Suave took the spliff, nodded his thanks, and marched past his men into the bar, slamming the door shut. He went straight to the liquor wall, grabbed a flask of Wray & Nephew White Overproof Rum, unscrewed the top, and turned the bottle straight to his head. The burning sensation in his throat was appreciated as he gobbled down the liquor.
In record time, the bottle was empty, and Suave was feeling light-headed. Puffing away on the spliff, he reached for another bottle. This time, it was a bottle of whiskey. This too disappeared in record time before Suave grabbed something else to drink. He just wanted to end the pain he was feeling at the loss of Cobra.
The spliff long gone, Suave’s throat and tongue burned like Scotch Bonnet pepper. His head felt like a helium balloon about to explode. Totally inebriated, Suave felt himself slipping off the bar stool but was unable to move a muscle.
“Oops, I got you, my brother.” Reverend Stanford caught Suave just before he hit the floor. He wrapped his arm around the drunken man’s waist and half-lifted, half-dragged Suave across the bar to the room in the back. He lowered Suave onto the small cot and adjusted him as best as he could with Suave’s long legs hanging over the edge.
Reverend Stanford sighed as he straightened up his tall frame. As he stood looking down on Suave, who was now out cold, his heart was filled with grief. The reverend knew that disaster was coming as told to him by the Holy Spirit. It’s declared in Matthew 24:35, “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.” However, Reverend Stanford was hoping he could have gotten through to Suave, Cobra, Daddy Lizard, and King Kong and his men before it was too late. Now, two young lives were wasted, and only God knows how many more to go.
“Father, please show me how I can help these young men.” Reverend Stanford looked up to the heavens, his eyes filled with tears. “Please show mercy, Lord. I’m so tired of seeing so many lives wasted in this country due to drugs and violence. I know a war is about to get started now in retaliation of this young man’s killing. Dear Lord, I don’t want any more to die. Please use your servant, Lord, to keep the peace. In Jesus’ name I pray. A—”
“Amen.”
Surprised, Reverend Stanford spun around and came face-to-face with Daddy Lizard. Unlike Suave, Daddy Lizard seemed sober. In fact, he seemed too normal for someone who had just lost a very close friend and business partner.
“Praying for our souls again, Rev?” Daddy Lizard took a long drag from the spliff in his hand, turned his head upward, and blew the smoke into the air. “Or are you praying for the souls I’m getting ready to send to hell?” His smile didn’t reach his cold eyes.
“Now, listen to me, young man.” Reverend Stanford walked closer to Daddy Lizard. “That’s not the way to go about this.” He stopped a few inches in front of the hurting man. “Killing in retaliation will only make things worse. Look at him.” Reverend pointed over his shoulder at Suave. “He’s hurting so much right now that he drank himself into a stupor.”
Daddy Lizard glanced over at Suave before looking back at Reverend Stanford. “He’ll be all right. Come morning, he’ll be back on his feet, and we’ll get justice for Cobra.”
Reverend Stanford closed his eyes, internally praying for strength and the right words to say to Daddy Lizard. He opened his eyes and said, “My dear brother, please let the police handle this. Please, I’m begging you.”
“Thank you for looking in on the boss.” Daddy Lizard waved him toward the door.
Reverend Stanford opened his mouth to speak but closed it when he looked into Daddy Lizard’s deadly eyes. “Okay. I’ll go.” He left with a heavy heart.
Chapter Thirty-four
“They killed him like a dog.” Prophet sucked on the tobacco pipe hanging from the corner of his mouth. He seemed to have aged even more since the nephew he loved liked a son was murdered the night before.
Suave and Daddy Lizard stared at him in silence as the men sat in a circle in Prophet’s small, sparsely furnished living room.
“So, your people say they saw Saddam and Danny running from the motel room?” Suave asked after a moment of silence. Not that he needed confirmation. He knew it was King Kong and his men who killed Cobra.
“Yes. The gal that got killed in there too was Danny’s sister.”
Guilt flooded Suave’s being. It took him most of the day to stop the hammering in his head, and even now, he still felt a little light-headed from all the liquor he had consumed the night before. Reasonably sober, he and Daddy Lizard had gathered as much information about Cobra’s murder as possible. As soon as Suave heard about Bubbles’s death, he knew Cobra was killed instead of him. He remembered the many times Bubbles had called him, but he had ignored her.
“Suave? You with us, man?” Daddy Lizard looked at Suave with concern. “We have a lot to do.”
“I’m good.” Suave glanced from Daddy Lizard to Prophet. “First, we lay Cobra to rest as soon as possible, and then we deal with Saddam and Danny.”
“I’ll take care of it,” Daddy Lizard said. “My family will also help out. We’ll bury him at Dovecot.”
The three men continued planning Cobra’s funeral, their hearts aching for their fallen loved one, trying hard to ignore the main thing on their minds—revenge.
* * *
It was a rainy, gloomy day. The large crowd wearing mostly black was symbolic of the mood of the mourners surrounding the white casket with gold-plated handles as it was lowered into the red dirt at Dovecot Memorial Park. Cobra’s mother, his baby mothers, children, relatives, and friends sobbed uncontrollably, while Suave and Daddy Lizard, their
