by Brick
The woman screamed and pleaded as Shy turned to walk away. “No, please, please don’t leave me. He said if you just told him to let me go, he would. I . . . I don’t want to go back with him, please,” Candace cried.
I saw a side of Shy I’d never seen before in that moment. A woman all about sisterhood flicked her wrist and kept walking. “Not my problem,” she yelled over her shoulder.
Candace knew she was pretty much fucked. She looked up at me from the trunk of the car. I saw my best friend. Saw Gina’s face staring up at me and it bothered me.
“Be careful who you kill and be even more careful of who you leave alive.”
Enzo’s words played over and over in my head. Candace’s thick thighs were bruised. Nose had dried-up blood caked in the crevices of it. Her thick, luscious lips had been bloodied and were swollen. Paper cuts lined her breasts and one could only assume Caltrone had allowed Lilith to play before she’d gone to see Enzo. But no matter how hard I tried to see the woman Candace was, all I could remember was the way Gina had been treated in that basement. It was for that very reason I spit in her face then slammed the trunk closed.
It was over. Finally, it was over. At least that was what I was hoping as I waited for Enzo. It had been hours and we hadn’t heard a word from him. Nothing. So I waited. Waited where I knew no one would look for him. I prayed silently as I waited. Didn’t know what else to do. After bringing Lilith to him as he’d instructed, I hopped in the car and got Shy home. Mirror had demanded it when she had almost lost her footing because she’d been too weak to stand. There, we waited on Enzo. I just needed him to call me or text or something. But all we got was the hum of the central heating system and silence.
That was why I sat outside of a sprawling mansion in Alpharetta, Georgia. I needed to see a man about his grandson. I hopped out of the car dressed like I was one of those La Bella Donnas who married into the mob. I’d seen the way Shy had dressed when she’d gone to see the man. I made note of it as I dressed that morning. I probably could have afforded to buy the red bottoms and designer clothes if I had used the money Enzo had given me before, but I wanted to use my own money so Target, Walmart, and Macy’s were all I could afford. Still, I made that shit look like it was designer everything.
I knew that what I was about to do would probably cost me more than money in the end. It would probably cost me my soul, but I had to do it. Had to ensure that what happened to Micah didn’t fall back on Enzo. I mean, I knew Shy and the Kings had pull, but whether we liked it or not, the Orlandos still ran ATL. They were all in the prison system, in the governor’s mansion, the mayor’s office, the police office. They had their shit on point. Hidden in plain sight and you would never know it.
The wind was blowing so hard that it threatened to knock me on my ass as I waited at the door. There was no sun. Just dark and gloom seemed to hang overhead. Maybe that was a sign that I should have left, but I’d come too far to turn back.
Two armed men opened the door for me. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to see that they were Orlandos. Those men had a look about them. One gave a lopsided grin as he ogled my body while the other respectfully, surprisingly, asked me to step inside.
“The old man is in the dining room waiting on you. Angel, right?” the respectful one asked.
Before I answered him, I moved to the side so his partner in crime wouldn’t be behind me. Didn’t trust him. My heels clicked against the Italian marble flooring as I moved and then looked up at the man. Both looked like their skin had been kissed by the sun. The respectful one had a Cuban accent that would make most women moist; it only made my flesh crawl. They were five feet eleven and six feet in height. The one talking to me had a bald head with a goatee that had been razor shaped to perfection. Eyes so black it looked like he could see right through you. There was a scar that ran from his left ear all the way around to the right. I didn’t want to know how he’d gotten it.
The one obviously focused on my ass had a low-cut fade with deep waves. Coffee brown beady eyes that annoyed me instantly. He had a baby face with grown folk teeth. Not to say that he was ugly; he just wasn’t my type of hype. Both men were dressed in black pants with red dress shirts.
“Yeah, I’m Angel,” I finally answered.
“Gotta pat you down for weapons, little lady,” the other one said.
I wanted to put up a fight, but I knew if I did I risked getting kicked out. So I spread my arms and pretty much allowed the goon to molest me. He took his time, went way too slow as he ran his hands up and down my sides. The high-waist skirt and button-down shirt I had on basically tapered to my shape so there was no way he thought I had a gun on me. When he stood in front of me and ran his hands over and under my breasts, I smacked the shit out that nigga. I hit him so hard that his respectful comrade chuckled and then stepped in front of me.
“That’s enough, Mark,” the other one told him.
Mark looked at me like he wanted to lay hands on me.
“You feeling froggy then leap, nigga,” I dared him. There may have not been a gun on me, but there was a weapon somewhere.
“Puta de mierda,” he growled low, calling me a fucking bitch. He bucked at me like he was going to come for me, but with the respectful one standing between us, he couldn’t get to me. I’d already slid my hand into my purse, ready to defend myself. I was scared as shit, but I wouldn’t let him know it.
“Frederick, what’s the holdup?” Caltrone called from the dining room.
“We’re coming. Had a little situation,” he yelled back. Frederick shook his head as he whistled and laughed low while Mark continued to call me bitches under his breath. Frederick made Mark walk in front of me and he walked behind me as they led me to the area where Caltrone was waiting for me. He was sitting at the head of an elaborately decorated table. A feast was set out before him. Although the man was a menace to society, he was very well put together. I was sure he knew I was there. Still, he continued to cut into his steak and eat like I wasn’t. Part of me wanted to look around the place and take in my surroundings, but the other half of me just wanted to get in and get out as quickly as I could.
“Come, have a seat, Angel. Break bread with your husband’s grandfather,” Caltrone said without turning to look at me.
I already knew the drill. As a woman, I had to kiss his ring again. It was another way for him to slight me being a woman. Another way for him to keep women in their place. I took his hand then kissed the Orlando crest before sitting to the right of him. I’d noticed before that his hands were soft, but the calluses there told that he didn’t mind getting his hands dirty. I sat in silence as he ordered Frederick to have the cook bring me out a plate. I wasn’t hungry, but knew he was prolonging my visit because he could. Control was what he lived on. I saw where Enzo got it from.
I half expected Lilith to stroll in. Lilith had been Caltrone’s mouthpiece. He’d trained her so perfectly that she knew when to speak and when not to speak. She could carry on a whole conversation for him as if he wasn’t in the room. But she wasn’t there and I could only speculate what Enzo was doing or had done to her. I brought my attention back to the enigma in front of me. Caltrone never looked up at me; his eyes never even looked in my general direction. The only thing I could hear was his silverware hitting the plate at times and my nerves jumping around the place. I was so nervous that I accidently knocked over the glass of wine in front of me.
“Shit,” I mumbled to myself.
Caltrone stopped eating and looked over at spill; not me, but the spill. “Clean it up,” he said in a low monotone.
“What?” I asked.
“Clean it up. Now.”
My mind flashed back to Dame. That nigga had OCD. There was never a dirty room in his mansion. Not even a crumb had touched the floor. If so, that nigga would flip. I didn’t want a repeat of that, being that the man in front of me was probably the originator of all the evil that ran through the Orlando men. Luckily for me, I didn’t have to do too much cleani
ng. Frederick called out to someone in Spanish in the kitchen. A young woman came out with cleaning supplies. She cleaned the mess I’d made so fast it was like it had never happened. I thanked her. She nodded and then quickly exited the room. Caltrone turned back to his food and started to eat.
“Why are you here?” he finally asked me. “Need me to do what this time?”
“This thing with Micah, I need to make sure that none of it leads back to Enzo. For the past few weeks he’s been all in the news for alleged charges of guns and drugs. If Micah comes up missing, I don’t want Enzo’s name anywhere near it.”
“And how do you figure I can help you with that?”
I inhaled then exhaled as I squirmed around in my seat. Caltrone was a mind fucker. He liked to make you state the obvious just to keep you where he wanted you.
“He doesn’t mind sitting in jail, but I do. All his life all he wanted to do was play football, make it to the NFL, get to the Super Bowl, and take care of his family. If he goes to jail for any reason at this point he’ll miss that opportunity because of some shit he wanted no part of anyway.”
Caltrone’s fork stopped midway to his mouth. “Was that an insult to the Orlando name?”
“If that was how you took it.”
He gripped the fork in his hand a way that let me know he was having thoughts of shanking me with it. “What you will not do is insult this family,” he snarled.
“I’m only responsible for what I say, not for what you comprehend. I didn’t come here to be disrespectful or to get into a piss slinging match with you. I came to keep Enzo out of jail.”
“Not going to happen.”
“Why?” I asked. “You came in telling Shawn that if he needs anything he can call on you and now you say no?”
Caltrone’s eyes narrowed as he looked down his nose at me. Chills settled into my spine and goose bumps rose on my flesh. “I told him he could, not you.” Caltrone laid his fork down, casually wiped at his mouth with the cloth napkin that had his initial inscribed on it, and then turned to look at me.
“So, I don’t have the right to speak for him?”
“Maybe in the outside world you can, but not with me.”
“And just why the hell not? I’m his wife.”
“By force, not by choice.”
“It doesn’t matter.”
“So you say.”
“Does this mean you’re going to help?”
“Only if you do something for me.”
I got a bit uncomfortable and squirmed around in my seat. The man was an Orlando so agreeing to do him a favor could have me signing my soul away to the devil. “Something like what?” I nervously asked.
“I need a one on one with my grandson,” he said casually.
That confused me as he could speak to Enzo anytime he wanted. I shrugged. “You can talk to Enzo whenever.”
“I have more than one grandson, Angel. I mean the one they’re intentionally keeping away from me.”
“Andrew?”
He nodded once. “Andrew.”
I shook my head. Shy would never allow for that to happen. That was why Drew hadn’t spoken to him the way Enzo had asked before. Shy knew Caltrone had a way with words and the last thing she needed was for him to be in Drew’s ear. No matter how smart we all knew he was, Drew still had a lot of growing up to do.
“Shy wouldn’t—”
“Do you want me to help Shawn or not?”
“So you won’t help him—”
“Bring me Andrew.”
“Why?”
Caltrone looked at me with a smile so sinister it chilled me. Actually, saying it chilled me would have been an understatement. “Because he’s impressionable,” he had the gall to answer. “Let’s be honest, here. The Kulu Tribe has painted me as the devil, no? And in many senses, I am, sí. However, there are always three sides to a story: their side, my side, and the truth. The truth of the matter is I’ve done some evil shit, mami. I’ve taken out every Tribe king I intended to. I’ve never bitten a dog that didn’t bite me first. I always bite the dog that bit me and that will never change. Ask yourself how two men went from best friends to arch nemeses. Ask yourself why the blood spilled between our two factions runs so deep. See, the thing with the Kulu Tribe is that they like to make themselves the exception to the rule. I kill and I’m the devil. They kill and it’s justified. Doesn’t matter your reason for killing somebody, you’re still a killer, no?”
He paused, took a sip of the blood red wine sitting in front of him, and then continued talking. “Tell my grandson to never make himself the exception to the rule, mami. They’ve poisoned him with their half truths and whole lies. Ask him, how could Kulu King Phenom, Queen Anika, or any of them tell the whole truth when they don’t know the origin of this beef between two grown men, huh?”
Caltrone was passionate in the way he spoke. If one didn’t know any better they would say the old man showed a hint of emotion. I didn’t say anything because I didn’t know what to say. I would allow him to keep talking as long as he got his mind off of me bringing Drew to see him.
“So,” he continued, “they can paint me any way they want to. I own every fucking evil deed I did. Feel no kind of way about it, because I own my shit.” He spoke emphatically as he used two fingers to tap his chest. “One day I’m going to die. All my sins will come back to haunt me and I’ll be waiting for death with open arms because it will be no more than I deserve. Until then, my aim is to tell my grandsons the whole story, the whole truth, sí? So do we have a deal or no?”
I took a deep breath, and felt my heart sinking. “I couldn’t betray Shy’s trust—”
He cut me off again. “Does Queen Iya know you’re here?”
I moved my gaze away from his piercing one and then looked at the floor before back up to him. “No,” I murmured.
“Of course she doesn’t. Tell me this, Angel, if I help you, what’s in it for me? I know for a fact that Shawn didn’t send you to me. I can tell he doesn’t want anything to do with me. No matter how much he tolerates me, he’s been poisoned by his other side of the family against me. I see the Kulu Tribe all through him.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?” I asked.
“If he knew you were here, what would he do to you, Bianca Smith . . . Orlando?”
My eye twitched when he added his moniker on to my last name. I shuddered to think what Enzo or Shy would think knowing I’d gone behind their backs and tried to barter a deal with the devil.
“He would probably be pissed, never trust me again. Would probably lay hands on me.” I shrugged for emphasis. “Doesn’t matter to me though. I’ll do whatever—”
“Be careful what you say in my presence,” Caltrone cut in. “Saying you’ll do whatever for Shawn would be walking into the lion’s den.” His smirk was disturbing as he watched me. “I am who I am.”
I didn’t know how to respond to that so I didn’t. The elder Orlando sat at the head of the table like he was a true king as he studied me. There was something in his eyes I couldn’t read, but I knew I didn’t like it. Caltrone had a poker face that was just as deadly as his bark and his bite. After a while, he picked up his fork again and began to eat.
“So, will you help me or not?” I asked, a bit frustrated.
“That depends on if you will help me, Angel. I do nothing for free. If you fuck me, I fuck you.”
The way he looked at me after he said that made me uneasy. I felt the need to get the hell up out of there. I decided to follow my first instinct. I pushed my chair back then turned to walk out. Frederick and Mark blocked my exit.
“Sit down,” Caltrone calmly demanded of me.
Even though piss was damn near running down my leg at the thought of being defiant to the man, I stood my ground. “Not if you’re not going to help me. I didn’t come here for bullshit. I came to talk business and if you don’t want to do that then there is no reason for me to stay here.”
Caltrone stood up so quickly
that I stumbled over my feet trying to back away from him. I backed into Frederick, who felt like a brick wall behind me. The old man closed the distance between me and him swiftly. His lips were turned down like I stunk to him as his eyes narrowed to slits. Flashes of the times Dame had laid slaps and punches across my face had me visibly shaken. I took a deep breath and swallowed, finally seeing that Dame’s temper came honest. Caltrone was a lot taller, way more menacing when he was standing directly over you, glowering as he did so.
“I said sit down,” he demanded through clenched teeth. “No one leaves this place alive unless I say so. Don’t make me lose my grandson; I just got him. You mean nothing to me and I will kill you if you disrespect me in my home again. Understand, sí?”
There was something in me that made me want to tell him to fuck himself. Something grew in me that had my gripping my purse, ready to draw my weapon and end my life while ending Caltrone’s. Then I remembered how incensed Dame would get when one of the girls would fight back against him. I remembered the way he seemed to be turned on by it and in turn he would go harder at them, whether it was with sex or knocking one of us the fuck out. I remembered how Shy told me Lu liked to make her scream for him. Said it seemed to only feed him, make him worse. Add those thoughts to the fact that no one knew where I was and I knew I was fucked. There would be no way I could win that fight.
As bad as I wanted to fight the old man, I had no desire to see, first hand, where Dame and his father had gotten their rage and aggression.
I glanced at Mark to see him watching with a slick smirk on his face. I could tell he would have given anything to witness me feel the old man’s wrath. I picked my pride up and slowly walked back to my chair. My whole body stiffened when he moved behind me and placed his big hands on my shoulders.
“I don’t do anything for free. Even if he is my grandson. I need reciprocity.”
My breath hitched and I swallowed, finally accepting the fact that I was in over my head. I may have wanted to be Shy, may have even thought I was going to be on her level one day. But, the fact of the matter was only Shy, a true Lilith, could negotiate with the devil. I was no Lilith. Just a fool who’d fallen into a pit of vipers.