She reached over and grabbed the cordless off the table and answered it. When she heard, “You have a collect call from, Chris Byrne. If you accept this call, press one, if not—”
Citi instantly pressed one. She was befuddled. Why was Chris calling her from jail? Her heart started to race. She gripped the phone tightly and waited for him to speak.
“Citi,” Chris said into the phone.
“Chris, what the fuck is goin’ on? Why are you callin’ me collect from some correctional facility?”
“I’m locked up. I got knocked last night,” he said somberly.
“What? How? No, this can’t be happening. What they arrested you for?”
Chris sighed heavily. He didn’t want to answer the question, but Citi was adamant.
“Two bricks and a burner. Might be a snitch in the camp.”
Citi’s heart sank into her stomach. The tears started to fall from her eyes. Her legs felt shaky. She felt like passing out. This wasn’t happening. It had to be a nightmare. But the shit was real. Chris’ words into her ear put her fairytale on serious hold.
“They gonna arraign me tomorrow morning. I don’t know about bail. I got fuckin’ priors, and the work they caught me with fucks me up.”
“What the fuck we gonna do, Chris?”
“I don’t know right now, Citi. I might need a lawyer.”
Within the blink of an eye, Chris’ incarceration had fractured the family, and their business. Citi didn’t know what to do, with the brains locked down and the muscle incapacitated. The problems just did not end.
The call suddenly ended, leaving Citi to worry about her big brother. She stepped out onto the terrace, gripped the railing tightly and gazed down, sadness overcoming her. She then looked up at the sky and screamed, “AAAAHHHH! THIS IS NOT HAPPENING!”
Her screaming woke up a few neighbors.
When the home health aide arrived to care for Cane, Citi quickly got dressed and shot out the door. She rushed uptown to see L. She needed to be with him. He was the only man around capable of comforting her in her time of need. She jumped into a cab and hurried uptown to his place.
L comforted Citi and held her close. They talked for hours and made arrangements to hire an attorney for Chris. Citi had spent the entire day in L’s apartment. She poured her heart out to him, and he constantly dried her tears. It was therapeutic.
“I can’t lose him, L,” she cried out while being held in his arms.
“You’re not gonna lose him, Citi. He’s gonna be okay. I promise you.”
Citi wanted to believe L. Being with him, there was a glint of hope. The way he talked to her reminded her of the way Curtis spoke to her. Both men had that assurance in their tone.
“Go home and be with Cane,” L advised her. “He’s gonna need you too.”
Citi shook her head, agreeing with him. “I love you.”
“I love you too,” he replied.
She exited the Harlem building with L by her side. The Thanksgiving holiday was approaching, and she was hoping to spend the holidays with all of her family intact. She followed L onto the sidewalk. His Yukon was parked across the two-way street. The traffic had slowed as dusk had come over the town, and the evening was calm.
Citi and L got into the money-green Yukon, and he sat for a moment watching the block. Something had caught his attention. He started the ignition, but he felt something wasn’t right.
L removed his Glock 19 from under his seat and cocked it back, his attention focused on the maroon Lexus with tinted windows parked a few cars down from them. He had seen that car before on previous occasions, and he swore it had been following him around Harlem for the past two weeks.
“Baby, what’s wrong?”
“You know that car?” L asked, pointing to the maroon Lexus.
Citi shook her head. “What’s goin’ on?”
“I don’t know.”
Instantly, gunfire exploded, shattering the back windows, causing Citi to scream and duck down in her seat.
Bak! Bak! Bak! Bak! Bak! Bak! Bak!
L screamed for Citi to stay down and rose up to return rapid gunfire at the assailants. His Glock exploded at them like fireworks. “Y’all fuckin’ come at me?” he screamed. He hit one of the assailants in his chest, dropping him to the pavement dead.
The second shooter was suddenly shaken up by his fallen comrade, and he decided to flee the scene.
L jumped from the truck and sprang into action like a trained soldier. He gave chase, shooting at the fleeing goon, but was unable to hit his target. The maroon Lexus took off suddenly, an indication that the car was part of a setup.
L’s Yukon looked like Swiss cheese, and his windows were shot out. He snatched open the passenger door to make sure Citi was okay. “I got you, baby, I got you.”
L peered at the dead goon sprawled out on the street. He had no idea who’d sent the shooters, but he was determined to find out. He sent Citi away in a cab, knowing she already had a lot on her plate to deal with, and he stayed to sort out the confusion and deal with the aftermath.
A week later, they found out that the dead guy on the pavement with the hole in his chest was one of Alonzo’s lieutenants. It puzzled L and Citi. L had heard about Alonzo. He was a legend on the streets and was getting money for over a decade in Harlem. However, he had been dead for almost two years, so L couldn’t understand why one of his men was trying to kill them.
****
It took two months for Citi to see Chris on Rikers Island. The assistant district attorney had persuaded the judge to deny Chris bail, labeling him a kingpin and remanding him. They wanted to hit Chris with a conspiracy indictment and a slew of charges—including the Kingpin Act. The ADA was aware that he had taken over his father’s drug empire after his demise, so they were coming at him with everything they had. They wanted both brothers badly, but Cane, so far, had been able to elude indictments.
Citi walked into the stench of the visitation room trying to keep her head up and wear a smile, but the conditions she had to see her brother in made her feel hopeless. The place was loud and crowded with mostly women and kids visiting their fathers, sons, brothers, husbands, and boyfriends, and COs stood about everywhere, watching for anything suspicious.
Earlier, Citi had to deal with the long line of women and children outside Rikers Island, with mothers corralling children and shouting over the roar of jets. The correction officers were unsympathetic and cranky. Moving through the metal detectors and having to remove garments was an agonizing process for her, but she put up with it to finally see her brother.
Citi was assigned to a seat by the guard. As she moved through the visitation area, fleeting looks and lasting stares were directed toward her. The inmates already knew who she was. They dared not say anything to her. Chris already had “made his bones” in the jail.
She sat down at the small table and chair and waited for Chris to be brought into the room. A short while later, Chris was escorted into the visitation room, clad in an orange jumpsuit with “D.O.C.” printed in large black letters across the back. He wore beige sandals and tube socks. He seemed to have aged rapidly. His eyes were cold and his look blank, but when he noticed Citi across the room, he smiled instantly.
He slowly walked over, and Citi stood up and hugged him passionately.
“Hey, Citi,” he greeted softly.
“I miss you.”
“I miss you too,” he replied.
They took a seat opposite each other.
“How you holding up?” he asked her.
“I’m good. I’m keeping this business going, with the help of L.”
“How thorough is that nigga?”
“He saved my life, Chris. You know that.”
Chris nodded.
“Why you asking this?” sh
e inquired.
Chris didn’t hesitate to tell her that she was in danger.
“What you mean?” Citi responded quickly. “What’s goin’ on, Chris? Does this got somethin’ to do wit’ that hit on me and L two months back? We took precautions. I got security wit’ me twenty-four/seven, and I’m tryin’ to keep a low profile. And L has been on top of things.”
“Shit is ugly out there, Citi. I think the same people that killed Alonzo killed our father too.”
“What? Why? But why would one of Alonzo’s lieutenants come gunning at us then? It doesn’t make sense.”
“I know. But word is, Emanuel Martinez is back in town, and he’s on some vicious shit.”
Citi didn’t know the name. She seemed puzzled, so Chris had to enlighten her.
“He’s Alonzo’s brother. Pops used to talk about him. He’s a dangerous man, and for some reason, he’s got a vendetta against our family.”
“I don’t understand, Chris. What is goin’ on?”
“Look, Citi, chances are he’s gonna come at you, so you gotta come at him hard and fast when the opportunity arises. You hit that nigga, and his whole crew will fold.”
“But how?”
“I don’t fuckin’ know, but I’m gonna put this in your ear—Watch your back; trust no one. I mean, no fuckin’ one. And, most likely, the one individual that comes to you with this information I’m giving to you now is the nigga you definitely can’t trust.”
“Why, Chris?”
“If he knows something behind our father’s death, or shit to do with Alonzo, giving you personal details, then most likely, he the nigga also responsible for it all.”
Citi sighed.
“Also, I want you to get Cane out of the city.”
“To where?”
“Miami. I got a beach house down there. Send Cane down there to recuperate.”
The beach house in Miami was something she didn’t know about. She looked her brother square in his eyes. “Alone?”
“I got peoples down there.”
“And when were you goin’ to tell me about the beach house?”
“There are a lot of things I kept secret from you for a reason.”
Citi sighed.
“Also, tomorrow, I need you to go into the city, go into the Wells Fargo bank in downtown Manhattan. I have three safety deposit boxes set up in there. The information you gonna need to access the boxes is in my room. I learned from Pops’ mistakes, not to keep money and drugs in the house.”
Citi nodded.
“But you gotta act quickly, Citi. And this info only stays between you and me.”
“Of course.”
Soon, the visit was over, and Citi was hugging her brother good-bye. She didn’t want to leave his side, but it was their life now. She didn’t cry as he was escorted back into lockup, but the minute he was out of sight, the tears started falling.
The next day, Citi went down to Wells Fargo in lower Manhattan. With the accurate information, along with the key and PIN, she was ushered into the secured room and given privacy to access the boxes.
Citi was astounded when she opened all three boxes and saw three hundred grand and four kilos in the boxes. Leave it to Chris to hide drugs and money in a bank, she thought. Citi cleaned out everything and made her exit. It was time to get the wheels turning on her and her family’s survival.
30
With Cane down in Miami, Citi stayed in New York and continued to run the family business. Her family had built their empire through blood, sweat, and tears, and she refused to see it crumble to nothing. In fact, she was determined to make what her father and brothers had created much stronger. She was forced into the driver’s seat.
Citi entrusted L to take over her brothers’ organization with her, and the two started to become large. She had to travel to Washington Heights to meet with the Dominicans. With Chris being incarcerated, the Dominicans feared he might become a snitch. Citi couldn’t allow that pipeline of hard white to dry up, nor for her brother’s name to be tarnished. She met with Paso’s partner Victor personally and had a sit-down with him.
“I assure you, my brother is no snitch. You know the bloodline we come from and what we’re about, and with me in charge, business will continue as usual—even greater than before. You have my word on that.”
“Chris is a good man, a good hustler. You, I barely know.”
“Well, you know me now. I’m my father’s daughter, and I’m not a bitch to fuck with. Check my pedigree. These streets don’t lie.”
Victor, a hardcore hustler, always had respect for the Byrnes. He sized Citi up, asked her a few questions, and decided to continue to do business with the Byrne family via Citi. She was elated, but didn’t show it. The two shook hands.
“Don’t fuck this up, and don’t fuck with me, Citi. I’m not a man to take lightly.”
Citi nodded. “And I’m not a bitch to be caught slippin’. I’m gonna handle my business on my end, and you make sure you continue to handle it on your end. We get this money, and there will always be that mutual respect.”
Victor smiled. “I like how you think.”
“Then you gonna love how I do business.”
Citi realized that the first priority was to get the business end of the game straightened out. She had to solidify her source of income, and make her connect happy and trustful of her. After that was taken care of, she had to confront the dirty side of the business next—Get at the wolves before they got at her. And she knew it was only a matter of time before they came ready to bite.
With Maino still MIA and Emanuel back in Harlem, the threat was real. She couldn’t dwell on it, though. She had a business to run and was determined to run it with an iron fist. With Chris and Cane gone, she had to hire a few ruthless goons for her muscle, and L also had a few tricks up his sleeves.
Day by day, and month by month, with L by her side, the organization kept growing. She was making millions trafficking narcotics in several different states, and had three lavish homes—in New Jersey, upstate New York, and North Carolina—and a fleet of cars. She moved with security at all times.
****
Citi walked through Short Hills Mall in New Jersey enjoying the shopping spree. Everything was now within reach, and she had it all—Gucci, Prada, Chanel, Louis Vuitton—so she no longer needed to shoplift. Life was good to her, even though there was still danger lurking in the streets. She continued with her business and lived her life like she was one of the rich and famous, traveling extensively and shopping at the finest stores.
However, Emanuel Martinez was becoming a serious threat, and since his return to New York, the body count had shot up, making the game even tenser. It was clear on the streets that he had a beef with Citi and her family, but Citi refused to be discouraged by the foreign thug. New York was her home, and she was going to continue running her family’s empire by any means necessary.
Citi went in and out of posh stores, her security playing her close. L was out of town on business, and she just wanted to get away from the streets and have a personal day for herself, which included spa treatments, shopping, and dinner at a five-star restaurant later in the evening.
Short Hills Mall was Citi’s place of escape. It was far away from the hood and the city, all the way in the boondocks. She felt safe there and moved through the shopping complex freely. Derrick was her shadow. Wherever she went, he followed. He stood six-three, weighed over two hundred pounds, and carried around a holstered Desert Eagle under his coat.
Citi exited the mall with a few shopping bags in hand. Derrick was walking right behind her. Clad in a mink coat and stylish knee-high boots and looking like a diva, she walked briskly toward her gleaming Escalade.
“Citi!”
She spun around to see who had called out her name. Derrick, his
hand near his weapon, moved closer to her, but before he could shield her from any harm, two goons hemmed him up between two parked cars. Citi was ready to reach for the gun in her purse, but seeing Maino put hesitation in her action.
“Citi, I just wanna talk to you,” Maino said coolly.
“Maino, what the fuck is goin’ on?” she barked. “How did you find me? Get the fuck away from me.”
“Just fuckin’ hear me out.”
“No, not after what you did to my brother.”
“We need to talk.” Maino grabbed Citi aggressively by her arm and pulled her away.
“Get off me!”
“Look, I didn’t have shit to do wit’ your brother gettin’ shot.”
“Why are you here? It’s been months since I’ve seen you, and now you come back from nowhere and expect me to believe that?”
“Look, I had to go on the lam. Feds were closing in on me. Shit got hot, so I had to be out. But I didn’t gun down Cane. Yeah, he pulled that gun out on me, but he let me live. Your brothers are like sons to me.”
Citi was having a hard time believing him. Soon after her brother was shot, Maino had disappeared. She looked over at Derrick.
“Ya boy is a’ight. We ain’t gonna kill him.”
Citi was fuming. “What do you want from me, Maino?”
“Look, I came to give you some news. I’m gonna be straightforward wit’ you. The reason Emanuel is comin’ at you is because he believes your father murdered Alonzo.”
“What? You’re fuckin’ lying. My father and Alonzo had love for each other. They were like brothers. All of y’all were like brothers.”
“Listen, Curtis and Alonzo had tension. It was over a woman. He was the one that robbed Alonzo of his stash. Now Alonzo’s old crew is comin’ at you. They’re the ones that shot up Cane. I thought you should know the truth.”
Shocked, Citi glared at him. He hadn’t changed. She couldn’t believe she used to be in love with him. Now, he repulsed her. Maino’s words felt like poison being shoved down her throat. But then suddenly she remembered what Chris had said to her a while back—“The one individual that comes to you with this information I’m giving to you now is the nigga you definitely can’t trust.”
Guard the Throne Page 24