Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
MAKARI “HAVOC” SANCHEZ
Mama: Makari, are you okay? Please call me, I’m worried about you!
I looked down at my mother’s text message and locked my phone. She’d been texting and calling me for the past two weeks, but I just couldn’t answer her. I was too fucked up in the head to even see her face, let alone talk to her. She said she was worried about me—I was worried about myself.
I hadn’t slept since my brother died. I was in rare form—stuck on a constant loop, not knowing how to get out of it.
Every time I tried to close my eyes, all I saw was Kelechi bleeding, lying on the hard concrete floor, so I chose not to.
My mind had trapped me, allowing me to relive that night over and over again.
There was no peace to be found. A part of me had died that night, and in doing so, something else was left behind.
Something else had been released in me. I was lost without my brother.
God knew how much I needed him, and knowing I couldn’t stop him from leaving me was killing me slowly inside.
I hadn’t been home either. For some fucked up reason, Orlando was looking to me to fix this shit.
The nigga had been hiding in his house since that night, or trying to come to my crib as if he expected me to hold and console him.
None of this would be happening if he just listened to me and didn’t throw that fucking party.
But as much as I hated him for it, I blamed myself too for not fighting him on it when I wanted to.
I chose to be quiet. Chose to let him have his way, and that was the biggest mistake of my life.
I closed my eyes and inhaled a deep breath.
I could feel my mind falling into a spiral of nothingness—numbness, but I had to stay alert.
I had to catch the nigga who put my brother in a casket.
He’d been able to slip through the cracks.
Disappearing into the night among the chaos he caused that day, but I was relentless.
I was going to find him even if it killed me.
I owed Hell that much. He was no longer here, and I was determined to send him some fucking company!
I noticed movement out of the corner of my eye but relaxed when I saw it was an ugly ass bitch looking around all jittery and shit.
She had a fucked-up looking wig on her head that was just drawing my attention because, unless she was a crackhead, who the fuck would walk out of her crib looking like that?
I looked away from her and surveyed around me again. Intel told me that this house was where the nigga could be hiding, but after watching it for hours, I realized I might have been given the wrong information.
The girl wasn’t paying attention and ended up walking into my car. We locked eyes, and I turned my nose up, wondering why she looked like that, until I realized that she was in fact a nigga!
He was the dude who shoulder bumped me outside the club and the one who shot my brother. I attempted to jump out of my car, but he kicked my door closed, slamming it on my leg.
“Ugh, fuck!”
He took off running, and I got out to run after him. The little nigga ran into traffic, just missing a car, which made me stop because it almost hit me. I dodged, and by the time I looked up, he was long gone.
“Fuck!” I gripped my head.
Breathing hard, I looked up and down the street, wondering which direction he went in and how the fuck I was gonna find him now.
I walked back to my car with my head hanging low. I felt like I’d let Kelechi down once again. Twice I’d failed to catch that nigga. If I’d only followed my first mind and knocked him on his ass that night at the club when he walked into me. All of this could have been avoided.
I sat behind the wheel of my car in complete silence, my mind racing, before I started my car and drove away. I already knew that nigga would return to that house after seeing me there.
My mind told me to drive home, but instead, I found myself aimlessly driving around, not even knowing where I was going. Somehow, I ended up on a dead-end road and huffed.
Just as I went to turn my car around, I noticed someone moving in the shadows, and I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw it was that nigga.
Without even hesitating, I hopped out of my car and ran over to him. He saw me coming and tried to run again, but this time he wasn’t getting away from me.
I pulled my gun out and sent a shot into his back left leg.
“Arghhhh!!!” he yelled and fell to the ground. I ran up on him and kicked him in the face, knocking his ass out.
I tucked my gun back on my waist and lifted that nigga over my shoulder.
As I walked back to my car, I wondered how the fuck this young ass, little nigga was able to kill my brother so easily.
But I guess his appearance was how. He was little—nobody to a giant like us, and that was why nobody noticed him walking up on Kelechi until it was too late.
I had to watch hours of Mr. Blair’s security footage to finally find a clear picture of this nigga’s face.
I then had to painstakingly follow every camera he appeared on until it led me to an address for an old lady I suspected was his grandmother.
Word on the streets was that he hadn’t been in contact with her for almost five years, but something in my heart told me that was the place he was most likely to hide, and I was right.
When I made it back to my car, I opened the trunk and threw his ass in.
It was taking everything inside of me not to kill him right now and just dump his fucking body, but I wanted to take my time with him and find out who the fuck even sent his ass.
I slammed the trunk closed, rested my hands on the top, and closed my eyes.
I finally found him, Hell. I found him for you, brother.
Taking a few deep breaths, I opened my eyes, climbed into my car, and drove away. Thought after thought raged through my mind as I drove to an abandoned building that Orlando owned but never used anymore.
When I arrived, I found the nigga was still sleeping, so I had to pick him up again.
Once inside, I laid him on the floor, locked his hands into the chains, and then elevated him off the ground.
I found a chair and took a seat in front of him and smoked a blunt while I waited for him to finally wake up.
It took another fifteen minutes before he started to rouse from his sleep. I kept quiet, watching him until his eyes fluttered open and landed on me. The nigga squinted at me before he chuckled and shook his head. I was happy to see that he knew he wasn’t leaving this place.
“You know I wasn’t even scared about your brother; it was always you I was worried about. I just hoped I could still get away from you,” he said. My fists clenched down by my side. He looked at me, shaking his head again.
“I know who you are, Havoc, and what you’re capable of, so I know I’m not leaving this place alive,” he said and chuckled.
“Tell me what I want to know,” I said.
He sighed.
“Nobody hired me.”
“Bullshit!” I spat. “I wanna know who sent you!”
“I-I-I—” he hesitated.
“Y-y-you what?” I gritted.
“Nobody. I just heard this job was going and I did it hoping to get money,” he said. I simpered.
“You think I’m playing with you?” I spat. His head shook again.
“I’m dead regardless, I know that, so I ain’t got no reason to lie to you,” he said. I stood to my feet and punched him in the stomach, winding him.
I took back my seat and gave him a moment to get himself together.
“Who sent you?” I asked one final time.
“Nobody, I swear. I’m the nigga who does anything for a price, Havoc.
I heard the rumors that there was money for the person who did the job, but if I’m honest with you, it was a bunch of mothafuckers who wanted Hell gone.
He was rumored to be Sincere’s replacement.
Nobody wanted to see that happen,” he let me know.
“The streets were talking, and everyone wanted him dead.”
I slowly stood to my feet and approached him.
A pain hit me in the chest, knowing I was right all along. My brother had drawn so much attention to himself, following behind Orlando, that he made himself a target. If it wasn’t this nigga that killed him, I knew someone else would have tried.
Hell had inadvertently put a hit out on himself. It was only a matter of time before one of those hating ass niggas took his life.
I dropped my head and looked down at my feet. My neck felt heavy from carrying this burden of guilt.
“I’m to blame, just as much as you are,” I said to the nigga with my eyes still settled at my feet, and then I lifted my head to finish my sentence. “But since you were the one who pulled the trigger, let me offer you the same shit.”
Pop! Pop! Pop! Pop!
I sent four shots into his body. He shook with each bullet. I stood back and watched as he gasped for air, choking on his own blood until he finally stopped moving. I stood there, looking at the ground again, breathing hard.
Forgive me, Kelechi. I should have stood up for you.
By the time I made it home, I thought that I would feel better.
A sense of relief. As if killing the person who killed my brother would make me feel lighter, but it didn’t.
If anything, I felt worse because I knew that I could have prevented it.
From the moment Kelechi and Orlando told me that bullshit idea of having that party, I knew to stop it, but I didn’t.
Now, I was paying the ultimate price for it.
My brother was gone, leaving me here all alone.
As I stepped out of my car, the quietness hit me. Normally, I welcomed it, but not this quietness because it felt empty.
I dragged my feet, which felt heavy like lead; I wanted nothing more than for the ground to open up and swallow me whole. That was just how heavy and burdened I felt.