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  We arrived at a door at the end of the hallway and I assumed that this was where the card game was. It was different than all of the other doors since it was wooden and not steel.

  Armando waited for his boys to catch up to us. He aimed his gun and shot the lock off of the door. Then one of his boys, the tallest of them all, kicked the door open and led the way inside. He wasted no time before he put a bullet in the two men who were standing by the door. The rest of us rushed inside right behind him. I wanted no part of the killing that was taking place, but at that point I didn’t have a choice.

  Conrad was standing between the bar and the card table still smoking his cigar while the other three players sat at the table in stunned silence. Everybody’s eyes shot to the door on the other side of the room as Big Tone came running in carrying a sawed-off shot gun.

  “Drop that and put your hands up,” Armando told Tone. “As a matter of fact, all you motherfuckers put your hands where I can see ‘em.” Everybody did as Armando said, everybody except Conrad. He just stood there with one hand in the pocket of his slacks staring at us as if the presence of our guns didn’t bother him one bit.

  “You got a hearing problem, my man?” one of Armando’s boys asked Conrad. “He said put your hands up.”

  “What exactly did you gentlemen come here for?” Conrad asked. “Did you come to rob us?”

  “Yeah, that’s right,” Armando replied. “But since your boys gave us a problem out in the hallway, it looks like I’m going to have to kill somebody.” Armando looked around at all of the men at the table then rested his gaze on Conrad. “A life for a life, right?” he said.

  “I’m sure that mantra may serve you well on your side of town,” Conrad said, his words as smooth as oil. “But in here, we don’t play by your rules. We play by mine.”

  “I don’t give a damn about your rules,” Armando spat viciously, “because in a few minutes, you won’t be anything but some dead guy to me, motherfucker.”

  All of a sudden, the bearded white guy flipped the card table over causing cards and bills to fly up in the air, creating a diversion while he dove behind the table. Instinctively, Armando and his crew started letting off rounds all over the place. The bald black guy was smart enough to take cover behind the table as well, but Wu didn’t move quick enough and took a bullet to the neck before falling to the floor.

  Three of Francisco’s men came rushing in through the door on the other side of the room just as Tone took a bullet to the chest. Conrad lunged at Armando and tackled him to the floor. While they wrestled for his gun, me and Armando’s boys found ourselves in a shoot-out with Francisco’s men. There wasn’t much furniture in the room but we found cover the best that we could. It was complete chaos, but that didn’t stop the black guy and the white guy from coming from behind the table and escaping through the door that we had kicked open. Everything in me wanted to get up and run out of there with them, but I couldn’t. I was too deep in that shit.

  One of Armando’s boys exposed himself and immediately he was cut down by three bullets. Now all Armando had was me and two of his boys left, and he was still wrestling with Conrad who had a slight size advantage over him. From my spot on the side of the couch I watched as all of the shooting took place. One by one Armando’s crew and Francisco’s men took each other out until I was the last one remaining.

  I looked over and saw that Conrad had gained the advantage over Armando. He was on top of Armando and they both had their hands on the rifle. Slowly but surely Conrad overpowered him until the barrel of the gun was pressed against Armando’s abdomen. Conrad pulled the trigger twice which was enough to make Armando’s body go limp. Still holding the gun, Conrad got up, stood over him, and unloaded the gun into Armando’s body until there were no bullets left.

  Conrad’s back was to me so I figured that I’d be able to sneak out without him noticing. I quietly rose to my feet and turned toward the door. Unfortunately, with the amount of dead bodies that were scattered all over the room there was no way that I could get to the door at the far end of the room.

  “Hold it right there,” I heard Conrad say. I froze in the place that I was standing and wished to God that I had just one bullet left.

  “I know exactly who you are,” he said as I turned around to face him. He walked toward me as he continued to speak. His movement was slow and fluid as he stared me down, only coming to a halt once he was standing in front of me. “And I know what your brother did to my cousin. Looks like you’re going to have to pay for his deed.”

  Conrad pulled a knife out of his pocket and shoved it into my stomach, causing me to cry out in pain.

  “A life for a life, right,” he said into my ear before shoving the knife even deeper. I thought for sure that I was going to pass out at any moment. “This will teach you and your brother to never mess with my family again.” After saying that, he snatched the knife out and watched as I fell to the floor.

  “You don’t deserve a quick death, so I’m gonna let you die slow.” He went to the bar and used a towel to wipe off the knife and then walked out of the room like nothing happened.

  I lay there in the puddle of my own blood that was forming under my body. The silence of death was all around me, and I waited for my moment to come. It seemed as if this was the night that karma had paid me a visit with her cruel revenge.

  I was fading in and out of consciousness, and my whole life was flashing before my eyes. I started remembering sentimental moments from my brief twenty-three years that I hadn’t thought about in a long time. Visions of my childhood birthday parties, family vacations, and moments spent with my father all began to flood my mind at once. I remembered that I had lived a happy life, one that was filled with love and joy until things took a turn for the worst. It was my desperation for revenge that had me in this situation, about to take my last breath. But when I thought about how I was never going to see my mother and siblings again, it provided the motivation that I needed to find a way to survive this. The will to live was still alive in me.

  I rolled over on to my side while still holding my stab wound and began to crawl across the floor. I climbed over dead bodies, my clothes becoming stained with my own blood and the blood of others as I tried my best to get myself out of there.

  I made it to the door that led out to the main hallway and stopped for a moment to catch my breath. Maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me, but I thought that I heard voices and that willed me to keep going. I feared that Conrad or one of Francisco’s men were coming to finish the job. I crawled down the hallway and to the back door that led out to the alley. It took all of the strength that I had left in order to push the heavy, metal door open, but somehow I did.

  Once in the alley, I began trying to make my way to the main street. I knew that was my only chance at surviving. The alley was filthy with rats and roaches all around. By this point blood was beginning to pour out of my mouth and I knew that I was in bad shape, but still I pressed on.

  As I got closer to the street I noticed a homeless man sitting on a wooden crate next to a dumpster smoking a cigarette. I tried to ask for help but my voice wasn’t even audible because I was so weak. The homeless man saw me and jumped down off of the crates.

  “Are you okay?” he asked as he knelt beside me. I couldn’t speak so I just did my best to show him my wound since it was obvious that I was in pain. “Oh my god! We have got to get you some help right away.”

  The man practically picked me up and sat me with my back against the crates.

  “Wait here while I go get you some help.”

  He ran off toward the street before he could hear me say, “Thank you.”

  Chapter XXIV- Darius

  It was four in the morning now and I hadn’t been able to sleep since bringing Janelle back to my hotel suite. The reality of what I had done in order to save her was really weighing on me. I had gotten by so far without having to actually kill anyone, but that was no longer the case after I made the decision t
o pull the trigger on three of Francisco’s men. I was torn as I thought about whether or not I had made the right choice. Was saving Janelle a step in the wrong direction? Right then I didn’t know the answer to that question, but in the moment it felt like the right thing to do.

  There was another thing bugging me though. I was beginning to think that I was the reason that Janelle was even in the predicament that I found her in. I caught the last part of the conversation that she was having with those men and it was obvious that they had orders to kill her. I wonder if me showing up at the card game had put Janelle in a bad situation. We didn’t even get a chance to execute our plan, and chances were that Francisco was probably on his way back to France by now. But then again, if he and Janelle’s relationship was as complicated as Janelle had described, then I was pretty sure that Francisco wouldn’t leave the States until he got her back.

  My head was beginning to hurt while I thought about the complexity of the situation. I was sitting in front of the window in a large, cushioned chair in the bedroom of my suite. Janelle was on the couch in the living room since she was still knocked out.

  I had the curtains open, and though I was enjoying my view I leaned my head back and closed my eyes for a bit so that I could rest my mind. I must have drifted off to sleep because I woke up to the feeling of a sharp piece of metal against my neck. I sat still for a moment so that I could make sure that I wasn’t dreaming. It soon became clear to me that someone had a knife to my neck. I was about to raise my hand to grab it but a voice stopped me.

  “Stop. Don’t move,” Janelle said, her voice trembling slightly. She must have gotten one of the knives out of the kitchenette. I couldn’t see her since she was behind me, but I definitely recognized her voice.

  “What the hell are you doing?” I said, making sure that I didn’t make any movements that would alarm her.

  “Shut up,” she shot back. “Now stand up slowly.”

  I did as she said and once I was up, she moved the knife away from my neck and shoved me toward the window. I turned to face her and she was still holding the knife out in front of her while standing in a defensive position.

  “What am I doing here with you?” she asked.

  “Is that anyway to thank me for saving your life?”

  “Saving my life?” she asked, wearing a confused and angry expression on her face.

  “Yeah. You must not remember what happened,” I told her.

  “I remember exactly what happened,” she said. “I remember everything right up until that douche bag knocked me out.”

  “So I guess that means that you remember the part about them planning to rape and kill you.”

  “So what do you want? For me to thank you?” she said as she dropped her hand allowing the knife to hang at her side.

  “Yeah. That would be nice,” I told her. “And now that you’re awake, that means that you can tell me what the hell happened in there tonight.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I’m talking about me and D.J. getting thrown out of the card game before you and I could execute our plan,” I explained.

  “Look, cut the bull shit, Darius,” Janelle said. “You didn’t tell me anything about you bringing your brother to the game so you obviously had a different agenda than what we discussed.”

  “I didn’t know anything about D.J. being there until right before I came to the game,” I told her as I moved toward her.

  “And you couldn’t call me to tell me that,” she said agitatedly.

  “Why does it matter? I don’t understand how D.J. being there affected our plan,” I said.

  “Because, Darius, when Francisco saw your brother come and then you, he instantly knew that something was up,” she told me. “He accused me of trying to set him up. He thought that I was apart of some plan that you and D.J. had.”

  “So there were cameras in the room,” I said matter-of-factly.

  “There were cameras everywhere and Francisco was watching the whole time.”

  “That all makes sense,” I said as I folded my arms. “But what doesn’t make sense is how Francisco’s nephew knows about Mathieu being dead.”

  “Conrad has connections all over the states, especially in Atlanta and Miami,” she began to tell me. “He was the first to find out about what you did to Mathieu and he let Francisco know immediately.”

  “But that’s the thing; I didn’t kill Mathieu,” I told her even though I knew that it really didn’t matter at that point. Francisco’s son was dead and there was no doubt that he wanted revenge. But why would he have us thrown out of the game instead of just killing both of us?

  “Francisco doesn’t care who killed his son,” Janelle said. “All he knows is that someone is going to pay for what happened. But you’re the one that he wants to pay.”

  “Wait, so you’re saying that Francisco wants to kill me to get revenge for his son now,” I said. “And you let me come to the card game without telling me that.”

  Janelle became quiet for a moment as she suddenly avoided making eye contact with me.

  “What?” I said as I watched her squirm.

  “Look, I have a confession to make,” she informed me. “I might as well come clean.”

  “Come clean about what?”

  She sighed and said, “I promised Francisco that I would bring you to him so that he could kill you in his own way. And in return he promised me a new life. He said that after he killed you then I could walk away and I would never be obligated to even speak to him again. But when D.J. came to the card game he turned on me because he thought that you and I were trying to set him up. That’s why they were going to kill me.”

  I simply stared at her with a hard expression on my face. This bitch had been playing all kind of games with everybody. I was beginning to think that I should have let them kill her.

  I stepped toward her and got right up in her face. “So I was the one that you were setting up the whole time?”

  “I was just trying to do what I had to in order to get away from him,” she began to explain quickly. “If you would have agreed to help me in the first place, then I wouldn’t have had to go to desperate measures.”

  “Oh, so it’s my fault,” I said sarcastically. “Janelle, I’m not obligated to you. I never have been and I never will be. And had I known how foul you were, then I wouldn’t have saved yo’ ass.”

  “How foul I am?” she said putting her hand on her chest. “Darius, don’t act like you’re completely innocent in this. You were only using me so that you could get Francisco before he got you.”

  “But at least I told you that up front. You were the one who came to me begging for my help.”

  “Yeah, well I regret that now.” She turned to walk away from me but I grabbed her arm before she could.

  “Where you think you going?”

  “I’m getting the hell away from you before Francisco finds out that I’m not dead,” she said after snatching her arm from my grip. “Besides, I can’t stand to look at you right now.” She stormed off into the living room and I followed her.

  “I can’t let you leave,” I told her.

  “What the hell do you mean that you can’t let me leave,” she said, obviously still upset.

  “Francisco is still out there looking for both of us,” I told her. “By now he knows that his men are dead, and when he sees that you’re nowhere to be found he will know that you got away.”

  “Oh well,” she said as she began to march toward the door in her wedged sandals. “That’s just a chance that I’m going to have to take.”

  “Janelle!” I called after her as she opened the door and walked out of the suite. I huffed my frustration as I went back into the bedroom to get my gun off the nightstand. This chick had no idea what she was getting herself into. I knew that I probably shouldn’t care, but I did and I had to stop her from making a big mistake.

  I walked out of the room and into the hallway just as the elevator doors were closi
ng in front of Janelle. I found the stairs and descended all thirteen flights. By the time I made it down to the parking garage, Janelle was walking across the half empty lot as she headed for the exit that led out to the main street.

  “Janelle, hold up!” My voice echoed through the garage and I ran to catch up with her. Once I did, I got in front of her to block her path.

  “Move out of my way, Darius.”

  “I can’t do that,” I told her.

  “Why not?”

  “Because, if I let you go out there, and something ends up happening to you then I will feel really bad,” I said. “It was messed up that you tried to set me up, but you were just doing what you had to in order to insure your survival in all of this mess. I can’t be mad at that.”

  “Well, if that’s supposed to be an apology, then it’s too little too late,” she spat bitterly.

  “It’s not meant to be an apology,” I said, all remorse now gone from my voice. “Look, I don’t have time for this shit, okay. You said you wanted a new life, so here’s your chance. My private jet is leaving at noon and heading back to Atlanta. You really don’t have any other choice but to come back with me.”

  “I have plenty of options.”

  “Like what?” I asked and then waited for an answer that never came. “Like I said, I don’t have time for this. So let’s go back up to my suite.”

  “No,” she said defiantly before trying to storm pass me. I jumped in front of her again and she collided with my chest.

  “Don’t make me pick you up and carry you up there,” I said with a threatening look in my eyes.

  “That’s your problem. You’re used to controlling everything and everyone around you. But you can’t always have your way,” she said.

  “That’s a nice speech and everything, but this is your last chance to cooperate.” She stared me down for about a full sixty seconds before turning around and heading for the elevator. She walked at a fast pace causing her hips to sway languidly as the hem of her dress tried to keep up with the motion.