by Imani Black
“What? What’s going on?” Brice huffed into the phone, his eyes checking his surroundings like the threat was nearby.
“Just leave now. Get the fuck out of there, Simp,” the lieutenant yelled into the phone. “Leave now for your own good. I got units on the way, but they might not get there in time.”
From his hiding spot, Brice watched as the burial service started breaking up. His heart rate sped up because nothing had happened. He was relieved as he watched the funeral attendees, including Cheyenne, shuffle toward their cars.
Brice moved downhill in the cemetery and headed for his car as well. Brice watched as Lil Kev and three of his crew members climbed into the silver Suburban. There was another SUV full of dudes from Scorpio’s crew.
“Shit!” Brice cursed. “Why don’t y’all get the fuck out of here,” he whispered. He didn’t know if the threat called in was credible, but he’d rather be safe than sorry. He kept a safe distance until he saw Cheyenne running back to the spot where her mother’s casket was being lowered into the ground.
“Fuck. I’m going to have to go tell her,” Brice cursed, getting set to move out of his hiding spot. But he wasn’t fast enough.
Boom! The blast sent Brice reeling backward, and a cloud of dust that resembled a huge tornado rose into the sky.
Screams erupted everywhere. The force of the blast sent Cheyenne face first into the dirt, and several other people were knocked down. Cemetery headstones were torn from the ground and went flying into the air. The entire place erupted into massive chaos with people running and screaming.
Brice got up and raced down the hill toward Cheyenne. His ears were ringing, and his head pounded from the sound of the blast, but his mind was clear about what he needed to do.
“Gun! He’s got a gun!” someone screamed out. The blast had only been a distraction.
“Oh, shit!” Brice’s eyes went round as he raced toward Cheyenne. Frantically, he ran like he was heading for the finish line in an Olympic race. Brice wanted to place his hand inside of his jacket where his weapon was secured in his shoulder rig, but he didn’t want to risk slowing himself down.
Before he reached Cheyenne, the sound of rapid-fire explosions cut through the air again. Brice continued to run at full speed down the hill. Dirt and grass flew in his wake as more shots rattled off.
Two of Lil Kev’s crew members were picked off, falling to the grass like bowling pins. Screams pierced the air from every direction.
Brice finally reached Cheyenne. She was on her knees in the dirt, covering her ears and screaming at an ear-shattering pitch. Brice grabbed her.
“Come on! Come with me!” he barked.
She seemed to be too shocked to move.
“Come on!” Brice screamed at her even louder this time.
They both looked over just in time to see Big K’s body jerk from the impact of the bullets. His arms flew up, bent at the elbow and flailing like he was a puppet on a string.
“Daddy!” Cheyenne screeched as she and Brice watched Big K’s body crumple like a rag doll and fall into an awkward heap on the ground.
Brice finally got Cheyenne to her feet, but she stood frozen, her feet seemingly rooted into the earth around her.
“Daddy! No! No!” Cheyenne shrieked, finally finding her voice.
“We gotta go!” Brice yelled.
The sounds of tires screeching and more loud booms exploded around them. Cheyenne coughed as the grainy, metallic grit of gunpowder settled at the back of her throat. She inched in the dirt to where her father lay. The smell of bloody raw meat wafted up her nose. The earth around him pooled into a deep burgundy lake of his blood.
“Daddy!” she screamed, her throat burning with acid. Cheyenne grabbed her father’s shoulders and shook them, hoping for a response.
“They got me,” Big K croaked out.
“Help! He’s alive! Help him!” Cheyenne belted out.
Brice looked up just as the units he’d expected flooded onto the chaotic scene.
Chapter 16
Brice
Brice splashed water on his face, took a deep breath, and looked up at himself in the small, dull mirror that hung in the men’s bathroom inside the precinct. He noticed the bags that were starting to form under his eyes, but he knew those came with the territory. Fighting with his sister, helping his mother, and trying to solve a murder case with a victim who had no known enemies wasn’t easy. Brice had barely been sleeping.
Shaking off his jitters, he stared at himself and agreed that as soon as this was all over, he would treat himself to a vacation. He would go someplace far away from New York City for sure.
“You got this. This is going to be what you need for this case,” Brice spoke to himself as he checked his gear—gun in holster, bulletproof vest on tight, handcuffs loaded for fast application. Everything was set. He would be out there with the Emergency Service Unit. They’d be the ones to knock, announce, and then ram the door, but he still had to make sure he was putting his safety first.
Brice shrugged into his raid jacket. It was five o’clock in the morning, and he had to get into the right state of mind for the task at hand. Walking back out into the squad room, he put his game face on.
“I hope everybody is ready to rock and fucking roll. These young dudes ain’t got shit to live for. I’ve been over there, and they’re loose cannons. They shot up a funeral, for Christ’s sake. Fucking heartless. Only thing on our side is they’ll be ’sleep . . . caught off guard for sure,” Brice announced to the officers waiting for the early morning search warrant.
All the ESU officers and a few of Brice’s squad detectives stood at attention and started gathering their battle gear as well.
“Yo, Simp. You want to carry this, or should I?” Officer Coolidge asked, picking up the new MP-5 they had just acquired.
“I’ll leave that up to you tough guys, but judging from how these little motherfuckers operate, we’ll need it,” Brice replied, chuckling as they all began to file out the door.
Brice sometimes felt like shit conducting raids in areas he’d grown up in, but not this time. He remembered being a kid, watching the police destroy people’s apartments just to get one wayward family member. Brice remembered the devastation some mothers felt after the cops had not only taken away their sons but had also totally destroyed the tiny collection of nice things they’d worked hard as hell to acquire. Living and working in the roughest part of Brooklyn, Brice had seen it all. He had also put in work, moving up from a car-chasing, ticket-giving patrol officer to a homicide detective.
Brice had done his homework on Scorpio and his little crew now. He knew all about the so-called Banger Boys and their notorious leader. Everyone in Brooklyn knew about Scorpio and his powerful drug ring. Apparently, Scorpio had been reigning terror on the streets for years now. He was considered the craziest drug kingpin to hit the streets of Brooklyn since the 1980s. Rumor had it that on his climb to the top, Scorpio had taken out some undercover police officers and a Fed. But with no proof and witnesses that always turned up dead or missing, it had been an almost impossible undertaking for the NYPD to touch him. Brice found out from his friend Pop that Scorpio had bought his way out of being under Pop’s tutelage, and once he’d done that, he became a wrecking ball in a china shop. He’d tried to kill Big K at his own wife’s burial. That meant he had not one moral fiber in his entire body.
All that Brice had heard wasn’t going to stop him from conducting this search warrant on Scorpio’s stash spot. Brice was not only interested in bringing down whoever was responsible for shooting up the funeral, but he still wanted to get his hands on Lil Kev’s boots. He had a strong suspicion that the boots were going to match the print left at the crime scene. He just hoped his strong suspicion was going to be right.
As Brice rode in the black van with the other officers, he thought about what he knew about the streets himself. There were some dangerous people living amongst the everyday citizens of New York City.
; As Brice and the ESU unit arrived at their destination in the worst hood in Brooklyn, Brice shook his head and got ready.
“Here we fucking go,” he mumbled under his breath, his heart beating so fast it threatened to jump out of his chest.
Yanking his gun out of his hip holster, Brice barely swung the van door open and jumped out. He waved his hands over his head, placed his fingers up to his lips, and made a fist, signaling his unit to get into their rehearsed raid positions. They all silently exited. They filed into the building and up the stairs in a stack. Once they arrived at the targeted door, they fell in line one behind the other and stacked on the door. Brice was first in the stack—he would knock and announce. The ram holder stood on the opposite side of the door, and the rest of the unit knew their roles in bringing up the back of the stack.
Brice raised his right hand and silently counted down. One, two, three. At that, the ram holder sent the heavy-duty metal crashing into the door. The door took several hits before it finally flew off the hinges. Inside, bodies began scrambling in all directions.
“Police! Police! Police with a search warrant! Put your fucking hands where I can see them! Don’t move!” Brice screamed, waving his weapon back and forth, pointing it at all of Scorpio’s scrambling workers for emphasis.
All the officers trampled inside, grabbing who they could and tossing them to the floor for safety reasons. Brice continued into the house with his gun drawn and keeping his back close to the walls. He had his eye on the prize, and he wasn’t going to stop until he had it in custody.
Brice came to a closed door at the back of the apartment. With his gun trained on the door, he kicked it open.
“Damn, man. Put the gun down. You ain’t got to go all hard like a fucking cocksucker,” Lil Kev snarled as he put his pants on calmly.
Brice was confused by how calm the kid was acting. It was like Lil Kev had been expecting this. He didn’t even flinch when the door came crashing in around him.
“Put your fucking hands up, you little bastard!” Brice screamed, pointing his gun right at Lil Kev’s chest.
“A’ight, a’ight. Calm down,” Lil Kev said, smirking.
Brice was growing more incensed by the minute. He knew the kid was trying to make him look silly, while Lil Kev was looking cool, calm, and collected.
“They pay you to rough niggas up for no reason?” Lil Kev asked, smiling.
“They pay you to get your whole family killed?” Brice shot back. “Let’s go! Stand the fuck up!”
“I got one better for you. I will put my hands out so you can cuff me, even though you ain’t got one fucking reason to be arresting me,” Lil Kev said. “I know my rights, and when my lawyer gets finished with the NYPD, I’ll be feeding you crackers out of my hand for the rest of your miserable fucking life.” Then he laughed like he’d heard a joke.
Lil Kev turned around and assumed the handcuffing position. He’d pissed Brice off, and the old Brice was at the surface, threatening to come out. Little did Lil Kev know, the old Brice would’ve kicked his ass, blacked his eyes, and broke a few teeth. Then, he would’ve turned around and blamed it on Lil Kev resisting arrest. Brice shook his head, thinking Lil Kev was lucky. Real lucky.
“Cuff this little son of a bitch!” Brice spat as one of the officers moved in swiftly to lock the cuffs on Lil Kev.
“Son of a bitch? Oh, now my moms is a bitch,” Lil Kev replied, still laughing.
Brice grabbed the cuffs roughly, making sure he gripped them extra tight to cause the metal to cut into Lil Kev’s skin. Brice led him out of the apartment and down and out of the building. And, just like he had planned, the media trucks and cameras were right on time to get coverage of the raid.
Brice had to counteract the cemetery shootout with action. He couldn’t risk the NYPD looking weak on these crimes. Now, all he had to do was match those boots he’d seized to the ones the killer wore.
Chapter 17
Cheyenne
Cheyenne popped up out of her sleep at the sound of her father’s moans. She uncurled her body from the uncomfortable hospital chair, grimacing from the knots in her muscles.
“Daddy?” she called, her voice still heavy with sleep.
Cheyenne swiped her hands over her face, getting rid of the sleep from her eyes and crust from the side of her mouth. Her father stirred again and made another mousy noise. This time, Cheyenne stood up. She stretched the kinks out of her neck and rushed to his bedside.
“Daddy, are you okay?” She touched his hand, being careful not to tug on the intravenous tubes that were taped on top. “I’m here. I’m right here.”
Her father’s eyes fluttered open. He turned his head to the right and looked up at Cheyenne. She wore a warm smile as she stroked his hand.
“You okay?” he rasped, the oxygen cannula in his nose making his words sound more like puffs of air. “What... what happened. Where’s Kelsi?” he grumbled.
Cheyenne balked, feeling her insides twist. Her father had just awoken after being shot and almost killed, and he was asking for Kelsi?
“She’s not here yet. I couldn’t get in contact with her, but I’m sure once she hears about what happened, she’s going to come. I am here, though. What do you need?” Cheyenne said, although she was fighting with her emotions. As usual, she was trying to please her father no matter how she felt inside.
“Call her again,” her father said. “If I’m going to die, I want to see her.”
Cheyenne bunched her toes up in her shoes and bit the inside of her cheek. Her fingers drummed against her thigh. She was trying to stay patient and play her position as a good daughter, but the feelings she’d been having over the past couple of weeks couldn’t be ignored. Still, she put them aside. Watching her father lie there in this condition had scared the shit out of Cheyenne. If he died, she would’ve become an orphan all in the matter of a month.
“How are you feeling? Are you hungry? Here, let me fluff your pillows,” she prattled, although she had a hard knot in the back of her throat and tears burned at the backs of her eyes.
Her father had fallen back off to sleep, side effects of the pain medications. Cheyenne shut her eyes and took a shaky breath.
Cheyenne replayed things in her mind, trying to place what she might have missed with everyone. She thought back on the day she’d spoken to Kelsi seriously about Lil Kev’s street ties.
* * *
“I’m real proud of you, Cheyenne. I can’t front. You always been smart, beautiful, and driven. You ain’t let shit stop you from getting that piece of paper. Especially no niggas. I always looked up to you. You way stronger than me. Shit, I ain’t even get that li’l high school paper. You got the big dog paper... degrees and shit. I’m amazed by your strength. Even when shit got fucked up at home, you still fought through it. I love you for that power. That power I wish I had,” Kelsi said, interrupting the quiet that had settled around them.
Cheyenne lowered her eyes to the floor. Something inside of her felt funny. She was happy Kelsi had said those things, but sad for her. Kelsi’s words threatened to make Cheyenne cry. Cheyenne knew Kelsi had been speaking from the heart. Cheyenne also knew Kelsi wished she had listened to Cheyenne all the times she preached to her about finishing high school and going to college.
“Aw, c’mon, chica. Don’t be getting all sentimental on me,” Cheyenne joked, sniffling back the snot about to run out of her nose. “Real talk, Kel, I look up to you, too. Not many people can deal with what you had to deal with and still be in one piece. I mean, I had my mother there by my side this whole time. You had to fend for yourself, and I really don’t think I could ever be that strong. Pat yourself on the back too. You’re a damn survivor, girlie,” Cheyenne said, changing her tone to serious.
Kelsi rolled up on the bed and sat Indian style. “Well, thank you, Chey. That means a lot coming from you, boo. Now, enough of the sappy shit,” Kelsi replied, clapping her hands. “What’s the plan now? Ms. Desi said you got into some med school all the wa
y in Texas?” Kelsi continued, hiding her emotions like she always tried to do.
Cheyenne bit into her jaw. She wished her mother didn’t have such a big mouth. Cheyenne wanted to be the one to break the news to Kelsi. Cheyenne knew the thought of her leaving Brooklyn wasn’t going to be so easy for Kelsi to handle. At that moment, Cheyenne had no choice but to be honest.
“Yeah, I did get into the University of Texas at Austin medical program. It’s real hard to get in, so I’m kind of proud I made the cut. But I don’t know what I’m going to do yet. I’m scared to leave my mother. Especially with Lil Kev running the streets now,” Cheyenne said solemnly.
Lil Kev was just going into his teenage years and was already trying to build a reputation in their neighborhood. Everybody knew Lil Kev was following in their father’s footsteps, like it or not. Some people on the street gave him respect because he was Big K’s son, but other people wanted to see him suffer because of it.
Kelsi lowered her head when Cheyenne spoke about Lil Kev. Kelsi knew how serious shit had gotten with him.
“Yeah, I know. I was going to talk to you about that. I was with Scorpio the other night, and Lil Kev came to the crib talking about he was there to re-up. I said to him, ‘I know you ain’t calling yourself selling for Scorpio.’ Girl, he like to damn near cuss me out. Chey, I wanted to take a belt and beat his little ass. You know he’s my baby brother too. I mean, shit, I been around since the nigga was knee-high to a fly. Broke my fuckin’ heart seeing him waste his life away when Ms. Desiree tried to keep y’all clear of the street bullshit. These fucking streets are mean, Cheyenne. They will swallow his little ass up,” Kelsi lamented.
Cheyenne shook her head in disgust. She knew Kelsi was right about Lil Kev, but what about her?
“Neither one of y’all should be fucking with Scorpio,” Cheyenne replied quickly. She wasn’t going to hide her feelings on that topic. “Scorpio is a fucking snake in the grass, Kelsi. He worked for my father back in the day, and everybody around here says he was a part of the setup that took shit down. He was a part of the crew that got my father knocked. It was just crazy how fast he took over things. And even as young as he was then, do you know how many times he tried to get at my mother after my father was gone?” Cheyenne said to Kelsi seriously. She wanted Kelsi to know the kind of low-life she was dealing with.