An hour later, a cab pulled outside of the brick house that sat on a small hill. Murder tipped the cabbie and watched as he left. Murder then looked at the house and took a deep breath. Murder began to second-guess his plan, and wondered if he was walking into a setup. He pulled out his guns and approached the house, going all out.
He approached the front door and turned the doorknob. It was unlocked, so he pushed the door open. He carefully stepped through the door with his gun drawn. The familiar smell of a rotting body overwhelmed him as he winced in displeasure. The horrendous stench was overbearing, and he instantly pulled his shirt over his nose.
Murder’s heart began to thump as he got deeper into the empty house. The smell got heavier and heavier as he approached the door that led to the basement. He quickly snatched open the basement door and pointed his gun through the opening. The rotting smell had been magnified by ten when he opened the door. He held his breath as he began to walk down the stairs, preparing himself for what he was to find.
“Miamor, please don’t let this be you,” he whispered as his eyes got teary.
When Murder reached the bottom step, it felt as his heart had dropped into the pit of his stomach. He saw a decomposing corpse sprawled on the floor, hog-tied. He looked at the arm and noticed there was no hand attached to it. It was then that he knew that it was really Miamor. He instantly dropped to his knees and turned his head away, not wanting to see Miamor that way. Although he had known that finding her alive was unlikely, seeing her tortured and dismembered in the tomblike basement ripped his insides to pieces. The confirmation of her death was the only pain he had ever felt in his entire life. Murder was a cold soul, and before meeting Miamor, he didn’t even think he was capable of love. But she had always been his weakness. She was the woman who could penetrate him, and now she was gone.
“No, ma… no,” he whispered as he put his hand to his ears to drown out the sound of his own internal misery.
Murder’s heart had just been broken in two. He had just verified that the world lost one of the realest bitches who ever walked it. The ultimate sin had been committed against her. It was about to be murder season in Miami. He didn’t care if he had to make the entire city bleed. Somebody had to pay, and he was determined to get vengeance.
Murder, Aries, and Robyn sat on the fifty-foot yacht as they stared out at the Atlantic Ocean, all of them with pain in their hearts and revenge on their minds. Murder had sent for Robyn and Aries right after he found Miamor’s body. They all knew that she was dead before Murder came to Miami, but they had to make sure. The vase full of ashes in their hands confirmed it: they had lost. They both had looked to Miamor as their leader. Her confidence made them confident, and now that she had been touched, they felt extremely vulnerable. Even though the sun was shining, it was a very cold day for Murder and the Murder Mamas.
“I’ma make sure all them niggas pay for what they did to Miamor,” Murder mumbled as he shook his head from side to side and kept visualizing Miamor’s beautiful smile.
“I know Mecca did this. He is sick in the head, and the only person twisted enough to do something like this. That crazy mu’fucka is the only one who would go to this extreme to do this to her,” Robyn said as she held her lips tight.
“Yeah, Mecca did this to she,” Aries whispered in her heavy accent as she shook her head in sadness.
“I’ma avenge Miamor’s death for sure. These south niggas don’t know how I get down. They ain’t seen a nigga like me before,” Murder said through his clenched teeth.
Robyn shook her head in disagreement. “It’s not that simple, Murder. This shit is real. We’ve been hitting niggas for years, and we have never encountered any organization like theirs. They killed Anisa and Miamor. That shit don’t happen to us. We were untouchable until we faced them. They are not like regular niggas. We are fucking with The Cartel, and they’re not like these ol’ corny clique-naming-ass niggas. Their shit is legit. I’m talking the best security, crazy gun power, and not to mention the entire fucking city rocks with them.
“If they move like they used to, it’s hard to catch them together all at once. We tried to kill them one at a time, and that plan only backfired on us. I know how you get down, but you’re only one man. You’ll be going against a thousand niggas just as grimy as you are.
“This time, don’t even give them a chance to hit back. You can’t kill one; you have to kill them all. If you want to get them and do it right, you have to infiltrate their organization. You have to get close and go from the inside out,” Robyn said, thinking about how they failed at every attempt to take down The Cartel using other tactics.
“Fuck that! I’ma do this my way,” Murder said as his trigger finger began to itch.
“No, Murder. Chu have to listen to Robyn. You are going to be next if you go in blazing. Me no want to see no more dying. If anybody is going to be put in the dirt, let it be someone from the other side. Trust us. Please just do it our way,” Aries pleaded as she looked into Murder’s bloodshot eyes.
Robyn placed her hand on Murder’s shoulder and looked in his eyes. She noticed the burning desire for revenge, and she had to let Murder know that he was dealing with a different breed when it came to The Cartel. “Murder, these niggas not playing. If you kill one, they are going to come and kill ten of yours. That’s how they operate, so you have to do this thing right. You have to get in good with them and find out a way to kill them all at once. That way, you can dismantle them from the top. Kill the head, and the body will fall. Trust me!” Robyn said as a tear dropped as she thought of Miamor.
Murder nodded his head, giving in to her. He was willing to do whatever it took to take down The Cartel.
“We are going to get these niggas back,” Robyn said as she quickly wiped the tear away and looked into the waves bouncing on top of the massive body of water.
“I want to do this one alone. The best way to do something is to do it solo. That’s how I work,” Murder said as he dropped his head and shook it from side to side. He then looked over at Aries and said, “Let’s get this over with.”
Aries opened the urn that had Miamor’s remains in it. They decided to have her cremated because there was no way that she could have a funeral. Mecca had cut her up in four different pieces to prevent any hopes of a traditional open casket ceremony. Aries took a deep breath, glancing at Robyn and then Murder before she dropped a tear and released the ashes into the ocean. Forever Miamor would sleep with the fishes.
Chapter Seven
“Even family will betray you.”
Carter may have been locked up, but he wasn’t dead, and in any circumstance, his survival instincts always kicked in. He was a hustler and could sell whatever, whenever, wherever, and prison was no exception. He knew of the weakened state that The Cartel was in, and he did not want to depend on anyone to keep him afloat, so although they had trapped his body, the feds could not contain his hustle. They had taken him off of the streets, but he had brought the streets to him.
He easily brought his product into the prison, and now he was running a lucrative heroin operation while locked up. The one thing that the game had taught him was that everybody loved money, and as long as everyone ate, things ran smoothly. Using a bitch as a mule was a sure way to get caught, so instead, he put correctional officers on his payroll. They brought it into the prison for him, and Zyir ensured that they were compensated properly with an anonymous wire transfer into each of their personal bank accounts. The guards were making more money working for Carter than they did on their day jobs, which made them compliant with all of his requests.
Carter wasn’t flashy, however. He got money low key, keeping just enough to keep his books full, and then had the rest delivered to Zyir, who was putting it toward his case. He kept to himself, and spent his time reading books. He knew that the only person who truly cared about his freedom was himself, so he educated himself on the law so that the system would not be able to jam him up. He refused to let the feds lock him up and throw away the key.
