No More Mr. Nice Guy (33 page)

“Good night, Mommy,” MJ said as I kissed him good night and put him to bed in the motel in a small town called Dunn, North Carolina.

I'd driven for eight hours straight before I felt safe enough to stop there. Majestic was on a rampage now that he knew I was missing. He'd called my phone about a hundred times in the span of an hour. It got so bad that I had to turn off my phone because MJ kept asking me who was calling and why I wouldn't answer my phone. I drove until I just couldn't keep my eyes open any longer, because I wanted to be as far away from New York as possible. My plan was to get up in the morning and start driving again, maybe to Mississippi or Louisiana, someplace Majestic would never think to look, and where I wouldn't bump into anyone he knew.

When MJ was asleep, I turned on my phone, wishing I could call someone to find out what was going on back on Long Island, but there was no one I could talk to. I still couldn't believe my mom was dead, and by now Niles probably was too. Why had my life turned out like this?

As soon as it powered on, my phone chirped repeatedly, notifying me that I had forty-three new text messages. I decided not to read the texts or listen to my voice mail, because I was sure they were full of hate and threats anyway. I really just wanted to use the phone to check the news back home and see if anyone had mentioned my mom or Niles on Facebook. The first thing I was going to do the next day was ditch this phone and get a pay-as-you-go phone from Walmart.

Not surprisingly, the phone rang in my hand. I was just about to hit IGNORE, until I realized it wasn't Majestic who was calling. It was Niles.

“Hello.” My breath caught in my throat as it dawned on me that I might have just made a huge mistake. What if Majestic had killed Niles and was using his phone to get me to answer? If he had, then I'd fallen right into his trap.

“Keisha.” I exhaled when I heard Niles's voice.

“Niles. Thank God,” I said, babbling so fast I was not even sure he could hear me. “I thought you were dead. Majestic knows where you live. You can't stay at your house. He's gonna kill you. He's already killed my mother—”

He cut me off. “He killed Tanya too.” He might as well have punched me in the face like Majestic had done earlier that morning. I had to sit down on the bed, because my legs were about to give out on me.

“Keisha, are you there?”

“He killed Tanya?” I repeated.

“Yes. I know how close you were. I'm sorry,” he said, but his voice was flat. There was no warmth there.

“I hate him,” I cried. “I hate him so much.”

“I know you do, but I need your help right now,” he said calmly.

“Anything—but I'm not going back there. I'm not going back to Long Island ever again.”

“I'm not asking you to. It's Majestic. He took my mother, and I need to find him so I can get her back.”

I gasped. First my mother, and now Niles's mom. Nothing in this world was sacred to Majestic.

“Niles, you can't go after him. Look what he's already done. He killed my mother; he killed Tanya. I don't want him to kill you too. He's an animal.”

“He has my mother!” Niles shouted. “Don't worry about me. I learned how to handle myself in the Army.”

I took a deep breath, knowing that he would go after Majestic whether I helped him or not. I might as well give him the address to save him some time. Maybe it would help him get to his mother before it was too late. “Okay,” I said, “but you can't tell anyone that you spoke to me. I took MJ and left, and we're not coming back.” I gave him Majestic's address, as well as the address of the house he'd bought for his mother, in case he was hiding out there.

“One more thing: Don't approach his house from the front. He's got all kinds of surveillance equipment. Go up the hill in the back. I remember Bruce saying that he didn't like the blind spots in the backyard security cameras. You might be able to slip in through that way.”

“Good to know. And Keisha, you be safe.”

“I'm sorry for everything, Niles.”

He ended the call without responding. I lay back on the bed and, for the first time since I'd left New York, I allowed myself to cry.

The sun was just about to rise when we reached the top of the hill behind Majestic's mini mansion. Willie had wanted to hit the place last night as soon as we got the address from Keisha, but I'd learned a few things in the Army about attacking a stronghold, and having Majestic's guys stay up all night, making them antsy and sleep-deprived, was probably the best way—not to mention having the sun in their eyes as we attacked east to west.

“You don't have to do this. I can go in by myself,” I said to Willie, who was carrying so many guns he looked like a caricature of a soldier.

“He has my sister,” he answered, raising one gun in solidarity, his expression determined. I should have known he'd insist on helping me save my mother, the same way he'd always been there for both of us. “And that motherfucker killed Tanya,” he added, and I knew he needed to get at this guy as bad as I did.

I looked at the house through the scope of my rifle and spotted six heavily armed guards posted around the backyard and another two standing by windows. I glanced at Willie. “You ready, Unc?” He nodded, and I pointed at a patch of trees near the house before firing six silenced shots from my rifle.

Thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk.
All six guards fell.

We ran like hell toward the house, not stopping until were in the cover of the trees. “You okay?” I asked.

“Yeah. Just give me a sec,” he replied, gasping for air. “I ain't as young as I used to be.”

While he was catching his breath, I used my scope to check on the six targets I had taken out. All appeared dead, and it looked like none of the people in the house had noticed a thing.

I gave Willie the signal, and we made moves to the back door. I looked around for cameras and saw one or two, but we circumvented them in order to enter through a side door somebody had left unlocked.

We moved slowly from room to room, taking out these amateurs like fish in a barrel, until the place was eerily empty and strangely silent.

“This one?” Willie whispered as we approached a set of closed double doors at the end of the hallway. I nodded as I tiptoed toward the handle and pushed it open. It was one of those home theaters, and sitting in there were three guys. Two of them were huge, and the third was just crazy-looking.

My heart dropped when I realized my mother was in there with them.

The biggest dude stood up when he saw me, and put a gun to my mother's head. The other two jumped up and aimed at me. I raised my gun and pointed at the guy near my mother. Willie stepped up beside me and aimed his piece at the second big dude.

“You come to watch me kill your mother?” the guy with my mother said, and I knew that this was Majestic.

I glanced at my mother. Her mouth was taped shut, her hands were tied behind her back, and her eyes were wide with fear. I felt myself one second from going ballistic on his ass, but I knew the other two dudes would start blasting, and my mother would get caught in the crossfire.

Majestic had the nerve to look calm, like we were invited over to have a cup of tea. “I see you had no trouble finding the place. I guess those military skills came in handy. Bravo.” He seemed to know a lot about me, which put me at a disadvantage. Then again, there was only one thing I needed to know about him: This piece of shit was threatening my mother's life.

“Step away from her.” I moved closer.

He smirked. “Sorry, but that ain't gonna happen. I'm gonna do to her what you did to my brother, except in this case, you're gonna watch. The only reason you're alive right now is so you can see her die.”

“I swear, if you hurt my mother, there will be no place in this whole world you can run.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I'm not the running type. Bitches run from me.” His crew joined him like shit was really funny.

I was boiling over. “Take that tape off of her mouth. Take it off!” I yelled, hating everything about seeing my mother like this. I had every intention of making him suffer. If I could take out El Gato, imagine what I would do to this motherfucker.

He looked down at my mother and shook his head. “All the squawking this bitch do, you should be thanking me.”

Calling my mother a bitch was almost worse than kidnapping her, tying her up, and holding a gun on her. I took a step forward.

“One more inch and I will blow her away. Won't even give you a chance to say good-bye. Then I'm gonna turn this gun on you and blow you away. After that, I'm gonna go upstairs and have myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich with some milk, watch a little ball, and have one of my lady friends give me a blow job.”

“Yeah, that's exactly what a coward would eat,” I shot back. “At least your brother was a man. At least when we had an altercation, he wasn't afraid to fight me. He wasn't hiding behind his weapon or his flunkies.”

He puffed up his massive chest, probably thinking he'd intimidate me.

“Oh, you think I'm afraid, you punk? What kind of guy picks on women when there are grown-ass men for him to fight? Yeah, you. A punk and a coward, killing an innocent woman and going after my mother. Hell, if you ask me, the wrong brother is dead.” I taunted him, fully expecting it to rile him up, and, of course, it did.

“You gonna wish you didn't say that!” he threatened.

One of his thugs moved in my direction like he had every intention of taking me down, but I already knew how to deal with his ass. As soon as he came close enough to touch me, I flipped his ass halfway across the room, slapping a dot on the back of his neck.

“So what? You his big protector? Figures,” I said to the guy, changing my stance like I was ready for him to get up and fight again.

Majestic finally stepped up to fight his own battle. “I done took all I can out of you,” he said. “Let's go. Mano a mano.”

“Yo, Bruce. Watch this bitch while I handle him.” Majestic handed my mother off to the other big guy, who put a gun to her head; then Majestic tossed his gun to the side. I handed mine to Willie.

“You wanna fight? Let's fight. I'll show you what really happened to your brother.”

He started to jab, taking swings at me, but I was relentless, wanting blood for the crimes he committed against my family. I caught his fist in mid-air and slammed him to the ground. As he was getting back up to come at me again, the crazy-looking flunky fell to the ground. The poison had taken effect.

Majestic freaked out, stumbling in confusion.

“Ma,” I said, turning to her for a quick second, “that guy's just going to sleep while we have our little fight.” I lied because no way did I want my mother to know I'd just killed a man in front of her.

Majestic got himself together and started delivering a series of punches, but I was matching him throw for throw. I'm not gonna lie; he had training, but it was still no match for my will and my anger. Three quick hits to the throat and he was wobbly; one more and he was on the floor.

Willie tossed me my gun. I stood over Majestic and pressed it into his forehead.

“Don't do it, man, or your moms is dead.” It was the other big dude, the one he'd called Bruce, talking to me. I turned to look at him, my adrenaline pumping faster at the sight of his gun against my mother's temple. The shock and fear I saw on her face caused me to lower my gun. She'd never seen me for the professional killer I'd become.

Willie descended on me, which told me he'd seen it too. Next thing I knew, he had his gun trained on Majestic. I knew Willie wanted to finish him off. I went over to rescue my mother, raising my gun to point it directly at Bruce.

“Niles! You take one step closer and I'll blow her brains out,” he said.

“I'm gonna give you one chance. Let her go and walk away, 'cause if you don't, I can promise you, you're going to die today.”

“Fuck that. I got her, so I'm the one in change. How the hell you making the rules?” Bruce ripped the tape off my mother's mouth. I cringed when I saw how much pain it caused her. “Tell your son to put down his gun.”

“Baby,” my mother said.

“Yeah, Ma?”

“Shoot him.”

“Gladly.” I smirked, pulling the trigger and landing a shot right between his eyes. Bruce's body slumped to the ground.

“Mom, I'm so sorry,” I said as I took off the tape and undid her restraints.

“I told him my son was gonna kill him,” she bragged as relief flowed through me. I loved my mother.

“Come on, Ma, let's go,” I said, leading her out, but not before Willie mouthed to me exactly what I needed to hear:
I got this.
My smile widened as we left the room. A few seconds later, I heard the sound of a shot. I knew he'd done that for Tanya, but I planned to celebrate by taking my mom home.

I'd just come in from feeding the horses when I noticed a black SUV sitting in the driveway. The driver stepped out and opened the back door. I recognized his passenger as soon as I saw her. It was Nadja from Dynamic Defense. I felt the stress building up in my neck immediately at the sight of her, even though she had been very instrumental in covering up the details of my mother's rescue from the police. It's not every day the Long Island police find a house with a dozen dead bodies scattered around, so without her help there would have been one hell of an investigation, and I did not need that kind of scrutiny.

I headed to the porch to meet Nadja. Willie must have seen the car too, because he stepped out from the house and came to stand beside me.

“Good afternoon, Niles.” She reached down and picked a daisy from the garden. “Beautiful place you have here.”

“Thanks. We like it,” I replied, feeling very standoffish. “How can I help you?”

“Well, I'm headed back to Europe, and I just wanted to say good-bye and give you this.” She reached into her pocket and handed me an envelope.

“What's this?” I asked, not giving a shit that I sounded suspicious.

“The director wanted to make sure you were reimbursed for every dime that was taken from you, including that last job.”

I opened the envelope and studied the check that was inside. There were a hell of a lot of zeros.

“Mr. Monroe, I'd like to offer you a job,” she said. I had expected this day to come.

“Tell the director I'm not interested,” I said. “I'm done with Dynamic Defense. Have a nice flight.” I turned to go into the house, but she wasn't done.

“Tell me you don't miss it: the thrill, the excitement, the rush of adrenaline?”

“I don't miss the lies and the bullshit your company put me and my family through.”

“I can't say I blame you, but hear me out.”

I suppose I could have listened to her. After all, she had just hand delivered to me a very solid future, but I swear I'd had enough of people like her, and my temper got the best of me.

“For what? You want to try and seduce me too, so you can mess with my mind? I'm not stupid. I've been there.”

She narrowed her eyes and stared intensely before answering quietly. “Sex is not part of my job description. In my culture, the women are pure. I hate to disappoint you, Mr. Monroe, but I'm a virgin.” She said this without a hint of irony or venom, just matter of fact. Her words shocked the hell out of me.

“She got you on that one, didn't she, nephew?” Willie laughed, and I shot him an evil look.

“Look, my father runs the company's Western European office. I'm just here to offer you a job because you're good at it. That's all.”

My mother came out and walked over to my side. “What kind of job?” she asked suspiciously. She made no pretense of her protectiveness over her only son. I would never get tired of that.

“The kind of job your son is very good at,” Nadja answered cryptically, instead of telling my mother that I killed people for a living.

She turned back to me and explained, “But this job is different, because it's working solely with an international clientele as a freelancer. You'll see that life outside of America is a different experience. I think you'd all like living abroad.” She finished confidently and then opened her bag. This time she pulled out three plane tickets and handed them to me.

“Three first class tickets. You have my number. Just let me know what you decide,” she told me before getting back into her car.

As soon as the SUV pulled away, I turned to Mom and Willie.

“Willie? What do you want to do?”

He looked from me to Mom. “I don't know,” he answered, but my mother had already made her decision.

“Europe's beautiful this time of year, and we could all use a fresh start.”