by K'wan
“I got friends out there, Swann. You can’t do me like this and think ain’t nobody gonna come see you about it,” Fatima threatened.
“Bitch, save that Mafia princess shit. Your father is a washed-up hustler who ain’t never gonna see daylight again, and you ain’t got no real connections on the street, because if you did, you wouldn’t be in here selling your boyfriend and his people out begging for a pass. Ain’t nobody gonna do shit if you turn up missing,” Swann said, mocking her.
“I beg to differ,” someone said. They turned and saw the corny dude with the fur and sunglasses who had been stunting at the bar.
“Who the fuck are you supposed to be?” Swann looked the clown up and down.
The clown removed his sunglasses so that Swann could see his face clearly. “You mean to tell me you don’t remember the faces of all your victims? I know I do.”
“Animal!” Swann gasped.
“Back from the dead like I never left.” Animal slid out of the fur coat and let it hit the floor. His Pretty Bitches hung under his arms in the harness. “You and me got unfinished business.”
“Kill that muthafucka!” Swann roared, leaping over the booth he was sitting in and heading for the back door.
Animal snatched Fatima out of the way, just before Swann’s men opened fire. Drawing one of his Pretty Bitches with one hand and keeping Fatima tucked with the other, Animal returned his enemy’s fire. He knocked the top of one of Swann’s boys’ heads off, splattering the remaining two with his blood and giving them pause. The breath of a second was all Animal needed to throw Fatima to safety and draw his other gun. One of the bouncers, who happened to be passing by when the ruckus started, felt like he wanted to be a hero and tried to tackle Animal. Animal spun with the force, slamming the butts of both guns into the bouncer’s skull, busting his head open to the white meat. The bouncer hit the floor, on his back, and Animal knelt, shoving the gun into his mouth, hand trembling with rage. He’d thought about sparing him, but since the bouncer wanted to be remembered, Animal would make sure it was so. He jerked his finger on the trigger and knocked out the back of the bouncer’s throat.
Turk and the remaining henchmen tried to close in on Animal, but the stripper with the dragon tattoo jumped down off the table and blocked their paths. She stood there half-naked in heels and a thong, eyeing the men like a lioness about to pounce. “Leave while you still can,” she told them.
“Get the fuck out the way.” The henchman lunged forward, trying to knock her out. The stripper weaved with the skill of a professional boxer and came back with a vicious hook to the henchman’s ribs. When he doubled over, she grabbed Swann’s abandoned champagne bottle and broke it over the back of the henchman’s head. Without pausing, she spun on Turk, slashing his arm with the bottle, causing him to drop his gun. She pinned him to the wall with her forearm, flipped the broken bottle over like a dagger, and placed it against Turk’s throat. She had barely touched him, and there was already a trickle of blood running down his neck. He still had the tender flesh of a child.
She stared at Turk’s face. His lip quivered, and she could see tears dancing in the corners of his eyes, but even in the face of his impending death, he would not break. He was prepared to leave the world, but it wasn’t his time. “Too young to die and too stupid to live,” she said, as if she were having a heart-to-heart talk with him.
“You ain’t no stripper. Who are you?” Turk asked, not even sure why he cared.
She wasn’t sure why she was compelled to answer him, but she did. “My name is Kahllah El-Amin, but my victims know me as the Black Lotus. Remember it and the fact that tonight I showed you mercy,” she told him, before drawing her fist back and knocking him out.
• • •
Swann burst from the rear exit of the club, nearly tripping over his shoelaces and falling on his face. He spared a nervous glance over his shoulder, making sure the killer wasn’t following him. He felt bad about leaving Turk behind but figured getting out alive would be the ultimate test of the youngster’s resilience. If Turk made it, Swann would see that he was rewarded accordingly; if he didn’t, then Swann would search for his replacement.
Swann barreled down the alley, desperately trying to reach the avenue where his car was parked. He had just emerged from the mouth of the alley when a fist slammed into his jaw unexpectedly. Swann stumbled and crashed to the sidewalk in a heap. When he looked up, he saw Ashanti sneering down on him.
“I heard you were looking for me, blood.” Ashanti raised his foot and brought it down on Swann’s face.
• • •
Animal came out of the back exit, with Fatima behind him and Kahllah on their heels. Animal had given her the bogus fur coat to cover her body, since she hadn’t had time to get dressed before their exit. She looked crazy, but she’d have looked crazier running the streets half-naked. As soon as Ashanti and Fatima saw each other, they rushed into each other’s arms. Fatima was frightened and on the verge of hysterics.
“It’s OK, ma. You did good.” Ashanti hugged her to try to stop her trembling.
“I was so scared, but I had to see it through. I told you I’d do anything for you, and I meant it.” Fatima kissed him.
“That’s my rider.” Ashanti gave her another squeeze. He turned to his homie. “Animal, that was some ice-cold planning. How the hell did you manage to get Kahllah and the guns in the joint?”
“The owner of the franchise owed me a favor. Let’s just say we have a history.” Animal smirked, thinking back on Diamonds and the work he had put in for him when he had passed through Miami. “I’ll fill you in later, but for right now, we need to get the ladies to safety and take care of Sleeping Beauty.” He motioned toward Swann’s unconscious form.
“I know a basement we can take him to and work his ass over until he agrees to go along with the plan,” Ashanti said.
“Nah, I think we’re gonna go with a different approach. Help me get this nigga up and into the car.”
THIRTY-ONE
A VICIOUS SLAP BROUGHT SWANN back to consciousness. His eyes snapped open, and he looked around woozily. He was lying on his back, looking up at a blurry tree line. In his ears, he could hear the sounds of dusk. Slowly, the pieces began to fall back into place, and he remembered the events that had led up to that moment.
“Should I slap him again, just to make sure he’s awake?” Ashanti drew his hand back.
“Nah, I think old Swann is back with us. You with us?” Animal asked.
“Don’t you know how to stay dead?” Swann sat up on his elbows.
“Despite your best efforts to send me on my way, it would seem that the afterlife isn’t quite ready to receive me,” Animal told him. He extended his hand to help Swann up, but Swann was hesitant to take it. “Swann, you should know better than anyone else that if I wanted to hurt you, I’d have done it already. I don’t play with my food, I eat it.”
Swann allowed Animal to help him to his feet. He wasn’t restrained, nor was he going anywhere. Animal stood to one side of him, Ashanti on the other. Lingering a few feet away, watching out for police or nosy joggers, was the stripper who had been dancing for him. She was now fully dressed in leggings, combat boots, and a leather jacket. Dangling at the side of her leg, in a gloved hand, was a Desert Eagle. Swann didn’t recognize where they were at first, but when he saw the park bench, realization hit him. All he could do was laugh at the irony of where the young killer had chosen to bring him to execute him. They were in the same park where he had murdered Tech, his friend and Animal’s mentor.
“OK, you got the drop on me fair and square. So what now, you gonna gun me down in the park like I did Tech and finally have your revenge? Fuck it, let’s get it over with.” Swann spread his arms, daring Animal to shoot him.
“Put your arms down, simple-minded nigga. You think I’d be dumb enough to shoot you out in the open like this? I just thought the nostalgia of this place would be good to set the mood and, being that it’s all public, put your
scary ass at ease until you heard me out,” Animal told him.
“I thought the only talking we had to do was over gun smoke,” Swann cracked.
“Indeed, and I’m sure before either of us departs this world, we’ll dance, but the party is gonna have to be put on hold for a while. I need a meeting with your boss,” Animal told him.
Swann’s eyes widened in shock. “Nigga, is you on the pipe? Shai would never sit at the same table with you, unless it was to watch you die!”
“This is what I already know, which is why I brought you in as my trump card. You’re gonna put the meeting together and make sure Shai plays nice while I speak my piece. I think your boss will be very interested in what I have to say,” Animal assured him.
“And what if I tell you to eat a dick instead?” Swann challenged.
Animal drew both of his Pretty Bitches and leveled them with Swann’s face. “Then I’d say I don’t give a fuck where we at, and I’d blow your head off your shoulders.”
Ashanti stepped between them. “Thankfully, we ain’t gonna have to do all that. Swann is gonna put this little meeting together for us, and he’s gonna do it with a smile.”
“And why the fuck would I do that?” Swann asked.
“Because I know why you really took Percy’s death so hard,” Ashanti told him.
“Percy was my lil’ man. I’d be at you for killing any of my homies,” Swann told him.
“But not like you were at me over Percy. Your connection was special,” Ashanti countered. “I’ll bet you cried like a baby when you found out how my boy tore that pretty face of his up.” He traced a cut around his face, mocking what Cain had done to Percy.
“You little muthafucka.” Swann lunged at Ashanti, but he was restrained by Animal and Kahllah. “Percy was harmless! I kept him in that position so he could stay out of this shit.”
“I guess if he was my kid, I’d be doing the same, trying to keep him out of harm’s way. What do you think your boss will say when he finds out about your wayward seed and who the mother is?” Ashanti asked.
The question hit Swann like a slap. “Shai would kill you quicker than he’d kill me if you put that lie out there. You better be careful where you’re about to tread,” Swann warned.
“I might be young, but I’m not dumb. I would never try to throw a rock that big unless I was sure I could lift it.” Ashanti pulled an envelope from his back pocket and handed it to Swann.
With trembling hands, Swann opened the envelope and removed the contents. It was an old birth certificate, bearing his signature. The child in question was several years old when Swann signed off on the certificate, and even then, he had did so under duress. The mother insisted that it wasn’t proper for the baby not to have a father’s signature on the birth certificate, too, even if he would never be able to publicly claim him.
“Where did you get this?” Swann asked, barely able to mask the cracking in his voice.
“Percy spilled all his secrets before he died,” Ashanti told him. “What kind of scandal do you think this would create if it got out? You think Shai would forgive you for embarrassing him and making a mockery of his father’s legacy?”
Swann had no answer. All he could do was continue to stare at the birth certificate in disbelief. The child named on it was Percy, the mother June Higgins. She’d signed it under her maiden name to avoid the scandal that would come with the ex-wife of a crime boss having a child with one of his workers. Twenty years after the fact, Swann’s darkest secret had come back to haunt him.
Back then, Swann had been a boy of thirteen or so. He was just another snot-nosed kid trying to work his way up through the ranks of the organization. June had already begun her fall from grace, but her body was still holding up, and she didn’t hesitate to use it to get what she wanted. Most of the crew knew better than to go anywhere near her, for fear of death if Poppa or Tommy ever found out, but you had the few young and foolish who were willing to gamble their lives to get inside June Clark’s legendary walls, including Swann. She had caught the teenager one late night when no one was around, drunk off E&J mixed with malt liquor. She was thirsty for a hit and short on cash, which is when June was most dangerous. Swann tried to resist, but he was no match for the old seductress. June put her mouth and her pussy on Swann in ways none of the girls his age he’d been with ever had. He was so turned out off her airtight snatch that he wasn’t even thinking about a condom when he blew his load inside her.
Years went by without anyone hearing from June, until one random night, she showed up on Swann’s doorstep looking like death warmed over, with a kid who wasn’t a Clark and a story to tell. By then, Swann was already a part of Tommy’s inner circle and Shai’s best friend, so there was no way he was going to let it get out. He gave June some money and dismissed her, praying that he’d never see her or the child again. This held true until a few months ago, when the boy Swann had produced with his best friend’s mother had resurfaced as a low-level homosexual pimp, looking for permission to get money on the streets that the Clarks claimed as their own. Swann had taken Percy under his wing, upgrading his stable and his game plan. It was the least he could do for the son he’d abandoned.
Animal shook his head. “Something like that getting out would be a black eye to the Clark family. I can only imagine how Shai would take it. He might be hurt enough to have you killed.”
“What’s it gonna take to keep this quiet?” Swann asked, barely above a whisper.
Animal took Swann’s hand and placed a cell phone in it. “A simple phone call.”
THIRTY-TWO
THE MEETING WAS SET TO take place at Daddy’s House, the restaurant Shai had recently opened in honor of his late father. Shai was surprised when Swann called him and said that King James’s men wanted to meet to discuss a truce. Had it been anyone but Swann calling to arrange the meeting, Shai would’ve assumed that it was a setup, but he trusted Swann. He had expected to be meeting with King James himself or possibly his second in command, Lakim, but was shocked to find Ashanti, a woman he had never met, and a man who was supposed to be dead. For a few long moments, all Shai could do was stare at Animal in disbelief.
Angelo and the soldiers who had come along as members of Shai’s security detail immediately reached for their weapons, causing Animal and Ashanti to do the same. It was Swann who stepped between them.
“Swann, have you lost your fucking mind, siding with the enemy over your family?” Shai snapped.
“Shai, the Clarks have been better to me than my biological family since I was a kid. I’d never take the side of another man over you. All I’m asking is that you hear them out, please.” Swann motioned for Shai to take the empty seat at the head of the dining table. Shai was clearly upset with Swann, but he took the seat.
Angelo leaned in and whispered to Swann. “Swann, I’ve known you a long time and have always given you credit for being smart, until now.”
“Angie, I know what it looks like, but it’s not what you think,” Swann told him. “Just listen before you go flying off the handle.”
“I’m listening, but I’m also watching you. I don’t know what the fuck you think you’re doing by setting this little meet-up, but when it goes to the left and Shai gives the order to kill you, it’ll be my bullets you feel first,” Angelo promised.
For a while, there was just quiet, with Shai and Animal staring at each other from across the table. The tension between them was so thick you could’ve cut it with a knife. Shai stared at Animal curiously, wondering if he was stupid or brave for coming there. Part of him wanted to order Angelo to kill Animal and Swann both, but there was also a part of him that was curious about why he would risk his life to come.
“In all the years Priest has been with my family, he has never disobeyed a direct order given by a Clark, yet I ordered him to kill you, and here you sit,” Shai said after a long silence.
“Sometimes a man has to choose between doing his duty and doing the right thing,” Animal said, th
umbing Priest’s gold rosary around in his hand.
Shai looked down at the gold beads. “I know that only death could’ve parted Priest from that old thing, and the fact that you have it means the rumors of his demise are true. Did you kill him?”
“I was there when he died, but it wasn’t by my hands. Priest gave his life so that I could be here at this meeting,” Animal said.
“Bullshit. What the hell makes you so special to where Priest would even piss on you if you were on fire, let alone give his life for you?” Shai asked.
“That piece of business is between Priest and me. Just know that it was important to him that we sat down and tried to put our old grievances to bed,” Animal said.
“And what makes you think that I’m ready to turn the other cheek after all the grief you’ve given me?” Shai asked him.
“Because you’re a businessman, not a warlord,” Animal said. “I’m willing to bet you’re just as tired of fighting as I am.”
Shai shrugged. “I may have a few more rounds left in me.”
“More than likely, you do, but like I said, you’re a businessman. There’s no money to be made in war, especially when you have nothing to gain from the death of your enemy other than saving face and slaking your thirst for revenge,” Animal said.
“And you’re quite the authority on revenge,” Shai shot back.
“Yes, it has been the motivating factor in my life for more years than I can remember. Most of the things I’ve done have been motivated by revenge, including going to war with you over what happened to Gucci.”
Shai nodded. “Not that I owe you any explanation, but I never meant for that girl to get hurt. My men were reckless, and she happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“Maybe, maybe not, it doesn’t change the fact of what belongs to me was touched, and I acted accordingly, as any man would’ve done. Could you say that you would’ve done any less had it been Honey who was shot instead of Gucci?”
“No,” Shai answered honestly.