Chapter 18 Prime
PRIME
We led them outside to Quest’s black Escalade. Julius and Ivy were both silent now, the reality of the situation sinking in.
“Get in,” Quest ordered, opening the back door.
They climbed in without protest. Thad got in after them while Quest and I took the front.
“Where are we going?” Julius asked, his voice shaky.
“Shut the fuck up,” I said from the passenger seat.
Quest pulled out two black hoods from under his seat and tossed them back. “Put these on.”
“Wait, what—” Ivy started.
“Put. Them. On.” Quest’s voice left no room for argument.
I heard shuffling, whimpering, and then silence except for their heavy breathing through the fabric.
Quest drove for about an hour, taking turns I knew by heart. We were heading to one of the Banks Reserve warehouses in an industrial part of the city. The kind of place where screams wouldn’t carry and security cameras didn’t exist.
We pulled into the loading dock. The building was dark, empty. Perfect.
“Get out,” Thad said, hauling them both from the vehicle.
They stumbled, blind and disoriented. We led them inside, their footsteps echoing in the cavernous space.
Quest and I walked in and got prepared. Two chairs in the middle of the warehouse floor. Drop cloths spread out beneath them. And hanging on hooks nearby—two clear plastic ponchos.
I grabbed mine and slipped it on. Quest did the same.
“Sit them down,” Quest said.
Thad shoved them into the chairs. They were breathing hard through the hoods, probably trying not to panic.
“You can take them off now,” I said.
The fear hit them like a physical thing—I saw it in the way Julius’s face went slack, in the way Ivy’s breath caught in her throat. They knew what the ponchos meant. Knew we weren’t planning on staying clean.
“Oh God. Oh God, please—”
Ivy immediately started crying. “Please don’t hurt us. Please. We’re sorry. We’re so sorry.”
Behind them, Thad was leaning against a support beam, arms crossed, grinning like this was the best entertainment he’d seen all year. And maybe it was.
“Please,” Julius started, his voice shaking. “Please, we can explain—”
“Explain what?” Quest cut him off, circling them slowly. “Explain how you’ve been fucking my sister’s best friend? How long, Julius? How long you been disrespecting our family?”
“It’s not—it wasn’t like that—”
“Then what was it like?” Quest stopped in front of Ivy, tilting his head. “You. You came to our house. Ate our food. Acted like family. Like a little sister. And this whole time you were plotting on our sister’s husband?”
“I didn’t mean—” Ivy’s voice cracked. Tears were already streaming down her face.
“Shut up.” He stepped closer. “If you was that horny, that desperate, we could’ve hooked you up with somebody. One of our boys. Somebody single. But nah. You decided to fuck our sister’s husband.”
Ivy was shaking now, unable to meet his eyes.
Quest turned to Julius. “And you. Man, I thought you was different. Thought you actually loved Serenity. She stood by you when you was broke. When you was building your business. She believed in you when nobody else did. And this is what you do?”
“I love her—” Julius started.
“You love her?” Quest laughed, but there was no humor in it. “Nah, nigga. You don’t know what love is. You weak. Pathetic.”
“Quest, please—”
“See, I get it. I understand wanting more than one woman. That’s why I was upfront with Kiki and Tione.
Told them both I’m poly. Told them I wasn’t gonna cheat, I was gonna be honest. Because that’s what real niggas do.
We don’t sneak around. We don’t lie. We handle our business with honor.
” He leaned in close to Julius. “But you? You’re a coward.
Too pussy to be honest, too weak to be faithful.
You ain’t even a man. You’re a bitch in a man’s body. ”
Julius was crying now. Actually crying. Tears and snot running down his face.
Quest straightened up and looked at me. “Lil bro, what you think we should do?”
I walked over to the duffel bag we’d brought in earlier. Pulled out a Glock 19. Checked the chamber, then walked over to Julius.
I pressed the gun into his hand.
“Take it,” I said.
Julius stared at the gun like it might bite him. “What?”
“Take the fucking gun, Julius.”
His hands were shaking so bad he could barely grip it. Ivy was making these small, terrified sounds beside him.
“Now,” I said, stepping back. “Shoot her.”
“What?” Julius’s voice went up an octave. “No! No, I can’t—”
“Shoot Ivy. Prove your love and loyalty to Serenity. Show us you choose our sister over this bitch.”
“Please!” Ivy was hyperventilating now. “Please, I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”
“Shut up, bitch,” Quest barked. “Are you willing to die for the dick? You wanted it so bad. Now you gon’ die for it.”
I picked up the gun and forced it back into Julius’s hands. “You got two choices. Shoot her, or I shoot you. Simple as that.”
“I can’t do this,” Julius was saying, the gun hanging loose in his grip. “I can’t, please, I won’t ever—”
Both of them were sobbing now. Julius was shaking his head, saying no over and over. Ivy was begging, pleading with him not to do it, pleading with us to stop.
“Aight, cool,” I said. I pulled out my own gun and cocked it, aiming it directly at Julius’s temple. “I’ll shoot both of you then. Starting with you.”
“Okay! Okay!” Julius raised the gun with shaking hands, pointing it at Ivy.
“No! Julius, no! Please!” Ivy was screaming, trying to back away, but Quest grabbed her shoulder and held her in place.
Julius was crying like a child, his whole body shaking. “I’m sorry,” he whispered to her. “I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.”
“Do it,” I said coldly.
Julius squeezed his eyes shut, tears streaming down his face, finger on the trigger.
“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry—”
He pulled the trigger.
Click.
Nothing.
For a moment, there was complete silence.
Then Quest, Thad, and I burst out laughing.
Julius dropped the gun and started sobbing harder, his whole body shaking. Ivy collapsed in her chair, gasping for breath.
And then I smelled it. Piss. Both of them had pissed themselves. The dark stains spreading across their clothes, puddles forming beneath their chairs.
“Yo!” Thad was doubled over, laughing so hard he could barely breathe. “They both pissed themselves! Both of them!”
Quest wiped tears from his eyes. “Damn. Our sister really married a simp-ass, pussy-ass nigga. This is sad.”
The relief on their faces was almost funny. Almost. They thought it was over. Thought this was just a scare tactic and now they could go home.
Julius was still crying, rocking back and forth. “Thank you. Thank you. I swear I’ll never do this again. I swear. I love Serenity. I’ll never—”
“Oh, this shit ain’t over?” Quest taunted.
Julius and Ivy both froze, hope dying in their eyes.
I grabbed Julius before he could react, forcing him down onto his knees, pinning his left arm to the concrete floor. He started struggling, but I was much stronger.
“What are you doing?! You said—”
Quest pulled out a cleaver from under the duffel bag. The blade caught the fluorescent light.
“No! No, please! PLEASE!”
Quest raised the cleaver.
“You’re dishonorable,” he said calmly. “And dishonorable men don’t get to wear wedding bands.”
The cleaver came down.
THWACK.
The sound was wet and final. Julius’s ring finger—the one with the gold wedding band—separated from his hand and fell to the plastic sheeting.
Julius’s scream was inhuman. High-pitched. Primal. He was trying to jerk away but I held him firm, watching the blood pour from the stump where his finger used to be.
Ivy was sobbing, screaming, incomprehensible sounds of horror.
“Pussy-ass nigga,” Thad muttered, shaking his head.
I let Julius go and he collapsed to the floor, cradling his mutilated hand, blood everywhere, still screaming.
I picked up the severed finger, the wedding band still on it, and walked toward the bathroom in the back of the warehouse.
“Where you going?” Thad called.
“To flush this dishonorable shit down the toilet where it belongs.”
Julius’s screams followed me down the hall. I dropped the finger into the toilet, watched it swirl and disappear, then washed my hands.
When I came back, Quest was standing over Julius, who was curled in a fetal position, whimpering.
“Listen close,” Quest said. “You’re gonna tell Serenity the truth.
All of it. And then you’re gonna sign whatever divorce papers she gives you.
You’re gonna give her the house, the cars, half your business, whatever she wants.
Because if you don’t, we come back. And next time, it’s not a finger. Understand?”
Julius nodded, unable to speak through the pain.
Quest turned to Ivy, who was still in shock, tears streaking her mascara. “And you. You never speak to our sister again. You see her on the street, you cross to the other side. You hear her name, you leave the room. You’re dead to this family. Dead to her. You understand?”
“Yes,” Ivy whispered.
“Now take your little boyfriend to the emergency room,” I said. “Tell them it was a kitchen accident. A woodworking accident. I don’t give a fuck. But if you mention our names, if you even think about going to the cops, we’ll know. And we’ll finish what we started.”
“We won’t,” Ivy said quickly. “We won’t say anything. I swear.”
“Good.” Quest stepped back. “Get the fuck out of here.”
Ivy helped Julius to his feet. He was still crying, blood dripping through the makeshift bandage Thad had wrapped around his hand.
They stumbled toward the door, and we watched them go.
As soon as they were gone, Thad started laughing again. “Yo, that was wild. I can’t believe he actually pulled the trigger.”
“He’s a coward,” Quest said, pulling off his poncho. “Cowards always pull the trigger when their own life is on the line.”
I stripped off my poncho too, balling it up. “We need to call Serenity.”
“Not yet,” Quest said. “Let him tell her first. Let him suffer through that conversation. Then we’ll talk to her.”
We cleaned up the warehouse, bagged up the bloody plastic sheeting, and locked up.
As we drove back toward the city, I stared out the window, thinking.
About loyalty. About honor. About how easy it was to cross lines when family was involved.
And about Zahara. About the secrets she was keeping. About whether I was ready to cross lines for her, too.
Because I had a feeling I was about to find out.