Invincible: A Novel (25 page)

“Motherfucking coward,” Jake said to himself.

“Damn, I have to deal with this nigga,” Regg said before the cell doors slammed shut.

———

“Phil Rosenberg is on top of the world, babies! You rolling with the best,” Phil said like he was a star athlete or a champion of something. Phil was talking shit on the penthouse balcony to three of his lady friends he decided to hang out with. Phil’s idea of hanging out was a big duplex suite at a high-class hotel
with an eight ball of coke, some E pills, some good weed, and vodka and tequila.

“Listen, ladies, I got two friends coming over. I want y’all to show them a nice time, but that’s later on. For now I need y’all to clean this shit up and put the drugs away. As a matter of fact, leave all this shit right here! Damn, I’m high as a kite! I’m going downstairs. Don’t interrupt me unless I call one of y’all! I’m hopping in the shower for a while.”

Phil had a meeting with the remaining Calvin brother and Monster. After taking his shower, he didn’t feel like going back up the stairs to change. He yelled upstairs, “One of you ladies bring my clothes down here and lay them out on the bed! I’m going to fix me a drink.”

Phil was at the bar making his drink when he heard one of the girls run down the steps. Without looking at her he asked, “You got all of my shit?”

“No, Phil, I don’t have all your shit!”

Phil jerked around to see M.B. standing there holding a gun on him.

“What the fuck are you doing here, you fucking cunt?”

“So disrespectful when I have a gun in my hand, Phil?”

“Bitch, you never shot or killed anything in your life and I’m pretty sure you don’t want to go to jail now. Where the fuck did you send my bitches, M.B.?”

“They went home, Phil, like I told them to. Did you forget I’m the one who hooked you up with most of your connects, even the one who sends you your hoes, dumb ass?”

“Cut the shit, M.B., and get to the point! I got a meeting in a couple of minutes and I wouldn’t want one of them to come in
here and see you with that gun out and put a bullet in your pretty li’l head now,” Phil said.

“I know you have a meeting with Calvin and Monster, Phil. I have been following you for a few weeks now, but neither one of those gentlemen will be showing up. The girls won’t be coming back, either.”

“And why’s that?” Phil was starting to get a little nervous, but he didn’t let it show.

“Because they all know about you now. So will Jake. I wrote him a letter explaining the whole thing. He should be getting it any day now.”

“What the fuck are you talking about, M.B.?”

“You know, Phil, it took some time to figure it out, but I did,” M.B. said. “You are the one who set up Jake’s store to get robbed in the first place. Your intentions were to discourage him from being around. You hoped that robbery would leave him broke and make him relocate. Couldn’t bear the fact he witnessed you get raped. So when he went to jail you went and told Albert about Jake killing his son and his friends, but you made it seem like I got raped and you wasn’t there. But you never expected Albert to work so hard on getting Jake killed. You didn’t expect him to want to be the one to hurt Jake personally. When he decided to go in on the inside and have your guys’ other partner, Frazier, help him, that’s when you went into extra hard mode and went to the jail. You hired Franklin Butler to do the job, which he almost did. That’s around the time you told me Jake was out and just left town. But Jake didn’t die. Instead, he fell into a coma. You probably wanted to kill him in the hospital, but you couldn’t afford to make yourself hot. Then somehow you got in Kim’s head. You told her about
my baby. You scared her with talk of fed time, being she was the founder of the 300 and Jake’s girl. Then came your death threat for her to let you know if Jake ever got up; if she didn’t, that was it for someone in her family. She actually believed you until your men tried to kill her, too. When you knew you couldn’t count on her anymore because you double-crossed her, you got Mitch in on it. You wanted him to kill his nephew, but he wouldn’t or couldn’t do it. He was actually trying to save Jake’s life. That’s why he killed Kim and not Jake. Mitch didn’t know Nine-One was a fed and he was about to bring you down, so you got real lucky when he got killed. You are a lowlife! You were trying to get Jake killed because you knew the feds were on to him killing Phat Murphy. At first I thought it was really over me, but that ain’t the case. You didn’t want the feds to get Jake for them bodies because you didn’t want the feds to hear the whole story. The reason why you didn’t want them to hear it is because you are a motherfucking federal agent! And you didn’t want your fellow agents to knock you off. You didn’t want them to know you got fucked up the ass. You’re not only a fed, but you’re a dirty one that has made money off your cover!”

Phil turned red as a beet. He had blood in his eyes. “Fuck you, you fucking whore,” Phil screamed. “How the fuck did you find all this out?”

“I kinda stumbled upon it, Phil. When I saw that Nine-One was a fed, I just automatically assumed he was on Jake’s case. Then I thought about it. He had more than enough time and evidence to bring Jake in. He was trying to get closer to the 300 Crew. He knew Kim started it, but when he found out you were in it and that wasn’t part of your cover or case agenda, he was on to you. But now that he is dead and most of the Crew is dead,
and because Jake and your friend Frank are in jail, you think you got off scot-free.”

“You still ain’t say exactly how you stumbled on all of this, M.B.”

“When you got my address, Phil, you fucked up! You fucked up bad! How did you get it? You went to my real estate agent and gave my name and picture and told him I was under federal investigation. You got my address from him, that was your mistake. You fucked up! My real estate agent is an ATF agent and I used to be an ATF agent, too.”

Phil was speechless. She had him. He wished he could kick himself in the ass. It made so much sense. What other way could she have had so much info on that many people for so many years? No wonder she just up and left. How come he hadn’t looked into her background deeper?

“So what the fuck are you doing? You gonna take me in? Then come on over here and cuff me.” Phil stuck his hands out.

“No, Phil. I ain’t here to arrest you. I said I used to be an ATF agent. I was forced into early retirement for being a dirty cop like you, but I was nowhere near as grimy as you! Yeah, I stole and had a baby by Jake while I was investigating Kim, so I had to leave my job.”

Phil sensed M.B. was going to shoot him and tried to throw a liquor bottle. She sidestepped and put a bullet in Phil’s groin.

“That’s for me, motherfucker!” Then she shot him again in his stomach. “That one is for Jake, motherfucker!” Then she shot him in the head. “That’s for my daughter and making her grow up without a father.”

M.B. left Phil in his hotel room sprawled out bleeding.

———

Regg knew he had to be well prepared to fuck with Jake. He also knew Jake just got in the house and most likely he didn’t have a blade on him. So if he ran up first, he could get Jake.

Jake was in his cell thinking of how to make the best out of his time. He would tell Regg in the morning to just stay away from him. He didn’t have a plan for Frank and Clips and he knew he would definitely see them in the yard or mess hall. “Whatever happens, happens,” he told himself.

Morning time came and Jake was up. He couldn’t sleep. He was waiting for the lock-out bell to ring. He knew Regg might try his hand and it was going to be an early morning wreck.

The lock-out bell rang and Jake stepped out of his cell. Regg stepped out of his, and so did the rest of the block. The CO made the chow call and everybody who was hungry headed to the mess hall. Some fell back ’cause they was too tired. Some fell back because they were gonna eat some shit off their commissary.

Jake headed to the mess hall. He made sure to play the wall of the hallway as he walked. Regg was kind of nervous-looking but trying to cover it up with a poker face. That was making Jake uneasy. As soon as Jake picked a spot where he could eat and observe everything, he got on line for his food. He made a mental note that Regg was ten men behind the guy that was behind him. Jake’s spot was somebody else’s table, but the kids it belonged to noticed it was Jake in the spot and kept moving. So Jake ended up with the whole table to himself. As Jake was eating, he noticed Clips walking into the mess hall, which made him reminisce on his brutal beating.

Clips noticed it got quiet as soon as he entered. The tension was extremely thick. He scanned the area and saw Jake sitting by himself. Clips not giving a fuck, got his tray, cut the breakfast line, and joined Jake for breakfast.

“Good morning, Jake,” Clips said, as if he and Jake were the best friends in the world and he never played a part in trying to kill him.

Jake replied, “You’re a funny guy!”

Frank had walked into the mess hall and knew something was going down. He saw Clips sitting with Jake at a table by themselves. He skipped getting his tray, went straight to the table they were sitting at, and sat down next to Clips.

“Clips, what are you doing?” Frank asked as soon as he got to the table.

“Just saying good morning, that’s all, Frank.”

“Yo, check this out,” Frank was addressing Jake. “Let’s just squash the beef.”

“I can do that if you two go back to your cell block and go to sleep for two years. Do that and we call it even,” Jake said.

“Listen, Jake, you can play tough, but you don’t stand a chance against us. I’m trying to be levelheaded, but I see we gonna have to handle our business,” Frank said.

“I prefer it that way,” Jake said. “One way or the other y’all gonna have to pay, you know. I ain’t letting that shit slide.”

As soon as Jake said slide, Clips hopped over the table with his blade out. That was exactly what Jake expected him to do. Jake hopped up and smashed his tray into Clips’ throat and stepped back. He knew Clips was hurt bad. Frank walked around the table and Jake threw his hands up. Frank kicked Jake in his knee and made him buckle. Then he caught him
with a kick in the side of the head that dropped Jake to the floor. Jake’s head was ringing, but he jumped to his feet fast. Frank threw another kick at Jake’s ribs, but Jake caught his leg and slammed Frank to the floor. Jake felt Frank’s strength and knew Frank was some kind of expert in something. Jake tried to stomp Frank’s leg and Frank ended up sweeping his leg and hopping up. Jake hopped up just as fast. They were squared back up and Frank kicked Jake in the mouth and hit him twice in the body. Jake didn’t know if the body shot was a fist or foot, but he knew a rib was broken and he was dizzy.

Clips got back up and tried to hop back into the action, but Regg pushed him away and said, “One on one, he is already losing. So this gonna be fair!”

“Fuck you, nigga,” Clips told Regg and tried to poke him, but Clips was slow. His equilibrium still wasn’t right from when the tray hit his throat. So Regg sidestepped his half-ass swing and dug into his ass quick with four blows. Clips hit the floor with a bloodied-up grill.

Frank and Jake were practically the same height and weight, but everybody watching could tell Frank clearly outclassed Jake in fighting style. Jake was tired and he was trying to get his bearings, but Frank was overwhelming him. Frank hit him with a four piece. Jake tried to rush Frank to slam him, but Frank put him in a choke hold that was putting Jake to sleep. Everybody watching, who thought Jake was a bad man, thought Frank was something terrible.

Frank felt Jake going to sleep in his arms and began to squeeze tighter. Frank decided he was going to choke Jake to death. He knew if he didn’t, Jake would keep coming back.

Jake knew he was about to die. His life was flashing before
his eyes. He dug deep down and thought about his daughter and found the strength to lift Frank over his back while he was still in the choke hold. He had seen it in a wrestling match when he was younger. He suplexed Frank while Frank was still choking him, forcing Frank to let go of the choke hold. Jake sprung to his feet again and shot a two piece at Frank and Frank blocked both of them. Frank reached into his pants and pulled out a blade. Jake had no blade and Regg tried to throw Jake his, but Frank intercepted it in midair and threw it at Jake. It landed in Jake’s chest. Frank threw it with so much force and so perfectly, Jake felt like the blade went through him—but it didn’t, it was stuck in him. Only the handle stuck out of his chest.

Frank smirked at Jake. Then he rushed him and stabbed him in his gut hard three times. It was over and everybody knew it. Frank, Regg, even Clips—who wasn’t dead but was leaking bad—and the CO, who had seen enough and decided to pull the plug, saw Jake hit the floor.

Frank started to walk away until he heard Jake speak. “Hey bitch! That’s all you got? Don’t you know I’m Mr. Invincible?” Jake got to his feet blood and all.

Frank looked at Jake with total disbelief and gripped his knife tight. He walked toward Jake. Frank told himself he was gonna slit Jake’s throat from ear to ear, guaranteed death. Frank got closer to Jake, who looked like he was gonna die any second with that knife handle sticking out his chest. For a second Frank had to admire Jake. He was a throwback, a true warrior. He looked like he didn’t mind dying this way.

Frank was three footsteps from Jake, about to send him to his maker, when Jake grabbed the knife handle that was in his
chest and pulled it out. Blood shot out like his chest was a sprinkler. Jake used every last little bit of strength he had to successfully stab Frank in the esophagus. He twisted the blade around and yanked it out. Frank never even had a chance to take his final blow. He grabbed his throat and fell to the floor choking on his own blood. He died gasping for air with Jake standing over him.

Jake looked around the mess hall. He was dizzy. Then his focus became clear. He was breathing hard. He had a strong feeling they would be his last breaths. He was bleeding from the mouth with half of his guts out and a couple of teeth missing. He looked around at every face in the mess hall with the intensity of a dying president or religious leader taking one last look at his followers. He threw his right fist up and said, “Invincible,” then he dropped to the floor.