Chapter 32 Brandi
brANDI
It’s been four days. Four motherfuckin’ days since Zoo left my house talking ’bout he was gonna handle that bitch Zahara and her murderous-ass son.
Four days of calling his phone and getting sent straight to voicemail.
Four days of texting and getting no response.
Four days of sitting in this house losing my goddamn mind.
I ain’t sleep. Could barely eat. Every time I closed my eyes I saw Nigel’s face. My baby boy. My only child. Gone ’cause some little punk-ass kid decided to play gangster.
And now Zoo was gone too.
I knew it in my gut. The same gut that told me something was wrong the night Nigel ain’t come home.
The same gut that been screaming at me for four days straight while I sat here in this dirty-ass house, empty bottles of Hennessy on the coffee table, ashtrays overflowing with blunt roaches, wearing the same robe I put on Monday morning.
I looked a mess. Felt worse.
My phone sat in my hand, screen cracked from when I threw it at the wall yesterday. I pulled up Zoo’s contact one more time. Hit call.
The number you have reached is not available. Please leave a message after the—
I hung up.
Wasn’t no point leaving another message. I’d left twelve already. Cussing him out. Begging him to call back. Crying into the phone like some desperate bitch. He ain’t respond to none of ’em.
’Cause he was dead. I knew it. I fucking KNEW it.
That bitch Zahara and her rich-ass boyfriend had killed my man. Just like her son killed my baby. This whole fucking family was poison, and they’d taken everything from me.
EVERYTHING.
I scrolled through my contacts ’til I found Kelvin’s number. Zoo’s right hand in the BCC. If anybody knew something, it’d be him.
He picked up on the third ring.
“Yo.”
“Kelvin, it’s Brandi, Zoo babymutha.”
“Oh shit, Brandi. What’s good?”
“Ain’t nothing good.” I took a drag of the blunt I’d been nursing for the past few minutes. “You heard from Zoo?”
Silence on the other end. Then: “Nah. I been calling his ass too. Went by his crib yesterday—truck wasn’t there. Ain’t nobody seen him since…” He trailed off.
“Since when?”
“Since he told me he had something to handle. Said it was personal. Wouldn’t give me details.”
My chest tightened. “He called me that night. Said he found the bitch who helped cover up Nigel’s murder. Said he was gonna follow her. Make her pay.”
“And you ain’t heard from him since?”
“Not a word.” My voice cracked. I hated that. Hated sounding weak. But I was running on empty. “Kelvin, I think something happened to him. I think they got him.”
More silence. Then: “Aight. I’ma come through. We need to talk about this in person.”
“When?”
“Give me an hour.”
He showed up in forty-five minutes.
I heard the car pull up. Heard two doors slam instead of one. Peeked through the blinds and saw Kelvin walking up my steps with some other nigga I ain’t recognize.
Tall. Dark skin. Fresh out the pen look—you know the type. That lean, hard body that comes from years of prison workouts and cafeteria food. Head shaved clean. Scar down his face. Eyes that looked like they’d seen some shit and wasn’t bothered by none of it.
Who the fuck was this?
I opened the door before they could knock. “Kelvin. Who this nigga you bringing to my house?”
Kelvin stepped inside, the stranger following behind him. “Brandi, this Meech. He new. Shadow got him running with me to learn the ropes.”
Shadow. That name still gave me chills. Wasn’t nobody really knew who Shadow was—just that he ran the BCC from somewhere high up. Zoo used to say Shadow was like a ghost. Everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
“I don’t give a fuck who he running with.” I crossed my arms, looking this Meech nigga up and down. “I don’t know him. Why he gotta be here for this?”
“’Cause if Zoo really gone, we got a problem,” Kelvin said, settling onto my couch like this was his place. “And Shadow wants Meech involved in anything that could blow back on the organization.”
I sucked my teeth but ain’t argue. Didn’t have the energy.
Meech ain’t say nothing. Just stood by the door, arms folded, watching me with them dead eyes. Something about him made me uncomfortable, but I couldn’t put my finger on what.
“Aight.” I sat down in the armchair across from Kelvin, pulling my robe tighter around me. “So what we gon’ do?”
“First, tell me everything. From the beginning.”
I took a deep breath. Let it out slow.
“It started with my son. Nigel. He was thirteen years old. Sweetest boy you ever met.”
That was a lie. Nigel had been troubled. Running the streets when he should’ve been in school. Getting into fights. Taking other kids’ shit. But he was MY troubled child. My baby. And he ain’t deserve to die.
“He was friends with this boy in our building. Yusef. Quiet little nigga, always had his head in a book or playing piano or some nerdy shit. They was cool for a while. Then something happened between ’em.
I don’t know what. But Nigel ended up dead.
Shot. And that little bitch Yusef was the last one seen with him. ”
Kelvin was nodding along, taking it in. But I noticed Meech had gone real still. His jaw tightened just a little. Barely noticeable.
I kept going.
“The cops ain’t do shit. You know how they is. Black boy dead in Southeast? They don’t give a fuck. So Zoo started investigating himself. Found out Yusef’s mama helped cover the whole thing up. Packed up and moved the same week. Disappeared.”
“Where she at now?” Kelvin asked.
“Zoo found her. She working at some diner in DC. But here’s the crazy part—” I leaned forward. “She fucking with Prentice Banks.”
Kelvin’s eyebrows shot up. “Banks? Like Banks Reserve Banks?”
“The same one. The mayor’s son. That nigga with the pretty eyes.”
“Damn.” Kelvin rubbed his chin. “That’s a problem. We can’t just run up on somebody connected like that.”
“Zoo didn’t care about all that. He wanted blood. For Nigel. So he followed that bitch and was gonna take her out. Make her pay for what her boy did to my baby.” I felt the tears coming but pushed them back. “That was days ago. Ain’t heard from him since.”
“So you think Banks got to him?”
“I know he did. That nigga is dangerous. Got money. Got connections. Probably got bodies too, the way Zoo talked about him.” I wiped my nose with the back of my hand. “They killed my man, Kelvin. They killed Zoo. And they gon’ get away with it just like they got away with killing Nigel.”
“Nah.” Kelvin shook his head. “Nah, we ain’t letting that shit slide. Zoo was family. BCC takes care of its own. We gon’ find out what happened, and if Banks really did something to him—”
“We gon’ kill that bitch Zahara first.” My voice went hard. “Her and that little bastard Yusef. I want them to suffer. I want her to watch her nephew die the same way I had to bury my son. Then we can deal with Banks.”
Kelvin nodded. “Aight. We can make that happen. Let me talk to Shadow, see how he wanna move on this. But I promise you, Brandi—we gon’ get justice for Zoo. And for Nigel.”
“Y’all ain’t touching my son.”
The voice came from behind me. Low. Cold. Deadly.
I turned around.
Meech had a gun out. When the fuck did he—
“What you just say?” Kelvin was on his feet, hand going to his waist.
He ain’t make it.
BANG.
The bullet tore through Kelvin’s neck like it was paper.
Blood sprayed across my coffee table, my bottles, my ashtray.
He made this gurgling sound—trying to breathe, trying to speak—hands flying up to the hole in his throat.
Then he dropped. Hard. Body twitching on my floor, blood pooling under him in a spreading dark circle.
I screamed.
Or tried to. But before the sound could leave my mouth, Meech turned the gun on me.
“Yusef is MY son.” His eyes were empty. No anger. No remorse. Nothing. “And ain’t nobody touching him. Not you. Not Zoo. Not nobody.”
I opened my mouth to say something—beg, plead, explain—but there wasn’t time.
BANG.
The bullet hit me in the chest.
The impact knocked me back into the armchair. I looked down and saw the hole in my robe. Saw the red spreading out from it like spilled wine. Tried to breathe and couldn’t. Just this wet, rattling sound coming from somewhere inside me.
I slid off the chair. Hit the floor. Landed on my side, facing Kelvin’s dead eyes. He was staring at nothing. Blood still leaking from his neck. Still warm.
We was both gonna die in my living room. Over some shit that started with two little boys who used to be friends.
Footsteps. I heard Meech walking. Not toward me. Away. Toward the door.
Then his voice. Muffled. Like he was on the phone.
“Shadow. We got a problem.”
A pause.
“Nah, I had to handle something. Two bodies. The bitch was talking ’bout killing Yusef. I couldn’t let that slide.”
Another pause.
“Yeah. I but I need help with cleaning it up.”
My vision was going dark around the edges. Blood in my mouth. Copper taste. Couldn’t feel my legs no more.
Yusef.
That little nigga who killed my baby.
His daddy just killed me.
The last thing I heard was the front door closing.
Then nothing.