Family of Monsterz, page 1
© 2020 Whitney Kennedy. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
ISBN 978-1-09832-419-3 eBook 978-1-09832-420-9
From the street you could audibly hear the commotion. Her screams, his disgruntled and enraged grunts. Suddenly the noise stopped with a loud bang, ringing so clearly it was as if the sound bounced from wall to wall throughout the entire building. Her body began to shake immediately and intensely. As unbelievable as it may seem, after the beating Rose had suffered, her first thoughts were of her beloved. What had she done?
What started as care and concern quickly escalated revealing her deeply hidden frustration and exhaustion. Blood covered every inch of the bathroom, not leaving one wall its original pristine white. As if frozen in time Rose stood still in the doorway still holding the Beretta with both hands.
A light sprinkling of blood-filled rain raindrops began to run like makeup down her face and hands. The rhythmic pattern of drops quickly triggered a rapid succession of memories, moments, and emotions sinking her body to the floor, crippling her with grief. Her children at school she laid in his puddle of blood, head on his chest tears drawing lines on her face as she tried to think.
Table of Contents
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
one
“If this goes left… Run.” Meli whispered to her as the red car approached them. The blinding car lights were soon shut off. The rule of thumb between them being always wear black, always be strapped, and always have a plan B. For the first time Meli was rushed to action, and he knew something was off, but like a living nightmare he knew he’d be unable to wake up or change a thing. Ty had mentioned it before they went to the meeting. But now was the wrong time to second guess his previously rushed decision to go thru with this connection. The reality being that you never knew what was really going to happen. Times had truly changed.
The car doors open simultaneously, “Remember what I said Ty”, Meli said casually without looking in her direction. There was death in the atmosphere, deaths energy dense like a thick cloud overhead heavy with rain, thunder, and lightning. No names were spoken as the three men walked up to them. No one expected that Meli would have shown up with anyone else. One of the only people in the streets who had no need for a crew, Meli was his own crew, he saw no need in including the whole world in his business. Over time he had learned that being too trusting was a business hazard.
“You’re here, but ain’t nothing with you…” The tallest of the three spoke, “Where’s my shit?”
Knowing that Michael is scary on his own, and not being easily stepped on Meli chuckled aloud, “Let me find out you grabbin yo nuts with me. The Michael I know got that blonde hair running from his head to his ass. Don’t make me pull yo ponytail in front of yo peons.”
With a single head motion from Mel, Ty began walking to the nearby dumpster of the abandoned apartment building where they had grown up. As she bent to pick up the black duffle bag, she heard the first gunshots erupt, breaking the purposefully imposed silence. She spoke no words, as quickly as the shots rang out Ty was standing up right gun out no safety. Without a second thought Ty was running for the group gun in one handbag in the other. Three back to back shots fired all hers. Meli didn’t scream, holler, or gasp, left hand on his side right hand holding his drawn weapon. Finally, able to see clearly through blinding pain he noticed not one man was still standing, not one man was still breathing.
“You so hardheaded,” Meli grinned up at Ty. She glanced quickly in all directions and with the covered hand that she used to shoot the connect and reached out to help him up. As Meli came to his feet, he groaned leaning his body weight on Ty’s much smaller but capable shoulders. Throwing the bag in the car, Ty lowered Meli into the back seat.
“Lay down bro, we’re headed to the house.” Ty said closing the car door and hopping in the front seat, looking in the backseat she continued talking as she drove, “Don’t you go silent on me old man…”.
Their casual banter continued for the duration of the drive home. Pops had chosen to tuck it away behind what appeared to be a dense wooded area, just the way he liked it. There were a thousand ways to leave the area without being seen. If you had not been showed to the house, you had no clue it was there. Pops had never finished medical school, but he was damn good with a scalpel, and because of his God given abilities and love of science the hood had shown him love. Pops had been as low key as they come, he couldn’t stand the idea of the world knowing his business and ingrained that into his children. Nobody met Pops unless he wanted to meet you.
As they approached the house, Ty hit the garage door opener and honked the horn twice. At 11pm, what could be expected of these two but trouble? Pops walked into the garage medical bag in hand, sometimes life just has a way of bringing things full circle in a way that is best for you. Being the doctor to the streets has definitely changed Pops life.
“Get him out,” Pops commanded picking up speed as he started to see all the blood on the window of the back seat. Meli, now barely conscious, gave a weary smile before collapsing like a broken fold up chair. Even as an older man Pops was strong as an ox. Without much thought he had thrown an arm around Meli and started dragging his nearly lifeless body across the garage and into the room he had been using for his completely illegal practice. One thing Meli and Ty both knew was that they could trust Pops with their lives. His advice was always two steps ahead of the law, ten jumps ahead of any competition. His mantra being, “If you stay ready, you don’t have to get ready.” So far, this mantra had saved their lives on more than one occasion.
Pops immediately went to work on Meli’s wound. The bullet had lodged itself deep in the tissue surrounding his abdomen. Meli would be down for at least a few days, as he focused on the body Ty focused on the crime scene. She drove back across town cautious not to pull up on the scene, parking several streets away. A smart kid Ty not only changed clothes completely she changed shoes and a hat, knowing these minor changes would completely change the perception any nosey neighbors could have had of her. Thankfully, the neighborhood that was once the hustle and bustle of the city, was now nothing more than a rundown area of abandoned homes, apartment buildings, and corner stores beaten up by years of immoral slumlords.
As she approached the back of the dumpster where she’d left the bag previously, Ty surveyed the area there were fresh tire tracks. Someone had not only been there but had taken the bodies. Not a bullet shell, not even a footprint, Ty knew she had to get out of there and fast. Pops had always called it “The Scenic Route”, but it always came in handy to know your location like the back of your hand. Ty ran over to the nearby Kroger parking lot and then across the street through the nursing home to the back alley where she’d parked. She and Meli had a problem.
Meli was sitting in the living room when Ty returned, he had taught her well about maintaining radio silence unless necessary years ago.
“You’re back… way to damn fast...” he uttered hoisting himself to his feet, with all the strength he could muster.
“We got way bigger problems than the boys, those bodies disappeared,” Ty rambled, “you know, vanished, my guy who kidnaps dead bodies?”
Meli paused, “For now let’s go to the house, I’ll grab some clothes and...” Before he could finish his sentence, Pops walked in and sat down, creating an intense silence. The three of them all willing participants in the stare down, “You know when I started helping Box it was just a way to have some money and support my kids. Your mother left when Ty was just a little kid, left me with a sixteen-year-old boy and a nine-year-old little girl. Meli I always wondered if what I did to take care of my family had created you, now I know it did. Tyler, I never wanted this for you...”.
Meli stared in amazement, the memories his stand-in father, and blood uncle had versus the life he’d lived growing up could have been the difference in night and day. “You didn’t want this for us,” Meli practically whispered, “See the life I remembered was full of arguments between my mother and you. I remember your gambling debts.” Meli now stood right in front of his healer, his older twin. “I remember saving your life...”
Words caught in his throat Meli was snatched into the air feet dangling by Pops everlasting vice grip. Every black family Ty had encountered had secrets, evidently hers was not exempt. Seemed like since she was able to walk Ty had to choose who to stay with and who to leave, gun drawn she stepped back momentarily as she watched Meli’s peanut butter complexion take on a new shade of pink. “Just put him down Pops, whatever happened it don’t even matter...” then pulling with a small click she had disarmed the safety lock, “you both are all I have left of a family. I have no desire for you to die at my hands.”.
Just like her mother, Ty, who had not spent more than three years of her early childhood with her m other, was at her most dangerous when eerily calm. Considering the icy chill that went up his spine when she’d spoken, Pops slowly allowed Meli’s feet to find stability on the floor. Then turned and headed for his bottle of Jim Bean on the dining room table and stood holding a picture of her once pregnant mother. Liquor speaking aloud his truth, Pops bellowed a drunk warning to Meli, “Boy you get my daughter killed, and we both know I’ll send you on to Jesus without a second thought.”.
Two
The view of the water in the city was amazing. For an old factory Meli had turned the building’s interior into a high-class loft with four vastly different levels of access. His room was at the top floor, between Pops prescribed meds and the Kush he had been self-medicating with, Meli was delirious with pain and starting to fall asleep. Knowing his mind was not strong enough to avoid her questions Ty pulled the covers up around her older brother and dimmed the lights in the room, sitting on the edge of the bed, “Thought we kept no secrets, and held no punches.”
“Tyler I was never hiding anything from you... I was protecting you the best way I knew how. Pops may not be perfect, but he held us down, shit I never wanted this for us either. When we were little Pops was super involved in Box’s business, Mama hated it. One-day Box was hurt badly in Granny’s beauty shop some dudes after Box shot it up and Mama brought Box to Pops. Mama was the only person in the hood who knew just how close he had come to becoming a surgeon. Once Box was healed that was how Pops paid off his debt to Box and made the money, he used to take care of us. One night while we should’ve been sleep, Box had been shot; Pops was taking care of him. I don’t know what the fuss was, but the guy had Pops at gunpoint, I could see them. In his nightstand was the Beretta that used to be Granny’s. I could hear them fighting, as I was walking in the room to grab the gun. I killed that man, I emptied the clip on him, he couldn’t be saved... not even by Jesus Christ himself.”
Meli had grown up during the most difficult period of Pops life. From it his inheritance had been discovered. His ability to unleash years of bitterness in moments actions, to Box who had known grown men who were too scared to act, came a dime a dozen. But Meli had been something special. It was November, officially fall; per usual the temperature had sunk like the sun falling behind the same clouds that would free the moon.
By blood, Box was Mel’s father, and Ty’s uncle. However, Box was never the most loyal person, the only thing that he knew was that in the streets, it was big bank take little bank, which for him meant getting to the top by any means necessary, even if that meant utilizing your weakness to his benefit! The Kendall brothers were known for being a deadly combination, one cold and calculating, the other a constant schemer with an undying rage. Box had a way of reeling you in with minimal bait and could still hook a great white. In the beginning Box was reckless. A poor plan landed him at a maximum-security government retreat facility. It was the equivalent of a dope man university, where Box entered a student and exited an accomplished professor.
Box quickly became a heavy hitter in the street, handling everything from well-orchestrated hits, to moving a little weight. One-night Box was getting rid of a car, he had already been paid, this run should have been nothing new. Box was a massive man, six-foot five nearing two hundred sixty pounds. If his sheer size alone wasn’t intimidating, his dreadlocks and heavy beard left the impression of a savage barbarian in a hard boy, he drove the black Grand Am to the river where he knew the owner of a chop shop. Any contents of the vehicle were being disposed of properly. The owner Otis was a young but retired Marine who had seen years of action. Box pulled up and entered the gate code.
A tall fence with barbed wire at the top opened to the shop, a four-car garage which was surrounded by cars guarded by Snow White an albino pit bull and Hunter a Rottweiler. As Box pulled the vehicle into the garage three workers walked immediately into the main area. Otis immediately spoke to the first two men in Spanish, as the other man began to survey the entire vehicle.
Upon exiting the car Box took a rag that he kept with him and wiped down the steering wheel and all other parts of the front seat that he’d touched. Having worked with Otis’ shop before he was aware that they would clean the car and then chop and resale it’s body in several pieces to other vehicles, but something told him to be more cautious about who he entrusted his freedom to. After tossing the keys to Otis, Box pointing to the bathroom, took his time exiting the room as well.
While in the bathroom Box noticed the main garage had gone silent, so he zipped up, and walked out quickly. When he walked back into the room the only two people in the room where he and Otis, who was now holding a gun in hand. The trunk to the car was now open revealing the dead body of what appeared to have been a beautiful young lady. Her long flowing hair was tousled inside the trunk, legs duct taped together, hands bound behind her back as well. Even those things may not have bothered Box, but the sight of her horribly beaten face caused Box to startle Otis with a simple stumble back into the tool cart at the workstation.
“Don’t look shocked now,” Otis responded in a low growl, “So you sending messages now?”
Confused Box shook his head thinking, “Here we go…”, as he began planning his escape. The real issue was not Otis, it was Snow White and Hunter, so he decided to try and convince Otis of the truth. But before he could even get that far bullets began to fly the first one tearing through his side, the second through his shoulder. Knowing this would end with his funeral Box crawled out ignoring the pain of the first two shots. Otis in a rage continued firing at any and everything moving, he was so gone that he never noticed that bullets were coming from outside the building as well. Someone wanted them both dead.
Barely escaping with his life Box left out a back entrance that he took note of one of the first times that he ever made a vehicle drop there. Wondering if Otis had survived Box waited in the woods just long enough to see the angel who’d created this hell emerge from the building seconds before it erupted in flames. If it hadn’t been for the light of the fire, he may never have seen the temptress walk out. Her hair as beautiful the victims’, between her shape and the vicious nature of the attack she planned he had to know who she was. Box had been a car thief from age fourteen to sixteen, as he neared the next street, he found an older car and used his knife to unlock and start the car. What he hadn’t done was attempt to stop the bleeding.
At this point Box was losing blood and fast, Neicy had been a nurse for years working the night shift, at about twelve thirty in the morning Box knew he had to get to Gene before she got in from work. If he could at least be close to sleep when she arrived, then she would be far less likely to go off on them both. When Gene started hustling Box’s boys in exchange for stitch ups and what not, Neicy started stocking the house with the supplies he would need to do everything including blood transfusions. Neicy would have done anything for Gene, and she proved it, time and time again. His quiet nature genuinely spoke volumes, being a man of few words, whenever he chose to say something it was always something of value. If she could just get him away from Box, Gene would stand a real chance at life. Box held something over Gene’s head that he would never verbalize, and no matter what avenues she had attempted Gene would shut down the instant that he knew where the conversation was going. Gene had become her protector early on but the one person he could never protect her from was himself.
In the back of Gene and Neicy’s home was a tall fence that ran from one side to the other, unable to get out of the car to unlatch the gate he allowed the car to cruise thru it. The clash of the gates against the car, and the motion detector flood lights immediately caught Gene’s attention. Knowing that very few people knew how to get to the back of his home, Gene immediately jumped up to see what was happening. An old big body had broken the chains and come crashing through the back gate. Something in his heart told him that this was no accident, so grabbing his medical bag he began down the stairs. The kids had managed to sleep through the noise at least for now. In the backyard Gene approached the car slowly making sure to walk all the way around it, only one head in the front seat. Gun pointing at the door as he opened it with the other hand Gene immediately recognized its bloody and unconscious occupant, Box.
