Best Laid Plans

by Brick

  I saw all color drain from Tone’s brown face. His eyes turned to Fal and I knew the boy’s demise was eminent.

  Frederick and Mark came back in with something I didn’t know the name of, but I guessed it was the Judas Cradle Caltrone had asked for. It was about five feet high, the top built like a pyramid-shaped cradle. They both had brown braided ropes in their hands.

  “Today, Fal, the sins of the father will be visited upon his children. You’re going to die in the most painful of ways and your children will bear witness to your demise,” Caltrone said. “Once you’re dead, I’m going to hand your girlfriend over to my grandson, Mark. I can assure you, she’s going to wish for death once he’s done with her. He’s going to do to her everything you did to my granddaughter. Also, your children . . . Well, your legacy ends here.”

  I looked over to the pasty white woman. She held her crying, dirty children to her chest as tears rolled down her face.

  “Mijo, do you remember how this works?” Caltrone asked.

  Tone didn’t respond. He snatched the rope from Mark, which made him bristle, but I didn’t think he was stupid enough to run up on Tone again. It took all of ten minutes for Tone to nail the ropes to the wall at different angles. He then stripped the man down to nothing as Frederick and Mark held Fal down. Just for the hell of it, I walked over and kicked Fal in his dick over and over.

  “For my daughter,” I said to him before spitting in his face.

  “Dios, Kenya. That is disgusting shit, mija,” Caltrone said.

  I said nothing as I watched Tone tie the man’s hands behind his back. He then did the same to his ankles, only this time there was a spreader bar between them. Fallon’s feet were tied to each other in a way that moving one leg would force the other to move as well.

  “There shouldn’t be a need for me to tell you why I’m using this method for torture and death, Antonio. I believe in tit for tat. This is his tat,” Caltrone said, telling Tone without telling him what Fal had done to Jewel.

  I didn’t know what I expected, but it wasn’t for Fallon to be sat atop the triangular-shaped end of the Judas cradle or for it to be inserted into his anus. The shit was brutal. Mark and Frederick added weights to his legs and, each time Tone yanked the ropes, Fallon was hoisted up. Tone would let the ropes slack a bit and Fallon’s asshole would be ripped farther open as the tip of the Judas cradle would be inserted again. The mucus mixed with blood and defecation dripping from his backside sickened me. The smell burned my nose hairs but, for the life of me, I couldn’t feel any remorse for the man.

  Chapter 9

  Kenya

  “Let’s move out.”

  No one had to tell me twice. I didn’t know how much longer I could stand around and watch the dismemberment of an entire family, including children. If I had any doubt in my mind that Caltrone and his brood were evil personified, I didn’t anymore. Fallon had made the mistake of having a hand in taking our daughter. For his sins against an Orlando, Caltrone had made him pay dearly. He along with his kids’ mother and their children had all been killed.

  “Come on,” Tone said to me.

  He knew I was on the verge of a nervous breakdown. To take a blade and slice a child’s throat had taken me past my limit. I’d taken two lives in one day all in the name of my child. Did I have no morals or compassion left? How much further would I go to meet my own agenda? Sooner or later I would have no soul left and I was desperately trying to keep even an inch of it.

  Once we got in the van, Tone looked at me, trying to assess where I was mentally. “You good?” he asked me as he slid in the back seat next to me.

  Outside, Caltrone was giving Benita and her sidekick instructions on what he wanted done before some woman named Lilith returned. Benita visibly bristled and Caltrone scolded her for it.

  “Keep your feelings to yourself,” he said to Benita. “Do as I asked and nothing more.”

  It was clear that Benita didn’t care for whoever Lilith was. From the first seat, the woman whose name I didn’t know, Benita’s sidekick, laid a hand on her left shoulder where Caltrone couldn’t see it. I had no idea what that was about.

  I turned to Tone. “No, I’m not, but I get what I paid for, right?” I said to him.

  He studied me for a long moment. Sweat beaded his brows and blood stained his shirt. His curly, coiled hair was pulled back into a ponytail. The way his hair was lined gave definition to his facial features. In the dark, he was every bit as beautiful as he was in the light. He snatched his shirt over his head then caressed both my cheeks in his hands as he looked me over, using his shirt to wipe excess blood from my face. He gently turned my head from side to side examining me. He even lifted my shirt to look at my abdomen. I wasn’t sure how well he could see in the dark, but it was Tone, and he was always above average in certain areas. Fallon’s baby mother had put up a fight to protect her babies. Crazy bitch had come for me with a knife.

  “Thank you,” he said to me after he was satisfied I wasn’t hurt in any way.

  “For what?”

  “For not telling me what was on the video. For doing what you have to do for Jewel. For taking this insane fucking journey. For losing your soul the same as I lost mine.”

  All I did was nod. I didn’t want to think of what was on the video any more than he did. I wanted to scrub my brain of the images burned there. I didn’t know if I would ever be able to “unsee” them. Tone may not have seen what happened to Jewel, but I knew just hearing her screams were enough to take him over the edge, as was evident in the way he had dismembered Fallon. However, I used my daughter’s screams of pain to deafen the sounds of my conscience when I killed Fallon’s oldest child.

  Tone laid a hand on my thigh and gave a tight squeeze. I swallowed back bile and tears. I was shaking badly. So much so it looked as if I were vibrating. I looked at my ringing cell then sent Isaac to voicemail. I didn’t have it in me to speak to him right now. I watched silently as Benita, her sidekick, and Caltrone exited the van.

  “I feel like we’ve been playing cat and mouse. We find one person, only for them to lead us to another and another,” I said. “From place to place. And now we have to find this Donna woman.”

  “The old man says he’s certain she will lead us to Jewel,” Antonio said, his words spat out in exhaustion.

  I cast a glance at the back of Caltrone’s head then back over at Tone. I wondered if he had thought about what I had. Since Hector had looked at Caltrone and spoken directly to him about not wanting to talk to me or Tone, I’d had a niggling feeling in the pit of my stomach about something.

  “How do we know he isn’t behind this, Tone?” I finally asked. “How do we know he’s not just using us to further some sick agenda of his? Why did Hector look at Caltrone and speak directly to him as if he had known him?”

  “Baby Kenya, listen to me, okay?” he said. “Don’t, all right? Don’t do this to yourself. Don’t do this to me. Don’t put that in my head. Please. I’m already knocking on hell’s door.”

  I studied his eyes. “Something’s not right, Tone. I feel it. Something ain’t right. Fallon thought this visit was about drugs. Why would he—”

  “Kenya!” Tone yelled. “Stop.”

  I was crying now. I kept seeing that child’s blood pour over my hands out of his neck. I’d killed a child. My eyes were wild as I studied Tone. My mouth was agape and I felt I couldn’t breathe. The reason I was questioning Caltrone’s motives was because I couldn’t deal with what I’d done.

  “I killed . . . I . . . Tone, I killed a child all in the name of finding mine,” I blabbered out. “I can’t . . . What . . . Why did we come to this man?”

  I couldn’t breathe. My heart was in my throat; it had blocked my ability to inhale and exhale properly. I’d become the criminals I’d put away. Lu Orlando flashed in my mind. Would thoughts of that man ever leave me alone? I’d taken him down with a vengeance. I was happy to hear that someone in prison had taken his life. Meanwhile, it seemed as if
his spirit had infected me as I’d just sliced a child’s throat. I’d watched as Tone did the same, killing a child mercifully so they wouldn’t suffer. Then I’d watched as Mark did with Fallon’s baby mother as he saw fit. Once all was done, the dismemberment commenced. Watching Tone surgically remove body parts and organs sickened me.

  Caltrone had too much power. During the time we had done all our evil deeds, not one person called the cops about the noise I was sure they heard. The neighborhood had stilled. As we walked out to the van, I saw not one man, woman, or child. No one Caltrone hadn’t ordered to be around could be seen for miles. I wanted to yell. I wanted to scream. I wanted to wash myself in holy water and scream a million Hail Marys.

  Antonio roughly held both sides of my face now. His cool eyes stared into my panicked ones. “You need to breathe and calm down. Understand? We signed up for this. I told you that this would happen. I gave you the option to turn around and walk away, but you refused. So, no, you don’t get to have a mental breakdown on me right now. You don’t. You suck that shit up. Leave your conscience back in that damn apartment because I can assure you this isn’t the worst of it. I. Told. Your. Ass. This would happen.”

  I heard him and, yes, his words that I should have left were coming back to haunt me worse than I thought they would. This was the one time I agreed that I should have listened to him. The shaking in my body was worse now. I couldn’t stop, couldn’t be still. The blood of an innocent child was on my hands.

  “I can’t . . . I can’t do this. I want . . . I wanna go home,” I cried. “I quit, Antonio. I quit. I wanna go home.” I was hysterical at this point. I was no longer myself. I was having an out-of-body experience.

  “No, nah. You don’t. You stay. Because if you don’t, he will find a way to kill you and that would kill me. Do you understand, Kenya? Snap the fuck out of it,” he barked at me.

  I shook my head. Over and over I shook my head, screaming no. I screamed that I was done and that I wanted to go home. The more I screamed and yelled, the more Antonio said no. It went on that way until a hard smack across my face silenced me.

  I gasped, eyes wide with shock and dismay. Antonio had slapped me. The hit was so hard, lethal, and swift that, for a moment, I had no idea where I was.

  “I’m sorry,” he said quickly. “But I had to bring down your hysteria. Snap out of it, Kenya.”

  Any other time, he and I would have been fighting, as I hated for any man to raise his hand at me to strike me; but something in me recognized Tone’s need to bring me back to rational again. He needed me to be coherent so I could comprehend what he had been saying to me. My face burned, as did my eyes. I looked around before my eyes settled on Caltrone, who had been watching Tone and me from outside the van.

  Tone still had my face in his hands as I brought my eyes back to his. “We’re in this together no matter what, you hear me? Even if I meet death on this path, I’ll still be with you. We have to find Jewel and that’s all we can think about right now. We can pray or whatever else you need to do later. But remember we came to him for help to find Jewel. We left our souls back in Cuba. Nod once if you understand me.”

  I gave a slow nod. Tone was used to this from me. He had seen me panic and freak out many times before when we were teenage parents. I was sure from the outside looking in Caltrone was probably proud that his son had smacked me and put me in my place. From the outside looking in, I was sure it didn’t look like I was having a panic attack and that it looked more like Tone had gotten tired of my mouth and had finally smacked me to shut me up.

  “I’ve thought about everything you just said. I’ve even thought about whether he could be behind this, but I don’t have proof. I don’t know that he is behind this or that he would even do something like this. That ain’t his style, not when it comes to family. But, trust me, if that old man had anything to do with this, I’ll kill him myself,” he said with finality, the coldness in his voice chilling me to the bone.

  Chapter 10

  Antonio

  Kenya’s breakdown had me on edge, as did her comments about my father. What she said was no doubt based on fear. Could my old man be manipulative to the point that he’d hire people to go after his own blood to teach a lesson? Yes. Would he take it to the point of where it was with my daughter being assaulted? No. Could a situation happen where his minions might have gotten out of control even for Caltrone? Thinking about everything I’d been learning so far being back under his watchful eye, no. The no was simple. No man or woman was allowed to touch the blood of Caltrone.

  From the high to the low, everyone who worked for Caltrone knew that and would never test it in the way that it was going now. Caltone would gut, burn, dismember, and dissolve in acid anyone who touched the flesh of an Orlando. He didn’t fuck with rape. He just helped in trafficking, sick as that was. Besides, finding what I found in Fallon’s apartment dictated otherwise. When I was in the apartment, I made sure to study my surroundings as my father taught me. There was nothing out of the ordinary in the dingy apartment, home to a well-known dealer.

  Mark worked on removing the medieval torture device, while I staged the place by taking some money, and the shoes off of Fallon’s body. Eventually I moved to the back rooms checking that no witnesses were around. Landing in Fallon’s room, I trashed it and rummaged through the place. Banging on the wall and searching through his closet and dressers for any hidden spots, I found his stash of weed and some pills. I grabbed his Js, a notepad, and a variety of random-ass drugs: molly, heroin, meth, weed, and more.

  As I was about to exit the room, I noticed, strewn on the floor with the sheets, a black iPhone. Dropping on the bed to sit, elbows on my knees, I rolled my shoulders and listened to them make that popping sound.

  Ready for whatever I might find, I began looking through the cell. “The fuck do you have on here, Fallon?” I muttered to myself while I looked on.

  A series of numbers shifted past my eyes. I checked his trashed files, then went to his pictures where I saw Fallon with several women. When I noticed one with my daughter outside of some building, I frowned deeply. She stood smiling next to two other young women. One was a toffee-toned girl with colorful hair, tiny shorts with black-and-white striped leggings, black high tops, and a cropped off-the-shoulder shirt. On her right shoulder was a chess piece and it piqued my interest. She stood with her tongue out, head tilted to the side, causing teal-blue hair to fall like a curtain with both her hands up curled in a sign that I knew represented Houston’s Fifth Ward, while her other hand was around Jewel’s shoulder.

  Syncing his cell with mine, I transferred everything that was on his cell. I then switched gears and went through his videos, also transferring those. There was one marked Tight. I clicked on it and my eye twitched when I saw my baby girl being assaulted. Anger had my jaw clenched tight again. My gloved fingers dug into the palm of my left hand as I almost broke the cell from gripping it too hard. The room started to spin, and red washed over my vision. Kenya had been smart in keeping me from seeing this. Had I seen it before getting my hands on Fallon, all the torture we put him through would not have gone down and I might have fucked it up on a level where it would have jeopardized everything.

  A sour laugh came from me as my mind went to the worst of places. Nigga was going to try to profit off my child? Share this sick, twisted shit with people in the street? Use it as leverage for money or something? It was a damn good thing that Fallon was dead. I wanted to storm back into the living room and bring him back from the dead just to rip him apart again. I had nothing to put this anger in right now, but I knew that I would soon.

  “Tone?” I heard rattle my thoughts from my memory.

  I shook away from my thoughts and focused back on Kenya. The sadness and fear in her voice bothered me. The desire to go off on her was back and left a sour taste in my mouth. Everything she did was exactly why I had been pissed off about her meeting with my father. But of course I expressed that to her and let it be what it was. Ther
e was no turning back, but if she pulled a stunt like she just did with my father, then the issues she had now would not even compare to what she’d experience with that man.

  Jaw clenched tight like a steel tension wire, I stared ahead at the back of the seats in front of us. “Sorry. Listen, keep your emotions in check, Kenya, and don’t let even a tear fall in front of my father, understand?”

  “Yes,” I heard Kenya say softly. “I just need our daughter back.”

  “I understand, but any weakness he or my nephew see or sense, they will pounce on it and twist it into some mental mind games, okay?” I explained.

  Reclining in my seat to watch her from my peripheral, I scratched the side of my shaggy face. The desire to wash myself suddenly hit me. I was covered in blood. I had stood in a tiny apartment and watched children be slaughtered by my hand and Kenya’s hand. All in the name of vengeance. A weakness within me tried to seep through my mental walls, but I effectively locked it back. The death of those children would haunt me and I knew that I’d try to find ways to make amends for it but, at the same time, I knew that this was a necessary evil.

  Any child who survived could grow up with an agenda. That child could make it their sole goal to come after me and mine, which I wouldn’t blame them for, and the cycle of killing would go on. So, innocent in nature, they weren’t innocent by default and they had to go. Each life that died, I mentally prayed for their passing, something I’d never let my father pick up on.

  “Stay in here and get your mind right. We need to stay calm and make sure that’s the only emotion we show them. Will you be okay?” I asked, turning to check if Kenya was here in the present and not about to fall by the wayside.

  “I’m here,” she said clutching her fist.

  “You sure?” I said with a frown and a slight rough tone.

  “I’m sure,” she said back with a little heat to her tone. “I just want my baby.”