Candice opened her mouth to scream, but it happened too fast.
“Noooo!”
Uncle Rock's body dropped to the ground, but his eyes were still open. Blood leaked from his mouth, but he was still trying to talk.
Candice ran to him. She knew she had only ten seconds or less. Uncle Rock had taught her about this very moment. She bent down at his side and could see the blood soaking through his pant leg.
“Why!” Candice screamed, trying to apply pressure on uncle Rock's wound.
“Beâbecause IâI love you,” Uncle Rock managed. Then his head lulled to the side, his eyes open and vacant.
“What the fuck!” Tuck huffed, bending down next to Candice.
She looked at him. Tears ran down her face in buckets. “He shot himself in the femoral artery,” she cried.
Tuck grabbed her around the shoulders. “There's nothing you can do for him, Candy. He did it all for you.”
Junior walked over and stood over the man who had just confessed to being his father. He wasn't going to shed a tear.
“Yo, Tuck, who the fuck are you?” Junior asked.
Tuck stood up, face-to-face with Junior. “I am Avon Tucker, a DEA agent that got set up by his own partner.”
Candice looked at him strangely, too overwhelmed with a mixture of emotions to be mad. They had both operated under false pretenses.
“So you were tryin'a take me down?” Junior asked.
“That was my assignment, but it was all a fuckin' joke. You've been working for the government, anyway,” Tuck told him.
A loud chopping sound could be heard overhead. The helicopters were hovering just above them.
“They're coming. Barton warned us. We need to get out of here,” Tuck said urgently.
“What about Uncle Rock's body?” Candice asked.
“They will make this one big crime scene. Once they do their investigation, they will contact his next of kin,” Tuck told her.
“Which is you,” Candice said to Junior.
The sound of the helicopters was louder than ever, and sirens could be heard in the distance. They all started to disperse like rats in an alley.
Candice went left, Junior went straight ahead, but Tuck remained back. He was the only one who didn't have a ride. He watched Candice walk toward her car and disappear from the darkened street. Junior quickly got into his truck and peeled off.
Within five minutes Tuck was surrounded.
He lifted his hands in the air in surrender. “I am Avon Tucker, DEA agent,” he screamed out.
One of the black Impala doors swung open.
“Are you still a DEA agent, Avon Tucker?” Dana Carlisle called out.
Tuck smiled and put his hands down. Thank God for honest DEA agents like Carlisle.
Urban Books, LLC
78 East Industry Court
Deer Park, NY 11729
Hard Candy Copyright © 2011 Amaleka McCall
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except brief quotes used in reviews.
ISBN: 978-1-5998-3178-7
This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living, or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.
Distributed by Kensington Publishing Corp.
Submit Wholesale Orders to:
Kensington Publishing Corp.
C/O Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
Attention: Order Processing
405 Murray Hill Parkway
East Rutherford, NJ 07073-2316
Phone: 1-800-526-0275
Fax: 1-800-227-9604