The Head That Wears The Crown

by D D Bridges

  “Derek, go find Natalie and Jeff. Take the car and go straight to the airport. If we’re not there in thirty minutes then tell the pilot to leave without us.”

  “What!? I’m not leaving y’all here! Hell no!” Derek said.

  “Look, we’ll be there. But if we don’t make it then you gotta get Natalie out of Paris,” I told him urgently.

  Derek shook his head, but then reluctantly said, “Fine.”

  Mike handed him the keys to the Maybach then said, “Don’t go ‘til I tell you.” We waited until Francisco’s men halted their gunfire for a brief moment then we came from behind the walls and started to pop-off. This gave Derek enough time to get down the hallway and into the auction room so that he could find Natalie and Jeff.

  Me and my crew continued to shoot and we hit a few of Francisco’s men who failed to take cover, but his men seemed to be multiplying by the seconds. Before we knew it we were facing about twenty gunmen and we were beginning to realize that we were no match for them.

  “Shit, I’m out!” Terry said as he looked at both of his empty guns. We hadn’t expected to be in a war so we didn’t bring any extra ammo inside with us.

  “We gotta go, D. Pretty soon we’re all gonna be out of bullets,” Mike told me. He and Kenny were still shooting off their rifles, but he was right. We had to find a way to get out of there.

  Suddenly Francisco’s men ceased their fire.

  “Wait,” Mike told us as we all listened from behind the wall to see if the coast was clear. We waited for about a full sixty seconds and there was nothing. Smoke from the gunfire had filled the room and the smell of gun-powder was strong.

  “How much you got?” I asked Mike.

  “I’m half empty. That’ll be enough to get us to the car though,” he told me.

  There was still no sound from Francisco’s men so I assumed that they were done and had retreated.

  “Okay,” I said. “Let’s go.” As soon as I began to move down the hallway toward the door that would lead us outside I heard someone cock their gun.

  “D, get down!”

  Next thing I knew I was being tackled to the ground and the gunfire had started up again.

  “Ahhh shit!” Terry said as he rolled off of me. He was holding his arm and grimacing in pain. I got up and knelt beside him. I instantly saw the blood gushing from his shoulder. One of my boys had just taken a bullet for me.

  “Oh shit. Mike! We gotta go! Terry’s been hit, bruh!”

  They were still doing what they could to hold off Francisco’s men and hadn’t even realized what happened.

  “Ah, damn! We gotta go now,” Kenny said, looking back at us.

  “I’ll go get the truck,” Mike said as he headed off to the door.

  “Let’s close these doors,” D.J. said. He and Kenny closed the doors then secured the latches at the top and bottom of them to lock Francisco’s men out. The oak doors wouldn’t be much protection but they’d give us enough time to get Terry out of there.

  Kenny and I helped Terry up off the floor. We headed for the exit and D.J. watched our backs for us. We made it outside just as Francisco’s men used a bazooka to blow the oak doors off the hinges. It sounded like a bomb going off. Luckily Mike was there with the truck because I knew that Francisco’s men were coming for us.

  D.J. and Kenny got into the back seat with Terry, who was bleeding all over the place, while I hopped into the passenger seat.

  “T, you good?” Mike said as he looked at him through the rearview mirror as we sped away.

  “We gotta get him to the hospital,” D.J. said.

  “No! I’m not going to no hospital,” Terry said as Kenny and D.J. helped peel him out of his long-sleeved shirt that was now soaked in blood on one side. “Ah shit!” he said as he grimaced in pain and put his hand over his bullet wound.

  “Nah bruh, we gotta get you some help. I’m not gonna let you die on me,” I told him.

  “I told you I’m good, D. We just need to get to that plane,” Terry pleaded.

  “If you don’t get that bullet out of your arm then you’ll be dead by the time we get there,” D.J. told him.

  “Take us to the hospital, Mike,” Kenny said.

  “If we go to the hospital and try to catch a commercial flight tonight or tomorrow then none of us will make it out of Paris alive. You know Francisco is gonna send his men after us,” Mike said.

  “Mike is right. We gotta get to the airport now,” Terry said and he was beginning to look like he was going to faint.

  “You need to lie down. That’ll help slow the bleeding,” D.J. told him.

  “He’s right,” Kenny said as he helped turn Terry around until he was stretched out across him and D.J.

  “Terry, let us take you to the hospital,” I said.

  “No! Fuck that. I don’t need a doctor. I’m good,” he said as he began to mess with his bullet wound.

  “T, what are you doing?” Kenny asked. We all watched as Terry dug his fingers into the wound and wedged the bullet out. It was more gruesome than some of the shit that I had seen in the movies, but Terry took it like a man and did everything in his power to not cry out in pain.

  “Damn. Where’d you learn to do that shit?” Kenny said.

  “You a crazy motherfucker, T. I hope you know that,” Mike said as he glanced at him through the mirror.

  “I told you I was good. Just get us to the…” Terry’s words trailed off as he passed out.

  “Terry! Terry, wake yo’ ass up, bruh!” Kenny said as he slapped his face a couple of times. “See, I told y’all that we shoulda took him to the hospital,” he said beginning to panic.

  “I think he just passed out from the pain. He still has a pulse,” D.J. said as he put two fingers against Terry’s neck. “If we go to the plane then we can give him first aid once we get there. I should be able to stop the bleeding until then.” D.J. ripped off the sleeve of the shirt that Terry had taken off and tied it around his arm. He positioned perfectly so that he could cut off the circulation in his arm. Then D.J. took off his own shirt, balled it up, put it over the bullet hole, and began to apply pressure. I sighed as I hoped and prayed that my boy would be okay.

  Part 4

  Blood and Water

  Chapter XIX

  Our plane didn’t land in Atlanta until early the next morning. The sun hadn’t even come up yet. We were all tired and still on edge from what happened in Paris. The good news was that Terry was okay even though he still needed medical attention. I already called my Physician and told him to meet us at the mansion.

  Meanwhile, I told Natalie that she wouldn’t be able to go back to her house until I knew that it was safe. She had been angry with me during the whole ten-hour plane ride and this new information was all it took for her to go off on me. I knew that there was a lot that she was upset about and she was just unleashing all of her pent-up frustrations at that moment. We argued during the whole ride from the airport to the mansion. We went back and forth with one another in the back seat of my Benz while Mike and Derek rode silently in the front. She had never been to my house before so I wasn’t surprised when she suddenly became quiet as we rode up the driveway. She looked all around like she was on a ride at Disney World and seemed to have forgotten that she had just been saying how she didn’t want to stay there.

  Mike pulled the Benz up to the front doors. Kenny and Terry were trailing us in the Escalade so they pulled in behind us and D.J. followed suit in his car. Derek hopped out of the passenger seat and opened my door while Mike did the same for Natalie. I was immediately greeted by Phillip who had been waiting for us on the stairs that led to the front door. We shook hands and then embraced briefly.

  “Darius, it is good to see you,” Phillip said with a look of relief on his face. I’m sure that he and everyone else had been worried. Jeff had already informed Walter of everything that happened so I was sure that he passed the information on to Philip and my mother.

  “Good to see you too, Phillip.”r />
  “Would you like me to get your bags, sir?”

  “No, that’s okay. My boys will get them,” I said just as Natalie came up beside me. “Phillip, I’d like you to meet my girlfriend, Natalie Cook. Natalie, this is Phillip, my butler.”

  “It is a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Cook,” Phillip said, smiling politely as he shook her hand.

  “She’s going to be staying here for a while so could you please have Martha prepare one of the guest rooms for her,” I told him. Natalie glared at me but she knew that this wasn’t the time to reignite our argument. With that in mind she reluctantly followed Phillip into the house.

  “Oh, and one other thing, sir,” Phillip said as he turned toward me. “Dr. Jacobs has already arrived and is getting set-up in the designated room.”

  “Great, thanks Phillip.”

  Thirty minutes later I found myself alone in the kitchen waiting to hear what the doctor’s report was on Terry. Just then my mom came into the kitchen and rushed toward me.

  “Oh baby,” she said as she pulled me into a tight embrace. “You’re okay, you’re okay,” she said as she touched all over my chest and torso as if she were checking for wounds.

  “Yeah, I’m fine, ma’. But Terry was shot,” I told her.

  “Oh my god, is he okay?”

  “Yeah, he should be fine,” I told her. “But I have something else to tell you.”

  She stared at me blankly and then said, “What is it?”

  I sighed as I leaned against the counter. “D.J.’s here.” Her blank stare suddenly turned into one of anger and slight panic. Even though she had known about my father’s family a long time ago, she never met any of his other children and I was sure that she never wanted to.

  “Where is he?” she asked impassively.

  “I don’t know. He’s around here somewhere,” I said and was surprised that she wasn’t as upset as I thought she would be. “You know that this used to be their home?”

  “Yes, I know that,” she said as she stood shoulder-to-shoulder with me and leaned against the counter as well.

  “I have something else to tell you,” I said and I was sure that she could hear the hesitancy in my voice. “My girlfriend, Natalie, is here too.”

  “Girlfriend!?” she said turning toward me. “Since when do you have a girlfriend?”

  “Since a couple of months ago.”

  “What?! And when were you going to tell me?”

  “I wasn’t going to tell you,” I confessed. “But I have to now because she’s moving in.”

  “What the hell is wrong with you? What do you mean she’s moving in?” she said angrily but still managed to keep her voice down. “Is she pregnant?”

  “No ma’, she’s not pregnant,” I assured her. “But it’s just not safe right now. None of us are safe as long as Francisco Baptìste is alive.”

  “Why didn’t you just kill him when you had the chance?”

  “Because it’s not that easy,” I told her. “This man had a whole army of men backing him and we were on his turf. He’s virtually untouchable.”

  My mother looked as if she wanted to say more but instead she looked away and huffed her frustration.

  “Look, I’m sorry to spring this all on you at once, but things have gotten really crazy,” I told her. “I’m gonna hire extra security to live here on the grounds and to be on guard around the clock.”

  “Son, do whatever you need to do in order to protect yourself,” she told me.

  “And can you do me a favor and be nice to Natalie while she’s here? She’s been through a lot and all of this has been hard on her.”

  “Hard on her?” my mother said appalled.

  “It’s been hard on all of us, but c’mon ma’. She could really use another woman that she could connect with right now,” I pleaded with her.

  “Okay, but you just better hope that I like this girl,” she said just as I heard someone come into the kitchen. I thought it was the doctor but I looked up and saw that it was D.J.

  “Sorry, I didn’t mean to interrupt,” he said nervously.

  I glanced at my mother and she was looking at him as if she were looking at the devil himself. I could tell right away that she didn’t like him.

  “No, it’s okay D.J.,” I said breaking the awkward silence that had fallen over us. “This is my mother, Donna.”

  “Hi, Ms. Donna. It’s nice to meet you,” he said with a tight smile as he extended his hand.

  “Hi,” my mom said dryly as she briefly shook his hand.

  “Um, I’m gonna go ahead and head out,” he told me.

  “Ma’, I’ll be back in a second,” I said before walking out of the kitchen with D.J. We made our way to the foyer before turning to face one another.

  “You sure you don’t wanna stay, man?” I asked him. “I mean, this is the house that you grew up in.”

  “I know, and that’s exactly why I’m leaving. Being here brings back too many memories,” he said as he looked around disconcertedly.

  “Look, I know it’s hard for you,” I said, “but you should at least consider staying. As long as Francisco and his son are out there, they’re gonna be coming for us. Me and you especially.”

  “I know,” D.J. said as he ran a hand through his curly hair. “But I’ll be okay. I’m living at a secret spot and he’ll never be able to find me. And if he does, I got something for him,” he said patting the gun that was secured at his waist. I smiled. My brother had actually proven to be more hardcore than I had originally given him credit for.

  “Mr. King,” Dr. Jacobs said as he entered the foyer. D.J. and I both turned in the direction of his voice as he approached us. Dr. Jacobs, a short, middle-aged black man, had been my doctor ever since I moved into the mansion. It was normal for him to make house visits and he always came prepared. He was toting a large duffel bag and looking as if he had missed out on a couple of hours of sleep.

  “How’s he doing, doc?” I asked. Like most doctors his expression was unreadable so I didn’t know what he was about to tell me.

  “He’s going to be okay,” he told me and I sighed in relief. “He did lose a lot of blood, but fortunately he has a popular blood type so I was able to give him a transfusion with the blood that I keep on hand.”

  “Thank you so much, Dr. Jacobs,” I told him gratuitously.

  “Just doing my job,” he said humbly. “But you should be thanking whoever it was that was able to stop the bleeding. If it hadn’t been for that, I doubt that he would have survived a ten-hour flight.”

  D.J. and I shared a glance since we both knew that he was the reason that Terry was still with us.

  “Now his bullet wound did get infected, but I was able to clean it out and it wasn’t too serious,” he continued to tell us. “I prescribed him an antibiotic and that should take care of it. Other than that he’s gonna need to rest for a couple of weeks. Make sure that you feed him well so that he can get his energy back up. He’s asleep right now, but once he wakes up he will have quite an appetite. I’ll be back to check on him in a couple of days.”

  Dr. Jacobs and I shook hands as I opened the door for him.

  “Thanks again, Dr. Jacobs.”

  “No problem. Have a nice day,” he said with a smile as he stepped out into the early morning sun. D.J. and I talked for a few more moments and then he left as well.

  Suddenly the mansion was quiet again. I hadn’t seen Natalie or the guys since we got back. I figured that they were all resting. I was exhausted as well and retreated to my bedroom. I showered and put on a tank-top and shorts. Just as I was re-entering the bedroom I heard someone knock on my door. I opened it and found Natalie standing there.

  “Hey,” I said as I stepped aside and let her enter. “I was gonna come check on you but I figured that you were asleep.”

  “No,” she said as she moved languidly through the room. “I was restless so I decided to show myself around this place. You have a beautiful home.”

  “Thanks,” I r
eplied. I watched her as she peered through the curtains that covered my windows. “You know, I was thinking that you should move your stuff in here with me. What do you think about staying here for good?”

  She pulled her gaze from the window and looked at me.

  “Why?” she asked.

  I remained relaxed and tried not to let my emotions show on my face. I was offended by her question, but I didn’t want her to know that.

  “Because I want you to be near me,” I said walking toward her. “I want you to stay here.”

  She turned to face me and seemed to be searching for the right words to express what she felt at the moment.

  “I can’t agree to stay in this house when I don’t even know if I want to stay in this relationship,” she said.

  It almost felt like she was taunting me; the look in her eyes, her tone of voice, her snobbish posture. She was trying to make me angry because she was upset. That’s the only explanation that I could come up with as to why she was trying to break up with me.

  “Natalie… If this is about Paris…”

  “It’s about more than that, Darius,” she snapped before regaining her composure almost instantly. “I don’t know if I can be with a man like you. Your life isn’t what I thought it was. And you’re not the man that I thought you were either.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I said, stepping closer to her. “I told you from day one that I’m the type of man who does what he has to. And that’s all I’ve done.”

  “Darius, this isn’t a game,” she said. “You don’t even care about your own life. You just walk into gunfights like you have a death wish or something.”

  “You just don’t understand, Nat. There are people out there who are trying to take away everything that I have and they won’t stop until they have it all,” I told her. “The bottom line is that I have to deal with them before they deal with me, and there’s no other way around it.”

  “No, Darius, you don’t get it,” she said staring hard at me. “If anything happens to you it affects everybody; your mom, your friends… me. And I don’t want to be around when something bad happens to you.”