“And you gon’ kiss this bullet,” Tank said as he pulled his gun and aimed it right at Two-Shot’s head.

  “No!” Genese screamed, trying to move.

  Two-Shots wasn’t afraid, though. He sat laughing despite his eye being swollen shut.

  “Pull the trigger, my nigga,” he taunted. “But my niggas gon’ get at you. They know where you live.”

  “Oh, you mean like your boy Dee?” Tank mentioned. “Yeah . . . He told me everything. He told me how y’all ran up in my spot. How you got greedy and didn’t want to pay him his money. See, that’s the part of the game that a nigga like you don’t understand,” he smirked. “And that’s why you can’t be like me. You can’t take care of ya people. And if you don’t take care of your people, they’ll turn on you. But you know what? Right before I killed him and his sister and his mama, he told me all about you and the shit you been tryin’a do. See? That’s the difference between a boss and a goon. You wanna be a boss, but you acting like a goon. But me? I’m a boss.” He leaned forward again, making sure that he was right at Two-Shot’s ear. “Oh, but I got goons at every last one of your homies’ spots right now. I got goons waiting to take you out. Every last one of your boys is going down.”

  Genese sat on the other side of him, hearing everything, crying.

  “Shut the fuck up,” he demanded.

  “Please,” she whispered. “Don’t do this. Please, let me go.”

  “Let you go?” Tank stood up. “You really think you gon’ walk out of here? Why?”

  “’Cause I love you, baby,” she sniffed. “I’m sorry. I swear I didn’t wanna do any of this.”

  “Man, kill that shit,” Two-Shots spoke. “If you didn’t wanna do shit, why did you come up with the plan to hit his club? If you didn’t wanna do shit, what was that shit with Liz?”

  Both Tank and Fendi looked at each other in confusion.

  “What the fuck you talking about?” Fendi asked.

  “You killed her?” Tank asked, pressing the gun into Two-Shots’s temple.

  “Nah. Not me.”

  He turned his head to Genese. Genese avoided eye contact, and Tank looked between the two of them. Rage and anger flowed through him like an inferno. Memories of Mz. Ave on that cold slab in the morgue resonated in his mind at that moment. Genese’s eyes grew large in disbelief, and Two-Shots sat emotionless. Clearly, he didn’t care at that point. He knew he was going to die. Genese was out for herself, so he didn’t understand why she was surprised. He was going to go down, so he didn’t care.

  Tank was in disbelief. Genese did that shit?

  He turned his gun on her, and flinching, she dropped her head.

  “Baby, I swear, I didn’t mean to. I was just gonna go talk to her,” she started to explain.

  “Nah, that ain’t what you told me,” Two-Shots interrupted.

  “Shut up, David,” she yelled.

  Tank couldn’t believe the shit. Just knowing what she had done had him hot. The only other woman he had loved besides his foster mother had deceived him the entire time. She played him. He was so wrapped up in trying not to be coldhearted and finding someone, but him being coldhearted was what kept him protected. If he would’ve stayed coldhearted, then maybe Mz. Ave would still be alive. But instead, his loving her cost him the one woman that genuinely cared for him. And for that, Genese was going to pay with her life.

  Uneasy, Fendi watched his boy. He could tell by looking at him that he was unraveling.

  “You killed her?” he heard him whisper. He could see his hand shaking as he held the gun.

  “I’m sorry,” Genese apologized. “It wasn’t supposed to happen. I was only going to scare her.”

  “Why?” Tank questioned. “Why did you kill her?”

  “I was just trying to do what David told me to do,” she rushed. “I got scared, and she saw my face when she fought back.”

  Two-Shots shook his head and started laughing. “Yo, this is funny. You talking ’bout you a boss, but you got played by a bitch.”

  Tank turned and almost emptied his clip, silencing Two-Shots instantly. Genese screamed yet again, watching her cousin’s body jump from the endless holes that Tank had put into his body. She was crying so hard that she could barely see straight, knowing her demise was imminent.

  “Martaveous, please, I’m sorry.”

  Tank looked at her and felt a tear stinging his eye. He thought that she was different. He said, “Fuck it,” and tried to settle down like Mz. Ave wanted. He was really feeling Genese because she didn’t seem like the other broads he was used to dealing with. But now, he knew why. She wasn’t like the other broads. She was a fraud.

  For the last year, he was good. He was vibing with somebody. He was thinking about settling down and all of that. He wanted what he didn’t have as a kid. At least until Mz. Ave. He didn’t have family, and he always envied people that had relationships with their parents because he never had it until his foster mother came along. He always experienced an emptiness, but he just learned to ignore it. He thought he had something with Genese, but he had made a mistake. He let her get too close. And because of it, Liz was gone. He wasn’t going to make that mistake again. He was going to correct it now.

  “Bruh, you good?” Fendi asked. He saw how messed up his boy was. In the damn near decade that he had known him, he had never seen him like this.

  “Ay, man, maybe you should—”

  Pow!

  Before he could finish his sentence, Genese’s head dropped forward, and her brains splattered across the wall. Tank lowered his gun and stood quietly, looking at her body. He didn’t have any feeling at that moment.

  Fendi stood, not knowing what to say. They both were quiet for several minutes before Tank straightened his clothes and cleared his throat, walking out of the room.

  “Get the boys in here to clean this shit up. Time to get to this money.”

  Epilogue

  One Year Later

  “Well, Ma, it’s been a long year. I’m sure you know a lot of craziness has happened. But I did it. And I hope you’re proud. I know you’re not here in the physical sense anymore, but I got a feeling that you still up there keeping an eye on me. You know I’m not gonna let you down. I never thought I would be saying goodbye to you like this, but I know you at peace. I know that you can rest now. So just know I’m holding everything down here, and you ain’t gotta worry about me. I’m gonna be all right. I know you gon’ always be there. We got something for you. Light ’em up, y’all.”

  Tank turned around and looked at his boys, Ty and Fendi, along with the other friends standing there. They all simultaneously released their lanterns into the air as he scattered the ashes of his Mz. Ave across the Atlantic Ocean. He had rented a yacht to carry out her final wishes of being cremated and having her ashes scattered and to celebrate his successes in the last year.

  Everyone was dressed in all white to commemorate the beautiful occasion. It was like a crowd of angels. He knew that she would’ve loved the sight. Although he hadn’t fulfilled all of her wishes and settled down like she wanted, he had kept his word on everything else. He had worked hard to change things. Club 305 was a huge success. The concert was a hit, and because it was so successful, he decided to make it an annual thing, which was part of why they were celebrating. He had just thrown his second annual Tank Out concert, which was even bigger than the first.

  He and Ty had invested in a few businesses together. They had opened a second shoe store and opened a rec center which he was proud of. After a year, he had finally gone legit. He turned over everything to Fendi, who was running the operation smoothly. His party buses had expanded, and he was opening a franchise in Orlando.

  He continued to mentor Li’l Strap, who was now in school getting good grades and wasn’t in the streets. He was part of the reason why he was opening a rec center for the youth. He wanted to keep Mz. Ave’s legacy going.

  “Yo, man, I know she up there smiling right now watching you shine, dog,” Ty said, walking over to Tank, seeing him watch the ashes disappear into the ocean.

  “Yeah, man.” Fendi agreed, taking a sip from his glass.

  “Everything is all to the G,” Tank nodded.

  “Yeah, bruh. Now, all you gotta do is get the wife and shorties,” Ty joked.

  “Man, hell nah,” Tank laughed. “I’ma leave that shit for y’all niggas.”

  “Speaking of, let me go check on mine.” Fendi sighed, looking over at his girl sitting on the other side of the boat.

  She was pregnant with their first baby, and he was ecstatic. They all were. Even Ty had worked shit out with his baby mama to see his son and would bring him to Miami now and then.

  As for Tank, he wasn’t thinking about a relationship or kids. He meant what he said when he told everybody he would leave it for them. Maybe one day, but for now, after what he went through with Genese, he wasn’t concerned about it. He wasn’t ready to trust no broad. He figured that if it were meant for him to be with somebody, they would find him. He had his whole life to settle down. For now, he was going to continue to build his empire. Not every love story was going to have a happy ending.

  He turned and looked as everyone enjoyed the party and was having fun. He could see the city of Miami in the distance.

  “Miami is mine for the taking,” he said to himself as he raised his glass. “Let’s Tank out.”

  The End

 

 

  Brittani Williams, The Streets Keep Pulling Me Back

 

 

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