When Cruz got to the first floor he stopped and fired a shot at Black. He fired back and hit Cruz in the leg. Cruz took a couple more shots and continued down the steps into the basement.
Black followed him in.
When he entered the basement was dark. There were only two lights in the distance. It was obvious from the cobwebs that very few people went down there. As he searched the basement for Cruz, Black could hear what sounded like rats moving across the floor.
Black moved slowly toward the light with both guns drawn until his foot hit a beer can. Cruz heard the sound and fired in that direction, but it wasn’t close. Black picked up the can and threw it. When the can hit the floor Cruz fired again. Black saw where the shot came from and moved carefully toward it.
As Black came to a clearing he found Cruz sitting on the floor in a corner. Cruz raised his weapon and pulled the trigger, but he was out of bullets.
'Hello, Cruz.'
Cruz threw the gun at Black, but he stepped out of the way. He picked up the empty gun and hit Cruz in the face with it. Black could see the blood pooling around his leg. He stepped on the wound and put his weight on it.
'Ouchhh, shit!' Cruz yelled in pain.
Black knelt down next to Cruz. 'Was all this really necessary? I only wanted to talk.'
'Fuck you, Black.'
Black hit Cruz in the face with the barrel of his gun. 'Doesn’t matter now.'
'You gonna kill me anyway,' Cruz said.
'You’re right. You’re gonna die. But before I kill you, I’m curious. Why’d you start shooting at me when we got out the car?'
Cruz didn’t answer so Black shot him in the other leg. Then he pressed the barrel into the wound.
'Okay, okay, shit. Man said you was comin’ to get me for killin’ Kenny. But I told you, I ain’t have nothing to do with that shit.'
'Then tell me who did?'
'Fuck you, man. I ain’t no fuckin’ snitch. Go ahead and fuckin’ shoot. I die like a fuckin’ man.'
Black looked around the darkened area and walked away without speaking. When he came back he had a chain in his hand. He swung the chain around, inching closer and closer to Cruz’s face. Cruz didn’t flinch and Black laughed. 'You a tough mutha fucka.'
He grabbed Cruz by the collar and dragged him to the open area of the basement. Then Black took the chain and tied Cruz to one of the support beams.
Black stood in front of Cruz and pointed his weapon and shot him once on the side of his stomach. Then he put the gun away and turned to leave.
'Where you goin’?' Cruz asked.
'I’m goin’ to check on Victor. I left him upstairs to deal with your bitch Jorge. But I’ll be back.' Black took a few steps then he stopped and turned around. 'Oh yeah. Watch out for the rats.' Black started walking back toward Cruz slowly. 'There’s a lot of them down here. They’re gonna smell that blood, and they’re gonna come to feed. When they do, then we’ll see just how tough a mutha fucka you really are,' Black said and walked away.
'Black! Come back here, Black! Don’t leave me down here. Black!' Cruz screamed.
Black could still hear him screaming until he closed the basement door and started up the steps. When he got to the third floor, Black could hear gunfire and he started to run up the steps. The gunfire had stopped by the time Black got to the sixth floor. He ran down the hall to the apartment. The door was open. Black set himself and went in. There were three dead bodies on the floor. Neither one of them was Victor. Black kicked over one of the bodies and saw that it was Jorge.
As he moved farther into the room, Black saw that there were drugs and money on the table. Black heard a noise and pointed his weapon in that direction.
'It’s me, Black,' Victor said quickly as he came out of one of the bedrooms with a suitcase in his hand.
Black looked around the room. 'Not bad, kid. Not bad at all,' he said as Victor moved to the table with the drugs and money. 'Take the money, leave the rest.'
'You want me to leave the dope?'
'What I just say?'
Victor looked at Black for a minute. 'You’re the boss.'
When he had packed up all the money, Victor followed Black out of the apartment. They took the elevator down to the first floor. But instead of leaving the building, Victor was surprised when Black started walking down the hall toward the stairwell.
'Where we goin’?' he asked and followed Black to the basement door.
'Cruz is down here waitin’ for me to come back.'
Victor looked at Black curiously but followed anyway. As they opened the basement door, Victor could hear what sounded like somebody moaning in pain. The further into the basement they moved the louder the sound got. When they got to the open area of the basement, Black stopped and Victor said, 'Oh shit.'
Once they smelled blood, the rats moved in as Black had predicted and began to feed on the wounds on Cruz’s legs and stomach.
Black fired one shot in Cruz’s direction and the rats scattered. Black walked up and stood over Cruz.
'Who told you we were comin’ for you?'
'It was Bo,' Cruz said.
'Bo,' Victor said.
'Bo said that you told him that even if I didn’t have shit to do with killin’ Kenny, I was a dead man.'
'Who had Kenny killed?' Black asked.
'That was Bo too.'
'Why?'
'He tried to get Kenny to turn on you. Bo wanted him with us when we took on Stark. When he wouldn’t flip, Bo had to kill him,' Cruz said.
'Thank you,' Black said and shot Cruz twice in the head.
Victor looked back at Cruz as they walked away. By the time they got to the steps, the rats had returned to their meal. Black and Victor returned to the car and put the suitcase with the money in the truck.
Once they were in the car, Black turned to Victor. 'Let me see your phone.' Black dialed a number.
'Hello.'
'Monika, its Black.'
'What’s up?'
'Meet me at Cuisine in twenty minutes. I got some-thing I need you to take care of tonight.'
'See you there,' Monika said and hung up.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
The first person Rain saw when she got to JR’s was Rose. She was the manager of the club. The police were still there and Rain didn’t want to talk to them until she got with Rose first. She grabbed Rose by the arm and practically dragged her to the office.
'What happened?' Rain asked as soon as the door was closed.
'Like I told you when I called, five masked men came through the back door with guns.'
'Where was security? Who was on the door?'
'Keith was on the door like he usually is.'
'And he just let five masked mutha fuckas with guns in?'
'He said when he looked at the monitor there was an employee at the door.'
'Who?'
