Iâm cominâ.â I head back into the shop, but before I close the door I twist to check for the Escalade again.
Itâs gone.
5
Lucifer
S ilent as the grave, Iâm nestled quietly in the back of the Escalade with my bloody Browning hunterâs knife in my lap. These muthafuckas killed Bishop and now they have me to deal with. I watch Shariffa exit the tattoo shop while an ice floe circulates in my veins.
I know that bitch.
Not personally, but back in the day, she flagged for Gangster Disciplesâanother one of Pythonâs ex-flames. Thereâs so many, I donât know how the fuck he keeps up with them. Yet, I am surprised that Lynch would wife another niggaâs leftoversâespecially from another gang. That kind of shit donât happen every dayâif ever.Whatever the bitch is putting down in the bedroom must be strong enough for muthafuckas to overlook rules and violations.
Not me.
Tombstone looks up into the rearview mirror. âWhat do you want to do?â
Stone-faced, I contemplate the question. I can tell him to hit the accelerator and power down the windows. We can take care of this old-school style, but that would be too easy. Iâd rather get my hands wet. Slice her ass open and listen to her scream and beg for her miserable life . . .
Shariffa looks up and spots us.
My hands drift from the bloody Browning to the TEC-9 lying at my side. It would be soooo fuckinâ easy . . .
âLucifer?â Tombstone nudges me. âYou want to do this?â
Sooo easy . . .
Lynch steps out of the tattoo shop and startles his wife.
The spell is broken.
I exhale a long breath and pull my hand back from the gun. âLetâs get out of here. Iâll take care of her later.â
âWhatever you say, boss.â Without hitting the headlights, Tombstone makes a U-turn from the curb and rolls back out the way we came. During the ride back to Ruby Cove, the Vice Lordsâ stronghold, the bloodlust in my heart grows. Patience. The word repeats like a mantra in my head. I gotta have patience.
Rolling through the streets of Murder City, my mind trips down memory lane. Big hits, large scores, tons of body bags; Bishop, Mason, and I have been a part of it all most of our lives.
Losing Bishop so soon after Masonâs death is fucking with me in ways that Iâm not ready to deal with yet. Ask any muthafucka and theyâll tell you that Iâm not the emotional type. My brother was the emotional one. Boo-hooing every time someone close to him dropped. Donât get me wrong, he was a strong soldier, but he was never ruthless. It wasnât in him.
But itâs in me.
Exhaustion has settled into my bones by the time Tombstone coasts onto Ruby Cove. Like cocaine, murder has a way of taking you on an incredible high, but then it smashes your face into concrete, knocking you out. The way I feel now, I could sleep for a weekâbut no way that shit is going to go down. I have too much on my plate. As the de facto leader of the Vice Lords, I know that before the sun comes up Iâm gonna have to deal with more street politics.
I have to reassure our drug connects that business will go on as usual, build on our crewâs relationship with our new gun runners, the Angels of Mercy biker club. Not to mention, I also have to hunt down Python and his crazy bitch, deal with Cousin Skeet, and plot how Iâm going to take out Shariffa and the rest of her crew. Eventually, Iâll have to go head-to-head with Lynchâs shady ass, but fuck it. Itâs me against the world.
âLucifer?â Tombstone cuts into my plotting thoughts.
âYeah?â
He shrugs. âWeâre here.â
I look up and see that weâre parked in my driveway. Hell, I hadnât noticed that weâd arrived. Still, I donât reach for the door. Instead, I look at my crib like itâs just a stack of bricks. Who the fuck likes an empty house?
Tombstone