The Cartel Deluxe Edition

by Ashley

  Anisa noticed the change in his presence, but she wasn’t tripping. He was bringing in more money than a little bit, taking any and all business calls that came through for him, and as long as the paper trail didn’t stop, Anisa did not give a damn if he laid next to her at night or not.

  Despite our strained relationship, business did not stop, and he still had me count up his paper. He would drop it off on the inside of my door at night while I was asleep. In the morning, I would count it, write the total on a slip of paper and put it all in his safe. It was ridiculous how we were acting, but it was our reality at the time.

  Lying in bed, I had not been able to sleep since my birthday. I felt so guilty over what had almost occurred between me and Murder. As I tossed and turned, I knew sleep would not come easy. I threw the covers off of my body and got out of the bed. My head was pounding, so I didn’t bother to turn on the lights. I went into the kitchen and poured myself a glass of water.

  On my way back to my room, I saw a silhouette sitting in the darkness on the couch. “Anisa?” I called out. I flipped on a light switch and saw her sitting there, anger written all over her face. “Why are you sitting in the dark? It’s three o’clock in the morning.”

  “I’m waiting for Murder to get home,” she replied coldly. “That mu’fucka cleared out his safe, and I want to know why. He’s barely been here for the past three weeks, and now he moved his money. Ever since I’ve known him, I’ve always had access to his paper. He must have met some bitch who got him open, and I’m trying to find out what’s up.”

  I was in shock. It wasn’t even like Anisa to be talking like this. “So you think he’s cheating? Anisa, his ass is not cheating on you,” I defended him.

  “I don’t give a fuck about that nigga cheating. He can fuck the entire borough for all I care, but he’s not about to be bankrolling the lifestyle of these busted-ass hoes out here. I get the dough. Me, and only me. So when his ass comes through the door, he gon’ have to explain to me why I opened up his shit today and the mu’fucka was on E,” she said adamantly.

  Anisa was livid, and before I could respond, Murder entered the condo.

  “Where you been?” Anisa asked him. She got straight to the point, and from the look on Murder’s face, I could tell she had caught him off guard.

  “Fuck you mean, where I been?” he shot back. “You know what’s up.”

  “Yeah, I do know what’s up, and how you been acting lately ain’t it. I went into your safe today, and guess what I found?” she asked. Anisa was on a roll because she didn’t even give him a chance to answer. Her hands were on her hip and her neck was rolling while her mouth spouted words out like they were on fire. “Nothing, that’s what I found. It was empty. Are you fucking with another bitch?”

  “Anisa, you’re wildin’, ma. I don’t got time for this shit,” he dismissed casually. “I’ve got business I need to finish taking care of tonight.”

  “You always got business lately! You never used to hit the streets like this before, and when you were out, the safe was full, not empty! So, you cashing out the next chick now?” she asked.

  I could see Murder getting upset, but he was trying to keep his composure. But like every woman does so well, Anisa knew how to push her man’s buttons. “Look. I’m not fucking with another bitch, and you know better than to question how I move. I tried to wife you, Anisa. You said you didn’t want that. You didn’t want to take the risk, talking all that shit about me not being dependable and about you needing a nigga to change before you could commit. Now you in here making a scene in front of li’l mama? What you want me to tell you, Anisa? You know how I get down. Ain’t shit changed. It’s never been about another bitch. It’s about business!” Murder reached into the duffel bag he was carrying and pulled out a thick wad of rubber banded money. “And since it’s all about the money, here!” He tossed that shit in Anisa’s face, then looked at her in disgust before walking out the door. “I’m out!” The door hit the hinges so hard that it shook the walls.

  Anisa threw her hands in the air and screamed in frustration. “Fuck that! I know his ass is up to something!” She grabbed her keys off of the table and looked at me. “Put on your shoes and ride with me for a minute.”

  “What? Anisa, I’m not even dressed! Where are we going?” I asked, astonished at how far she was taking this.

  “We’re about to follow his ass,” she declared.

  I wanted to tell her no, because I knew that Murder was faithful to Anisa. He was never home because of me, but of course I couldn’t tell her that. Anisa was tripping over money, making herself look like a real gold digger, and that wasn’t even her personality. Murder always took care of home. Whatever reason he had for clearing the safe, I knew it was a good one.

  “Come on, Miamor!”

  I slipped a hoody on over my camisole and slipped into some skinny jeans. I stepped into my flip flops and was out the door. I had never seen my sister and Murder even disagree, so this full-fledged argument was so out of character for them both. I felt like I was the cause of it. Everything was fine before I made the stupid mistake of kissing Murder.

  We slid into Anisa’s Chrysler, and just as Murder pulled out of the parking lot, we tailed him, making sure we stayed at least a half block behind him at all times.

  “Anisa, are you sure you want to do this?” I asked when I noticed us getting onto the bridge headed out of New York and into Jersey. The look she shot me told me to shut the fuck up and ride, so that’s what I did, even though in my gut I knew that something about the entire situation did not feel right.

  “You don’t know Murder like you think you do, Miamor,” Anisa said. “The nigga ain’t the saint that he be trying to make himself out to be. You wanna know why you can’t answer the phone in the house? The type of business he’s into? The nigga is grimy, Miamor.”

  “He’s a hustler, Anisa. He’s never done you dirty. How can you say that?” I asked.

  “Baby sister, open your eyes. He ain’t a hustler. He’s the one the hustlers call when they got a problem or when they need to make a problem disappear. He’s a killer, Miamor. He would murk yo’ ass if the money was good. Why the fuck you think his name is Murder?” Anisa stated harshly as she floored the gas pedal, trying to keep up with Murder.

  A killer? I thought incredulously. I’m around him all the time. How could I have not known? Why didn’t he just tell me? I’m a big girl. I could’ve handled it.

  I was lost in my thoughts and couldn’t picture the attentive man I had come to know killing anybody, but then the look of rage that I had witnessed in his eyes the night of my party flashed through my mind. “I will murder a nigga over you!” he had said. I could hear his words as if he was in my ear whispering them at that very moment. Syllable by syllable, the phrase replayed in my mind. At the time I thought he was being overprotective, but now I knew that he had meant every word he had spoken. It was something flattering about the fact that he would take a risk like that over me. Instead of feeling fear, I smiled, but quickly wiped it off my face so Anisa wouldn’t take notice.

  I felt the car jerk as she hit her breaks suddenly, and cut off her headlights. “There that nigga go right there. What the fuck is he doing way out here? He gone make me beat a bitch ass!” Anisa threatened. She was so blind with rage that she was not making sense.

  As I looked around, I frowned. We were pulling onto a dead end street. There was nothing around us but old, abandoned buildings. “Anisa, I think you’re taking this too far,” I finally spoke up.

  “I’m not trying to hear all that. All I know is if he’s meeting a bitch here, I’m gon’ fuck some shit up,” she said.

  I sighed and noticed lights approaching from behind

  “Get down. Here comes somebody,” she said.

  We inched down in our seats until the car had passed us, and noticed that it was stopping directly next to Murder’s vehicle. The brake lights came on, and somebody stepped out of the car. It was hard to see because al
l of the street lights were busted out in this part of town.

  “I can’t see shit,” Anisa whispered. “Can you see who just got out of the car?”

  “I can only see Murder,” I replied.

  “Fuck this!” Anisa said. She got out of the car and shouted, “Murder, what the fuck is going on?”

  “Nigga, you trying to set me up?” I heard a man’s voice yell out angrily.

  I scrambled to turn on the headlights because I still couldn’t see what was going on. Finally, I turned the lights on, illuminating the dead end.

  Murder reached for his pistol, but before he could pull it from his waistline, the guy Murder had been meeting withdrew first, pointing a chrome .45 in Murder’s face.

  “No!” I heard Anisa scream as she ran toward the scene.

  “Anisa!” I yelled after her as I got out of the car.

  Murder rushed the dude who had to be twice his size, and his sneak attack caused the guy’s gun to slide across the concrete.

  “Murder!” Anisa cried out as she watched the two men tussle on the ground

  Murder finally pulled his gun, but the dude wasn’t giving up easily. He grabbed Murder’s wrists and used his weight to his advantage as they struggled for power, both knowing that whoever ended up with the steel in their hands at the end was the only one leaving the scene alive.

  Anisa ran straight into the confrontation, grabbing the guy by the shirt. He flung her to the ground and muscled the gun away from Murder.

  I ran as fast as I could toward them. My flip flops came off halfway there and the gravel dug into the bottom of my feet as I sprinted toward my sister. He had the gun pointed their way, but never saw me coming. I picked up a brick and smashed it against the side of his face with all my might. It was like an ant going against a giant, because although it dazed him, it didn’t stop him from firing the gun. He slapped the shit out of me, sending me flying to the ground. I landed on my stomach, something hard digging into my side as I heard the gun shots ring out.

  Boom! Boom!

  “No!” I screamed. I felt Murder’s gun directly underneath me and I grabbed it without thinking, and still lying on the ground, I scrambled backwards and fired.

  Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

  The dude dropped instantly and in the blink of an eye, and behind some beef that I did not even own, I’d caught my second body.

  Flashes of Perry came back to me. I started to relive that nightmare all over again . . . Anisa’s screams in my ear, the baby she had killed because of him . . . all of the sudden the man lying before me dying was Perry. The dude was scrambling, holding his stomach and choking on his own blood. Shakily, I stood to my feet, walked over to him, and put the gun to his head. I pulled the trigger again and again and again, until the click of an empty chamber forced me to stop, and his blood splatter covered my shirt.

  “Oh my God! Oh my God!” Anisa yelled out. “I’m so sorry, Murder! I’m so sorry!”

  I could hear sirens in my ears, but I couldn’t force myself to move. My feet felt like they were made of cement.

  “Miamor, help me . . . he’s shot!”

  I was in a daze. I heard Anisa calling my name, but it wasn’t until I heard Murder call me that I snapped out of it. “Miamor!” he called out sternly. I turned my head, my chest heaving, tears in my eyes, and distress in my heart. “I need you, ma!”

  His shirt was soaked in blood, and Anisa helped him to his feet. He cringed in pain as her hands searched his body. “Where are you hit?” she asked, the sirens getting clearer.

  Murder lifted his shirt to reveal the vest he wore underneath. “It’s just a shoulder wound,” he stated. “Come on, we’ve got to get out of here,” he said with urgency.

  He led Anisa back to her car and put her in the passenger side. She was crying and kept apologizing over and over. “Get in the car, Anisa!” he yelled as he stuffed her inside and closed the door. He then came over to me. The sounds of the police were right around the corner now. I knew they would be here at any minute.

  I looked up at Murder. “I shot him!” I whispered. My hands were shaking. The second murder of my life had not been as easy to commit as the first. This one shook me to the bottom of my soul. Did he have kids? A wife? He was somebody’s son. Did he deserve to die? All of these things ran through my mind in a split second.

  Murder put his hand on the side of my face. “I know what you’re feeling, ma.”

  I couldn’t look him in the face.

  “Look at me,” he said. “You did what you had to do. Now, I need you to get your head together and fast. I need you to get out of here. Take this gun and take care of it for me. Listen to me, Miamor, it’s important.” He grabbed my shoulders and stared at me intensely. “No weapons, no body, no murder. I need you to make that happen. I’m trusting you, li’l mama. I’ll distract the police away from you.”

  “You’re hurt! What about you? He’s dead. They’ll arrest you,” I said as I shook my head.

  “Just do it!” He pushed me inside the car and hit the top of the roof. “Drive, Miamor. Go now!”

  I skirted out of the dead end and took off down the road as I watched him run back and get into his car. I made a right off of the dead end street just as a police car was pulling onto it. Then, Murder turned recklessly to the left and sideswiped the police car purposefully to get them to follow him.

  “Oh my God! Miamor, they’re going after him! Why did I do this? This is all my fault! That’s not even me, Mia. I don’t even do shit like this!” Anisa cried hysterically.

  “Shut up, Anisa!” I yelled. “What’s done is done. You have to calm down. I have to get rid of this gun, and we need to lay low. I can’t think with you in my ear with all that crying.”

  Anisa sat back in her seat and muffled her cries, while I found myself driving back into the city. I worried about going across the bridge and paying the toll. I was paranoid. If by some chance the police had gotten the plate number on Anisa’s car, then they would be waiting for us for sure. If the car got searched, then it would be a wrap, because the murder weapon was under my seat with my prints all over it.

  When I came to the toll, I felt like my heart was going to explode. I was sweating, my face was swollen from being slapped to the ground, and I knew I looked a mess. The worker didn’t even look my way as she took my money and allowed me to enter New York.

  “Where are we going?” Anisa asked.

  “I have to do something,” I replied quietly. “It’s important.” I found myself driving to Queens, to the pawnshop that Murder had taken me to when I first got out. I was surprised that I remembered where it was, but instinct led me there. He had told me to get rid of the gun. This is the only way I knew how to.

  It was too early for the pawnshop to be open, so we waited. Anisa eventually fell asleep, but I couldn’t. Not after everything that had gone down. I was wide awake and more afraid than I had ever been. The moon disappeared as the sun kissed the city streets and welcomed a new day. Hours had passed, and when I finally saw the owner approach the pawnshop, I jumped out of the car and met him at the front door.

  “I need your help,” I said frantically.

  He looked at me curiously, probably wondering what hell I’d been through since my face was bruised and there was still blood all over me. “Murder sent me. I need to get rid of a gun.”

  The older man nodded and ushered me inside, then locked the door behind us. I put the gun on the counter the same way I had seen Murder do months before.

  “It’s five hundred each gun,” he said.

  “I don’t have any money,” I admitted.

  “I’m not running a charity, girl. Five hundred is my price,” he stated.

  I held the car key to Anisa’s whip in my hand. I held it up for him. “Take the car.”

  “For a five hundred dollar debt you are giving me a brand new car?” the man asked suspiciously.

  “Look!” I yelled in desperation. “I need to get rid of this gun. I don’t give a fuck
about the car. How much is the car worth?”

  “I’ll give you ten grand for it,” the man stated.

  “Fine. Give me nine thousand, five hundred dollars and make this gun disappear,” I settled.

  He nodded, and I followed him to the basement where the barrels of acid were located. After watching the gun dissolve in the acid, I felt relieved.

  “You need anything else?” he asked, and motioned toward the wall of guns and weapons.

  I nodded. After what I had just done, I didn’t want to be caught slipping. I had no idea what type of repercussions would come from my actions, and I wanted to be prepared. “Give me something small.”

  The old man pulled a small black .25 from the wall. “How does that feel in your hands?” he asked.

  I gripped the tiny handgun and nodded my head in approval. “I’ll take it.”

  I rushed out of the shop to find Anisa waiting anxiously in the car.

  “Get out,” I instructed.

  “What do you mean, get out? What’s happening?” she looked terrible. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying and she had bags full of worry.

  “I sold your car,” I said.

  “What?” she exclaimed.

  “Nis, this car can be traced back to that murder scene. It’s not worth it.” I split the money I had left with her. “We’ll take the subway back home. We need to wait to hear from Murder.”

  “How did you know where to go to get rid of the gun?” she asked.

  I stopped walking and turned toward her. “Murder taught me,” I replied.

  Chapter Six

  Back to the Cartel

  Carter sat inside the Diamond Estate . . . his father’s home . . . now his home, and sighed in angst from his current circumstance. He had been released from jail just weeks before because the prosecutor’s star witness, Ace, suddenly had a change of heart. Carter smiled, knowing that Mecca and Zyir had came through for him and got him off the hook. Now that he was out, he had more important things on his mind instead of prison. Mecca sat across from him, cautiously watching Carter.