The Family Business 3 (10 page)

The elevator stopped on the seventh floor. Good thing that Samuel had pushed the button before we took care of him, or else we would have had to search every floor to find Junior. Even so, I still had no clue which room on the seventh floor was his, so I did the only thing I could think of: I started putting the key card into doors to see if one would open. Sasha stayed in the elevator, holding the door open so it wouldn't travel back down to the lobby. The last thing we needed was for an elevator full of dead bodies to arrive down there. I moved as fast as I could, knowing that she could only hold it for so long before someone started to wonder why it was stuck on this floor.

“Hurry up!” Sasha hissed, as if I didn't understand how serious this was. I flipped her the bird at the same time I slid the key into a lock and the light turned green.

“Junior! It's me, Paris,” I called into the room before entering so that my brother wouldn't greet me with a gun in his hand. We Duncans had been known to shoot first and ask questions later—or at least some of us had. As I stepped into the room, however, I realized that there had been no reason for me to announce myself. The room was empty except for a couple of suitcases.

“Dammit!” I stuck my head out of the room and called down the hall to Sasha. “Yo, push all the buttons to the top floor and then get down here.”

When she got into the room, I gave her instructions. “I need you to go find the surveillance room and destroy the video of what just happened in that elevator—along with the one of us entering the elevator and the lobby.” I didn't need to explain to her how bad things would be for our whole family if we were identified. It wasn't like we were in L.A. or Miami, where nobody knew us. This was New York. We lived here.

“You better pray to God that there is a man guarding those tapes. I'll meet you at the car.” She took off, leaving me in the hotel room alone.

I opened the first suitcase to discover that it was completely empty, devoid of clothes, so it was no surprise when I found the second one held only a pair of Junior's jeans and a sweatshirt. A woman's outfit that must have been Sonya's was draped over a chair. I turned around and spotted two cell phones on the bed. Things were going from bad to worse. Ditching cell phones was the first thing someone did when they were getting ready to go off the grid.

With no valuable information to be found, it was time for me to get the hell out of there. By now someone could have spotted the bodies, and it wouldn't be long before I was hearing sirens. Grabbing the phones on my way out, I headed for the stairwell. Less than three minutes later, I was in the car, feeling jittery as I waited for Sasha.

She slid into the car a few minutes later. “Mission accomplished,” she said proudly, always ready to brag about her skill for getting whatever she wanted out of a man. “But our handiwork has been discovered. Five-O should be here any minute.”

Just as I drove away from the parking lot, two NYPD cruisers arrived in front of the hotel.

“Any clue where Junior and Sonya are?” Sasha asked as we headed down Ditmars to the entrance of the Van Wyck Expressway.

“No fucking idea. Probably in the wind.” I showed her their phones. “They left these behind.”

She shook her head. “Damn. This is bad, cuz.”

“No shit.”

I picked up my phone and dialed Orlando's number. “Hey, O, it's me. Tell Daddy that it looks like Junior and ol' girl have gone ghost for good.”

“Are you sure?” Orlando asked.

“Yeah, I'm sure. We had to take out three of X's men to protect an empty hotel room. Only thing we found was their cell phones,” I told him.

Orlando let out a frustrated sigh. “Well, he's a big boy. He can take care of himself. Right now I want you two to get outta there and go to one of our safe houses,” he barked into the phone. “I got a feeling it's about to get real hot once X finds out about his three dead soldiers.”

I was feeding Lenny and Squiggy while I waited for word from our men at the Marriott. Those rats were the only thing that kept me from punching holes in the walls as I paced the room. Samuel and his men had been over by the hotel for almost two hours, so I was expecting that no-good heifer I called a wife and her punk-ass lover to be groveling at my feet at any minute. I couldn't wait to get my hands on both of those adulterous infidels.

I'd just sliced off a piece of pear and tossed it to Lenny when Elijah walked in the room looking very uncomfortable. I didn't have to ask to know that he was bringing me bad news. He stood there staring at me, his eyes looking everywhere but right at me.

“Tell me you have my wife.” I slid a peanut across the table to Squiggy. “Tell me she's tied up alongside that homewrecker Junior Duncan so she can watch me peel his skin from his body inch by inch with this knife.”

“I wish I could, Xavier, but—” He stopped, screwing up his face as if he couldn't figure out which words to say next.

“Just tell me what the fuck happened.”

“As you know, we had Junior and your wife under surveillance at the Marriott. I sent three of our men, including my cousin Samuel, to retrieve them.”

“And?” I said impatiently. “Do not tell me they lost them.”

Elijah looked like he was in pain as he told me, “Worse. I just got word that all three of them were killed, including Samuel.”

I pounded my fist on the table, sending Lenny and Squiggy scurrying away. “That's impossible. How did this happen?”

“I'm not a hundred percent sure . . .” he started weakly. He knew damn well that I wouldn't accept anything less than a full report. “All I know right now is that our men were ambushed in the hotel elevator, killed like fish in a barrel.”

“Dammit! You don't just sneak up on a man like Samuel, Elijah. He was as good as we got. I trained him myself.” I was up in his face now, furiously pointing a finger at his nose. “This is why I wanted to go there myself. If I was there, this wouldn't have happened.”

Elijah stood his ground. “You know why you couldn't go there. Your face is plastered all over the news. The cops are blaming you for killing Nugent and Jefferson. Right now, you're the most wanted man in New York. You've got to keep a low profile.”

I fell back into a chair, gripping the arms tightly as I tried to contain my rage. “You're right.” As much as I needed someone to blame, I couldn't fault Elijah. He was always looking out for my best interests. “So you're telling me that Junior Duncan did this?”

“He's the prime suspect. I'm pretty sure it wasn't your wife. No woman could do this type of thing to Samuel.”

I had to agree. “Who are these people, Elijah? Have you found out who they are?”

“The Jew was right. They're not who they seem to be, that is for sure. I've reached out to some of our Russian and Italian friends, but no one wants to talk about them. I'm working on something now to get us all the information we need.”

A knock on the door interrupted our conversation. Elijah went to answer it, and when he returned, it appeared as if life had been pumped into him again. “We managed to capture one of their men during a shootout over at your wife's place. They've been working him over the past hour. I thought you might want to see if you can loosen his tongue. He's just a few blocks away.”

“Let's go!” I barked, already headed to the door.

“Yo, X,” Elijah called out, stopping me. I turned around to see him holding out a pair of sunglasses and a kufi cap for me to put on. “We're not going far, but you still can't risk being recognized.”

 

 

It only took us five minutes to arrive at the garage where my men had stashed this guy. Ahmed rode along with us, ready with his M16 to take out anyone I directed him to.

“Is he talking?” I asked as we approached Barack, one of our most loyal soldiers, who was posted up outside the building.

“Nothing, except that his name is Lincoln. No idea if that's true or not.”

Ahmed opened the door, and we entered the room where Lincoln was tied up. His face was covered in bruises, and blood leaked from his mouth. He had clearly been worked over. Two of my men stood over him, and both appeared sweaty and frustrated.

“Anything?” I asked.

“Not a thing,” another soldier named Kori answered. “I mean, he's a straight-up soldier. I think the guy has a death wish.”

“Let me be the judge of that.” I approached Lincoln and took the seat right in front of him, removing my sunglasses. “Do you know who I am?”

His eyes widened, letting me know his answer, but I wanted to hear it from him. I waited silently, staring him down until he admitted, “Yes.”

“I hear you're a real trooper. Do you want me to kill you?” I asked, leaving no question in my tone that I could do that swiftly and mercilessly. “Are you ready to die?”

“I'm not afraid of death, if that's what you're asking. Besides, we both know you're going to kill me anyway, so you might as well get it over with.” He locked his eyes on mine. This guy was devoid of fear, or at least he desperately wanted me to believe that he was, but the one thing I'd learned was that every man has an Achilles' heel. I just had to find his.

“I probably am,” I told him, “but there are just so many different ways to die. And who knows? I might be feeling generous today.”

“Fuck you,” he spat as he sat back, waiting for the abuse to begin. “You can't do any worse than your boys.”

“Just tell us something. You do not want this man putting it on you,” Ahmed said, sounding as if he was genuinely trying to spare Lincoln some pain.

Lincoln stubbornly shook his head, refusing.

I moved closer to him, pulling my secret weapons out of my pocket. Lincoln's eyes grew fearful as I placed Lenny and Squiggy on the ground. I squeaked, and they ran up under his pants legs, making their way up to his thighs. He started squirming, trying to move them, but with his arms tied behind his back, there wasn't much that he could do. They were having a field day on his legs.

“Aagghhhh!” Lincoln screamed. I looked around and saw some of my men grimacing as they witnessed this.

“They like dick, but they especially like nuts,” I said, laughing.

“What the hell is this? What type of sick fuck are you? Stop!” He was pleading, but I wasn't ready to give in just yet. I was enjoying the effect my pets were having on this hard-ass. I always enjoyed it. I'd seen these two take down sadistic motherfuckers who were doing consecutive life sentences, guys so tough that they made Lincoln look like a little bitch.

I leaned in close to him, speaking calmly. “Tell me about the Duncans or I will let them devour your dick. If you think you're in pain now, can you imagine how much pain they can inflict on something as sensitive as your balls?”

“That's a whole lot of pain,” Elijah commented. “If it were me?” He threw his hands up, admitting he would have surrendered by now.

“They will chew your nuts into tiny bits,” I said.

“I've seen it. It's not very pretty,” Elijah added.

“All right! All right! Please! I'll tell you what you want to know,” Lincoln cried out.

I squeaked twice, and Lenny and Squiggy came scurrying out of his pants legs. I reached down and retrieved them, giving each a kiss.

“Tell me what you know about the Duncans, and don't leave out anything.”

Lincoln couldn't take his eyes off of Lenny and Squiggy squirming in my hands.

It took him a minute to compose himself enough to speak. He finally said, “Honestly, man, I don't know much. The Duncans are like that. They keep things compartmentalized so that nobody outside of the family has that much information about them.”

“But they're not just car dealers,” I said, expecting him to confirm what I already suspected.

He hesitated, and I lifted Lenny and Squiggy closer to his face. That was all it took to get him talking again. “They're probably the largest distributors on the East Coast. I hear their business expands all the way from Canada down to the islands. I think they even do business in Europe.”

“You
hear
? You
think
? How come nobody seems to know about them?” I asked angrily.

“Mainly because they are so good at what they do. Word is LC's not greedy, always makes his partners money, doesn't do business with street level people or folks he doesn't know, and most importantly, he doesn't trust anyone other than family. Men like that don't grow on trees. Shit, some say he was Ollie North's partner in Iran-contra.”

I saw the look Elijah gave me. These people were seriously connected.

“And Junior, is he the most dangerous son?” It made sense to me that he would be the bad-ass because of the way he took out Samuel in that elevator.

“Junior is no joke, but the one I wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley is his younger brother, Vegas. You wouldn't know from looking at him, but dude's supposed to be some kind of Jason Bourne type one-man army. He had motherfuckers scared from his jail cell.”

Ahmed jumped in. “Wait, I heard of a guy named Vegas on the inside. That cat had Sing-Sing on lock. He might as well have been the warden. Even the COs answered to him. That shit was crazy. But he wasn't a bully; he was calm and deadly.”

“Yeah, that's him. He just got out.” Lincoln shook his head. “He can be the nicest person, and in a second he turns into a cold-blooded killer. You do not want to get on his bad side.” Lincoln smiled at me, looking like a devil as he revealed his bloodied teeth.

“He's the one the Jew warned us about,” Elijah said. “Who else they got worth talking about?”

Half a squeak from me and he was talking up a storm this time. For someone who claimed not to know much about the Duncans, he suddenly had information on every member of the family. Lenny and Squiggy had really done their job getting what I needed out of this guy.

“Orlando, but he's more of a businessman than a gangster. He runs Duncan Motors, but he's not afraid to get dirty if that's what the situation calls for. The youngest son, Rio, is a straight up homo, but he stays strapped too. There's also a son-in-law, Harris. He's the family attorney, and he knows his shit. He's basically in charge of cleaning up their money and keeping them out of jail. Then there's the girls—”

“I don't want to hear about any useless women,” I told him dismissively. He smirked at me and shut up.

“So, what's your detail? What do you do for the Duncans?” He was so busy watching me stroke my pets that it appeared he didn't even hear me. “Hello? What is your normal detail?”

“I'm in charge of one of the warehouses. I work for Kennedy, the guy y'all killed.”

“One of the warehouses? How many do they have?”

“I don't know. Depends on the product. The one I work at houses weed. But I'm sure there are others that house different contraband. They got them all over the country, but I only know that the one I work at just got a shipment.” He had finally gotten my attention again.

I peppered this snitch with questions until I was convinced that I knew everything he knew, and that was just enough to help us make our next move.

I pulled Elijah aside to talk to him. “Interesting. Very fuckin' interesting. It would seem that Bernie may have been right. Taking out LC Duncan is the key to destroying the Duncans from within.”

“One thing I still don't understand,” Elijah commented. “With LC Duncan dead and the Duncans crippled, what does the Jew get out of all of this?”

“I don't know. You'd think the way they have their fingers in everything that they'd lose money if the Duncans went under.” I dropped Lenny and Squiggy to the floor to let them run around. After all, they'd done a great job.

“Fuck!” Lincoln yelled, kicking Lenny across the room.

I raced over and grabbed him by the throat. “You kicked him?”

“I should have stomped his ass. It bit me. I hate rats.”

“Do you have any idea how much I love those rats?” I screamed. “After my wife, they are everything to me. Everything!” I grabbed my blade and drove it into his heart. Lincoln's head slumped onto his chest, and I looked up at Elijah. “Now that that's done, let's go kill some Duncans.”