Desired Too (25 page)

I mentioned a while back that my cousin had employed some fucking idiots. Sometimes the tactics they used or the course of actions they took made me question how Angel had stayed alive this long. When I first started with the family, I couldn’t understand why they didn’t do everything that was necessary to ensure the safety of their boss, and I still couldn’t. If they had, I wouldn’t have been able to step in as easy as I did and take over. I also wouldn’t be sitting in Denny’s, on the west side of the city, making sure that the most important person in my cousin’s life stayed alive.

What I needed to find out was why I was the only one actually watching her. To be honest, I shouldn’t be doing this. Darrell or Hugo should, especially if they did their due diligence and learned about Raquel’s past. But as with many things, they hadn’t done their job. They needed to know what was coming and, as usual, I would be the one to prepare them.

The night before, I had driven to a building a few blocks from the Drexel University’s campus. I parked across the street from the building, then checked my watch. It was almost one in the morning. I knew he would be making his way home right about then. As much as I told them not to be predictable, seeing him stumble into his apartment with his flavor of the night proved they hadn’t listened.

Well, maybe he will after tonight.

I waited for another thirty minutes, which was probably too generous, then exited my car. I walked purposefully to the building, taking from my pockets the items I needed to open the locked front door. Once I entered the building, I called the elevator and rode it up to the ninth floor.

I stood still after I exited the elevator and listened to my surroundings. Since it was thirty minutes past one, I expected a few people to still be awake, but all was quiet as I moved to the apartment I needed. I don’t know if luck was on my side and this son of a bitch needed his ass kicked, but just as I got to his door, it opened.

“You promised I could stay this time.” said a whiny voice that I somewhat recognized.

“I know, baby, but I have to get up early tomorrow. I have shit to do, so I need to get some sleep.”

Just as the back of the chick’s head came into view, and my brain registered who she was, I pushed her back into the apartment. She collided with the apartment floor just as I pulled my Glock and closed the door behind me. Hugo quickly went for his gun that was behind his back, but he wasn’t quick enough.

“What the fuck…” spilled out of Hugo’s mouth while at the same time I heard the woman on the floor say. “Lincoln? Oh my God! Please don’t…”

“Shut the fuck up!” I barked without taking my eyes off of Thing 2.

“Two fingers…Slowly…” I told him and waited. First, he hesitated, before he slowly brought his 9mm from the back of his pants.

“Slowly lay it on the ground in front of you then kick it away from you. Next, raise your pants up past your ankles. Do it slowly. You know I don’t have a problem with dropping you.”

Hugo hesitated again before he did exactly what I asked. His ankle holster was empty.

“Good. Now step back slowly and move over to that puttana on the floor.”

Eleanor made a face, but she didn’t say a word. Hugo moved and stood still as he could. He frowned at me as if he was going to do something about his predicament, but I knew he wouldn’t. He may have been stupid, but he wasn’t suicidal. In fact, I decided to help him come to the right decision by saying, “Please don’t think I won’t blow your fucking head off. Don’t forget who the fuck I am. I will bury you without a second thought.”

He didn’t reply, but I could see some of the tension ease in him.

I waited for a beat just to let him complete the battle he was having within. Then I asked, “What the fuck did I tell you and Thing 1?”

Hugo stayed quiet.

I moved quickly to him with the gun still pointing in his face. When I got within arm’s reach, I quickly brought the gun down to my side and collided my left fist with his face. I hit him twice in the nose, and just as he was about to fall back, I grabbed him by his shirt, brought my gun back out and put it under his chin.

“Did you hear what the fuck I just said?”

“I heard you,” he replied, breathing through his mouth.

“Oh, so you’re ignoring me then?”

I kneed him in his stomach, hit him in his face a few times with the butt of my gun and as he kneeled in front of me, I pulled out the silencer from my pocket. I screwed it on quickly and brought it down to his face. Eleanor started screaming, but quickly brought her hands to her mouth. She knew the severity of the situation and was smart enough to shut the fuck up.

Hugo, being the somewhat smart person that he was, also knew the severity of the situation. His eyes grew wide and he raised his hand as if that was going to stop the bullet.

“Wait, wait, Lincoln, I wasn’t ignoring you, okay? I just had to remember what you told us, that’s all.”

“Yeah, and did you figure that shit out?” I asked him.

He nodded quickly, then said, “You told us to call you if any shit went down with Angel.”

“That’s right. So please tell me why my phone has been silent for the last few months?”

Hugo looked to Eleanor as if she had answers before he moved his eyes back to me. “Sir, there hasn’t been any trouble. I mean, there’s something going on with Eddie, but nothing we can say or prove. Darrell is looking into it. I’m sure…”

Pissed, I stomped down on his knee, and he yelped, “Arrrrrgh!”

“I don’t give a fuck about that simple motherfucker. I want to know why you haven’t called me about the chick he practically moved into his apartment.”

Hugo looked confused for a split second before his eyes grew again. “Do you mean Ms. Waters?”

“What the fuck is wrong with you? Who else would I be talking about? Did he move another woman in with him?”

“No, you’re right. Sorry. I just mean… I don’t know why we would tell you about her… She isn’t bringing the boss drama or dangerous drama.”

I looked at Eleanor and saw she had stopped being afraid and started paying a lot of attention to our conversation.

I moved to her and pulled her up by her hair. “Get your shit and get the fuck out.”

I pushed her to the front door. I looked over at Hugo and motioned him to escort her out of his apartment. He slowly got up from the floor and gingerly walked a very angry Eleanor to his front door. She looked at him as if it would be the last time, then threw a hateful glance my way before she left.

Hugo turned back to me after closing the door, blood dripping from his nose and the gash on his forehead.

“Back up from the door and place your hands on your head. Don’t fucking move.”

He did as I asked, and I went to his kitchen that was next to the door of his apartment. I was going to tell him to get his own towel and clean himself up, but I knew he would have a weapon in the drawer somewhere, and I would hate to have to kill his ass.

I grabbed a towel and threw it at him. He started wiping his face, beginning with his forehead, then he brought the towel to his nose.

“So, let me get this straight; you let this woman, who has been out of the city and away from Angel for years, come back in his life without looking into her?”

Hugo didn’t reply, but he didn’t need to. These fucking imbeciles couldn’t think entirely on their own even if you paid them. And shit Angel was.

Hugo finally said, “Sir, we did look into her.”

My eyebrows rose. “Really, and what did you guys find out?”

He paused again and just stared at me.

I sighed deeply, unscrewed the silencer and put my gun away. I folded my arms and he relaxed.

He sniffed and continued to hold the towel to his nose. “Darrell gave Stinky the job to look into everything. He was supposed to look into her financials, criminal background, who she was dating, their background; the works.”

“And?”

“And…” He shrugged his shoulders. “Nothing… She came back clean.”

“Who’s Stinky?”

“You know Stinky, He’s Harry’s kid, the son of Mr. Leonetti’s cousin from New York. He’s been trying to work his way up through the family. Angel decided to give him a little more responsibility.”

“Okay, so since Angel wanted to give him more responsibility, Darrell decided to let this kid run a background check on someone this important?”

Hugo shrugged again. “Well, yeah, Stinky is good with computers. He would be able to get the information quick without having the boss find out. Angel would probably go out of his fucking mind if he knew Darrell looked into his precious black-”

“Watch your fucking mouth.”

Hugo put up his hands. “I was going to say black goddess.”

I watched him carefully. I knew some of the shit he was saying was true. When I left the family, I took my connections with me, so they did have to figure out other ways to do shit. Still, I didn’t trust this Stinky kid. I did remember him coming to the house about a year ago looking for work. Cousin Harry called in advance, hoping Angel would take him in. I didn’t think it was a good idea to give him any responsibility until he had proven himself. I was sure he didn’t do shit to warrant the job Darrell gave him, so this job was his ticket into the family. Darrell was using this as a test and the kid failed.

Hugo frowned, taking my silence to mean something else and asked, “Are you saying he wasn’t right?”

I didn’t reply.

“Fuck!” Hugo ran his hands through his hair.

Hugo and Darrell had been with Angel for years. They were boys way before I came into the mix. I knew Darrell and Hugo had some resentment towards me. Here I was an outsider. Yet, Angel had placed more trust in me than the two of them put together. I’m not saying Thing 1 and 2 weren’t capable, because they were. They have had Angel’s back long before I came to the family and he was still alive, so I would probably pick them to have my back before I would a lot of people. They were competent when it came to the safety of Angel. They just weren’t better than I was at it. I just take the safety of my family seriously. I also didn’t like giving up control. If I didn’t have a hand in shit, I had a problem with it.

Angel and I were alike in so many ways. I was the brother he never had and, shit, it was the same for me. My uncle became the father I never had. He understood me. They both did.

Yet, we were now estranged because they should have expected the outcome in Miami. They knew how I felt about Eddie and they for damn sure knew how I felt about Georgia. She was pregnant with my seed and Eddie put her in harm’s way for something as simple as jealousy. Because of that, Eddie deserved to die. There was no way around it. Yet, they didn’t see it that way. That was what was so frustrating.

Yeah, okay, if you reverse the shit I just said, I should have expected the same from my uncle and Angel. I should have understood their positions, my uncle’s on killing his son and Angel’s on having his hands tied behind his back. I knew he was just following orders given to him by his father.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t ready to deal with that shit right now though.

I said to Hugo, “You need to put a body on her, and I mean now.”

“How will we do that without letting Angel know why?”

That was a good question. Darrell or Hugo couldn’t be the ones to do it and, to be honest, I didn’t trust anyone else to do the job.

“All right, here’s what I want you to do. Send Stinky my way. Give him my number and tell him to call me the moment the sun comes up. Make that shit happen, Hugo.”

He nodded hesitantly, and I sucked my teeth. “I’m not going to fucking kill him, even though I should. He dropped the ball big time, but I’m going to give him another chance to redeem himself. If he fails me or doesn’t call or meet me, that family shit is over.”

“Okay, I’ll let him know the importance of calling you.”

“And tell him not to tell anyone he’s meeting me. You can let Darrell know, but you will not tell anyone else, and that means Angel. You tell him you got into a bar fight or some shit, but do not tell him or anyone else about what we talked about, understand?”

“Okay, but what about the threat? What do we need to look out for?”

I moved to his apartment door. “Don’t you worry about that. I got it covered. You guys figure out what Eddie’s planning. If something happens to my cousin, I will personally hold you and Darrell responsible. Hell, I will hold everyone that works for Angel responsible. It’s your job to protect him, and if you can’t do the shit, you need to say something now.”

I could see the anger rise in Hugo as he stood before me, face still bloody. I nodded to him, hearing my answer loud and clear.

I left his apartment, and I had kept my vigil on Raquel ever since.

Hugo had waited a few minutes before he took in a breath of relief. That was the trickiest part of the plan they had put together, and he wasn’t sure if he’d survive, but he had. He wiped his face and went to retrieve his phone from the table by his couch. He dialed quickly and, as the gruff and aggravated voice came on the line, he took in another deep breath.

“He just left.”

There was a long pause before the caller answered, “And he took the bait?”

“What do you think?” Hugo replied, feeling the anger coming back.

“Tell me what happened.”

Hugo re-lived everything, play-by-play, not leaving anything out. He put emphasis on Lincoln’s frame of mind and actions to further show their plan had worked.

When he told the caller about the hits he took to the face, Hugo heard a grunt in his ear.

“Well, at least he didn’t kill you.”

“Yeah, there is that,” Hugo replied sardonically.

“Look, it had to be done this way. It’s all part of the plan. You knew it wasn’t going to be easy.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know, I know.”

“Did you tell him about Stinky?”

Hugo sighed again. “Yeah, I told him. Needless to say, that added to his anger. Fuck, how do you know he won’t kill that kid? You know Lincoln hates incompetents, especially when it comes to Angel.”

“Come on, the kid will be fine. Besides, Lincoln hasn’t been in the game for close to a year. He probably forgot how to kill someone.” Hugo grunted and the caller added, “He left you alive, didn’t he?”

“I hope you know what you’re doing. You act as if you don’t know the man, what he’s capable of. You think this won’t turn sour, but Lincoln is very unpredictable.”

“Yes, I know he is. What the fuck, Hugo? Are you bitching out on me? What’s done is done. This shit with Lincoln needs to be dealt with.
He
needs to be dealt with, and this is the only way to do it. Kill two birds with one stone, right?”

Hugo didn’t reply. He just shook his head and hoped he’d be able to live through this shit.

The caller released a long sigh in Hugo’s ear before he retorted, “Look, from what you just said, it looks like our plan worked. Lincoln is going to react just the way we need him to, and all we have to do is sit back and watch this shit unravel.”

Hugo moved toward his back room. “Yeah, you better be right, because if you’re not, we are fucked.”