“You need to find another outlet, Amell. This isn’t good for you or anyone involved. Do you know how many men you killed tonight? Not injured but killed?” Mitch lashed out at me like a father punishing their child.
How could he expect to be different when he created the monster that I am now?
The warehouse became quiet. Too quiet. “Six bodies, Amell. Usually you injure a few. Knock them out but you never kill. This isn’t right.” Shaking his head like I had disappointed him to the twelfth degree Mitch walked away leaving me too ashamed to look at my brother’s.
The underground fighting ring started out as a way for Cassian to make a few dollars. He loved seeing people fight and loved making money. Combine the two and you had an underground fight club. Pacino joined first and then once I saw that he walked away with scratches I joined. Dudes from all over Broward came to fight me thinking it was their opportunity to finally take me down not knowing that my hands were more lethal than my gun.
“Come on, Amell. I’m going to take you home.” Atlas handed me the towel.
I grimaced looking down at the once white cloth. Another lash of regret tattooed itself on my heart. If I correctly remember the last man, I fought was a young kid out of Parkway. His boys were with him tonight and egged him on to fight me. Apparently in their hood he had a reputation for knocking dudes out with one punch.
His family were going to have a closed casket funeral. I’d pay for it like I’d done the others.
“Wait. You can’t walk out here like this. Strip down so we can burn your clothes.” I obeyed my baby brother and gave him my clothes. “Uh, you need to wipe your face and hands. Flesh is on you.” My stomach turned.
In nothing but my Polo briefs I walked out of Cassian’s warehouse and into the backseat of Atlas’s truck. Instead of driving he sat next to me and let Cassian drive. The whole ride I kept my eyes closed and crushed my hands into tight fists. Atlas’s worrisome eyes were too much to bear. Funny how he worried about me now but wasn’t worried about me when he wanted to celebrate his nuptials or when he thought it was a good idea to sneak away to hotels with our mother for a damn year. When we reached the driveway of my compound I hopped out before the truck was placed in park.
“Stay with him, Boe. I’m going back to the warehouse to make sure everything has been taken care of.”
I didn’t need a babysitter. I needed…saving.
Enduring the scalding hot water I stood under the three head spray until the water turned cold. I washed and washed trying to remove any blood, any human flesh, trashes of everything evil.
By the time I stepped out the lights were flickering from the loud thunder and lightning. “Amell, where…where are you going naked?” I ignored Atlas and kept walking until my feet touched the cold grass. Each step I took the rain lessened until it became a light drizzle.
I never wanted to be this man. A killer. A merciless killer. I had so many bodies on me that it was mind blowing. Cops never suspected me for anything. I moved with precision and skill. Before tonight I thought before I acted. Mapped everything out. I don’t know what happened once I stepped in the ring. I don’t know what caused me to spaz and black out on the kid.
Falling to my knees I bent over until my head laid on the misty grass. I opened my mouth and asked the one person to do what no one else could do... “God, please help me.”
“Mitch, I respect that you have decided to live a more mundane life with your beautiful wife, however, we had a deal. You were to expand up to New York and join in business with Martinez and his family. What is so hard about that?”
“Nothing is hard about it, Dominique, but I’m standing on what I said; the Martinez family will never have access to anything I distribute regardless if it comes from your country. If you are not pleased with that then ask someone else who will do what you need.”
A dozen eyes bounced between the two high-strung men. Dominique’s men were ready to defend their boss and my crew was already a trigger away from clearing out this entire boardroom.
“Gentlemen, let’s calm down and look at the facts.” I sighed heavy at Noelani wanting to be a peacemaker.
Out of all the men in the world for her to fall in love with she had to give her heart to Governor Dominique Herrera. I detested that man and everything he stood for. Instead of giving credit to his wife he claimed her findings as his own. Noelani was way too beautiful and smart to be tied down to a man like him A user.
That reason alone kept me from making it known that Atlas and Cassian had been in charge of Miami since Mitch retired. Dom and a few others moved too rocky for us to trust that information with.
“What are the facts then, Noelani?” His quick tongue at disrespecting her had me sitting up straight in my seat. Her brown eyes found mine, pleading to let her handle it.
“The facts are that we don’t need Mitch or any of our men in Florida to handle business up north. We have two reliable lieutenants up there now handling business. What we need to do is focus on the change of the waters. All of the military submarines will be heading out east towards Iraq because of the assassination of Ben Laden. To avoid another devastation like 9/11, the government is doubling up on all security measures which means we can’t move anything by our water vessels anymore but freight. Using our aircrafts. Trains. Amell is in charge of the port. There will be crates coming in with product. If that gets too hot, we move everything to the trains. But what we are not doing is going to New York.”
Dominique glared at his wife who smiled at him like she was daring him to go against what she said. I remember the first time he brought her to a meeting with all of his international distributors. I sat amused the whole time pretending that she and I were meeting for the first time. The minute she opened her mouth all respect for him shifted to her. With grace and class but bossed up. Noelani made it clear who was the brains behind the operations. She knew the ins and out of all their businesses and who they did outside business with something Dominique never thought to question.
“Well, I guess we’re done here. Safe travels everyone.” Dom stood with a handout for Noelani. At least the sneaky governor had some damn manners.
“Amell, can I speak with you a moment. Honey, I’ll meet you outside.” Before he could object, she rounded the table looping her arms through mine.
“Don’t get your dude fucked up, Noe. I’m not against making you a widow.”
“Have I told you how much I love seeing you in a tailored suit? Nothing like a black man dressed to conquer the world.” She winked, ready to clown me if I smiled. This was her thing compliment me until I smiled.
“Get off me with that shit, Noe. I’m getting really tired of him talking out the side of his neck to you, and why is he so hell bent on having Mitch work with Martinez?” The beef between the two wasn’t a secret. Anyone who had any dealings in the drug industry knew that those two hot heads hated each other for reasons far above Noelani’s pay grade. I only knew because Mitch trusted me enough to tell me the truth once I started accompanying Clover to California.
Waving me off with her usual bright smile, she held her phone out. “Stop stressing about things that I’m going to handle and look at these pictures of my bestie on her birthday.”