The Black Kiss Of Death, page 13
part #1 of Montega Chronicles Series
Once the men shook hands with everyone in Clyde’s circle, they took a seat. Clyde had his soldiers remove most of the women, so the men could discuss business.
“I want to get right to the point,” Tanetche said, dismissing a waitress who was trying to pour him a drink. The woman rolled her eyes at the man’s ignorance. Tanetche was very imposing. He was pitch-black, with the face of an angry bull. He had dark, sinister eyes and nostrils almost as wide as the Lincoln Tunnel. “You run this city, right?” Tanetche asked.
Clyde nodded confidently. “Yeah.”
“Well, tell me, then. What do you know about a bitch who calls herself the black kiss of death?”
Clyde was confused. “I’m sorry, sir, but I’ve never heard such a name,” he replied.
“Well, she’s right here in LA, and she’s been killing some of my top lieutenants. Surely, you gotta know something.”
Tanetche’s brother, Hilary, quickly intervened. He knew what a hothead his brother could be and wanted no quarrel with any of the men at the table. Hilary was a shade lighter than his brother, with short twists in his head, a trimmed mustache and glasses. He stood 6’4” and was brilliant. “I apologize for my brother. This woman has caused him a lot of stress.”
“I understand. And, yo, I can promise you that I’ll look into it. But, chances are this kiss of death broad is just hype,” Clyde said naively.
“No, Clyde, that’s not the case at all,” Tanetche countered. “Please let me know if you find anything pertaining to this woman. I want to be the one to look her in the eyes before she dies.”
Stephon was getting bored listening to the men bickering over some renegade broad who was made out to be some type of devil in a tight dress. She sounded like some nasty slut you’d meet in a strip club. As he peered over the balcony, he spotted someone with exquisite beauty. She stood out in a crowd of fine woman. She wore a black, strapless, Burberry dress that looked like it had been melted onto her perfectly curved body like candle wax. The Bottega Veneta shoes on her feet made her look almost half a foot taller. Her hair was pulled back into a long tail, and her skin was almost as lustrous as the diamond choker she had around her neck.
Excusing himself from the table, Stephon headed down the stairs to meet her. When he finally saw her, sipping on her drink, he approached. Catching a whiff of his Hugo Boss cologne, Diamond turned to see him standing in front of her: 5’10”, nice build, and looking rather sexy in a navy blue Armani suit. “Can I buy you a drink, beautiful?” he asked smoothly.
Diamond was drawn to his magnetism. But, before she could accept his offer, her three targets were now coming back downstairs. She had no idea why they were there or whom they had come to see. All she knew was that, regarding the Agugbo brothers, revenge was about to be in her favor.
Stephon frowned when her attention had drifted from him. He wasn’t used to getting the brush off. He was used to being in the spotlight, the showstopper, the main event. “Hey, I’m over here, sweetheart. Something wrong?” he asked, fighting to get her attention back.
“I’m sorry, I gotta go,” Diamond replied while grabbing her clutch bag and getting ready to walk off.
“Wait, can’t I at least get your name?”
“Look,” Diamond said, “don’t take this the wrong way, but I have some unfinished business to take care of. However, I believe in fate, so if we’re destined to meet again, maybe things will be different next time.”
Stephon watched her gorgeous ass walk away. He didn’t know what he liked better: seeing her coming, or watching her leave. From that day on, he was committed to finding out who in the hell she was. And when he did, he would make her his.
When Diamond stepped outside, she thoroughly looked in both directions to see where the three brothers and their entourage were headed. When she spotted them heading for a stretch Expedition in the parking lot, she quickened her pace. She was anxious to snuff out the men responsible for JR’s death, but she also didn’t want to break her ankles strutting around in heels.
Clutching her bag, she approached her target. “Excuse me,” she said softly. Six hostile men turned around, ready to draw their weapons, but when Hillary saw that it was just a woman, he stopped and smiled. Diamond put on her Hollywood smile. “Are you gentlemen the Agugbo Brothers?”
Tanetche sneered, “Who wants to know?”
“The Kiss of Death, you ugly bitch,” Diamond coldly replied, with a screw you look, pulling out a compact 9 mm and aiming it at Tanetche’s head. One of his men leaped between them just as Diamond fired. The soldier slumped to the ground, with part of his head blown off.
Tanetche and his two brothers dove for cover.
“Kill that bitch!” he ordered.
Diamond quickly scrambled behind a parked car and took aim at the five remaining shooters. Gunfire exploded out in the parking lot, sounding like a small war. Diamond popped another clip in her gun and fired away. The brief pause gave the Agugbo brothers just enough time to jump into the limo and peel away. Diamond dropped the last goon and fired her gun in vain at the fleeing limousine until the clip was empty. Raking her hands through her head in frustration, she cursed herself for letting them slip away.
At least she had three faces etched into her memory. Not even her brother could stop the onslaught to come. The Black Kiss of Death had gone public, and now there was no turning back. The Snow White princess had become the devil in the tight dress.
Chapter 33
MILLION DOLLAR MIKE
As the loud sound of Beanie Sigel, Freeway, and Jay-Z’s “What We Do Is Wrong” blared on large speakers out on Blakemore Street, neighbors squatted on their porches while the smell of barbeque grills lingered in the air. Females of all shapes and sizes hung out at the block party in hopes of finding a new sponsor. Kia and all her girlfriends loitered in front of her mother’s house, while her brother, Taliban, did his thing at the top of the block with Mike and the rest of the hustlers from Blakemore.
Blakemore Street stretched downhill with over fifty row houses on each side of a one-way street. And, even though drug sales were plentiful, the long strip was a hustler’s nightmare when it came to running from the police.
Mike was now the crowned king of uptown, thanks to the mysterious masked Phantom whom the detectives were out to nab for the deaths of Million Dollar Moe and his two enforcers.
Everyone thought that it was Mike who iced Million Dollar Moe, since his cousin Shug had declared war against Reds and Gangwar, but Mike had no clue about those murders. However, he thrived off the rumor that he had offed Moe and his boys. He even had a new nickname: Million Dollar Mike.
As Mike sat on the step, surrounded by his lieutenants, lookouts, shooters, and hustlers, he stressed the importance of getting Red and Gangwar out of the picture, for good. Even though Charles White was dead, Reds and Gangwar still managed to find a line and keep the city stocked with cocaine, heroin, weed, and syrup. Not only that, their names were ringing in the streets. Shug wanted to put an end to all that. Clyde White was now in control of the Underworld and had put him in charge of Pennsylvania. Clyde had put a price out on Reds and Gangwar for failing to protect his father. That didn’t help matters.
While Mike discussed inventory and prices, a loud four-wheeler came roaring up as Montega whipped around the corner on a black Yamaha Banshee.
Tasha sat behind him with her arms wrapped around his waist. Mike looked up and shook his head in disgust as Montega got off the Banshee to approach the boys. “I’ll be right back,” he said to Tasha who hated that he hung around with criminal types.
Tasha had been accepted into a small college in Atlanta. She wanted to take up criminal law so that one day she could become a cop and fight crime. She tried to steer her boyfriend away from the street life, but there wasn’t much she could do. She was already in too deep to leave him.
“What’s good?” Montega asked, giving his man Razor some dap, along with his brother.
“Damn, dog. I called you like an hour ago. But, you wanna be ridin’ around with bitches all day, instead of getting money, like you suppose to,” Mike complained.
“Man, if you can give me some work on time, I wouldn’t be ridin’ nowhere. I’d be hustlin’,” Montega replied. Everyone looked at each other.
No one spoke to Mike that way, especially after what happened to Million Dollar Moe. But, Montega was defiant and cold-blooded. He knew the truth about the murders and wasn’t scared of Mike or anyone else. He was afraid, though, of meeting God one day and explaining to him why he had three bodies under his belt. Seeing that the young goon wasn’t going to back down easily without having to smack the shit out of him, Mike just shook his head and continued to talk to the group. “If y’all see the nigga Reds or Gangwar, don’t go at ’em yourselves. Let me know, and I’ll handle it. As far as the work, like I said earlier, I’m not fuckin’ with no quarter-coppin’ dudes. If that’s the case, y’all might as well take bundles. I’m only selling halves or better.” Montega had already heard the lecture from Mike a hundred times before.
He was already copping two halves from him every week and didn’t need to hear anymore bullshit, so he got back on his four-wheeler and rode down the block, where his sister and her friends were sitting at tables out in the middle of the street, eating barbecue, and drinking liquor and Smirnoff coolers. “You hungry?” Montega asked Tasha.
She shook her head, but Montega didn’t believe her. “Man, c’mon,” he insisted, grabbing her hand.
When the girls saw the pretty brown-skinned chick with the curly hair and the bubble-shaped ass, they became envious. Tasha looked cute in a Christian Dior jean miniskirt, with white Adidas shell tops, a white B. Fly halter and oversize, square-frame Ralph Lauren sunglasses. “Who that girl with your brother?” Breezy asked as she sipped some vodka.
“Oh, that’s his little girlfriend. She supposed to be in college or going to college,” Kia explained as she watched her brother make the girl a plate of food.
“Aww, that’s sweet. He making her a plate,” Gi-Gi said, causing Breezy to roll her eyes with jealousy.
As she watched Montega sit on the porch with his shorty, Kia got up and moved towards them. “Kenny, can I talk to you for a second?” she asked, opening the door to go inside the house.
Montega got up and followed her inside. When Kia checked the house to make sure no one was around, she turned to look at her brother long enough, to make him feel uncomfortable. “What sup, Kia? Why you starin’ at me all crazy?”
Kia glared at her brother. “Did you kill Moe?”
The look on Montega’s face gave him up. “WA…What are you talking about?” he asked nervously, but Kia had already got the answer she expected.
The truth was she suspected him as soon as it happened. Montega had changed after that. The playfulness in him came to a shocking end. His laughter almost disappeared. He was now more serious and mysterious. Kia turned towards the door. “Kia, you ain’t answer my question,” Montega said.
“It doesn’t matter. You already answered mine,” Kia responded before walking out.
Realizing he had been busted, Montega sat down on the couch, with his hand on his forehead. He didn’t know how his sister knew, but he promised himself that he would never freeze up under pressure like that again.
Gangwar and Reds sat in Peter Luger’s in Brooklyn, discussing business with their new connect: none other than their good friend’s daughter, Diamond. The three had been doing business for a few months now, and Diamond had treated them like family. “Diamond, I gotta admit, you have grown to be a stunning woman. Not to mention you have your father’s ambition,” Reds complimented her while finishing his porterhouse steak.
“I appreciate that,” Diamond said modestly.
Gangwar shook his head in frustration. “I don’t know how your brother ended up the way he did. He’s a different breed. I mean, to actually think that we had something to do with Charles’ death. That’s crazy. Maybe he gets his genes from that bitch your father used to- -“
“Cool out, Gangwar. You’re getting in your feelings,” Reds said, cutting him off.
“Nah, it’s true, though. I ain’t gonna bite my tongue. I never did. Charles’ whole circle is gone because of Clyde. Two Gun Sam, Whisky, Buns, they’re all gone. And if we don’t play it smart, we’re next,” Gangwar predicted.
Diamond listened calmly, but there wasn’t much she could do. She didn’t want her brother to know what she was up to, let alone try to pick a fight with him. Folding her hands on the table, she said, “Can I ask you guys something personal? Off-the-record, that is?”
Both men looked at each other before nodding. “Why were my father and Verningo Castor at each others throats? What was worth my father’s and soon to be Castor’s life. What the fuck is this all about?”
Both men again looked at each other and bursted into laughter.
This annoyed Diamond and the look in her eyes made it obvious. Red waved his hand apologetically. Then he smiled.
“My precious Diamond, all the fuss is over little ole’ you.”
“Me?” Diamond sat back in the chair. “Me?”
Gangwar spoke with his mouth full of food. “Now, for real they should make a movie about your parents.”
“It would smash the box offices!” Red shouted.
Their excitement lit Diamond’s face up like a child. She rarely if ever heard stories about her parents any more. Memories of childhood danced in her head. She blinked and saw herself with her mother and father at a similar restaurant when she was a child. Her mother was so pretty, so happy. Her father, so handsome and strong.
“You miss them don’t chu?” Red said as soft as he could. “I do too.”
“That goes for me too. They were good people.” Gangwar said with a distant look in his eyes
Diamond blinked away a tear or two and then sat up, “Okay, that is enough of that. Tell me what happened.”
“Before your father became Charles White, the kingpin, he was known for pulling off the craziest, ballsy jobs anyone has ever seen. We should know.”
“We were in his crew,” Gangwar cut in. “The last big hit we did was against the Russians, Zelinski and his crew out of L.A. Your father killed his wife in front of him.”
Diamond rolled her eyes. “My father . . .”
“You look here, don’t for one second think your father was some kind of Robin Hood because he wasn’t. He had so many bones in his closet he had to get a warehouse to store them in.”
Diamond looked at Red who smirked while nodding in agreement.
“Continue.”
“Chuck took the money to Vegas to clean it. Back in the day that’s what we did, it was the only way.”
“It took forever,” Red cut back in. “Anyway, your father was also in Vegas looking for a coke connect. He happened to run into an old friend from the Army. His name was . . .” Red repeatedly snapped his fingers and nudged Gangwar for the answer.
“Salideen, the gun runner out of Saudi.”
“Yeah, that’s the guy. He so happen to rub shoulders with the big boys themselves.”
“Verningo Castor.” Diamond said disdainfully.
“Yeah, he was one of them. But before we get him there’s something you need to know about Vegas. Salideen was there with a female from Philidelphia. Unbeknownst to Salideen, his girl was one of your father’s . . .” Gangwar felt uneasy with what he had to say and Red knew it.
“She a grown woman, for Christ sakes. Your father was into some freaky sex things.” Red blurted out. “You know to each their own. So what Gangwar was saying is that female Salideen was with was your father’s sex slave.”
“Sex slave?”
“Your father was smart and handsome. He had a harem of females pawing over him. Hugh Hefner had nothing on your father. But there was something about that one that kept him coming back.”
“Did you say she was from Philidelphia?” Diamond said putting her elbows on the table and locking her fingers.
“Yeah, and she wasn’t from the good parts either. Well, not that long after that Vegas trip the female claimed she was pregnant with Charles kid. Soon as she had the child she called your father and told him to come get him. I remember going to airport to pick him up.”
“Clyde,” Diamond mumbled.
“I guess she didn’t want to ruin what she had with Salideen, whatever. So from Vegas your father and Salideen went to meet Castor in Miami. It so happens a pretty lady named Pearl was there.”
Diamond smiled.
The waitress brought desert. Diamond pushed hers a side. The two old friends continued with the story as they ate.
“Now, your mother was forced to marry Castro more so as a business arrangement. The child they bore would unite the Los Strajos Cartel and the El Cano Cartel. They would become the first super cartel and with Diego growing old.”
GangWar cut in, “Verningo Castor would become king of the Heffas. With Pearl safely tucked in his Miami compound, he had nothing to worry about. Since there was nobody that could stop him, his fangs came prematurely. Verningo acted as if he was already in power. Some of the smaller cartels caved in from the fake pressure but the bigger more stable ones stood their ground.”
“True power corrupts.” Red said insightfully.
Diamond shook her head, “Power doesn’t corrupt no more than guns are dangerous. Good or bad it’s the human element that fucks everything up.”
“Correct,” Gangwar said, “The reason Verningo had your mother in Miami was because he wanted to impregnate her in the United States. That way the baby would be born a natural citizen.
“Verningo Castor takes the meeting wit your father and Salideen in Miami at the same compound Pearl is at. No other time would Castro would’ve let someone like Charles anywhere near him. But Castro needed a west coast distributor. The cartels he was beefing with were now attacking him on all fronts. His men were dropping like flies.”
