“The guy didn’t even know he had been made an orphan until I’d informed him of their murders. I took a moment and watched how hard he took the news. He broke down when the weight of it fully processed for him. So, yeah, I’m sure he’s not our man.”
“I don’t buy that. I want to have a go at him myself. What charges are they holding him on?”
“None now! I had him released from the petty drug offense that he would’ve never been taken in for if it wasn’t for the APB that I put out for him.”
“You did what? Allison, that fucking guy just played you. What you saw was his sorrow that his mother got caught up in the hit he put in motion. Or maybe he was there and was hoping she pulled through. Whatever, I just can’t believe you let him go,” he snapped.
“Well, believe it! I stand by my decision, and like I said to you at the start of the call, I have something to take care of right now. Please know that we’re going to re-visit this conversation when I get back there.”
Tabitha ended the call and pulled back into traffic. She was irritated by the way Sadd had spoken to her, and even more so that he did not have faith in the way she did her job. She really did not like him.
When Tabitha pulled up to her place, Bret’s car was not there, so instead of calling him to the house to talk, she turned the car around and headed to the station. She repeatedly counted backward from twenty-five, just the way she had learned in the anger management class she had been ordered to take as a uniformed officer for breaking a suspect’s fingers.
Tabitha stomped through the police station and headed straight over to her work station where Sadd was sitting on the edge of his desk eating donuts and talking with a flirtatious female officer. Tabitha was about to confront her partner about the way he had spoken to her on the phone, when the captain suddenly appeared.
“Sadd! Allison! I want to see both of you in my office now,” the captain exclaimed, swiping Sadd’s last jelly donut before marching through his office door and leaving it ajar for them.
“What do you think he wants to see us about?” Sadd asked Tabitha like things were all good between them.
“I just got here, so how the hell do I know?” she retorted before walking past him into the office.
Sadd shook his head as he followed. He wondered if she filed a complaint on him before she got back to the station.
“Have either of you been talking to reporters, because this case is all over the news?”
“Captain, this isn’t our first walk. I can assure you that if there’s someone talking to them, it’s not us,” Sadd answered, stepping in front of Tabitha.
“All of this extra attention surrounding this case is because of the arrest of Noeekwol Bondz. Since he’s became an MMA star, the city feels we should be doing more to find his parents’ killer or killers and not fucking with him. Now I usually wouldn’t give a fuck about none of that, but the chief called and said he wanted an arrest, and for some reason, I promised him we would have someone in cuffs within the next twenty-four hours. So right now I want to hear how you two are going to help me keep that promise.”
“Captain, the champ’s dad was a low-life piece-of-shit pimp!”
“Yeah, Sadd, but right now all the city sees him as is the parent of the light heavyweight champ who’s not getting the attention needed to catch his killer. Detectives, since they’re expecting results, I’m expecting results. If you two do not feel you can handle this, then I can find someone who can,” the captain threatened, sitting down behind his desk.
“Captain, we’re still waiting on a case file from Racine.”
“I think we should bring Beysik Bondz in for questioning. The slugs from this case and from the one Allison is talking about are a match, and he’s the link between the two,” Sadd explained while glancing over at Tabitha and trying to judge her reaction to what he had just done.
“Do you know where he is right now?”
“I don’t. But based on the info my partner shared with me, I feel he might be heading back to his parents’ home very soon.”
“Does that sound right to you, Allison?” the captain asked after noticing the frown she was making as Sadd pitched his idea.
“Yes, sir. I questioned him prior to us having the ballistics report. So it’s safe to assume that’s where he would be heading since being released from Racine County lockup.”
“Why was he in lockup?”
“I put an APB out on him, and they held him there for me to interview him,” she explained, trying her best to answer the question and further spark a conversation with the captain about her interview with Beysik so she would not look like she was not being a team player.
“Alright then. Find him and bring him in. I’ll have the warrants ready by the time you say it’s a go. Now go!”
The captain dismissed them the same way he had dismissed Tabitha’s hint.
“Sadd, I want you to be the first to know that when this arrest is done, I’m requesting a new partner,” Tabitha said as soon as they were out of the captain’s office.
“Allison, wait! Let’s just talk like adults first!” Sadd pleaded while watching her ass as she stormed away.
THIRTEEN
Racine County Jail did not have Beysik’s release paperwork processed until just before midnight. Beysik was lucky to find someone to accept twenty dollars to give him a ride to the gas station where his car was left parked when he was arrested earlier that evening. Mercy Bondz was forever inclined to suspect the police of doing sneaky things to try to entrap him. This memory of his dad popped into his mind when he made it back to his car. So Beysik instant-aneously removed the battery from his cell phone when he opened the clear plastic bag containing his personal property that had been taken from him upon his arrest. He made plans to buy a new phone as soon as the store opened. But until then Beysik decided to use his tablet to communicate with his girl, Nyte, and the rest of his team via social media.
There was no doubt that Beysik Bondz was his father’s son. Through and through, Beysik did his best to be an emotionally in-control individual. But it was hard to be, with all of the craziness that had been happening in his world over the past few weeks. First, there was the mess with his guys being killed inside the Racine brothel because of the two young runaways his dad had sent down to him to put to work.
Now a detective came all the way from Milwaukee just to tell him about his parents’ murders. He did not know what to do. He dialed both of his parents’ numbers, hoping the detective was just trying to trick him into telling her something about his father. He then tried to reach Noeekwol, whose phone also went straight to voicemail. Beysik then decided just to head to his parents’ house to see for himself what was going on. If it was all bad, just like the detective had said, he hoped to find his big brother there so they could decide together where to go from there.
* * *
The harmonic tintinnabulation of Tabitha’s phone was annoying. Her soon-to-be ex-partner, Sadd, had gotten in touch with the Federal agent that was heading the investigation of the deceased human trafficker, Mercy Bondz. Sadd easily convinced the gung-ho Fed to join in on the arrest operation to take down who Sadd believed to be the new head of the city’s deadly trafficking ring. The phone continued to ring. In a confused fog, Tabitha let it go to voicemail; but as soon as the loud ringing stopped, Sadd called back again.
“What?” she mumbled in a sleepy voice.
“Allison, I got sight on B. Bondz entering the south-side residence of his parents, and I thought you might wanna be here when we go in and arrest that asshole!” Detective Sadd said excitedly.
“Wait! Where are you and who are you with?” she inquired, dragging herself upright in bed. Tabitha instantly noticed that Bret had not come home yet.
“Wake the fuck up! I said I’m outside of Mercy Bondz’s residence. I got the Feds to let us team up with them on their surveillance of the place. Do you want to be here when we go in, or not?” he repeated with a slight attitude.
>
“Yeah. Don’t do anything until I get there,” she answered, jumping out of her warm lonely bed and rushing into the bathroom to relieve her bladder of the half bottle of Barefoot wine that she drank in anger when she got home from work.
“I thought you might. So I already sent a car to pick you up. It should be there shortly. Allison, if you’re not ready when the car gets there, I’m going ahead without you,” he informed her before he then ended the call without another word.
Tabitha hurriedly got herself together. She pulled her long strawberry blonde tresses back into a loose french braid and then wrestled on some black fitted jeans and slipped into a pair of black Nike Air Force Ones and a long-sleeved dark blue UW Madison T-shirt. She then grabbed her badge and gun on the way out to an unmarked black Ford SUV that was waiting for her out front of her house.
Tabitha introduced herself to the Federal agent behind the wheel once she was seated inside. Then the agent rushed the detective to meet up with her partner with lights flashing. Once there, the SWAT team that was assembled up the street from the Bondz family home readied themselves for the raid.
“Sadd!” Tabitha exclaimed to get her partner’s attention while she walked toward him standing with a small group of police dressed in full riot gear.
“I’m glad you showed up. We are about to storm the place.”
“With the Feds?” she asked in a surprised hushed voice.
“Yeah, but we have point on this. All they’re interested in is the pimp’s personal records of his human trafficking operation. B. Bondz is all ours,” he explained joyously.
“Sadd, just for the record, I still don’t believe Beysik Bondz had any part in the murders of his parents. With that wise-ass lawyer that his family has on call, this isn’t going to end well for us,” she said, strapping on her Kevlar police vest.
“I’ll be sure to note that in my shift report. Now let’s go!”
It was approximately 2:25 a.m. when Detective Sadd gave the order to the tactical officers surrounding the house to move in. Two officers ran up the front porch steps with a black heavy steel battering ram and waited until both detectives were in position behind them. Then they promptly busted down the door.
* * *
Beysik had drank himself to sleep when he made it to his parents’ house, so he was on the sofa when he heard the loud, sudden boom that snapped him awake. All he saw were darkly dressed men with assault rifles and riot pumps rush his way. On pure survival instinct and the thought of his murdered parents, Beysik scrambled off of the sofa and made a dash toward the dining room table. He had left his gun there when he arrived and found the place calm.
Detective Sadd spotted Beysik’s frantic scamper first and quickly turned his weapon on him.
“Hey, don’t move another step! Get down now!” Sadd barked.
Still a little drunk, Beysik made a sudden turn toward the sound of the unfamiliar male voice in the darkness of the house. That’s when the detective saw the silhouette of something he believed was a weapon in Beysik’s hand, and fired four rapid yet accurate shots in his torso. At that very same moment, Noeekwol came rushing from the bedroom. He was unarmed but ready to defend himself and Heaven from whomever was behind the commotion.
“Police! Get down! Get down now, and place your hands at your side so I can see them!” Tabitha yelled with her gun trained on him.
“Wait! What the fuck is this about?” Noeekwol demanded, complying with the detective’s orders.
He then saw his little brother laid out in the middle of the floor fighting to hold on to his life.
“What in the hell did y’all do that for? Beysik! Bey! Beysik, hold on, bro! Hey, one of y’all go get him some help! Do something! Help him!” he begged the SWAT officers that were just standing around.
He was unable to get back up because of the three officers that had quickly pounced on his back.
Tabitha made her way over to her partner who was now standing over Beysik looking a bit distraught.
“Sadd, what’s wrong?” she inquired as she followed his stare and saw that Beysik was holding a TV remote control. He was still clutching it while fighting for his life.
“I thought he was about to fire on us. I didn’t see what he was holding,” Sadd said while looking at her. “Allison, you saw what he did, didn’t you? Please tell me you saw what I did?” he pleaded in a shaky hushed voice.
Tabitha said nothing. She only rushed to Beysik’s side to try to slow the bleeding until the EMTs were allowed inside of the house. Two medics rushed in and went right to work on getting the wounded man stabilized to transport him to the hospital.
As they worked on him, the SWAT officers zip-tied Noeekwol’s hands and then stood him up. Noeekwol heard Detective Sadd tell another officer that they should just let Beysik die. In the champ’s extreme agitation, he broke free of the plastic cuffs and charged at Sadd. Noeekwol slugged him with his signature hard, heavy, non-stop violent combination of fists, knees, and elbows.
The shocked officers closest to the detective paused a moment and then snapped into action, tasing Noeekwol twice before he dropped to the floor. By that time, Sadd was bloody and unconscious. The FBI agents placed steel cuffs on him this time and quickly dragged him out of the house.
All Heaven could do was watch helplessly as Beysik was put in the back of an ambulance and race away, while Noeekwol was locked in the back of a black-and-white squad car that raced away in a different direction.
FOURTEEN
After a long week of selling sex and break-ing in new recruits for Mercy Bondz’s classy underground brothel, Nyte always felt the need to thoroughly scrub each and every inch of herself repeatedly when she got home. Nyte was one of the pimp’s high-priced whores, until she fell in love with his son, Beysik, and Beysik with her. So even though working in the brothels disgusted her, Nyte knew it was the price she had to pay for two more months. That was when she would truly be free of Mercy Bondz and could totally be with Beysik and him only, unless he wanted to add to their fun. Nyte liked to be with females from time to time, which is why Mercy Bondz did not want to give her up.
Standing under the hot pulsating water of her home shower, Nyte exhaled as the massaging heat soaked into her tired body. Nyte, who also went by her stage name, Nitemare, was a darker yet shorter version of Tyra Banks, all the way from her wide luminescent brown eyes down to her sexy curvaceous physique. Her looks were another reason it was not easy for the pimp to simply let Beysik have her. His motto always was Money Over Bitches!
Nyte was just exiting the shower when she heard her phone’s generic ringtone. She walked dripping naked from the shower to answer it, hoping it was her man calling to explain why he was not at home with her.
“Hello?”
“Nyte, where are you?”
“What?” she retorted, wondering why Heaven was calling her so early in the morning.
“Nyte, I don’t know what I’m supposed to do now. The police shot Bey and took Noe to jail, and they won’t let me back in the house until they’re done searching it.”
“Whoa, whoa! Slow down. Did you just say Beysik got shot?”
“Yeah, but they rushed him to the hospital. I don’t know which one, and I don’t know what else to do. Mama only told me what to do if something happened to her and Pops.”
“Where are they at right now while all this is going on at the house?” Nyte asked, pulling on some yoga pants and a T-shirt so she could leave.
“Oh my God! You don’t know, do you?” Heaven exclaimed.
“What don’t I know? Heaven, what the fuck is going on?” she asked, getting even more frightened.
“Pops and Mama were killed the other night out in front of the house.”
“Bitch, that shit ain’t funny! Don’t fuckin’ playin’ with me like that! You got my heart beating all fast and shit. I’m about to run outta here half-naked!”
“Why in the fuck does everybody think I’m some goofy bitch that I’d play like this?
I’m so fucking serious right now, Nyte. They’re dead. Beysik is somewhere fighting for his life, and Noeekwol is in jail!” Heaven explained angrily.
“Oh shit! No! No! No! Let me think. Just let me think. Bey said Mercy keeps a lawyer on the payroll just in case something happens, but I fucking can’t think of his damn name right now.”
“I know it, and I have his number.”
“Okay, call him and tell him to get over there, and explain to him what’s going on. I’m gonna call a cab to bring me to you.”
“I got the car, so I can come get you. The police told me I can’t go back in the house until they’re done with the search and fix the front door. So I’m just sitting in the car now.”
“Alright, come get me now, then, and call the lawyer. I’ma call around and try to find what hospital they took Bey to.”
With the plan set, they ended the call and got on their jobs.
Nyte could not believe any of what she had been told as she took her time and redressed properly. At the same time, she called the county hospital, since she knew it would be the best place to start looking for her man.
* * *
Out of concern for the infuriated champ hurting someone else in his current state of mind, the Milwaukee County Jail’s representatives instantly got together and decided that it was best to place Noeekwol directly into the jail’s segregation unit. They also had him injected with a mild sedative that calmed him enough so they could safely remove him from the squad car.
Now, approximately thirty-six hours later, Noeekwol was awakened by the tapping of metal on metal.
“Bondz? Hey, Bondz?” a female deputy exclaimed, rapping her keys on the cell door until she saw him move. “Hey, you got court. Get dressed in your oranges and be ready to go by the time I come back to pick up your personal clothing.”
“Hey, I ain’t even had a chance to use the phone to call my lawyer. So how is y’all taking me to court without allowing me to call him?” he inquired while standing shirtless at the door.
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