Animal 2 (7 page)

“A special occasion, huh?” Charlie asked suspiciously.

“Yes, a home-going ceremony.” Priest threw the rest of his shot back. “You ready to go, Charlie?”

Charlie stared at the empty glass. “How long we known each other, Priest?” He never took his eyes off the glass.

Priest thought on it. “Maybe thirty years now.”

“Thirty-two years,” Charlie corrected him. “I remember the day you got out of boot camp and they tossed you into our unit. You looked scared to death, but the minute we got out there in the combat zone, you took to it like a fish to water. Even back then, we all knew that you were BTK. Do you know what BTK is, youngster?” he asked Animal.

“No, sir,” Animal said.

“BTK is a phrase we used in our platoon. When you enlist, you do so knowing that there's a possibility that you might actually see some action. None of us really wanted to be out there, but we did what we had to do in the name of survival. Then you had the BTKs. Those are the ones who can be knee-deep in a blood bath and don't bat an eye. They thrived on the violence. These men were said to have come into the world without souls. We classified those wack jobs as BTK, born to kill.”

Animal listened to Charlie's tale, and it reminded him of how he'd handled business when he was on the streets putting
in work. He never showed fear or remorse; he moved like a man without a soul, BTK. He wondered if he was that way because of the circumstances he was placed in, or was it something he'd inherited from the father he'd never known?

“For as much as we'd like to hear some more of your war stories, Charlie, we've got a schedule to keep.” Priest tapped his watch.

“Yeah, I know,” Charlie said sadly. “Think we got time for one more?”

Priest nodded and motioned for the waitress to bring them one last round. When she set the drinks on the table, Priest picked up the tab for the drinks he'd ordered plus all the booze Charlie had consumed before he got there.

Charlie smiled. “A gentleman to the end.” He threw the shot back and slammed the glass onto the table. Charlie removed his watch, his pinkie ring, and the gold crucifix hanging around his neck and placed them on the bar. “Hold on to these for me for a spell, darling. I'll come back for them later,” he told the bartender.

The bartender looked from the jewelry on the bar to Charlie and his two companions. “Is everything OK?” she asked, ready to pull out the shotgun hidden under the bar or alert the police if need be. Charlie was one of her regulars, and she liked him, but she didn't care for the two strangers. From the moment they arrived, she knew they were bad business. She could smell the stench of death clinging to them from a mile away.

Charlie gave her a wink. “Everything is jus' groovy, baby.” He rapped his knuckles on the bar. “All right.” He turned to Priest. “Let's get this fucking show on the road.”

•  •  •

Priest told Animal to get behind the wheel, while Charlie sat in the passenger's seat and Priest got into the back directly behind him. He directed Animal out of town and down a seldom-used dirt road. The tension in the car was so thick you could've cut it with a knife. Charlie made small talk with Animal about shit that either didn't matter or had happened long before Animal was born, anything to keep his mind off the man sitting behind him and their destination.

Animal started to ask what was going on but thought better of it. He looked up into the rearview mirror at Priest, who was staring back at him. Gone was the face of the man who had schooled him in his history and traded war stories with an old friend, replaced by the face of the hardened killer he was best known as.

“Pull over up here,” Priest said from the backseat. Animal steered the car into the stand of trees Priest had directed him to. “Everybody out,” Priest ordered, slipping from the backseat. Animal got out, but Charlie remained seated. He looked so terrified that Animal doubted he could move even if he wanted to. “Let's go, Charlie.” Priest opened the door for him.

“I'm coming, man. Just let me get myself together.” Charlie wiped the sweat from his brow with his hand. When he tried to stand, his legs gave out. Animal caught him before he could fall. “Thanks, youngster. I must've had too much to drink.” Charlie mustered a phony smile.

“You never did have the head for liquor, or anything else, for that matter, Charlie. I hate the fact that you've put me in this position,” Priest told him, pulling a pistol from his jacket.

“Priest, I know you salty, but we got history. It ain't gotta be like this. Just let me walk away, and I'll vanish. On my dead wife, you'll never see me again,” Charlie pleaded.

“You know I can't do that, Charlie. The only reason I've waited so long to come for you was out of respect for Nancy, but she's not here anymore,” Priest said.

“You want me to beg? OK.” Charlie dropped to his knees. Tears began rolling down his cheeks. “I'm begging you, don't do me like this!”

Seeing Charlie on his knees groveling turned Priest's stomach. “Get the fuck up.” He snatched Charlie to his feet by the front of his shirt. Charlie kept trying to collapse, but Priest wouldn't let him. “What are you doing, Charlie? Have some fucking dignity!” Priest shook him.

Animal placed a firm hand on Priest's shoulder. “Why don't you take it easy?”

Priest looked at Animal's hand as if it was something that had crawled up from the foulest gutter. “Why don't you get yo fucking hand off me before it becomes another trophy in my war room?”

“Thanks, youngster, but don't waste your breath,” Charlie said. “Once the Clark executioner has been sent for you, there's only one outcome, even if it is the God Father to his only son. Ain't that right, Priest?”

Priest said nothing.

Charlie patted Animal on the cheek. “Son, unlike your daddy, you've got a heart of gold. You care about people. Hold on to that quality, youngster. The heart is the last line of defense when those demons come scratching at our souls.”

Priest called to him. “Charlie.”

“Keep your robe on, holy man. I'm coming,” Charlie said. He turned back to Animal, and there were tears dancing in his eyes. Charlie pounded Animal's chest lightly with his fist. “No matter how many guns you got, nothing is more powerful than your heart and standing behind what you believe in versus what somebody is trying to feed you. You remember what I told you and the circumstances they were told under. You hear me?”

Animal nodded.

Charlie turned to face Priest. “I fucked up, didn't I?”

“You sure did, Charlie.” Priest screwed a silencer on the gun.

“So this is what's it's come to? Three decades of friendship thrown out like yesterday's trash to make sure the faithful old hound dog doesn't fall out of his master's good graces?”

Priest didn't take the bait.

“I understand you're just doing like you're told, Priest, but you might wanna think about it. I'm still a made guy,” Charlie reminded him. He had been a major player in the underworld during his days, and at one time, Charlie's name held weight.

“Charlie, this ain't the nineties. Your power on the streets dried up a long time ago. Poppa Clark was throwing you a bone when he gave you this town to run. You remain a boss in name only,” Priest said.

“Call it what you want, but there are still quite a few people who got love for old Charlie. I might be old and washed up, but my son Chuck's still got a strong hand out here. When he finds out what you did to his daddy on the day we laid his mama to rest, he's gonna come for you to settle this debt,” Charlie warned.

Chuck was Charlie's only son. Priest had watched him grow from a mischievous young man into a solid soldier, who was
known to bust his gun. Charlie was the boss of the operation, but Chuck and his goons were the muscle.

“Chuck is a good young kid, and if he wants to live to be a good old man, he'll chalk this one up to the game and keep it moving. If he does get it in his head to come around looking for death, I'll be sure to help him find it. This I can promise you,” Priest said. “You have no one to blame for this but yourself, Charlie. I connected you so that you could do for you and your family, not run off like a common thief and make me look like a poor judge of character.”

Charlie shook his head. “Is that what they told you? That I ran off with the money? Figures, white men been lying on niggers for years. Priest, you know me. I ain't never stole nothing from nobody that didn't have it coming. I got tired of them Irish muthafuckas coming around here acting like they owned the joint, acting like they owned me. I took that bread to show them what time it was. It wasn't about the money, it was about my pride!”

“And your pride has brought us to this point.” Priest held the gun up. “All you had to do was come to me, Charlie, and we could've worked something out. Mickey and his boys respect me.”

“The same way the Clarks respect you, huh?” Charlie said slyly. “Just because I'm way up here in the sticks don't mean my ears ain't still to the streets. People are talking about Prince Shai and his lack of respect for his elders.”

“How I do business with Shai Clark is no business of yours. I'm a soldier, and that's just the way it is,” Priest said.

Charlie laughed. “Do you hear yourself, Priest? Me, you, and Poppa Clark started this shit, remember? The hustler, the
brain, and the killer . . . three the hard way, what happened to that? What happened to the dream of us all sitting around the round table breaking bread like real OGs?”

“That dream died with Poppa Clark,” Priest told him before putting a bullet in Charlie's chest. He put two more slugs in his body, mindful of his face so that his children could give him a proper funeral. Priest knelt beside Charlie's body, kissed his fingers, and touched them to Charlie's forehead. “Your debt is settled, old friend. Be with your wife now.”

•  •  •

Priest drove back to the city. Animal was silent for most of the ride. Every so often, he would look up at Priest, who was humming along with the oldies station that was playing on the radio like he didn't have a care in the world. He was the epitome of contentment, after having just murdered one of his friends in cold blood.

“You keep cutting your eyes over here like you're thinking about either kissing me or taking a swing at me. I should hope for the latter,” Priest said.

“What the fuck was that?” Animal asked.

Priest glanced out the window. “Looks like a Ford to me, though it could've been a Dodge. The bodies on those models were similar.”

“I'm not talking about the car. I'm taking about that bullshit you pulled back in Rye!”

“Oh,
that
? Just a lil' business that had to be taken care of,” Priest said, and went back to his humming.

“So whacking somebody you've known over three decades is just
a lil' business
? What kind of monster are you?” Animal asked heatedly.

“I'm the same kind of monster you're gonna have to become, considering the route you're going,” Priest told him. “The law of the jungle is survival of the fittest, and you better damn well learn it if you plan on locking ass with Shai Clark, lil' nigga.”

“Fuck what you talking about, I could never murder a comrade like that,” Animal told him.

“You don't know what the fuck you'd do if your life depended on it,” Priest shot back. “Charlie was my main man, but his bullshit was interfering with my plans, much like Ashanti's riding with King James is interfering with yours.”

“So you trying to say I should murder Ashanti like you did Charlie to get Shai off my back?”

“No, I'm telling you not to make the same mistakes I did and find yourself in a position to have to make that choice,” Priest said seriously. “Shai is a cold piece of work, and brute force ain't gonna beat him. You're gonna need to be cunning and patient.”

“You said it yourself that time isn't on our side,” Animal reminded him.

“Tayshawn, you don't have a reason to, but I need you to have faith in me right now. I'm going to take you back to the church so you can spend some time with your lady. I'm sure she misses you. Rest up, and I'll come back in the morning to speak more of the plan.”

Animal did miss Gucci. He didn't want to sit idle and wait for Priest, but he didn't have much of a choice at the moment. “Your word don't hold that kind of weight with me just yet, but I'll fall back for the time being. Just let me be clear on something. I won't hesitate to take Shai's life if given the opportunity, whether your plan works or not.”

“Fair enough,” Priest agreed. “While I'm gone, I want you to think about what I said, Animal. In this world, the only person you can depend on to be stand-up at all times is you.”

“I hear you, but there's an exception to every rule. I can't speak on what happened between you and Charlie, but I
can
speak on me and Ashanti. He's hard as steel. That's my brother.”

“D
O YOU KNOW HOW MANY
times I've dreamed of having you in this position?” Detective Alvarez asked from across the steel table. He and Ashanti were in an interrogation room at the precinct, where they had been since his arrest a few hours before.

Ashanti gave the detective his most serious stare. “Ain't you gonna say ‘pause' after that statement? It sounds suspect as hell.” He laughed.

“Very funny, Ashanti, but you know what'd be funnier? If I jumped across this table and slapped that grin off your face,” Alvarez said in a low growl.

Ashanti looked down at the shackle that went from his right wrist to the table. “The fact that you got me cuffed to this table and still got one hand resting near your gun, just in case, says you know how I'm built. Blood, the thought of you or anybody
else putting their hands on me and not getting their face torn off is laughable. What else you got for me?”