Love & Gunplay: A Novelette

by K'wan

  His brother's death had been a wake up call for Minister and he threw himself completely into the company. Minister and his had clients from all walks of life, but they catered to celebrities. Since Miami had become the new it spot, everybody wanted to come down and sample the forbidden fruits that it had to offer. What most tended to forget was, for all its beauty, Miami was a dangerous place and to navigate its underworld you needed dangerous men with you. Few were more dangerous than the team Minister had assembled. Minister and his team protected some high profile people and the ones who didn’t hire Minister found themselves victims of random acts of violence every time they touched the city, until they finally caught on and went along with the program. By the time that they arrived at their destination, Animal had a new found respect for the young man in the suit.

  Minister drove them to a rundown strip off N.W. 79th street, where he pulled the car into a narrow parking lot between a small carpet store and a rickety looking blocked shaped building that appeared to be undergoing some kind of renovation. Scaffolding snaked around the lower level of the building to catch the debris from the work they were doing on the roof. Most of the original paint had been sandblasted off and was being replaced by a fresh coat of purple paint. Why someone would paint a building purple was beyond Animal. The place had seen better days, but someone was making an effort to restore it. Hanging on the side of the building was a burnt out sign that had once read Foxxy Lady Lounge, but like everything else since Diamonds had hit the scene, it would soon be replaced.

  "This it?" Animal asked looking up at the structure.

  "This is it." Minister confirmed and got out of the car. Unique followed and eventually so did Animal.

  Animal followed Minister and Unique around to the front of the building, occasionally stepping over buckets of paint or other building supplies. Outside there were a few cats looming around the door. They stepped aside and nodded in greeting when Minister passed them and went inside the club. Animal looked at the dark maw that was the entrance of the spot and felt the butterflies in his stomach begin to stir. Unique must've picked up on his apprehension because she skated up and took him by the hand.

  "You’re good here." Unique assured him.

  With a bit of reluctance Animal allowed her to lead him inside. The inside of the place was nicer than the outside. The entrance was clean and lined with a brand new carpet that was the same deeps shade of purple as the outside. Minister was standing in the foyer, outside the coat room, speaking to two men. Both were dark skinned but one was older than the other. The older man wore his hair in a low cut salt and pepper afro. A white patch covered his right eye. The younger man wore his hair in corn rows that stopped just above his shoulders. A nappy beard covered the lower half of his face but it seemed thinner along the left side of his face. When he spoke, Animal noticed the familiar glint of gold on his teeth. The man turned his head slightly so that his face was illuminated by the overhead light and Animal could see what looked like a cluster of small burns that went from his cheek, down the side of his neck. He must've felt Animal staring because he turned on him, barked something at Minister and walked away.

  "Don't stare. He hates it when people stare." Unique whispered. "Minister will take you to meet Diamonds and I'll see you guys in the back. Don’t disappear on me, cutie." Unique winked and skated away.

  "Animal." Minister approached, with the other man trailing him. "This is Blue, one of our comrades." He made the introduction.

  Blue gave Animal the once over with his good eye and smirked. "Funny, from all that I've heard about you'd I expected you to be a lot bigger."

  "You know what they say; it ain't the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog." Animal replied in a cooler than cool tone.

  Blue laughed and gave Animal a firm slap on the back. "I like this lil nigga. Y'all come on in the back so we can get with Diamonds." Blue walked off and stepped through the curtain that led to the interior of the club. Animal stepped forward to follow, but Minister stopped him.

  "What brought you to this place isn’t my business, but from one black man to another I feel I should say this to you. If there's any other solution to your problems, I think you should explore those. Once you step through that curtain into the lair of the beast there will be no turning back." Minister told him.

  "Minister, I appreciate your honesty, so let me be completely honest with you. I've come too far to turn back even if I wanted to." Animal stepped passed him and parted the curtains.

  When Animal appeared on the other side of the veil he was taken aback. He found himself standing in the middle of a large room that spanned the length of the building. Animal had to give his eyes a minute to adjust because he had never in his life seen so much purple. The floors, the walls, even the fluorescent lights that ringed the bar were tinted purple with a flash of hot pinks and blues thrown in. It felt like an acid trip gone wrong, but Animal couldn’t deny the fact that the place was different.

  Standing on the bar was a thick pecan colored stallion, wearing little more than a few strips of cloth that were supposed to pass for a bikini. The place wasn’t that crowded because it was early but the few dudes who were there crowded around the bar watching the girl do her thing. She had all their attentions held fast, but her focus was on the stranger who had just entered the room. The light bounced off strange purple contacts she was wearing making her eyes seem to glow. Animal wanted to turn away, but there was something about the dancer that wouldn’t allow him to. He had taken two steps towards the bar when Minister laid a hand on his shoulder.

  "Stay focused, brother. Your business is with Diamonds, not Reign." Minister steered Animal back the other way.

  "What is this place?" Animal asked, trying not to look over his shoulder at Reign.

  "Purple City. When it's finished it'll be a circus within a circus of a city. But why I don’t let the ring master tell you about it himself." Minister led Animal deeper into the club.

  Sitting at a table way in the back were a group of men. Animal recognized the one with the cornrows and gold teeth from the front when he'd come in. He scowled at Animal and whispered something to the man sitting to his right. He was brown skinned with a young face and big lips. His long dreads hung down his face and swept the table as he nodded at whatever the other man was saying. When he looked up at the two men approaching his table, Animal knew without a doubt that he was Diamonds. He had a look that Animal would recognize anywhere because he saw it every time he looked in the mirror. The eyes of a killer.

  CHAPTER 4

  Alonzo had planned to just kick it in the crib for the rest of the night until he'd gotten the call from Lakim. King James wanted them to meet up in the hood about a situation. Alonzo already knew what he was talking about. Someone had obviously found the body he and Ashanti left in the building where they kept one of their stash houses. Not really knowing what to expect, he got dressed and headed out.

  When Alonzo got to the block he spotted King James, Lakim, Dee, Meek and Ashanti huddled under the L instead of in front of the projects where they usually congregated. They were focused one something across the street that he couldn’t see yet. As he approached them he heard shouting coming from the other side of the street and instinctively ducked. He peered across the street, where King James and the rest had their eyes fixed, and saw someone standing in the middle of the playground. He recognized him as one of the young boys from the neighborhood but didn’t really know him. He was pacing back and forth with a bottle of liquor in one hand and a gun in the other. Every so often he would shout something and fire a shot into the air.

  "What the fuck is going on?" Alonzo asked.

  "The young boy is tripping. He been at it for about a half hour." King James informed him.

  "Who the hell is he?" Alonzo was curious to know

  "Zodiah." Meek said as if he was about to recount a ghost story. "He calls him self General Zod and the boy is a certified juvenile delinquent. He plays wi
th them thangs heavy, which is why I'm surprised you don’t know him, Zo. Guns were your game, weren’t they?"

  "A long time ago." Alonzo said. "Nah, I don’t know the kid. What's he tripping off?"

  "Family." Dee picked up the story. "Somebody killed his big brother earlier and when Zod found out he lost it. I heard he got a hold of one of those dipped cigarettes and came out here on some Wild Bill shit. He said he gonna keep it turned up on the hood until somebody comes forward about who killed his brother. I believe him too. He shot one nigga already since we were standing out here. Him and his brother were close."

  "Who was his brother?" Alonzo asked, fearing he already knew the answer.

  "A kid named Terror. You knew him?" King James studied Alonzo's face.

  "Nah, I didn’t know him. I'd only started hearing about him after he shot the lil girl." The lie rolled so fluidly off Alonzo's tongue that he almost believed it.

  King James continued. "They found him shot and stabbed in the stairwell of the building."

  Ashanti whistled. "Damn, shot and stabbed? Somebody must've wanted him outta the way pretty bad."

  "Seems so." King James said.

  "This nigga is making the block hotter than it already is with all this shooting. What you wanna do about this nigga, King?" Lakim asked.

  King James nodded at the blue and white police car that had just pulled up. "We ain't gotta do shit but sit back and watch the festivities. This should be interesting."

  Zod had been knee deep in the guts of a pretty Spanish girl when he'd gotten the dreaded call. He ignored the phone the first few times it rung, but on the third time picked it up. When his little homie had told him of his discovery his whole body went numb. His big brother Terror had been a God in his eyes and somebody had killed him.

  The first thing he did was hit the block to confirm the rumor. Sure enough when he arrived he found the building taped off and his grandmother on the sidelines being consoled by neighbors, while the police questioned her. He was so broken up that he couldn’t face her. He had no words that would ease her pain. The only thing he could think of that would make this right was murder.

  He went to see his man on the Eastside and bought three cigarettes dipped in PCP. Zod generally didn’t do anything harder than weed or alcohol but he needed something extra that night. He had never done PCP and was caught unprepared for the freight train that slammed into his brain halfway through the first cigarette. It was as if he was standing outside his body, watching himself slip on a bullet proof vest and grab his brother's favorite .44 Taurus off the dresser.

  Zod's body was on fire and he desperately needed air. He stepped outside with a frown on his face and rage in his heart, born of drugs and fueled by liquor. The PCP had his mind racing so fast that he couldn’t slow his thoughts long enough to make sense of them. He stumbled out into the courtyard in front of the building. There were a few people out trying to enjoy the weather, despite the dark cloud of what happened earlier still lingering. Off to the side there was a young dude making a sale to the crack head. Zod didn’t know him, but something about his face made him angry. He approached the kid with the .44 tucked behind his back.

  "Yo." Zod called out. The kid looked around confused because he wasn’t sure who Zod was talking to. "You mutha fucka!"

  "You know me, scrap?" the kid asked with an attitude.

  "Nah, I don’t know you." Zod pulled the .44 and pointed it at the kid's face. "But I'm gonna get to know your thoughts if you don’t tell me what happened with my brother."

  "Man, I don’t know you or your brother." The kid said nervously.

  "Don’t lie to me!" Zod raged. "Y'all niggaz in this hood never liked my brother and that's why y'all killed him. Y'all some jealous ass niggaz."

  "On everything I love I don’t know nothing about nobody getting shot." The kid tried to explain.

  "Too bad, because if you can't tell me what I want to know then that makes you useless." Zod pulled the trigger. The bullet hit the kid in the shoulder and knocked him over the fence, which is probably the only thing that saved his life. Zod lost sight of him in the bushes and by the time he spotted him the kid was scrambling across the street, clutching his wounded shoulder. Zod fired after him but the kid was only gone.

  The sound of gunshots made the few people who were in front of the park scatter like roaches. Seeing their panic excited Zod to the point where he had gotten an erection. Their fear was more potent than any drug he'd ever tried and he wanted more of it, so he fired at the fleeing people. "That's right, run like the scared lil bitches y'all are. This whole hood will kneel before General Zod for what y'all did to my brother!" he fired off another shot at the crowd. Thankfully he didn’t hit anyone, but his point was made.

  A blue and white police car jumped the curb and two officers spilled out with their guns drawn. They advanced on Zod but he didn’t seem to care as he walked to meet them half way. "Oh, y'all want some of General Zod?" he his gun dangled at his side.

  "Put the fucking gun down, now!" One of the officers ordered.

  "Fuck you! I give the orders around here." Zod fired two shots and backed the police up to their car for cover. Two more police cars joined the first and they the officers returned fire at the crazed man with the .44. Zod just laughed, taking his time to reload the gun as the bullets whizzed by him. Once his gun was reloaded he got back to shooting at the police. He was so far in the throws of the PCP that it never even occurred to him that he was fighting a battle that he couldn’t win.

  The police returned fire, mostly missing, but one bullet grazed Zod's arm and temporarily brought him back to sanity and he realized the seriousness of his situation. Zod had opened fire on the police so even if he wanted to surrender wasn’t an option. They meant to kill him, and he was more than ready to die, but not before his brother's death was avenged.

  The police closed in on him from both ramps and over the fence that separated the playground from the street. Things were getting bad for Zod in a hurry. He backpedaled towards the building, occasionally letting off a shot at the police to keep them back. He knew he didn’t have the firepower to go to war so his best bet was to make a grand escape. He yanked at the handle of the lobby door and surprisingly it was locked. The lobby door lock had been broken all summer and it was just his luck that they fixed it when he needed it to be broken most. Luckily a woman was coming out at the same time he was trying to get in. Zod grabbed her in a reverse chokehold and used her as a shield to keep the police at bay.

  "You come any closer and I'm gonna waste this bitch." Zod told the advancing officers. He made sure to keep her in front of him incase one of the cops got trigger happy.

  "Please, I got three babies to get home to. Don’t do this." The woman pleaded.

  "Lady, trust me I've got no intentions on harming you. If I had any other choice it wouldn’t even be going down like this, but if I let you go they're gonna kill me. Just stay cool and we can both make it out of this alive." Zod told her.

  "Let the lady go." One of the cops closest to him shouted to Zod. He inched ever closer to the gunman.

  Zod fired a shot in his direction to back him up. "I'll let your brains go if you don’t back the fuck up!"

  Still holding the woman in front of him, Zod reached behind him and pulled the lobby door open. He back up into the lobby, sweeping his gun back and forth at the police advancing on both sides. When he was clear, he pushed the woman outside, slammed the lobby door and headed for the rear exit. Zod felt bad about the woman, but the ends justified the means and she served her purpose. If he could make it out the back of the building he was home free.

  Zod jumped down the short flight of steps leading to the back door and kicked it open. When he felt the cool air on his face, he smiled knowing that he was in the clear. As soon as Zod stepped out of the rear exit and let the door close behind him, the smile faded as he found himself trapped by a dozen police officers, all aiming guns at him.

  "Aw fuck!" was all Zod cou
ld say before they opened fire.

  King James and his crew stood around with the rest of the spectators after the epic gun battle that had just taken place in their hood. Two paramedics, escorted by a half dozen cops, wheeled Zod on a gurney to the waiting ambulance. Even after getting shot up and handcuffed, Zod was still carrying on like a lunatic.

  "You mutha fuckas think you can hold me? Never. I'm General Zod. I'm invincible!" Zod babbled as he struggled against the cuffs that bound him to the gurney.

  "Shut the fuck up." One of the officers escorting Zod jabbed him in the ribs with his nightstick, causing Zod to howl out in pain.

  "Fuck you!" Zod foamed at the mouth and tried as hard as he could to get to the officer. "I'm General Zod; your court system has no power over me. I make the rules!" Zod ranted as they loaded him into the back of the ambulance. He was still going off the PCP and it would be a while before the seriousness of his situation set in. When he finally did become competent enough to stand before a judge Zod would realize that avenging his brother's murder would be the least of the problems he was facing.

  "That nigga made a straight movie out here." Dee said as the y all watched the ambulance carrying Zod disappear into the night.