Promise Kept, page 30
Promise sat there, just staring at it for a few beats. She wasn’t exactly sure how to respond. Asher was saying all the right things. Things that she had been wanting to hear from him since the first time she laid eyes on him, but he had broken her trust once, and it had devastated her. She wasn’t sure if she would be able to recover from that kind of heartbreak a second time. Her mind was telling her “No,” but when she looked into those beautiful brown eyes of his, her heart screamed “Yes!” She didn’t think it was possible, but Promise found herself falling for Asher all over again. Without even realizing she was moving, Promise placed her hand in his.
“Well, if this ain’t the sweetest shit.” Asher heard a voice coming from behind him that made his blood run cold. Zul hovered over the table, smiling wickedly at the two lovers. He saw Asher move and pushed his jacket back to expose the butt of the gun tucked in his slacks. “You’re fast, youngster, but not faster than me. Don’t do it to yourself.” Asher wisely placed both hands flat on the table. “Smart.”
“What you doing here?” Asher asked through clenched teeth.
“I could ask the same of you. You a little far from home, ain’t you?” Zul pulled out a chair and invited himself to sit down.
“Had some shit to take care of on this side of the Hudson,” Asher told him.
“I can see.” Zul gave Promise the once over. “And what’s your name, beautiful?”
“That ain’t your concern,” Asher said defensively.
“Oh, you think I’m trying to poach your little girlfriend? Shame on you, Asher. You know I’m more of a gentleman than that. It’s just that I can’t help but to feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before.”
“Nah, you don’t know her. She’s just some chick I met a little while ago,” Asher lied, which got him a dirty look from Promise.
“You’re from Newark, ain’t you?” Zul ignored Asher and kept his attention on Promise. He was toying with her.
Promise looked to Asher, who looked like he was about to shit his pants. Something was wrong. “Is there a problem?”
“No problem, love. I’m just making small talk. That’s all.” Zul continued to study her. “Yeah, I know I’ve seen you before. Your name is Passion or something like that, isn’t it?”
“Her name is none of your fucking business,” Asher answered for her. “As a matter of fact, she was just leaving. Take a walk, shorty,” he said, dismissing Promise with a coldness that threw her off.
“Asher, you good?” Promise asked nervously.
“You hard of hearing? Bounce, bitch!” Asher snapped.
Asher’s words cut her like a knife. It was like he was a totally different person than the one who had just been promising her the world moments prior. No, the monster sitting across from her was far more familiar. “I should’ve known better.” She snatched up her purse and stormed off. She felt tears welling in her eyes but wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of letting him see her cry. She had shed enough tears over Asher to last her a lifetime.
Asher watched helplessly as Promise walked out of his life for what was likely the final time. He wanted to stop her . . . to tell her that his handling of her had been a ruse and he was doing it to keep her safe, but he couldn’t. Promise represented a weakness. One that he knew Zul would use to hurt him if he felt like he could. So instead of going after one of the best things that had ever come into his life, Asher suffered in silence.
“I hope you got the pussy already because, if you didn’t, you probably never will after how you handled that fine young thing. You a cold muthafucka, Asher.” Zul laughed.
“Fuck you, nigga!” Asher spat.
“Yeah, you’ve been trying to fuck me, which is why I’m sitting across the table from you, trying to think of a reason not to paint the walls of this café with that devious-ass brain of yours. You know Fangs is calling for your head behind that shit you and your jail bird homie pulled, right?”
“Fangs can eat a dick or a bullet. Don’t matter to me at this point,” Asher said flatly.
“You know I love it when you talk spicy, Asher,” Zul said in an amused tone. “The fact of the matter is, the only reason I haven’t let Fangs and Baby Blue put you on the treadmill is because you are the dog I trained, so it falls to me to put you down after you’ve bitten your master’s hand. Now, to your credit, I heard about those bodies the police found in the Bronx, but you still owe me a life and the deadline for that has come and gone.”
“You asked me for two lives, and I gave you two,” Asher countered.
“No, you gave me one and a possible. This ain’t a game of spades. You’re playing with your life right now,” Zul warned. “In the beginning, I was skeptical about you doing the right thing for once without trying to put some sneaky shit in the game. I even found myself impressed when word came back that you had served justice to them two traitors, especially Cal. I knew that couldn’t have been an easy thing for you. I respected the fact that you actually went through with it. I even started to believe that the blood of an honorable man might still pump somewhere in that black heart of yours. But something kept nagging at me, and I couldn’t let it go.”
“Zul—” Asher began, but Zul cut him off.
“You ever seen a miracle, Asher? I have. Just the other night in fact. I sent Baby Blue by the place where Cal’s mama and them stay.” Zul paused to make sure he had Asher’s undivided attention. “He was supposed to ask a few harmless questions, but you know that boy overdoes his job sometimes. No worries, everybody is whole, but Cal’s sister might’ve gotten knocked around. I reprimanded Blue for that already. Not long after is when I saw the miracle. A dead man crawled clean up from his grave to be there for his family. One of my people saw Cal in the hood, enjoying a cold brew like he didn’t have a care in the world. Asher, I’m so disappointed in you.”
“I couldn’t do it,” Asher said honestly. The truth was all he had at that point.
“I figured you wouldn’t be able to. For as cold as I am, even I couldn’t go through with something as heinous as that,” Zul confessed.
“Then you should understand why I lied,” Asher said.
“The fact that you couldn’t go through with it is something I could’ve lived with. Honestly, if you’d just kept it a buck, I’d have put it on Fangs or Blue and spared you the heartache. It’s the lie that has you on the shot clock for what’s left of your life. You’ve bent the truth with me too many times, Asher. So, I’ll tell you what’s going to happen next. Me and you are going to get up and walk out of here, and drive somewhere nice and quiet, so I can give you a quick death. Which is more than you deserve, considering.”
“Or you can hear my counterproposal,” Asher offered.
“Asher, you’ve crossed and played me at every turn since this shit started. Nobody short of Jesus can stop me from murking your grimy ass at this point.”
“Then allow me to turn water into wine.” Asher removed an ink pen from his pocket and scribbled something on one of the café’s napkins, which he slid across the table to Zul.
Zul looked from the address scribbled on the napkin back to Asher. “What the fuck is this?”
Asher looked out the café window in time to see Promise getting into a taxi before answering. “A bone.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
“Big bro. You’ve come up with some nut-ass plans over the years since we’ve been doing this, but I think this one has got to be the most reckless,” Bone said from behind the wheel of his car. Not long after dropping Mouse off in the projects, he had gotten the text from his brother. All hands on deck, followed by an address. He knew that meant Sin had a job for them, but he wasn’t prepared for what he would hear when he arrived.
“Scared money don’t make no money,” Sin replied.
“But this ain’t about money, is it?” Bone questioned. Sin didn’t respond. He just continued staring aimlessly out the window, as he had been doing for the last hour or so.
Bone wanted to argue his point further but knew it was pointless. Sin’s mind was made up, and there was nothing he or anyone else could say to sway him.
Sin ignored his brother’s chattering and fired up another blunt. He had been chain-smoking them back-to-back all night. He should’ve been high as a kite by that point but found that he was only just mellow. Probably due to the seemingly endless supply of adrenaline that was coursing through him. He spared a sideways glance at his brother and noticed something unfamiliar . . . worry. Bone was a rock who wasn’t easily rattled. In light of the circumstances, he couldn’t say that he blamed him. This would be either the most gangsta shit Sin had pulled or the dumbest. Either way, it had to be done.
His phone rang. It was Promise on the line. He started to answer but decided against it. She would be a distraction, and at that moment, he needed to be laser-focused. No sooner than the phone stopped ringing, he got a text notification: Need you when you have time. Now she wanted to talk? He wouldn’t say it, but he was still in his feelings for the way she had curved him earlier. It had taken a lot for Sin to work up the courage to tell her how he felt, and she had dismissed him. Whatever she had to say could wait.
A few minutes later, Unique emerged from the entrance of the building they had been watching. He moved cautiously across the street, scanning in both directions. Tucked under his arm was a parcel that he held onto with the security of a running back heading for the end zone in a playoff game. The car door barely made a sound when he slithered into the back seat.
“How we looking?” Sin asked over his shoulder.
“Like three niggas about to do some shit that’s gonna get us life in prison or killed,” Unique half-joked.
“Sounds like another day at the office to me.” Bone reached back and bumped fists with Unique.
“If y’all two are finished jerking each other’s dicks, I got something to do,” Sin said seriously.
“Pretty much everybody is gone for the day, but one nigga is still lingering. Muthafucka looked like he was half-sleep, so I can tell he ain’t no soldier, just a warm body,” Unique updated him.
“He’ll be a cold body in a few.” Sin checked his gun to make sure a round was chambered.
“Sin, you sure about this? Maybe we should wait until this shit dies down some and try our luck again then,” Unique suggested.
“We all out of luck. This ends tonight.” Sin grabbed the parcel that Unique had been carrying and checked the contents. Everything was in order. “If I ain’t back in half an hour, y’all peel the fuck out.”
“Hell no. No man left behind. You know the rule,” Bone reminded him.
“This is the exception. I mean what I said, a half-hour and no more,” Sin reinforced. He made to exit the car, but Unique stopped him.
“You ever gonna tell us what this was really about? Ain’t no amount of money can make you take a gamble this big,” Unique said.
Sin measured the question. “Ask me again when I get back.” And with that he was gone.
The hospital was relatively quiet that night. Of course, the ER was a shit show of people who had come in to receive medical attention and the overworked and understaffed nurses and doctors who tried to attend them. A young mother held a wailing baby in her arms while trying to explain to the triage nurse that she had been waiting for two hours and her child’s fever still hadn’t broken. On the other side of the room, a couple who looked to be on drugs were engaged in an argument. The woman had a gash on her forehead, covered by a bloodstained bandage that needed to be changed. Her male companion rocked back and forth on the hard-plastic chair with a look on his face that said he’d rather be chasing whatever was in the streets calling him than making sure his woman got the proper care. The ER was a symphony of chaos, which made it that much easier for the Shadow to pass unnoticed.
The Shadow caught the elevator door just as it was closing. Inside was a young Black orderly, with a patient on a gurney. The patient was a pale, older woman who didn’t look like she was long for this world. Her weary eyes drifted to the Shadow. There was a moment she saw it for what it was . . . death.
“Not you, sugar. Not today,” the Shadow assured her. She gave the Shadow a smile of relief before the orderly wheeled her out onto the second floor.
The elevator pinged before the doors slid open on the seventh floor. That was the floor where they treated their high-profile victims. Those who wanted to keep their business out of the streets. During the day, it was well-guarded against the paparazzi and potential threats, but during those hours, they operated with a skeleton crew: three doctors who worked in rotation to attend to the patients and a handful of nurses and one uniformed police officer in case something jumped off that the hospital security couldn’t handle on its own.
The Shadow paused when he spotted the duty nurse behind the desk speaking with the officer who was assigned to the floor that night. He was leaned in whispering sweet nothings into her ear. When the nurse noticed the Shadow lingering, she whispered something to the cop before leading him to the supply closet where she would keep him occupied until the Shadow had done its work. She was risking her job by leaving her station, but the Shadow had compensated her handsomely for her troubles. The Shadow continued down the hall between the hospital rooms. At the end, near the last room, a young man wearing a gold chain sat on a wooden chair. He was scrolling through his phone, eyes heavy, trying not to doze off. When he spotted the Shadow, he stood.
“What you doing here?” the man wearing the gold chain asked. He extended his hand in greeting and was met with a knife plunged up through his heart. The Shadow cradled him tenderly and dragged him into the room he had been guarding.
After securing his victim in the bathroom, he turned his attention to his real target. Stripped of all his jewelry and bravado, Don B. looked like an ordinary man, instead of the demon he was. He was unconscious with tubes monitoring his vitals. The Shadow stood over the sleeping rapper for a time, watching the rhythm of his chest rise and fall in time with the beeping of the machines he was hooked to. For the briefest of moments, doubt crept into the Shadow’s heart. Was he doing the right thing? Betraying the man who so many depended on to eat, including him? Probably not, but it was a necessary evil. The death of the Don was the only way to ensure the survival of the company.
Pushing down his emotions, the Shadow gently removed one of the pillows that had been propping Don B.’s head up. Shooting him would’ve been easier, but this way was more humane. When they found Don B. they would think he had passed away quietly in his sleep. “Goodnight, sweet prince,” the Shadow whispered and prepared to smother the Don. Just as he laid the pillow across his face, he heard something just outside the hospital room that gave him pause.
Sin’s heart beat so rapidly in his chest that he was sure the woman standing next to him in the elevator could hear it. He spared a glance in her direction, but she continued to stare down at her phone, more concerned with it than the man dressed in hospital scrubs and a face mask, pushing a laundry cart. The hospital gear had been what Unique had in the parcel. He’d stolen them during his casing. The laundry cart had been a bonus, something he’d found discarded outside the elevator before he got on. The elevator dinged, and the woman got off without so much as a backward glance.
By the time Sin made it to the seventh floor, he found himself sweating like a hooker in church. His disguise had gotten him past the guard in the lobby, but the seventh floor was likely to be heavier on security. This is why he found it so surprising to find the floor deserted. The nurse’s station was empty, and even the guard outside the hospital room door that Unique had warned him about was absent. The only signs of him were an empty chair and an abandoned cell phone. He peeked inside the room and found Don B. unconscious in his hospital bed, but as near as he could tell there was no one else in the room. Why would someone as high profile as Don B. be left unguarded? The situation felt off, and Sin’s good mind told him to abort the mission, but he was so close. This was his best and last chance to kill the man who had violated his mother and caused the death of his half sister. The Don had to die.
Sincere gave one last glance down the hall to make sure it was still all clear before sitting the cart outside the room and stepping inside. He drew his pistol from the pocket of his scrubs. He was so excited that his hands shook as he screwed on the silencer. The moment he had been anticipating since he was a kid had finally arrived. He raised the gun and pointed it at Don B.’s head. “This is for my family.”
“And this is for the team,” Sin heard someone say from behind him. He turned in time to see Zod step from the bathroom he had ducked into when he heard the squeaky wheels of the laundry cart.
Sin was raising his pistol when Zod’s first bullet struck him. It struck him in the chest, stealing his breath. His legs felt like noodles, and he feared that they would give out on him. He ignored the pain and the armed man with the tattooed face, keeping his focus on the Don. He had to pay for what he had done, even if it cost Sin his own life. He managed to get a shot off, but his aim was shaky, and the bullet struck the pillow right next to Don B.’s head. Sin wasn’t sure how or when it had happened, but he ended up on the floor, bleeding from his chest wound. He tried to raise his gun, but no longer had the strength. Sin watched helplessly, gasping for air as Zod moved to stand over him. “You don’t understand . . . he has to die . . .” he rasped.
“This we can agree on, but his life isn’t yours to take,” Zod told him before pulling the trigger.
Sin’s last thoughts before the end came for him were that he hoped that Bone would take care of their mother after he was gone.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Gone . . . that was the word Promise would’ve used to describe Candice’s state of mind. She sat near the window, rocking back and forth, staring off into space and whimpering. Every few minutes, she would stop her rocking long enough to scream the name of her murdered lover, as if it would bring him running from out of the bedroom like it normally did. Her sister Keisha consoled her as best she could, but there was nothing that could ease what she was feeling. She had suffered a tragic loss, the father of her children.
