Libra Princesses

I read the text from Charles before placing my phone back into my pocket. We had a little over an hour until showtime, and I had just pulled up to get Nadi. It was my fault we were running late. I hadn’t been home all day and had to make a little pit stop before grabbing her. I texted her and let her know I was outside. Minutes later, she appeared at the passenger-side door.

“We should already be in pla—” She stopped talking to smile at the dozen roses in the passenger seat.

“Do you like them?” I asked, knowing she would.

“I love them.”

She picked them up and got into the car. Seconds after shutting her door, she buried her nose in them, inhaling their delicate aroma. The flowers reminded me a lot of her. Beautiful and elegant, but if handled incorrectly, you would feel the thorns. And I would never handle her incorrectly again. She set them softly to the side and put on her seat belt when I started to drive.

“You ready for this?” I asked.

“I’m ready to get paid. The others in place?”

“Yeah, they’re ready.”

“Good. After Brasi, we only have one more, right?”

“Yup, Dub Lewis. And then it’s over. It’s all over.”

I figured I would wait until Zeus ran us all the coins before I told him I was retiring from the game. He had big plans for me to be by his side. I doubted he would take too kindly to me turning down his offer, but I was ready to kick back and enjoy life. Go legit, maybe start a family. I might never experience those things if I stayed in the streets. Somebody could blow my noodles back at any moment. All I needed was my life and the woman sitting next to me, and I would be good.

“You serious about quitting?” Nadi asked.

Was she reading my mind? I looked over at her mystically. She had a hopeful look in her eyes.

“You must have known that’s what I was thinking about.”

“You changing your mind?”

“Nah. Hell nah. After this, I’m good. The money is good, but what use is it if I won’t be here to spend it?” I took her hand in mine, using my thumb to caress it. “Plus, with all the making up I have to do for you, I’m going to need a lot of free time.”

“You’re right about that,” she said and paused. Then she began to laugh. “You know something crazy?”

“What?”

“I have only known you a pinch of my life span, but the thought of living without you makes me sick. You should have seen me before. I could barely get out of bed.”

“You did about that money, though,” I teased.

“Damn straight!” she laughed. “But for real, Kelz, you can’t do anymore shit like what you did. I still find myself being so mad at you. You’re lucky I love you so much. And love is forgiving.”

“I love you too. So from here on out, it’s me and you.”

“Me and you,” she repeated softly and kissed my hand.

My engine revved as I pressed my foot on the gas. I hopped on the interstate to get to Brasi’s quickly. The plan was to be in place before Brasi arrived and take him out when the shot was clear. I hoped the task would prove to be as simple as it sounded.

As I drove, my mind wandered to Banks. I didn’t like how he had just killed Cat. But his logic was correct. She saw our faces. However, she had done good by us. She didn’t deserve a death like that. But the job was the job. Maybe I was going soft. Or maybe I was just tired. I was glad it would all be over for me soon.

We still had over half an hour to spare when we arrived at the restaurant. Still, I would have expected more people there. Surprisingly, the parking lot was empty. In fact, the only cars I saw were in the surrounding establishments. My brow furrowed, and I double-checked the address Banks sent. We were at the right place, plus I recognized Charles’s truck parked a little ways away. The red carpet was on the ground in front of the tall double doors, but no one was there to walk it. I parked the car and strained my neck to look inside the dark restaurant.

“This is the place you drove by earlier, right?” I asked.

“Yeah. But it seems so dead. People should be here by now. It doesn’t even look like the lights are on.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

I pulled my phone out and shot Charles a text to see where he was. Minutes passed, so I texted both Banks and Coney the same message. Nobody got back to me. I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. Something wasn’t right. I undid my seat belt and prepared to go check it out. When Nadi made to get out of the car, I stopped her.

“You stay here. I’ll go check shit out.”

“I’m not letting you go in there by yourself. It could be a setup.” She looked at me like I was crazy.

“I need you out here looking out. Let me know if you see anything out of place. I’ll be fine.”

I leaned over and cuffed her cheek before pulling her in for a kiss. It lasted longer than I intended, but damn, I missed the sweet taste of her lips. When we broke away, she had worry in her eyes, but she nodded and let me go alone. Before leaving the car, I pulled my hood over my head and ran across the street to Brasi’s. As I passed, I looked through the glass windows of the dimly lit place and saw that the tables weren’t even set inside. Maybe Banks had gotten the dates wrong, and the grand opening was another day. I walked around the building to the back and found the ladder Nadi had spoken about. It was already pulled down. I checked my surroundings before climbing up to the roof.

Once there, I wiped my hands on my pants and looked around. I saw nothing but big blocks of wood, metal, and tools lying around. A small shed-looking thing was on the roof, so I walked toward it.

“Charles?” I called. “Coney?”

Nobody answered. The closer I got to the shed, the more my senses told me something was really wrong. I was about to reach for the knob of the shed when I noticed a thin stream of red liquid by my feet. Blood. I followed it and saw it coming from the other side of the shed. Slowly, I crept around to see where the blood was coming from, and the moment I did, my heart sank.

“Damn,” I said.

I balled my fists and put them to the sides of my head, exhaling in anguish. I finally found Coney and Charles. Both were lying facedown in a pile of rubble with bullet holes in their heads and backs. They weren’t moving, but I still checked their necks to see if I could feel even the faintest pulse. Nothing. I hadn’t felt sadness like this in a long time. It ate away at my insides. Charles and Coney had been my friends. They were loyal and followed orders to the end. Grinding my teeth, I fought back the tears that wanted to fall from my eyes.

They’d been facing the side of the street where the restaurant’s entrance was. Whoever had killed them must have crept behind them. It hit me suddenly that the killer could still be on the roof. Then behind me, I heard footsteps approaching. Drawing my gun, I whipped around, preparing to shoot whoever it was.

* * *

“Whoa, what the fuck, Kelz,” Banks shouted, staring at me with huge eyes.

He threw his hands in the air when he saw the gun pointed in his direction. Instantly, I let the gun fall to my side.

“Banks, where the fuck were you?”

“Where I was supposed to be at. Where were you?”

“In position. Until I saw wasn’t nobody at this motherfucka. And then Charles and Coney weren’t answering the phone, so I came to check on them.”

“Where they at anyways?” Banks said, swiveling his head to look around. “They were supposed to be here before we even showed up.”

“They’re right there.”

I stepped out of the way so that he could look around the shed at the dead bodies of our friends. When he saw them, a small shout left his lips. He pressed his palms against his face and shook his head.

“Fuck,” he shouted. “Fuck.”

“Aye, keep it down. Whoever did this could still be here.”

“They killed my potnahs,” he exclaimed, looking down at their lifeless shells. “This ain’t right. I fucked up.”

“We need to go. Now.”

I hurried back to the ladder, but Banks stopped me.

“Wait, there’s something inside that you need to see,” Banks said.

“For what, and why were you inside?” I asked.

“When I saw that it was empty, I thought it would be better to get inside and wait there. Just in case y’all missed your mark.”

“The front door was open?” I asked with a raised brow.

“No, crazy. I broke in. And then I saw that nobody was here and couldn’t possibly be comin’, so I started snoopin’ around. You won’t believe the shit I found. It’s big, and your boy, Zeus? He’s a snake. Come on.”

Before I could say another word, he took off to the other side of the roof, where there was a stairway door. It must have been how he got to the roof. I glanced down toward where my car was parked and felt the urge to go home with Nadi, but I went after Banks instead.

We walked down a stairway that led to the kitchen. Everything was stacked neatly and ready for whenever the place opened up. I stared at the back of Bank’s head as I followed him. With each step, I became more and more apprehensive. First, he was wrong about the grand opening, and then he turned around and left his post. In all the time I’d known him, he had never moved like that once. So his doing it twice made me feel like everything wasn’t what it seemed.

We reached the front of the seating area, and I stopped walking. Banks continued toward a hallway in the back, but when he realized I was no longer behind him, he stopped too. Turning to face me, the bewildered expression on his face solidified everything for me. Banks never showed his true expression on his face. Ever. So the emotion on the roof and him looking at me at that moment? It felt like an act.

“What?” he asked, coming back toward me.

“Banks, what the fuck is really going on?” I asked, still gripping the gun in my hand.

“What do you mean? I’m tryna show you proof about Zeus. This shit was all a setup. He’s the reason Charles and Coney are dead. Where do you think I got the information about this grand openin’?”

“Zeus setting us up doesn’t make sense.” I shook my head. “And even if he did do that, why here? Why now? He had plenty of opportunities to kill me if he wanted me dead. And since when does Zeus talk to you outside of me? I’m the head of this operation, not you.”

I saw the vein in his right temple pop out. He grinded his teeth and took a deep breath. Then right before my eyes, his whole demeanor changed. It was like watching a demon take over a body. The sadness and confusion left his eyes as he began to leer at me like he had never seen me. No . . . He was looking at me like he hated me.

“You know, ever since we came to this place, you’ve changed,” Banks said.

“I’ve changed?”

“Yeah, motherfucka. You. We used to be best friends. Brothers. But when we arrived here, you adopted that god complex you talk so much about—calling all kinds of crazy shots. Thinkin’ I work for you or somethin’. Thinkin’ I’m beneath you.”

“Banks, what are you talking about?”

“You know exactly what I’m talkin’ about. And then the unnecessary killin’ you’ve been doin’. It’s really started to worry me,” Banks said, and I knew then he was crazy. He was talking about himself. “The guard at the manor. The stripper. But I should have known you’d gone off the deep end the night you killed Zaire.”

“What?” That was where I drew the line. “Banks, that was—”

“Stupid. Very stupid. Because you should have known his brother would come and find you one day.”

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye. Out of the shadows of the hallway Banks had been trying to lead me down appeared a man with two masked goons behind him. It was Zayle. There was an icy glimmer in his eyes that I could see even in the bad lighting. He didn’t stop walking until he was standing beside Banks. The goons that had come with Zayle stood behind him and Banks as if to protect them. I went to raise my gun, but strong hands grabbed me from behind and snatched it from me. Two of Zayle’s men had unknowingly crept behind me to disarm me. I was stuck.

“I never liked you,” Zayle started in his gruff voice. “I never saw what Zeus did in you. And now learning that you’re the low-life thief that killed my brother . . . You were right under my nose the whole time.”

“I didn’t kill Zaire,” I growled.

“Then why was this in your bedroom?” Zayle said, holding something up in the air. “When you and those two bodies on the roof broke into my home and stole this watch, you should have read the engraving on it. Z. L. D. for Zeus Lamar Daniels. It was a gift from me to him. If I had known that this watch would have led to so much turmoil, I would have never bought it. But then again, it also led me to the killer.”

“You’re crazy as hell. That shit wasn’t in my room. Banks—”

“Banks came forward and told me everything. How you kept it on your dresser as a souvenir for what you did.”

“That doesn’t even make sense.”

“Then why did I find it there when we visited your house today? I was hoping to kill you there and not even have to put on this little show, but things don’t always go your way, do they?”

I couldn’t wrap my head around how the watch had gotten into my room. I thought long and hard until I remembered the last time Banks was at my house. He’d gone to use the bathroom. That’s when he did it. That’s when he planted the watch on me. But that meant . . . He was plotting on me, and I didn’t have a clue for how long.

“You!” I growled and tried to rush him.

The goon holding me had a tight grip. I couldn’t go anywhere. I wanted like hell to kill Banks. The rage inside of me was burning like hot lava. It was his fault Charles and Coney were dead. All I could do was shoot knives at Banks, who laughed in return.

“Guilty. I might have given him your address,” Banks said innocently.

“It seems as though Zeus doesn’t know much about the man he’s trying to replace me with,” Zayle spoke again. “He thinks I’m losing my touch, but it’s him. Losing my brother opened my eyes to many things around me. The biggest was who is really there when you need them. Zeus wasn’t. He didn’t even try to help me find my brother’s killer because ‘business must go on.’ But you were in his face the whole time. It makes me wonder if he knew.”

“For the last time, I didn’t kill him. Do you know anything about the man standing next to you?”

“I can handle Banks. Plus, he’s done me a service by making valuable connections and building trust with the Italians.”

“What?”

“Ehhh . . . I also might have tipped Brasi off about Zeus’s plan to kill him,” Banks chuckled. “He wants to work with us to send that same energy back to Zeus. Soon, everything is gonna change ’round here.”

“So, which one of you is taking Zeus’s place?” I asked.

“You’ve done us a service by getting rid of Rashad and Lamont. We have a lot more playing field now. So, we’ll cross that road when we get to it.”

“Actually, I think we should cross it now,” Banks said, drawing his gun and pointing it at Zayle’s head.

I was surprised by the turn of events. Zayle kept his composure and didn’t seem intimidated by the gun in his face. In fact, he gave a husky laugh. However, his expression looked serious, and he looked Banks up and down like he wasn’t even worthy to breathe the same air as him.

“What do you think you’re doing?” he sneered.

“Takin’ out another valuable chess piece,” Banks told him. “See, you’re a major liability. One, I don’t know if you’ll run and give Zeus a heads-up. And two, even if you don’t give him a heads-up, you’ll most likely try to get rid of me the moment you feel you don’t need me anymore. And, well, can’t have that now, can I?”

“If you think you can take out Zeus alone, you’re out of your mind.”

“Little do you know, I already have. I’ve been in Zeus’s home for months, and he doesn’t even know it. And now that I’ve earned the Italians’ trust, they’ll back me in any way to put Zeus in the dirt. A new sheriff is in town.”

“Enough of this. Kill him,” Zayle commanded his shooters.

I braced myself for the loud sound of gunfire and to see Banks’s body riddled with bullets. However, nothing happened. In fact, the goons didn’t budge an inch. Furious, Zayle looked at them.

“I said kill him.”

Still nothing. It seemed as if they weren’t following his orders that night. In fact, it wasn’t until Banks made a motion with his hand that they did anything. Finally, they removed their masks, showing that they weren’t Zayle’s men at all. They were Italians. A brief wave of panic overcame Zayle’s face as he realized he’d been duped. Banks grinned devilishly like the Joker seeing his plan come full circle.

“Your men are somewhere around here. Dead, of course,” Banks told him. “Any last words?”

Zayle said nothing. He just quickly grabbed the gun on his hip, but he barely touched it before Banks’s pistol rang out. The bullet lodged between Zayle’s eyes, and he fell limp to his knees before face planting. Then Banks casually stepped over him and focused all his attention on me. I kept my eyes on the smoking gun in his hands, trying to think of an escape plan. The death grip the Italian men had on me made it difficult even to wiggle free.

“Now, back to you, Kelz. The almighty fuckin’ Kelz. Not so mighty now, are you?” Banks said, waving the gun at me. “You didn’t know I had this in me? The ambitions of a boss. The problem is, if you keep your thumb on top of somebody for so long, eventually, they learn how to maneuver under pressure.”

“Banks, we’re brothers. We can talk about this. You act irrationally instead of using your fucking mouth.”

“When I used my mouth, you used your self-proclaimed power to shut me up. I’m done talkin’. It’s time for takin’.”

That’s when I knew I was about to die unarmed and helpless . . . at the hands of someone that I loved. The irony was that Banks would never have to take everything from me because he was someone I would have given the world to. Life was funny that way. As he continued to rant, I glanced out the window, knowing that Nadi was in the car waiting for me. I would break her heart again because I wasn’t making it out. There would be no me and her.

“What are you lookin’ at?” Banks asked and looked toward the window. When I didn’t answer with my words, he searched the pained expression on my face and found it anyway. “Oh, right. Your bitch came with you, didn’t she? I can’t wait to kill that ho.”

“Don’t touch her.”

“Shut up,” Banks shouted and pistol-whipped me across my face, drawing blood. “Like I said, I can’t wait to kill her. But first . . . I gotta kill you.”

He stepped back and aimed the gun at my chest. He hesitated, maybe thinking I would beg for my life or talk reason into him. I didn’t do either. I stood up straight with my shoulders back. My only regret was being unable to right my wrongs in time to make it to heaven. Fury lit Banks’s eyes like the fires of hell when he saw that I wasn’t scared to die. I knew he wanted my fear. I wouldn’t give it to him.

“I’ll see you in hell,” he said.

“I’ll be waiting. Patiently,” I said right before he pulled the trigger.

Three shots rang out, and the bullets hit me square in the chest, knocking the wind out of me. The men holding me let me go, and I fell to the ground. Agony. Excruciating agony was the only way to describe the burning sensation in my chest. My breathing was labored, and I felt my life leaving me every second. I looked up at Banks with blurred vision. I could make out his smile.

“I want you to bleed out, but even more, I want you to die alone,” he said to me and then turned to the men behind him. “Let’s go get that bitch.”

Before he left, Banks left me with one last parting gift. With all his might, he stomped my face with his size twelve shoe twice, disfiguring it. The last thing I felt before I was left there was the feel of their spit on my face.

I knew I was alone when I didn’t hear anyone around me breathing. Darkness began swarming around me, and I knew it was just death calling my name. I summoned all my strength to my right hand to pull my phone out of my pocket. I wanted to tell Nadi goodbye. I wanted to tell her I loved her. But even with all the strength I had left, it wasn’t enough. My hand flopped at my side, and I was snatched into the abyss.