Chapter - Tariq “Reek” Horton
TARIQ “REEK” HORTON
“So, we not gon’ kill this nigga?” Big A was serious, standing there with a drink in his hand while watching Kam laugh at something the bartender said.
I let out a short laugh and shook my head. “No. It’s all good.”
Icon looked at me with his brows touching. “How?”
I took a sip from my glass while keeping my eyes on the room. Ava’s pop-up was full and giving her the additional exposure she was looking for. “Because it ain’t fair for me to hold Ava back knowing I don’t want the same things she does.”
Big A frowned. “But you came around when it came to the baby. Maybe you could come around to wanting to be in a relationship too.”
“Listen to how that sounds.”
He lifted a brow.
So, I explained, “Do you really think it’s fair for her to be with a nigga that has to ‘come around’ to being with her?”
Then Icon nodded once. “That’s fair.”
Big A let out a breath. “It still don’t feel right that that nigga around.” Big A stepped closer and lowered his voice. “You have him checked out?”
“Yeah.”
“And?”
“Jamir looked into him. Kam is just a street nigga that been hustling on his own long enough to be comfortable. He don’t make too much noise. No loud beefs. No weird ties. He’s legit.”
Big A’s eyes stayed on Kam. “Still don’t mean I like him.”
Before I could, a burst of gunfire exploded outside. It was so close that it could be heard over the deejay’s speakers.
Then came another round.
Then another.
Glass shattered somewhere near the front windows. People screamed as the music cut off mid-beat. Champagne flutes dropped and exploded across the floor. Bodies hit the ground. Chairs flipped. Somebody yelled, “Get down!” but by then people were already doing it.
I didn’t think. I just moved. The last place I had seen Ava was near the product tables, and I jumped over two women crouched by the bar, shoved past a man frozen in place, and ran straight toward where she had been.
More shots tore through the front of the space.
Bits of plaster shattered from a column.
Another round hit the glass and made people scream all over again.
When I got to her, Kam was already there. He had Ava low to the ground behind one of the heavy display tables. His body was halfway over hers while he tried to shield her from anything coming through the front.
The sight of that nigga protecting what was mine was crippling, but I didn’t have time to react.
Ava looked over Kam’s shoulder the second she saw me. Fear was all over her, but she still assured me, “I’m okay!”
I nodded once to let her know I heard her. Then I turned and ran toward the front.
If these many shots were coming in, then this wasn’t random. It was organized.
Somebody had come there to kill as many people as they could.
By the time I hit the front entrance and pushed through the blown-open doorway, the cold air slapped me in the face along with the smell of gunpowder. Icon, Big A, and our security were already bussing back. The whole front of the block was lit up in flashes.
There had to be ten of them, maybe more.
Some were on foot. Some were leaning out of cars.
One dark SUV was double-parked crooked across the curb, blocking the lane.
Another car had pulled up halfway on the sidewalk.
Muzzles kept flashing from different angles, and the firepower was heavy enough that I knew immediately this wasn’t some sloppy shit.
These motherfuckas had come ready.
I ducked behind the concrete base of a street planter, pulled my gun, and started firing back.
Shots cracked over my head so close I heard them whizzing by.
Concrete chipped near my shoulder. Glass from the front windows kept raining down behind me.
Big A was farther to my left near one of the parked cars, firing in controlled bursts.
Icon was closer to the curb, crouched behind an SUV with two of our men.
One of them rose up, fired three shots, and dropped right back down.
Then I saw three of our security on the ground.
They weren’t moving. One was half under a car with blood spreading dark beneath him. Another had dropped near the front steps with his head turned awkwardly. The third was by the valet stand, stretched out flat with his gun still in his hand.
That made my blood run cold.
I leaned out and fired again. One of the attackers jerked and went down near the back passenger side of the double-parked SUV. Another one spun and dropped beside a parking meter. But the shots kept coming.
That was when I realized some of the fire wasn’t just coming from street level.
The shots kept raining down from somewhere higher too.
I looked up just enough between bursts to catch movement on a rooftop across the street.
Then another flash from farther down. They had shooters elevated, which meant they had planned this.
This was meant to pin us down and kill us all.
I fired toward the roofline, forcing one of them to duck, then dropped lower behind the planter when a fresh spray of bullets chewed into the brick above me.
“Fuck!” I shifted position, ran bent low toward the next car, and slid behind it hard enough to bang my shin.
A shot punched through the passenger window and sprayed glass all over me.
I cursed and fired back under the car, then over the hood.
Right then, somebody dropped beside me. I looked over, ready to swing. But it was Kam. He was breathing hard, gun already up, eyes locked on the shooters like this was just another day. He leaned out and fired twice toward the roof, then twice more toward the dark sedan parked across the street.
We stayed down and fired in turns, trying to keep them from pressing closer. I saw another attacker stumble near the curb and fall after one of Kam’s shots. But for every man that dropped, more bullets kept coming. It felt like it would never stop.
Then I heard Icon yell, “Fall back!”
I looked over to see him halfway behind a truck, reloading fast. “Ride out! It’s too many of them!”
He was right; standing out there trying to win a street war, where we were outnumbered, with women, civilians, and family still inside the event would’ve been suicide. The job now was getting our people out before these niggas pushed in farther or came through the back.
I fired one more round toward the SUV, then broke from cover and ran back toward the event space with Kam moving beside me. Big A and two of the surviving security followed right behind us.
Inside was chaos. Women were crying. Tables were overturned. Hair bundles and wigs were all over the floor. People were crouched low, hiding behind anything heavy enough to stop a bullet.
“Everybody out the back!” Icon roared as he came in behind us. “Move now!”
That snapped people into motion. Security started directing everybody toward the rear exit while Big A helped clear a path. I turned fast, looking around for Ava.
I didn’t see her, Rhythm, or Zahra.
As I started to panic, Kam came up beside me and said, “I told Ava to leave. The girls went out the back before I came outside.”
I nodded once. “Good looking.”
Another burst of shots hit the front of the building, closer now. People screamed again and pushed harder toward the rear. I fell in behind the last group and moved through the kitchen corridor, out the back door, and into the lot where our cars were parked.
We all jumped into whatever car was closest. Doors slammed. Engines roared. Tires spit gravel. Then we pulled off out the back like hell itself was behind us.
I didn’t even realize Kam had ended up in the truck with us until we were already flying through traffic.
My ears were still ringing from all that gunfire. I had spent the first few seconds of that ride looking out the back window, trying to see if anybody was on our ass, while Icon drove like he was trying to tear a path through the city.
He was driving with precision. He weaved through traffic, blowing yellow lights, cussing under his breath every time some slow dumbass drifted into our lane. The engine kept growling every time he punched the gas.
Then Big A turned around in his seat so fast the movement caught my attention. His gun was up and aimed behind him. I thought he was aiming out of the back window, until I realized Kam was sitting beside me.
“Who the fuck are you?!” Big A barked. “Did you set us up?!”
Kam, to his credit, didn’t panic. He sat in the back with his hands where everybody could see them, breathing hard but not shaking, looking from the barrel of Big A’s gun to the rest of us like he knew one wrong word could get his brains blown into the upholstery.
“The fuck? No.”
Big A pressed harder. “Then why we get hit when your random ass came around?”
“I helped y’all get out.”
“That don’t mean shit! Did you line this shit up?! Who you working with?!”
Kam looked at me for half a second, then back at Big A. “If I set you up, why would I be outside shooting back with you? Why would I still be in the line of fire? I could have dipped and you niggas would have never saw me again. Why would I be in the car with you niggas?”
Big A kept the gun right where it was. “Because maybe you’re trying too hard not to look involved.”
Kam’s jaw tightened, but he kept it cool. “The men in those cars were foreigners.”
Icon shifted in his seat then and finally said, “Chill. That was an organized attack. There were shooters on foot, in cars, and on roofs. That wasn’t some setup this nigga could pull off.”
Big A kept staring at Kam.
“And unless Kam was willing to go against a big crew just to look less suspicious, he’s not involved,” Icon added.
Big A finally lowered the gun, but he didn’t put it away. He kept it in his hand while turning back around in his seat. “I’m still watching yo’ swole ass.”
Icon gripped the wheel tighter, eyes on the road, and said what all of us were thinking. “Who the fuck just tried to kill us?”