Page 8 of Strangers No More
The second man, Lewis, helped Ron with my group homes. He made sure anyone, man or woman, who came into one of my homes, was clean. No type of STD, fever, cough, not a single damn illness passed the threshold. Everyone had to be healthy as an ox. If one of the girls fell ill, she was quarantined. If she caught an STD, since they were free to come and go as they please as long as they got checked and stayed safe, then she was removed from my payroll. Trust and loyalty have always been big to me. If I was betrayed, then there was no coming back.
The last three men were a part of the security team. I cocked my head to the side and chuckled. Now that I thought about it, I never had a chance to learn their names. Ron had hired them on just before everyone turned their backs on the Jaguars. I shrugged. It didn’t matter now.
“Can I be honest with you guys? Now, if I do, you promise not to tell anyone?”
Ron and Lewis glared at me while two of the nameless guards shook in their chairs with terror. My eye caught the last man frantically nodding his head in agreement. I chuckled as I pushed off the table I was sitting on while pointing at him.
“Ah, see guys! This man right here is a good man.” I stood over him, baring the gold fangs in my mouth. “A man of his word, right?”
His eyes darted over to the other men. I snapped my fingers in his face and tsked.
“I wasn’t talking to them, I’m talking to you, uh…dammit. What is your name?”
I snatched the duct tape off of his mouth, not attempting to be gentle. He yelled out in pain as tears welled in his eyes. Glancing at his face, I hurriedly examined the piece of tape and realized I took off a nice chunk of his mustache.
“Damn. My bad,” I said, letting out a low whistle. “Here you go.”
I ripped off the clunk of hair that was on the tape and stuck it back on his lip with a light pat. It limply fell on to his lap.
“Anyway,” I said, holding back my laugh. “What’s your name?”
He blinked a few times before he audibly swallowed. “J-Jonah.”
“Ah, Jonah. So, are you a man of your word?”
He nodded.
I arched and eyebrow as I chewed on the toothpick in my mouth. “If you are, then why did you betray the Jaguars? Why did you renege on your word and loyalty to me?
“I swear, Mr. Seojun I–”
I yanked my gun out of my back pocket and sent a bullet through his mouth. Blood splattered the ground that I had littered with tarp. I shook my head in disgust. I knew for a fact that whatever was about to come out of his mouth was going to be a damn lie. When Ayzo and I went into hiding, we compiled a list of every muthafucka who turned their backs on me. I may not have remembered every single person’s name who worked for me, but when I had someone tied up, you better believe they snitched like their lives depended on it. After almosta year, I finally had every single person who worked for me on my list. All I had to do was check off each name until I found the ringleader.
I placed my foot on the chair and pushed, causing the corpse to drop to the floor with a splat.
“Damn, you had to shoot the nigga in his mouth?”
Right on queue, Raheim came walking into the warehouse. Raheim was in his early thirties and ran a cleaning crew all across the Midwest. He was tall and stocky, which made it a breeze for him to haul away bodies with little effort. I remembered hiring him a few times when I ran the Jaguars and never had any issues. When those idiots ran into my house a few months back, he was the only one I could think of to accurately get the job done. Fortunately for him, when he heard that the Cobras needed a cleaning man, he declined. He said he wouldn’t work for anyone that could do some shady, disloyal shit like that. It was a good thing he was loyal to me because I had originally planned to kill him, too, once he had my house put back together.
Right behind Raheim was my cousin Jay. He used to follow me and Ayzo around when we were kids before we were inducted into the Jaguars. He wanted so badly to be a part of the crew, but at the time, he was too young. Plus, his mom, my aunt Jenny, made me swear on her death bed that I wouldn’t let him near the group until his 21stbirthday. She had hopes that he would’ve changed his mind by then, but unfortunately, he didn’t.
The pair began rolling up the body on the ground and I couldn’t help the slight shake of my head. Watching my cousin work, I just knew that my aunt was probably rolling in her grave just as much as Jay was rolling up the body. I sighed. I did try to keep him away, but at the end of the day, he’s a grown ass man. If hewanted to be a part of this life, at least he was going to do it under me. I was going to keep him safe.
As Raheim and Jay carried out the body, I spun on my heels to examine the other men. The two men that were already scared had pissed themselves. Hell, one of them had passed out. I snatched the toothpick out of my mouth and jammed it into his cheek.
“Ahh fuck!” he shouted through the tape over his mouth.
“I didn’t give you permission to take a damn nap.” His body shook with fright, but he kept his eyes on me. From the corner of my eye, I could see Lewis moving his head before he began mumbling.
I walked over to him and snatched off the tape from his mouth. Luckily for him, he didn’t have any facial hair.
“What do you want from us, Seojun? You know that we all crossed over to the Cobras and that’s grounds for execution. So, why torture us?”
I smiled before placing my hands behind my back. “That is an excellent question, Lewis. I have just one simple question and if you can answer truthfully, then we can wrap this up and call it a night. Does that sound fair?”
Lewis eyed me with suspicion. “Just one question?”
I held up my finger and nodded. “Just the one.”
