Chapter Eight. #3
“My own blood couldn’t cry her way out of what she had coming, so what the fuck make you think your tears gon’ save you? Tell me who those men were, or m ap touye w next.”
“I…I swear I don’t know.” Alexandra forced out. “There were two of them. Older men. I didn’t recognize them, but Gunner seemed to know who they were.”
“What did he call them?”
She swallowed painfully as Dimitri finally released her throat. “He didn’t call them anything. One of them said the Council wanted to see him. They fought until he was shot and dragged out.”
Preach glanced at Dimitri, both understanding what that meant.
Gunner hadn’t disappeared because he was clever enough to outrun the Dessalinés Mob.
The Council guards had reached him first. Preach turned his attention back to Alexandra, and before relief could fully register across her face, he pulled the trigger, putting a bullet through her head.
Within an hour, he made it to Loki’s place, where Loki sat in his office watching television while his nurse rubbed his back through a coughing fit.
As usual, his skin looked pale beneath the warm lighting, but Preach also noticed his fingers were extremely puffy.
Just another sign of fluid that his failing kidneys could no longer properly clear.
A half-empty glass of water sat beside him, along with his medication and a bowl he kept nearby for the nausea that had been coming more often lately.
When he finally caught his breath, Preach looked at the nurse.
“Step the fuck out.” He ordered.
She nervously removed her hand from Loki and walked out. She had been working for Loki for a few years now, and to this day, every time she laid eyes on Preach, she didn’t understand how someone so handsome could be so damn evil.
Preach waited until the door closed behind her before turning back to Loki. “We have a problem.” He announced.
Without saying a word, Loki looked away from the television. He just listened.
“Crown survived. Gunner has been taken by these Council muthafuckas. But fuck him. One less nigga I gotta worry about. Our stash house got hit by the Knights. Millions of fuckin’ dollars…product gone.”
“How?” Loki asked, his expression hardening.
“Benjamin. He was captured at the cabin and sang like a Canarian.”
Loki stared at him for a moment before another coughing fit seized his chest. He leaned forward, gripping the arm of his chair as his nurse’s warning echoed in his head about resting when his body started doing this.
Preach turned toward the window, gazing out at the lakeside view while contemplating his next move. “I warned you this wasn’t the time for a war. But you brought these pussies into our business, and here we go.”
Loki slowly rubbed his throat as he came down from the coughing fit. His breathing remained strained, and he reached for the glass of water with a trembling hand.
“Shit happens, Preach.” He took a small sip before continuing. “I’ve cleaned up worse. The question is, what you gon’ do to fix this? Crying damn sure won’t fix it.”
Preach glanced back at him with a heated gaze. “What the fuck you just say to me?”
“You heard me. Instead of standing there bitchin’ about the issue, why you ain’t out handling it?
Let me find out these young bike muthafuckas got you shook.
About to trick you out your spot. I don’t know if it’s our history with the Knights or what, but you gon’ soft.
You slippin’. Ou pè yo?” Loki added with a crooked smile. “You scared of them?”
In a flash, Preach was across the room, snatching Loki out of his seat.
The sudden movement made Loki cough again, harder this time.
So much so that his nurse rushed in to assist him.
But Preach didn’t give a fuck. Normally, hearing that cough would have worried him.
Today, he embraced it. Fuck the kidney failure; he was ready to take the nigga out himself.
“Ou pran m pou yon lach? You got me fucked up. I’ll put a bullet in them niggas, then turn around and put one in you too.
Maybe I should do that for you dragging me into this bullshit.
Truth is, yo’ sick ass done lost every bit of your fuckin’ mind.
You got me doing business with these weak ass Ravens, then sit here and act like I’m the problem. You started this shit.”
Loki's face tightened as another cough broke through his breathing. Still, that evil grin slowly returned.
“Petèt,” he rasped. “That might be so. But you need to focus on what truly matters and finish it. Use that rage on something else, ti frè. Go get that shit back in blood.”
Preach gnawed on the inside of his jaw until he tasted blood. He shoved Loki back toward the chair, not giving a fuck that the force sent him into another uncontrollable coughing fit. One hand pressed against his chest as he struggled to catch his breath.
On the way out, Preach pulled his gun and shot the nurse in the head. He was livid. The little brother who had always cared for his big brother and followed his lead was long gone, replaced by nothing but rage. Behind him, Loki was proud. He had always embraced this side of Preach…