The Cartel 7--Illuminati--Roundtable of Bosses

by Ashley

  Miamor could see Breeze was overwhelmed. She had never been the type to handle too much on her own, but there was also a change that didn’t go unnoticed. Breeze had made it through a three-year stretch in prison without anyone from the Cartel there to hold her hand.

  “You’ll get your daughter back and when you do, you bring my niece here so I can see just how beautiful she is,” Miamor said. “I’m proud of you Breeze. When you see him, let him know that I love him.”

  Miamor knew their conversation was being recorded so she couldn’t mention his name, but Breeze nodded. They both knew Carter was whom she spoke of.

  “I’ll tell them both,” Breeze said, letting Miamor know she would pass the word to C.J. as well.

  The ladies sat and chatted for an hour. Over the years, they had battled each other as well as their enemies, but they were at a place where they truly shared a sisterhood. Miamor respected Breeze’s innocence. What she once deemed as weak, she now knew was Breeze’s greatest strength. Breeze possessed a vulnerability that the world stripped from most people. Even now as she sat across from Breeze, after all that she had endured, she was still as delicate as the petal of the prettiest flower. Breeze hid her scars, masking her hurt, her past, and her flaws. Miamor wished she could camouflage hers so well. When their time was up Miamor felt a sadness fall upon her. Somehow, she knew this would be the last time she saw Breeze.

  “You’re my sister Breeze and I love you. You’re going to be a great mother. Just bide your time at the halfway house, and when the time is right you will have everything you want, including your lil’ mama back home where she belongs,” Miamor said. “Take care of yourself, you hear me? We’re all going in different directions. Even the boys have been split up. It’s fucked up and it hurts but it’s life. We don’t always get to keep the ones we love most,” Miamor said as her thoughts drifted to Carter. “It doesn’t mean we love them any less.”

  Breeze smiled. “You’re getting soft in here, Mia.”

  “Fuck out of here,” Miamor replied as she stuck up her middle finger.

  They both laughed and placed their hands on the glass. Breeze withdrew first, hanging up the phone and standing to her feet. Miamor gave her a reassuring nod, letting Breeze know it was okay to leave her behind. When she was gone Miamor sat there for a moment and lowered her head.

  It felt good to see a familiar face, but at the same time Miamor wished Breeze had not come at all. Reminding her of the outside world, of her family, Breeze had triggered a yearning within Miamor that she wouldn’t be able to fulfill. It only made things harder. It was a bittersweet reunion.

  Miamor stood and headed directly to her cell. Being locked up limited Miamor’s reach on the streets of Miami, but luckily, she had been brought up with a gang of women who followed the same code she lived by. If one of them was free, all of them had a hand in the game, so anyone Miamor needed to touch, she could. Aries had tapped out of the business and was lying low raising her son. Miamor hated to pull her back in, but she needed her to solve one last problem.

  She grabbed a blank piece of paper and pen before sitting on her bunk. She was about to send a kite to Aries. She knew it was selfish. Aries was trying to blend in and fly under the radar. She only kept coming back because it was Miamor who was calling. Miamor would do the same for Aries without thinking twice. Their bond was just that strong. Nobody knew the secrets they shared. They had been running the streets with each other since they were young and reckless. The only thing that had changed was their age. Recklessness was the characteristic that made them infamous. No one else would take the jobs they accepted. No other killers, men or women, could compare. They were the best to ever live by the gun. Miamor needed her to come out of retirement, for one final hit.

  * * *

  When Aries pulled the letter from the mailbox, she already knew who it was from. There was no return address, but she recognized the beautiful cursive letters. There was only one person in the world who knew where to find her. Miamor, she thought.

  They had created an exit plan. Years ago, they had all pitched in to purchase a home for them to reside in after they retired from the streets. It was a big beautiful six-bedroom house with five thousand square feet. It had more than enough room for the original five murder mamas. Unfortunately, not all of them had made it to the end. Aries had tried to leave the game once before and had chosen a different location to retire. It hadn’t felt right to occupy the house she was supposed to share with her sisters without them. This time, however, she had come home, because memories of when they had first anted up to buy the place made her feel closer to them. She had lost them all—most to the grave and Miamor to the law. Aries was the last one standing and although the past three years of her life had been normal, she was aware that one day, Miamor would pull her back to the dark side. It was just what Miamor did. Without even trying the girl was trouble but Aries loved the hell out of her troublesome ass.

  The letter was addressed to her alias. Aries had no qualms about the fact that Miamor had reached out. She knew that Miamor had taken every precaution. She opened it. It was written in a way that only Aries could decipher. She was grateful for the school day because she would need a clear mind and time to decode the letter. The first character in every word needed to be put together to find the real message. Aries sat down at the kitchen table with a highlighter and pen.

  It took her two hours until she came up with something that made sense. Aries grabbed a lighter and put flame to the paper, allowing it to burn in her kitchen sink, erasing all evidence that it ever existed. She didn’t want to step out of the shadows. She enjoyed this pretend life she had manufactured for herself and her son. In Michigan, she was a normal woman with a normal life. Her normalcy would have to be put on pause as she dug into the deepest part of herself to bring out the killer inside.

  * * *

  The night was still and the only sound that could be heard was the distinct chirping of crickets as they serenaded the neighborhood. Aries sat in the stolen car, listening to the sound. Oddly, it calmed her. Her eyes never moved from the house that sat in the cul-de-sac of the middle-class neighborhood. She checked her watch. It was close to midnight. The lights had been out for over an hour so she was sure that everyone inside was asleep. She had found the woman’s address with a simple Google search. Miamor had provided the name and the city, and it was enough for Aries to take care of the rest. She exited the car. Her Timberland boots hit the ground with determination as she zipped up her hoodie. She tucked the .45 in the back of her waistline and headed toward the home. “Just like riding a bike,” she whispered.

  She hopped the fence and made her way around the back of the house. The stealth she moved with made her undetectable. She pulled a cell phone jammer. She flipped the switch and planted it in the dirt behind the house. By the time it was found, Aries would be long gone. She then cut Internet access to the home. If there was a home alarm it wouldn’t work without being online. She pulled out a lock pick and opened the back door with ease before walking inside. She stood still as she adjusted to the sounds of the house. Every house made them and she needed to be able to distinguish between footsteps and creaks.

  She didn’t move as she soaked up the environment. She barely breathed. When she was sure that the house was undisturbed she took a seat at the kitchen table. She pulled the gun and placed it on the table. Aries had learned long ago to wait for her prey to come to her. She didn’t want to go venturing through somebody else’s house to find them. Home court advantage mattered. Since this was something that had to take place inside this woman’s home, Aries would control the space, deciding where and how the inevitable altercation would go down within these walls.

  Aries looked at the glass centerpiece in the middle of the table and then pushed it off, causing the glass to shatter. The commotion it caused did exactly what she had intended. It woke up her victim. A yellow glow came from the hall as someone turned on the light.

  “Aurora, bab
y? Are you in the kitchen?”

  The woman stepped out into view.

  “Have a seat, Stephanie Wilkes,” Aries said. Aries greeted her as if this was her house, as if she hadn’t just broken in. The authority in her voice made it clear that she meant business. “Or do you prefer Steph?”

  “Agh!” Steph shouted, her voice a mixture of fear and surprise. Her eyes shot to the gun and then to the door. Aries could tell she was weighing her options. They all did it. Every single one of the people she had ever pulled a gun on always had the split second where they had to decide to fight or flee.

  “My trigger finger is quicker than you. Don’t run. You won’t make it,” Aries warned.

  “Please, please. I have a daughter,” Steph began.

  “You’ve got a choice to make right now,” Aries said, unmoved by the emotion Steph showed.

  “What do you want? I don’t have any money,” Steph pleaded.

  “That’s okay,” Aries said as she sat casually at the dining-room table, her hand wrapped around the handle of the gun that she let rest on the table. “I accept Diamonds.”

  Steph frowned in confusion. Aries was used to seeing fear on the faces of her victims. She had been doing this so long that she could smell it in the air.

  “What you’re going to do is go get the little girl out of the room and get her birth certificate,” Aries said.

  “What? No, please, she’s just a child,” Steph protested.

  “But she isn’t your child, so you won’t risk your life for hers. Will you?” Aries tested. She didn’t feel good about taking a kid from a safe home and returning her to a world of danger and chaos. Aries wanted to see Steph love Aurora in a way that would make her abort her plan. If this woman proved that she loved Aurora like a real mother would, Aries would walk away without disrupting the only world Aurora knew. “I can take you or I can take her,” Aries said. “What’s it going to be?”

  Aries knew the answer before Steph even responded. She could see it in the woman’s eyes that Steph wasn’t the self-sacrificing type.

  “Please,” Steph whispered.

  Aries was too seasoned to be affected by Steph’s pleas. They were just words. Words unsubstantiated were just phrases. She required action.

  Aries pointed her gun. “Just take her!” Steph shouted.

  Aries scoffed as she lowered her weapon.

  “Go get the girl and the birth certificate. I’m taking her back to her real mother. You won’t say anything about this. You’ll go on collecting the checks from the state,” Aries said. She reached into her jacket pocket and pulled out an envelope full of money. “That’s fifty thousand. It’s for your trouble over the past three years,” she explained.

  “The state will come looking for her,” Steph protested.

  “You wouldn’t believe how a little bit of money makes problems like that go away,” Aries said. “If Breeze hears from you again or you bother her about her daughter in any way, you’ll find me sitting in your kitchen again one day. Next time, I’m only coming for one thing. I will kill you without losing sleep, without thinking twice, without regret. Do you understand?”

  Steph nodded. “I understand.”

  Aries stood and approached Steph as she removed zip ties from the back pocket of her jeans. She roughly grabbed the woman’s wrists and tied them to each other before pushing her to the floor forcefully, then tying her wrists to her feet. She walked to the back of the house and grabbed a sleeping Aurora from her bed.

  “Where is the birth certificate?” Aries asked.

  “Kitchen drawer,” Steph replied with tears in her eyes.

  Aries retrieved it and then walked out the door.

  * * *

  Oh, how far the mighty have fallen, Breeze thought as she cleared the dirty plates from the table and picked up the five dollars the patrons had left behind as a tip. Breeze had never thought she would find herself in this place. She had taken so many things for granted. She had been so spoiled. Breeze shook her head as she tucked the money into her apron before heading back to the kitchen. She dumped the dishes in the sink.

  “They aren’t going to load themselves.”

  She turned to see her boss, a miserable, old Russian woman who nitpicked Breeze to death.

  “I’m not a dishwasher. You hired me to wait tables,” Breeze replied.

  “And I can fire you just as fast,” the woman stated with a Newport cigarette hanging from her mouth.

  Breeze sighed as she turned to begin the tedious task of loading the dishwasher. She didn’t want trouble. She was simply trying to play by the rules the state had laid out for her. She was establishing employment. Since she was a felon, this was the best she could do. No one else would hire her. Breeze kept her mouth closed and did her job. Not only did she need things to look good on paper; she needed the money. She didn’t want to take the risk to reach out to Estes. The feds couldn’t touch Estes but they had their suspicions about his involvement with the Cartel. Breeze didn’t want any criminal connections to her family to ruin her chances of getting Aurora back.

  So, she struggled. Instead of taking her place back on her throne she pretended she was a regular girl. Normalcy felt strange. She had never taken orders or punched a time clock or had anyone speak to her in a way that was anything other than kind. Breeze knew the adjustment and the sacrifice would all be worth it once her daughter was back in her life. She had to keep the bigger picture in mind to stop her from walking out of this place.

  Breeze took the extra hour to clean the dishes without complaint. I’m rushing home to an empty apartment anyway, she thought. She had transitioned from the halfway house and into a duplex house where she rented out the top unit. It wasn’t much, but it was hers. No one had gotten it for her. She had worked countless hours and saved her tips to save up for it. Oddly enough, with its plain white walls, small bathroom, and itchy carpet, it made her proud. She had decorated the tiny second bedroom for Aurora to give her hope that one day, they would be a family.

  Breeze finished up her shift and pulled off the apron before exiting the diner. Tired was an understatement. With the smell of grease in her hair and aching feet, she couldn’t wait to make it home.

  The sound of the bell above the door ringing signified the end of a slaving day. She checked the time on her phone. “Damn,” she muttered, knowing she had already missed the last bus. She would have to walk the three miles back to her place.

  “Need a ride?”

  Breeze turned in shock. She recognized that accent. She found Aries waiting for her, leaning against an S-Class Mercedes.

  Breeze sighed in relief. “You don’t even know how much you saved my life right now,” she said. “I just missed the last bus.”

  “Wow,” Aries said. “Hell must have frozen over twice. Me never thought me would see the day when Breeze Diamond sat her pretty ass on de’ city bus.” Aries was in her comfort zone and fell back into her natural tongue around Breeze.

  Breeze smirked and shook her head as she walked toward Aries. “Yeah, that makes two of us.”

  Aries walked around to the driver’s side. “I’ve got something in the backseat for you,” she said.

  Breeze opened the back door to the car and her heart stopped, midbeat, midbreath; her entire body froze as she stared at a sleeping Aurora.

  “What did you do?” Breeze asked. “If Steph is dead and Aurora is missing they will come looking for me.”

  “Steph isn’t dead and no one is going to come looking. You know how me work. All I’s were dotted. All T’s were crossed. She’s yours now,” Aries said.

  Breeze rushed around the car and hugged her friend so tightly. She didn’t care that Aries wasn’t the hugging type. She held onto her long and hard as joy overflowed from her.

  “Okay, that’s enough,” Aries said, uncomfortable. Breeze laughed as tears flowed. “Thank you.”

  “Thank Mia. She called the play. Me just executed it,” Aries informed.

  Breeze smiled. “O
f course,” she said. “I don’t want to wake her. She’s going to be so confused. How do I explain this to her?”

  “Chu will be fine. I’ve got a red-eye out of Miami. Can you drop me at the airport?” Aries asked.

  “Drop you? You picked me up,” Breeze stated in confusion.

  “The car’s yours too. Courtesy of Miamor,” Aries stated. “We planned for downfall the same way we planned for the come-up. There is a hundred thousand dollars and your daughter’s birth certificate under the passenger seat for you.”

  “I can’t take the money. It’s too much,” Breeze said.

  “It’s from Miamor’s personal stash. She can’t use it where she’s at. If you need more—”

  “I won’t,” Breeze interrupted. “It’s more than enough to get me on my feet until I can figure some things out.” Breeze was stunned at Miamor and Aries’s generosity. “You didn’t have to do this for me.”

  “We’ve had our differences in de past. That’s water under de bridge. We’re family. As a matter of fact, get your baby home. I’ll catch a cab. Chu watch your back out here Breeze,” Aries said.

  Breeze nodded as she watched Aries walk away. She was so grateful. Breeze looked in the back of the car. She had never been so filled with love. To have a second chance at motherhood was a dream come true and as she climbed into the car she promised herself she wouldn’t mess this up. She felt guilty because she knew that this was not the way things were supposed to be. Aurora was being passed from one person to the next, when all along she should have been with both her parents under the same roof. Breeze had planned to show her daughter the finest example of love. Now she could barely deliver the bare necessities to her.