Zero Degrees Part 2 Read online

  Zero Degrees 2:

  Miss Murderess

  Leo Sullivan

  And

  Nika michelle

  Copyright 2013 Leo Sullivan and Nika Michelle

  Published by Sullivan Productions LLC

  www.leolsullivan.com

  All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without prior written consent from both the author and publisher Sullivan Productions LLC, except brief quotes used in reviews, interviews or magazines.

  This is a work of fiction. It is not meant to depict, portray or represent any particular real person. All the characters, incidents and dialogue in this written work are the product of the author’s imagination and are not to be considered as real. Any references or similarities to actual events, entities, real people living or dead, or to real locations are intended for the sole purpose of giving this novel a sense of reality. Any similarities with other names, characters, entities, places, people or incidents are entirely coincidental.

  Chapter 1

  Peaches dropped the gun and looked at me with panic and fear smoldering in her eyes. Buff rolled off the dead man and muttered, “Fuck! Put that money up.”

  Peaches picked up the duffle bag and took off out of the room.

  Bam! Bam! Bam! The pounding on the door continued. I didn’t know what to do. Buff must have read my mind. He winced in obvious pain as he tried to get up to get to his brother. That’s when I noticed that his arm was badly contorted as if his elbow was broken.

  Peaches ran back into the room. Her skin looked ashen and her face was terror stricken. Buff spoke to her. “This was self-defense. He was on me about to kill me and that’s when you shot him. The guns are registered in my name… okay?”

  Peaches and I nodded our heads in unison like we got it. Then a tear dripped down my cheek as I looked at Zeus’s bloody body. I caressed his face and held back a sob, before getting up to let the police in.

  I opened the door and the beacon of early morning sunlight painfully stabbed my eyes. I wiped at them with a bloody hand, surprised to see a familiar face standing at the door along with a platoon of cops who had their guns drawn. Officer Greyson’s brow knotted up as he frowned at me.

  He peered into the apartment with his gun at his side as he exclaimed, “Jesus Christ!”

  “We need an ambulance.” My voice shook as I opened the door wider. The police stormed the apartment with their guns and guilty until proven innocent attitudes. It may have been procedure, but it felt like a fucking violation or something as all of us were told to put our hands up in the air. Thank God that Officer Greyson was there by some stroke of luck because Buff went on a tirade and refused to keep his hands raised as he demanded an ambulance for his brother. Peaches just stood there with her hands up as a cop asked her questions. The mascara on her face looked like black tears. They were a reflection of the terror that had nearly claimed all of our lives.

  There was so much commotion and confusion that even the Swat team, the S.C.I., the M.A. and a host of other alphabets along with the crime lab technicians were in conflict of each other. The room was being cornered with yellow barrier tap as more police arrived, bringing with them chaos and commotion. One of the younger officers with sandy blonde hair and the bluest eyes I’d ever seen had his gun on Buff, who by then was hysterical. He wanted to know the status of his brother. I did too as I looked at him lying on the floor while the medics frantically worked on him.

  Finally Officer Greyson had had enough. As police photographers armed with still cameras and camcorders surveyed the apartment, he calmly ordered everybody to stop what they were doing as he stood in the middle of the room. Glass crunched under his feet as he paced the floor.

  “Attention everyone. I am the lead investigator in this case and these people are to be treated as victims, not criminals. Is that understood? If you have a problem with that please see me.” He was looking directly at the white cop that was harassing Buff. “In fact, if you’re not part of medical emergency, the crime lab, or a detective in my unit, I suggest that you leave. I do not need you contaminating my crime scene”.

  There were a few muffled complaints as they tailed out. I hardly heard a word being said as I watched the medical examiner place the body of the short gunman I had shot in the head into a black body bag and zipped it up. For some reason the sound carried on across the room as I watched them throw his lifeless body onto a gurney. Then they did the same thing with the other gunman. As both gurneys passed with a black body bag on it, I prayed with all of my heart and soul that they didn’t do the same thing with Zeus.

  As they stood over him I couldn’t tell what was going on. Officer Greyson was overwhelming me with a barrage of question and then it happened. Something was being toward me as I stood by the door.

  I closed my eyes. “Dear Lord, don’t let him be in a body bag,” I prayed solemnly. I held my breath and opened my eyes, but that time it wasn’t a body bag on a gurney that passed. It was simply a stretcher. I could see Zeus’s dark face contrasting against the brilliantly white sheet that was over him. To my relief it was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen. When I saw the fog cloud filling the oxygen mask as paramedics held it over his face, I knew that he was breathing. He was alive. I wrung my hands together and then realized that my hand was bleeding badly from the shard of glass that I’d used as a weapon.

  “Zeaira? Zeaira? Are you listening to me?” Officer Greyson asked. I gave him a somber nod and watched as a detective with white latex gloves examined the carpeting. I explained to Officer Greyson in detail, just as Buff instructed, about our version of what had happed. Officer Greyson looked at me with sheer interest. I couldn’t tell if he was buying my story or not. He led me to another room, away from the mayhem and murder, death and destruction. The rank smell of blood was still in my nostrils and on my skin. It didn’t matter how far I was from the scene.

  “What are you doing? You just got out of trouble. You have your whole life ahead of you. Go to college and make something out of yourself. These are dope boys and I’m sure that you’re aware of that. Either you will end up in prison for real this time, or worse. The next time someone comes to rob you, you’ll end up dead. Do you hear me?”

  I was completely at a loss for words. There was something about him that reminded me so much of my father. He touched me emotionally in ways I couldn’t describe. I hung my head with my shoulders slumped as I battled away tears. At the time I didn’t know that Officer Greyson once had a daughter who was about my age. When she was 17 she fell victim to a pimp who introduced her to drugs and the “life”. She was found brutally murdered with her throat slit from ear to ear. She had been gang raped, sodomized and placed inside a trash bag. Her body was at the bottom of a dumpster that was behind an abandoned building.

  “I can assure that your friends Buff and Zeus are going down and if you don’t stay away from them you will go down right with them.” His facial expression was dead serious as he walked away, leaving me there to ponder my fate. What did he know that made him believe with such faith that Zeus and Buff were going down? It really seemed to be personal and all I could do was speculate.

  Eventually, we were all separated and taken down to the police station to be interrogated. They took samples of our DNA including hair, fingernails and saliva. They also found inconsistencies in our stories. It started with the proximity that Peaches claimed to have fired the gun from. She got caught up in her lies and that implicated us.

  My mind reflected back
to the gunman. He said that Money had set up the robbery with him and a chick. He stated that it was not just that one, but all of the recent robberies as well. I knew that there was going to be hell to pay if Buff was released. As for his accomplice, it didn’t take a rocket science to figure that out. It had to be his chick Desi. She was both beautiful and conniving. Those thoughts flooded my brain as I sat alone with my hoody pulled over my head in the cold, interrogation room. I could barely make out the images behind the glass mirror. As I placed my arms inside my jacket, I happened to look up and see the camera in the corner of the ceiling pointed at me.

  Just moments after a nurse bandaged my hand, an old guy from the DA’s office stopped by to try to scare me. He went by some official sounding title that I didn’t care to remember, but I stored the fact that his name was Manny Livingston. In his late fifties, he was a stern, aggressive white man with a mane of unruly, gray hair. He wore horn-rimmed glasses that made him look sinister as hell. The devilish looking white man was set on arresting us and I believed that some things had worked in our favor. If both of the culprits hadn’t being career-criminals and Officer Greyson didn’t come my rescue, we all would’ve have been in jail with no bond, charged with double homicide.

  Nearly twenty four hours later we were released. Fortunately for us it was in the wee hours of the morning and the media that had practically formed a circus around the hospital were gone.

  We took a cab directly to Cape Fear Valley Medical Hospital to check up on Zeus’s condition. During the ride Buff was eerily quiet. His arm was wrapped in a sling and there was a patch on his forehead from where he had received thirty eight stitches. Every time Peaches and I would say something to him all we would receive was a nod of his head, or a short reply. He seemed so distant. It wasn’t until I told him what Officer Greyson had said that Buff’s bottom lip trembled when he spoke. As his right eye twitched his words were slow and deliberate,

  “I don’t give a fuck about that cop Greyson. Right now my only concern is that y’all don’t tell no muhfuckin’ body that Money and his bitch was behind those robberies. They don’t know that I know and that gives me an advantage. A nigga don’t want to lose that element of surprise. They had their shot, but now it’s my turn.” With that said Buff punched the back of the seat, startling the cab driver. Peaches and I jumped.

  Buff intended to set a trap for Money to lullaby his ass.

  When we made it to the hospital the people and staff gawked at us since we were a sight to behold all bloody and bandaged. We managed to find out that Zeus had just come out of surgery a few hours before. The head surgeon, Dr. Davies, was dressed in full surgical gear with pleasant eyes and an obviously genuine compassion for human life. He told us that Zeus would survive, but was in critical condition. His left lung had been punctured and although no bullets had hit any main arteries, he still needed blood due to massive blood loss. He also said that Zeus’s chest would be permanently disfigured and he would have to have a skin graph. Zeus’s condition had us all in a somber mood as we headed home. To my horror, I noticed that someone had thrown a brick through my brand new car’s windshield. It wasn’t anything compared to Zeus getting shot, but damn, what could possibly happen next?

  * * *

  Zeus stayed in the hospital for a month and their drug operation had to be temporarily shut down. That in itself hindered Buff from killing Money. He needed a way to get close to Money and lure him to his death. Each time he tried Money wouldn’t take the bait. Buff planned to wait patiently. It didn’t matter how long it took, plus Buff had the best cocaine plug in Carolina. Money would need him sooner, or later and when he did Buff would be waiting.

  Chapter 2

  Two Months Later

  After a month in the hospital we tried to make Zeus’s transition back home as pleasant as possible. He had lost a little weight and walked with a slight limp at first. A month had gone by since he’d been released from the hospital and the limp was gone. His chest was still disfigured and looked caved in on one side. He was lucky to be alive though and we all knew it. Despite everything that he’d gone through, he was still his old self and that was what I loved the most about him.

  Peaches and I moved in with them because I needed to be close to my baby. Besides, neither of us wanted to keep the apartment after what had happened.

  Life was still taking its toll on me, but at least Zeus was out of the hospital and I was able to love him. I would often think about the muthafuckas who killed my father and uncles. So much was going on so fast and unexpectedly. Buff had reassured me that we’d get them when the time was right. I knew that he was still planning Money’s murder, but he still took the time out to send some of his crew on a trip to Miami to do some surveillance on the Cubans that had murdered my folks.

  He wanted to get an idea of what kind of moves would have to be made to make shit happen. They couldn’t even get close to the Cuban goons because they lived in a gated estate with a state of the art security system and armed guards. They were protected like royalty. We were going to have to come up with some 007 type shit to get next to them. Their homeboy Chaz had put them on to Donreco, whose family was originally from Cuba. He was trying to do some business with Jose and Gorge to get in with them. Maybe then he could find out some shit to help us get next to those muthafuckas.

  Zeus and Buff figured that because they were Cuban they would probably trust another Cuban quicker than anyone else. So far Donreco hadn’t had any luck connecting with them and we were back to square one.

  Our living arrangement was usually cool. I felt a lot better in their spacious home, but Peaches and Buff argued a lot. Something about her had changed and I couldn’t figure out exactly what it was. I had the same feeling about Buff too, but I knew that what had happened to his brother and seeking revenge were on his mind.

  The weather was nice, so Buff decided to throw a sort of welcome home pool party for Zeus. He graciously invited Money and his bitch Desi, but neither of them would take the bait. However, Officer Greyson did show up unexpectedly. I happened to look out of the window and saw his unmarked Ford Mercury parked up the street. A nervous chill ran down my spine. We were being watched and I had no idea how he knew about Buff and Zeus’s spot. I quickly rushed out of my bedroom to tell them. They were in the office talking about the state of their business.

  “That cop Greyson is parked up the street.” I tried to keep my voice calm, but I remembered what he had told me about them going down.

  We walked over to the picturesque window that sat next to a white, Baby Grand Piano that Buff had bought, although nobody could play it.

  “Fuck!” Zeus exclaimed as soon as he saw the cop’s car.

  “Man, fuck that nigga Greyson. He must be out there for practice ‘cause ain’t shit in here.”

  “Bro, I think it’s time for us to chill out,” Zeus said still staring out of the window. I nodded my head co-signing. Something about Greyson was starting to give me the creeps

  “We got too much time and too much money invested in this shit. Fuck Greyson. Tell that pig ass cop to eat a dick. Nigga, we goin’ get this money!” Buff extended his hand for a pound. Zeus hesitated and then dapped him up.

  I watched as Greyson slowly drove away. What the hell he was he up to, I wondered as his warning replayed in my mind.

  * * *

  An hour or so into the party everything was good, but Buff and Peaches were arguing as usual. There were quite a few people there, because everybody knew Buff and Zeus. Zeus was cooking and his boys all crowded around him. He moved slowly at times and on more than a few occasions I would catch him wincing in pain. Despite that my baby was back. He was alive, in one piece and that was all that mattered.

  I was lounging by the pool in a sexy black two piece with dark, oversized shades on. I had on a black sheer wrap to hide the voluptuous hips and fat ass that Zeus had sculptured. He could get a little jealous at times, so I tried to pacify him to keep the peace. The wrap didn’t hide muc
h, but he seemed to be satisfied with it. My mind was still distant. I had that gut feeling that something was about to go terribly wrong. Zeus walked over. His body blocked the sun, but I could clearly see the twinkle in his eyes when he looked at me with love.

  “Damn babe, I done created a monster. You need to stay right there on that lounge chair ‘cause I’m gonna have to kill a nigga. I knew that ass was goin’ get fatter,” he said keeping an eye on me.

  I sucked my teeth. “C’mon babe, it’s your fault, so don’t trip.” I smiled and then winked at him. That’s when I heard Peaches going off.

  “What the fuck is that bitch doing here?” She asked all up in Buff’s face.

  “C’mon Peaches. I didn’t know she was coming! Don’t start making a damn scene,” Buff said looking around.

  The music was loud, so few people even noticed the altercation.

  “Babe, go over there and see what’s up with your girl,” Zeus said flipping some ribs and steaks over. “On second thought, never mind that shit. I’m gonna have to hurt somebody ‘cause you got all my ass out.”

  I ignored him and put my strawberry daiquiri on the table beside me. I hated getting in the middle of Peaches and Buff’s bullshit, but I reluctantly got up.

  “Do you want to catch this ass whooping, or should I kick that bitch’s ass?” She was rolling her neck with attitude and sticking her finger in his face.

  I walked up to Peaches. “What the fuck is going on with ya’ll now?”

  “That bitch Yo Yo, or whatever the fuck her name is, got the audacity to show up at the house I live in with my muthafuckin’ nigga! Like I don’t know that they used to fuck! Ain’t that a fucking trip? Mr. Muthafuckin’ Casanova right here is acting like it ain’t shit wrong with it! Well, I don’t like the bitch and I want him to make her ass leave before I kick the bitch out! Literally!” She cut her eyes at him as she spoke to me.