Becoming Carter (The Carter Series) (Volume 2) (24 page)

But, after we got married, I learned something about him that changed the way I felt almost instantly. I learned that he’s ruthless. I walked in on him one day when he was at his beloved Royal Flush casino. He was downstairs with his brother Clarence, and they were beating the heck out of some poor man. I guess the man owed my husband money. But, I didn’t understand because the man owed money that he was supposed to pay my husband for protection, so that other families wouldn’t ever try to hurt him. But, when he didn’t pay, my husband hurt him anyway. That was my first taste of extortion, and the first time I realized how ruthless he could be.”

I placed my plate on the small end table next to Kelvin, and then leaned back in my seat while Lula continued to reminisce.

“It seemed like everything kind of spiraled down from there. The next thing I knew, I was finding out all kinds of things about what he and his brothers were doing. The dirty money, the guns, the prostitutes, the gambling. I found out about it all, and it scared the heck out of me. He tried to convince me that it wasn’t a big deal. He would say ‘At least we’re not getting into drugs.’ As if drugs was the only illegal thing there was out there. Even though the Carters were always anti-drug, they were still dirty in every other way, and I knew that I needed to get out.

So, after trying to deal with it by ignoring everything that I knew was happening. I decided to deal with it by taking my boys and leaving. The only problem with that was that my oldest son, Frank, wanted to be with his father. It killed me to let him go with him, but I decided to honor his wish and let him live with Senior, and I took Kelvin Junior with me. It’s the biggest regret of my life. I’m sure Kelvin has already told you how that ended up for his brother.”

Lula had tears in her eyes as she looked down at the floor. It was obvious that her decision to let Fab go with his father still haunted her to this day. I understood completely.

“It wasn’t your fault, Mom,” Kelvin said, sensing his mother’s emotion. “What happened to Fab had nothing to do with you letting him go with Dad. What happened to Fab was Dad’s fault.”

Lula took a deep breath, and I watched a tear make its way down her cheek. “It’s all our faults. We all take some of the blame. All we can do is hope that God forgives us.”

“I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t mean to upset you. Maybe we should go,” Kelvin said solemnly as he began to rise from his seat.

“Sit down, Kelvin. It’s fine. I’m fine,” Lula said quickly, just before turning her attention back to me. “I made a mistake with Frank. A mistake that I’d never stand by and watch another woman make. So, if you’re insisting on staying with my son, Lily—which I hope you are, because I think you’re one of the few good things in his life—here’s my advice to you. In fact, I have advice for the both of you, so I need you to pay attention to what I’m about to say.”

Kelvin and I looked at each other in confusion, then we both turned to Lula and listened intently.

“I love you, Kelvin,” she began. Her smile was gone and she was obviously all business now. “More than anything in this world, I want what’s best for you. And I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if something ever happened to you.

I know you want to own the Red Chip. I think that’s a great idea, and I think you should go for it. You need to do whatever you can to get as far away from your father as you possibly can. You need to convince him to break ties with you and sign over the half of the casino that’s his, and once he does, you need to distance yourself from him, forever.

However, until you can do that, there’s something you need to know. Kelvin Carter is the most manipulative man I’ve ever known in my life. He’s also the smartest, and the most ambitious. He’ll do anything to get what he wants. So, no matter what happens, don’t ever trust him. Don’t ever think that you’re smarter than him, or that you’ve got one up on him, because I promise you, you’ll never out smart him. He’ll manipulate you, and use you however he can, to get whatever it is that he wants. He’ll make you think that you have an idea. He’ll even let you think you came up with it, when all along it was him, manipulating you into believing that it was your idea.”

I looked over at Kelvin as he stared at his mother with a baffled expression on his face. I knew his brain must’ve been going a million miles per hour as she spoke those words. Mine sure as hell was.

Lula leaned forward in her seat and stared directly at Kelvin, and then her eyes flashed over to me. “I need you both to understand this completely.
Nothing
is as it seems with Senior. It doesn’t matter how small or how big you think it is. There’s always something else—some hidden agenda. There’s always something going on behind the scenes. Don’t ever underestimate him.
Ever
. Do you understand?
Nothing
is as it seems.”

The ride back into the city was quiet at first. Neither of us said anything for the first ten minutes, and Kelvin didn’t even bother to turn on the radio. He just drove down the highway with a deep furrow in his brow, staring straight ahead. I knew what he was thinking about. It was same thing I was thinking about.

“You’re thinking about what your mom said, aren’t you?” I asked, even though I already knew the answer.

“Of course I am. Aren’t you?”

“Hell yeah. You think it’s true?”

Kelvin snapped his head in my direction and gave me a “are you fucking kidding?” look.

“Of course it’s true!” he snipped, startling me. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. It’s just that I know my mom, and she would never lie… about anything. And, she certainly wouldn’t lie about my dad. She’s known him since she was fourteen years old, so it’s pretty safe to say that she knows him better than just about anybody. Not to mention the fact that
I
know my dad, and I know just how manipulative he can be. He’s a liar, and a coward, and he’s always been willing to sacrifice damn near anything or anybody to get what he wants, and what he always wants is power and money. He’s obsessed with it. I wouldn’t put anything past him.”

“I understand what you’re saying. I know that the two of you have known Senior for so long, and you’ve seen him in action far before you ever knew me, so I totally get where you’re coming from. I didn’t mean to make you think that I was questioning your mother’s integrity, because I definitely wasn’t. I guess what I meant was, do you think he’s been lying to us the whole time?”

“See, that’s what I’ve been thinking about this whole time. I remember how strongly Uncle Deshaun felt when he was telling me about how I was right about my dad. He knew something was going on, and after he died, we come to find out that my dad was lying to both of us about protecting you. So, we found out the lie there, but there’s something more to it. There’s something that’s still unanswered that I just can’t let go of.”

I looked at Kelvin as he stared out the windshield. The confusion about his father was obviously eating him up inside.

“You want to know if he had something to do with it,” I stated matter-of-factly.

“If he had something to do with what?”

“You want to know if your father had something to do with your uncle’s death.”

I knew I was right, and I could tell from how quiet Kelvin got when I said it. What were the chances that Senior would be such an evil bastard that he’d kill his own brother, just to keep him from telling Kelvin about not protecting me? I had no trouble wrapping my head around the fact that Senior was an absolute prick, but was he really low enough to kill his own brother? That kind of shit would put him in a whole new category of assholes.

“What if he did have something to do with it?” Kelvin said suddenly. “What if he had Uncle Deshaun killed?”

“Then,” I started to say, before realizing that I didn’t know what was supposed to come after that. “I don’t know. I know that you think of him as the anti-Christ, but what would killing your uncle gain him? What could he possibly get out of that?”

“I don’t know. Maybe he just didn’t like the idea of one of the members of The Family going against the grain. Like I said, it’s all about power for him. He needs to feel like he’s in control at all times, and he needs everybody else to feel like he’s in control at all times. So, maybe this was his move. I just don’t fucking know.”

“With all due respect, Babe, you go against the grain far more than any of your uncles, and your father hasn’t tried to kill you.”

“Are you sure about that?” Kelvin snapped. “We don’t know that for sure. We don’t know what he’s done. You’re right, I do go against the grain, and he’s made it very clear that he hates that about me. He’s always telling me how I should be like Fab, and just go with the flow. So, maybe he
is
trying to get rid of me. He just hasn’t been able to do it yet.”

“Okay, but let’s think about this. If your father decided that he wanted to have you killed, who could he get to carry it out? You guys are a family, and I highly doubt that someone in The Family would be okay with killing you, even if your dad did give the order. They love you. Plus, the guy from the alley was Russian, and I don’t think your dad would be working with the Russians to have you killed.”

Kelvin nodded his head as he stared at the tail lights of the car driving in front of us. “Yeah, I guess you’re right about that. There’s no mistaking that thick ass Russian accent that guy had last night. But, I’m still not sure about all of this. Something about this just seems funny to me.

The stuff my mom was saying in there was deep. She said that he’d let you believe that you came up with an idea, when really it’d be him manipulating you into doing what he wants you to do. That some deep, scary shit. Isn’t it?”

“Yeah, it is. It takes some skill to con somebody like that. It also takes a lot of knowledge. But, we don’t know anything for sure, so what I think we need to do is find out the truth, and the only way to do that is to stay close to him.”

“To who? My father?” Kelvin asked like he couldn’t believe it.

“Yes. You know what they say. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. That might be something you want to apply in this situation. At least until we find out the truth about everything.”

Kelvin nodded his head once again. “Maybe you’re right. Because I know one thing for sure—just like my mom said—there’s something going on behind the scenes. There has to be a reason why he hasn’t ordered a hit on anyone in the Russian family after they killed Fab, attempted
two
hits on me, and killed Uncle Deshaun. There isn’t a boss in this world who’d let that slide. That’s just a little too much disrespect from one source. So, there has to be something else going on, and we’re gonna find out what it is.”

“I’m with you, Baby,” I said. “Whatever you want to do, I’m with you.”

Kelvin finally merged off the highway and headed towards inner city Chicago. We came to a red light, and the second the car was fully stopped, Kelvin leaned over and gave me a small kiss on the lips.

“I’m so glad that you were able to meet my mother today. She loved you, by the way—if you couldn’t already tell.”

“Well, I must say, she’s pretty amazing. Definitely one of the sweetest women I’ve ever met. It’s hard to imagine her being with your father though.”

Kelvin finally flashed a hint of a smile. “I know, right. Yeah, that’s why they aren’t together anymore. I think my mom put up with as much as she possibly could before she left. She’s a very forgiving person, even when she probably shouldn’t be. But, eventually, she had enough and did what she needed to do. There’s no telling where I’d be if she hadn’t left him.”

“That’s true,” I said, just as I noticed a black Mercedes pull up next to us on Kelvin’s side of the car. “Who knows what would’ve happened if…” The first gunshot shattered the window and scared the shit out of me, but it was the multiple shots afterwards that filled me with absolute horror.

I only had a second to glance out the shattered window and see the arm hanging out the Mercedes window with a pistol in its tattoo-covered hand, then everything went dark as Kelvin pulled me down and covered my body with his own as the bullets flew into the car. I could hear the whistling sound as some of the bullets went over our heads, but I could also hear some bullets piercing metal as they hit Kelvin’s door. I could barely even hear myself screaming as the popping sound of the gun drowned out the sound of my voice.

It seemed like it lasted an hour, but it was actually only about ten seconds before the shots stopped and I heard the tires of the Mercedes screeching as the car sped off. Then, all I could hear was the sound of our breathing as Kelvin continued to shield me with his body. My heart was pounding, and I felt like I was on the verge of a panic attack. It was the sound of Kelvin’s voice that finally calmed me down.

“Are you okay, Lilliana?” he said sedately, somehow staying calm through the whole thing.

“I’m okay,” I said. “Are you okay?”

“I think so. I think they’re gone.” Kelvin slowly raised himself off of me and gave me a once over. “Are you sure you’re okay?

“Yes,” I replied as I knocked broken glass off my clothes. “I think I’m okay. Are you sure… Is that blood?”