that they got from some of the busts they did on our spots. They know that we have that and at any given time we can release it all over the news. They all fell back. They got too much to lose, feel me. So in a nutshell, we made them our bitches. Anything you need, they will do.”

  Malik was still suspicious of Nasir, but he couldn’t resist feeling impressed with the work that his boy had put in. He had a few more men in blue in his pocket now and he didn’t even have to pay them. He was impressed, but that wasn’t enough to deter his feelings about Nasir.

  “Good work on that. You need to get those bitches up and let them know we got a situation. We’re going to need them to help us find Terry.”

  “Say no more.” Nasir pulled his phone out and started typing something.

  Malik's blood was running hot through his veins. He couldn’t believe that he allowed a scumbag like Nasir to get that close to him. After all that he’d done for him, yet he goes and do some shady shit like this. Malik knew that this shouldn’t have come as a surprise to him. This was how all partnerships in the drug game seemed to turn out. The right-hand man is always the one that turns out to be the biggest snake of them all. Malik recalled his father telling him once that he shouldn’t be so trusting of people.

  Only tell them what they need to know. It’s always the ones that you allow to get close to you, who will hurt you most.

  Those words echoed in the back of his mind as he tried with everything in him not to lose his cool. Nasir had been giving him signals all along. It was just fucked up that it had taken all of this to go down for him to realize it.

  Just then Malik’s phone rang. The words unknown caller lit up his screen and he instantly knew who it was.

  “I’m listening.”

  The voice on the other end of the phone rattled off the location where Malik was to meet him to do the exchange. He scribbled those notes down on a crumpled napkin that was on the counter and passed it to Nasir.

  “What’s the word?” Nasir asked.

  “Get all of the men together and have them at this location in an hour.” Malik passed the paper to Nasir and walked away. The fat lady had sung and it was game on.

  ~~~~

  Brandon placed the phone down on the table next to his gun, leaned back in his seat and propped his feet up. The smile he wore on his face made Terry cringe. When she heard Maliks’ voice on the other end of the phone she wanted to scream out to him, but Brandon had a gun pointed at her the entire time. Her face, eyes and lips were swollen from the beatings that Brandon had given her. She sat on a turned over bucket on the opposite side of the rickety table completely nude. Brandon had raped and beaten her every hour on the hour while cursing her and her unborn child. Everything pissed him off. If she so much as blinked in his direction, he would slap her across the face. Terry quickly learned that avoiding eye contact and only speaking when he demanded her to, was the way to avoid his wrath.

  “You wanted to scream. I could see it in your eyes. I could also see that you were aware of the consequences you would be facing had you made that stupid decision.”

  Brandon stared at Terry. His eyes roamed over her bruised body and lingered on her large belly. A sinister grin spread across his face. All day long he’d been replaying the scene over and over in his head of how Maliks’ face was going to look once he told him who the real father was of Terry’s baby.

  He had less than an hour to get her dressed and over to the drop off location. Before calling Malik, he had reached out to O’Malley, Vladimir, Brock, Devon and Zane to tell them about the meetup. They informed him of Malik’s men running down on them, but assured him that they were still loyal to him. They wanted revenge and was down for whatever.

  Brandon felt relief in knowing he could still count on them. After confirming that they were up to speed on his plans, he made the call to Malik. Brandon was no fool. Brother or not, he knew that Malik would have an army of his men somewhere lurking in the darkness just waiting for the perfect moment to take him out. That’s why he made sure to stay several steps ahead of him and have his men set up shop at
the location beforehand.

  ~~~~

  Malik sat in his parked car enclosed in the darkness of the alleyway. He watched as his contact jogged across the busy street and looked both ways before making his way into the alley. He tapped on the passenger side window and waited for Malik to hit the button to unlock the door.

  Malik did a subtle check of the surroundings to make sure no one had seen them.

  “What you got?”

  “Something heavy man.”

  Malik looked over at his contact. “Heavy?”

  “All I’ll say is that your instincts served you right.”

  With that being said, the contact removed a silver MacBook from the worn out backpack that he had in his lap and opened it up. He used his index finger to move the mouse around on the screen and clicked on a file. The screen went black for a few seconds and then another window popped up with video footage that showed the outside of Malik’s house.

  The first thirty seconds of the footage showed no signs of suspicious activity, then suddenly a man emerged from the tree lines that surrounded Maliks’ home. Malik watched closely as the man stood on one side of the house looking up where the main bedroom window was located. He stood there awhile just staring in that direction, then he finally walked towards the back of the house and stopped at the power box that was attached to the wall. He removed something from his pocket and fumbled around with the box, then he made his way up the back steps and kicked in the kitchen door. Malik’s contact fast forwarded the footage to the inside of the kitchen. No one was there.

  “I don’t get how this guy was able to bypass the camera, it’s facing the door.”

  “Just wait for it.”

  Suddenly, the video glitches and the kitchen door that was just kicked in was back in tack and the broken glass was gone.

  “Wait, what just happened?”

  “Someone hacked into your security man. They froze the shot to make it look like everything was normal. Luckily for me, their skills aren’t that great, because I was still able remove the bug and capture an image of the intruder.”

  The guy moved the arrow around on the screen again and tapped a few buttons on the keyboard. A second screen popped up with an image that automatically shuffled through several pictures of different people. After about twenty seconds, the shuffling came to halt at a photo of a face that was very familiar to Malik.

  “I was able to catch his face as he kicked in the door, it was a bit difficult cleaning up the image, but I got it.” The contact turned the computer towards Malik. “You know him?”

  Boiling over in anger, Malik clenched his jaws together and nodded his response.

  “Did you know that he was a cop?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I did some more digging through the other videos that you sent me from your other spots. The men in those videos are cops as well and I learned that they all work for the same department.” He pointed at the screen. “I’m no rocket scientist or nothing man, but I think you now know who has been responsible for all those busts.”

  Malik remained quiet. He couldn’t believe that he hadn’t put two and two together before about Terry. Instead, he began blaming his crew. It didn’t matter at this point, because Malik had already decided that it was time to eliminate the problem. Brandon.

  Noticing the dark look in Malik’s eyes, the contact gathered his belongings and removed a thumb drive from his computer and passed it over to Malik.

  “Can I have my payment?”

  Malik picked up the Beretta that was resting in his lap and aimed it at the contact. “Back up.”

  “Yo man, what’s up with this?” he said backing away.

  “Back the fuck up!”

  “Alright, alright. Be easy with that thing.”

  Once the contact backed away from the car, Malik took off down the narrow alley. His tires screeching loudly as he made a hard right turn back out into the street. His thoughts were racing a million miles a minute. The murderer inside him had resurfaced and he had a taste for blood.

  ~~~~

  Malik arrived at the meeting point and parked in an area that would allow him to see his men, but not be seen. He waited a few minutes, then he pulled out his cell and dialed Nasir’s line. The phone rung twice and he watched as Nasir pulled his phone from his pocket and answered.

  “Yo.”

  “Where is he?”

  Nasir looked at his watch. “He should be arriving any moment.”

  Just then Malik noticed a black suburban creeping up. He watched as the SUV pulled into a parking space a few yards up from where Nasir and his men parked and the driver’s door opened. His heart nearly beat right out of his chest when he saw Brandon step out. He was alone. Or was he?

  “He’s coming your way,” said Mailik. “But he doesn’t have Terry with him.”

  Nasir looked around subtly. “Yo’ you can see me? Where you at?”

  “Stop looking around, just be cool and wait for my order when he reaches you.”

  “Ok.”

  “Be careful. This motherfucker might have something up his sleeve.”

  “Say no more. One of his boys already hit me and told me that they were here too.”

  “You got that in check, right?” asked Malik. He wanted to be sure those mother fuckers were playing for the right team.

  “You already know.”

  “He’s closing in on you. Look to your left.”

  As soon as Brandon reached Nasir, Malik told him to put him on speakerphone.

  “Glad that you could make it, bro,” Malik said, letting Brandon know he knew who was behind Terry’s disappearance.

  “I expected you to be the coward that you've always been and not show up.” Brandon remained unmoved by Malik’s absence.

  “I was surprised to find out that it was you who busted up my spots. I always thought you were a pussy. I never took you for a go getter. Shit, kidnapping Terry was some shit I would have done myself. I definitely didn't think you would go against family, though.”

  Brandon laughed. “I guess this is supposed to be the part where I buckle over and have a change of heart right?”

  “I’ll let you decide that, bro.”

  With that being said, Nasir thumbed around on his phone, then held it at eye level in Brandon’s face. Brandon was hesitant at first, but he looked at the picture and the cocky smirk that he once wore was slowly replaced with a deep frown. Malik watched from his car and smiled when he noticed how Brandon’s body language changed.

  “Now, as I was saying, you will meet me at my spot and you will have Terry or I share this information with your chief and every news station in this city.”

  “Nah, that’s not going to work for me.”

  “I wasn't asking.”

  The phone line disconnected and Nasir and his men raised their guns at Brandon.

  “Well, you heard the man.” Nasir frowned. “And you can wave your boys off too. Yeah, we know they're here.”

  Brandon looked at Nasir like he wanted to try him, but knew he was out numbered and out gunned.

  “Go ahead and try for it. Please,” Nasir said in a deadly tone.

  Brandon smiled widely and let out a light chuckle. “Nah. This round in yours. But, I’ll be seeing you again.” He turned around and waved his hands in the air to signal his men to stand down, then proceeded to his car.

  CHAPTER 22

  Malik pulled up outside of the warehouse and handed his keys to one of the guards out front.

  “Park it in the back.”

  He then made his way inside of the warehouse and summoned all of his men to their makeshift meeting room.

  “Listen up! I’m sure ya’ll niggas done got wind that we finally found out who was behind the raids on the spots. That motherfucker is on his way over here now. He’s a dumb mother fucka’ so he'll probably call in for backup. I need ya’ll niggas to prepare yourself for war. Shit’s about to go down. Go suit up, load up, and take your positions.”

&n
bsp; Malik pulled a bogie from the pocket of his shirt and lit it. He took a few pulls of the cigarette and exhaled thick white smoke in the air. He remained where he was as he watched his men prepare for a fight. Seconds later, he felt his phone vibrating and saw Nasir’s number come up on the screen.

  “What’s the verdict?”

  “We followed him to some shitty ass cabin in the woods. He got Terry…” He paused a second too long and Malik instantly felt his heart beat speed up.

  “He got Terry and what?”

  “Yo, she don’t look so good man. She looks like he’s been beaten on her bad and he stripped her of all her clothes.”

  Malik removed the phone from his ear and pressed it on his forehead hard. He clenched his teeth and tried to compose himself around his men. That wasn’t the news he wanted to hear. He couldn’t imagine the thought of anyone ever raising their hands to his lady, yet it happened and he couldn’t be there to do anything about it. He was going to make sure that Brandon regretted that.

  “How long before ya’ll get here?” he asked gruffly. His anger made his voice sound course.

  “We about fifteen minutes out.”

  “Bet.”

  “Yo, Malik, I saw ol’ boy chopping it up on the phone. He called his crew.”

  “I knew he would do that,” Malik said, tapping the Beretta at his waist.

  “That Devon nigga hit me up as soon as he called him. He gave them the location and time. He told them to come weighted down.”

  “You got that under control still, right?”

  “Like a trick on the streets,” said Nasir firmly.

  “Good. If anyone of them pigs fold, dead they ass.”

  “10-4.”

  Malik placed his phone back in his pocket. He dropped the bogie and stepped on it as he started to make his way towards the gated stairs that led to his office. He told the two guards outside of his office that no one was allowed up there for any reason what-so-ever.

  As usual, both men nodded their response and Malik disappeared beyond the double doors.