"Royce" Part 5

Click here for previous "Royce."

"I can not believe you did that, you silly bastard!" Albany screamed at Royce. "Do you know what you have just done? Do you have any idea what they will do to avenge their boss? That was Solomon's brother-in-law! You knew that, right? They will kill all of us before sundown, I guarantee that!"

"What was Royce supposed to do? Just pretend it didn't happen? You knew what you were doing when you invited Royce along! Don't play us for saps, Albany" Anne said. "Royce, turn here" she said. Royce turned left onto an unpaved road. He drove a few hundred yards and then stopped the car. Albany looked at her suspiciously. "Now how about you tell me what you really brought Royce and I there for?"

"I have no idea what you mean, Anne-Marie" Albany said.

"Yes, you do. That was not the type of gathering we needed to be involved with. There was nothing but the biggest men from every city. No bodyguards or hired help were there except your brother and me. Now tell me the truth: Why were we brought there?" Anne hissed. Royce at this point lit a cigarette and rolled down his window. The cool night air slowly filled the car like fluid in a punctured lung.

"To make a point", Albany said.

"And what was that point?" Anne asked.

"To show that there was not one but three people that controlled our venture. That we work as one unit, unlike the rest of them. One person in power. All of the underlings fighting for control of something they could not begin to comprehend. I wanted to show them that we are a family not only in name, but also blood" he said, raising his sleeve and tapping his forearm for emphasis.

"You're lying" Anne said.

"I am not lying!" he replied. Sweat was forming on his brow.

"Royce, you believe me, correct?" he asked. Royce just looked at him in the rear view mirror and slowly exhaled the cigarette smoke from his lips. "Say something, damn you!"

"I think you do enough talking for all of us, Albany!" Anne said. "You have been living off of our work for decades now! I am sick of it!"

"Now wait just a minute..." Albany began.

"Shut! Up! You will listen to me for once! Royce has killed hundreds of people over the past almost 30 years just so you could live in your mansion and wine and dine with people whose names you can barely pronounce! Its over, Albany" she said. Albany just smiled at her and loosened his tie.

"Nothing is over. Royce, drive."

Royce opened his door and stepped out. Albany scoffed at him and fished for a cigar. Anne stared at Albany and opened the glove compartment. Albany froze for a moment, fearing that Anne was going for a gun. Anne saw him tense and sighed.

"You're pathetic, brother. The fact that you think I would kill you breaks my heart more than you will ever know" Anne said, tears welling up in her eyes. She felt herself about to cry and got angry. Suddenly Royce was standing besides Albany's door. "But I can not speak for how Royce will react."

"Get away from me, monster!" Albany screamed. Royce yanked the door open and dragged Albany from the vehicle feet first. Albany hit the ground with a thud. Dust rose from the ground and Albany began to breath hard. "Do it, you abomination! Kill me!" Royce reached inside his jacket and pulled out his gun. "You demon! That's exactly what you are! We never told you this..."

"Don't!!!" Anne screamed.

"...but you killed our mother!" Albany spat. Royce's nostrils flared for a moment. "That's right, baby brother. You killed her when you were born. You killed her. Our lovely mother died trying to rid her body of the poison that is you!"

"Albany shut up!" Anne said. She was getting hysterical and Albany was enjoying it.

"For years I have watched you walk around while her body has been rotting in the ground. Your birthday is just a reminder to me of the day she died. Every time I look at you all I see is death. Don't you understand, Anne-Marie? Do you not get the beauty of the irony? He has been killing since he was born! That is all he is good for." Anne began weeping. "Father was never the same after mother died. He took you off that machine in the hopes that you would die. But you did not. Demon. That's what you are. So kill me, brother. I would expect nothing less from you." Albany sat up a bit and placed his back against the rear wheel. He lit his cigar and slowly exhaled it towards Royce.

"Royce, I am so sorry I never told you..." Anne said.

"Oh, how sweet! She cries for you, Royce. How does that make you feel? Does that do anything for you, brother? Nothing? Not even a little bit?" Albany asked sarcastically. "She has been through so much pain and has never cried. Never even wept. But you she cries for. I will mark this on the calendar for sure! May 11th, 1962, Anne-Marie Danish cried!" he said and began to laugh.

"Bastard!" she screamed as she jumped out of the car. She raised her fist to punch a flinching Albany but stopped. Royce had the gun aimed at her. "Royce, what are you doing?"

"What he was born to do, little sister" Albany said.

"Royce, stop pointing that gun at me!" she pleaded. "Royce? Please?"

"Yes, brother. What ever happened to 'never family'?" he chuckled. "'Never her. Never me. Never family', right?" Royce looked at Albany and his eyes became slits. He took one step backwards, gun trained on Albany. "I am your family, boy. You will not harm me and you know it. So you should just get over this little tantrum and drive me back home." Royce took another step back.

"Royce" Anne said. "I love you."

Bang.

Bang.

Bang.

***

"Pleased to meet you, sir" Lady said to Royce. She stuck out her right hand, keeping her left arm close to her side. Royce just stared at her and slowly glanced at Anne. Anne smiled and placed Lady's hand back on the table.

"This is Ladine Donaldson, Royce. She is my new help" Anne said patting Lady on the shoulder. "Everyone calls her 'Lady.' She is very good at her job." Royce stared at Lady and she raised her eyebrow at him. "Royce, please be polite."

"It's cool, Ms. Danish. I don't need him to like me", Lady said. Lady grew up in Inglewood, Ca. Born addicted to heroin she never quite developed as she should have. But she grew up tough and strong. That is until she met a man who called himself "The King of the Fairies." She was addicted to heroin for seven years until one day Anne showed up.

Anne arrived to a rundown tenement to collect payment. At this point she had been working alone for close to 20 years. She was getting older and slower but had yet to find someone who she could trust enough. 

She slowly climbed the steps to the second floor, each board creaking under her weight. She reached the door and punched it open. The doorway was immediately saturated in gunfire. Anne returned fire and heard the screams of children.

"If Royce was here they would have been dead before they could fire one shot!" Anne thought to herself.

She ran into the room firing with both hands. The children ran past her and while she was distracted a large man punched her in the face. Anne rolled with the punch and hit him with the butt of her gun. As he went down she fired two shots into his chest. Suddenly she heard a loud boom. It was too fast for her to turn around and react. Then a blood-chilling scream filled the room. Anne spun and fired four shots into a small child's head.

The child was still clutching the sawed off shotgun as he hit the ground. His mouth in the perfect shape of an "O." The scream was not from him though. It was from a thin Black woman. She looked very close to death. She could not have weighed more than 90lbs. She was very short as well. She held her left arm and rolled on the ground spraying blood everywhere. Anne bent over her and pressed a gun to her head.

"Why did you do that?" she asked.

"It wasn't right.." Lady said as she fainted.

Lady awoke in the hospital a week after being shot. She went to wipe her face and noticed her hand was bandaged. She began to unravel the bandage until she noticed someone else in the room.

"I would not do that if I were you" Anne said while reading the latest issue of People. "The things folks do with their lives, I swear..."

"Whatchu doin' here?" Lady asked. She looked at her hand and the wheels began to turn. "Oh, no..."

"Well, what did you expect? You did grab the business end of a shotgun. There was nothing left of it. No doctor on Earth could do anything about that", Anne said. "Besides, there are worse things that could have happened in that house."

"What coulda been worse than this shit?!" Lady screamed.

"I could have killed you." Lady calmed down immediately. "Your boyfriend owed a great deal of money to my older brother. I was sent to kill every moving object in that place. Including pets." Anne leaned back in her chair and began to laugh.

"That isn't funny" Lady said flatly.

"Oh, get a sense of humor. If a colored woman with one hand and a drug addiction in America can not find humor in the world then I do not know what to do!" Anne said. "I suggest you get a sense of humor quickly."

"I lost my fuckin' hand!" Lady screamed.

"You should have thought about that before you grabbed a gun barrel" Anne said as she placed her magazine down. "Why did you do it?"

"Do what?" Lady asked.

"Save me."

"I didn' save you" she said. "I stopped something wrong from happenin'." Lady grabbed a nearby mirror and looked at her face.

"You look a little better", Anne said, slowly rising from her chair.

"My hair looks like shit" Lady said. She pulled at her hair and sighed. "I should shave it."

"Yes, you should. New life, new hair" Anne said.

"What'chu talkin' 'bout 'new life'?" Lady asked.

"You are coming to work for me, Ladine" Anne said as she grabbed a bag and started placing Lady's items in it. Then she looked at the clothes and shoes and threw them away.

"That's my shit!" Lady screamed.

"Exactly." Anne said as she continued placing Lady's possessions in the trash. "You are going to get cleaned up. Spiritually and mentally. And especially physically." Lady rolled her eyes. "Or I will finish what I came to your house to do." Lady's jaw dropped. "Just so there is no misunderstanding let me put it in plain English. I will kill you if you betray me. Now," she said as she helped Lady out of bed, "let's get out of here. There is a lot you need to learn and we do not have much time."

Royce looked at Lady's left arm. There was a large metallic stump where the rest of her arm should be. He looked at Anne and back at Lady.

"She can handle herself quite well, despite her disfigurement, don't you worry" Anne said to Royce. "It was hard at first seeing as how she was naturally left-handed. But over the past three years she has learned how to drive, fire a weapon, and disarm a man three times her size." Royce looked down at his coffee.

"Is he always like this?" Lady asked.

"Not always" Anne replied. "Sometimes he's rude."