Chapter Thirty-one
Three weeks later, Rah’s body was found hanging from a telephone pole on the same block that he once controlled. Millie was sending a message and letting people know there was a new regime in Columbus, Ohio. Millie’s crew was judge, juror, and executioner and that was unmistakable. With Rah’s death, Seven lost a brother and his best friend. Millie kept her word and let Rah’s baby live, dropping him at a random hospital, but Toya wasn’t so lucky. She was also found dead in a hotel room, while tied to a chair with a single shot to the head. Once Seven got the news, he knew that his empire was crumbling, but what he couldn’t understand was how Millie did it. Little did he know, she had one of the most ruthless crews Baltimore had ever seen on her side and Millie’s street IQ was equivalent to a scholar’s Harvard degree in academics. He had finally met his match, so he went into seclusion after burying Rah properly, along with his baby’s mother. Seven’s blocks had all been stripped away from him. He had no more territory throughout Columbus. It all seemed to happen so fast. Seven decided to leave all of his dope in the streets and not try to collect on what he had fronted hustlers throughout the city. Millie had the whole city on lock and Seven’s paranoia was at an all-time high. He stood at the edge of his yacht smoking a blunt, ready to set sail. He was going to use this time to reflect and regroup.
Millie smiled as she sat back and looked at the small metal remote in her hand that had a red button on it. It was a detonator to the bombs she had placed under Seven’s yacht. Millie had sent her goon to Seven’s house a week earlier and put tracking devices on his cars so they could know his whereabouts and set him up perfectly for his demise. Millie watched Seven closely, waiting for the best time to send him to his grave. She wanted his death to be special . . . to be classic. She owed that to her Hazelnut. Millie knew Seven was scheduled to set sail that afternoon and couldn’t wait to give him his big surprise. He would never get a chance to leave that dock on that day and Millie was anticipating blowing him up and sending him to his maker. She sat at an Italian restaurant with her crew as they celebrated their win and last day in Ohio. Bottles of the house’s most expensive champagne lined up on the table. Millie felt the feeling of sweet victory.
“Ohio was nice, but I’m ready to go back home to B-more,” Millie said as she sat at the head of the table. “This is to life,” Millie said as she raised her glass.
“To life!” Baby said as he smiled. Baby looked at Millie and placed his hand on top of hers under the table. Millie smiled and felt a tingle go up her back. At that moment, for the first time, she looked at Baby in a different light. She loved him from the bottom of her heart and his loyalty and realness was unmatched. She knew she had a real nigga on her team and she respected it. Everyone at the table downed the drink and the celebration continued for the next hour.
Millie looked outside and the line of luxury cars were being pulled up from the valet so they could leave. She made a couple of her goons stay in Ohio to continue what she had started and they were to be her lieutenants and hold down Ohio while she, Baby, and Lovie were going to return to Baltimore. Millie’s drug empire had just expanded, and what she thought was going to be a personal trip to Ohio for revenge ended being a lucrative business trip, too. Perfect!
The waitress brought Millie the bill and placed the bag of her unfinished food at her feet.
“Thanks for coming. Have a nice night,” the waitress said just before she turned around and left toward the back. Millie smiled and took the bill as she and Baby remained at the table as everyone prepared to leave. Millie left a crisp hundred-dollar bill as a tip for the nice waitress. Millie was about to head out, but had one more thing to do. She looked at the detonator and smiled and so did Baby.
“I have been waiting for this for so long,” Millie said as she looked at the device.
“I know. You ready?” Baby asked as he smiled and playfully punched Millie in the arm.
“Yeah,” Millie said as she smiled and took a deep breath.
“I’ma let you make that call alone. I’ma pull the car to the front door and will be waiting for you. We got a long drive,” Baby said as he stood up and watched the whole crew make their way to the exit. Baby started to leave, but Millie stopped him.
“Baby!” she said as she looked into his eyes.
“What up, ma?” he asked as he stopped in his tracks and looked back at her.
“I love you,” Millie said. But the way she said it, it wasn’t a platonic “I love you” and they both sensed that. Baby smiled and his heart began to flutter. He had been waiting on that day for many years if Millie knew it or not.
“I know. I love you too, Millie,” he said as he walked up to her and gently cradled the back of her neck. He slowly kissed her soft, full lips and let his tongue slide into hers. Millie felt chills and her love button began to thump at the feel of his lips pressed against hers. With that, Baby left to get the car, leaving Millie sitting there, smiling. Millie took another deep breath and watched him leave. She then picked up her phone to give Seven his big surprise. She picked up her secured phone and called.
Seven stood at the edge of his yacht ready to set sail. He looked back at his newly hired, elderly Spanish maid, who was rocking Rah Jr. to sleep. Seven smiled knowing that Big Rah would have appreciated him taking responsibility for his son. Real niggas do real things, lingered in Seven’s head; a creed that he and Rah lived and died by.
“Let me see him, Wilma,” Seven said as he smiled and opened his arms. She brought the baby to him and Seven grabbed him and kissed him on the forehead.
“I’ma raise you as one of my own, li’l man,” Seven whispered as he looked down at the baby, who already had resemblance to his father. Seven stared into the water and gave the deck worker thumbs up, signaling him to lift the anchor so they could set sail. All of a sudden, Seven’s phone rang and he looked at the caller ID, which was blocked. He knew exactly who it was.
“Hello,” he said as he placed the phone between his ear and shoulder and began to rock the baby.
“You took the only thing that I had good in my life, when you took Hazel. Do you know that?” Millie asked.
“Look, Millie. I never meant to hurt Hazel. That pack was meant for you. Do you know that I think about that girl every single day? She is the first thing on my mind when I wake up and the last thought in my head before I go to sleep. I know I will have to suffer for what I did, but who are you to decide what it is? Huh?” Seven asked, really wanting to tell Millie how he felt about Hazel for once and for all. “That is the only woman who ever captured my heart. The only one! I will always love her!”
“Yeah, but it’s too late for all of that. I just wanted to hear your voice before you die. I hope you rot in hell,” Millie said as she clenched her jaws so tight, it seemed as if she would crack a tooth.
Seven laughed and continued to rock the baby. “Remember when I told you I was untouchable? Believe that! I ain’t new to this, I’m true to this,” Seven said.
“See you in hell,” Millie said as she stared out of the restaurant’s window, looking at her crew smiling and joking while getting into their cars. Millie pushed the red button and waited to hear the thundering sounds of explosives just before she heard a dial tone. The C4 dynamites that Millie’s goons placed under Seven’s boat were enough to blow him up, three times over. The sounds of explosions went off, but not from Seven’s boat . . . from the cars of her crew, including Baby. Millie’s heart broke in half as she saw her whole crew go up in flames right before her eyes. Her hands began to shake as she dropped the detonator. She was speechless, frozen in astonishment while watching the flying metal parts and fireballs form from the explosion.
“I see you’re not talking as much these days, huh?” Seven said as he thought back to a week earlier, when he watched Millie’s goons sneak into his garage and place devices under his cars. He sat back and watched them on his surveillance camera while laughing. All the time Millie thought she was watching Seven, he was watching her. He knew that Rah was aware of how he would closely survey his parking garage and Rah ultimately helped Seven when the battle. Rah knew exactly what he was doing when he gave Millie the info on Seven.
“I told you I was untouchable, bitch. You just killed you whole crew by pushing that button,” Seven said smoothly and calmly. Millie fell onto the floor completely shocked at the turn of events. She listened to Seven’s words and they were killing her softly.
“If I was you, I would get the hell out of there,” Seven said as he started up the yacht’s engine and slowly pulled out of the dock. “I want you to look at your feet and into that bag you got right there,” Seven suggested.
Millie did as he said and looked into the big paper bag that the waitress had given her. She saw a stack of Styrofoam takeout boxes. Millie then opened one up and saw bricks of dope inside of the boxes. “What the fuck?” she whispered as she couldn’t believe her eyes.
“Now I want you to look at the back entrance,” Seven said, just before he hung up the phone and continued to sail with a big smile on his face.
Once Millie turned around she saw Feds with labeled bulletproof vests on, rushing into the restaurant with their guns drawn. She dropped the phone and held her head up high. I’m still a bad bitch, Millie thought as she fully understood that karma had just come full circle.
“Freeze, bitch! Put your hands up where I can see them!” an officer yelled. Millie had no choice but to grin at Seven’s antics. Seven had outwitted her and outplayed her in the chess-like street game.
“Motherfucka!” Millie whispered as she put her hands up and shook her head from side to side. The federal agents rushed her and confiscated ten bricks of raw heroin, which was a guaranteed life sentence. Seven knew he could have killed Millie, but he wanted her to live and suffer, just as he would have to do for the remainder of his life. The game was over and so is the story for now.