Chapter 4: Realization


"You will put the garbage in the cans and make certain that the cans are covered. We got to keep our own backyard clean."-John Gotti


Cairo

"Fucking Hell!" Cairo exclaimed in anger, clutching his pounding head from the migraine he was experiencing. With celebration comes liquor and with liquor comes hangovers. This is the shit he didn't look forward to after having another great night out with the guys. He slid out of the bed not really caring he woke up the random girl next to him. My steps made their way to the bathroom where I would look into my medicine cabinet to relieve this pain. I turned on the faucet and waited for the water to get warm so I could wash my face off. It continued to run when I looked up with a confused facial expression as I stared at the foreign object on my mirror. "What the fuck?!"

There was a yellow sticky note plastered to the middle of my mirror with writing on it and red lipstick kissed next to it. I whispered the words written on there, "Get in contact with Jazmine" is what the note said. Jazmine has a key to my house and occasionally comes over for surprise visits but I always get notifications from security detail when she's on her way in order to rid myself of any recent activities. Whoever was on duty will have a nice new home called the bottom of the fucking ocean. Holy shit! Did Jazmine come in here? I knew I shouldn't have brought that stupid whore home last night. Usually it was once in a while when I'd bring some lucky lady back home but two days in a row was too risky and irresponsible on my part. Damn it Damn it Damn it!... Did she see us? I need to call her! Phone where the fuck are you? Negative thoughts kept cursing through my mind while trying to find my phone.

Found it! Smothered underneath a pile of clothes in the pants pocket of my suit. The battery unfortunately dead of course when I urgently needed to make this call. What else was there? "Shit!" I exclaimed loudly, waking the girl from her slumber. My eyes shifted to her angrily then I barked at her. "Where's your phone?!"

She was rubbing the sleep from her eyes and groggily shot back at me, "Why the hell do you need my phone?!"

In an attempt to scare her, I slowly tilted my head to the side like a demented person would. "Do you remember who the fuck I am?! Don't question me or I'll kill you! Now give me your phone or take a bullet!"

Widened frightened eyes were what I gained as a response and she frantically looked around the room to find the phone. She must have been looking for at least a couple of minutes by now and my patience was quickly running thin. Reaching into my nightstand drawer and pulling out my lucky pistol, I aimed it at the whore with vicious intent. "You have five seconds until you find the damn phone! If you don't you'll be met by a tragic fate." I smiled at her and started to chuckle coldly.

Tears streamed down her face as I started my countdown "One...Two...Three...Four-"

She popped up from under the bed and held up the item I wanted to see. "I found it!" Instead of handing it over, a bewildered expression went across her face. Eyes wide like a deer caught in headlights.

"Don't just stand there like a cunt! Give it to me!" My voice boomed loudly. Cautiously, she started to walk over and handed the phone to me. I harshly snatched it out of her hand. Another sticky note is what I discovered, this time it was stuck to the woman's phone. It read "You can try calling, but it's not going to work." Out of anger, I peeled off the note and ripped it up then proceeded to dial the number. Not before I paused, trying to remember her number. I wasn't fully recovered from last night. A finger touched my forehead trying to remember her number. When the light bulb clicked, I called Jazmine only to hear her voice mail "Hello, this is Jazmine Dubois. I'm not-".

"Fuck!" I screamed, throwing the phone against the wall and causing it to shatter into pieces.

"Hey! That phone was expensive!" The girl interrupted.

I turned around at her and pointed the gun at her. "You! Shut the-" My sentence trailed off and I forgot about the girl when I looked at the lamp on my desk. It was covered in multiple sticky notes. How did I not see this before?!

Each sticky note had short phrases on them but they were positioned in a way that read:

"Told you so"

"She's not home"

"She's with us"

"Look for your best friend T-Bone"

"Look for your best friend Xavier"

"Look for your best friend Monte Cortez"

"Then you will find clues to her"

"Sincerely,"

"Your best friends..."

"P.S. , Your first destination is ... T-Bone"

T-Bone, Xavier, and Monte Cortez were far from my best friends. They were my competitors in all illegal activities associated in organized crime. Before I met Don Dubois, I was always inferior to them and our gangs would always bump heads. Now that Don Dubois is training me to take over when he retires, they have became lowlifes beneath me. They gradually faded into the background as I took up the spotlight. All of the glory all of the fame. They're not a major threat and never would be or so it seemed. As soon as I came into my position of power i should have eliminated them. It came across my mind a few times but I never acted on it. How do they think they're going to mess with Don Dubois' daughter and still exist? Well, they won't.

What the fuck?!

My eyes kept wandering over the sticky notes, trying to find something more even though I would find nothing. I hoped to find another note saying they were just fucking with me. Something. The notes were so too vague. Most of me shrugged this off as nothing serious. Just a cruel joke that would end up with me having the last laugh. But there was a part of me, very small, that would not be satiated until I heard my fiancees' voice. To know she was safe and sound and away from the assholes mentioned on the notes. All I could make out was perfect handwriting that brought me a bad what-if scenario. Yellow sticky notes with black writing and red lipstick. Red lipstick. Red Lipstick. Why does that keep popping up in my mind?...Wait, red lipstick?! Slowly my eyes turned towards the woman in the corner still shivering.

"Where is your purse at?" I demanded.

"M-My purse?"

I laughed sarcastically and let out an irritated sigh. "Yes, your fucking purse!"

Her finger pointed to the other side of the bedroom where her purse rested. I grabbed the bag and emptied all of the contents. When I found her lipstick, I wrote it on one of the many sticky notes. And... Sure enough, the lipstick color was the same one as the whores'. She was in a corner crying and cowering in fear. In my eyes, all I saw was a guilty bitch caught in her own game. I continued to aim my gun at her. "Who sent you?!"

"I-I-I don't know what you're talking about you."

SLAP.

"I said, who sent you, bitch?!"

She was still shaking but she was cradling the cheek I slapped. "I really don't know what you're talking about."

I shook my head furiously. "Bitch, you don't get it. If you keep saying you don't know I'm going to get really angry. And if I get really angry then BOOM." I pulled the trigger which shot the gun into the air and she screamed in reaction. "You're dead."

I squatted next to her in order to look her in the eyes and I stroked her cheek gently with my favorite gun. "Sweetie pie, just tell me who sent you and I'll let you go. I promise I won't harm you."

She kept shaking her head and her body quietly trembled in response. She was saying nothing, just looking away from me.

"Look at me!" I said, forcing her face to face mine.

There was no confession or effort to start one anytime soon.

I sigh frustratingly. "Damn, what a shame..." I trailed off.

"You were a good fuck. Wonderful, actually. I was hoping we could start the morning with round two but…" I pulled the trigger and she let out a scream while I laughed at her terror. She stopped when she realized she was still alive and looked at me in terror. My laughter got louder as her face became more worried. "You thought I would shoot you? What kind of guy do you think I am? Give me some slack!" One of my hands playfully slapped her on the shoulder.

"I'm sorry baby, forgive me?" I said, begging for her forgiveness. Lovingly, I took her face in the palm of my hands and gave her a long and passionate kiss. Then, I gave her my full attention. "Baby, I would never shoot you. Never." I tossed the gun to the side, still looking at her face with my caring expression.

Then my loving affection stopped abruptly as I gave her a sinister look. "That's way too easy and there's no fun in that." My voice coldly spat out. Before she had a chance to react, I pulled on her brunette hair and slammed her head into the tile floor. "This is what you happens when you come in here and think you could mess with my head."

She was crying out in pain and pleading for her life. "Stop! Please stop! I didn't do anything!"

Perfect, I thought smirking in delight. Begging just how I like them.

SLAM.

"Ow!"

SLAM

"Stop it!"

SLAM

"Somebody help me!"

SLAM

SLAM

SLAM

I slammed her head against the floor until I could no longer hear her desperate cries for help. Blood splattered on my chest and all over my face. My lips licked the blood from my lips and I looked upon my masterpiece in satisfaction. Her face was caved in and I could see a piece of her head coming off. Her eyes were open and mouth wide in shock. A crown of blood surrounded her head. "What a beautiful work of art" I said, smirking in amusement. Now I needed someone to come over here and clean this up. I walked downstairs to grab my house phone and I called the one person who could help.

"Dewey, come over we have an unfortunate nuisance on our hands...And bring over the clean-up crew. Seems like I've made a rather messy accident."


"You getting sloppy, man." Dewey said to me as he was shaking his head and looking at the guys cleaning up the body.

"What do you mean?" I said with guarded eyes glued to him.

"I mean... That old nigga was the only person you were going to kill yourself. Not this bitch, too!" He gestured his hands as he was talking to make his point. "This isn't Chicago 6 years ago."

"Dewey, you're being too uptight! Come on Dewey, live a little. There's no harm in killing a few people." My shoulders shrugged him off nonchalantly.

"There is when it can be traced back to you. We have people to do this. It's simple procedure." He paused his ranting for a moment, but quickly resumed. "Did you even use gloves?" All these questions were starting to become aggravating. Since when did I ever answer to Dewey and explain my actions? Never.

I rolled my eyes. "Well, this needed immediate action. I couldn't just let the bitch get away. No, I didn't use gloves but I don't have to worry about the body being found...Ever." When I said ever, I looked at him to confirm my statement.

He nodded with a heavy sigh and his rough hand sliding down the side of his cheek. "Yea, it won't be found. But still..."

"But still nothing! If our guys don't know how to clean up everything, then we need to kill them and find other guys to do it. Plain and simple." I bellowed at him, causing him to back down from trying to lecture my actions. Dewey stood there looking at me and waiting for me to continue. I didn't start until the cleaning guys were finished. Couldn't have any outsiders eavesdropping in on this information.

They left and I started where I left off. "But, that's not important. What's important is that we have a problem on our hands. Jazmine is missing, or that's what it seems like. I tried calling her and I got her voice mail but it's not the typical ignored or missed call. It's something bigger. Much bigger." I took this time to show him all of the sticky notes I found.

They were spread out on a table and I put them in the order I found them. It all made sense when it was together. "Get in contact with Jazmine. You can try calling, but it's not going to work. Told you so. She's not home. She's with us. Look for your best friend T-Bone. Look for your best friend Xavier. Look for your best friend Monte Cortez. Then you will find clues to her. Sincerely, Your best friends... P.S. Your first destination is...T-Bone." Dewey read them aloud.

"What the fuck is this?!" He exclaimed and started shaking his head. "No, no. Fuck! This has to be some type of joke. We've come too far to let these washed out niggas ruin us! This has got to be a joke! Don't tell me you're taking this shit seriously?"

My head nodded in agreement and I brought my pointer finger to rest on my finger in thought. "I mostly thought it could be a joke. Just something keeps nagging the hell out of me about it. Jazmine always answers my calls. And in a case she doesn't she immediately texts me back she's call later but it's been an hour since that call. No text or callback... But maybe you're right Dewey."

"Get your shit together man, we been-" But stopped himself in an instance. Dewey turned around slowly for a second and his eye brows furrowed. He hesitantly leaned in front of him and started to follow something.

"What are you doing?" I asked him, perplexed by his strange behavior.

"Shh! I hear something." he replied.

My senses wondered what he was hearing, so I listened extra hard to see what Dewey was going on about. In the silence I could hear a faint beeping noise over and over again.

Buh-Beep.

Buh-Beep.

Buh-Beep.

Buh-Beep.

Dewey followed the sound to underneath the bed. His arms reached under there and took out the item that was making the sound. It looked strange from far away. It was black with two sticks together and seemed to have another piece of yellow sticky note on it.

"Well, what is it?!" I barked impatiently.

"It's a bomb with 3 minutes left on it!" He took off a sticky note from it and read, "This is not a joke. Don't just read this, idiots. RUN!"

And run is just what Dewey and I did. Damn it! I cursed in my head for having an enormous house. It wasn't very bomb friendly. Luckily, we made it out of the door just in time before the bomb went off. Our bodies were flown from the impact and landed into the ditch next to my mail box.

I turned around to see my house torn apart into pieces of rubble and ashes. Everything I owned was in flames. My memories. Gone. My fancy possessions. Gone. Some money I stashed. Gone. Important documents. Gone. Everything was gone. That's the only word that registered in my head at the moment. gone. Gone. Gone. Gone. GONE. GONE!

"I WANT THOSE FUCKERS DEAD!" I screeched loud enough for the entire neighborhood to hear.


Huey

Step one? Complete. Things were really going to start happening now. I've burned down Cairo's house and mislead him in the process. This is perfect. If my next tasks work out as smoothly as this one, then I should have Cairo's life in the palm of my hands within no time. Well, it would take time of course but figuratively speaking.

Pop.

I looked over to see Caesar opening a champagne bottle and the rest of the group crowding around Hiro for his successful mission. Cindy got the champagne glasses and started handing them to each of us. I accepted mine and waited for Caesar to hand me the bottle of champagne to pour some in my cup.

Caesar cleared his throat as everyone was pouring the champagne in their glasses. Everyone except Riley. He started complaining about how we were drinking "that fruity shit" and found a Vodka bottle to pour in his cup as his drink. "I'd like to make a toast to my nigga Hiro," he nudged Hiro and Hiro smirked his famous smirk. "For sneaking into the fucker Cairo's house during the middle of the night and making him confused as hell." We drunk to that, then Caesar continued. "Let's replay that, shall we?"

Yea, that's right. Hiro snuck into the house during the middle of the night. Put those sticky notes where he knew Cairo would fine them, planted the bomb underneath the bed, and put in a camera at the top right corner of the room that viewed everything in the bedroom until the explosion. There's a reason why Hiro is head of security. He specializes in weapons and has the characteristics that trained special agents would envy him over. Also, he's very meticulous when it comes to his work. Everything is perfect, everything is in the right place, and he hasn't failed a single mission I've given him. My mission was to mislead Cairo but he did way more than that. With the sticky notes to the bomb to even the camera. He likes to make his missions 'fun' for him and that's not a problem with me as long as the job gets done without a trace.

We finished watching it for the second time and Caesar starts to spark up. He comes over to me, taking a long puff and releasing it. Reaching in his pocket, he took out another blunt. "You want some Huey?"

"No, I'm fine." I said in my usual monotone voice.

"Come on, bruh. Be happy for Hiro! This is the beginning of the downfall of Cairo." He said with his trademark grin and waving the blunt in front of me.

I guess he didn't get the meaning of the word no so I decided to show him by slapping the blunt out of his hand and giving him a death glare. "I said no!" Everyone stopped what they were doing and turned their attention towards us.

He backed up, a little startled and defended his persistent actions. "Chill out, Huey. I just wanted you to relax. You've been so uptight about everything. Damn."

My glare intensified as I coldly said, "I'm not going to relax until Cairo is gone." I turned to the rest of the group then back to him. "I don't know what you all are so happy about and celebrating for. Hiro did what he was supposed to do. And what? There shouldn't be rewards for what's supposed to happen. You need to save all that partying for when Cairo is dead." With that, I turned on my heel and left the room and headed to my office.

The next plan needed to be looked over again just in case I missed putting in something.


It seemed like hours I was in their reviewing and revising my plan until it was to my liking. I glanced at the clock. 9 pm. Damn. It's been that long? I thought as I stretched out my arms and yawned.

"Sleepy, Freeman?" A familiar female voice interrupted.

I turned to my left and found the woman leaning on the ledge of the open window she climbed through. The crisp fall breeze made the curtains flutter upwards. She closed the window back and walked over with her heels clinking on the floor to prop herself on my desk. Usually I would be able to tell when she was sneaking up on me but with everything bombarding my mind she caught me off guard this time.

Phoenix.

Phoenix was a close friend of mine. She's one of the world's best assassins but most of her work is done in the U.S. A lot of mob leaders hire her and she's notorious for her impressive yet unforgettable skills. We've worked together on a few missions and she's honestly the only woman I could see on my level. The amount of dedication she instills into her work deserves respect from even the most hard to please type of people such as I. She was fierce, hard to fool, and knew how to fight. A couple of times she's even beaten me in a few sparring sessions. Precisely three. She has a deep mocha skin tone and stood at about 5'11 with her black heels on but was still considered short compared to my 6'5 height. Her long jet-black hair that usually covers some of her face was pulled into a high ponytail. Mauve lipstick the only makeup to adorn her flawless face. Her lips were full but not big. Slanted dark-brown eyes and eyebrows. She wore a black spandex suit that showed off her perfect curves with a weapon belt hugging her slim waist.

"Hmm." I replied in an uninterested tone.

Phoenix leaned over the desk so our eyes would meet. "Aww, don't be like that Freeman."

With a shrug I continued to shuffle through the many papers on my desk and shoved them into one of my drawers to keep unwanted eyes from lingering onto something they shouldn't.

"What are you working on?" She asked with peaked interest, trying to take a glimpse at what I was doing. I immediately slammed the drawer shut.

Her eye brow rose. "Whoa, whoa," Hands rose in an defensive manner "Hiro wasn't kidding when he said you needed to relax."

"Hiro called you?"

She nodded. "Yea, that's why I'm here. He figured I was the only one that could make you loosen up."

A hand went through my disheveled afro and I let out an aggravated sigh making a mental note to have a discussion about the importance of not inviting any unnecessary presences around the headquarters during such an intense time at the next meeting.

"I heard about your grandfather...That's really...shitty" She said with her mouth scrunched up. Phoenix was many things but empathy wasn't her strong suit.

I looked at the wall behind her, thinking about everything. Falling into a daze before being brought back with delicately manicured fingers in front of my face snapping me out of my grim stupor.

"Hello… Earth to Freeman...Freeman!" She urged, still snapping her fingers in front of my face.

Within half a second my hand shot up to grab her wrist and slammed it forcefully down on the desk with hardened eyes focused on her. "What are you doing?"

"I was trying to get your attention! You blanked out for about a minute." She said seriously and paused. "Are you getting your sleep?"

"Yes."

"Liar." Phoenix replied critically.

Clenching my jaw, not daring to break the aggressive eye contact I spoke, "and why do you think you so?"

"Well..." She trailed off before she continued, "You have bags under your eyes, your afro isn't perfectly combed like it usually is, and you just look really aw-"

I put my hand up for her to stop. "Ok. I get it."

"Yea, so I think I know how to make you relax…Even if it is for a little while." Her eyebrows rose knowingly.

"And how is that?"

"This," She spun on the desk until she was facing me with her legs hanging over my desk, a couple of inches above my waist and brought her lips to mine. Although I originally planned to end it something in me wouldn't allow it and eventually I returned the kiss. Encircling my arms around her waist to bring her down closer. Wanting to feel something other than the suffocating heaviness of the situation. Just to let go before I jump back in full force.

Her long slender legs wrapped around my waist as I stood up and slammed her down on the desk. She let out a painful yet pleasurable moan. My hands roamed everywhere on her body from her ample breasts to her tight firm ass giving them each a squeeze and receiving a husky gasp. Soft nimble fingers fumbled hastily in an attempt to take off my shirt. A pleasurable moan escaped her lips when I bucked my hardness against her. I smirked with lust-filled eyes as I received all of the responses I sought and started to relax.

Our sweaty bodies lay next to each other as we were breathing heavily at the workout we just endured. Phoenix brought a present for us to share and lit it up.

"Damn, Freeman. Stress does the body good. That was our best fuck yet." Phoenix said, taking a puff of the blunt we were sharing.

My eyes narrowed at her as I roughly took away the blunt from her then slowly inhaled my own puff. Under ordinary circumstances I always passed on drugs but I needed something to calm my nerves and this was the least destructive and most natural.

With pursed lips Phoenix protested, "Hey! I wasn't done, you know."

I exhaled in her direction shamelessly eyes narrowing with a flash of amusement running through them. "I know, but I don't care." She hit me roughly on the shoulder and I smirked watching her fume.

Her naked body left the floor and started to walk over to put on her clothes. My eyes looked at her up and down, still hungry for more.

"Well, this was nice Freeman but I'm back on the clock to kick more ass." She approached me and leaned down to give me a chaste kiss. "Take care of yourself. Please...Until next time." In the blink of an eye she was gone.

I still can't figure out how she does that.