I stood there looking at this man on his knees begging me to consider stopping. Not because he knew what the fuck I was capable of, but because he was dumb enough to think this was suicide for me and my people. Like anything he said mattered. Like his life mattered.
“You did good,” I said. “You gave me what I needed, don’t worry about shit else. It’s handled.”
“So you gonna let me go?” Hope flashed across his face like a nigga who didn’t understand the situation even now.
“Nah,” I said. “I’m not.”
Namier moved faster than Elijah could process. One shot. Clean. Elijah dropped and never got back up.
I looked at Mars. “Get rid of him. Make sure there’s nothing left that can be identified.”
“Say Less.”
We were back in the trucks and moving within minutes. I shook my head at how fast this nigga had given up the drop. What I didn’t get was a clear answer on what nigga was in charge and ordered that on Darius, but one thing that I knew was that once I started taking shit from these niggas, the big dawg was gone come out and announce himself.
On the ride back I made one call. I had to reach out to one of my street Lieutenant who I knew had Brick Boyz connects. Up until today, we were all unaware that there was real beef. We knew now. I told him to spread word that Elijah Reeves had tried to move independent and that had gotten him handled. I told him to tell anybody listening that Elijah had been talking to the wrong people. That Dallas had new management and new management had new rules.
By sunrise that message would travel from Dallas through Fort Worth like wildfire. And everybody on that side of the state would know that the Carter name still was nothing to fuck with. Now, it meant something different. I was not my father, and niggas was about to see that.
—
I pulled up to my parents house at 4:33am. The sun wasn’t even thinking about coming up yet. The compound was quiet the way it got late at night when everybody was sleeping and security was just moving shadows in the dark.
I didn’t knock on the front door. I went straight to my parents room to find my father like I had the right to. Because what I’d just done needed to be addressed before someone else could tell my father for me.
I walked down the hallway, my jaw still tight from everything that just went down in Fort Worth. Elijah Reeves was gone. The message was out. And now my father needed to know what hisson had just started. I knew that shit was about to get real, and like a man, I needed to come to my father first out of respect.
I pushed their bedroom door open without knocking.
They were both asleep. My parents didn't do separate bedrooms like most couples who’d been together nearly 30 years. My father, Kadeem Carter had always said a man keeps his woman close at night, no matter how old you get. My mother was on her side, back to the door. My father was on his back, one arm draped across her waist even in sleep.
I walked over to my father's side of the bed and sat down on the edge of it the same way I'd done when I was younger and something important needed to be said that couldn’t wait.
It took him ten seconds to feel a presence in his room and jump straight into that mode. Instincts were a muthafucka.
His eyes came open alert like a nigga who had trained himself to go from sleep to ready in a heartbeat. He looked at me sitting on his bed in the dark and his whole body went tense.
"Something happened," he said. Not a question.
"Yeah," I said. "Something happened."
He started to sit up slow, trying not to disturb my mother. But her eyes were already opening. She'd heard his voice shift and that was all the warning she needed.
My mother, Zuri Carter's eyes snapped open and she went from sleep to fully awake in half a second. She sat up, looked at me, then looked at her husband, and I watched her run through every scenario in her head in the time it took her to blink.
"What?" she said. Just one word. But it carried everything.
I told them everything. Told them about the body at the gate. Told them about Darius. Told them about the note. Told them about pulling the footage and identifying Elijah Reeves. Told them about going to Fort Worth at 2am. Told them about what Elijah gave up before I handled him. Told them about the shipment coming in four days with a drop location and time.
I watched my father's face while I talked. Watched him process every word. His expression didn't change much but his eyes did. Something moved behind them when I said Brick Boyz. Something that told me he already knew this shit would come. Already knew who was behind the car. Already knew why.
But my mother.
My mother's whole body went rigid the second I said we'd gone to Fort Worth.
"You went where?" she said, sitting straight up in bed, pulling the covers back. "You took your men where without telling us?"
"Ma, let me finish—"
