Angel's Revenge (26 page)

Yet Rahman couldn’t help but feel uncomfortable for thinking about murdering someone who had been so close to his heart. He
looked at Hanif and asked him the question that had been heavy on his mind since the Timberland hit.

“Hanif, I know our cause is just. But do you think we’re serving it justly?”

“I remind you of the people in the boat, some on the top, some on the bottom. If the people on the top don’t stop the fools
then everyone will drown.”

Rahman knew the story well.

“They are sinkin’ our society, Rah. How else can we stop them?”

“Set it up,” Rahman ordered without another thought. “But I gotta be the one to do it,” he added, knowing to send someone
else would be cowardly.

Hanif had already figured as much.

Angel had one weakness, her love of shoes. She had always been a sneaker fanatic. Her favorite spot to shop was the Newport
Center Mall in Jersey City. Rahman knew this and planned to use it against her. When people indulge their desires, their defenses
are down.

It took several days of surveillance before he received the call.

“She’s here.”

He had been staying in Jersey City, a few blocks from the mall, waiting for his team to call.

Angel, Goldilocks, and Capo pulled up in Capo’s chrome 745. The mall was moderately crowded but the two gorgeous killers still
managed to turn heads in their short shorts and multicolored tanks. Angel both hated and loved the attention. She hated it
because she’d rather be who she really was, but she needed the attention. The clothes were the bait, or at least that’s how
she wore them.

Since her conversation with Rahman, Angel’s demeanor had changed, and Goldilocks was worried. Everything became strictly business
and money. She took no shorts from her team, and Goldilocks was no exception. Any little thing set her off. Angel was like
a walking time bomb. Goldilocks didn’t understand why.

For Angel, all she had ever loved was Dutch and the family. Rahman had come to represent all that to her since everyone else
was gone. True, they had irreconcilable differences, which she understood, but for Roc to tell her they were enemies extinguished
whatever feelings of love she held in her being. For Angel, there was no more loyalty, therefore no more trust. So she trusted
no one, nor could she be trusted. All she had left was the money, power, and respect she extorted from the streets, and she
held it all down with an iron fist.

Goldilocks had watched in horror one night as Angel made Capo beat a nigga to a bloody death with a lead pipe because he had
fucked up fifty grand, peanuts in their operation. It was then Goldi realized that Angel was walking a very dangerous edge.

“Baby, I’ve been thinking,” Goldilocks said as they walked through the mall. “Why don’t we go away for a while. Take a trip
somewhere. Anywhere. Just you and me.”

“Maybe in a couple of months, ma. Shit is too hectic right now for me to get away,” Angel replied.

“Which is exactly why you need to go. Capo can handle things, right, Capo?”

“No doubt. There’s nothin’ I can’t handle,” he confirmed, trying to convince a leery Angel. Angel grinned slightly, but her
eyes remained stone.

“
Callete,
okay?” She spoke calmly.

Capo and Goldi knew not to push the point so the conversation was over.

Angel looked at Capo, then at Goldilocks. She just couldn’t figure it out.
Goldi never thinks about the paper. Capo’s a thirstball but Goldi acts like the money is nothing.
Angel didn’t know if that was a good thing or a bad thing. If she took the “love” issue out of the equation, then what was
Goldi doing with her?

Angel no longer believed in love, so she doubted the authenticity of Goldi’s. If Roc could turn against her, then anybody
could. Angel decided to let the relationship run its course. She was on point, now more than ever, and even Goldi would fall
under her magnifying glass.

They entered Angel’s favorite sneaker spot in the Newport mall and began to browse. The walls were covered on all four sides
with the newest editions and retro throwback styles. Angel came to spend even though she already had over a hundred pairs
of sneakers and hadn’t worn even half of them.

“Good afternoon, Ms. Alvarez,” said a white guy in a referee-striped shirt. He welcomed her like the regular she was. “Glad
you dropped by. That special order of Air Force Ones arrived two days ago.” He smiled, then disappeared into the back to get
them.

“Now, these are hot,” Goldilocks remarked, removing the silver-and-black T-Macs from the display. “You like ’em, boo? You
gonna cop ’em for me?” she chimed.

“Why? So you can walk away from me in ’em?” Angel retorted sourly.

Sourpuss, sourpuss,
Goldi thought. “Yo, what the fuck is wrong with you? You got a real fucked-up attitude.”

The man returned with four boxes of sneakers and set them on the counter. “Here you are, Ms. Alvarez.”

“Yo, Duke! What color you got these in?” Capo asked the salesman across the floor as he held up a pair of shell-top Adidas.

The man squinted and replied, “I’ll have to check.”

“Just give me every color you got in a size ten,” Capo ordered. He loved shopping ’cause he was able to order around the salespeople.

Just as the clerk started off for the back, a loud, irrationally high-pitched alarm filled the mall, startling everyone.

“What is that?” Goldilocks cringed, covering her ears.

The clerk rushed over to the register and picked up the phone.

The PA announcer came over the system.

“Mall shoppers, may I have your attention, please. At this time, we ask that you calmly move toward the exit nearest you.
There is no need for alarm but we do request your immediate cooperation. Thank you.”

The alarm continued to scream. Despite the calm announcement, shoppers moved at a rapid pace, bordering on panic. On the way
out, Goldilocks commented to Capo, “What the hell is going on? Terrorists attacking the malls now?”

Her comment sparked a déjà vu in Angel, stopping her dead in her tracks. During the Month of Murder, Roc and Zoom had used
the same tactic. Create confusion, murder, and then escape in the chaos. It was a timely thought that made her instantly aware
of her surroundings. She felt her life was in danger, saw it coming for a split second, and then all hell broke loose as the
mall erupted in gunfire and screams. The first shot from Rahman grazed her in the upper arm as she pushed people out of her
way. The second shot shattered the window behind her as she dove for cover.

“Fuck!” Angel cursed at the sight of her own blood, adrenaline pumping too fast for her to feel the pain.

“Angel!” Goldilocks screamed, not knowing how serious her wound was.

“I’m good! Move! Where’s Capo?! Capo!”

Angel came up firing recklessly, almost hitting two young girls.

The mall was in total chaos. Six shooters and Rahman were all trying to take Angel down.

Capo pulled his gun and popped the safety.

“Angel!” he called out, peering from a rack of T-shirts.

His voice and words were rewarded with a barrage of gunfire. He returned the shots, but the next round found its way into
the flesh of his neck. Two more shots finished him off.

“Capo!” Angel screamed from behind the counter. She and Goldilocks were using it for cover. She watched as Capo was gunned
down and fired on the killer.

“Move with the crowd! He won’t shoot into a crowd!” Angel commanded Goldi, then reloaded her nine. “Let’s go!”

Goldilocks emerged from their hiding place first, gripping her pistol like a trained gunman. Two of her three shots found
fatal homes in the flesh of two of the shooters. As she and Angel ducked and dodged through the crowd, Angel was amazed at
her accuracy.
Damn, this bitch shoot better than me.

Rahman and his team circled the mall, trying to cut Angel off and fish her out of the crowd. The mall police were looking
for the shooters in the midst of the madness.

Angel saw the police at the door and made a decision to dip through the exit that led to the subway that ran under the mall.

“She took the stairs!” Hanif shouted to Rahman. They both headed in that direction.

“Freeze, or I’ll shoot!” a cop screamed at one of the shooters, before catching two shots in his face from a second shooter
to his left.

“Ock! Let’s go!” Hanif screamed.

Angel and Goldilocks jumped down the steps three at a time and fired back up to keep Roc at bay.

The people waiting on the train platform screamed and ducked as Angel and Goldilocks ran down to the far end.

“Go back, Hanif! I got it from here! Police is everywhere! Let me do this,” Rahman ordered.

“You sure?”

Rahman nodded, and Hanif moved in the opposite direction, away from Rahman.

Rahman skipped down the steps, staying close to the wall as he reached the platform. The train hadn’t arrived yet and the
people were hiding behind whatever they could.

“So this is how it ends, Roc, huh?” Angel screamed from behind a steel support column. She fired two shots that struck the
wall inches from Rahman’s head. “I know you can hear me, muthafucka!”

Rahman remained quiet, inching closer to the pinned-down Angel. She peeked around the column, and he let off three shots in
rapid succession. She nodded to Goldilocks next to her, who hunched down low and crept along the opposite side, attempting
to circle around and trap Roc.

“You wanna kill me, Roc? You want me dead? After all we been through?” Angel saw that Goldilocks was ready.

Angel came out from hiding, her gun lowered. “Here I am.”

Rahman slipped out from behind a beam and was about to squeeze off a shot when he felt a powerful thud in his upper back that
slammed him face-first into the pavement.

It was Goldilocks. She had crept up behind him from the other end of the platform. Once Roc came out, he was so focused on
Angel, he was a sitting duck for Goldilocks. But he had come prepared. The bullet crumbled on impact as it hit his Kevlar
vest instead of penetrating his flesh.

Goldilocks was about to fire on Roc again, but Angel yelled out, “Goldi, behind you!”

Two police officers were at the top of the stairs. Angel fired over Goldi’s head and her bullets caught the cops dead in their
tracks, dropping them to the floor. The distraction, however, was enough to give Rahman a chance to roll onto the tracks just
inches from the third rail.

The platform rumbled as a train steamed in on the other side. Angel and Goldilocks jumped on the train.

“You missed me, Roc! But, I’m not gonna miss you. Holla back!” she yelled, holding her wound as the doors shut and the train
pulled off.

Rahman sat with his throbbing back to the concrete wall, listening to Angel’s taunt. He had missed. Now all he could do was
wait until she hollered back.

He struggled to his feet and disappeared down the dark tunnel, making his escape.

PEACE

I
’m going to miss you, Ms. Martin,” Susan, her secretary, confessed warmly.

They stood in Nina’s office among cardboard cartons waiting to be removed.

“Me, too, Susan. I know we got off to a bad start and all…”

“No need. It was all a misunderstanding. I know I can be a bitch sometimes. But we worked it out and that’s all that matters,”
she said. “So what’s the plan? Got a better offer somewhere else?”

What is the plan? I don’t even know.

Nina didn’t have a better offer. In fact, she wasn’t looking for one. She had impulsively handed in her two weeks’ notice
almost on the spur of the moment. She needed to get away.

After the breakup with Dwight, she tried to refocus on work but just couldn’t pull it together. She knew Dwight was perfect
for her and she had been a fool.

So she had to get away. She felt it was her only choice. Her financial investments were sound enough to live off of. What
wasn’t sound was her peace of mind. She knew the only way to move on with her life and be free of the ghosts of her past was
to relocate. Maybe down south, maybe out west. But first, she booked a Caribbean cruise vacation. She would sail around the
islands, figure out a plan for her future, and decide what she wanted out of life. Money wasn’t the issue. She had enough
in savings to cover her relocation, and Nina didn’t have to work. She worked because it was what she had chosen to do with
her life.

“Well, whatever you decide, I wish you the best,” Susan said, sensing Nina’s hesitancy to discuss her plans.

“Thank you, Susan. I really appreciate that.”

Susan walked to the door and put her hand on the knob. She turned around and faced Nina.

“Even though things didn’t work out with Dwight, I think you are a good person and you deserve the best. Don’t let disappointments
make you not believe in rainbows. There’s a pot of gold for everybody. You just have to find it.”

I just have to find it? Yeah, maybe she’s right or maybe I just lost my pot of gold when I let Dwight go.

Susan walked out leaving Nina to ponder.

Three days later, Angel retaliated.

She drove silently in a blue Taurus rental and a blonde wig, her arm in a sling. Every time she moved it, she felt pain, and
every time she felt pain, she thought of Roc.

Angel had to hate him. She had to despise him. She knew what she had to do, and the only way she could carry out what she
had to was to let hate boil inside her. The look in his eyes on the subway platform played over and over again in her mind.

“Here I am,” she had said to him, stepping into his path.

Angel thought of how he hadn’t hesitated to raise his gun, eyes focused like a hawk’s, ready to shed her blood like she meant
nothing to him.

Who the fuck is he? Fuck him! Fuckin’ sellout!
she chanted in her mind, trying to convince herself that she hated him.

And, oh, how she wanted to. But something in her heart wouldn’t let her. Several times, she fought the urge to turn back.
But pride pushed her forward as she headed to the conclusion of her mission.