CHAPTER 1

Millie

Millie stepped out of Mike’s building with her head held high and a refreshed look on her face. One would never be able to tell that she had just murdered a man that she had raised from a toddler; a man that she had once called her son. Millie slid back into the passenger seat and put her seat belt on.

“How did it go?” Nicole asked as she pulled away from the curb.

“Smooth,” was Millie’s response. Now that she was back home, it was her responsibility to get the family back in order. “Everything is so messed up that it may take a little while to get things back on track.”

“Where we headed now?” Nicole asked.

“I have to go see a friend that owes me a little something,” Millie said with an evil smirk on her face.

Twenty minutes later Nicole pulled up in front of a project building in Harlem and killed the engine. Millie and Nicole entered the building and took the stairs to the third floor. Once Millie found the door, she was looking for she gave it a light knock. Seconds later the sound of feet shuffling from behind the door could be heard followed by several locks being unlocked. The door swung open and a big man with a baldhead and a thick bushy beard stood with a stone look on his face.

“Take that mean look off your face before I do it for you,” Millie said. Instantly the big man’s face lit up like a Christmas tree.

“Millie!” The big man squealed as he hugged Millie, lifting her off her feet and spinning her around in the process.

“Okay, Knuckles put me down before you kill me by accident,” Millie smiled.

Knuckles stepped to the side so Millie and Nicole could enter his apartment. Nicole stepped in the apartment and turned her nose up. The place was filthy and had a scent that she couldn’t describe.

“When you get out?” Knuckles asked smiling from ear to ear.

“Just now and you’re the first person I came to see,” Millie moved a pile of junk from off the couch and sat down. “What have you been doing with yourself?”

“Nothing,” Knuckles shrugged his shoulders. He wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer but he was loyal and a hard worker. “After they took you away, Derrick told me I couldn’t work for the family anymore,” Knuckles paused for a second. “I almost did something bad to Derrick but I didn’t do it because I didn’t want you to be mad at me.”

“Why would you want to do something bad to Derrick?”

Knuckles looked down at the floor. “Because he called me a retard,” he said in a voice barely above a whisper. Millie walked over to Knuckles and hugged him. “You’re not a retard. I tell you all the time God made you different because you’re special.” Millie knew Knuckles was mentally challenged but she could use him in her master plan. “You ready to get back to work?”

“I’m allowed to be back in the family business?” Knuckles said with an excited expression on his face.

“Knuckles, you will always be my family, never forget that. Now get dressed. We got some business to take care of,” Millie told him.