CHAPTER NINETEEN

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here.”

- William Shakespeare

 

Nine lay in the bed until she heard someone enter her home. Although she was upstairs, many square feet away from the front door, it was eerily quiet and she could hear it all. Every floor creak. Every swoosh of air rushing past the windowpane and most of all, intruders. After taking care of Banker and Galileo, she required much sleep and now it had been broken.

Upon hearing the noise, Isabel, who was sleeping in the bed next to her, popped up. “You heard it too?” Isabel asked rubbing her eyes before yawning.

Nine eased out of bed. “Heard is past tense. I’m still hearing it.” She was about to move toward the door when it opened and the light flipped on. Suddenly she was staring into the eyes of her husband. In his arms, he was clutching Julius, who was draped in a warm red North Face coat and new Jordans.

The moment she saw their faces, all of the anxiety she had experienced was removed. Although coolness became her, she was now trembling, realizing in that moment that she was blithe to see him. Without a word to his wife, he laid Julius down in the crib and removed his coat, tossing it on the chair across the room. When he was done he took off his black jacket also.

Before moving to Nine, Leaf looked over at Isabel and then back at his wife and said, “So I guess one cousin isn’t good enough for you.”

“Do not be rude, Leaf,” Nine said as she sat on the edge of the bed and looked up at him. “At first I was happy to see you but do not make me change my mind.”

He sat next to her. “We have to talk.” He looked back at Isabel. “Alone.”

“I’m gone,” she said as she hopped out of the bed. “Welcome back, Leaf. Glad to have you home.” She ran toward the door and out of the bedroom.

He looked over at Nine again.

“Prophets are everywhere these days.”

“It is not like that, Leaf. So get that noise out of your head.”

He smiled. “I’m just kidding.”

Nine sighed, looked down at her fingers and back at him. “I need to know who she is, Leaf. You never gave me the benefit of an answer and I need to know now. Instead, you treated me like—”

“I haven’t treated you like anything, bae! You’re the one who’s been disrespecting me. I don’t need your fucking money, Nine. I come from dough! I’m in this marriage, as fucked up as it is, because I love you. But if you can’t love me back…”

“All I want to do is love you, cousin. That is all I ever wanted to do.” She paused. “Where were you?”

“I went to see my parents,” he responded in a low voice. “My mother is dying of cancer and…”

“I am so sorry, cousin,” Nine said compassionately. “Is there anything I can—”

“I don’t want to talk about it. Not right now anyway.” At the moment, for the sake of Corrine, he and his father were on speaking terms but the relationship was far from repaired. But no matter what, he would not keep him from his mother.

She nodded in understanding. “How is Julius?” she asked looking over at him sleeping in the crib. “Do you think he misses me?”

“I know that he does. At first he would not cry when he saw my face but when I tried to pick him up after a few days, he wouldn’t stop hollering. My mother couldn’t even calm him and she’s cool with kids.”

“You know when I heard that noise, I thought you were somebody breaking in. So much has happened since you left, Leaf. I do not have any money and all of the men who are usually here left and I am unprotected.”

Leaf felt bad although he was right. He predicted this moment. The moment she lost the money, her men would abandon her. “As long as I’m here, you’ll never be unprotected.”

“Then do not go away again,” she said holding his hand.

He winked at her.

“Wait a minute,” he said as if he remembered something. “You didn’t make the noise when I was bringing the baby upstairs?” He paused. “That’s why I came inside.”

Her eyes widened. “No. I mean…I heard something and then you came in.”

“Naw, bae. Little man and me been here for at least an hour. I got in late so I was about to chill in one of the other rooms and then I heard something moving inside of the house.”

They took a moment to look at one another, realizing the ultimate. Someone without authorization was still in their home. Could it be the Russians? On cue, she grabbed her weapon and he snatched his. But before they could react, the room was flooded with a small army of men, with Antonius leading them. Leaf pushed Nine toward the back of the room and he drew his revolver and aimed in their direction.

Nine’s heart beat rapidly because she could not believe Antonius was about to betray her, when out of all of her men she loved him the most.

“Nine, what is going on?” Antonius asked. His voice was full of so much concern that she was suddenly relaxed.

“What do you mean what is going on?” Nine asked. “You busted up in my house!”

Leaf stood in front of his wife, preparing to hit as many niggas as he could with a bullet before they killed them both. “Yeah, fuck you doing in our house, man?” Leaf asked with authority while still aiming. “I would’ve thought this would be anybody but you.”

“I’m here because Nine wouldn’t answer the phone.”

“So you keep trying,” Leaf said. “You don’t break in somebody’s house.”

“But it’s been days!” He paused. “And I got tired of waiting…so I…so I…”

“Broke in,” Leaf responded, finishing his sentence.

“No, man. It’s not like that. We’re here to protect her.”

“Even if it were true, I still do not have any money to pay you, Antonius,” Nine said speaking from the heart. “Or the men.”

“You’ve done more things for us than anybody we ever pumped coke for. You didn’t want us to just tote a gun. You taught us the importance of family and honor. Why wouldn’t we protect you at a time like this? We reward loyalty with loyalty,” Antonius stated quoting what Nine told him the night she found his missing daughter.

Nine wanted to weep but thought it would be considered soft. Still, the loyalty they were displaying was top notch and much unexpected. “How many others feel like you?” Nine asked.

“About thirty of us are here but nine hundred of the original thousand remain loyal.” He paused. “Listen, we don’t give a fuck about the money. We know we’ll get that back when the time is right. The only thing we care about right now is protecting you. And if we have to lay a few niggas down for free to make that happen, then so be it.”

Now Leaf was relaxed although confused. He knew Antonius and out of all of the men in Nine’s camp, he respected him the most. Finally, he lowered his weapon. “What you mean lay a few niggas down for free?”

Antonius’ eyes widened. “Wait, you don’t know?”

“Know what?” Nine questioned.

“We got word from the Kennedys that the Russians are sending some niggas over here as we speak to attack. We have to get ready. We at war!”

 

****

 

Darkness acted as a cover as the Russians’ soldiers appeared on foot, down a road that led to the Prophet Mansion. Arkadi, the leader who had recently lost a brother due to the Kennedy Kings’ vengeance, realized that he needed to disable the Kennedy Kings operation like they had his own.

So he aimed for the Kennedys’ most powerful ally.

The Prophets.

Slowly, fifty men descended upon the walkway leading closer to the acres of land the Prophet mansion sat on. Confidently, they continued down the way until they reached the gate. One man after the other, with automatic assault rifles in hand, approached.

To their surprise, the iron gate surrounding the land was open at the entrance as if it were beckoning them to come inside. The leader of Arkadi’s army, a 45-year-old navy seal, placed a finger over his lips to silence his men and to warn them to move slowly and cautiously. He was listening for the sound that indicated that they were not alone.

Feeling as if the coast was clear, he motioned for them to merge onto the Prophet compound. But the moment the first boot stepped past the gate, bright lights spilled over the land, exposing everything in sight.

“Wait,” the leader yelled, raising his fist at his men. The fog would not allow them to see a foot in front of them and he wanted to spare as many men as possible.

When the ex-navy seal saw red dots all over his soldiers’ foreheads he knew what was happening, they were in danger. Within seconds, gunfire blasted from the mansion, killing every soldier in sight, except the commander.

With the souls of his dead men in the air, the smell of gunpowder and blood enveloped him, and a cloud of smoke made it even more difficult to see the mansion. Suddenly he heard a calm feminine voice. “Put down your weapon.”

“No,” he yelled as he aimed into the thick fog. “I’m not letting you kill me!”

The woman giggled. “Look at your jacket, soldier. If I wanted you dead, you’d be gone now."

When he glanced down, he saw his jacket was speckled with red dots as if he were a Christmas tree. Slowly he lowered his weapon and raised his hands. After a few seconds, from behind the smoke came Nine. Dressed in a chocolate fur coat, she moved closer to him.

He didn’t know if he was enamored by her beauty or fearful of her quiet power. Either way, she had his attention.

“I am Nine Prophet and I will let you live,” she said calmly.

His knees felt weak by the octave of her voice.

“On one condition,” she continued.

Trembling as if he never served a day in the military in his life, he said, “Anything.”

“You tell your boss that what happened here tonight is only a fraction of the power I possess. You let him know that I can touch his family and anyone else he cares about if he ever comes back here.” She paused. “I am a dangerous woman and he should heed my warning.”