out of her. Zyir didn’t come back to reality until he felt someone’s hands pulling him off of her. He heard Breeze sobbing by the doorway.
“Zyir!” Carter yelled as he hemmed him up. “Chill out!”
Sweating profusely and breathing erratically, Zyir was an emotional mess.
“Is she dead?” he asked as his rage subsided. He noticed that Illiana wasn’t moving. “Fuck!” he yelled.
Carter kneeled over her still body to check her pulse and answered, “She’s alive, but I’ve got to get her to a doctor. This is bad, Zyir. You know who she’s connected to. Fuck was you thinking?” Carter knew that if Breeze had not called him, then Zyir probably would have killed Illiana.
“I wasn’t. She gave Breeze dope and I lost it!” he whispered as he looked back at a fearful Breeze. He quickly turned his head. He couldn’t even look at her right now.
“You know what this means, right?” Carter asked.
Zyir nodded. “I’m sorry, bro. I spazzed.” Wearing his heart on his sleeve was so uncharacteristic for Zyir, but Breeze was his weak spot. Ever since she came home, he had been a loose cannon, acting without thinking about the repercussions.
“As long as you’re prepared to deal with the consequences. This is the beginning of another war, and this time, we can’t afford to lose.”
“What about her? What are we going to do about her?” Zyir asked.
“I’m going to get her admitted into the hospital. When she wakes up, she’ll call for her family without a doubt. We just have to be prepared, because when the Mexicans come, they’ll come with the army of an entire country behind them.
Chapter Eighteen
“Don’t know, but I’m ready for whatever.”
Murder forcefully flipped down his phone after he got a disconnection message when he tried to call Mecca. He knew something was up because Mecca had gotten his number changed and hadn’t called him back. Murder kept regretting the fact that he had Carter, Zyir, and Mecca in a room all together and didn’t pop off.
“Damn it!” Murder yelled as he began to pace the room. He was determined to kill The Cartel. He was done playing around and trying to sneak his way in. He was about to blow heads off and play it how it went.
Murder loaded up some explosives that he had purchased from one of Aries and Robyn’s weapons connect. He gently paced them in a duffel bag and prepared to take them to the warehouse that Mecca had taken him to. He knew eventually that they would meet there again, and when that time came, he was going to light that warehouse up like the Fourth of July. Murder loaded up and headed out, seeking blood.
Carter and Zyir made it to the hotel where Breeze and Mecca were staying. They were about to have a small meeting and decide on what to do about the new problem with the Garza Cartel.
Carter had switched cars, and his paranoia was at an alltime high. He knew that his team was no match for Felipe and his organization. Felipe had a whole country behind him, so no matter how many goons Carter killed, Felipe would just keep sending crews until The Cartel was completely dead.
Carter tried to call Mecca, but his phone kept going straight to voice mail. Carter noticed when he was pulling up to the hotel’s entrance that the door was blocked off and an UNDER CONSTRUCTION sign was put up.
“We probably have to go through the back,” Zyir said as he took a look at the blocked off door.
It was something like no other. Twenty-two bodies lay sprawled out on the block at 10 o’clock in the morning. The same block where Zyir had blown off the hustler’s head now looked like a battleground after combat. All of the hustlers and some of the drug users were dead at the hands of automatic assault rifles. More than five hundred shell casings were scattered over the block, and the Garza Cartel was the cause of this melee.
Felipe had declared war and sent his hoodlums to kill anything moving. Anyone who had anything to do with The Cartel was a target. It was something that Miami had never seen before, and it was only the beginning.
Illiana failed to mention to Felipe that she had slipped Breeze dope, and only told her family about the beating Zyir had put on her. Needless to say, they were infuriated. The sad part was that this was only the beginning.
Zyir and Carter pulled onto the block to witness the scene. Carter shook his head from side to side as he thought about what Zyir had gotten them into. Carter couldn’t get too mad, because he knew that he would have reacted the same way if he had caught Illiana giving Breeze the dope.
“This isn’t good,” Carter said in a low tone as he slowly drove by the scene, not wanting to stop. Zyir looked at the bodies and saw his li’l man Scoot lying awkwardly on the pavement with blooding leaking from his body.
“Damn, the kid was only sixteen years old,” Zyir said as he quickly turned his head, trying to look at the kid’s lifeless eyes.
Police had begun to rope off the area, and ambulances were at the scene, but it was all for nothing, because there was no one to save. Everyone was dead.
Just as Carter reached the end of the block, they were taken by surprise. Two white vans without windows blocked Carter’s car, boxing him in so he couldn’t escape.
“What the fuck?” Carter said under his breath as he watched the scene unfold. He didn’t realize what was going on, but he would soon find out. A third van quickly pulled up in front of Carter’s car, and the sliding doors on all the vans seemed to open at the same time.
Three men jumped out of each van, all of them carrying military assault rifles. They began to riddle the car with bullets. The Garza Cartel had orchestrated a perfect hit. They knew that Carter, Zyir, or Mecca would visit the crime scene, and preyed in anticipation until they eventually showed up.
Carter quickly ducked down, and Zyir did also. The thuds of the bullets hitting the car sounded like a hailstorm, as the gunmen spared no ammunition and lit the car up in broad daylight.
Luckily, Carter was driving his bulletproof Benz, and no bullets penetrated the interior of his car.
The Miami police ducked for cover and began to call for backup on their walkie-talkies as the block underwent pandemonium. Some of the officers began to run toward the gunmen with their guns drawn, demanding them to drop their weapons. The Mexicans didn’t care if they were uniformed cops. They shot at them also. In their country, there was no authority above their cartel. The Mexican gunplay was too much for the officers, and the Miami Police Department had to back down and wait for help.
After noticing that Carter’s car was bulletproof, one of the gunmen said something in Spanish, and the Mexicans hopped in their vans and peeled off, leaving black tire marks on the pavement and smoking tires. Carter and Zyir grabbed their guns from under the seat and watched as the vans disappeared off the block. Both of their hearts were pounding rapidly as they escaped the deadly ambush by the skin of their teeth.
“You good?” Carter asked as he looked Zyir’s body up and down to see if he was hit.
“Yeah, I’m good. You?” Zyir asked as he breathed heavily.
“Yeah,” Carter responded as his phone began to ring. He looked at the caller ID and noticed that the incoming call was blocked. Carter picked up the phone and heard the operator’s voice. The call was from a federal penitentiary.
“I accept,” Carter spoke into the phone.
“My dear friend, I am hurt that you crossed the line… and for that, you will suffer,” Garza said calmly and confidently. “I have no control over what happens after this point. My only advice to you is to flee as far away as you can. There is nowhere in the country where Felipe can’t find you and your family. With that, I’ll say good-bye,” Garza said just before hanging up the phone.
Carter didn’t know what to say, so he didn’t say anything. He just closed his phone and shook his head from side to side.
“We have to get out of here,” Carter said as he steered the bullet-riddled car off the block. The tires were flattened, but Carter wanted to leave before the cops approached them, asking questions.
