Welfare Wifeys (39 page)

Rico’s niece had a beautiful wedding ceremony at St. Michael’s Cathedral. Rico had to pull quite a bit of strings to make it happen, but nothing was too good for his niece. Carmen had insisted that the wedding was off-limits so the only people there who he had street ties with were Shai and Swan. He tried to thank Shai for the little tip he gave him about Animal, but Shai barely said two words to him. It was as if he was upset that Animal had failed to kill Rico. No matter, Shai was on borrowed time anyway. When Rico was able to restructure his inner crew he was coming for Shai’s throne.

Rico came down the stairs flanked by all the wedding guests,
throwing rice at his niece and her new husband. When he got down to the bottom of the steps he saw a little black boy wearing thick glasses peddling flowers. “Shoo, shoo, don’t you see we’re having a wedding here?”

“I’m sorry, sir, I’m just trying to hustle off some of these flowers,” the boy said timidly.

“We’ve got enough flowers so take a hike.” Rico shoved him.

“But not like these, they smell really nice.” The little boy held one of the bouquets up for Rico to inspect. Rico noticed that there was something wedged between the flowers and when he looked closer to inspect them Ashanti pulled the trigger.

The bullet went in Rico’s throat and out the back of his neck, spattering the bridesmaids with blood. When Rico dropped to his knees Ashanti shot him again in the gut. Brasco came next, firing a shot into Rico’s back as the wedding guests watched in horror. Even Nef had finally gotten his hands dirty and gave Rico two shots. Shai’s men moved to intervene, but Shai stopped them as he knew that this was not their battle.

As the young gunmen were leaving Ashanti stopped and pointed his fingers at Swan in the shape of a gun and made a popping sound with his mouth. “See you around, playboy.”

As Animal had expected the judge remanded him and ruled that he be held without bail until his next court date. The attorney Gucci had hired for him tried to dispute it but the judge wouldn’t hear it. The witnesses and the police painted a picture of Animal as a remorseless killer who wasn’t fit to walk the streets and the judged believed them. This was a battle that Animal would have to fight behind the wall. Detectives Brown and Alvarez were floating so high on their horse that they volunteered to take Animal to Rikers Island.

“Looks like we finally got your black ass, huh? Big bad Animal
about to spend the rest of his life in a cage, how fucking ironic is that?” Detective Brown taunted Animal, but he wouldn’t feed into it.

“You know for as pretty as you are, kid, I’d hate to be you when your ass touches that rock.” Alvarez laughed.

“Man, both of y’all can suck my dick. Just either take me to jail or shoot me and put me out of my misery, but please stop talking,” Animal said and busied himself looking out the window. Ahead of them there were some men directing traffic around some construction that was going on near the on ramp to the BQE.

“What the fuck is this?” Detective Alvarez grimaced at the construction.

“Fuck it, J. Throw the lights on and go through it,” Brown suggested.

While the two detectives were arguing about their best course of action, Animal saw what they didn’t which was one of the construction workers pulling a gun.

Animal hit the floor of the car just as the shooting started. Glass shattered all around him and he could feel Detective Alvarez lose control of the car. The sedan jumped the curb, striking two cars and a fire hydrant before coming to rest on its side. Animal used his legs and slid over broken glass out the back window of the car. He felt like his arm was broken and it was hard for him to breathe, but he kept crawling. Through his blurred vision he could see a brindle pit bull stalking toward him. The dog leaned in and snarled in Animal’s face. He was so hurt that if the pit decided to maul him all he would be able to do was lie there.

“Isis come.” He heard a voice through his fog of pain.

Animal focused his eyes as best he could and followed the dog to the voice. He looked up and saw a pair of green eyes staring down at him from a coal-black face. “Damn, I know I’m in hell if you’re here,” Animal mumbled.

“Nah, you ain’t dead. There’s someone who’s been waiting a long time to see you and we have need of your unique skills. Get him
in the van,” the green-eyed man ordered someone Animal couldn’t see.

“Where are you taking me?” Animal asked, trying to stay conscious long enough to hear the answer.

“You let me worry about that. Just think of it as a family reunion,” the green-eyed man told him. The last thing Animal heard was the green-eyed man’s all too familiar laugh before the darkness took him.