The Face That Launched A Thousand Bullets (The Cartel Publications Presents)

by Styles, T.

  “You know I’ma tare that shit up right?” he said as he unlocked her apartment door. She nibbled a little on his bottom lip.

  “You betta!” she demanded. “I want it rough tonight, Daddy. Real rough.”

  She clarified, biting his ear harder than most people could stand.

  “Give it to me like how we use to do it before Lil Shawn came into the picture.” She continued.

  “Came into the picture?” he said briefly, questioning her use of words.

  “You know what I mean…before we had him.”

  “You need to watch what you say out yo’ mouth.” He wished she could’ve been a better mother instead of the worthless bitch that he was accustomed to.

  “Well, why don’t you teach me about my mouth?” She was looking for any excuse to use violence with sex.

  Once inside, he locked the door and she jumped down. The moment he closed the door, she slapped the fuck out of his face. SMACK!

  His head moved to the right and when he looked at her, he had a devilish grin on his face. He loved every bit of it. The red bruise from her force showed immediately on his light skin.

  “That’s all you got, bitch?” he said, wanting to be hit again.

  He took his coat off and threw it to the floor. She did the same as they left a trail behind them.

  “Like that?”

  “You got to come betta than that.”

  “Oh, for real?” Candy moved away from him backward as he followed her into the bedroom.

  She took off her blouse, threw it on the floor and hit him again. SMACK!

  “You like that shit, don’t you? You like when I beat that ass.” She removed her bra, her C cup titties swinging in the air.

  “I like when you hit me but you ain’t did shit yet!”

  He laughed as he contemplated how hard his dick would get after all the pain he put her in. Candy was the only girl he knew who when she said she liked it rough, that’s exactly what the fuck she meant. And with Lil Shawn being over her moms, they could get as nasty as they wanted.

  Shy had been staying over Candy’s house for the past three weeks faithfully, not necessarily to hide from Kavon because he wasn’t afraid of him, but because he didn’t know where he was. The truth of the matter was that he didn’t think Kavon was bold enough to come after him. Shy was more concerned with controlling where the war took in the event he changed his mind. And at the latest, until he found him.

  Day and night his crew looked for Kavon, but was unsuccessful. It was as if he had fallen off of the face of the earth. He wasn’t at his house. He wasn’t with the people he rolled with and neither was Tara. Had it been average beef, he was sure Kavon wouldn’t know how to handle it. But since Shy brutally raped Tara and threatened her on her hospital bed, he wasn’t sure how Kavon would react.

  “How about now! Is that hard enough?” She smacked him consecutively two more times.

  His face now inflamed and red. She walked in her dark room and still he followed.

  “I ain’t feel shit.” He laughed standing in the doorway.

  “What about now!” an unfamiliar voice said as he stole the fuck out of him.

  Shy was caught off guard as he stumbled to the floor. Candy, wearing only her pants, jumped on the bed screaming her lungs out. The stranger turned the lights on and stared them down. She stopped crying momentarily.

  When Shy looked up at who just hit him, he saw a man twice his size hovering over his body. And with his build and stature being as large as it was, the man above him was gargantuan. Within seconds, Kavon appeared from the closet holding a 9 millimeter directly in Shy’s direction.

  “There’s a time and place for everything,” Kavon said in a low deadly tone, reminding him of the last conversation they had together. “I venture to say that now is the time.”

  He sat in a chair across the room.

  Candy continued to yell and scream.

  “Bitch, shut the fuck up fo I pop yo ass first!” Kavon told her.

  It was the first time he talked to her so brutally.

  “So you found me, huh?” He laughed as he wiped the blood from his mouth and made an attempt to stand up. When he did, he got knocked on his back again.

  Whop!

  “I think you betta stay down.” Kavon’s tone was cold and steely.

  “Who is this mothafucka?!” Shy asked, looking at the man who hadn’t said one word since they met.

  “They call him Kurtis Blow and I’m sure you already know why. But we’ll get to everything you need to know later.”

  Kavon remained in the chair letting it be known that he was in charge. Kurtis was a long time friend of his and the one man he knew he could count on, despite it all. Kurtis only flaw was that he stayed in and out of jail. As a matter of fact, this was his first job since he’d been released from a five year bid.

  “How did you get in?” Shy asked, looking at Candy as if she’d set him up.

  “It’s not hard to get a key if you pay the right person at the rental office.” He winked. “Ain’t that’s what you always told me. It ain’t a thing in the world you can’t buy. The key’s to this apartment included.”

  “What the fuck you want then, nigga? Cause it’s obvious you ain’t about shit cuz I’m still breathin’.”

  “For now, Shy. First I wanna know why you pull Tara into our beef?”

  Shy looked at Candy. It was evident from the glance he gave her that she hadn’t heard the full story.

  “You know I was gonna make her my wife and you raped her, beat her and left her for dead.” Kavon finished. “Next to me, she loved you the most.”

  Shy looked at Candy, and then Kavon. She was confused. She had no idea he was going to rape anybody let alone Kavon’s girlfriend. She thought it was about money.

  “Nigga, fuck that shit! I’m the one who gave her to you. She was a whore when I met her and she was a whore when I fucked her. She wanted it just as much as I did!” Shy sounded maniacal. “I was tryin’ to do you a favor by lettin’ you see the truth.”

  “Are you serious? You gave her to me?! You introduced me to Tara to clear up the debt you owed for takin’ my money.” Kavon let it be known right then that he was aware that Shy held on to the money he stole from Paris. “But I counted as an “L” because she was worth every bit of it.”

  Shy looked like he seen a ghost. All this time he thought he was fooling a naïve ass Kavon. When in actuality, he was fooling himself. That brought him to his next question.

  “How you know that?”

  “’Cause the folks you got into the money for started askin’ a bunch of questions and came for me. I was the last person Paris owed money to. So they put one and one together and got me. You just had to take the entire 100 didn’t you?” he laughed. “Greedy ass, nigga. ’Cause of you I made Miami connects. Had it not been for my gift of gab, they would’ve taken my life. I told them I ain’t have shit to do with it, despite knowing it was you. They took me as a man of my word and left it alone. We’re still in business to this day.”

  “So you makin’ money on the side?”

  “Not as dumb as you thought I was right?”

  “And how the fuck you know I was here?”

  Kavon laughed before answering this question.

  “I knew ‘bout you and Candy the second after you fucked her. But bein’ the nigga that I am, I was determined not to let a hoe interfere wit business. You couldn’t do that. And since it was that easy for her to leave, I felt you did me a favor. I got to admit, I just thought you were fuckin’ her from time to time. I ain’t know ya’ll were in here beatin’ each other’s asses and shit.” Kurtis Blow and Kavon laughed. “Nigga, I knew this would be the first place you’d run.”

  “I ain’t run.”

  “Shy, you ran. You know how much I love that woman and you ran. You got scared. I coulda smoked your ass a long time ago but I wanted to make sure my Tara was a’ight. And now that she is, I’m here” Kavon smirked.

  “Nigga, f
uck you!”

  “They’ll be plenty of time for fucking.” Kavon grinned. “Plenty of time.”

  Shy didn’t know what that meant and he adjusted on the floor. He wondered if he could take them out but quickly wiped that thought out of his mind after remembering his weapon was in his coat on the floor and in the living room.

  “Why don’t you fight me like a man, huh? Straight up!” Shy offered seeing no other ends to the means in sight.

  Kavon laughed.

  “Shy…Shy…Shy. Have you taught me nothin’? Why do dirty work when I can pay somebody to do it for me? Plus I’m too pretty for this shit.”

  “That’s why you got this nigga here?” he responded. “Cause you can’t fight your own battles? ‘Cause he your bitch?”

  “Battles?” He smirked. “Nigga, I fight wars.” Kavon responded in a cold tone. “Main man bout to do everything to you, you did to my wife and more.”

  Kurtis Blow cracked his knuckles.

  The look on Shy’s face transmogrified from confidence to concern in an instant.

  “Stand up.” The stranger finally spoke.

  Shy looked up at him and reluctantly stood up. He figured if he was going to die, he might as well go out fighting. The moment he rose to his feet Shy stole Kurtis Blow off the top. Whop!

  But Kurtis seemed unmoved. You would’ve thought he stroked his face instead of hitting him. He smiled and returned the favor by hitting him so hard, he regained his position on the floor again. Whop!

  Blow after blow he dealt Shy until his large limp body remained down covered in blood. Candy still on the bed cried her eyes out.

  “That’s enough for now,” Kavon said, stopping him. “Take his pants off.”

  Shy was still moving, slightly conscious, but barely. Kurtis Blow was trained at this shit. When his pants were off, Kavon threw him the knife and the duct tape he brought with him. Everything was thoughtfully planned.

  After Kurtis taped Shy’s mouth and hands, Kavon said, “Go in slow.”

  With his legs bent at the knees, Kurtis rammed the knife into his rectum as Shy screamed out in agony. His voice muted.

  “Do it again.” Kavon demanded. And again he rammed it up his anus. “That’s enough.”

  With Shy falling in and out of consciousness it was important to Kavon that he got a few things off of his chest before Shy took his final breath.

  Kavon walked over to him and knelt down. “One last thing. I know that bastard kid was hers the moment I saw his eyes. Whatever happened to bros above hoes?” he asked sternly. “It don’t even matter now though. And don’t worry, I’ll let the lil nigga call me daddy.”

  Pop! Pop! Pop!

  He shot him three times before he backed away and eyed his work. Candy, now quiet looked petrified after realizing she’d have to be dealt with next.

  “I say we kill her,” Kurtis said, breaking the deafening silence.

  Kavon looked at Kurtis and back at her. He didn’t want to kill her because she had a son, and he’d already taken his father.

  “Can I trust you?” he said, seriously walking over to the bed.

  “We need to kill her man,” Kurtis interrupted. “She’s seen my face, too.”

  Kavon looked down knowing he was right.

  “I promise I won’t say nothin’,” Candy interjected. “You know me.” She cried, wiping the sweat off of her face with her hands.

  That statement almost got her killed. Everything in him told him to exact upon her the same fate. But the softer side of him, the side that was becoming a father, thought about Lil Shawn. He didn’t want him growing up with nobody to care for him even if it was her fucked up ass.

  “I’m gonna let you breathe. But if there’s a problem, we will come back and finish you off. Do you understand what I’m saying?” he said calmly.

  She nodded yes.

  “If you ever tell anyone…I will be back.”

  “I won’t tell anyone, Kavon…I promise. You can trust me.”

  Four Days Later

  Homicide Detective Betha knocked on Candy’s door with his partner Detective Mesaline. Although Detective Betha was white, and Mesaline was Italian, their beliefs mirrored one another so closely, they could be brothers.

  Years of food, alcohol and cigarette abuse showed all over their dried faces and protruding bellies. Homicide detectives had to be tough and diligent. It was rough trying to get people to cooperate with police especially in the D.C, area.

  “Who is it?!” Candy yelled on the other side of the door.

  “Detective Betha and Mesaline. We’d like to talk to you for a moment.”

  There was brief silence and they could hear wrestling on the other side of the door. Two minutes later, it swung open and Angel walked over to the couch wearing a pink robe. A cigarette dangled from the corner of her mouth.

  “What’s up?” Candy crossed her right leg over the left one. “I’m kinda busy.”

  They looked around. “Well it’s obvious you ain’t been busy cleaning up.”

  She stuck her tongue out.

  “This’ll only take a second.” Detective Betha sat in the chair across from her while Detective Mesaline remained quiet and looked around. “How are you holding up?”

  “I’m fine I guess! All I really want to do is move on with my life and take care of me and my son.” She removed the cigarette from her mouth and emptied a few ashes on the table instead of the ashtray inches from it. “But ya’ll keep bothering me like I murdered him.”

  “We’re not bothering you, ma’am.” Detective Mesaline said as he looked down at his partner. “But you do seem to be handling this pretty well.”

  “Where I’m from people die all the time.” She looked up at him and back at Det. Betha. “Now what ya’ll really want with me?”

  “We want to ask you a few questions for starters.” He whipped out a small spiral notepad from his inside coat pocket. “Did Shy have any other enemies that you know about? Because like we said earlier, the crime seems hate-related. It doesn’t seem like a robbery like you said it was.”

  She giggled.

  “What’s so funny?” Detective Mesaline was shocked at her rudeness.

  “He was a drug dealer for cryin’ out loud! I’m sure he had enemies.”

  “Did he have any enemies that you are aware of?” Det. Betha asked, frowning at her.

  She paused for a second, smirked a little and said, “If he did he didn’t tell me.”

  Realizing talking to her was a dead end, they both decided to leave. There were other ways of getting the truth and it wouldn’t be through her.

  “We’ve wasted enough of your time today. But we’ll be in touch.” Det. Betha said.

  “Whatever you say.” She threw her hands in the air.

  The moment they were outside of her doors, they made a phone call.

  “Lieutenant Devely. It’s Betha and Mesaline. We’re gonna need the search warrant after all. She’s not trying to help. I’m positive she had everything to do with this murder. And the wire tap will prove it.”

  First District

  Wire Tap Surveillance

  It had been two weeks since Detective Betha and Detective Mesaline were able to get a warrant and still nothing. They were frustrated as they watched over the machine waiting for evidence of any kind. But so far everything they heard seemed like a waste.

  If Candy Brown wasn’t talking about going shopping, she was talking about who she would fuck to go shopping. All they were sure of now, was that she could care less about what happened to Shy.

  Securing a warrant wasn’t easy. They had to convince the judge that Candy had probable cause to kill Shy and that she carried through with it. And after learning that she had a small life insurance policy on his head for $10,000, that she claimed was for their son, they thought it would be easy enough to do.

  Before Judge Cheryl Bail signed anything, she wanted to be clear on the conditions. It wasn’t too long ago that both Detectives fumbled an entire case b
y submitting tampered evidence that had been given by an unreliable source. She did not want to have that type of mishap happening again. But the detectives assured her this time was different.

  And now with everything in place, they were waiting for that one moment, when all would be revealed.

  In The Mall

  Candy pulled Lil Shawn by his arm in the Union Station mall, in D.C. She was in the Benetton shop picking up a few shirts, as her five–year-old son begged for food.

  “I’m hungry!” he cried. “I want to eat.”

  “Shut yo ass up!” she told him. “You ate this morning.”

  It was now 6 in the afternoon. The truth was, she was an awful mother who preferred to spend the remainder of her money on gear instead of taking care of her only child. If it were quiet enough, the boy’s stomach could be heard growling from a few feet away.

  “But I’m hungry, Mommy.”

  “I said shut up!” she continued popping him in the back of his curly head.

  “I want my daddy!” he cried out.

  “Well, yo daddy dead!” She yanked his arm toward the exit.

  After hearing what he already knew, the little boy cried even worse. When Shy was alive he spoiled his son rotten. No matter what, Shy spent at least three days a week with him. If Shy was capable of loving someone, his son would’ve been the only one to receive it.

  Candy was fed up with Lil Shawn’s whining. She decided to sooth his beastly ass by feeding him. He was chubby like his father was when he was his age.

  Walking to McDonald’s, she ordered the Happy Meal when the child could clearly eat a regular size helping. But the moment she dipped into her purse, she noticed all she had was five dollars. This was a problem because they still had to catch a train home. So she decided against getting him anything to eat.