My arms burned, and my knuckles throbbed. But I kept going.
Jelani grabbed me from behind. “He’s gone, Money,” he said, holding me by the shoulders.
I stood over the chair. My lungs burned as I caught my breath. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and turned to the others.
“This—” I pointed to the body slumped in the chair. “—is what happens to niggas who cross me. Maybe Rahmel wasn’t enough. So, here’s your visual.”
I kicked the chair over and spat on Grizz’s body. My gaze swept the room until it locked on Derrick and Chris.
“Y’all thought I ain’t know you was in on this shit too?” The others scooted back in their chairs to make room for me as I stepped toward them. “I helped get y’all niggas out the mud and run behind this nigga helping the opps?”
Chris started shaking his head. “Nah, it’s not like that, Money. Swear?—”
“Shut the fuck up.”
I turned to look at Slim. He nodded, raised his gun, and pulled the trigger. Two shots cracked through the room. The smell of gunpowder hung in the air as their bodies went limp, falling limp like rag dolls.
I looked around the room again. Most tried to keep their faces neutral, but I saw the fear in their eyes.
“You either with me, or you under me. So, I’ma ask one more time—anybody else got grievances they wanna share?!” My voice boomed through the room, my whole body still buzzing.
Moe hunched over and threw up on the floor.
“Ay! You cleaning that shit up!” Slim barked.
The rest of them shook their heads. The message had been received.
“Good,” I said. “A storm’s coming. I need y’all to tighten the fuck up. If shit seems off? Tell Slim or Fontaine.”
I dismissed the rest of them. Slim, Fontaine, Jelani, and Nairobi stayed behind.
“What we doing with them?” Fontaine asked, nodding at Grizz’s body.
As tempting as it was, I couldn’t just dump him like I did Rahmel.
“Rodney’s pig farm,” I said, taking the switchblade from Nairobi and sliced off the gauze. Marlene’s husband might’ve given his life to God, but even the Lord’s strongest soldiers were still sinners. He built that pig farm to help Pops back in the day, and even after he opened his church, he kept it running for situations like this.
Pigs don’t leave much behind. And they supply meat for Marlene’s restaurant—it was like the circle of life if you thought about it.
I flexed my fingers as the gauze dropped to the floor, already thinking about our next moves.
“So what we doing about Marcus?” Slim asked.
I’d hoped that getting rid of Rahmel and Daemon would’ve been enough to make him back off. His product was garbage and made things too hot for us with all the ODs.
But now, after seeing him in person, my intuition told me that Marcus played dirty. That’s probably what got him locked up in the first place.
“Nai, I know you can’t stand him, but I need you to bug Kyree’s crib. I can’t let them hit our houses.”
She groaned and rolled her eyes.
“Triple. Rate.” She jabbed her finger at me and pulled her shades down.
“What about the nurse?” Jelani asked.
“What about her?”
“She’s his ex, right?”
