“Kara, I ain’t got time for this shit right now. Just know we handling it, and this mothafucka won’t hurt anyone else. Do me a favor though?”
“What’s that?” she asked, a deep frown creasing her forehead while narrowing her eyes at me.
“Call Karmine, find out where he is. Don’t tell him I’m asking about him. Just check in,” I advised, and skepticism filled her face.
I could hear the music and the laughter outside while the children played and their parents enjoyed free food and drinks to fill them to their heart’s desire. My mind was on murderous things. I kissed my sister’s forehead and stepped past her, focused. I felt her burning a laser hole into my back as I ducked into the pantry and then beyond into the hidden door.
Iridescent lights filled the halls as I took even steps to my destination. Ledge stood near a workman’s table with an arsenal of knives spread out before him. Slice hung back with his arms crossed in front of him, menacing daggers stabbing Mistro from afar. In the center of the room he was zip tied to a chair. He didn’t seem bothered or alarmed, posted with his chin up.
“You think I came here without the idea that you might try something?” he queried smugly. “I got people out there too. If I don’t come out of here alive, they will be coming in here.”
“I’m not really concerned with that.” I grabbed a nearby chair and set it on the ground in front of him.
Lowering myself down into it, we sat face-to-face, eye to eye. Mistro had to be high with the way that he couldn’t stop smiling.
“What I want to know is what is your plan? What did you come here expecting from all this?” I asked, raising my hands to emphasize my point. “Arrow is dead. If you wanted to resolve that, you should have just came to me like a fucking man. Then again, taking into account who you were actually raised by, it makes all the sense in the world why you behaved like a coward instead. You would think that you would be a little smarter than that though.” I remained calm, easing myself back into my chair while keeping a fixed stare on his face “You would know for sure that since you crept onto my radar, I’ve been keeping a close eye on you. Regency Inn, suite 315. You go to the gym daily, order the same thing for breakfast every morning. Even got word of you fucking one of the maids while wifey was away.” I listed off, watching the smugness dissolve off his face as my words sank in. “See, I knew that Ivy told Ivana about the party, and something told me that a bold mothafucka like you would come here trying to show yo’ ass. I banked on that shit. So your little crew of soldiers out there, yeah, they’ve been handled. Ain’t nobody coming for you. I killed my own fucking father and yours. So what makes you think I give one fuck about snubbing yo’ ass out?” I went into my waistband and dug my pistol out to emphasize my point.
His eyes followed the gun in my hands, officially shook.
“I see I have your attention.” I simpered while Ledge came up behind me and held a silencer out.
Grabbing the tool, I screwed it on my weapon, eyes still aimed at Mistro. “Now, this is only going one way, so you got any last words?”
When he opened his mouth to speak, I squeezed one off into his chest. My patience was shot, and now I had an enemy even closer to home to deal with, so that is where my mind was now. The shit with Harbor also had me fucked up and in murder mode too. I couldn’t resolve that, so I was putting all my energy intothis. I brought myself to my feet after watching him take his last breath.
“Get this shit cleaned up and ready to dump,” I ordered, marching back over to the doorway from where I came.
When I emerged from the pantry, Harbor was back in the kitchen with Chevy at the counter. With their heads together, they spoke low, and when she saw me, she stalled. Kara pulled something from the fridge when she spotted me. Setting the veggie tray on the counter, she approached me as I moved closer to her. I didn’t want to deal with anything outside of the current task.
“Hey. Karmine says he’s actually in town. He’s staying at the rental property over in the Palms. Did you know that he was here?” she asked, a grimace wrinkling her face.
“Nah, but I had a feeling,” I answered, distracted.
“Free, what’s going on?” she asked, worry etched across her bright, beige face.
“I’m not about to talk about this with you right now, Kara. I’m trying to handle a plateful of shit at the same time, and you and your twenty fucking questions is slowing me down. Is Karmine at the house now?”
“Yes, he is. I deserve to know what this is about. I am family.”
“And it’s best if you don’t know anything. I gotta go.” I shoved her away and tore out of the room without a word to anybody else.
I could still feel Harbor’s energy though, so I knew that she, too, was concerned after I ripped past her like a gust of wind. A warpath had been paved, and it led straight to my brother. I checked my clip to my gun as I headed to the door. I was locked and loaded. He wasn’t going to know what fucking hit him.
When I arrived at his location, I banged three times on the front door. All I could hear was a bunch of fucking moaning as I waited on the other side for it to open. After about three minutesof me knocking that mothafucka down like I was the police, it finally swung open, and some naked bitch answered like I was fucking up her good time. The sneer she wore turned upward into a flirty grin once she did a once over of me.
“Damn, you here to join the festivities?” She licked her lips and leaned against the frame of the door.
I shoved that shit open so hard she stumbled back and hit the floor. I didn’t give her a chance to scream or budge before I hit her with a hollow tip through the dome and left her brains on the floor. Stepping over her body, I did a quick survey of the room and caught everybody trying to scatter. Three different bitches were now leaking life as Karmine sat forward on the sofa in the living room. A tray of cocaine sat spread on a tray in front of him, and he didn’t seem rocked by the fact that I had killed everyone around him.
“Frequency, what a surprise.” He used his first finger and thumb to plug his nose after finishing a line from a rolled-up hundred-dollar bill. “You know how to make a fucking entrance, don’t you… brother.” He chuckled stupidly, and I hovered right above him on the other side of the table.
Never could I have ever envisioned this moment, but somehow, as it played out before me, it seemed inevitable given my history with our father. Karmine couldn’t let it go. No matter what Kut did, he worshipped the ground the nigga walked on. In his eyes, he could do no wrong. I couldn’t allow anyone around me with that kind of mindset. Right beside his tray of coke was his Desert Eagle, and I could tell that he wanted to reach for it. I already had mine ready, so it was whether or not he wanted to take the risk. I knew that Mine was a decent shot, but he didn’t have shit on me.
“It’s one thing to have enemies outside the circle. But it’s another type of betrayal when it comes from within.”
“The way I see it, nigga should always see it coming, especially when his own loyalty is questionable,” Karmine spoke like he had a bitter taste in his mouth while his face curled into a menacing glower.
“Who I owe that shit to, Mine, hmm? You, Karrin, Kara? Maybe. Kutlass? Fuck no! Him being the nigga that helped contribute to my DNA don’t make him my fucking daddy. Maybe you can give him the benefit of the doubt. You do what the fuck you need to do. But I don’t owe a dead man shit, and I didn’t owe it to him when he was alive. Fuck all the shit he provided for us and look at how he treated us, like fucking afterthoughts, and you know it. He only came to us when he needed something. Funny how I didn’t peep until now just how many of his traits you inherited. Kara still got enough in her to grow.”
