Toni just nodded her head in amazement. “Well, I’mma finish cleaning the chairs and the tables and make sure everything is ready for him.”
“I’mma go back to the office and get ready to change and take care of a few business calls. I need to reach out to his management to make sure we are on our A-game.” Justice gave Toni a nod and then headed back to her office.
Justice made the walk to her office and then closed and locked the door. She took a seat at her desk and made a few calls. Once it was confirmed that Kanye was to arrive on schedule she ended the calls. Out of habit, she checked her drawer to make sure no one had snuck in and tampered with her protection.
She decided to change into something more comfortable. Justice hopped in the shower in her office and quickly freshened up. Once done in the shower she got out and walked over to her closet. She opened the closet door and grabbed a pair of jeans and a loose fitting blouse. She kicked off her knee-high Dolce textured boots and slithered out of the slacks she had on. She looked at the time on her phone and knew that in just a few hours Phire & Ice would be up and jumping.
Around 7
PM
the club started getting packed. There were the usual patrons along with many new faces, who Justice knew were there to see Kanye later. Justice walked around the club to make sure everything was in order, especially the VIP. Once she was satisfied everything was up to par, she walked over to the bar and ordered her and Toni a drink.
“Cheers.” Toni beamed as she held her glass high, waiting for Justice to do the same.
“What we toastin’ to?” Justice asked, obliging by raising her glass as well.
“Hustlin’ hard and playin’ even harder,” Toni stated as they clinked glasses.
After the drink, Justice decided to go back to her office and relax for a minute before shit got hectic.
***
Tan’s cousins had finally arrived and after going over the plan at least a hundred times, they all left the hotel and headed to Phire & Ice. “You know where the club at?” Chico, the young man driving Tan’s rental asked. Her other two cousins were riding behind them in another car.
“Not exactly, I got the address though. I’m ‘bouta put that bitch’s life in the GPS,” she responded. Her younger cousin smirked at her ruthlessness as he watched her program the address into the system. The GPS display showed they were twenty minutes away from their destination. When they arrived at the club, Tan noticed how crowded the parking lot was. There was only one empty spot in front of the club, so she let her cousins park the car they were driving in that spot. She instructed Chico to pull around the side and park in the darkest spot he could find. They found a spot just off to the side of the club and parked there. The spot was not completely secluded, but it was dark enough for her to be obscured by patrons in front of the club.
They all got out of the cars and met near the car Tan had been riding in. Tan told them to go inside and wait for no longer than ten minutes before starting the ruckus because she didn’t want to risk the chance of security coming around and telling her she had to move. She watched as her family entered the club. Once they were inside, she took out the pistol, held it down by her side, and waited for her prey to emerge.
***
Justice was ending a call when she heard a frantic knock on her office door. Toni came in and screamed, “Them niggas out there fightin’!”
Justice faked surprise. “Are you serious? Is Twin handlin’ it?”
“Yeah, I think he got it.”
“Aiight, good. Go ahead back out there and manage, manager,” Justice teased. She waited for Toni to close the door before reaching into her desk and picking up her pistol. She carefully screwed on the silencer and checked the clip to make sure it was loaded. Satisfied her gun was ready to fire; she stood up and tucked it in the back of her jeans, gangsta style. As soon as she was on her feet, she heard what sounded like rapid gunfire emitting from inside the club area. That was her cue! She immediately ran to the door and peeped out. She saw everyone running and screaming as if they were in the middle of a terrorist attack. Justice’s nerves were shot! Not because she thought someone was shooting, but because she knew within the next five minutes she would be committing her second murder . . . she hoped.
***
Within minutes of her cousins entering the club, all hell broke loose! Tan saw everybody come running out of the club just as Carlos had predicted. From where she was standing she had a clear shot of anyone who came through that door. Half-naked strippers were struggling to balance themselves on heels while the dudes all but ran them over. Everyone she saw was irrelevant to her. She was looking for Justice, who she had not yet seen in the midst of fleeing patrons.
***
Justice made her way to the back door of the club and quickly exited into the rear alley. She pulled out the silenced pistol and held it at arm’s length as she cautiously rounded the side of the club where she knew Tan would be standing. Earlier Justice had told her staff to close off the back parking lot until Kanye arrived. That way, she made sure that all of the available parking spaces would be occupied, forcing Tan to park on the side of the building where she was now headed. Once she rounded the corner, she saw a woman with short curly hair standing near a parked car. The closer Justice got, the more she became convinced that the woman was indeed Tan. At a closer look, Justice also noticed Tan was also brandishing a pistol. Tan was looking at the front door and never saw Justice coming. She was a sitting duck! Justice monitored her breathing as she crept at a slow and steady pace. When she was close enough to secure a headshot, Justice raised her gun and took aim.
***
When Tan didn’t see Justice coming out of the club, she almost became impatient and wanted to run up in that bitch and start blazing. She decided she’d give her ten more seconds to come out.
At that moment, she heard footsteps behind her and she quickly spun around with her pistol raised, ready to fire.
Justice had stepped on a rock and it caused her to lose her footing for a second. That slight noise was enough to alert Tan that someone was coming. As soon as Tan turned around she was met eye to eye with her Archnemisis. It seemed as if time stood still for a split second as they both let off muffled shots.
***
Justice let out a shrill scream as a slug that hit her in the left shoulder spun around her and she almost went down. She momentarily lost her balance and ended up dropping her pistol. The gun slid across the asphalt, stopping near the gutter a few feet away.
***
Tan was not so lucky. As soon as she had let off her three rounds, she had been met with a quiet round of lead that pierced her chest. Only because of the rock Justice had slipped on, Justice’s dome shot was off target. The slug knocked Tan off her feet as she let off two more shots that went wildly into the air before her gun jammed. The asphalt rushed up and slammed Tan in the face. On her way down, she saw that justice had been hit also.
***
When Justice saw Tan fall, she regained her footing and rushed to retrieve her pistol from where it had fallen. Her shoulder was bleeding and her arm had become numb, she walked over and stood over Tan. Tan was lying on her back, looking up at Justice with a shocked expression, still squeezing the trigger to no avail. Her chest was on fire and her breathing was becoming labored.
Justice kicked the jammed pistol out of her hand. “You got what da fuck you been lookin’ for, huh? ” Justice spewed in pain.
Tan attempted to say something, but instead she coughed up a glob of blood. Then she managed to mumble, “See you in hell.”
“Nah, no time soon bitch” Justice responded. She had tears welling up in her eyes as she heard Monk’s voice in her ear telling her to send the bitch to him. Without hesitation, Justice squeezed the trigger and emptied the clip into Tan’s head and torso. Tan’s body jerked and spasmed as she took her last breath and began to exit this world. Justice wished she would have had more time to make the bitch suffer, but she knew she only had a few more seconds before the last of the patrons would exit the club. The entire ordeal took less than three minutes, but to Justice it seemed like an eternity.
As Justice tucked the pistol back into her jeans, she clutched her aching shoulder and ran to her car that was parked behind the club. She moved the cones that had her blocked in. So many mixed emotions were running through her mind as she climbed behind the wheel. Once again, she had taken a life and she silently thanked Carlos for
guiding her through the whole ordeal and giving her the head’s up. She felt as if she was now in his debt.
As she drove away from the club, she inspected her bloody shoulder and saw that it was only a graze. She sighed with relief at the fact that she wouldn’t have to rush to a hospital. At a hospital with a gunshot wound would have made her an immediate suspect. She decided she would call a friend to bandage it and wrap it up once she got home. Driving down the street she could’ve sworn she saw a man standing on the corner who looked just like her brother, Monk smiling at her. He slowly nodded his head in affirmation of what she had just done, and at that instance, she knew her brother’s death had been avenged. Justice closed her eyes for a moment, and when she reopened them, the man had disappeared. Through the pain in her shoulder, she looked out her window, toward the sky and smiled. Just then, Sapphire came to mind and Justice silently thought;
now
I can forgive.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
Carlos smiled like a proud father when he stepped before his baby. The mostly brick, one story, 2,500 square foot masterpiece was almost complete. With its large trees out front along its elegant brick driveway, Carlos’s dream house was coming alive from the pages of a
New Home
magazine. The flowers planted in the flowerbed on the right side of the house and around the base of the mailbox easily put it in the running for “Yard of the Month.” A white picket fence bordered the house and encircled his property in the back. With its address right on the edges of Ballentyne, Carlos was proud to see his dream come true.
“Just a few more days, and I’ll move in completely,” Carlos said aloud as he watched the people from DISH setting up to install their satellite. The Rooms 2 Go crew would be bringing in his living room, dining room, as well as some of the guest room sets within the next hour or so. Later on, he was going to have his master bedroom set taken from his current residence to the new place, as well as some of the mahogany and sable pieces he’d been collecting over the years. As the days drew closer for him to move into his new home, he enjoyed the comforts of staying at The Westin in downtown Charlotte.
Carlos had seen the news briefing about Tan’s death on Chicago’s news website and had assumed that Justice had done her thing. A part of him was worried when he called her and she hadn’t responded—but he knew she wasn’t dead because that would’ve been mentioned. When Justice finally reached out to him, he was beyond happy. He was concerned when she had told him that Tan had gotten off a lucky shot but he was put at ease when she told him it was only a graze. Her blouse and her front seat were ruined but she was ok.
Carlos’s excitement tripled when she had accepted his offer of coming to stay with him in the new house for a while. He could not wait to bring Justice to his new home. Carlos was about to enjoy the fruits of his labor and be out of the game for good.
As Carlos walked around the property, inspecting the new home for slight imperfections and coming up with ideas for what could be done to improve the house; he began to think about new business ventures. BobCutz was good, but he knew that being in a barber and beauty salon day in and day out would run him nuts. The thought of having a club ran across his mind, but he didn’t want to take the chance of competing with existing clubs like Fifth Element, Lux and Nine Three Five. A Laundromat or a car wash could be lucrative in the right neighborhood, but Charlotte was in the middle of a drought and they were prone to water restrictions that would greatly limit his business. He thought about having his own convenience store or a gas station, but gas was just as high as dope these days. Yet he knew that upon his retirement from the drug game, it would be a good time to diversify his business holdings. BobCutz was making a good profit and would serve as the perfect cornerstone to his legal ventures, but he knew that another business or two would round out his portfolio and keep all of his eggs out of the same baskets.
Carlos was easing War into position of “Boss” so he could start commanding his old empire. He had done what many drug dealers dreamed of but few have accomplished; he was going legit after having a successful run on top. Nothing seemed to be standing in his way as he stepped into his future.
Carlos’s phone vibrated in his pocket. “’Sup.” He answered after verifying Preme’s number on the screen.
“You ain’t gonna believe this shit.”
Carlos cursed to himself—he knew he wasn’t gonna like what Preme had to say next. Every time Preme started his conversation with those six words, what came afterwards was never good. It seemed like every time he tried to enjoy a little piece of
sugar
in his life, some twisted act of fate tried to stuff
shit
down his throat. “Two of the houses on Tuckaseegee got robbed.”
Carlos wanted to throw his phone at the side of the house. “The fuck!”
War needs to be handling this shit,
Carlos thought
. That nigga the one runnin’ shit.
“Yeah, bruh, doors got kicked in and plenty work got took. I’m still looking into it.”
Carlos shook his head as if Preme could see him. “Okay. I’ll handle it in a minute.” Carlos didn’t wait for a response before he hung up the phone. “Fuck, fuck. FUCK!” Carlos was frustrated. It seemed that every time he wanted to take a step or two out of the game, he was getting knocked back a couple of feet into it.
He thought about the fact that the Westside was Lil’ Joe’s stomping grounds and if anybody knew something about this he would be the one to contact. After the bike party at BobCutz, Joe had told Carlos that he was about to start grinding for himself. Carlos was cool with that because he himself was about to be out of the game. It was understood that Joe was not to step on any of Carlos’s team member’s toes and if that line was crossed, it would be consequences and repercussions of great measures. Joe said that he understood but deep down, Carlos knew Joe wouldn’t respect that when it came to Preme. After Joe’s split from the crew, Preme was assigned to the Westside.