“I think he’s right, baby,” the man said, speaking up for the first time. “This shit here just don’t feel right.”
He had been Bridget’s lover for the last five months, but with Keith in the way, they didn’t get to spend a lot of time together, but she trusted him. Ironically, they met the day she dropped Kei’Lani off at the museum to stab Temper. His Benz was blocking the exit, and he was nowhere to be found. When he came running back to his car, he apologized and begged to treat her to an early dinner for wasting her time. Seeing that he only wanted to take her across the street, she agreed. They did more talking than eating.
“Did you enjoy your time at the museum?” he asked, making small talk.
“I was only there to, um, drop off my grandson. He’s a chef there.”
“Okay, tell me he learned his way around the kitchen from you, and we can walk out now.”
She laughed. “Of course he did, but I’m like him. I don’t cook for free, so we are probably better off eating here. And you, did you enjoy yourself?”
“Family sent me in there too. The baby was on a tour with the school, and I had to make sure she had everything she needed with her. You know how these kids are. They trust everything in their hearts and don’t put nothing in their heads.”
Bridget spent every free moment she could with him. She knew he loved her in the same fashion she loved him. He told her about his ups and downs in life. How he was rich, then bottom-of-the-barrel poor, and now well-off for a man who endured the pains he went through, and she told him all about Keith. He understood the marriage problems and had confessed that his wife’s death taught him how to live. From the day they’d met, he had been open and honest with her like no one she had ever known.
When her grandson called to tell her that her husband committed suicide, she didn’t know what to do. She was sure his brother would be the person to take his life. She didn’t know what to do with the body, and she didn’t want the police to be alerted just in case it caused the security to tighten up around Temper. Helplessly, she called on him, and he met her at the body.
“I need you to get yourself together. Go home and wait for me. I’m going to have my people take care of this.”
“But what if—”
“It’s too late for all the what-ifs. Let me handle this, and then we will talk about everything, including your part in this. I know guilt when I see it.” He kissed her and sent her off. When he made it to her house, she confessed to all the evil she had done to live out her plan against Temper and how his suicide may have messed it all up.
“So you think he confessed to your grandson before he did it?” he asked, smoking a cigarette.
“I know he did. My grandson’s eyes have never been able to hide how he’s feeling.”
“Then you’re going to have to kill him too. I know you wanted him to end up with the money, but if you want peace in your last days, you’re going to have to kill them all. Anyways, you don’t need any living reminders of the pain you’ve been through.”
He promised to help her clean up the last of it so they could get away.
“What, baby?” Bridget asked, looking around the cemetery again. “What doesn’t feel right?”
“I don’t know, but the shit ain’t adding up. If being born gives us ten feet . . .”
Temper could have snapped her neck the way she turned her head to see the man who was talking. The sun was setting, but his familiar face wasn’t familiar enough in the growing shade.
“And if we changed everything in our lives, including our environment, then we should have more than the twenty feet we need to get over that wall.”
“What wall? What are you talking about?” Bridget questioned, growing more confused with every word as Truth planned his attack.
He told himself that the next time the man started speaking, he’d attack him and take the gun. He looked over at Temper, hoping she could read his eyes, and after she did, she shook her head no. But who was she to tell him what to do?
“The thirty-foot wall, Bridget. The only way out of the hood is over a thirty-foot wall.”
“But none of us live in the hood anymore, baby. I’m confused,” Bridget exclaimed.
“Temper, I think I got it. I finally think I know how to give you those twenty-plus feet.”
Truth jumped up to tackle him. Instead, Temper tackled him as her uncle let off every round in the gun into Bridget’s head.
“Troy. I told you my damn name was Troy, not ‘Roy,’ not ‘baby’ for five damn months. Bet you heard it now.”
Temper let go of Truth and stared at Troy. “Is that really you, Unc?”
“You bet your Chinaman ass it is, Temper Taz.”
They embraced as he landed kisses all over his niece’s face as she cried into his arms.
“It’s all over now, baby. It’s done,” he whispered.
“But where did you come from, and how did you know?”
“Shirley died on me, and the drugs didn’t help with the pain. I was smoking rocks, but I wasn’t getting high, so I checked into a shelter, and a man came looking for men willing to work. I worked, started saving money, and got me an apartment. Think I was in it three months before firefighters were carrying me out. Bad wiring. I guess that’s why the rent was so cheap.
“Steroids and skin grafts changed my look, not to mention the weight gain and muscles from slanging metal fences all day. I found out that complex had been cited, and since I was the only person hurt, I walked away with a large sum. I tried to check on you and couldn’t find anything, so I took a stroll through the old neighborhood and ran into Keith looking stressed out. It took a while to convince him who I was, but he brought me up to speed on this bitch Bridget when I did.
“For five months, I stopped myself from killing her until he said the time was right. Keith made that call, then Bridget called for help with him, and then I got one more call. It was Truth. He said he was told to call me for protection for him and his mama. I told him I could only save one of you, and the other would probably end up dead, and he told me to save his mama. I didn’t think loyalty like that was still around.” Troy faced Truth. “You’re a big-ass boy. I prayed you wouldn’t realize that and try to take this gun.”
“The thought crossed my mind,” he said, looking at Temper.
“I’m sure it did. You have our blood flowing through you.”
“The boss wants to see her now.” A man dressed in business casual in solid black with the skin tone to match appeared from out of nowhere and nodded toward the one man standing by the car half a mile away.
“That’s the call I made. Keith gave me his brother’s information and told me to bring him up to speed. I don’t know much about you now, Temper, but you’d do good to watch your tongue and take your son with you.”
“Will you be right here when we’re done?” she asked.
“Probably not,” he said, looking at Bridget’s dead body. “But now that you got your feet, make me a new promise.”
“What’s that?”
“If you get your crazy ass on the Greyhound again, go farther than Vegas,” he chuckled. “And this time, make sure you take your son with you.”
“I plan to,” she said, smiling at her uncle. She ran to him and hugged him tightly. “I love you, Unc.”
“I love you too, Temper Taz.”
She reached for her son’s hand, and to her surprise, he grabbed it and held it tight as they walked across the graves.
“I see the two of you decided to reunite.” The back window on the car rolled down slightly, but not enough to see a face. “I got your message, and I love you for the loyalty you showed my daughter for many years.”
“Her death is a loss to us both, Capone,” Temper added.
The man who summoned Temper handed her the gold hunter watch, her and her parents’ picture, and the MOTHER charm Lena had given her.
“Where did you get this?” Temper asked, holding in tears.
“Tyger’s je
welry box. She had a note in it that said to give it back to you when your heart was healed.”
Temper thought back to the day she threw it all away and how Tyger had passed her with an approving smile. It took all these years to find out what that smile meant.
“Our business is done, but there is one pending matter I need the two of you to decide on. Detective Julio Torres. He is standing in the grave behind you, alive. I believe he is a good guy who picked the wrong people to be around, but he has a lot of snake-like ways. What would you like done with him?”
Temper didn’t want to respond because Truth had already named him and Keith as the only family he had. She would agree with whatever her son decided.
“It’s just us from now on, right?” Truth asked her. “You’re not answering his question because he’s one of the people who hurt you, like my pops?”
Temper shook her head. “No, not like your pops, but you and I both know that’s where his loyalty is. Look at how good of a godfather he was to you.”
“Sir, you can kill him,” Truth announced.
“No, son, it doesn’t quite work like that. If you want to rid your mom of the last piece of her past, you will have to pull the trigger.” Capone handed him his gun, and he walked over to the grave and looked down.
“He’s already dead,” Truth announced.
“Yes, he is. I just wanted to make sure I was leaving your mother in good hands. Tyger would expect that. Although you shouldn’t have run your mouth about Tacoma, I’m keeping you on my Christmas card list.” He rolled up his window, and the car pulled off. Temper and Truth were left standing there without a ride.
“Is your life always this tossed?” Truth asked, grabbing her hand as they began their walk across the graveyard.
“Yes, it always has been, but I have a really good feeling that this is the end of it being that way.”
Everything around her felt cold as she thought about the lives that had to be lost for her to gain her thirty feet. However, the fresh start she gained, who clutched her hand, gave her the warmth that she’d never again live without.
The End
Carl Weber's Kingpins Page 25