| |
Nicky sat before his “42 flat-screen watching Lassie as he took pulls from a Salem, burning the first half of his cigarette into ashes. Smoke wafted around him like he was at the center of an explosion. Smoking wasn’t exactly the best thing for the seventy eight year old mob figure being that he had failing lungs and a bum ass heart. Although he had no business indulging, old habits die hard and he saw himself lying in a coffin way before he saw himself quitting. The old nigga couldn’t help himself. It didn’t even bother him that he was damned to spend the rest of his days on an oxygen tank.
Hearing a knock at the door, Nicky put his cigarette out and hid it in a secret place. After clearing his throat with a fist to his mouth, he sprayed himself and the air with cheap cologne. He grabbed his oxygen tank by the handle and rolled it to the front door where he took a look through the peek hook. A smile spread across his thin ashy lips, seeing who it was he unlocked the door and allowed them to enter as he stepped to the side.
“How are ya doing, pop?” Jackie Needles crossed the threshold and removed his hat, pecking his old man on the cheek. Nicky patted his son on the shoulder and closed the door behind him. He was genuinely happy to see him but was hoping he didn’t discover his smoking. “Hope I’m not interrupting anything, you don’t have a broad in here, do ya?” he headed down the hall and poked his head inside the bedrooms doors.
“A broad? Please, at my age you’d be lucky if you remember what to do with them.” Nicky responded in a low raspy voice, rolling the oxygen tank down the hallway and staggering along. He looked just as old as he was.
“Hahahahahaha.” Jackie laughed at his father’s response as he entered the living room. He stopped where he was and sniffed the air like an old blood hound. “You’ve been smoking again, haven’t ya?” he looked to his father.
“With this bum heart of mine? You must think I gotta death wish.” He waved him off and went about his business.
“You know, pop, you were always the worse liar. I could always tell by the way your left eye twitched that you were full of shit. You must really take me for a gag, old man,” Jackie shook his finger his father’s face, treating him as if he was a disobedient child. He picked up the Holy Bible from the coffee table and opened it. He turned through the pages until he discovered what he knew was already there. He found a pack of Salem cigarettes sitting in a square cut out of the pages. Jackie removed the pack of smokes from the Bible and shoved them into his coat pocket. He patted the pocket with the smokes to make sure that they were there. Next, he turned around to his father and wagged his finger again. “You lied to me, old man.”
“Well, how the hell did those get in there?” Nicky played stupid, lines spread across his forehead.
“Knock it off, pop. How many times do I have to tell ya about smoking? It’s bad for ya.” he lectured, holding his father’s face in his palms. He was angry with him about smoking because he’d lost his mother the year before.
“I know.” Nicky replied like a scolded child and hung his head.
Jackie pecked his old man on the forehead and patted him on the cheek. He then headed into the kitchen. “What do ya got in this joint to eat? I’m frigging starving.”
“How the hell should I know? That colored girl. The caregiver you got for me. She does all of my grocery shopping. I tell her the things I like and she gets whatever else she thinks I need.” He informed him. “Help yourself; I’m gonna go take a shit.” He picked up the neatly folded newspaper from the coffee table and headed down the hall towards the bathroom.
“Too much information, pop,” Jackie grinned as he rummaged through the refrigerator. He gathered all of the items he needed to make himself a sandwich and carried them over to the counter.
In the process of making himself something to eat, he heard the floor creak behind him. Thinking nothing of it, he shrugged and kept along spreading mayonnaise on the two slices of bread. Hearing the sound again, in one swift motion, he pulled his gun from his shoulder holster and spun around. The masked assailant, who’d been trying to creep up on him, kicked his gun from his grasp and lifted one of his own. But before he could pull the trigger, Jackie threw the jar of mayonnaise at his head and it shattered. The assault left the assailant dazed, causing him to drop his weapon.
“Ooof!” Jackie tackled him into the wall inside the living room and knocked a couple of framed portraits to the floor. He rained punches on his head and mid section, as well as every other part of his body that was left exposed. The intruder’s eyes moved around lazily in his head and he moaned in pain.
Jackie let the dazed stranger fall limp to the floor before dashing back inside of the kitchen. Seeing the mobster reaching for the banger on the floor made the home invader realize he was one bullet away from death. So he shook off his daze and ran into the kitchen, looking for something to defend himself with. By the time Franklin’s right-hand was wrapping its fingers around the gun, the assailant was wrapping his arms around his waist. He hoisted the red headed gangster over his head and slammed him on his back, sending his burner spinning in circles across the linoleum. The banger clanked up underneath the refrigerator, becoming wedged.
The brutal attack took a lot out the intruder and had left Jackie weakened, but he still had a flicker of fight left in him. Jackie slowly crawled on his belly towards the gun. The intruder dove over his shoulder and took a hold of the weapon. He clutched it with both hands. When he moved to bring it around, Jackie pressed his thumbs into his eye sockets. The pain sent shock waves throughout his skull, which caused him to scream in agony. There was a film of sweat on the gangster’s forehead. His face twisted into a mask of pure hatred as he tried to force the assailant’s eye balls in with his thumbs.
Jackie’s eyes darkened and the skin wrinkled around his nose. He clenched his teeth saying, “You cock sucking, motha...”
Blocka!
A look of surprise took his face. His eyes widen and bottom lip shivering.
Blocka!
His eyes widened further and he looked down at his shirt, two crimson dots were quickly expanding.
“Oh shit!” he murmured with blood stained teeth. The assailant shoved him to the floor and stood to his feet to finish him off, still gripping the smoking gun. He leveled the weapon at his victim’s head and that’s when Nicky leapt upon his back, applying the chokehold.
“Gaaggg!” the intruder tried to pry the old man’s arm from around his neck.
“You, cock sucker! You break into my home, hurt my boy!” He barked furiously and went into a coughing fit, bloodying his lips.
The struggle to throw Nicky from his back led the home invader into the living room. He spun around in circles wildly. He knocked over a lamp, the television and a table and chair. Although the geezer was old, his grip was one forged from diamond and it had brought the intruder to his knees gasping for air.
“Do you see him? Do ya see ya Lord and Savior? Remember to tell him who sent cha, ya son of a bitch...Ahhh!” Nicky howled in pain. His eyes bulged and his mouth quivered. He could feel his testicles being crushed in his opponent’s palm. He fell to the side holding his privates and cursing in Italian.
The assailant staggered down the hall, rubbing his sore throat and gasping for air. He opened the door and a bullet slammed into it right above his head, sending debris flying. He turned around and found Nicky. The old man had one hand holding his aching nuts and the other holding his gun, blazing at him.
Blocka! Blocka! Blocka! Blocka!
The stranger took cover behind the front door. Using it as a shield, he drew a bead on the old gangster’s oxygen tank and pulled the trigger. An explosion erupted that sent Nicky crashing through the window out into the streets below. He hollered at the top of his lungs as he plummeted to his death. The fire sent a roar throughout the apartment unit and into the hallway, rattling the neighbors’ doors.
****
Joey-T sat parked outside of Jackie Needles apartment arguing on the phone with his girlfriend as he waited for his friend to come down.
“What did I tell ya? I’ll get home when I get home. I’m out here throwing stones at the penitentiary trying to make sure we get our slice of the American Dream, and what do I get from ya? Yap, yap, yap,” he opened and closed his hand like he was working a sock puppet. “Ya a real cunt, ya know that?”
At that very moment, Nicky’s burnt carcass crashed down onto the hood of the Lincoln and crushed it like a soda can. A startled Joey-T dropped his cell phone. His eyes stretched wide open and his jaw dropped, staring at the fried face of the old gangster. Regaining his G, Joey-T withdrew his head bussa from his suit and cocked a hollow tip into its chamber. He hopped out of his vehicle and stormed into the apartment building, ready to make something lay down forever.
Joey-T crept down the corridor with both hands gripping his weapon. He was so focused on what was ahead that he didn’t hear the maintenance closet door creep open behind him. The fool that had knocked off Jackie and his pop’s crept up on him and brought his banger to the back of his skull, pulling the trigger. The ponytail rocking mobster’s dome burst like a rotten tomato. His demise was quick and messy. He never even felt the bullet that pierced his noodle and sent him, falling face first to the surface.
****
Zonyai unlocked the door of him and Marbella’s hotel room. As he was closing the door behind him he heard someone throwing up inside of the bathroom and curiosity captured his face. He speed walked to the bathroom and poked his head inside. He saw his lover on her knees at the toilet vomiting. She was dressed in all black. A ski-mask lay on the floor on one side of her while a gun lay on the other.
“Baby, are you alright?” Zonyai rushed inside. When Marbella heard his hurried footsteps behind her, she grabbed her thang up from off the floor and whipped around. Zonyai stopped dead in his tracks and threw his hands up in the air, his palms visible. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, it’s me...Yai.” She sighed with relief and sat the gun down, wiping the goo from the corner of her mouth with her gloved fist. She had teary eyes and a sick look on her face like she had food poisoning. Zonyai got down on his knees before her and placed his hands on her shoulders, worry lines crinkling his forehead. “Bella, what happened?”
Marbella shivered all over and she brought her head up. She looked up at him like it was hard for her to do so.
“I...I killed them.” She broke down sobbing and her teardrops splashed on the linoleum.
“Who, baby? Who did you kill?” he lifted her chin with a curled finger and made sure that she was looking him in the eyes.
“Joey-T and Jackie...Jackie...Jackie Needllles, ahhhhahahaha,” Her body quaked and her head bobbed as she held him about his waist.
“Awww, baby, everything is going to be alright. Come here,” He embraced her and rubbed his hand up and down her back, trying his best to comfort her. He listened with shut eyelids as she cried her heart out. Her tears soaked through his shirt. She had never killed anyone before and taking lives had wreaked havoc on her mental. Marbella Trombone was officially a killer and her victims’ blood would forever stain her hands.
“It’s gonna be okay, alright?” he held her at arm’s length and stared into her face. She nodded yes. “I want chu to strip down. I’m gonna burn these clothes and get rid of this gun. Its dirty now.” He picked up the banger she’d used to knock off the two mobsters with and tucked it at the front of his slacks. Marbella did as he ordered and handed him her clothes. He stuffed the clothes inside of a pillowcase and came back inside of the bathroom. He found her there slipping off her bra and about to remove her panties. “I’ma get rid of this and then I’ll be back.”
“Baby, what’re we gonna do?” she asked from where she stood inside of the tub soaping up.
“Vegas,” He told her. “We’re gonna get married.”
“What? Are you serious?” she smiled. Her eyelids had become puffy from sobbing for so long.
“Yeah,” He nodded with a smile. “My pop’s wants us to lay low until this war between him and Franklin is over. I figure this is the perfect time. All I could think about is spending the rest of my life with you on my way back. Hell, I almost didn’t make it back.”
Her face balled up. “I noticed that gash on the side of your head. Did that have anything to do with it?”
Zonyai looked into the bathroom mirror and saw the dry burgundy blood from the gash in the side of his head. He’d forgotten all about it when he thought the love of his life was sick.
“Yeah.” He went on to tell her all about what had gone down between him and Brolic. He even told her that he was the one that had gotten them caught up that night that her husband had chopped off his leg.
“I’m sorry about your friend, baby, but fuck him,” She frowned. “We don’t need him. We don’t need anyone as long as we got each other.”
“That’s right.” He hustled over to her and reached inside of the spray of water, getting himself wet as he kissed her. Right then and there, she helped him peel off his clothes and they fucked inside of the tub. The sound of the water pelting their forms and there moans and groans serenading the intense sex.