“Try it.”
Abena hesitates, and her second shifts forward.
“Run me my money back, Huntsman.”
“Four days left on the contract, Abena.”
“I don’t think so. One thing I’ve learned well in life is if you want a man to do the job right, give it to a woman to handle. So consider that contract dead. And you right along with it. Mirror.”
It’s like a triggering case of deja vu, watching Abena’s second remove a cell phone from his suit pocket and put it to his ear.
“Come here. Now. Same way.”
A low swell of murmurs ripple through the throne room as moments later, the two now dead Mwuaji soldiers enter my apartment.
“This is where I leave you, Huntsman. I would say it’s been a pleasure, but unfortunately, it hasn’t.”
She can no longer deny sending me to assassinate Eshe just as she did her sister. She’s the star of this fucking double feature.
“Bitch!” Abena roars.
Eshe jackknifes to her feet, the guards around her no longer restraining her. Out of my peripherals, I catch movement in the restless, surging crowd. Tera. Doc. Nef. Kenya. Maura. Sienna. Her Seven, minus Penn. And another woman wearing a black hood and face mask. They melt from the rest of the audience, forming a half circle around their olori. It’s a blatant show of solidarity, of loyalty.
Of disrespect to Abena.
Tera passes Eshe a bowie knife.
“I challenge—”
Before Eshe can complete the words, Abena’s second boltstoward her, but I clocked the tightening of his body. And before one of her Seven can intervene, I’m already in motion, charging across the room, bowling through people, knocking them to the floor.
“Mine.”A roar born of pure rage barrels up my chest and erupts from my throat. I leap in the air, my body crashing into his, taking us both to the floor with an impact that jars my bones. My vision swims at the agony from my injuries, and pain sizzles through my veins. Bile surges toward the back of my throat, but I fight through, shoving the agony, the nausea, back. My life depends on it.
More, Eshe’s life depends on it.
We roll, separate, and jump to our feet, facing off. Shock flickers inside me as my handcuffs loosen on my wrists. At some point one of my own guards must’ve unlocked them—I’m betting on the woman. Removing them, I toss the chains aside.
From what I’ve noticed, neither one of us talks much, and we don’t waste words now as he unsheathes a knife and charges me. I feint to the side, and my ribs scream in protest, but I continue moving into him, taking him by surprise. Grabbing his wrist, I twist it until the bones give an audible crack and the blade falls from his limp, dangling fingers.
I swipe his feet out from under him. His back hits the floor, and I snatch the knife up, and despite the pain radiating from the stab wounds in my arms, I grit my teeth and drive the dagger through his open mouth, pinning him down. His body jerks, seizes, and then his eyes glaze over.
That was for going after mine.
CHAPTER EIGHTEENEshe
“Like I was saying, I challenge you to a koju, Abena,” I state loud and clear in front of a throne room full of Mwuaji members, loyal and disloyal. Faithful and sycophants.
My heart pounds as I stand here on the precipice of the moment I’ve spent the last nine years planning for, dreaming of. What I could’ve never imagined was my ears still ringing with the bogeyman Huntsman’s yell ofmineor his defending me against Ekon.
Yeah, that was on absolutely no one’s Bingo card.
Part of me wants to look over to the sounds of fighting, to make sure Malachi is coming out on top. But I have to trust that he is. That’s his battle—one he willingly took on for me. This one here, with Abena, is mine.
And it’s time to finish it.
Abena emits a bitter, harsh crack of laughter and paces back to her “throne.” Gripping the back of it, she sneers, whipping a hand down at me.
“You really think you can come for me, Eshe? Challenge me? Take what’s mine? I don’t give a fuck what video”—she flings an arm toward the wall—“or evidence you believe you have. None of it means shit. I’m oba here. I’mqueen. And I was right to send that bastard Huntsman after you to root out the snake in my family.Myfamily, you traitorous little whore. All these years, I saw your hate for me. Your thoughts and plans to turn my family against me. But, bitch, you will never be me. The truth is you’re nothing but anuisance, nothing more than the shit I accidentally step in on my way out the door. And I’m going to treat you the way I would that shit on my shoe: I’ll wipe you off and throw you away. Accept a challenge? You must’ve inherited that arrogance from your mother, and look where she ended up. Dead, in the gutter.”
