Page 125 of Maceo

“This,” I said, holding it up. “This is liquid cyanide. You know what that is, Charity? I’ll tell you. In small doses, you might experience headaches, dizziness, nausea, cramping, and some other shit. In large doses, however, you’d experience gasping, irregular heartbeats, seizure, fainting, and ultimately, death. That sounds painful, right? Either way, you’re gonna suffer.”

She looked up at me, breathing heavily. There wasn’t an ounce of remorse in her face. When I grabbed her arm, she tried to jerk it away. Getting down to her level, I straddled her and locked both arms above her head with one hand while injecting her with the other.

“Just let that marinate,” I said, looking down at her. “It won’t be long.”

Releasing her, I stood to my feet and went to sit on the steps. With my hands clasped under my chin, I watched the lethal dose begin to take effect. She began to gasp.

“You feel that?” I asked as she tried to grab at her throat. “Imagine every one of your victims gasping for that last breath of air right before they were killed and their organs harvested.”

She started dry heaving, and the next thing I knew, she was throwing up bile.

I pulled out a blunt and lit it. After taking a long pull from it, I blew the smoke in her direction. That only made her cough and throw up even more.

I chuckled. “You know, I thought about what I would do to you when I finally got my hands on you. I’m not even that much of a violent nigga, to be real.”

“You a fucking lie,” Deuce said, laughing. “Pops ain’t made you my right-hand for nothing.”

“A’ight, maybe I lied. But I’m not violent without warrant. Now, if we were just talking about the innocent lives you helped steal, I’d just put a bullet in you and call it a day. But you fucked with too many of my people to let you slide and get off easy with a headshot. You had five innocent men that served their country fearlessly killed. You had me and my family shot at on my fucking wedding day. While those are major offenses, kidnapping my wife sealed your fate.

“I don’t know if you’ve ever been in love or if you’re even capable of that shit, but love will turn a sane man into a fucking savage. I’d die about and behind Sharina Nicole Dillinger. And if I die, you can believe she will dig me up, bring me back, and kill me again for leaving her.”

Deuce laughed. “It’s sad how accurate that is. Your wife might be a little crazy too.”

“Oh, she is,” I said, looking at Charity, who was struggling to stay upright. “You know, she wanted her lick back, but I told her daddy would handle that shit, so she didn’t have to get her hands dirty. She’s too pretty for this grimy shit, but make no mistake, that’s my hitta.”

Charity slumped to the ground, her breaths growing labored. “Just… shoot… me…” she begged as a tear slipped down her cheek.

“Shoot you? Nah, baby. You gon’ feel this shit until the very end.”

She began to shake violently as a seizure riddled her body. I watched, emotionless, as she twitched and foamed at the mouth. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head as it slammed repeatedly against the concrete. Moments passed, and the shaking slowly began to subside. Her body went limp, and I watched as her chest rose and fell for the final time. For a moment, I sat there before getting up and checking for a pulse. There wasn’t one.

“You know they are gonna say she ain’t suffer enough,” Deuce said.

I chuckled. “I’m sure they will, but that was good enough for me.”

He shook his head. “The crew is on the way to get her. Go on and say your goodbyes so I can get home to my wife.”

“Your wife is in bed with mine,” I said, ascending the stairs.

He laughed. “We can’t say that in front of too many people. You know they used to kiss and shit.”

“Don’t remind me. We have to tell them they don’t need to follow in each other’s footsteps with everything, man. Both of them being kidnapped is enough.”

He laughed. “Facts.”

I closed the door and headed back in the direction of my house. “Come on and get your wife and your traitor ass offspring so me and mine can celebrate.”

“I hope Darlyn shitted all on your sheets. Calling my baby a traitor.”

We shared a laugh and playful shoves as we took the walk back. For the first time in weeks, I felt like I could breathe freely again. One thing was for certain… I was never doing this shit again.

I sat downstairsat my father-in-law’s house, waiting for him to come down. It never failed that anytime someone had a meeting with Senior, he had to make a grand entrance. In his defense this time, I was here early, and he hadn’t quite gotten out of bed yet. The last couple of days had been emotional for me, and I’d been suppressing it. My heart was hurting for Amp. I’d known him for so long, and he died protecting me.

That would never sit right with me. The police reported it as a robbery gone wrong, but I knew the truth. His funeral was sad. They didn’t even open the casket because of how bad the gunshot wound to his head was. Hearing his mother cry out the way she did broke my spirit. Salima and I had gone to her house yesterday to visit, and she was a mess. His girlfriend was there, and she was a mess too. Every time they cried, I cried because the guilt was eating me alive.

I hadn’t told my parents about Charity kidnapping me. We’d just gotten back right after the shootout on my wedding day, and I couldn’t have another thing take us back to that place. I also couldn’t have them hating Maceo for something I willingly became a part of. I just couldn’t. They knew the problem was taken care of. That was all they needed to know.

Charity was dead. I didn’t feel any type of way about that because the bitch had it coming, and she deserved it. There was no big meeting about what the family was going to do with her. There were no debates about her life hanging in the balance. The only thing I wanted to know was that she suffered, and Maceo assured me she did. That was good enough for me.

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