CHAPTER 18

 

Brandon and his crew shut down another one of Malik’s houses. Nothing made Brandon smile harder than knowing that he was the reason for his own brother’s demise. After they stripped Malik’s men of all of their cash, they waited outside in the car for O’Malley to finish turning one of Malik’s men into a carved turkey.

Brandon had seen the damage that O’Malley could do with his knives and it wasn’t an easy act to watch. In all of his years being in law enforcement, Brandon had seen many things occur. He had stood witness to all sorts of horrific scenes, but none of them topped watching a man be carved alive.

This may seem like a successful mission for Brandon and his men, unfortunately their fortune would also become their misfortune. They never realized that they were being watched the entire time. There was no security at that particular location because Malik had rigged the place with enough cameras to see every inch of the inside and outside of the trailer. No room or corner was left without video surveillance.

~~~~

“A creepy ass looking Russian named Vladimir Fedorov. A red hair, bushy eyebrow faced bitch name Chris O’Malley and a wannabe thug nigga named Devon DeMamp!” Malik slammed the manila folder that held the information of each man on his desk. Pissed off was an understatement.

“You mean to tell me that these are the fuck boys, that’s been hitting my shit up?”

Nasir sat in the chair in front of Malik’s desk in silence. He knew that was a rhetorical question. He just was waiting for Malik to finish tripping so he could hit him with more bad news.

“How in the hell did these mark ass niggas get by us with this shit? Seriously man I need to know. All that tells me is our security isn’t worth two cents if niggas like this are slipping through the cracks right under our own noses.”

Nasir looked on as Malik blew off steam and continued on with his rant. When he finally went over to the mini bar in his office and poured himself a glass of Rémy, Nasir decided that it was time to lay the bad news on him.

“Yo, Malik.”

Malik stood with his back turned to Nasir. He looked over his shoulder, but said nothing.

“I got some more information for you and it ain’t good man.”

Silence.

“When I left from here, I went over to the new spot to check things out and make sure them little niggas was doing what they were supposed to be doing. When I got there the gate was torn from the hinges and there were several tire marks in the sand. I heard gunshots the minute I rolled through, so I parked my ride in the darkest area I could find.

A few minutes later I saw about five niggas running towards an SUV that was parked a little down the block. They were carrying our cash. They killed all of our men, and tortured Country bad.

I checked all the hiding spots for the cash and everything was empty. They cleaned the house out, but luckily they didn’t fuck with the computer. I searched the tapes and saw their faces.” Nasir reached in his back pocket and pulled out the USB he was carrying. He placed it down on Malik’s desk.

Malik said nothing yet again as he walked over to his desk. He retrieved his MacBook from one of the drawers and powered it on. He placed the USB into one of the ports and waited for the video to open up. He skimmed through until he saw some activity and watched from there. Nasir sat off to the side, watching him. He knew that once Malik saw what he needed him to see, he was going to go off the deep end.

Twenty minutes into the video, Malik was leaned back in his seat watching everything unfold. He recognized the red head and the Russian right away. They seemed to be with another guy that he couldn’t see because his back was turned.

Malik watched as the unknown man gave orders to the red head and the Russian. He was obviously the one in charge. The six mini screens on the laptop all lit up at the same time from the gunfire that started the moment the three men kicked open the door.

Malik watched as his men were taken down one by one. The unknown man was taking cover behind a file cabinet and looked like he was talking to the one man in Malik’s posse that was left standing. Then the red head stepped in and started busting as he moved through the house. Moments later, Malik saw three other men come rushing in with the Russian. He recognized the Devon dude, but the other two weren’t familiar.

The mini video screens showed the men scouting the house. Malik sat up abruptly in his chair when he recognized who the unknown man was in charge when he happened to look in the direction of one of the cameras. He replayed that part of the footage and slowed it down so he could get a better look at the guys’ face.

His heart just about stopped beating and he felt a large lump in his throat as he tried to swallow the doubt that he felt. He shook his head and looked away from the screen. He had to have been seeing this shit wrong. It just couldn’t be.

Malik stood up and walked over to his bar again, grabbed the entire bottle of Rémy, and drunk deeply from it. He knew that what he had just seen was a mistake. It had to be. He paced around the room a bit and looked over at Nasir, who looked at him and then shook his head as confirmation that Malik’s eyes weren’t deceiving him.

This can’t be real. Maybe there was a glitch that screwed up the image and made him look like that. Malik slowly walked back over to his desk and replayed that part of the video again, but it was the same person. It was him. It was his baby brother. His own blood. It was Brandon.

Nasir watched the anger and hurt etched in Malik’s face. He knew that a million and one questions were running through his mind. A million and one questions that needed a million and one answers. Malik was the kind of man that never let anything go unhandled. Situations like this is where the uncivilized Malik would resurface. Once that side of him showed up, that was it. No one ever knew their fate or when it would happen. He was always swift with it and by the time a target realized anything, it was too late. However, this was different. This was his baby brother. A brother that he loved and cared about.

Nasir cleared his throat to gain Malik’s attention and asked the inevitable question. “How do you want to do this?”

Shaking his head, still in disbelief. Malik held up his hand, he needed time to think. But Nasir knew that time was limited and if they planned to do anything they would need to do it now.

“Yo, Malik man. I know you’re upset, but we gotta handle this now. Just tell me how you want everything to go down and it’s done.”

“No.” Malik closed his eyes and tried to fight back the tears that started to whelm in his eyes. He knew that Nasir was right, but he wasn’t about to allow him to do anything to his brother. If anybody would handle Brandon it was going to be him. “You do what you must with the others, but leave him to me.”

“You sure about that? I know he’s your...”

Malik raised his hand. “I don’t need a reminder. Take care of the others and leave him to me. He is off limits, understood?”

Nasir nodded his response and stood up to leave. “I’ll let you know when it’s done.” He walked towards the double doors and knocked twice. The men standing guard on the outside opened the doors and Nasir walked out, leaving Malik to his thoughts.

~~~~

Brandon and his men were all in the conference room discussing their recent hit. They had scored big and now they were all ready to reap the grand prize…taking down the nest.

“I still feel like that shit was way too easy. They had to know that we were still surveilling their old spots. I mean, come on ya’ll. You really think these guys just randomly picked that last location?”

Devon was sitting at the end of the table leaning back in his seat. His size thirteen feet were covered with steel-toed boots that rested on the edge of the table. “They are up to something. For all we know they could know who we are and be putting a hit out on us.”

All the men looked at each other. The room was quiet for a few minutes until someone burst out laughing, causing a domino effect amongst the rest of the group. Devon shook his head in frustration at the reaction that his team members responded with. All the men laughed and cracked jokes, but not Brandon. He actually took in what Devon was saying and realized that he could be right.

“I don’t find anything funny,” he interjected. The laughter ceased and all eyes were on Brandon as he stood at the front of the room. “We shouldn’t take anything lightly. Most of us have families that we care about. Our next move is to bring these thugs down permanently and in order to do that we must all have our heads in the game. Until that happens, it would be best for all of you to send your wives and kids somewhere safe until this is over.”

“You don’t really believe this crap do you?” O’Malley asked.

“A man can never be too careful,” answered Brandon.

“I’m not about to make my family pick up and leave because of a “maybe” situation.” Brock frowned. “I’ve been their protector all this time and I’ll continue to be that. They aren’t going anywhere.”

“I can’t make none of you do anything, but I will say this. You all better be ready for shit to hit the fan because this final bust is going to be big. I’m sure they are preparing themselves for anything right now. They may or may not know who is responsible for their loss of business, and we won’t give them time to figure it out. We have to move fast. You got 48 hours to prepare and then it’s go time.”

Brandon left the conference room before any of the men could argue anything else. His mind was occupied with what Devon had said. Was it really a setup or another distraction to knock them off track from what was really happening? Brandon had no clue what was brewing, but he was going to make sure that he and his men were prepared for whatever was coming their way.

As he passed through the precinct in route to his office, Brandon realized that it had been quite some time since he had seen or spoken to his mother. He knew that she was always willing to engage in any conversation that involved his brother Malik. Brandon planned to pay his mother a visit that night and find out what he could about his brother’s movements.

~~~~

Finally the work day was over and Brandon was more than ready to get home and shower. He hadn’t eaten all day and could use a nice hot home cooked meal. He changed into a plain white t-shirt, blue jeans and a baseball cap before heading out to his mother’s house.

The ride over there was faster than normal. It was as if everyone on the road could feel his hunger pains and decided to clear a path for him. When Brandon arrived at his mother’s house he parked in the driveway and made his way to the door. He was greeted by the aroma of collard greens, macaroni and cheese, BBQ chicken and something that smelled like pumpkin spice.

When he entered the kitchen, he spotted his mother standing over the stove, stirring whatever was in the pot. She was dancing along to the music that played from the small radio that sat on the counter. He eased up behind her and grabbed her waist.

“Hey, Ma.” He kissed her cheek and smiled at her surprised expression.

“Oh my gosh Brandon! You can’t be sneaking up on me, boy. I’m getting too old to be surprised like that.” She then turned and gave him a wide smile. “You showed up just in time, though. The food is almost done. You hungry?”

“Am I? I’m surprised the loud growls of my stomach didn’t give me away before I made it over to you.”

His mother tapped him playfully on the arm and laughed. “Why don’t you go and relax until everything is done. I got some pound cake on the table if you need something to hold you over until the food is ready.”

“Ok, Ma.” Brandon went over to the kitchen table and grabbed himself a slice of cake then headed to the living room. He sat down on the sofa and grabbed the remote. His mother didn’t mention anything about his brother coming over. That was a good sign. I’ll have her all to himself to find out what I can.