Corrupt City 2

Book 2: Corrupt City

by Tra Verdejo

Genres: General Fiction; African American Urban

Synopsis

In this gripping and action-packed sequel to Corrupt City, the aftermath of the assassination is explored, revealing what happened to everyone involved. With trickery in each chapter, this book will have you cheering for the bad guys, while wondering who can be trusted, who is behind the foul events that unfold, and where the corruption will end. You won't be able to put this book down until you unveil all the clues.

Release date: October 24, 2011

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 288

Sample

It was going on seven in the morning when Sergio heard loud bangs on his front door. When he finally woke up, got out of bed, and looked through the peephole, he saw a scary-faced, out-of-breath Lucky standing on the other side of his door. He looked like a crackhead outside of his connect’s door, waiting for that hit. At first, Sergio was a bit skeptical about opening his front door. He hadn’t seen Lucky since the day before he’d testified in court. Sergio had helped Lucky set up that video swap in that Italian restaurant in the Bronx when his former partners were looking for him and his girl. He was the one who told the detective he called her Chanel because that was her fragrance of choice.

Sergio knew it was bad news, but Lucky had been like a father to him, giving him all the tools he needed to survive on the streets. Sergio did a lot of hits and robberies for Lucky and was basically his dirty hands. Since Lucky was a police officer, he couldn’t go around killing people, so he would send Sergio to handle it all. Sergio trusted him with his life. And Lucky had no other place to run to apart from his young protégé.

Sergio couldn’t leave him standing out there in distress, so he opened the door.

A fatigued Lucky quickly rushed inside and yelled, “Hurry up! Shut the door, Sergio, and keep the lights off!”

“Okay, but what the fuck is going on?” a now scared Sergio asked.

“How in the fuck did they know about the storage facility? Who in the fuck is snitching? Everything is over, Sergio. These muthafuckas almost killed me,” Lucky said as he paced back and forth in the living room. He’d escaped a near-death situation on the rooftop of his storage facility in the Bronx.

“Just calm down and tell me what happened. You need something to drink? Who tried to kill you?”

“Man, these last few days have been hell, and it’s only getting worse by the second. Every time I turn around, it seems like my life is in danger. I should have never fuckin’ testified. People always want you to say the truth, but in the end, it will always backfire on you. I would be considered untrustworthy in the court of public opinion. I’m tagged with bad luck for life.”

“I saw the news about those two dead cops in Cape Cod a few days ago. Once I saw one of your ex-partners’ faces, I knew that was you. I can’t believe you killed him at the steps of the post office building.”

“Those muthafuckas were up there trying to kill my daughter and her mother. I couldn’t let that happen. You know how I feel about my family.”

“But what the fuck happened at the storage facility? Why did you come back to the Bronx?” a curious Sergio asked.

“I don’t know. It all happened so fast. After Cape Cod, I went down to Atlanta. I dropped the family off and came back to finish what I started. When I pulled up to the storage facility and noticed police were watching the spot, like an idiot, I still pulled over and stopped.”

Sergio was surprised to hear him make a mistake like that. “So why didn’t you keep going?”

“I don’t know that, either. I figured, if I go in, I would at least be able to get bigger guns and kill those bastards. Maybe I should have kept going. Don’t matter now. I went in, and that’s when all hell broke loose. Divine and Pee-Wee were inside. They already knew about the stakeout. They were watching the cops on our cameras. We just loaded up the weapons and got ready for war.”

Lucky paused and thought about his good friend getting his head blown off right in front of him on the rooftop. This was the first time he had a chance to mourn his friend.

Sergio picked up on his mood swing. “What’s wrong?”

“Divine, he didn’t make it.”

“Get the fuck out of here! Are you serious? I’m sorry to hear that. I know how close you two were.” Sergio embraced him.

“Yeah, they got Divine. We went up to the roof together, and a sniper shot him right in front of me. I was able to locate the sniper, and I took him out. When I was about to go back downstairs and alert Pee-Wee, I heard more gunfire. I ran toward the edge, looked down from the roof, and there were cops all over, so I decided to bounce.”

“Shit. I don’t blame you. Who do you think snitched about the spot? Maybe it was one of your clients.”

“I doubt it. None of the clients knew about my involvement. They all dealt with Divine directly. All they knew was that Divine had friends in the police department, but no one knew it was me. Well, at least, to my knowledge.”

Lucky sipped on the tall glass of orange juice Sergio gave him and just sat back and exhaled. He couldn’t get over the bad feeling of leaving Pee-Wee like that. He knew in his heart he was wrong. Lucky knew if he hadn’t run, he wouldn’t be sitting in Sergio’s living room.

As Lucky sat there trying to clear his head, Sergio tapped him on the shoulder. “Look, Lucky, the news is talking about the shooting.”

They both sat there and heard Destine Diaz’s report. Lucky was shocked to see his storage facility on fire. He assumed the cops set the fire to trap and kill him. The news report freaked them out when Destine said Lucky was now in police custody, suffering severe third-degree burns and lying in a coma.

“Wow! These bastards are getting desperate. How in the fuck am I in custody? I wonder what slick move they are trying to pull now.”

“They can’t be serious. How can they claim you in custody when you’re sitting on my damn couch? What are you going to do, Lucky?”

“The media may be hyping the story. That burned-up body laying in a coma has to be Pee-Wee. The cops may think it’s me, but once the DNA comes back, they will realize I’m still out here. I need to get to Diamond down in Maryland.”

“She’s in Maryland? How are you going to get down there? There’s too much heat on you.”

“All I need is a car.”

“Done. How about money? You have any on you? Do you need more?”

“I’m straight. I left Diamond with enough. But I still have to go back to that storage facility.”

“Are you crazy? For what?”

“I still have a lot of money and drugs hidden in an underground fireproof safe. Once our clients see this footage about the fire, I’m sure they’ll be hunting for me as well.”

“Well, just let me know what you need me to do. Anything for you.”

“I’m going to need you to go in the storage facility and get my money. I only trust you. We may have to wait a few days, a week or so, but we have to move fast.”

“Cool. I’m ready. Just let me know. Hey, Donald, I need to speak to you.”

Lucky quickly became suspicious when Sergio addressed him by his government name. He placed his left arm around Sergio, and with his right, he gripped his 9-millimeter parked on his hip.

“What’s going on, Sergio?” Lucky asked, praying he wasn’t the snitch. “You haven’t called me Donald in a long time.”

“This is going to be my last ride.”

“Your last ride?” Lucky removed his hand from the gun, relieved that Sergio wasn’t about to reveal anything that would cost him his life.

“I’m homesick. My family in Venezuela needs me.”

“Venezuela? I thought you were Dominican.” Lucky laughed. “That’s cool. I understand. I’m glad you been as loyal as you have been. Once you help me get my money, I will throw in a bonus for you. I love you like the son I never had.”

Sergio laughed. “You don’t have to, but I’ll take it.”

They both started laughing.

Lucky sat back on the sofa and tried to continue to laugh, but he couldn’t. Not after the night he had. He was beat. If it wasn’t for Sergio’s presence, he would have broken down like a little bitch. In less than a month, he had killed four people, witnessed his best friends get murdered, lost his operation, had to push away Diamond, reunited with his daughter, and almost lost his life. He was starting to feel like he had worn out his name. Maybe he wasn’t so lucky, after all.

Sergio picked up on his daze. “Lucky? Yo, what’s up? Snap out of it. You need to start thinking of your next move.”

Lucky didn’t respond to Sergio’s call. He just sat there motionless. He should have listened to Tasha and waited a few days in Atlanta before coming back to New York. That was when he realized he needed to call her.

“Serg, I need a quick favor. I need you to run down the street to a pay phone and call this number. Ask for Tasha and tell her I’m alive and I’m not in custody as they claim. Tell her I will call her soon.”

“No problem,” Sergio replied as he headed toward his bedroom to change his clothes.

Lucky figured Tasha must have heard about him being in custody and lying in a coma. He wanted to make sure she didn’t have a panic attack.

While Sergio was gone, the demons reemerged. Lucky was getting that old itch, that call of freedom. He started snooping around the apartment, looking for Sergio’s coke stash. At that particular moment, he didn’t care about the twelve-step program. He needed to escape reality. He was growing frustrated with all the current drama. Drugs would be the only answer to his call for help.

Lucky kept coming up with every excuse in the book, just to find a way to break his sobriety. The longer Sergio took, the closer Lucky got to meeting the devil.

About five minutes later, Lucky quickly ran to the sofa when he heard Sergio’s keys.

When Sergio walked in, Lucky stood up and asked, “So what happened? What did she say?”

“I can’t repeat everything she said, but she was pretty upset. She was happy to hear you were alive, but, man, she let me have it like I was you.”

Lucky laughed. “I’m sorry you had to hear that. She begged me not to come up here. She sensed something was going to happen. Again, my bad, but thank you for relating the info.”

“It’s all good,” Sergio replied.

“Hey, listen, you still party?”

Sergio paused and looked into Lucky’s eyes. He couldn’t believe what he’d just heard. “I’m sorry. Can you come again?”

“You heard me. Do you still party?”

“C’mon, you don’t want to go back down that road. I know things have been crazy, but let’s smoke some weed or something.”

“Sergio, I just need one line. That’s all I’m asking for, one line, partner. I have a ton of shit on my mind, and I can’t function like this. I need to relax.”

“I don’t have any in the house, but I could have it here in thirty minutes,” Sergio lied, not wanting anything to do with Lucky’s self-destruction.

“Fuck it! Never mind. I don’t want any visitors. I guess it’s not meant to be. I’m just going to try to get some rest and wait to hear what the commissioner has to say in his press conference tomorrow. I’m going to stick around until then before I bounce down to Maryland.”

“That’s cool,” Sergio said, relieved. “You can stay as long as you want.”

Sergio was glad he was able to get Lucky to stop thinking about his old habit. He basically saved him from relapsing. He’d witnessed firsthand the way drug abuse was destroying Lucky’s life. Right before the Coleman shooting, Lucky was doing badly, sniffing at least five grams a day. The more he sniffed, the more corrupt he became.

While Lucky lay on the sofa with his eyes closed, Sergio went into his room to get dressed. As he was walking out, he tapped Lucky on his shoulder.

“Hey, man, I have to step out and handle a few things and stop by my girl house.”

“Okay, that’s cool. I’ll be right on this sofa. Around what time you are coming back?”

“Around midnight.”

“Damn! That long? Well, bring me something to eat.”

“Ha! Ha! Diamond is not around to cook, huh? Well, there’s food in the kitchen. Don’t wait up. I got this little PYT, and she can fuck for hours.”

Lucky waved at him and turned back around to try and continue sleeping.

Two hours later, all he kept doing was tossing and turning back and forth on the sofa. He couldn’t stop thinking about what had happened a few hours earlier. The ghosts were haunting him. He could still hear Divine’s voice in his head. He kept replaying that last moment when he got shot in the head.

Lucky got off the sofa and started doing push-ups, sets of fifty. Forty minutes and three hundred push-ups later, he stopped, feeling good. Dripping with sweat, he jumped in the shower. He figured a nice, hot shower would help him relax and maybe catch some rest, which he needed.

After a half hour in the shower, Lucky came out feeling like a new man. He’d hand-washed his boxers and undershirt, so he came out with just the towel wrapped around his waist. He figured his clothes would air-dry before Sergio got home.

Lucky lay back down on the sofa and closed his eyes. After a few minutes he felt himself dozing off, but every time he was about to knock out, the sound of gunshots kept waking him up and making him jump. He couldn’t shake it off.

He stood on his feet and headed toward Sergio’s bedroom. He thought maybe lying on his bed would be better. He didn’t want to disrespect him and sleep naked, so he looked in his closet and found a robe. When he removed the robe from the hanger, it accidentally knocked down a few shoe boxes. And that was when Lucky noticed Sergio had lied to him. He found at least a half a kilo, maybe more, hidden in his closet. He wasn’t upset. He knew why Sergio had lied, and that was understandable.

Lucky quickly put everything back together and closed the closet door, acting like he didn’t see the drugs. He threw the robe on and jumped on Sergio’s bed.

He was upset at himself for not thinking about sleeping in Sergio’s bed earlier. The bed was the most comfortable bed he’d ever lain on. So comfortable, it was impossible to have nightmares. As he lay there, he started thinking about Tamika and her beautiful smile. He kept rewinding her voice in his head, to help him relax. Before he knew it, he was passed out cold and snoring like an old, fat guy.

About a good four to six hours later, around eight o’clock, Lucky woke up. He couldn’t believe he had slept for that long. Feeling hungry, he walked to the kitchen and made himself a sandwich.

As he sat at the table, eating, he thought about Diamond, the love of his life. He was hoping he didn’t make a mistake by letting her move down to Maryland on her own. He was happy he was going to see her again. Just then, Tasha, his baby mother, popped up in his thoughts.

It was all downhill after that. His happy thoughts didn’t last long. He wanted to return home and reunite with his baby girl and live a normal life. The pressure was on, and he felt like he was hauling a ton with every step he took.

Lucky thought about the coke. He tried to fight the thoughts away. He thought about his twelve-step program. He tried to recite the steps in his head, but all he could think about was white lines and the skies. He tried to remember the motivational speeches his sponsor had preached to him, but he couldn’t. Addiction was winning the battle.

Lucky was backed into a corner. It was easy for him to stay sober when he wasn’t around the drug. He sat down on the sofa, thinking about the Ziploc filled with raw, uncut coca. He quickly stood back up and started walking to the kitchen. Then he made a sharp right down the hallway and entered Sergio’s room.

As he reached for the closet door to hit the stash, out of nowhere his daughter, Tamika, popped in his head. He jumped back and landed on Sergio’s bed. “What the fuck am I doing?” he asked himself.

As he sat on the bed, flashes of his daughter’s innocent face kept running through his mind. He couldn’t relapse, for her sake. He walked out of Sergio’s room and sat on the sofa and tried to watch a movie.

It didn’t take long for thoughts about his partner’s death to resurface. Divine was his childhood friend and business partner. He couldn’t accept his death, and he blamed only himself. A lot of people were dying around him, and it was fucking with his head. For a second, Lucky thought he was going crazy. He stood up and said, “Man, fuck this!” He walked back into Sergio’s closet, grabbed a Ziploc filled with cocaine, and headed back to the kitchen table.

He reached in the Ziploc, grabbed a handful of coke, and threw it on the glass tabletop. He stared at it for at least twenty minutes, fighting the demon within. His body wanted to do it, but his mind was putting up a good fight, but not for long.

Lucky dropped his face in the cocaine like Tony Montana in Scarface, sniffing and eating it like a savage. After a few seconds of nonstop action, he leaned his head back and let the high take him over.

Because Lucky had been clean for so long, his body didn’t know how to react. He grabbed his head in hopes that it would make the room stop spinning. When he leaned forward, he noticed blood dripping from his nose. He tried to get up and quickly fell back down. He couldn’t walk a straight line. The floor felt like an escalator.

He stumbled his way back to the bathroom, knocking lamps over and pictures off Sergio’s nightstand. When he reached the bathroom and looked in the mirror, he got spooked. Instead of seeing his reflection, all he saw was blood. That was when he punched the mirror, shattering it instantly.

With blood pouring from his knuckles, Lucky began yelling out loud, “C’mon, mut. . .