The Demise (28 page)

“Agh!” Aries shouted as she jammed it through Sam's hand. She used so much force that the knife went through Sam's hand and through a good portion of the table, keeping Sam in place. Sam hollered in agony. Aries was unaffected by her screams.

“The problem with taking out a Murder Mama is that there is always another one you have to worry about. We just keep coming and coming for your head. Miamor is my sister. We have been at this thing together for a long time. You took her away and for that, you have to answer to me. My murder game is worth six figures. I don't do this for free, but the minute you put shackles around Miamor's wrists, you made this personal. You are on my bad side, and that's not a very safe place to be.”

Sam screamed. She cried, but her sounds were inaudible behind the tape. No amount of pleading would get her out of this predicament. She had destroyed an empire. She had dismantled a family. She deserved every bit of pain Aries wanted to inflict, and Aries was in the mood for punishment.

“Go ahead. Me hear screaming dulls de pain. Releases endorphins or something in de brain,” Aries said as she circled Sam like a predator sizing up prey. “Although it doesn't look like you are feeling any relief.” Aries chuckled. She wanted to make Sam's death as slow as those years that Miamor was about to endure, but she knew that the longer this took, the more her chances of getting caught increased.

It was one of the rules of the Murder Mamas. “Get in and out,” Miamor had always said. “Don't let your rage become a distraction. When you get distracted, you get sloppy; when you get sloppy, you get caught.” Tears came to Aries's eyes because she knew she would never see her beloved friend again. It would be too big of a risk for Aries to ever walk into a prison for a visit. They would be forever parted by the steel and concrete that would serve as a cage to Miamor for the rest of her life. That fact made Aries sick to her stomach. She had felt it before when Robyn had been executed, and before that when Anisa had been killed, and even before that when Beatrice had lost her life. She was the last one standing, and it was a heavy burden to bear.

“You took away me family,” Aries said as she stopped directly behind Sam. She bent down to whisper in her ear. “You're a fucking pig … a fucking filthy fed pig. You deserve to be slaughtered like one.” Sam's eyes widened in panic. “Tell me … is it true that your life flashes before your eyes before you die?” She quickly pulled the knife out of the table and slid it across Sam's neck in one smooth movement. She walked around Sam's body and stood in front of her, watching as blood streamed from her throat. Sam gurgled as she struggled to breathe. The sound was music to Aries's ears. “You fucked with de wrong one,” she said. Aries didn't move until all of the life had drained from Sam's body. She then walked to the sink, rinsed off the hunting knife, and then placed it back in her messenger bag. She wasn't worried about fingerprints because she had never taken off her gloves. She wasn't new to covering her tracks. There wasn't a forensics team in the world that could pin a murder on her. Aries walked out the door, disappearing as if she had never even been there at all. Miamor had been avenged. Fuck Karma … that bitch worked too slowly. Aries's method was much quicker and much harsher than the winds of life could have ever been. Sam would never get a chance to reap the rewards of taking down The Cartel. She was being promoted, all right. She was going up into the heavens. Aries had made sure of it.

*   *   *

“Where are my keys?” Breeze whispered to herself as she opened up her kitchen drawers. Monroe was in trouble. She had heard it in his voice that he planned on doing something stupid. Her nephew needed her. Monroe needed her, and as she frantically ripped her home apart, she could feel tears building in her eyes. “Damn it!” she screamed. She rushed into the master bedroom and opened her nightstand to no avail. She sighed and then hurriedly went to Zyir's side of the bed. She opened the drawer. She rummaged through his belongings, and relief flooded her when she located her Benz fob in the mess. Just as she was about to close the drawer, a picture caught her eye. She frowned as she stared at her own mug shot. Flipping it around, she read the inscription on the back.

Just a friendly reminder of what's at stake. Get my evidence. Either bring down The Cartel, or you fall with them.

Evidence?
Breeze thought. She dropped the photo as if suddenly it were hot to the touch. She went back into the drawer. Breeze had never snooped on Zyir. She had never felt the need to invade his privacy. She trusted him, but now her antennas were up. Monroe was in trouble, and now Breeze suspected Zyir was the reason behind it.

“Hmm, hmm.”

The sound of Zyir clearing his throat made her freeze.

“What are you doing?” Zyir asked.

“What did you do?” she shot back, accusatory, as she stared at him with disappointment in her eyes.

He didn't even have to respond for her to know the answer. The look of guilt and sorrow that spread on his face told it all. She bent down and snatched the picture off the floor. She read the back aloud. “‘Either bring down The Cartel, or you fall with them'?” She had been shouting and she hadn't even realized it.

“I can explain,” he stated.

“You're talking to the feds,” Breeze surmised as a queasiness settled into her stomach. She didn't know if it was the pregnancy or the revelation that had come to light, but all of a sudden she felt sick.

“I had to, B. They were closing in on—”

“They're coming for Monroe right now! While I'm standing here arguing with you, they're storming my parents' estate!” Breeze shouted in disbelief. “I trusted you! We all trusted you!”

“Let me explain it to you. I did this for you,” he said. The way she was looking at him was breaking his heart. “You know me. Just hear me out.”

“I don't know anything about you,” she said. She turned around and rushed to the bathroom, locking the door behind her. She barely made it to the toilet before vomit erupted. She was hot, literally and figuratively. Sweat beads built on her forehead as her anger pulsed.

“B, you have to calm down … this stress ain't good for the baby. Just let me in. Let me tell you how it came to this,” Zyir pleaded.

She didn't respond. Her heart was so wounded that it felt like it had lost its beat. She climbed to her feet and turned on the faucet. She cupped her hands under the water and took some into her mouth, gargling. She then splashed water over her face, completely overwhelmed.

“Breeze, open this door! Let me talk to you, B. I love you. It was all for you. Just hear me out.”

She heard him, but she had no response. Breeze couldn't even develop the right words to say. She couldn't stop shaking her head in disgust. This was a betrayal that she could have never seen coming.

Breeze stood in front of the bathroom mirror, her head bowed as she gripped the sides of the sink. The knot in her stomach was so big that it felt like someone had stabbed her. She squeezed her eyes tightly while gritting her teeth. Betrayal burned. It seared through her soul as the lies she had been told replayed in her mind. All this time she had been sleeping with the enemy. The deception that she had discovered stung. It ate away at every memory that she and Zyir shared. She thought she knew him. She had thought they were soul mates, but if that were true, how had he so easily fooled her. He had been working with the feds and she had known nothing about it. Every day he had hidden it from her, which made her ask the inevitable question:
What else is he hiding?
It felt like someone had punched her in the gut. The wind had been knocked out of her. Zyir, a man who had shown her nothing but exemplary character and loyalty … a man who had saved her life … a man she had given 100 percent of herself to had turned snitch. It felt like a bad dream. Zyir was nothing like the man she'd thought him to be. In her family's book, there was nothing lower than a nigga who didn't stand tall when his back was against the wall. Even Breeze, with her privilege and spoiled ways, knew that to cooperate was to betray every moral that had been drilled into her since birth. He had dishonored his name and there was no excuse. Breeze felt like she didn't know the man she had lain next to for years.

Breeze gathered herself. She didn't have time to do this right now. Her brother was in trouble. Her nephew needed her. There was no doubt in her mind about what had to be done. Her father would have killed Zyir for the trespass. Mecca would have tortured him slowly. Monroe would have cut him off. Carter would have mourned the betrayal. All of these things would have been a well-deserving consequence to the choice that Zyir had made, but no punishment would hurt as much as the one Breeze was about to deliver. She opened the door to the bathroom and Zyir stood, hands on either side of the door, blocking her exit as he stared at her with regret-filled eyes.

“Let me be clear. You and I are over. I won't give birth to the seed of a snitch. I'm aborting this baby and I never want to see you again. My family meant everything to me, and you destroyed it,” she said. She pushed past him and headed for the door.

“It was either them or you. If I didn't do it, they were going to indict you for the bricks that were in the back of the trunk from the traffic stop a while back. I cooperated to make sure that didn't happen,” Zyir admitted.

His words halted her midstep and her heart sank. “What?” she said as she turned toward him. Tears moistened her cheeks as it all began to make sense. She could fathom this. She knew that his love for her outweighed all. It overrode his loyalty to even his oldest friend, Carter.

“I couldn't let you do a day in prison, Breeze. You're my wife … my rib … if I have to choose between my character and your freedom, you're going to win that battle every time. It ain't right,” Zyir said, growing emotional as she saw pools of anguish build in his eyes. He quickly blinked away the tears and composed himself. “But it was my only option. I came up with Carter. He is my family, just as much as he is yours. You think I wanted to do this? You think this shit hasn't eaten away at me every day? You can't leave me, B. You can't kill my seed,” Zyir said as he got on his knees and wrapped his arms around her waist. He kissed her stomach, and Breeze closed her eyes. So many feelings coursed through her body. She loved and hated this man all at the same time. “You're all I have left.”

“You shouldn't have made this decision for me,” Breeze whispered. “My family isn't built on disloyalty, Zy. I would have done twenty years before I would have given up my brothers. I'm not the strongest Diamond. I'm not the bravest or the most gangster, but I am the most loyal. They are my brothers. We share the same blood. You have ruined them. You have ruined me. You should have said something—if not to me, then to Carter at least. Snitching is never an option. So now what? They get jammed up and you walk away free for dirt that you all did together. You were supposed to be family. What future could we ever have now?”

Zyir stood to his feet and cradled her face in his hands, his face frowning in inner agony. “We can have the rest of our lives, Breeze. Don't leave me, B. I just wanted to protect you,” he said.

Breeze took a step back. Her heart was shattered because she no longer trusted him. She had no idea that there was even a side to him that could do something so foul. She wanted to be his wife, to be the mother of his child, and the ride-or-die on his arm, but she couldn't.

“I can't be with you and I can't have this baby. I don't want any piece of you inside of me. I never thought the day would come where I would see you as my enemy,” she said. Her words weren't malicious, but they were sad because they both knew that she meant them. He deserved them, and they pierced his heart like tiny daggers. “Good-bye, Zyir.” It pained her to walk away from him. She knew his intentions were good, but she just couldn't look him in the eyes. Zyir had been her king. Her superman. She had looked up to him, placing him on a throne so far up that no one could ever touch him. By cooperating with the feds, she had lost all respect for him. Once she no longer held a man in high regard, he would be deemed unworthy of her forever.

She thought that he would come after her. She was sure that he would plead his case over and over again, but he didn't. She was grateful for that much. Breeze didn't want him to see her break down as she rushed out of the house. This was the last conversation they would have. She had no words. There was nothing left to say. She climbed in her car and pressed the button to start the ignition. Before she could even pull away …

BANG!

The sound of a single gunshot echoed through the air. Breeze jumped, and her head snapped in the direction of their home.

“No,” she whispered. She fumbled with the door handle and exited the car, but before she could even take a step, she stopped herself. She bit down on her bottom lip and sobbed. She hit the roof of the car. “Damn it, Zyir!” she screamed. She already knew what had gone down. She didn't want to see it. Seeing him with a bullet in his head at his own hand would alter who she was. She would be haunted by it for the rest of her life. It was the punishment for the act of betrayal he had committed. If he hadn't done it, eventually someone would have. Instead of running from the inevitable, Zyir had welcomed it. He hadn't done all of this to end up alone. Without Breeze, life wasn't worth living.

Breeze climbed back in her car and beat her steering wheel in frustration as she cried and cried and cried. This was not how things were supposed to be, but it was her reality. In the blink of an eye, Zyir had changed the game for everyone. She picked up her cell and dialed 911.

“911. What is your emergency?”

“I'm worried about my husband. I think he may have hurt himself, and I'm not home. Could you please send an officer out to 707 Susan Lane?”