Get at Me #4
I huffed cause he had me fucked up. “Nah, I’ll probably beat your ass since I didn’t get the chance to do it myself.”
“Just ungrateful as fuck.” Hakeem was grinning. Back to being his playful self despite the body bleeding out.
“I’ll remember this Keem.” Theo was speaking like he held weight but none of that was true. Whatever he’d come for he didn’t get it, which meant he was probably out of options. That made men desperate and stupid.
Hakeem sat forward angrily and I wondered if he was going to leap over his desk and beat Theo’s ass.
“You want a cookie, fuck nigga? I don’t get why yo ass is so happy to rock the boat and try to bite off more when you can’t handle what you got now.
Perfect pimping before you try to do something else?
It shouldn’t be that hard to sell pussy in a city like this.
Fuck I look like linking up with dead weight.
Now, I've got a body to bury and you gotta go tell his next of kin they're never gone find this nigga cause you wanted to play paper gangsta. Get the fuck out my office while you still can.”
Damn. I felt something akin to pride listening to him threaten Theo’s life like this. Shit was hilarious but the look on his face showed he meant every word.
Theo only nodded as he turned and left the office without even looking at his muscle.
“You know you made an enemy.”
I don’t know why I felt the need to caution him.
Loyalty? Concern? This wedding shit was making me soft because I would normally never give a fuck.
Him taking the shot didn’t impress me but it showed me where his head was at.
I knew that Yacouba would tell me to be cautious, Li would tell me to trust him and Priest would be on some no new friends shit.
Everybody swore just cause he was a preacher that he was the friendly one out of all of us but they couldn’t be more wrong.
I couldn’t blame him because his father, well uncle, had eroded all his trust so I knew there was a reason for the way he wanted to keep his circle small.
We’d damn near had to bribe him to fill the positions that were left over once he went on his revenge tour, better known as his killing spree, to get all of his father’s minions out of his church.
So many folks had gotten mysteriously ill, killed by break-ins and random acts of violence or my favorite when he had a gas leak go off at a small men’s retreat he’d planned for them, that half of his boards within the church were empty.
Mir was more than happy to leave it that way but Ny and Mother Henry convinced him that he had to at least try to keep up appearances.
He was still mad about that shit.
Hakeem put his gun in his desk drawer before pouring himself another shot. “You act like he was a friend. Family is the worst cause they’re close enough to hurt you the most.”
“And you thought I wanted to be friends with your ass talking like that?”
“I know me. You do too but again, I get it. I ain’t about to sing my own praises cause my character speaks for itself.
You trust me to handle this or do I need to let your people in?
” He waved at the body on the floor like it was just another day and that gave me more reason to look at him sideways than anything.
There was no way he was just out here running a damn strip club but was this calm about death.
I didn’t want to judge him but now I had questions.
But as forthcoming as he’d been I had a feeling he wouldn’t be about this.
“I thought I’d extend the courtesy of helping clean up. I shot him first.”
“Get the fuck outta here, Ori. That’s my kill. Trying to take credit for shit.”
I rolled back my sleeve and lifted my arm and showed the marks there. “Every black one is a body.”
He paused as if my openness was more of a shock than the deaths themselves. “And the flesh ones?”
“My desire for their souls to find their place to the afterlife. Heaven or hell isn’t my judgement. It’s a way to ensure their souls aren’t lingering on mine.”
In many cultures, the taking of a life was honored but if you weren’t righting a wrong you could keep them tethered to you.
A cosmic get-back of sorts. You took their life and now their soul was set to torment you for the remained of yours.
I would do whatever possible to prevent that from happening and so far I was good.
It was either a sign that I had no soul or that my ancestors were putting in a good word for whoever was in control of the people on this rock.
I know I’ve got them working overtime.
“Damn, that’s deep. And I can see them shits go all the way up your shoulder.
” He nodded to the part of my chest that was exposed and I could tell he was reassessing me.
Wondering if I was as honorable as he’d originally thought or perhaps affirming the rumors that swirled around me as true.
Neither reaction was worth my consideration until it interfered with what we had going on. Only then would I be concerned.
“Up my shoulder, front and back of my arms and back.”
“Got damn.”
I kept my face blank because I didn’t want praise for what I’d done or condemnation.
It was simply a statement of fact and I didn’t want to get into the weeds.
Hakeem didn’t flinch despite the realization that my body count was in the hundreds.
A way for me to wear the sins on me so that I never took what I had to do for granted.
“If you need help with that,” I nodded toward the body on the ground so he knew what I was referencing. “Let me know and I’ll have someone clean it up.”
“You know me better than that. My bullet is in the body same as yours. I’m sure yours is a drop but I don’t let anyone I don’t know well handle disposal for me. I’ve got people who will handle it. Remind them of the consequences of crossing us.”
Hakeem stood up and straightened his jacket before standing tall and meeting my eye.
“Big cuz the last thing I will ever need to do is use your name to put the fear of God in somebody. Those muthafuckas wouldn’t live long enough to feel your wrath because they wouldn’t survive mine.
Go handle your business, I got this from here. ”
I drove around for a while not wanting to bring the heavy thoughts I was having into the penthouse with Asha. I’d already started construction on my property so going there wasn’t going to happen. So I drove.
I let my mind run over the things that I’d been unable to shake the feeling of something nagging at me.
My mind lingered on the conversation that Asha and Alec were having about killers.
The way she so casually spoke about the need to kill and how morality was lessened each time you did it.
That was something that could be fairly common knowledge but it was the way she’d said it that struck me.
Like she was knowledgeable of the feelings firsthand.
Putting a bullet through Theo’s flunky brought up those feelings for me and reminded me of her words.
Of the feelings and things started to fall into place.
Her lack of fear when she was around me and how death didn’t scare her.
It wasn’t bravery; it was familiarity. Not intense study but firsthand knowledge of the rush, the feelings of power and the pride that you often felt once you pulled the trigger.
When a plan was perfectly executed and you could relax and breathe once your target was destroyed.
I made it to our Consortium meeting place in the city and immediately went to the rooftop to think about what my conclusion truly meant.
Asha had a sadness about her. A wounded spirit that drew people in, which ironically was what she didn’t want.
She attempted to be abrasive but no amount of attitude could prevent someone from falling under her spell.
The desire to draw closer to her was something even I hadn’t been able to ignore and I’d been telling myself it was because we were stuck together.
But even if this deal hadn’t been presented to me the way it had, I would’ve kept her.
I watched the movement of DC, my eyes going toward the building I now called home and noticed again the proximity to the dump site for Natalie Rawlins.
I now had to wonder if she was brilliant enough to murder a woman, stage her body in full view of her apartment and then somehow get us to want her on the case so that she could monitor what and how we moved to keep us from suspecting her.
But she never would’ve been on our radar.
And despite the thought of her being guilty of this my mind had already started going through the evidence that was cataloged in the office, thinking of ways to destroy any part of it that could implicate her.
I was so far gone that not only was I marrying her; I was willing to cover up the fact that she might have killed someone.
And it wasn’t her first time.
That look she’d given that evidence was recognition of something but I wasn’t sure what.
That was a question she’d have to fill out and I was unsure if I’d earned her trust for her to let me in.
If this was someone else who was watching us, waiting on us to catch them why hadn’t he gone after her?
She was the lowest-hanging fruit of everyone who was working on the case and fit the victim profile: young, beautiful and from an affluent family even if that part wasn’t widely acknowledged.
Was she killing everything that reminded her of herself?
She’d been an integral part of the investigation having directed us to specific subjects all of whom hadn’t panned out.
Was sending us after Christopher her way of throwing us off her scent?
Her comment about preferring her sister because she represented everything she could have been went through my mind.