“Nah.” Kelvin shook his head. “Nah, we ain’t letting that shit slide. Zoo was family. BCC takes care of its own. We gon’ find out what happened, and if Banks really did something to him?—”
“We gon’ kill that bitch Zahara first.” My voice went hard. “Her and that little bastard Yusef. I want them to suffer. I want her to watch her nephew die the same way I had to bury my son. Then we can deal with Banks.”
Kelvin nodded. “Aight. We can make that happen. Let me talk to Shadow, see how he wanna move on this. But I promise you, Brandi—we gon’ get justice for Zoo. And for Nigel.”
“Y’all ain’t touching my son.”
The voice came from behind me. Low. Cold. Deadly.
I turned around.
Meech had a gun out. When the fuck did he?—
“What you just say?” Kelvin was on his feet, hand going to his waist.
He ain’t make it.
BANG.
The bullet tore through Kelvin’s neck like it was paper. Blood sprayed across my coffee table, my bottles, my ashtray. He made this gurgling sound—trying to breathe, trying to speak—hands flying up to the hole in his throat. Then he dropped. Hard. Body twitching on my floor, blood pooling under him in a spreading dark circle.
I screamed.
Or tried to. But before the sound could leave my mouth, Meech turned the gun on me.
“Yusef is MY son.” His eyes were empty. No anger. No remorse. Nothing. “And ain’t nobody touching him. Not you. Not Zoo. Not nobody.”
I opened my mouth to say something—beg, plead, explain—but there wasn’t time.
BANG.
The bullet hit me in the chest.
The impact knocked me back into the armchair. I looked down and saw the hole in my robe. Saw the red spreading out from it like spilled wine. Tried to breathe and couldn’t. Just this wet, rattling sound coming from somewhere inside me.
I slid off the chair. Hit the floor. Landed on my side, facing Kelvin’s dead eyes. He was staring at nothing. Blood still leaking from his neck. Still warm.
We was both gonna die in my living room. Over some shit that started with two little boys who used to be friends.
Footsteps. I heard Meech walking. Not toward me. Away. Toward the door.
Then his voice. Muffled. Like he was on the phone.
“Shadow. We got a problem.”
A pause.
“Nah, I had to handle something. Two bodies. The bitch was talking ’bout killing Yusef. I couldn’t let that slide.”
Another pause.
“Yeah. I but I need help with cleaning it up.”
My vision was going dark around the edges. Blood in my mouth. Copper taste. Couldn’t feel my legs no more.
Yusef.
That little nigga who killed my baby.
