Chapter 23 Mekhi
Mekhi
Zephyr was sitting up in the hospital bed sipping that watered-down apple juice they give patients when I walked in.
He looked better than last week. More color in his face, more strength in his upper body.
The physical therapy was working on the parts of him that still responded.
The rest of him, everything below the waist, was the same. Wasn’t changing. Wasn’t coming back.
“You and Quest ain’t work that shit out, bruh?” he asked.
“Nope.”
“The niggas that actually shot you have been arrested though.”
“You know that ain’t good enough for me.
” He set the juice down on the tray and looked at me and his eyes were clear and hard.
“I want that whole crew dead, Khi. Every last one of them. I ain’t never gon’ be the same again.
I can’t walk. I can’t play with my daughter.
I can’t stand up and take a piss without help.
Somebody gotta pay for that beyond sitting in a cell getting three meals a day. ”
As tough as I was, hearing my little brother say that broke my heart.
This was the same nigga who used to race me down the block when we were kids.
Who played varsity basketball his sophomore year.
Who danced at every cookout like he was auditioning for a music video.
And now he was in a hospital bed negotiating with gravity just to sit upright.
“I’m working on it,” I said. “I promise you that.”
“Work faster.”
I stayed with him for another hour. We watched SportsCenter and argued about the Commanders and I pretended everything was normal because that’s what Zephyr needed from me.
Not grief, not rage, just his big brother sitting in a plastic chair talking shit about football like the world outside this room wasn’t falling apart.
I was in the parking garage walking to my truck when my phone rang. Unknown number. I almost let it go to voicemail but something told me to answer.
“Mr. Black. My name is Mateo Rios. I’m a businessman in the DMV area and I’ve been looking for someone with your logistics expertise. I think we could be valuable to each other.”
I stopped walking. I knew the name. Rios was a real estate developer on paper and a cocaine supplier underneath.
He’d been moving product through Banks Reserve trucks for years.
I’d seen his shipments come through our logistics network more than once.
He was connected, well-funded, and from what I’d heard, backed by a family that operated out of South America.
“How’d you get my number?” I asked.
“I’m resourceful. It’s one of my better qualities.” His voice was calm and measured. “I’d like to sit down. Somewhere quiet. Later this evening works for me.”
I should’ve said no. I should’ve hung up and deleted the number and kept my business with Quest’s enemies out of my business entirely.
But Quest had cut me off. Terminated the transport contracts, severed the casino laundering, ripped out the financial infrastructure I’d spent twenty years helping him build.
I had a paralyzed brother in a hospital bed asking me to work faster and no clean revenue stream to fund what needed to happen next.
“Send me the address,” I said.
We met later that evening at a private dining room in a steakhouse in Georgetown.
Rios was already seated when I arrived, a glass of red wine in front of him and a menu he hadn’t opened.
He stood when I walked in and extended his hand and I shook it because business was business even when the business felt like betrayal.
He was taller than I expected. Sharp suit, no tie, hair slicked back.
He carried himself like a man who’d never been told no by anyone who mattered.
I’d been around powerful men my whole life and I could tell the difference between men who performed power and men who actually had it.
Rios had it. It sat on him easy, natural, not forced.
I sat across from him and ordered a whiskey neat because I needed something in my hand that wasn’t a weapon.
“I appreciate you coming,” he said.
“I’m here because I’m curious. That’s it. Don’t confuse curiosity with commitment.”
“Fair enough.” He took a sip of his wine.
“I’ll be direct. Quest cut me off from his distribution network.
I need a new way to move product. You have the logistics infrastructure, the contacts, and the experience.
I also understand that Quest’s casino is reopening soon and that you were instrumental in building its financial architecture. ”
“I was.”
“Then you understand its value better than anyone. And you understand how vulnerable it is without your involvement.”
I looked at him across the table. This man had done his homework.
He knew about the split, knew about the casino, knew about my logistics operation.
He’d studied the situation and found the fracture and was sliding a blade into it with the precision of a surgeon.
I respected the approach even if I didn’t trust the man behind it.
“What exactly are you proposing?” I asked.
“A partnership. I supply the product and the capital. You supply the infrastructure and the knowledge. We build a competing operation that makes Quest’s refusal to work with me irrelevant. And eventually, when the time is right, we take the casino.”
“Take it how?”
“Financially. Legally. Through leverage and pressure, not bullets. I’m not interested in violence when money works better.” He set his wine down and looked at me with those patient eyes. “But I’m not opposed to it either. If it becomes necessary.”
I sat with that for a minute. The whiskey was good and the room was quiet and Mateo Rios was sitting across from me offering me everything Quest had just taken away. Revenue, infrastructure, a path forward. All I had to do was bet against the man I’d spent twenty years building with.
“I need something from you first,” I said.
“Name it.”
“Quest and I have unfinished business. There’s a man named Mega who’s responsible for the attack on my brother. Quest is hunting him too. I need Quest to find Mega and handle that situation before I make any moves against him. Zephyr comes first. Once my brother has his justice, I’m all in.”
Rios studied me for a long moment. Then he nodded. “I can be patient. I’ve been patient with Quest for five years. A few more weeks won’t change anything.”
“And I want your word that when we move on the casino, it stays clean. No bodies in the building. That’s a legitimate business and I helped build it from the ground up. I’m not letting anybody burn it down.”
“You have my word. The casino is worth more intact than destroyed. I’m a businessman, Mr. Black. I prefer acquisitions over demolitions.”
We shook hands across the table. His grip was firm and dry and held a second longer than it needed to.
I met his eyes and he met mine and we both understood what this handshake meant.
We weren’t friends. We weren’t partners yet.
We were two men who’d been wronged by the same person and were aligning our interests until those wrongs were corrected.
“One more thing,” Rios said as I stood to leave. “I understand Quest has a woman. Mehar Ali.”
I stopped. “What about her?”
“Nothing. Just making sure I have the full picture.” He smiled and it didn’t reach his eyes. “It’s important to know what a man values. It tells you where he’s vulnerable.”
I looked at him for a second too long. Something about the way he said her name made my skin itch. Like he already knew more about Mehar than he should and was testing whether I’d react to it.
“Leave her out of this,” I said. “Whatever beef you got with Quest, his girl ain’t part of it.”
“Of course.” He raised his glass. “Enjoy your evening, Mr. Black.”
I walked out of that steakhouse and sat in my truck and gripped the steering wheel until my knuckles ached.
I’d just shook hands with a man who was going to help me take everything from my best friend of twenty years.
My former best friend. The man who taught me the business side while I taught him the streets.
The man whose family I’d protected like they were my own blood.
But my actual blood was in a hospital bed learning how to brush his teeth from a wheelchair. And Quest had chosen a woman he’d known for months over the brother I’d known for a lifetime.
I started the truck and pulled out onto M Street and drove home in silence. The part of me that still had love for Quest was screaming. The part of me that loved Zephyr more was already planning.