He"s right. I"m underestimating Case, she thought. What if he doesn"t hold up his end of the bargain? My family could be in danger right now and I wouldn"t even know it. Prince hasn"t called me either, and that"s not like him. She played a thousand scenarios out in her head, but Macy had planted the seed of doubt, and now it was starting to grow. Anxiety manifested itself and concern plagued her.
Macy smiled in satisfaction. Although he was the one tied up, he felt as if he were in control. With three people holding him hostage, there was no way that he could get himself out of the situation by force. He would have to get inside of their heads, and although Aries had been the hardest to break, he was now mind-f.u.c.king her nice and slow.
He had always been a thinker. The ability to outsmart his enemy had always been one of his greatest a.s.sets. Macy had discovered Aries" weakness-her family-and now her concentration had shifted.
As long as she"s thinking about them, she won"t be thinking about me, and I"ll be able to talk one of her li"l workers into setting me free.
Chapter Sixteen.
Case looked down at his watch and then he picked up his cell phone to double check. Edris still had not called him so that he could drop off Macy"s ransom. Case knew that he was playing with fire by kidnapping a mayor, let alone a former drug boss. Case didn"t want to admit it, but he needed the ransom money. His drug business was going under and his c.o.ke connect"s prices kept getting higher, but the city"s demand was getting lower. Not a good combination.
Case grew more anxious as the ticking minutes went by. He couldn"t wait to put the order in to kill Macy, but he needed that money before he could make it final.
Case needed to calm his nerves, so he went over to what he called his candy jar and emptied its contents on the table. A big white pile formed, and he dipped his nose in it and sniffed. He quickly jerked his head back and closed his eyes, trying to prevent his nose from running.
Case began to pace his floor back and forth as the potent c.o.ke began to work its magic. Paranoia began to sink in, and Casey grabbed his a.s.sault rifle from the closet and peeked out of the window every couple of seconds, antic.i.p.ating some of Macy"s goons. "Mu"f.u.c.kas ain"t gon" catch me slipping," he said loudly as he dipped and snorted another small pile. His phone rang, which startled him as he snapped his head in the direction of the counter where his phone vibrated and danced around. He rushed over to the phone and picked it up.
"h.e.l.lo!" Case yelled into the phone as sweat beads began to form on his forehead.
"We here. We got him," the other voice said on the phone. Case smiled and then closed down the phone. He had just gotten confirmation that his henchmen had Aries" unsuspecting husband in their presence.
He"d sent a couple of his most ruthless goons for Aries" family, and he knew that they wouldn"t hesitate to pull the trigger if needed. Case"s thoughts began to race and the thought of Macy being a mayor and being successful burned him up on the inside. He then began to think about how Macy had taken Fatima away from him.
This all added fuel to the fire as his trigger finger began to itch. He wanted Macy dead. f.u.c.k the ransom money and f.u.c.k waiting; Case was ready for blood. Case"s once slow pace back and forth across the floor now became a rapid stride. Case took off his shirt because of his rising temperature.
"He gon" take my b.i.t.c.h?" Case asked himself, talking out loud. "Do he know who the f.u.c.k he"s f.u.c.king with?" The more time that pa.s.sed, the more the c.o.ke kicked in and the more Case"s blind rage grew.
Case, out of pure adrenaline, raced out of the door with his a.s.sault rifle in hand. He headed over to the trap house so that he could put a bullet in Macy"s skull personally. He was at a point of no return. He got into his big, tinted Hummer with the rifle in his lap. He cranked up the music and headed to the hood. He was about to end it once and for all.
Fatima sat in the holding cell and buried her face in her hands. Camera flashes were nonstop, and the chatter in the room was gradually rising. A cop had tipped the press about the mayor"s wife being held in custody, and within minutes, the precinct was crawling with news reporters and journalists trying to get a jump on the story.
Fatima cried her eyes out as she sat on the cold, hard bench, regretting everything that she had done. She had put herself in a losing position and knew that her life would never be the same. The police promised her that by helping them it would "look good" for her when she went to trial for conspiracy to kidnap.
The reporters called for her, but Fatima didn"t budge. She was too ashamed to show her face. She had shamed her family name, and she would go down in the record book as a traitor.
"Mrs. Sigel! Mrs. Sigel! Did you set up the mayor to get kidnapped?" one reporter asked as he held his recorder through the cell"s bars.
"Are you connected to known thug Casey "Case" Rogers?" another reporter asked.
Fatima"s tears flowed nonstop, and the reporters" questions drove her overboard. She revealed her face, which had mascara-filled tears falling.
"Get the f.u.c.k out of my face. f.u.c.k all of you! You have no idea what the f.u.c.k I have been through!" she yelled as she walked to the bars and went on a vicious rant. Spit flew out of her mouth as she gave them a venomous tongue-lashing.
The sergeant on duty felt that it was enough and ordered everyone out of the holding cell area. As the reporters filed out of the area, they all snapped photos, trying to get the mayor"s wife in a crazed state.
"No, don"t leave! Y"all want a show. I"ma give y"all a.s.s a f.u.c.kin" show," she said while spitting on them as they left. Her usual sophisticated and uppity demeanor had totally vanished, and she acted more like a hoodlum than a lady.
Fatima plopped down on the hard bunk bed and breathed heavily as she shook her head from side to side. She had sold her soul to the devil-and the price was cheap.
Case finally reached the trap spot, and he had sniffed at least another gram of c.o.ke on his way there. Another car was pulling up just as his was. Case hopped out of the truck with a handgun and saw Harlo getting out of the car with a bag of fast food and drinks.
"What the h.e.l.l are you doing? You are supposed to be inside!" Case screamed as anger entered his body.
Harlo saw the look in Case"s eyes and froze in his tracks, not knowing what to say or do. "I ... I was just . . ." Harlo stuttered as he couldn"t find the words to explain.
Before he could get a clear word out of his mouth, Case aggressively slapped the food out of his hands.
"You just what? n.i.g.g.a, get in the house and do what I pay you to do, li"l n.i.g.g.a! Can"t believe this bulls.h.i.t!" Case spat as his bloodshot red eyes put fear in Harlo"s heart.
Harlo nodded his head and entered the house through the back door. Case followed close behind.
"Yo, where is Aries?" Case asked as he scoped the house.
"Don"t know. She was here when I left," Harlo said as he too looked around the house.
"Where"s Macy?" Case asked as he frowned and gripped his gun tightly.
"He downstairs with Jordan," Harlo said as he stood at the bas.e.m.e.nt"s door and looked down. A bad smell like feces reeked from the bas.e.m.e.nt, and Case immediately frowned.
"Yo, Jordan!" Harlo called down the stairs, but got no response. "Yo, Jordan!"" he yelled this time, but even louder. He again got no response. and his antennas immediately went up, sensing that something was wrong.
Case also grew suspicious and headed down the stairs where Macy was supposed to be held captive. They both rushed down the stairs, and the body that was sprawled on the floor startled them. Harlo"s eyes immediately shot to the area where Macy was supposed to be and dropped his head when he saw no one there. He knew that he had f.u.c.ked up big time.
"Where the f.u.c.k is he?" Case asked as he stormed through the bas.e.m.e.nt and did a full circle. Macy was long gone.
"d.a.m.n, Jordan," Harlo whispered as he kneeled down and closed the dead eyes of his childhood friend.
"f.u.c.k that li"l n.i.g.g.a! Where is Macy? That"s what you need to be worried about," Case said as he flipped open his cell phone to call Aries. Case put the phone to his ear while he paced back and forth. Finally Aries picked up.
"h.e.l.lo," Aries answered.
"Please tell me that Macy is with you," Case said in between clenched teeth.
"What the f.u.c.k are you talking about?" Aries asked as she was pulling into the driveway of the trap house.
"f.u.c.k!" Case yelled as rage overcame him. "Where the f.u.c.k are you?" he asked as he gripped his phone so tightly that it was on the verge of breaking.
"I"m walking in," Aries said as she began to panic. She wasn"t afraid of Case personally, but the thought of her family being hurt by him petrified her. Aries hurried in and jumped at the sound of a gun blast.
Case stood over the two dead bodies with a smoking gun. He was so mad at the incompetence of his goons that he decided to lay down Harlo as well. Case stared down at the b.l.o.o.d.y hole that rested square in the middle of Harlo"s skull. A small red puddle began to form underneath Harlo"s head, and Case was at a point of no return. The mixture of the cocaine and blind rage had turned him into a madman, and he was out for blood. His deep hatred for Macy only made his blood boil more at the thought of him escaping from his clutches and subsequently winning-again.
Fatima breathed heavily, and everything seemed to be going in slow motion to her. Dried-up tear stains were on her face as her hands shook nervously and uncontrollably. She thought about her only child, Boomer, and smiled briefly as she thought about how innocent he was as a child. He was her baby, and somehow she had failed him. She let him transform to the weak-minded young man he had become.
"I"m so sorry, baby. Momma is so sorry," she whispered as she closed her eyes, only imagining his smile. Fatima"s mind then drifted to her husband and how she had intimately betrayed him. She couldn"t accept or forgive him for killing her son, but she understood why he did it. Boomer was already on a destructive path, and she knew that eventually Boomer would have killed Macy because of his deep-embedded animosity toward him.
Fatima thought back to the day that they got married and once again smiled. It was such a beautiful day. It was the most memorable day of her life, and if she could, without a doubt, she would go back to that happy time. "I love you, Macy," she whispered as she held her head in shame for crossing him. She let her emotions get the best of her and didn"t think logically. She had seen the murderous look in Case"s eyes when they discussed Macy, so she had a good hunch that her husband was a dead man.
Fatima tightened the belt that hung from the water pipe above her cell. She wobbled as she tried to balance herself while standing on the bunk bed. She then tied the other end of the belt around her neck tightly. She didn"t have a lot of slack in the belt, but it was enough to do what she planned to do.
"Boomer ... Macy ... here I come," she said, a.s.suming that Macy was already dead. Fatima took a deep breath and said a quick prayer before stepping off of the edge of the bed. Her legs kicked violently and she involuntarily reached for the belt around her neck, trying to release herself. Her eyes began to roll to the back of her head while her face turned blue. It seemed as if her whole life flashed before her eyes as she choked to death.
After a minute of struggling, her body finally stopped moving and she swung lifelessly back and forth in the middle of the jail cell. She would join her son in the afterlife, not in heaven, but most likely h.e.l.l.
Chapter Seventeen.
Aries grew antsy as she thought of the danger that her family was in. Prince was in no way capable of handling himself against Case"s goons. He was a square-a marvelous and prestigious businessman, but a square nonetheless. He didn"t have an ounce of hood in him and was completely different than Aries. He was her opposite. His simplicity was what had attracted her to him. Prince had a gentle soul that made him the perfect man for her, but it also made him the perfect target for men like Case.
She paced back and forth in the bas.e.m.e.nt, her body serving as a pendulum as she tried to call her husband. "s.h.i.t," she mumbled when she noticed that her battery was dead. She desperately needed to hear from him. So far things were going as planned, but something felt wrong. Something was telling her that it was going a little too smoothly. She tried to power on the phone, pressing the on b.u.t.ton repeatedly to no avail.
"You"re going to burn a hole in the floor you keep that up," Macy stated as he leaned his head back to rest against the wooden chair. "Why are you doing this, ma? Whatever he has over you, I can help. You"re working for the wrong man."
Aries stopped midstep and turned her attention to Macy. She walked slowly over to him, her s.e.xy strut commanding his eyes. She made him look where she wanted him to look: from her hips to her thighs to her toned stomach, then finally to her eyes. Aries commanded him, and she shook her head as she thought, all n.i.g.g.as are the same.
She chuckled as she put her hands on top of his arms that were tied to the armrests. She leaned on them, putting pressure on his injured arm and causing him to wince in pain. Aries lowered her face to Macy"s and said, "I work for myself, and no matter how much those eyes wander, you"ll never be able to afford me, in any way. So keep your eyes off of me and save the bulls.h.i.t-a.s.s manipulation, before I make it to where you"re not seeing nothing or saying s.h.i.t ever again."
Aries stormed off. I have to get out of this house. I have to call Prince. I just need to hear his voice and make sure that they are okay, she thought. She was quickly growing overwhelmed, and it was at that moment that she realized that she had outgrown this lifestyle. Although Aries was an executioner by nature, she no longer wanted to be.
When she emerged from the bas.e.m.e.nt, Harlo and Jordan stood to their feet, waiting to jump at her command.
"Watch him, but don"t touch him. I want him in the same condition when I get back. I need to step out for a minute. I won"t be gone long. Do not untie him," she said as she pointed a warning finger at them.
"We got it," Harlo spoke up as he held out his hand to reach for the gun that Aries held tightly in her hand.
She pa.s.sed it to Harlo, and before she walked out of the house she said, "Don"t f.u.c.k this up."
A worried Aries rushed to her car and skirted off to find the nearest phone. Something inside of her didn"t feel right. She felt as if something was wrong. Her intuition was nagging at her, pulling at her heartstrings, and she desperately needed to hear from her family. She pulled up recklessly to the first gas station she saw and hurried inside.
"I need to use a phone. Is there a pay phone?" she asked.
The clerk pointed her toward the back of the store, and Aries sighed in relief as she hurried toward it. The closer she got, the more anxiety attacked her, until finally her fingers dialed her home number. The phone seemed to ring forever before Prince finally answered it.
"h.e.l.lo?"
"Prince, thank G.o.d," she whispered.
"Thank G.o.d? Rachel, what"s wrong? Is everything okay?" Prince asked. She could hear the concern in his voice, and she immediately closed her eyes and sighed. She was alarming him, which was the last thing she needed right now. Get yourself together, Aries, she thought as she cleared her throat and gripped the phone with both hands as she looked around cautiously.
"Yeah, baby, everything"s just fine. It"s just so good to hear your voice. My mother is really fading out lately, and I"m just a little on the emotional side," she lied.
"We can fly there if you need us, Rachel. You don"t have to go through this alone," Prince said.
"But I do," she said solemnly. "How"s my baby? How are you?"
"We miss you," Prince replied.
Aries was so full of burden that she had to cover the phone to stifle her sob. "I miss you both too. It won"t be much longer. I"ll be home soon. I just need a little bit more time to settle things. I"ll be home in about a week or so."
"We"ll be expecting you. We love you, Rachel."
Aries wished that she could hear her husband call her by her real name just once, but she knew that it would never happen. Prince would never love her if he knew what she really was. He had fallen for the fict.i.tious character that Aries had created. He had no clue the type of person he was sleeping next to or the unG.o.dly things that she had done. He was supportive and loving. He was perfect for Rachel; Aries he would hate.
She was living a double life, and her two personalities were both strangers to her. She wasn"t the same killer she had once been. Becoming a family woman had made her vulnerable. It made her feel, and there was no room for emotions in her profession. She didn"t know where she fit, because as much as she wanted to be Rachel Coleman, that persona didn"t feel quite right either. Aries was lost. She had become misplaced in a world of lies, murder, and mayhem. In that world, money was the motivation and deception was the new truth.
She had tried to run from the monster that was chasing her, but she could never shake it. Aries was beginning to realize that she was running from herself. She desperately wanted to change the things that she had done, but she couldn"t. Instead, she had to be a new woman and change the things that she had yet to do. However, the forces of nature always pulled her back, and this time she felt as though she may not end up on top.
"I love you too," she replied before hanging up the phone.
Harlo and Jordan had been holed up in the stash spot for so long that they felt as if they were the ones being held hostage. They had played the back to Aries, but now that she had stepped out, Harlo took the lead. He was tired of taking orders from Aries. b.i.t.c.h is too f.u.c.king bossy for real, he thought.
"I"m about to go get some food while that b.i.t.c.h is gone, cuz. I"m tired of staring at these four walls, and I"m hungry than a mu"f.u.c.ka," Harlo stated.
Macy noticed the look of uncertainty that crossed Jordan"s face. He was shook by the thought of being alone with Macy. He wasn"t trying to have the entire setup on his shoulders. He was an accomplice-nothing more, nothing less. "Just wait until Aries get back," Jordan replied.
"Wait for what? When she gets back she gonna be talking that bulls.h.i.t about me leaving. I can leave and be back before she even gets here. She"ll never know I stepped out," Harlo reasoned.
Macy silently hoped that Harlo did indeed leave. Harlo was the smarter of the two. Macy had pegged his grimey character as soon as he opened his mouth. Macy would never try to run game on Aries, and Harlo was too hardheaded to think of the consequences to his actions. Jordan, on the other hand, was vulnerable. He was scared and unprepared for what was going down. Macy was positive that if he could get Jordan alone, he could get himself free.
"That"s not a good idea," Jordan disagreed.
"Man, quit being a b.i.t.c.h! You f.u.c.king p.u.s.s.y!" Harlo shouted, demeaning Jordan. "You scared of this n.i.g.g.a. I don"t give a d.a.m.n if he"s the mayor. He bleed just like you. All you got to do is hold s.h.i.t down until I get back. Consider it babysitting."
"I ain"t scared of nothing. I just think we should stay put," Jordan defended despite the fact that his voice wavered a bit. He knew exactly who Macy Sigel was and how he got down. Silently, Jordan respected the retired gangster, but things were already out of his control. He was fourth in command behind three heartless killers. There was no way he could speak up on Macy"s behalf. Case, Aries, Harlo, Jordan: That was his rank in the grand scheme of things, so he kept his mouth shut and hoped that the situation played itself out peacefully. Sigel had put in work and was respected in Cali, so Jordan was realistic about the repercussions of his actions. He knew that even if Macy did end up dead, his legacy would live on, and if Jordan"s name was involved, the Grim Reaper would be knocking on his door in due time.
Harlo pa.s.sed Jordan the gun and threw on his hoodie. "Well, you stay put, and I"m going to go grab some food. Don"t do anything stupid! I might bring your b.i.t.c.h a.s.s back something," he stated with laughter as he walked out.
Jordan pulled the spare chair away from Macy and sat down in it as he tried to avoid eye contact.
"Can I get some food or something?" Macy asked, seeing how difficult it would be to get Jordan to jump at his request. Macy could sense fear. Like a true predator, he sniffed that s.h.i.t right out of the air whenever Jordan was around.
Jordan pretended as if he didn"t hear him. The young hustler wasn"t trying to converse with Macy. He was oblivious to the bouncing of his leg, but little did he know he was giving himself away. It was a sure sign of his nervousness. It was obvious that he feared Macy.
Jordan was drowning in the streets. He wanted to be a part of the lifestyle, but when it was time to put in major work, he froze. He didn"t look at Macy as the mayor. He had heard the stories of how Macy used to get down, and he was intimidated by the street legend. The way Jordan saw it, he was in a lose-lose situation. If things went badly and they were caught, they would receive football numbers for kidnapping a public official. But if things were kept in the street, then Macy"s goons would undoubtedly get at them for the disrespect. There was no way Jordan would have had any part in this scheme had he been given the full details. He had just been trying to make a quick dollar, but not at the expense of crossing a man like Macy.
"I"m not going to bite you, li"l n.i.g.g.a. I just need some food. I can"t get no money delivered if I"m pa.s.sed out from hunger," Macy said, breaking the tension in the air.
Jordan looked at Macy. He tried to play tough, but the creases of worry in his forehead betrayed him. Macy could see the fear in him. "Ain"t no food here."