The Versace League (18 page)

             
Aasir noticed that everyone seemed thrown off by the picture except for one person. He noticed that that one person didn’t seem the least bit interested in the photo and he wondered why. “Well we need his last name and a location and we don’t have much time. I might be able to get something to go on in the next couple of hours, but until then just use your resources and let’s meet tomorrow at the same time, unless someone gets something quicker then hit me up. Yamin is still away with Jamison on a job they took, he said they should be done by morning.”

            They all nodded their heads and slowly everyone filed out of the room with Aasir staying behind. He kept his body attached to the wall and thought about Cortez and what he would’ve done if he had been the one left to handle things while Yamin was away. Cortez was smart and there wasn’t anything he couldn’t do as long as he had a computer. He thought about all the times he had to defend Cortez in school because of the other kids’ dislike for him.

They all used to hate Cortez because he had been so smart and because the teachers favored him over them. Cortez kept a 4.0 GPA throughout high school but also kept a line of girls longing for his attention. That was another reason dudes couldn’t stand his ass and wanted to beat him up every chance they got. Aasir was a grade ahead of Cortez and intentionally flunked just so he could be held back to keep an eye on his younger brother. It was that instinct that they all carried, to look out for one another, and to protect each other at all costs.

            Aasir was completely disgusted with himself. He allowed the flavor of Patrice’s pussy to cause a lapse in his judgment. He should have stayed away from her and never climbed into her bed. A part of him felt like he was somewhat responsible for what happened to Cortez and Ashley, and had he not been sleeping with Patrice, he might have seen what Yamin saw.         

  There was nothing he could do about it now though. Aasir shrugged his shoulders and then left out of the small room and headed towards his car. The only thing left to do was make it better by finding this Roscoe dude and putting an end to this madness.

          He looked down at his phone and saw there was still no call or text from Yamin.
If he don’t call me back by morning, I’m a just go see Jessica myself. All I need is a last name.
Aasir thought and removed his keys from his pocket and unarmed the alarm on his Maserati. As he made it closer to his car he spotted the reflection of someone quickly approaching him from behind. He stepped to the side, but he wasn’t quick enough to miss the bullet that entered his shoulder. He turned around when another shot was fired right passed his head and into the window of his car. Glass shattered and he jumped at the shooter causing him to stumble back and hit the ground.

            The two of them wrestled, rolled around on the ground and punches were thrown from the both of them. Aasir shot an uppercut at the shooter’s face, but it wasn’t enough to get him away. He tried to throw another punch, when the shooter lifted up completely and aimed the gun at his face. In that moment, Aasir saw his past, present, and future flash before him and he knew he couldn’t let this be the end of him. What about Aucelie and what about Yamin?

            With all the strength he had in him, he pushed the shooter up, brought his foot up and kicked him in the stomach. The shooter flew a couple of feet into the air before he landed onto his back. Aasir reached for his pistol that was holstered on his waist and pulled it out. He aimed it at the shooter and fired one bullet.

            POW!

           
The bullet went into the shooter’s upper chest and caused him to release the hold he had on his gun. He brought his hand up to his wound and gasped for air. Aasir raced over to him, kicked the gun that was sitting next to him away, and then dropped down on top of him.

He removed the ragged mask that covered the guy’s face and he suddenly felt all the fire in him die. His eyes bulged out and his mouth dropped open in shock. He remembered how he could’ve sworn he saw a gun on him when everyone gathered at Yamin’s house after Cortez’s funeral, although he claimed to have left it in the car. He thought about how the killer instinct inside him had suddenly died when he was always itching to body someone.

He remembered when he told him about him and Yamin patching things up and how disappointed he sounded and he remembered how disinterested he seemed in Roscoe’s picture.

            “Knox!” Aasir yelled in disbelief. Knox had been a part of The Versace League for so long and he here he was trying to kill the son of one of his long time best friends. “Man, what are you doing?”

            “You would never understand youngn. The Versace League is-“ he coughed as blood began to fill his lungs. “under fire. They want to bring it down and it’s all because Yamin couldn’t mind his own damn business. I knew you little niggas didn’t know what you were doing. I tried to tell Alain that Yamin wasn’t fit to run this ship, but he persisted ‘cause he wanted to leave the shit in the family! Said Yamin would take it to higher places---Yamin ain’t doing shit but causing us all to drown. He too busy playing in some revenge pussy to even notice this shit is all his fault. Cortez died becase of him and they--. “           

             
“Knox, what the hell are you talking about?” Aasir asked. He was confused and needed Knox to clear it up for him.

            “They gonna take The Versace League down. Cortez was just the beginning,” Knox explained.

            “And you were helping them? What the fuck?”

            “No-I was trying to stop them. I was only doing what needed to be done to save The League.  I only let them believe that I wanted to help them. The League is my life and it’s all I have. I can’t let you youngn’s bring it-“

            Knox’s head fell back against the pavement and his eyes slowly closed as he took his last breath. Aasir’s eyes grew even bigger than they had before. He grabbed Knox by the collar of his shirt and pulled his head from the ground. He needed more information. He wanted Knox to further explain who was trying to bring them down and why. He wanted to see if Knox knew who this Roscoe person was and what connection he had to Jessica. He needed to know what he meant by Cortez’s death being Yamin’s fault. What did he mean by revenge pussy? Aasir had so many questions.

            “Knox, who the fuck is this Roscoe? Knox! Knox!” Aasir yelled at him to answer, but it was useless. Knox was gone.

            Aasir checked Knox’s pockets and pulled out his cell phone. He was still using some old ass flip phone, and Aasir pulled it open to check his calls. He didn’t have to do much searching. The last call that had come through to Knox’s phone was from Roscoe. Aasir pressed down on Knox’s phone number and put the phone to his ear.

            “Did you get him? Where you at?” Roscoe said into the phone. “Did he see you? What happened, you got him right?”

            “Yea!” Aasir yelled into the receiver. He placed his hand over the receiver to try to and muffle his voice. “I got him.”

            “I can’t hear you! Where you at? Where you gonna meet me at?” Roscoe asked.

            “Just meet me over there at Fiesta man, the one across the street from Rudy’s,” Aasir said trying to disguise his voice as much as possible.

            “Alright. Give me fifteen. Make sure you bring the proof,” Roscoe said and then disconnected the line.

            Aasir hung the phone up feeling like he’d lucked up. He had a name, he had a picture, and he now had a location. Maybe he didn’t need Jessica after all. Could he be about to put an end to this little game they’ve been playing?

QUEASINESS

It was going on five o’clock in the morning and Jessica had been in and out of the bathroom at least four times in the past hour. She had drank a 7-UP and ate a few saltine crackers but she couldn’t seem to get past the queasiness in her stomach. Her doctor told her that she would stop having morning sickness after the first trimester, but that hadn’t been the case. It was still some days where she could barely get out of bed because of the nauseated feeling that always lingered over her.

She was happy that Yamin had been able to successfully bring in enough income to support her because she had turned away every client that came looking for her services. She was what most liked to have called comfortable. Yamin didn’t mind her not working and honestly he hoped that she would never work another day in her life. She wasn’t too fond of giving up her career to be a housewife, but with the way she was feeling she was very thankful for the opportunity.

Jessica walked into the bedroom that she had been sharing with Donica and grabbed her purse from the night stand. She thought about Yamin and how he hadn’t contacted her since she was whisked away into the woods along with Donica and Aucelie. She had no idea what was going on or even how long they would be there. Manny and Emmanuel were so vague on what information they gave and always told her to relax and that everything would be fine. She was dealing with it, but with each hour that passed the more impatient she became.

She dug into her purse, fishing around for her pill bottle that contained the medication that would offset her nausea. She always used the medication as a last resort in fear that too much would harm her baby. Jessica ended up pulling damn near everything out of her purse, but was unable to find that orange bottle that was the key to her having a good day. She looked around the room and tried to think back to when she had last seen her medication. An image of her kitchen counter popped into her head as she thought back a few days ago to when she had last been sick.

“Shit,” she cursed to herself. She dumped everything back into her purse except for her cellphone and sent Yamin a message. She would attempt to get in contact with him again and hope that he would take the time to reply. She knew that he preferred for her to go to Emmanuel and Manny while he was out working, but she didn’t want to. She wasn’t carrying their child, she was carrying
his
child and she wanted him to know how she was feeling. She also wanted to know how he was feeling and if he was okay. She yearned to hear his deep voice in her ear and just needed a few seconds of his time.

BABE. PLEASE CALL ME. I DON’T FEEL TOO GOOD. LEFT MY PILLS AT HOME IN THE KITCHEN.
She hit send on the text message and sat the phone down on the nightstand. She could feel her stomach churning and she stood up to go the restroom again. She felt so dizzy to the point where she had to sit back down.

“You okay Jessica?” Donica asked through sleepiness.

“Yea girl. It’s this damn child of mine giving me the blues,” Jessica laughed. “Morning sickness. That’s all, I didn’t mean to wake you.”

“You need me to get you anything?”

“No, I’m a just go to the bathroom. Go back to sleep. I’m cool.”

Jessica got up once again and this time she felt as if she could make it to the bathroom. She took slow strides until she was there and hurriedly pushed the toilet seat up and spilled all of her guts on the inside. She couldn’t believe how much she had vomited especially being it had been quite some time since she’d last eaten. She took a few squares of the tissue from the roll and dabbed her mouth. After flushing the toilet, she got up to wash her face and her hands. That feeling was still there and she needed that medicine.

She walked out of the bathroom and back over to where she had sat her phone. There was still no reply from Yamin. She shook her head, grabbed her phone and grabbed her purse. Jessica turned to let Donica know she was going to have one of the guys take her home, but that quickly, Donica had fallen back to sleep. Shrugging her shoulders, she walked out of the bedroom and through the hall until she reached the den.

ESPN was playing on the television and the volume was on low. Emmanuel was lying on the floor with his pistol resting on his chest, but he was asleep. She looked over at Manny and saw that he was asleep as well, but on the couch. She didn’t know if she should awake either of them, but she really wanted to get her medicine.

“I guess I can just wait until they wake up,” Jessica said, but when another wave of nausea hit her, she knew that she couldn’t wait any longer. She looked around for the keys to Emmanuel’s car and figured she could just quickly drive herself. She knew that they weren’t too far away from her and Yamin’s place and could easily drive over there, get her medicine, and be back before anyone knew she was gone. Once she spotted the keys sitting on the bar area, she swiped them up, and tipped toed out of the cabin.

Upon getting into the car, Jessica started the car, and placed her home address into the GPS on her cell phone. It told her that she was only twenty five minutes away from her destination. She found a station on the radio, pulled her seatbelt on, and backed out of the driveway. She knew that everyone wouldn’t wake up until around eight that morning and that she had plenty of time to get there and back. She even thought about taking a soak in the big Jacuzzi tub that Yamin had installed a few weeks ago. 

“Yep, I think I will take me a nice long soak,” Jessica told herself as she pulled away from the Cabin in the direction of her home.

                                                ***

“Oh my God! This soak was everything!” Jessica said as she closed and opened her eyes. Her eyelids were so heavy with sleep after the marvelous bath she treated herself to. The hot water felt so stimulating and relaxing that she could sit in that same position all day long. She hadn’t even taken her medicine yet, but she’d already felt a whole lot better than she had when she arrived. She glanced over at the clock that sat on the wall and saw that it was fifteen minutes after seven, so she knew she didn’t have much time left. She reached and pulled the stopper out of the tub and waited a few moments longer, while the water was released down the drain.