something. Forget about her. Grimy ass bitch was playing a role to get you caught up. You took the bait. It happens to the best of us.”
Mecca’s words made Carter’s heart throb in agonizing pain. The thought of Miamor’s betrayal was too heavy a burden for him to carry. “Maybe you’re right, bro,” he said with doubt.
“Nigga, I am right. That bitch got you around here fucked up. You a clean nigga. She got you growing beards and shit,” Mecca joked, making light of the situation. “You need to be thinking about keeping the Feds off your doorstep. Just because that snitch nigga, Ace is in the wind don’t mean you’re in the clear. The government doesn’t lose often. You walking free is an embarrassment to them. They’re not done with you yet, so we need to be prepared for whatever they have planned. After your freedom’s guaranteed, the rest will fall into place.”
Carter nodded, knowing that Mecca was speaking the truth. He was focused on all the wrong things. His life was hanging in the wings, and he needed to be at his best in order to overcome the odds that were stacked against him.
Mecca stood. “I’m outta here, fam. I’ll get with you later. I won’t be making too many more trips to this side of town coming to check on you. I still got issues left unsettled,” he said, reminding Carter of his unfinished business with Emilio Estes.
“Keep a body with you at all times,” Carter said with authority. “Don’t be on that Superman shit, Mecca. You can’t go against the Dominican mafia alone.”
Mecca lifted his shirt with one hand, revealing a.380 snub chrome nine-milli, and a.45 tucked against his rock hard abdomen. “Fuck another nigga! I got my bitches lined up right here,” Mecca replied arrogantly. “They won’t catch me slipping again.”
Carter nodded. “I hear you. Be smart and be careful,” he said.
Carter arose and walked around the immaculate mansion. The gray sweats and white T-shirt he wore were very uncharacteristic of him. The fear of the unknown had him out of his element, and he spent his days confined to the house, his thoughts of Miamor driving him insane. He had everything in the world that a man could want- power, money, luxury, but without her, it all held no value. He would easily give it all up to be with her, and had thought that her love for him ran just as deep.
Pouring himself a glass of Remy VSOP, he made his way over to the picturesque window that overlooked the front of the estate. A cable van sat on the street, undoubtedly filled with federal agents who were monitoring his home, trying to build a new case on him. He wouldn’t give them the ammunition they needed to send him away. Prison wasn’t for him. He’d send them to their graves before they shipped him back to prison. He opened the door and walked outside. He acknowledged his armed workers with head nods as he carried the glass of cognac in his hand. Fifty men surrounded the estate, all fully aware of everything and everyone around them, but no one was allowed to enter his home, with the exception of Mecca and Zyir. Carter made his way to the gate and nodded for his keeper to open it. He walked to the edge of the street to retrieve his daily newspaper. A huge picture of his face covered the front page:
The cable truck was not even five feet away from him. He smirked and held up the paper for the Feds to see, then he approached the van. “Good morning, gentlemen,” he greeted when he finally reached the driver’s side.
“We’ve been made,” he heard an agent whisper from the back. The driver of the van watched him with cold eyes.
“Of course you’ve been made. Look up and down this street,” Carter said. “Cable vans don’t quite fit in with hundred thousand dollar cars.”
His arrogance and power intimidated even the highest of the law. He could see that he made them nervous. It takes a wolf to catch a wolf. Carter was one man who would not be easy to get to. They were playing out of their league, and their amateur tactics of surveillance proved that.
“Step away from the vehicle, Mr. Jones,” the driver commanded.
Carter smiled at the officer’s attempt to be dominant, but the tremble in his voice revealed his cowardice. “Not a problem, but I would like to see your badge. Since it’s obvious that you’ll be guests in front of my home, I need to be sure you are who you say you are… you understand,” Carter answered sarcastically.
The federal agent removed his badge and handed it to Carter. Carter inspected it with the same hand he held his drink in, then passed it back. He tapped the inside of the driver door. “Agent Marshall,” he said as he smiled and walked away. Carter had slyly slipped a transparent audio device, no larger than a small piece of tape, onto the back of the agent’s badge, and also one on the inside of the van.
Carter rubbed the abundance of hair on his face and thought,
Breeze whimpered weakly as a cold sweat drenched her body and chills stiffened her spine. Her light skin was a sickly bluish tint, and she was barely strong enough to lift her head.
Ma’tee had tried to stop the poison from spreading, but his home remedies were useless, and the medicine he had given her had no effect on her condition. Breeze’s foot was swollen and the skin directly around the spider bite was black. The red streaks going up her leg was a clear indication that the poison was spreading. If she didn’t get medical treatment in a matter of days, she would be dead.
“Water!” she whispered desperately as Ma’tee jumped at her every beck and call. The tender way in which he touched her revealed his growing obsession. He was crazy over her. In his mind, no one loved her more than him. He would die before he gave her back. Breeze was the only thing he had left in this world, and he imprisoned her so that she would only be his. She was too beautiful for anyone else to see, too delicate for anyone else to touch. She belonged to him.
He could not see it, but his possession over her was slowly causing her sanity to abandon her. She did not have the strong Diamond will that the rest of her family possessed. Her eyes were empty as if her soul was now gone. She had lost all hope, and as she looked up at the man who had taken her away from everyone she loved, she cried. She didn’t have the strength to fight anymore. She was his slave in every sense of the word. He had taken her body, her mind, and her spirit, and trapped them in Haiti. Even if she did ever make it out alive, she would never be the same. Things could never go back to the way they used to be. She had endured too much. Psychologically, she was ruined. Emotionally, she was drained. Physically, she was raped. The lovely young woman that Breeze used to be did not exist anymore. Only Ma’tee had the key to set her free, and she knew that would never happen.
Breeze began to cough violently and bile flew from her mouth, her body desperately trying to get rid of some of the venom that was slowly killing her.
Ma’tee sat near her bedside and applied ice to her wound and a cold wet towel to her forehead to try and lower her fever. Her temperature was dangerously high, yet she felt so cold that she shivered. He desperately tried to bring Breeze’s health back up to par, but the more days that passed, the worse she became. He wasn’t ready to let her go. He refused to lose her, even to death, so his only alternative was to take her to the only doctor in town. Ma’tee knew that he was taking a big risk by taking Breeze to town, but if he wanted her to live, then he had to.
He stood to his feet and looked around at all of the Polaroid pictures he had taken of Breeze. They covered the walls, almost entirely constructing his very own wallpaper of lunacy. They were his masterpiece. “So beautiful!” he whispered. The photos chronicled her time in Haiti. Her smileless face and hateful expressions went unnoticed by him. He was delirious to think that he loved her. The misery and fear that he was causing her was evident on her face in every photograph. He went upstairs to retrieve his gun, rummaging through his kitchen drawers until he
