Eviction Notice (27 page)

CHAPTER 41

Chris was so
mad that he could barely hold back the tears that welled up in his eyes. Chris’s whole young life had been spent trying to impress his father and prove that he could walk a mile in the shoes left by his late brother, Juan.

When Poppito started to get up in years he trusted the day-to-day operations of his business to Juan. The streets both loved and feared Poppito’s oldest child. Some feared him enough to want him dead, which is what had led to Juan’s murder. After the death of his older brother, Chris had expected to be groomed to take his place, but instead Poppito had passed the mantle to Sonja. The slight didn’t go unnoticed by Chris or the soldiers, and the youngster found that he had to work three times as hard to earn the respect that he should’ve been given. After what Sonja had pulled in front of the troops, he knew that he would have to do something to save face, so he decided to go after Cruz on his own.

Chris knew from one of the maps they had all been provided with for the mission that there was a collapsed laundry room connected to the back of the building where Cruz was hiding. K-Dawg had decided against using that as a point of entry because the entrance had long been cemented over and the only way in was through small boarded-up windows on the back. It would’ve been no good for the all-out attack but it could work for Chris.

Chris wasn’t prepared for what he saw when he hopped the fence that separated the back of the abandoned tenement from the street. The once sprawling yard looked like a modern-day apocalypse, with its mounds of rubble that stood nearly as high as the three-story building itself. The stench of dead animals and human excrement was almost overwhelming to his senses as he picked his way through the debris. Looking up at the abandoned building, he began to wonder if he was making the right decision.

Suddenly gunfire erupted, causing Chris to reflexively drop to his belly, landing just a few feet from what looked like the decomposing corpse of a dog. A wave of bile rode up his throat but he was able to force it back down. He fumbled with his assault rifle as another wave of gunfire rang out. Chris lay there for a full five minutes before he realized that no one was shooting at him. K-Dawg had begun the assault, and instead of being on the front line, Chris was crawling on his belly through garbage.

“Fuck this.” Chris got up and crept toward the structure. What was left of the laundry room, like the rest of the rear of the building, was boarded up tight. Just above the laundry room were several small windows, one of which had the glass broken out. Chris scaled the short building and knelt in front of the window. It was just large enough for him to squeeze through.

Chris lowered himself into what he could only assume was the basement of the building. It was dark so he couldn’t see, but the inside of the building smelled worse than the outside, if that was possible. Shutting out the increasing sounds of gunfire coming from outside, he made his way toward a sliver of light that had to be one of the exits marked on the map. He thought it was strange that the rear of the building wasn’t guarded, but he wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth. Chris pulled the door open and began climbing the darkened stairwell leading to the upper levels of the building. He made it up three steps before he was blinded by several flashlights. When his vision cleared he saw three men holding the flashlights as well as some very big machine guns. For all Chris’s ingenious planning, he had never taken into the consideration the surveillance cameras that had been watching his every move.

The leader of the gunmen stepped forward with his rifle trained on Chris’s forehead. “We hear your piece-of-shit father put a million dollars on Cruz’s head. I wonder how much he’ll pay for yours.”

“Most likely quite a few pennies more than yours is worth,” a voice called from behind them. The three gunmen turned at once and saw Animal standing at the top of the stairwell, grinning menacingly. They never even got a chance to scream as the bullets tore through their bodies.

Chris took one look at the corpses at his feet and vomited.

“Now that’s just fucking nasty.” Animal shook off the loose chunks of food that had splattered on his boot.

“They were gonna kill me.” Chris gasped, holding on to the wall to keep on his feet.

Animal grabbed Chris and slammed him roughly against the wall. He pressed the hot barrel of the gun against Chris’s chin, searing the soft flesh of his throat. “And I should’ve let them, you dumb little shit,” Animal snarled. “You could’ve gotten yourself as well as the rest of us killed by going lone wolf. What the hell were you thinking?”

“I’m sorry, I just wanted to show you guys that I could pull my weight,” Chris said.

“How, by getting your fucking head blown off? Li’l nigga, this ain’t no video game so there’s no reset button. When you’re dead, you’re dead, and you better learn that real quick before you end up getting yourself or somebody else hurt. Now come on, there’s killing to be done.” Animal started back up the stairs.

*   *   *

Nearing the lobby
level of the tenement Animal could hear all hell breaking loose. Gunshots and the screams of the dying could be heard all around him. The stairwell door swung open and one of Cruz’s shooters spilled through it, followed by a hail of bullets that shredded the door. When he spotted Animal he tried to raise his gun, but the killer was already on the move. Wielding the machete like a samurai sword, he delivered two sharp cuts to the shooter’s chest and abdomen, dropping him to the ground, but he was still alive.

“Finish him,” Animal told Chris.

“But he’s dying already,” Chris said.

Animal pointed the bloody machete at the young man. “Blood on my hands, blood on yours.”

Chris stood over the fallen man and pointed his gun at his head. The man looked up at him with pleading eyes, begging for his life. Seeing the wild look in Animal’s eyes, Chris decided he feared the young killer more than the stain of a murder on his soul and pulled the trigger. The man’s head splattered like a rotten tomato. Chris turned away, refusing to look at the corpse.

“Don’t turn away now.” Animal grabbed him by the back of his neck and forced him to look at the bloody corpse. “You wanted to be a gangsta, so take a good look at what your choice of lifestyle has to offer. Just be glad that you’re on the proper end of the bullet … this time. Now let’s go, kid. Stick close to me and you may actually live through this.” Animal led the way up the stairs.

Through the window in the stairwell door Animal caught a glimpse of what was going on outside. K-Dawg and the team had turned it up on Cruz’s men, lighting up the front of the building like the Fourth of July. From the intelligence they had gathered, Cruz was holed up in an apartment on the top floor, so the plan was to cut off all the exits so he couldn’t escape, which K-Dawg and the rest had taken care of. From the looks of things, Los Negros Muertes had most of the soldiers occupied, so he and Chris would have to deal only with the stragglers left behind to guard the police chief. They soon found that it would be easier said than done, as more men came spilling down the stairs, all armed and ready to die in defense of their leader.

Animal resheathed his machete and drew both guns. “Watch my back and try not to get in my way,” he told Chris as he bounded up the staircase to meet his enemies. Watching Animal in action was like watching Michelangelo paint a masterpiece in blood. Had they been trained soldiers they might’ve stood a chance, but these were street punks and mercenaries hired by Cruz in a last ditch effort to save him from the inevitable.

The idiot leading Cruz’s charge was the first one to get it. He had an extremely large machine gun, which he tried to bring around to spray the crowd, but the stairwell was too narrow so the gun scraped off the wall and slowed his motion by a fraction of a second, which was all Animal needed. He grabbed the barrel of the gun and pulled with everything he had, knocking the shooter off-balance and putting him in a reverse choke hold. As Animal applied pressure to his neck, the shooter’s finger involuntarily squeezed the trigger, ripping through his team with a hail of bullets. The rest of them retreated farther up the landing for fear of being shot.

The man struggled in Animal’s grip as the choke hold got tighter. “Sucks to be you right about now,” Animal whispered in his ear before snapping his neck. The shooter’s body went limp and Animal let him drop to the floor.

“Down!” Chris roared. Animal hit the floor as bullets whizzed over his head and buried themselves in the body of a man who was trying to creep on them from the second-floor-stairwell door. “Animal, these muthafuckas are like roaches, the more we squash the more of them come. Something has got to give if we wanna get to Cruz.”

More gunshots erupted around the corner where Cruz’s soldiers had retreated, causing Animal and Chris to get low and prepare for another attack. A lone solider staggered down the stairs with a far-off look in his eyes. Animal was prepared to fire on him, but before he could, the soldier pitched forward and fell down the stairs. When he landed they could see the smoking holes in his back. A confused look passed between Animal and Chris but it all made sense when K-Dawg appeared, holding a smoking rifle.

“We got Cruz trapped in his apartment. Let’s finish this,” K-Dawg told them and disappeared back around the corner.

CHAPTER 42

The damage Animal
had done in the stairwell was nothing compared to the mess K-Dawg and the others had created on the third floor. The peeling brown walls were now red, stained with blood and brain matter donated by the dozen or so bodies strewn throughout the hallway. Most had been killed instantly in the hail of bullets, and those who were unfortunate enough to still show signs of life were finished off by bats and pieces of wood as Poppito’s soldiers made the rounds, bashing their skulls in. The floors were so slick with blood that they could barely walk without slipping. It was a massacre.

Sonja stood at the end of the hallway, giving last-minute instructions to some of the soldiers. When she saw Animal and Chris emerge from the stairwell she rushed to them and hugged her brother. “Thank God you’re alright.” She sobbed.

“I told you Animal had my back,” Chris said, smirking.

Sonja pushed Chris away and punched him in his chest. “You scared the shit out of me. Don’t you ever pull a stunt like that again!”

“I’m sorry, for what I said and for running off,” Chris said.

“It’s okay, just as long as you’re safe,” Sonja told him. She turned to Animal and wrapped her arms around his neck. “Thank you so much for saving my brother’s life. I don’t know what I’d have done if we’d lost Chris.”

“You know I couldn’t leave my li’l man on stuck like that. It would’ve hurt me to lose him too.” Animal squeezed her. “See, even monsters have feelings,” he whispered in her ear.

“I could never see you as a monster.” She planted a soft kiss on his lips. “I’ve seen the man beneath the mask, which is why you’ll always own part of my heart, even if you don’t want it.”

“Fucking pathetic,” Sincere grumbled loudly enough for them to hear.

Animal turned to him. “You got something you wanna say to me, homie?”

“All my talking is done with heaters.” Sincere patted the gun on his hip.

“Then let’s stop the subliminal shit and have a grown-up conversation.” Animal drew one of his Desert Eagles.

Sincere drew his pistol. “That’s cool with me. I’m ready to dance when you are.” He and Animal circled each other like two wolves about to square off over a kill.

“Stow those weapons,” Justice ordered.

“Fuck that, this is long overdue.” Sincere kept his eyes on Animal. He knew you didn’t draw down on a man like Animal and not kill him, so he was ready to go all the way with it.

Justice cocked his M16 and aimed it at Sincere. “I ain’t gonna ask you again, Sincere.”

Sincere cut his eyes to Justice. “You would shoot me, Jus? What happened to the oath we took, Los Negros Muertes above all?”

“That shit goes out the window when it comes to my family,” Justice said seriously. “I don’t wanna do it to you, Sincere, but I will.”

“Everybody stand down.” K-Dawg stepped in among the three of them. The rest of the soldiers formed a circle around Justice, Sincere, and Animal, ready to take them down on K-Dawg’s command. “I say who lives or dies, and right now it’s Cruz’s time.”

None of the trio wanted to back off, but none of them wanted to challenge K-Dawg’s authority. Sincere was the first to lower his weapon, followed by Justice. Animal was still clutching his pistol, glaring at Sincere.

K-Dawg moved to stand directly in Animal’s line of vision. “You really wanna try me on this?”

Animal reluctantly put his gun away. “You got that, Boss Dawg, but this ain’t over.”

“I don’t doubt that, Animal, but it ain’t gonna go down now.” K-Dawg lowered his voice so that only Sincere and Animal could hear him. “Family business is never aired in front of outsiders. You two wanna throw down, then we’ll do it the right way when we get back to the farmhouse. Get me?” Both Animal and Sincere nodded. “Good, now let’s finish this and get the fuck outta the slums.”

At the end of the bloodied hallway there was an apartment fitted with a steel door that stood out among the rest. Several members of their hit squad knelt, keeping a watchful eye on the door with orders to shoot anyone who came through it. A young dude whom Animal didn’t know by name, but knew his face, knelt in front of the door, working on the lock with a blowtorch. Beyond the door was the prize they had been working for so many months to claim: Cruz.

“What’s the story?” Animal asked K-Dawg.

“This is the hole the rat has crawled into to try and avoid judgment, but it ain’t gonna help him. One of the oldest lessons we learn is that you can’t cheat death,” K-Dawg said.

The lock finally came away under the heat and everybody got on point. The unit moved forward and took up positions outside the door. They were supposed to wait until the extraction squad moved in to clear them for entry, but young Chris had other ideas.

“You muthafuckas can stand around if you want, but I’m trying to see about those million dollars.” He broke ranks and rushed the door. Everyone shouted for him to fall back, but Chris ignored them. He saw it as an opening for him to save face for his earlier blunder as well as collect the bounty on Cruz’s head. With his gun raised, he kicked open the door to Poppito’s haven and stepped inside. As soon as he crossed the threshold he was greeted by a chest full of buckshot.

*   *   *

It all seemed
to happen in slow motion. Animal heard Chris’s statement but was too slow to stop him as he breezed by. At almost the same moment as his foot forced the door open, the man standing on the other side opened fire with the shotgun. The blast hit Chris in the chest, lifting him off his feet and sending him sailing down the hall, skidding to a stop just behind where they were positioned. Sonja looked at the prone body of her little brother and Animal knew what she was going to do even before she started moving.

“Muthafucka.” Sonja jumped to her feet with tears blinding her. She advanced on the apartment, dumping with the twin MAC11s. Everything in her line of fire was torn to shreds as the machine guns whined and breathed death into the apartment. Even when both clips were empty she continued to squeeze the triggers.

Animal approached Sonja cautiously and placed his hand on her forearm. “It’s okay, baby girl,” he whispered, trying to pull her away. She stood stock-still, tear-filled eyes fixed on the doorway for a long moment before finally allowing Animal to pull her away. Together they walked over to where Chris had landed. The young boy lay on the ground, writhing in pain and gasping for air. Animal knelt beside him and ripped open his shirt, exposing the smoking and ruined bulletproof vest beneath.

“Damn, this shit hurts.” Chris gasped.

“Pain is good, because the dead can’t feel shit,” Animal told him while undoing the straps on his vest. Chris’s chest was badly bruised and he had a few minor cuts, but he was okay.

“Man, if you hadn’t made me put this vest on I’d be dead. I guess you saved my life again, huh?” Chris tried to muster a smile.

“Don’t get too used to it. I’m in the business of taking lives, not saving them,” Animal joked. “Tend to your brother,” Animal told Sonja and went to join the others in the doorway of the apartment. The smell of smoke and gunfire was so overwhelming that the men began to cough. The doorway and walls of the apartment were shredded and they could barely see anything through the cloud of gun smoke.

Justice went into the apartment first, sweeping his M16 back and forth for signs of trouble. Animal came in behind him, Desert Eagles raised, ready to back his brother up. Lying on the floor of the foyer was the man who had shot Chris. He was still alive, but that was only a temporary setback. Animal knelt down and smacked the man to make sure he was coherent. The man looked up at Animal with glassy eyes. “You still with us?” Animal asked. The man nodded. “Good.” He shoved the barrels of both guns into the man’s mouth. “This is for Chris.” He pulled both triggers and put the man’s brains on the stained wooden floor. Wiping the brain matter off his face with the back of his hand, he joined his brother.

The apartment was a wreck. Everything in it was decorated with bullet holes and was smoking. Slumped over in a chair near the window was a man with a rifle on his lap. He had never even gotten a chance to pull the trigger before Sonja had turned him and everything else in the apartment to Swiss cheese. The soldiers fanned out through the apartment but there was no sign of Cruz.

“Search the whole building. Under no circumstances is Cruz to leave here alive,” K-Dawg ordered the soldiers. A handful of them went off to do as they were told, leaving K-Dawg, Justice, Sincere, Animal, and one of Poppito’s soldiers in the apartment.

Animal went to search the bedroom again, accompanied by Poppito’s soldier. The bed was unmade and there were two Styrofoam containers with half-eaten food in them. Animal touched a piece of chicken and noticed it was still warm. Cruz couldn’t have gone far. He turned his attention to a large dresser in the corner. Something about it nagged at him so he went to give it a closer inspection. When he looked down at the floor, he noticed fresh scuffs, as if the dresser had been recently moved. He motioned for the soldier to cover him while he moved the dresser. Sure enough, there was a trapdoor in the floor. Animal slipped his fingers in the grooves to pull the trapdoor open while the soldier stood with his gun ready. He had barely gotten the trapdoor up when he heard a gunshot. The soldier pitched backward when the bullet connected with his forehead.

Animal reflexively let go of the heavy door, which dropped on the hand holding the gun that was peeking out. Someone below shrieked as the hand was trapped between the door and the floor. Animal stomped on the trapdoor repeadedly until the hand released the gun, which he kicked away. He then pulled the trapdoor away, revealing Cruz hiding in the hole, clutching his broken wrist.

“Come here, you sneaky little fuck.” Animal dragged Cruz out of the hole and tossed him to the middle of the floor. It was his first time ever seeing the so-called boss of Old San Juan, and frankly he wasn’t impressed. Cruz was a worm of a man who couldn’t have weighed more than 150 pounds on a good day. He had thinning black hair, which he wore combed over his massive head. Trembling as he was, he hardly looked like the tyrant the people had made him out to be.

“So this is Cruz, huh? He don’t look so badass to me.” Justice raised his M16, causing Cruz to curl up into a ball fearfully.

K-Dawg placed his hand on the barrel of the gun and pushed it away. “Chill.” He stepped between Justice and Cruz. “Little man, you’ve caused me quite a bit of trouble over the last few months.”

“Listen, I’m sure we can work something out. I’ve got millions of dollars stashed at one of my safe houses and you can have it all if you let me live,” Cruz pleaded.

“We don’t deal in money, we deal in death.” K-Dawg dropped a tarot card at Cruz’s feet.

Cruz picked up the card and looked at the image of the Grim Reaper in horror. “Los Negros Muertes,” he said in shock. It was then that Cruz realized the dire situation he was in and did what came naturally—he ran. He made it almost to the window before Animal shot him in the leg and dropped him a few feet away from freedom.

“I want his head and that million cash.” Sincere started after Cruz, but K-Dawg’s voice stopped him.

“Back off,” K-Dawg told him, watching Animal move in on Cruz.

“C’mon, dawg, it’s supposed to be up for grabs,” Sincere argued.

“You heard what I said.” K-Dawg’s tone was icy. Wisely, Sincere left it alone. “Take him, Animal,” K-Dawg ordered. Animal looked at him hesitantly. “We’ve been out here all this time chasing this muthafucka. Only his death can end this mission. Finish him.”

Animal stalked Cruz, who was still crawling for the window in hopes of escape. He was pathetic, but Animal felt no sympathy. In Cruz he didn’t see a police official or crime lord, but the man who had been the cause of his being trapped in Puerto Rico and away from the woman he loved. His death would bring an end to K-Dawg’s sick little game and put Animal one step closer to reclaiming what he had given up, his life.

Animal grabbed Cruz by the front of his soiled silk shirt and pressed him against the window. “Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death…” Cruz began praying, but Animal shoved the Desert Eagle into his mouth, silencing him.

“God has long ago turned a deaf ear to the prayers of men like us,” Animal said before pulling the trigger. Cruz’s brains leaped from his skull and out the window. Cruz was as dead as a doornail before he hit the floor, but Animal wasn’t done. With a powerful stroke he swung his machete and lopped off Cruz’s head. Animal held Cruz’s head in his hands like a basketball and tossed it to K-Dawg. “I’ll be expecting my million cash when we get back to the house,” he told him, wiping the machete clean on Cruz’s shirt.

“You earned it,” K-Dawg said proudly, stuffing the head into a shopping bag. “A’ight, we’re done here. Let’s move out,” K-Dawg ordered.

“Hold on, there’s still some fun to be had,” Sincere said as he plunged his hands into the hole Cruz had been hiding in. He came up dragging a girl by the hair who they had missed on the first look. She didn’t look to be more than sixteen but from the lingerie she was wearing it was obvious what she had been doing with Cruz. “Looks like we got one of the boss’s mistresses.”

“Please don’t hurt me.” The girl trembled.

“I’ll bet Cruz was up here fucking the lining outta that tight pussy of yours.” Sincere pinched one of her breasts. “What do you think, should I fuck her first or cut her head off? If they offered a million for Cruz’s head, I know hers has got to be worth something.” He waved the fire ax he had been carrying at the girl. Everyone watching laughed, but Animal didn’t.

When Animal looked at the young girl he couldn’t help but think of Mimi. Mimi had been one of the few people left in the world, outside of Justice, whom Animal called family. She was a down-ass broad who wanted nothing more than to prove herself to Animal and the family who had cast her to the side like trash. At the end of the day it was her loyalty to Animal that had caused her death when the men who had came for his life ended up taking hers.