Trust No Bitch 3: Deadly Alliance (3 page)

JuJu and Isaiah was standing outside with their whistles tucked underneath heavy winter jackets when Kiam pulled up to the condo. As soon as he brought the truck to a complete stop JuJu hopped in front and his cousin climbed in the back.

“What's up, Boss? Let's go make the city tremble,” said JuJu.

“
Muhfuckin' right,” intoned Isaiah bringing out his fo-fo and checking the clip.

“
Where's Isaac?” asked Kiam.

“
I sent him to stand guard at your house,” JuJu informed him.

Kiam nodded his head and pulled out his cellphone to try Lissha again but her phone just rang until he was sent to voicemail. Kiam sighed.
“Yo shorty, call me as soon as you get this message and let me know you're good,” he said with a heavy undertone of trepidation.

Next Kiam called Treebie but got the same results.
Fuck everybody at? Muthafuckaz need to be on call 24/7
. The crease in his forehead spread across both brows. He hung up without leaving a message. With a look of frustration written across his face he turned to JuJu. “Youngin we gotta tighten up the ship. We're becoming too lax and I don't like that shit. I wanna know where everybody is at all times, no exceptions,” he spewed.

JuJu nodded his understanding.

Kiam put both hands on the steering wheel and stared out of the window at the snowfall wondering where in the fuck Lissha could be. If she was lying somewhere dead he would never forgive himself for letting Big Zo down. If she was somewhere all in her feelings and ignoring his calls he was going to fuck her up for real this time!

His cellphone rung in his hand. Expecting a call back from either Lissha or Treebie, Kiam hurriedly answered without paying attention to the caller ID.
“Yeah?” His tone was hard and admonishing. 

“Have you heard from my daughter yet?
” Big Zo's strained voice boomed in his ear.

Kiam softened his tone. “
Not yet, Pop. But I promise you I'ma find her,” he uttered.

“
I expect you to and I expect her to be in perfect health when you do.”

“
Yes, sir,” he respectfully replied.

A long silence followed Kiam's response before Big Zo muttered,
“Son, Lissha is all that I have left in this world and if something has happened to her...”

Big Zo couldn't even complete the thought. Kiam thought he heard Big Zo's voice crack, and the sound of his mentor's pain heightened the concern that had washed over him.
“Pop, I'ma find her,” he promised.
Or I’m killing everything in my path.

“
Turn that whole city upside down until you do. Don't underestimate Wolfman, he has survived in the game a long time and he's a ruthless muthafucka,” Big Zo advised. The sincerity inflected in his words hid his well-orchestrated deceit.

By the time Kiam got off the phone he was convinced that nobody that he loved would be safe until he had demolished Wolfman and his entire squad. He looked over in the passenger seat at JuJu and said,
“Call Isaac and check on Eyez.”

**********

As soon as Isaac turned onto the block he noticed the pizza delivery boy's car parked in front of the house, but he thought nothing of it. He pulled into the driveway, parked, and hurried towards the porch. He stopped in his tracks when he saw what looked like a man's body sprawled out across the threshold of the front door.

“
What the fuck!” he uttered.

The first thought that came to mind was that the driver guy had slipped and injured himself, but when he stepped up on the porch he immediately became alarmed. Blood circled the man's head and the front door stood wide open. A black cloud of death seemed to darken the sky.

Isaac's hand went inside his coat and he brought out his ratchet as he cautiously stepped inside the house, eyes on alert, and trigger finger poised to squeeze a few off. He slipped and almost lost his balance as his Timbs stepped into a small puddle of slowly congealing blood that was on the hardwood floor just inside the door.

Regaining his balance, Isaac tightened his grip on his Desert Eagle and quickly scanned the living room. His eyes followed a trail of blood and his feet followed his eyes. What he saw when he got closer rocked his world because he knew that if she was dead it would devastate Kiam's. Blood was all over her face, chest, and stomach.

Isaac swallowed hard as he knelt down and lifted her blood stained hand off of her stomach and checked her wrist for a pulse. Feeling nothing, he put his face to her mouth and felt faint breath on his skin. Her hazel green eyes fluttered open but that were glassy and unfocused.

Faydrah mumbled something that Isaac couldn't quite understand.

“Don't try to talk,” he urged her. But she repeated it.

Again her voice was faint. It sounded to Isaac like she was saying
“ba...by”.

Judging from all of the blood on her stomach he didn't think there was a chance that her baby would have survived this. Isaac was just praying she didn't die.
“Just hold on Faydrah I'm going to get you to the hospital,” he pleaded.

“
I—can't,” she gurgled.

A gush of blood spilled from the corner of her mouth and her head fell slack. Her beautiful eyes went lifeless.
“Noooooo,” Isaac cried.

His phone rung in his pocket causing him to jump and squeeze off two shots that shattered a mirror on the wall.
“Damn,” he uttered when he realized what had happened.

He fished his phone out of his pocket and answered dourly.
“Yeah, fam.”

“Where you at, cuz?
” asked JuJu.

“I'm at Kiam's, and
cuz this shit is fucked up! Blood is everywhere and she's not breathing.”

“What the fuck is you saying, Bleed?
” snapped JuJu. “Who's not breathing?”

Kiam's head jerked to the side. He snatched the phone out of JuJu's hand and put it to his ear.
“What are you saying, man?” he demanded to know.

“
Man, oh man, it's bad, fam. Somebody shot your girl up. They did her so dirty.” His tone relayed the grave reality, but Kiam didn't want to believe it.

“
What the fuck are saying?” he belted.

“
Boss, the door was wide open when I got here. I came inside and found her on the floor. She's been shot up. Blood is all over her face and stomach,” Isaac repeated as he knelt over Faydrah's body.

“Is she still alive?
”

Isaac knew the answer to Kiam's question but he could not force himself to give it.

“Hello! Hello!” Kiam took the phone away from his ear and looked at the screen to see if the call had dropped.

“
I'm still here,” said Isaac in a low tone.

“Just tell me the truth, man. Is she
still alive?” Kiam demanded to know.

Isaac didn't respond.

“I asked you a question,” Kiam boomed.

Isaac took a deep breath and slowly forced the truth out of his mouth. “
Nah, fam, she's dead.”

Kiam let out a loud cry that echoed throughout the truck. JuJu and Isaiah bowed their heads as Kiam's pain resonated deep in
their
souls. Their eyes clouded up with the closest thing to tears that thugs could shed.

Silently they communicated to each other that they were going to put the city under siege. For this, Cleveland, Ohio was about to become the new murder capitol.

Chapter 2

Wounded

K
iam stood motionless at the foot of the cold slab that held her body; he was afraid to see what was under the white blood stained sheet. His chest felt like an empty cavity that contained no heart. The blood that used to pump through his veins with the love of Faydrah Combs now felt like thick clots that threatened to clog his arteries and stop his heart from pumping. He was there to identify her body but his mind had yet to accept that she was dead.

No, that’s not my Eyez
.
It can't be.

He had just left her at home an hour or so ago; had just kissed her lips and looked into those beautiful eyes of hers and told her not to worry. Now they were telling him that it was her on this steel gurney. Fuck no! He had to have firm confirmation. His shorty wasn't dead!

Kiam's gaze eased slowly down her covered body and settled on her belly.
My baby
rang loud in his mind and for the first time in years tears clouded his eyes and forced themselves down his face. He let out a deep breath fighting back more tears as he thought of the excitement that he and Faydrah had shared over her pregnancy.

             
I'm going to give you a son who's strong and handsome just like his daddy,
she had gushed exuberantly.

Kiam could hear her voice as clearly as if she was whispering it in his ear. He closed his eyes but the tears continued trickling down. He sniffled them back and stilled the ache in his heart that was contracting with the intensity of unbearable pain. Again he blew out a deep breath and tried to stiffen his legs. Slowly he reached out and uncovered her face.

What Kiam saw wobbled his knees and crushed whatever kindness resided in his heart. Some muthafucka had done the ugliest thing to the most beautiful person in his life and for that the world was going to pay.

“I fucked up, baby. I let you down,” he said as a lump formed in his throat. He stood there in virtual shock, wanting to hear her voice; needing to have her reach out to him, but that was not going to happen. What the enemy had done to his girl was irreversible and ruthlessly final.

He dropped his head under the guilt of knowing that he had left her alone and open to the revenge of his enemies. It was a mistake that he was powerless to undo and the reality of that was like a pair of strong hands wrapped around his throat strangling him. But Kiam was not one to wilt.

He lifted his head, straightened his shoulders, and stiffened his back. Then he placed a hand on her arm and whispered, “I'm sorry, baby. Just know that I will love you forever and no other woman will ever take your place. You will never die in mind, heart or soul.” His voice cracked. “I love you so much, Eyez.
”

Kiam took a deep breath and swallowed the huge sob that was right at the front of his throat. The enemy had hit him where he was most vulnerable but he refused to bow. The love of his life was lying before him cold and lifeless; the gravity of that would forever rob him of the happiness that he sought but there was no way it would go unavenged.

“With everything that I am, I will make them muthafuckaz bleed from the inside out,” he vowed as he stroked her leg.

A sharp intense pain hit Kiam's chest and weakness settled at the back of his knees. He steadied his legs and brought his hands to his face and wept silently as thoughts of Faydrah and their unborn ripped the lining of
his heart. A sharp scream came from the hallway, jolting him out of his painful remembrance.

             
“No! No! No!” Ms. Combs cries were as loud as thunder.

             
Kiam turned and walked to the door and took a deep breath before opening it to face the music. Once he saw Ms. Combs on the floor being comforted by two nurses the heat left his body.

             
“Oh, God, please. Not my baby. Not my baby,” she yelled. Her cries chilled Kiam to the bone.

He looked over at the twins who were booted and suited; they had the look of evil and the smell of death and carnage oozing from their pores. JuJu stood next to Bayonna who was standing there in an oversized sweater hugging herself with tears in her eyes.

              Kiam moved over to Ms. Combs and tried to help her from the floor. When she looked up and saw Kiam’s face she snapped. “Don’t you touch me!” She swung her arms trying to be free and in seconds she was on her feet and grabbing at Kiam’s clothes. “This is your fault. Her blood is on your hands!” She raged as she pummeled him with both fists.

Kiam absorbed her blows as he wrapped his arms around her and allowed her to release her pain. “Why my baby?” she cried against his chest.

Three security guards came from different directions posting up around the waiting room. “Mind y’all muthafuckin’ business,” Isaac barked, pulling his hood back. He was itching for a reason to act up.

JuJu gave him a stern eye. “Chill my nigga,” he cautioned. Then he turned to the toy cops with his hand held up and projected his voice in their direction. “Y’all muthafuckaz can stand down we got it under control.”

The rent-a-cops were in uniform to earn a paycheck not a burial plot. They sensed that the young niggas across from them didn't give a fuck either way so they piped down and relaxed their postures.

Bayonna covered her mouth and stomach at the same time. The pain in Ms. Combs’ cry was making her nauseous. She had killed many and danced to the pleas of mercy from the mouths of her victims, but this was different. Kiam’s despair was shared by everyone in the room and for the first time she knew exactly what death did to the survivors.