Chapter 18
TARIQ “REEK” HORTON
All I could see was the fear in Ava’s eyes when those bullets were flying and the sickening feeling in my gut the entire time that one of those bullets could hit her and my son. The first thing I needed to do was get to her ASAP.
By the time we made it to the Cartier estate, everybody was running on adrenaline and anger. Icon had dropped Kam off at some random location on the way over, per his own request, so he could circle back later and get his car once the smoke cleared around the pop-up.
The second I walked into the estate with Icon and Big A, I started looking for her.
The whole house was in an uproar. Livia was near the bar with Royal on her hip, talking low to Aria and Tempo.
Rhythm was pacing with her phone in her hand.
Zahra sat with Czar holding him tight against her chest while Saint hovered over both of them like he’d shoot if anybody came through the front door wrong.
Legend was pacing as Jamir sat in the corner with his laptop open, typing so fast that smoke should have been coming from those fingertips.
But I only cared about one person. Ava was stretched across one of the couches in the den with a blanket over her legs and her hand on her stomach. The second I saw her, my heart unclenched.
I took long, quick strides towards her. “You good?” I asked, even though I could see she was breathing. I still needed to hear it again.
She pushed herself up a little and looked at me with those big, light eyes that still had too much fear in them. “I’m okay.”
I crouched in front of her. “You sure?”
“Yes,” she said softly. “I’m okay.”
I put one hand on her side and the other over her stomach, like I needed to make sure for myself. Then I leaned down and kissed her belly. Then I wrapped both arms around her middle and held her there for a second longer than I meant to.
She touched the back of my head, assuring me in a whisper. “Reek, I’m okay.”
I nodded against her stomach, then kissed it one more time before straightening up.
That was when Tempo groaned. “Y’all relationship is weird as hell.”
A few people chuckled under their breath, and under any other circumstance, I might’ve had something smart to say back.
But I didn’t care how it looked. My nerves were still all over the place, and Ava being alive and in one piece was the only reason I wasn’t pacing a hole in Icon’s floors.
I sat on the edge of the couch beside her and kept my hand over her stomach.
“Are you really okay?” I asked again.
She nodded. “I’m just shaky.”
“That’s normal after all that,” Livia said from nearby.
Jamir spoke over us. “I found something.”
That got everybody’s attention.
Jamir kept typing a few more seconds, then turned the laptop so Icon and Legend could see the screen better. “Rico’s brother.”
That revelation made all of us look at each other in slow motion. Rico was the boss of the Crown Syndicate, the crew that had tried to extort us for a percentage of the revenue of Project 83, using that dumb-fuck Kai Richardson to do it.
Legend frowned. “Rico didn’t have a brother.”
“He did,” Jamir replied regrettably. “He didn’t come up back then because he doesn’t have the same last name. They have different fathers and he was raised with his father’s side.”
Icon walked towards Jamir to get a better look. Jamir clicked through a few screens, pulled up photos, then a profile. “He’s been living in their homeland, and because of the different last names, he never came up when I dug into Rico before.”
“Who is he?” Saint asked.
“Matías De La Cruz.”
“Rico was the face y’all dealt with here, but Matías stayed back in their homeland running other pieces of the organization,” Jamir explained. “When Rico got killed, Matías didn’t make noise right away. He stayed quiet and laid low, then came to Chicago to reboot the Crown.”
Icon folded his arms as he bent down staring at the screen. “How long he been here?”
“Long enough,” Jamir answered. “He kept his head down. Used different names, different shells, different people. He’s been recruiting too. That’s why tonight felt like a small war instead of some emotional retaliation.”
Jamir clicked to another screen that showed names, photos, and little webs of connections.
“He has manpower behind him. Real manpower. Not just street niggas looking for a payday either. He got disciplined shooters, immigrant ties, and local soldiers willing to work because he came with money and a revenge mission. He’s been rebuilding the Crown under the radar and using Rico’s death to motivate people who still feel like the Cartiers embarrassed their organization. ”
“That explains the structure,” Legend said. “That wasn’t random.”
“No,” Jamir agreed. “It was coordinated. Foot soldiers, roof positions, timed pressure, and enough firepower to pin y’all down in public. He wanted casualties. He wanted panic. He wanted a message sent. Luckily, the entire family wasn’t in attendance. This could have been catastrophic.”
Saint’s eyes went cold. “Well, the message got received.”
Jamir added, “Matías didn’t just bring muscle. He brought loyalty. He is the kind of man people follow because he makes them believe in themselves and a good cause.”
Big A sucked his teeth. “So, we got a grief-stricken cartel nigga with an army.”
“Basically,” Jamir said.
Icon then asked, “How much manpower?”
Jamir’s fingers moved over the keyboard again. “Enough that if y’all go at him with your current number, y’all lose bodies.”
Legend looked at Icon, and they had one of those silent conversations brothers who ran empires had without saying too much.
Finally, Icon said it out loud. “We’re going to need more manpower.”
Saint nodded once. “Street Kings?”
Big A agreed immediately. “Yep.”
I looked down at Ava and her hand squeezed mine once before letting go. That little pressure grounded me enough to hear everything else clearly.
Legend asked, “What’s the damage?”
Jamir’s eyes dropped back to the laptop. “Three confirmed dead.”
“Which three?” Icon asked.
Jamir pulled another screen up. “Darnell. Mitch. Cortez.”
Big A cursed under his breath and looked away.
Saint stood up straighter from where he’d been hovering near Zahra and Czar. “Fuck.”
I sat there, feeling the grief.
Darnell had been with us for years. He was a quiet nigga that never had to be told the same thing twice.
Mitch used to do overnight security at the estate before moving into bigger work with us.
Cortez had kids. I knew that because he talked about them all the time.
These weren’t random hired men off the street.
These were men who had worked with us long enough to become familiar and trusted.
Icon rubbed his hand over his mouth. “We need to pay for their services and take care of their families.”
“Can you spin this shit so that it won’t look bad for Ava and Royal Strandz?” I spoke up. “I don’t want her business to suffer once word gets out that this happened at her event.”
In appreciation, Ava leaned against me, laying her hand on my shoulder. Behind Jamir, I could see Livia and Tempo making sappy faces at me.
“I already need to spin this away from us, so I’ve been making it look like typical Chicago violence.
A gang sees rivals walking down the block, shots ring out, and it turns into a shootout.
The pop-up just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
It was on a busy block so its believable.
Random violence makes more sense to most people.
If I get enough of the right people repeating it, that becomes the story.
The city wants an easy answer. Chicago being Chicago is always an easy answer. ”
Ava looked over at him and said softly, “Thank you.”
Jamir glanced at her, gave one little nod, then went right back to typing.
Big A dropped down into one of the chairs and shook his head. “Darnell had just told me last week he was taking his daughter shopping for some dance recital dress.”
Pouting with sympathy, Tempo went over to her husband. As soon as she was standing in front of him, he sat back and she sat on his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck, and he buried his face in her neck, holding her tight around the waist.
“This is fucked up,” came out muffled as he held Tempo tightly against him.
“It is,” Saint said. “Those men have been with us for a minute.”
Tempo looked at her brothers, saying, “It is fucked up, but don’t feel guilty.
They knew what came with that job. They knew they weren’t guarding the pope.
Nobody plans to die doing this kind of work, but they knew what they signed up for.
They were bred to give their lives for who they were protecting if it ever came to that, same as y’all. ”
Icon let out a slow breath and nodded once. “That don’t make it hurt less.”
“No,” Tempo agreed. “It doesn’t. But it does mean they died doing the work they loved.”
We sat in silence feeling the loss. We all knew that death came with this game, but we did everything we could to prevent it.
Three of our men were dead now. Men who had been around long enough to feel like friends.
This shit was even more personal now, and all of us was feeling the urge to tear this city up in the name of the men who had given their lives for ours.
Whoever the fuck Matías thought he came here to punish, he was about to find out the Cartiers didn’t break easy.
Ava’s stomach growled loud enough that I heard it.
“When is the last time you ate?” I asked.
“This morning.”
I frowned. “This morning?”
“I was too busy at the event to eat. Then all of this happened, and I couldn’t even think about food.”
Aria told her, “Chef Eddie made brown stew chicken and rice and peas last night. There are leftovers in the fridge.”
Ava’s eyes bulged in that cartoonish way they did when she got excited about food, and the sight of it made me laugh in spite of the grief and anger for a second.