The Family Business 3 (15 page)

It had been two weeks since I'd seen my son Jordan, so I was on my way outside to call his grandmother, Consuela, and check up on my little rug rat—or at least I was, until Orlando spotted me as he got off the elevator. I could see from his serious expression that something big had gone down. He took my arm and pulled me down the hall in the opposite direction of Daddy's hospital room, where the rest of the family was loitering around the door.

“Hey, I was just coming to find you.” He looked like he couldn't decide whether he wanted to kick somebody's ass or cry. Talk about having the weight of the world on your shoulders. My brother had always been an intense man, but I'd never seen him look like this before.

“What's wrong?”

It took him a long time to answer, and while I waited, I could see a storm brewing behind his eyes. He blew out an angry breath and finally told me, “X and his people took out our Long Island dealership. Torched it to the ground.”

“What the fuck!” I stomped my foot against the wall, leaving a permanent mark with my stiletto heel. “This motherfucker is getting on my last nerve.”

“That's not the worst of it. They also took out warehouse number nine and killed everyone but Victor.”

I was stunned silent. I could not believe what I was hearing. How the hell did X know how to find one of our illegal warehouses? I wasn't so worried about the dealership; we were insured for that, but the loss of that warehouse and its contents was going to cost us millions, and that came under my job description as the family's troubleshooter.

Orlando peeked around the corner to make sure no one was listening. “Don't worry. I got Popeye Wilson's people on their way from DC. I need you and Sasha to get down there and meet them so you can lead the charge. I'm sick of waiting around. We're taking out Brother X at his Rosedale hideaway tonight.”

I threw my hand up in the air and he high-fived me, “Now, that's what I'm talking about, Orlando!”

He placed his finger over his lips. “Keep it down. I'm not trying to have the world hear our plans.”

“Oh, sorry. I'm just a little excited,” I whispered back, grinning. “How did you find out where he was?”

He leaned in closer and said quietly, “Vegas told me.”

“Damn, that Vegas is a beast. Is he going with us to take this motherfucker down?”

“No, and I don't want him to know what we've got planned until X is dead. Can you do that?”

“Wait. Is Vegas cool with this?”

His irritated expression gave me my answer, which his words confirmed. “He doesn't know.”

“He's not going to be happy,” I warned him. We both knew that making Vegas unhappy was something to be avoided.

“I don't give a shit whether he's happy or not. Protecting this family is my job,” Orlando said, “and him walking in here trying to run shit stops right now. We are at war, Paris. As big and bad as Vegas seems, he's not ready for war, so I need you and Sasha to let these motherfuckers know that they can't just mess with the Duncans.”

“Done!” I whooped, already heading to the elevator to get Sasha from the cafeteria. I turned to Orlando after I pushed the down button. “O, you need to tell Vegas what you're up to. You owe him that much, just for the information he gave you.”

Orlando nodded his understanding, but didn't reply as I disappeared into the elevator.

“Honey, you know that I consider myself the luckiest woman in the world to have a man like you love me for as long and as well as you have. We could have each made different choices back then that would have led us away from each other, but we didn't. We were smart enough to choose to be together, and neither of us has ever regretted that decision. We just kept moving closer together, and our love has helped us to withstand a lot of crises that would tear apart most couples.

“I can't imagine my life without you, but I know that I need to honor your wishes and do what you would want, even if it's the last thing I want to do. What I want is to have my husband back . . . for you to wake up the great LC Duncan, and for us continue loving each other for the next thirty years. That's what I've been praying for all these days, as I watch you lying here hooked up to all these machines.

“But I know it's selfish, because you have made it clear to me in the past that if anything ever happened to you, you didn't want to suffer. I don't want to see you suffer, either, my love. That is not fair, and I know it's not what you would want.

“So, I've come to the conclusion that I am giving you twenty-four hours to decide if you want to wake up and to rejoin your family. I know you're in there listening, and I know it won't be easy, but we are all here fighting for you. All I'm asking is for you to fight too. You have twenty-four hours to get up and get the hell out of this bed, or I'm going to have no choice but to let the doctors pull the plug.” I leaned close, peppering his face with kisses, giving this man all the love I had in my whole body, praying that it would be enough to help him to come back to us.

“We love you, and now this is your time to decide what you really want, LC. You have six children, four grandchildren, and a wife that wants more time with you. Baby, I need you to do this. Come back to us.” I got up from my chair beside the bed, watching him closely to see if my words had had any impact, but there was no change. His heart rate monitor still beeped at the same steady pace, and his eyes were still closed and motionless.

The sound of someone clearing her throat let me know that I was no longer alone. I wiped away a tear and turned to see Donna standing in the doorway.

“Excuse me. I didn't mean to interrupt such a beautiful moment.”

“How long have you been standing there?” I asked, feeling a little uncomfortable that she had witnessed my private moment with my husband.

“Long enough,” she answered, moving closer to LC. “You really think this stubborn man is going to just give up?”

“Lord, I hope not,” I answered with all my heart as she reached her arm around me. Donna and I had come a long way.

“Speaking of the Lord, I went to church yesterday. Not the fancy First Jamaica Ministries I attend for image and photo ops,” she said. “I found me a little place. Reminded me of the one I attended as a girl. I got down on my knees and I prayed like I hadn't since I was young, back when I believed that God would grant my every wish and I would never, ever suffer. That all I had to do was love the Lord and my life would be perfect.” She shook her head as if to laugh at the naïve child she had once been.

“Well, I went back to that God, and I begged and pleaded for him to let LC live. To let this family continue with the patriarch that so many black families don't have.”

I took her hands in mine. I knew why she'd had that crisis of faith years ago, and in spite of our past differences, I also knew that she truly loved my husband.

“Now, all we can do is wait.” I said, and I felt strangely calmed by the depth of that truth. LC had really passed into God's hands, and I just prayed that God wasn't done with him on earth and would give him back to us.

Pulling me away from the bed and speaking in a quiet voice, as if LC might overhear our conversation, Donna said, “Chippy, I've been here a while and seen all of the children. Everyone except for Junior. You want to tell me what's going on?” She stared at me unflinchingly so I got the message that she wasn't giving up without getting the truth out of me.

“He's good. He's just taking care of something.” I knew it wasn't the answer that she wanted, but as far as I was concerned, it was the only part of the truth that she was going to get out of me.

“Then why is everybody saying that the reason LC is lying up in this bed is because of Junior?”

Sasha sat in front of me in one of our warehouses, along with about a dozen of Popeye Wilson's best soldiers and another six from our camp. They didn't have to say what was on their minds, because their expressions said it for them: they wanted to know why this hot-ass woman was standing in front of them, giving orders. Well, maybe that's not what Sasha was thinking about. Hers eyes were glued on Popeye Wilson's son, Larry, who she'd been flirting with for the past twenty minutes. Besides, she knew exactly what I was trying to convey. She'd been my sounding board during the ride over from the hospital, and she was one hundred percent on board. Now I had to convince the other eighteen to hop on the bandwagon as well.

One of Popeye's men spoke up. “Can I ask a question?” He was a big, burly guy who was almost the same size as Junior.

“Sure. What's on your mind?”

He stood up and made his way closer to me, carrying an assault rifle. “I mean, other than the fact that we get to look at that phat ass of yours from behind as we go in the door, why should we follow you? What qualifies you to lead us?” He was now close enough for me to smell his body odor.

“Shut the fuck up and sit down,” I ordered.

“Aw, what, did I hurt your feelings?” He laughed, and the other men joined in.

I glanced over at Sasha, who very casually nodded her head.

“You wanna know what qualifies me?” Before anyone could blink, I hit the funky-smelling dude with a quick chop to his throat that damn near crushed his larynx. I followed it with a swift kick to his gonads, which sent him keeling over like a fallen tree. By the time he hit the ground, I had his rifle in my hand, cocked and aimed at his face.

As he lay groaning on the floor, I asked, “You still want to know my qualifications?” He shook his head. “Good. Now, you can either follow my phat ass into battle and enjoy the view, or take your smelly ass back to DC. I don't need any more distraction.” I turned to the men, who all looked stunned. “And that goes for any of the rest of you too.”

“You don't have to worry, Paris. We're with you,” Larry said. He had a sympathetic tone to his voice. Despite the hard exterior I was displaying, he must have been able to catch just a glimpse of the pain I was feeling for my father. I was working hard to suppress those feelings because now was not the time for weakness. There was serious work that needed to be done, in spite of LC being out of commission at the moment. After all, the war was just beginning.

Now that I had everyone's undivided attention, I went back to explaining my plan.

“As you all know, we're going after the man who put my father in a hospital bed and has killed more than a dozen of our men. This dude Brother X ain't no joke, and he and his people have killed more men than I have sitting here in front of me, so if any of you wanna back out, let me know now.”

“Ain't nobody backing out,” Larry announced. I looked over at him and saw the way his chest was rising and falling, his fists were balled up, and the veins were damn near popping out of his neck. He was ready for battle.

“Yeah, like Larry said,” Sasha added, gazing over at him.

Larry noticed the way she was devouring him with her eyes, and he smiled at her, letting her know the attraction was mutual.

“Okay, so if everyone understands, I want you to check your weapons and make sure you have plenty of ammo. We roll in twenty.” I tossed the burly man his assault rifle.

Sasha stood up and announced loudly, “I have to run to the bathroom real quick.” She glanced in Larry's direction as she left the room.

In my peripheral vision, I saw her stop in the hallway, turn back toward our group, and make a beckoning gesture to Larry. Like clockwork, Larry waited five seconds and then stood up to say he was going to use the bathroom too. I just rolled my eyes. Leave it to my cousin to make a damn love connection half an hour before we went into battle. Part of me wanted to tell these fools they weren't as slick as they thought, but now was not the time for lighthearted jokes. Their horny asses had fifteen minutes before I went looking for them.

“Before I continue,” I said, planting my hands on my hips. “Does anyone else have to go to the little boys' room?”

Suddenly, there was a huge crash, and the floor shook like there was an earthquake occurring. Everyone started scrambling, and I instinctively ran up the stairway behind me, which led to a catwalk piled high with storage boxes. Crouching behind the boxes, I drew my gun, then watched in horror as another crash happened and a portion of the brick wall crumbled. A dump truck was now sitting in the spot where my men had just been. At least four of them were laid on the ground, killed by the impact of the dump truck and the wall falling on them. Thank God everyone had scattered after the first crash or there would have been more casualties.

I began firing my weapon when two men jumped out of the cabin of the truck. My soldiers, who were now dispersed throughout the room, starting shooting also. The men from the truck began firing back, and bullets were flying like fireworks from both sides. A swarm of at least twenty of X's soldiers came out of the back of the truck with their guns blazing.

Ducking down behind the boxes, I peeked through them at the scene taking place below me, and watched as my men were taken out, one by one. I leaned back, trying to think strategically about my next move. If I stood up and started shooting, I was sure to end up dead, so as much as I wanted to blow those fuckers away, I stayed put behind the boxes for the time being. It wasn't long before the gunfire ceased.

“This way!” one of the invading men yelled, and they fanned out, stepping over the bloody bodies of my dead soldiers as they headed down the hallway. For a second, I was relieved that no one seemed to be headed up the steps, so I prepared to make my escape. Then someone yelled, “Check every room!” and I dropped back down behind the boxes in a panic. It was only a matter of time before one of them kicked in the right door and found my cousin. I had to get to her somehow.