Ivy's Twisted Vine Redux by Latrivia Nelson (books to read for beginners .TXT) 📕

bed and rolled over to look blankly at the ceiling. His pool below gave a wavy reflection to the room and the darkness and silence of the room engulfed him. Could he cry now, where no one would see? No. Still, he could not let it out.

Then in the darkness of the room, Nicola realized that he was not alone. He heard the breathing of someone. Yes. Someone was there in the same room with him, watching him. He kept his eyes on the ceiling but slowly felt for his side arm.

“Don’t do that,” Caesar said walking out of the shadows.

“Don’t do what?” Nicola asked moving slowly up in the bed.

“You know what. Throw your gun on the floor,” Caesar said waiving his gun at Nicola.

“This is a real bitch move,” Nicola said throwing the gun. “I just want you to know that.”

“Yeah. Sure. I heard about Brooks.” He smacked his lips. “Pity. I would have loved to be there for the show.” His voice was laced with venom. He was a snake in the grass and enjoyed the crawl.

“I would have loved for you to be there to take one with your flunky,” Nicola said feeling the fury overwhelm him.

“I bet that you never thought that you would find me here, right under your nose.”

“Actually, I’m really glad that you saved me the trouble of having to look for your ass.” Nicola saw Caesar outline in the darkness by the window.

“Well, you and I have had our dealings for a while now. I figured that before I left Memphis for good, I’d pay you one last visit.” Caesar gripped his gun.

“The only way that you’re leaving Memphis is in a body bag.”

“This is coming from a mother fucker that’s about to die in his own bed,” Caesar said cocking his gun to shoot.

The adrenaline rushed madly through his veins as Nicola rolled off of the bed quickly and pulled his firearm. He heard the shots whizz past his head. It was the same silent and deadly wind that had passed him only hours earlier. He returned fire aiming directly at Caesar, but missed by only inches because of the black darkness of the room. He was about to shoot again, but realized that he was out of bullets. In a fit, he launched across the bed at Caesar and they both fell into the window cracking it. The glass cut both of them and they fell to the ground disoriented. Nicola looked down and realized that the gun was on the floor across the room.

In a full rage, he screamed and gripped Caesar’s neck tightly with one hand and hammered a staggering punch to his stomach with the other. Caesar tried to punch Nicola in the ribs, but could feel the air being cut off from his body. He finally kicked Nicola in the groin causing him to roll over for a moment. Caesar eyed the gun and tried to get to it, but Nicola was on his feet and kicked Caesar in the face with this steel-toe boot. Blood sprayed across his room white room as he made contact and felt Caesar’s jaw crumble. Nicola breathed heavily as he pulled Caesar up.

“You want to come into my fucking house and disrespect me, you piece of shit! You had better be prepared to pay.” Nicola spit blood, balled his fist up and punched him again.

Caesar wasn’t new to fighting. He would hold Nicola off until he could get to the gun and then he would end it all. But every time that he got close to the gun, Nicola punched him again, sending him across the room with a bloody mouth and swollen eyes.

Caesar gave his best and charged Nicola. They fell into the entertainment complex one last time, sending the plasma television to the ground. Stumbling on top of it, hearing it crumble under their feet they struggled. Nicola was on top of him punching his face in past the point of recognition when Caesar finally pulled the gun from beside the bed and aimed it at Nicola.

When Nicola saw the gun, he reached over towards the entryway of the bedroom grabbed the other gun and emptied it into Caesar. He was still pulling the trigger long after he had emptied the last of the bullets into the Caesar’s body. Caesar had grabbed the wrong gun. And Nicola had gotten lucky. He stood up breathing hard, trying to squint past a migraine and reached for the phone and dialed 911. In a fit of rage still, he stood over the dead body feeling completely empty. Brooks was still gone and they had no leads on the distributor.

“It was all a fucking waste,” he said looking into Caesar’s lifeless eyes.

Chapter Twenty: Goodbye

Chapter 20

GOODBYE

Lieutenant K.C. Brooks was made an instant Memphis legend in less than a week. Every television station in town had done a huge story on him by the time the funeral came around. Radio stations focused entire shows around the newly established Narc/Tact unit but had reached out unsuccessfully for Nicola to come on to their shows. Mayor Henderson used the spotlight daily to talk about Operation Checkbook, and Grey used his father’s reputation for his upcoming campaign.

The entire Memphis Police Department mourned Brooks’ passing and spoke his name with the highest regard in every home, pub and gym across the town. Money had been raised and sent to his family. Church services had been dedicated to his memory. But nothing soothed to anger and pain of his loss for those closest to him.

Nicola had been missing in action until today. It was time to pay his respects for the last time at the funeral. In full formal dress uniform, he sat in his disheveled living room finishing a bottle of Hennessey at 8:30 in the morning. He tried to get his thoughts together but after a five-day drinking binge from hell, he could barely remember his own name. They had asked him