Becoming Carter (The Carter Series) (Volume 2) (13 page)

“With all due respect, Dad, fuck that! Uncle Deshaun wouldn’t just sit at home if I was missing. He’d be out there with you, looking for me. I know we’ve got a lot of shit going on, and you’re trying to keep me safe, or whatever, but this is about family. I’m helping.”

The look on Senior’s face told me that he was ready to have another father/son battle, but he held it back this time. He let out a loud exhale and then shook his head.

“So fucking hardheaded,” he mumbled. “Fine, everybody head out and search everywhere you possibly can. No one comes back here until we find him.”

As The Family started towards the door, Kelvin walked over to me and held out his hand. I smiled first, then I took it and hopped down off the stool, and we began walking towards the elevators.

Once we made it back into the car, Kelvin finally spoke to me for the first time since he found out his uncle was missing.

“This is fucking crazy. How’s this happening when he just texted me this morning? Just doesn’t make any sense.”

“I know,” I said, relieved to finally hear my own voice. “This is insane.”

Kelvin pulled out his cell phone and tapped it, then pulled the phone up to his ear again. After a few seconds, he spoke.

“Uncle Deshaun, it’s Kelvin, again. Listen, shit’s really getting serious over here with The Family, man. If you’re okay, I really need you to call me as soon as you get this message. My dad’s got the whole family looking for you right now. Keisha’s worried sick. You gotta let me know that everything’s alright, because a lot of people are scared. I hope I hear from you soon.” He hung up and placed the phone back in the cup holder.

We drove around for what seemed like forever, and actually ended up being three hours. No one in The Family had heard from Deshaun at all, including his fiancé. The Family had checked everywhere that they could think and hadn’t even found a trace of him. It really was as if he’d vanished into thin air.

Kelvin finally pulled the car into a gas station. He shut off the engine, but he didn’t get out, he just stared out the windshield at absolutely nothing. I looked over at him and could see the confusion pouring out of him.

What were they supposed to do now? Keep searching? Report Deshaun missing to the police? It was just a hunch, but I kind of had the feeling that the Carters didn’t exactly believe in reporting
anything
to the police.

As Kelvin sat next to me completely zoned out, I placed my hand on top of his and rubbed it gently. It was the first sign of affection either of us had shown since this morning, and I realized how much I missed it. At the touch of my hand, Kelvin looked over at me and smiled. It wasn’t his usual brilliant, electric smile, however. It was a damaged smile that showed how much pain he was in. Nonetheless, he reached over and placed his free hand on top of mine.

“I’m so sorry this is happening, Baby,” I said softly. “I wish there was more I could do to help.”

“You’re doing everything that I need you to be doing. You’re here. That’s all I really need is for you to be next to me. I just need you with me and I’ll be okay.”

Kelvin leaned over and gave me a gentle kiss on the lips before opening his door and stepping out to pump the gas. Just as he closed the door behind him, his cell phone started ringing. The name on the screen read
Uncle Mikey
. Kelvin snatched the door back open, thrusting himself into the seat and picking up the phone in the same motion.

“Hello? What’s up, Uncle Mikey?” he said, placing the phone on speaker so that I could hear.

“Hey,” Mikey replied loudly. “Senior just got a call from one of the girls at Fantasies. She said that he needed to get over there right now. Everybody’s heading that way.”

Before Mikey could even get out the rest of what he wanted to say, Kelvin had already started the car and darted out of the gas station, into the busy street. I heard a car blow its horn as we whisked in front of them, cutting them off and causing them to slam on the brakes as we passed. Kelvin didn’t even seem to notice as he floored the Camaro without any regard to traffic or speed limits.

Less than five minutes later, Kelvin stomped on the brakes and the car came to a screeching halt in front of Fantasies.

“We were just here. Why would we need to come back here?” Kelvin asked himself aloud as we both rushed to get out of the car.

I closed the door behind me and heard the locks engage as Kelvin led me into Fantasies strip club. The bouncer at the door gave me a quick glare, but when he noticed Kelvin behind me, he eased up and let us pass without being searched.

The club was very dark inside, with dull red lights mounted high in the ceiling, and brighter maroon lights outlining the bar. It was busier than I thought it’d be for a week day. There was a thick white woman on the pole-less stage, twerking her ass to Robin Thicke’s Blurred Lines, and quite a few other topless women sitting on men’s laps inside tiny booths with no curtains. To my surprise, Kelvin didn’t as much as glance at any of the women. He simply took me by the hand and led me straight to the back of the club.

Kelvin pushed aside a curtain and we stepped into a wide room that was full of stacked boxes. It was like a maze and Kelvin led the way as if he’d done it a million times, until finally reaching a metal door. As Kelvin reached for the rickety metal knob, I could of sworn I heard someone crying.

The door squeaked as Kelvin pushed it open, nearly hitting a heavy black woman with long braids running down her back. She turned around to look at us and I could see she was the one I’d heard crying a second ago. Her makeup was streaked from tears, and when she saw Kelvin, she brought her hand up to her mouth as her tears turned into a steady stream down her face.

“Robin, what’s wrong?” Kelvin said to the woman, placing his hand on her shoulder. She didn’t respond. Instead, she reached between Kelvin and me, pulled the door open and stepped inside, bumping my shoulder as she went.

As the door closed, I could now see that we were standing in an alley, apparently at the back entrance of the club. The passageway was long and dark with dumpsters lining both sides, and there was at least twenty people standing in a crowd. They were all looking in the same direction with their backs towards us.

We inched our way forward together, weaving our way through the crowd. I held onto his hand, but Kelvin slowly led the way. As we walked around people, I couldn’t help but notice the expressions on their faces. Some of them were obviously confused and searching for information, but others seemed horrified and devastated. I felt my heart speeding up as we got closer to the front of the group and the faces all started to look the same. They were filled with despair.

Just as we reached the last row of the crowd, I felt Kelvin let go of my hand as he stepped to the front. I tried to reach out for him, but something had obviously grabbed his attention and he kept walking without me. I pushed passed the last line of unknown bystanders and saw Clarence and Tommy staring at Kelvin as he slowly walked past them. His steps seemed more and more sluggish as he walked, but I couldn’t see past him so I didn’t know what for.

As I leaned over to try to get a look around him, Tommy walked over to me and placed his hands on my shoulders.

“I think you should just stay here, Lily,” he said in his husky tone. “You don’t want to see that.”

“See what? Did they find Deshaun?” I replied, but he didn’t answer.

Just then, I heard a loud scream. My heart felt like it jumped out of my chest as I looked around Tommy and saw Kelvin trying to push his way past Mikey, who was struggling to hold him back. As I stared at the two of them, I zoned in on Mikey’s face and realized that he was crying. Then, I realized that the scream I’d heard had come from Kelvin, who’d now dropped down to his knees, and was bawling into his uncle’s shoulder as he kneeled next to him.

“What the…” I tried to push past Tommy but he refused to budge, using his weight as a barrier to hold me back. “Let me go, Tommy. What the fuck is going on?” I screamed, staring at Mikey and Kelvin as they cried in front of everyone.

My eyes finally made their way up, and I realized that I could now see what I couldn’t see before, when Kelvin’s body was blocking my view. I looked past him and Mikey and saw Senior standing next to one of the dumpsters with one hand on his hip, and the other covering his eyes. I looked down, and on the ground next to the dumpster was a body covered in blood. I didn’t have to see his face to know that it was Deshaun. He’d obviously been shot… much more than once… and he was dead.

I covered my mouth with my hand as the tears streamed down my face uncontrollably. Kelvin was still sobbing into his uncle’s shoulder as the people behind me began to realize what exactly was happening. The sobs became louder and the hysteria started to kick in.

One woman let out an agonizing scream as she walked closer and looked down at the body. Senior didn’t do anything to stop her as she stared at Deshaun’s face, screaming loudly. As she screamed, everyone behind me started to panic and cry as well. I didn’t know who they were, but they obviously knew who Deshaun was.

“Oh my god! Somebody killed Deshaun. They shot Deshaun! They shot him in the face! Oh my god!” one woman cried. The moment she said it, a wave of emotion swept over everyone around us. No one could control themselves as they cried, some pacing back and forth, mumbling to themselves. One woman fell to her knees and started praying, but she wasn’t speaking English.

Tears rolled down my face as I watched the pain splash across Tommy’s. I didn’t know exactly how long he’d known Deshaun, but I knew that it had been a while. Deshaun was only thirty-five years old, and Tommy was sixty, so the chances of Tommy knowing him for his entire life were pretty good.

“Let me go, Tommy. I need to be with Kelvin,” I said, my voice shaking.

He let me go, and I ran over to Kelvin. Mikey saw me and reached out for me, silently asking for me to take his place to console Kelvin. As I kneeled down, Mikey backed away and Kelvin transitioned over to my shoulder, continuing to sob. I rubbed his back as he squeezed me close to him. I could feel the pain flowing through him. It was terrible, and had to have been one of the most difficult moments in my life.

I couldn’t harness all the different emotions that were running through me. I was terrified, but I also felt like one of my own family members had just died. The emotions ran and the questions swirled around in my head. Who did this? Why would they do this? What were Kelvin and I supposed to do now?

As I struggled to contain my own frustration and confusion, Mikey got up and walked over to Senior, who was wiping away his own tears, although, his tears didn’t seem as heavy as everyone else’s.

“Was this the Russians?” Mikey said. His emotions seemed to switch from sadness to anger. “Is this revenge for Abram?”

Senior looked like he didn’t want to answer the question, especially in front of me and all the people who were still standing outside.

“I don’t know,” he replied, “but, I don’t see who else would’ve done this. I don’t even know how he got here. His car’s missing.”

Suddenly, Kelvin lifted his head off my shoulder and stood up quickly, leaving me on the ground. I looked up at him and could immediately see the combination of pain and rage in his face.

“Of course it was the fucking Russians! Nobody else would’ve done this. It’s been them the whole time, and you still haven’t done anything. They’ve killed your son, and now your brother, and you’re still not gonna do shit? What the fuck is the matter with you?” Kelvin barked loudly, grabbing everyone’s attention.

The alley went completely silent, with the exception of a few sniffs here and there. Everyone was aware of the topic of the conversation now, and waiting for Senior’s response.

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Senior replied, obviously trying to keep his voice down. “I’ve never known it was them for sure.”

“Bullshit!” Kelvin blared aggressively. His soft, beautiful face had morphed into a twisted image of fury and panic. “You knew! You just didn’t do anything. Just like after they shot Fab. You knew it was them, and you still didn’t do anything. So, I made the call without you. I told Deshaun to make the hit, and now he’s dead.”

Kelvin immediately stopped talking. His face seemed stunned as the depth of his words seemed to hit him violently.

“It’s my fault,” he said as tears started to stream down his face once again. “They killed him because I told him to avenge my brother for me. This is my fault.”

I quickly lifted myself to my feet and wrapped my arms around him, and I felt him lose control of his emotions. He sobbed into my neck loudly, and his grief transferred over to everyone who was watching the tragic scene unfold, as they all started to cry right along with him.

Mikey walked over and wrapped his big arms around both of us as we embraced. “This is not your fault, Junior,” he whispered in Kelvin’s ear. “You hear me? The only person responsible for this is Ivan Baskov. We should’ve done something a long time ago. We should’ve ended it.”