King

by Johnson, Tremayne

  Malikah stayed with her most of the day while I was out at therapy getting my physical state back in order. The shooting took a huge toll on me mentally as well, but I sure wasn’t ready for the next turn of events.

  Two months before my twenty-sixth birthday I had been given the most unsettling news a person could get. My mother suffered a severe heart attack and was hospitalized until further notice.

  Within a years time I had buried my father, lost my spot in the streets to Lady Rai, escaped an assassination attempt and now my mother was having heart complications. It was too much for me to deal with. Some nights I contemplated suicide and wished I never survived those shots, but my reality was something different. I was still here for a reason that I had yet to find out.

  Seeing my mother laid up in that hospital was the worst sight ever. It didn’t matter how many nights I stayed there with her, each day I would enter that room I felt sick to my stomach. Machines and plastic tubes helped her breathing and kept her heart beating. I hadn’t seen her smile in months and that alone was enough to make me shed tears.

  I sat at her bedside and cried so much that my eyes would swell up and turn red. If it wasn’t for Malikah I think I would have lost my mind. Through everything she held it together and stayed strong for the both of us. She assured me everything would be all right.

  At 8:15am on June 10th 2005 I got a call to come to the hospital and the doctor notified me of my mothers passing. My heart swelled in fury. I couldn’t believe she was gone. It was the worst day of my life. My best friend was no longer there to give me the advice I needed whenever I was in a jam. My mother, who raised me, single handedly to become a man was sent off to a better place: a heavenly home in the serene skies.

  Despite the pain I felt I managed to get myself together. Malikah and I made plans to bring my mother back to our homeland, Guyana so that she could be buried next to my father; it was another trip for another burial. An enormous piece of me was lost when my mother passed away and my heart was empty. I became angry at the world. I wanted my position in the streets back and by any means necessary I was going to get it. I’m taking mine in blood.

  For the first time, I was without the crown and I felt naked. Lady Rai had something that belonged to me and I was determined to have it back.

  Immediately after returning from Guyana I sat down with Rahmeek to devise a strategy to control the streets again. He made it known that it was going to be a rough task, but I knew we could do it. I expressed to him that someone in our circle had been giving up information and we needed to find out who it was ASAP. He said he would take care of it.

  Due to the shooting I lost a lot of weight and my movements had slowed down a bit. Therapy helped, but I just wasn’t my usual self. All the death surrounding me was becoming detrimental to my wellbeing, but I had to prepare to go to war with Lady Rai. I knew her tactics because she learned them all from me. Her whole technique was developed from my own.

  First we moved in on her street soldiers. Everyday I made sure Rahmeek and the rest of the team were putting the pressure on Lady Rai’s workforce. We were infiltrating her spots laying down any and everything that was moving. We turned the heat up to five hundred degrees.

  My intentions were to bring Lady Rai to the forefront to see if this is what she really wanted to do. Without Reemo and Lou at her side she was nothing, so my next order of business was to make them disappear.

  It was a damp, cold Sunday evening as I sat patiently in the backseat of Rahmeek’s Chevy Caprice. We were parked on Jefferson Avenue in front of the building my mother and I used to live in. I had knowledge that Lou was upstairs in one of the apartments visiting a female. Rahmeek was very familiar with this specific female, her name was Melanie and she had recently moved from Brownsville to Bed Stuy about two years ago.

  Rahmeek and this female had been together a while back. When Melanie started dealing with Lou she had no idea of the beef in the streets he had with Rahmeek. After Rahmeek got a chance to explain the situation to her and warn her of how serious it was, she was all for setting Lou up. Melanie was a hood chick that would do anything for a stack of paper. We told her to make sure Lou was good and relaxed before she gave us the call.

  The strong downpour of the rain beating against the windshield calmed my nerves as I continued to load the nineteen shot extended clip in my Glock 17. I looked at my watch; it was 9:55pm. What the fuck is taking this bitch so long? I asked myself.

  ''Rahmeek, you think this bitch is going to cooperate?'' I asked aloud.

  ''Yeah, don’t even worry, King, Melanie ain’t gon’ let us down. She’s too thirsty for that paper.''

  We stepped from the vehicle into the wet streets and made our way into the building. I had just received the call we were waiting on.

  ''What apartment does she live in?'' I questioned.

  ''Three C.'' Rahmeek answered.

  It was some coincidence that Melanie now lived in the same apartment I once lived in. Now I was going back into that same house to kill my enemy.

  We crept slowly up the stairs to the third floor. I could smell the potent aroma of marijuana in the air. When we got to the door I turned the knob and pulled the gun from my waist and the two of us walked in.

  Melanie stood by the sofa in her bra and panties waiting on us. She looked good! She was a light skinned, shorty about five feet, four inches with mid-length, black hair that was pulled into a bun. Her perfect shaped breast sat at attention in her Vickie Secret and her shape was incredible. She had a slim waist, thick thighs, and a nice, round, fat ass.

  Without saying a word, Melanie pointed to the back of the house letting us know that Lou was in the back room sleeping like a baby in her bed.

  All he had on was a pair of boxers. Rahmeek went around to the far end of the bed and I stayed by the door. I checked his coat that was hanging on a chair and located his weapon.

  Rahmeek raised his hand in the air and landed a crushing smack to Lou’s face violently waking him from his sleep.

  Lou jumped up, surprised and confused. ''What the fuck?'' He shouted, finally recognizing who had just slapped the shit out of him. He went to reach for his pants and Rahmeek quickly put the grip of death around his neck and pushed his back up against the headboard.

  I walked around to the side of the bed they were on. ''What’s good with you, Lou?'' I said, staring into his swollen eyes. He tried to speak, but the hold Rahmeek had around his neck was preventing him from doing so. ''Let him go,'' I said.

  ''What the fuck is this about, Deon?'' He cried.

  ''My name is King, nigga…you know who the fuck I am.'' I announced, showing him the pistol I gripped in my hand.

  ''Hold up, don’t do it like this, King…it wasn’t my fault that bitch Asia got it out for you!''

  ''I bet she does,'' I said. ''Who pulled the trigger, Lou?''

  ''It wasn’t me, King…I swear to God!'' He pleaded. ''It was that bitch! '

  ''But you was down with that shit, Lou. You on her team ain’t you?''

  ''It ain’t even like that, King. I was jus’ tryna get some paper, you know how I get down baby.''

  ''Yeah, I sure do.'' I answered back.

  I shoved the barrel of my gun into his mouth so hard it knocked two of his teeth out. He tried to scream, but he couldn’t. Blood leaked out the side of his mouth and Rahmeek just laughed. He attempted once more to flee, but the sizzling slug from Rahmeek’s gun found a home in his upper thigh averting his actions.

  From the corner of my eye I could see Melanie watching us. ''Get the fuck out of here. '' I said, calmly without even turning my head. I put the nose of the gun on Lou’s temple.

  ''King, please?'' He begged.

  ''The least you can do is die like a man…you bitch!'' I stated before I squeezed the trigger. His brains exited the back of his head covering the wooden headboard and the white walls. He lay there in a pool of his own blood.

  In the end he’d gotten exactly what was coming to him. You do dirt y
ou get dirt!

  I wiped the small splatters of Lou’s blood from my face and followed Rahmeek into the living room where Melanie sat casually on the sofa smoking her cigarette.

  ''Yall jus’ gon’ kill dat muthafucka and leave em’ layin’ there wit’ all dat blood n’ shit!'' She said. ''Can I get my money please?''

  Rahmeek and I looked at each other, smiled, raised our guns at the exact same time and filled her petite frame with so many bullet holes; she looked like one of those target practice sheets from the gun range.

  ''Money hungry bitch!'' I said through clenched teeth and spit on her limp body.

  ''Leave no witnesses…'' Rahmeek mumbled as we left out of the house.

  When we made it down to the lobby Butch and Red were posted up by the elevator. Butch sat composed in his chair fiddling with something in his lap underneath a dirty blanket while Red leaned against the graffiti ridden walls counting a handful of one-dollar bills.

  ''Everybody wanna be a killa now, huh Deon?'' Butch mumbled as we passed.

  Rahmeek instantly aimed his weapon at Butch’s head.

  ''Don’t even waist your time, God, he ain’t nothing but a fucking dope fiend.'' I expressed, staring into Butch’s eyes.

  We exited the building and peeled off into the night in the Chevy Caprice.

  Chapter Twenty-three

  ''Fuck you, King,'' Wisdom shouted at the top of his lungs. ''You aint God, nigga!''

  ''I am today.'' I said, looking over at his body dangling off the Brooklyn Bridge. I had learned from a reliable source that Wisdom was the snake that let his lips run a bit too loose. His leakage of vital information could have caused my demise and I needed to make an example out of him, so I had Rahmeek holding him by his ankles over the polluted and infested East River. ''Now, you’re either going to tell me where Reemo and that bitch Asia are hiding or you’re about to be fish food, nigga.''

  ''Fuck you, nigga…I ain’t tellin’ you shit!'' He bellowed.

  ''Fuck me? No, fuck you! Let that nigga fly, Rahmeek.'' Rahmeek turned to me and let his grip free of Wisdom’s ankles. I watched his arms and legs flail in the air as his body plunged 135 feet into the river.

  My presence was becoming known in the streets and Lady Rai was feeling it the most. She was losing soldiers and money everyday. It’s always better to sacrifice your adversary’s men and I was knocking her out of position like pieces on a chessboard. My moves are subtle, but strong and well thought out, and my execution is meticulous, so I knew it would only be a matter of time before Lady Rai and I bumped heads, but first I had to take care of the boy Reemo.

  Word was that Reemo loved to frequent a certain strip club on Metropolitan Avenue in Queens called Vixen. It was told to me that he was a repeated customer. I brainstormed and finally came up with a tactic to get to him.

  I made a call to my home girl, Kyra, better known as, Showoff! She’s a stripper from the D.C area, but she works in all the best clubs on the East Coast. The club owners love Showoff because whenever she’s on the bill at one of their spots. it stays packed with niggas who spend that money.

  Showoff is a bad bitch too! She’s an averaged sized, caramel complexioned chick, with long, curly brownish hair, thick, juicy lips that look like she could suck the skin off a nigga dick, and beefy thighs like she ran track for a living. She stayed laced in the finest fashions and her only concern is money. She’s an independent bitch, so she don’t need no nigga. I asked her to do me a favor for a small fee and she happily obliged.

  In the dead of the night on a Saturday evening Rahmeek and I sat in Vixen watching the girls do their thing. The club was crammed with hustlers spending their hard earned cash on the sexy dancers.

  We occupied a table at the rear of the V.I.P area. Tonight I was not drinking. I stayed sober in order to remain focused on the mission.

  The music bumped powerfully as the strippers worked the poles and walked the dance floor looking for potential customers. Dollar bills cascaded in the air as the onlookers continued to shower the dancers.

  I took stock of my surroundings and finally I spotted Reemo sitting at the bar with a bottle of liquor and my crown flourishing on his neck. He wore a pair of dark aviator shades so for a minute I didn’t recognize him, but that crown was a dead giveaway.

  I called Showoff over to our table and put the bug in her ear. She was looking extra special tonight. She sashayed her way over to where Reemo was and took the seat right beside him. I studied as she leaned onto him and whispered something in his ear. Reemo gave her a faint grin and checked her body out. He must have liked what he saw because a few minutes later she was escorting him to the back room where the lap dance area is.

  I reached out and grabbed the closest girl to me and we followed them to the back. I took a seat on the far left sofa so that I would be able to see them, but they wouldn’t be able to see me. The female I was with started gyrating her hips to the music as she attempted to give me a lap dance. She was sexy as hell too. I really wasn’t the stripper kind of guy, but shorty could get it. I tried to pay attention to Showoff and Reemo, but my regard was somewhere else. After a few minutes I concentrated on the objective at hand.

  Showoff was bent over in front of Reemo with her ass bouncing up and down in his face. He was in ecstasy. She straddled him and began to ride his thighs like she was fucking him. She then leaned in and kissed him. Their tongues intertwined for a moment and then she got down on her knees and unzipped his pants. Reemo didn’t stop her either. She pulled his dick from his boxers and started sucking it.

  I watched in amazement as she slid up and down his shaft like a pro. She was slurping and sucking so good that he relaxed himself and let his head fall back onto the pillow of the sofa.

  The next thing I heard was a piercing scream that resonated throughout the entire room. It was a sound like nothing I’ve ever perceived. Blood soaked his denim jeans and Showoff stood up with the remains of Reemo’s dick in her hand and a Gem Star razor between her lips. The villainous smirk that was spread across her face gave me reason to believe that she had done this type of work before.

  I quickly pushed the female that was giving me a lap dance to the floor. I snatched the .32 snub-nosed revolver from the inside pocket of my jacket and lined it up with Reemo’s head. He was going into convulsions and when he finally became aware of who I was he tried to scream my name, but he couldn’t get it out.

  Showoff shoved the severed muscle into his mouth and stepped out of the room unconcerned. I walked up to Reemo smiling and discharged three searing rounds into his chest, and then I calmly reached down and seized the bloodstained chain from around his neck and placed it on mine.

  Once again the King’s crown was in its rightful owner’s possession. The music was so loud no one even heard the shots go off. I left Reemo there lying on the sofa with his dick in his mouth and a chest full of lead. That was payback for fucking my bitch!

  The crazy part is later on I found out that Reemo was never working with the feds. Lou had made up a bogus story in order to get the heat off himself. Now it was time for Lady Rai to feel the wrath of King!

  Chapter Twenty-four

  After her so called team fell to pieces Lady Rai sent word to me that she wanted to meet somewhere in private. Rahmeek insisted that he go along with me, but I made it clear that I needed to handle this on my own. It was personal.

  Lady Rai said that she wanted to meet with me at her suite in the Plaza Hotel on 5th Avenue in Manhattan. I agreed because I wasn’t at all worried about it being a set up. If it was, I sure was not walking into it blind, but my gut feeling was that it wasn’t.

  When I arrived at the Plaza Hotel I informed the desk clerk of who I was and who I had come to see. She showed me the service elevator and I rode it all the way to the top floor. I walked down a long hallway that led to a pair of doors that read: Royal Plaza Suite on the front. I cautiously typed the key code in and the door opened.

  The suite was opulent. It was a spectacular th
ree-bedroom, three-bathroom palace in a private area of the hotel looking out on the most highly regarded views in Manhattan, Fifth Avenue, the Pulitzer Fountain and Central Park South. It was laced in a rich decorative style with lavish textiles and well-crafted furnishings.

  A Grand Piano was placed at the center of the room and a twenty-foot table was filled with exotic dishes from all over the world.

  Lady Rai sat at the far end of the table. ''I didn’t think you were going to come, Deon.'' she said, getting up from her chair, walking toward me.

  ''As long as we were together I never stood you up. Did I?'' I questioned, removing my jacket.

  Asia looked stunning. Her hair was braided back into an elegant design and she was dressed in a long, black Dolce and Gabbana gown that accentuated every curve on her body. Her open toe Chanel sandals showed off her pretty pedicured toenails. She stood in front of me and it was awfully hard not to be mesmerized by those beautiful eyes of hers. We embraced and she pulled out a chair for me to sit in.

  It was silent for a few minutes except for the slow sound of soft music that played through the speakers surrounding the room. We gazed at each other from across the long table and I couldn’t help but imagine how things would have turned out if we were still together. Asia was my first true love and now here we were: arch enemies. I hadn’t touched the variety of food that sat in front of me, I didn’t have an appetite, but I did sip on some champagne.

  ''So, this is what its come to, huh?'' I spoke, getting up from the table, making my way to the lounge area. Asia followed.

  ''Deon, we’ve been through so much, I never wanted it to be like this between us,'' she said. ''But you really hurt me.''