“I shot him… I… got him…” She smiled sadly, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I SHOT THAT FUCK BOY!!! YOU DIABOLIC MOTHAFUCKA!!! ROT IN HELL!” She ran over to his dead body, and spit on it.
Damn…English, I didn’t want this. You put me in a bad spot. You confronted me… you asked me what I was going to do, and I told you it didn’t matter because you couldn’t stop me. I didn’t want to lie to you. You said since I couldn’t stop you, then we had to do this together, you wanted to see that he was really gone, once and for all, with your own eyes.
He shot a brief glance around the parking lot. Blood and broken glass everywhere. “I never wanted you to be tainted like me. But now you are.”
She’d shot the man in the head as soon as Axel began racing towards them. He’d seen the entire thing.
Arm up.
Finger on the trigger.
BOOM!
“I never wanted you involved, baby. I never wanted you to have blood on your hands, English. I didn’t want your goodness ruined. I didn’t want you to have to suffer anymore… just be free.”
A tear streamed her cheek, and she smiled at him.
“Axel, I was involved the moment he re-entered my life uninvited. There was no turning back.”
He leaned in close and kissed her.
“Stay right here,” he commanded. She nodded as she got into the passenger’s seat of his truck, and began the process of removing her blood-splattered attire, and the bullet proof vest she’d been given.
“You and English good, man?!” Legend yelled out; his guns strapped to his shoulders.
“Yeah! Get out of here, man, before the cops come. I got it from here!”
Legend threw up the deuces, jumped in his truck he’d driven over in, and peeled out of the parking lot blasting Nipsey Hustle’s, ‘Rap Niggas,’ at high volume.
Bleach.
Spray.
No time for a cigarette break.
Scrape, Scrub, and Carry Away.
Contamination Pile…
Incinerate.
They’d chosen this place because it was deserted, and there were no cameras.
He stood over Master’s dead body, and resisted the urge to pull out his dick and piss on it. Instead, he reached into his pocket, pulled out a disinfectant wipe, and cleaned up the saliva his baby hawked on his face. No DNA would be left behind.
“You fucked around and found out, didn’t you? You sick motherfucker…” He kicked the body. Hard.
Axel made quick work cleaning up the crime scene—dead bodies all around, the smell of fresh blood blended with the night air. He picked up the shell casings, ensuring all evidence that he, Legend and English were even there, was gone. Their alibis were in place, just in case.
Everything will be sterilized.
I’m going to make it seem like it never happened. I am the cleaner. I am the one that washes all the discomfort and devastation away. Clean water. Suds. The smell of a fresh start.
“I am Axel Hendrix. Jack of all trades, MASTER of them all…”
Chapter Twenty-Four
…A few weeks later
“He ain’t gotta to tell me shit.” Legend took a swig of beer and glanced at his cellphone. “It is what it is, man.”
Axel sat beside him at the Wright Place, a local biker’s bar. Live music was playing, and the vibe was chill.
“It’s not that I’m upset about it. I’m concerned. This isn’t like him. Caspian should’ve called me back by now. I’m gettin’ married, man. Y’all both are supposed to be my best men. We talked about this when we were kids. We’d always be down for one another. The three Disciples. Just like Ms. Florence called us. Unless one of us dies, it’s always supposed to be us three against the world.”
Legend shook his head, then brought his hands together to give the band a round of applause.
“Legend, I’ve been meaning to talk to you about a few things.” Axel lit a cigarette and hooked gazes with the man.
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“First thing is, did you and Caspian have some sort of beef? Usually it was me and you gettin’ into it, and he’d be the referee. But now it’s like, whenever I bring him up, you seem agitated.”
Legend grabbed his beer this time with both hands, and turned his back to the mass of people.
“Nah. We don’t have no beef. I just feel like he thinks he’s better than us. I feel like that’s why he’s been ignoring you. I called him too. Same thing happened. Straight to voicemail. The older I’ve gotten,” he paused to scratch his beard, “the more it irks me, you know?” Axel nodded in understanding. “He came from the same dust and dirt as us. He had problems at home, just like we did. He had to be in detention in school, just like we were, and he was mentored by Ms. Florence, just like us, since all three of us were deemed ‘at risk teenagers.’” He made air quotes with his fingers.