Dangerous Play Book 1 (Danger Series Vol. 1): A Dark Urban Thriller Read online

  Prologue

  “Did you already tell him?”

  “Yeah, I told him.”

  There was a pause. “What did he say?”

  “What the fuck you think he said? He was like find the motherfuckers and wrap that shit up.

  Make sure it don’t happen again.”

  “Yeah, that sounds about right.”

  “Hey Ice, you good with this one. I could be there in a few hours.”

  “Nah, there isn’t anything to do just yet. I’m looking into a few things. I’ll let you know.”

  “You good with muscle?”

  “Give it a couple hours, I’ll let you know.”

  “Aight.”

  Eric hung up his phone and stuffed it in his pocket. He could tell by KC’s voice that Kaleb was not happy. He fell back against the black interior of the Ford Expedition and looked out into the neighborhood. It was the familiar scene he had grown up in. Though it wasn’t his actual neighborhood, it was all the same. Everything was rundown, empty lots full of trash, cracked streets bordered by even worse sidewalks, uncut grass in the yards, and all the other prerequisite signs that indicated they were in the heart of the ghetto.

  There was only one house that stood out as something of a bright spot in the otherwise dismal portrait of poverty. It was a brick single story with a large yard. Unlike its neighbors, the grass was obviously cut within the last week and some care was also seen to the bushes that surrounded it. As he looked closer, Eric saw a small flower garden had been planted near the entrance, stretching to the side of the house, underneath the windows. It was by no means an award winning compilation, but it did seem to brighten up the front, making it far more bearable than any of its counterparts on the street. The door and the mailbox popped with a bright white, having been painted in the last few months, at least. It was pretty clear that some care was put into the house.

  “Ice, you ready?” T-Rex asked from the driver’s seat. He didn’t speak immediately after Eric got off because he knew how Eric likes to think for a minute before he does something.

  “He’ll let you know, Rex, chill the fuck out,” said Craig in the passenger’s seat.

  “Fuck you, I was just asking a damn question.”

  “And I’m just saying chill the fuck out. Ice don’t need you asking him a million questions while he trying to figure shit out.”

  “It wasn’t a million questions, motherfucker, it was one goddamn question. Is he ready? If he aint, it’s fine, we good. You the one giving it all this extra shit.”

  The two of them went back and forth for while, which suited Eric fine. Rex and Craig were officially Eric’s body guard/muscle, but really they felt like his kids half the time, or maybe his parents since they argued like an old married couple. They were always at each other’s throats about something, arguing one thing or another. Half the time it was actually pretty funny, but Eric wasn’t in the laughing mood at the moment.

  He took a deep breath. “I’m ready. Let’s go.”

  The locks on the house weren’t that sophisticated, so less than two minutes later all three men stood in the living room of the brick house. Eric noticed that the interior was as impressive as the exterior. There was some type of Parisian theme going in the room with the pictures on the wall and little figurines of the Eiffel Tower on the shelves. The large rug covering the center of the floor made it easier for them to not make too much noise on the tile covering the rest of the house. The bedrooms were in the back down the hall. One door was open, revealing what was clearly a kid’s room which included a small empty twin bed, while the other door was closed.

  Eric was a little relieved to see that the boy was not in his bed. He wasn’t in the rest of the house because he would have heard the men coming in. He might be over a relative’s house. Either way that wasn’t really Eric’s main concern. Eric crept down the hall right in front of the bedroom door. He took a second to look at both men on either side of him. He held up his hand with three fingers up. Then two. Then one.

  Eric kicked the door in and the men exploded into the room with a torrent of commands and profanity.

  “Get the fuck down, get down, on the motherfucking floor bitch!” Rex shouted.

  Eric immediately jumped onto the large bed in the middle of the room, while simultaneously searching for the male of the two occupants. The covers were thrown back and Eric had his man. The guy jumped in reaction to the sheer noise of the entrance completely shocked. He gave a pathetic attempt to reach for the nightstand but by then Eric’s fist was already buried into the side of the man’s face, and he was feebly lying on the floor underneath Eric’s knee. Eric was relentless, throwing as much weight into his repeated blows as he could as he connected to the man jaw. He never gave him a chance to recover from the last one before his other fist plowed into his face. The man uttered helpless screams of pain and disbelief, disoriented pleas to stop, begging for his life.

  The woman next to him screamed and had fallen to the right side of the bed and onto the floor. She began to push herself towards the corner when she suddenly started to reach for the covers. Rex and Craig shouted for her to get back waving their nines in her face, but she was insistent on retrieving something. They all soon saw what it was.

  The screams in the room were very distinct, the man’s were confused and desperate, the woman’s were scared and shock, while Rex and Craig bellowed out orders to her. But there was another scream that emerged above it all, a very high wale that cut through the room. The woman grabbed a little boy out from under the covers and pulled him into her chest as she scurried back to the corner. Rex and Craig quickly glanced at each other, with a flash of disappointment on their faces but maintained their guns on the woman.

  Eric saw the kid too, and faltered ever so slightly in his work. He delivered a few blows with a little something extra to make up for it. He stood up and let the man crawl to the wall. Eric opened the night stand and pulled out an old silver revolver.

  “What were you planning to do with this, huh?” He said to the man. The man didn’t bother to answer. His eye was already swelling pretty badly.

  “Do you know who I am?”

  He just shook his head, his body shaking uncontrollably. He made noises as if he were shivering.

  “They call me Ice. Do you know who I am now?”

  The man’s eyes widened for a moment, then he dropped his head. He began to weep loudly. “I asked you a question. Do know who I am?” He nodded as he sobbed.

  “Benny, it’s Benny right? Benny, do you know why I’m here?” He didn’t respond.

  “You better start talking.”

  “Yes.”

  “You know one of Kaleb’s traps got hit yesterday, don’t you?”

  “I swear to God, I had nothing to do with that.”

  “You sure you want to be lying to God right now.”

  “I swear, I didn’t rob no trap.”

  “Oh, no, I didn’t say you robbed anything. But that doesn’t mean you could have something to do with it.”

  Benny’s eye was pretty well closed by now. He didn’t say anything only stared at Eric with his one good eye full of fear.

  “Who you been talking to, Benny?”

  “What?”

  “Feds? Police? Did dirty cops hit us and take our shit?”

  “No, I aint been talking to no cops, man.”

  “So who was it Benny?”

  Benny tried to speak but could only hesitate, and nothing came out.

  “It’s better if you tell me now. Right now it might not be so bad but if I have to find out some other way, it could get real bad for you, Benny. And you wife and what is that a boy?”

  “No, no, no, please leave them alone.”

  “I’m not doing anything right now, I’m talking to you. But the problem is you’re not talking to me. I need you to talk to me, Benny.”

  “I don’t know..” He gurgled, blood spilling out of his mouth.

  “Come on. What was that?”

  “All I know is some guy needed to know where the trap was at? That’s all he just wanted to know.”

  “What guy?”

  “I don’t know who he was. I just got off my shift and he knew I used to be in the game and shit. He just asked me for where one was.”

  “What did he look like? Black dude?”

  “No, he was like Middle Eastern or something.”

  “Middle Eastern?”

  “Yeah. Arab. Look that’s all I told him, man. I didn’t think nothing of it man, he could have found out from anyone.”

  “Did he ask you anything else?”

  “Yeah, he wanted to know how much ya’ll moved and how much you kept there. I told him I didn’t know that shit.”

  “You didn’t tell him anything.”

  “No, I swear to God, Ice. I just told him where it was ‘cause he gave me six thousand dollars man. I needed that money. We had to get a down payment on this house out near Winter Haven. We just trying to make it up out this hood, man. I wouldn’t have said nothing no other way. I didn’t think nothing I said could do nothing.”

  “Well, too bad for you, Benny, it did do something.” Eric looked over to his men behind him.

  “Rex, go get the can from the back?”

  The two men again looked at each other with doubtful glances.

  “You sure, Ice.” Rex spoke up.
br />   “Did I stutter, motherfucker? Get the goddamn can,” Eric barked at him. Rex obediently walked quickly out of the room.

  “Benny, I need to know that that was all you told this man. Was there anything else?” “No that was it. I ain’t say shit about nothing. I promise you. I don’t even know nothing no more. I’m telling you all I do now is just go to work and come home to my family, Ice. I’m a family man now, I promise you. I don’t want nothing to do with nothing, man.” “Okay,” Eric said nodding. “I see that. This your wife right here?”

  “Yeah.”

  “What’s your wife’s name, Benny?”

  “Deborah.”

  “Deborah, very nice. And the boy?”

  “Jordan.”

  “Okay. Hi, Deborah.” Eric spoke toward the huddled woman in the corner clutching her child. She had managed to stop screaming but the little boy was still crying at the top of his lungs. “This will all be over very soon, okay. We’re almost done here. You and Jordan will be fine real soon.”

  “Ice, please, I promise you I won’t do it again. I can get you the money he gave me. I can get it for you.”

  “This man, would you be able to describe him?”

  “I don’t know…I don’t think so. I-“ Benny’s sentence was stopped abruptly with the return of Rex carrying what both Benny and Deborah had no trouble as identifying as a metal gas container. Deborah started to scream hysterically joining in chorus with her son.

  “Ice, please, no! Please! I can tell you anything! I just needed the money for the house, man!

  C’mon, man! I can get you that money! Ice, please!”

  Eric stood up and took the completely full gasoline can from Rex. He unscrewed the top and proceed to dowse it entire contents onto Benny. Benny squirmed and pleaded, shaking kicking and trying to move out of the way of the heavy stream of gasoline. The entire room became filled with the fumes, it was almost unbearable, as Rex and Craig covered their faces and watched uncomfortably.

  “Sorry, Benny.” Eric said throwing the can to the side. It clanked off the walls and on the floor.

  “Hey, Craig, you got a light on you?”

  “Uh,” Craig began to pat himself down. He felt the indention of his lighter in his front pocket. “Nah, Ice. I thought I did.”

  “Hey, Ice. Listen,” Rex chimed in. “I was thinking maybe we might not do it like this. I mean if you burn him it might spread through the house and you might end up burning the whole place down. That might draw too much attention.”

  “Nah, we’re good. We’ll put it out if it starts getting too big.” “I don’t know, Ice. That was a lot of gas.” Rex said.

  “Yeah, I don’t think we should do it,” Craig said. “I think it will burn down the house.”

  “Besides,” Rex said with a little hesitation. “Maybe we should just get the kid out of here.” “Oh, so is that it? Look at you two, getting all soft on me over here. What happened to ya’ll?”

  The men didn’t say anything.

  “Alright fine. No fire.” Before the words were out of his mouth even a second, Eric drew his Gloc pistol out from behind him and in one motion fired three shots into Benny, the stomach, the chest and the throat. A fourth shot came a second later, square in his forehead, slamming thick blood and matter onto the walls and bed next to him. The heavier globs full of brain matter slowly oozed down the wall toward the floor, where a growing puddle of blood mixed with gasoline was rapidly spreading underneath the motionless Benny. His eyes stared out past Eric into nothing.

  All the noise in the room ceased. Even Jordan was shocked to silence by the four loud pops echoing in the room. Deborah’s eyes were frozen open as wide as they could go. The reality of what just happened slowly began to seep into her mind and her body began to react. She shook and screamed, clutching the child with a vice grip, almost smothering him. “Oh God! Oh God help us, please! Oh Lord!”

  Eric calmly strolled around the bed to the other side, passing a stunned Rex and Craig. He sat on the edge in front of Deborah, who was doing her best to mesh her and her child into the wall. “Deborah, listen to me. Somebody will be by to clean this up. You are going to let them in. Do you understand me?”

  She only stared at him, her whole body trembling, too afraid to breath much less speak.

  “I need to know you understand.” He nodded his head to assist her. She nodded back. “Okay good. And also another thing. You know better than to say anything about this don’t you?”

  She nodded.

  “Good. Now, I need you to move somewhere else for a while. Just a week or so. When you come back just say, Benny ran out on you okay.” She nodded.

  “Alright, I think that should do it. Come on fellas.” Eric rose from the bed and walked past the men.

  “I’m starving.” He said headed toward the front door. “Rex, let’s hit Waffle House. Sound good to you?”

  “Yeah, sure Ice.” Rex said.

  “You guys go head out to the car, I have to hit the bathroom real quick. I’ll be there in a minute,” Eric said turning and walking to the bathroom at the end of the hall.

  The two men had recovered from his surprise and started to walk out of the room. As Craig past a small lamp table he dropped something on it and walked out the door. Rex glanced over and saw it was a small folded stack of four or five bills. The outside bill was a hundred dollars. What is this fool doing? Rex thought. Rex began to reach for the money, but then stopped, dropping his hand. He could hear the woman and child still crying loudly in the other room. He stared at the money for a moment, then just turned and followed Craig out the door. Eric went into the small bathroom and closed the door behind him. The thin wood of the door did little to muffle the horrid sounds of Deborah and her son. Eric put the top down on the toilet and sat down with his head in his hands. He could feel himself starting to shake and he took several deep breaths to calm himself, though he could still feel him trembling slightly. He hopped up and went to the sink, turning on the cold water and splashing his face repeatedly. It was over, he said to himself. It’s done for now.

  He slowly looked up into the mirror in front of him, confronting his reflection. He saw a man whose eyes were as empty as his soul. Despite already being wet from the water, he could see two tears from either eyes well up and stream down his face. He refused to sob, but he could no longer hold in those two tears. He let them travel down to his chin, mingling with all the other water on his face before he splashed himself again to erase it. He took one last look at himself in the mirror. He stood up and took a minute to straighten himself out. After properly getting his face together, he strutted out of the bathroom. He left the house and strolled back to the SUV, walking the stride of a man didn’t have a care in the world.

  1

  Sunny

  In thirty four days Sunetia Renee Jackson will be raped and tortured. But she didn’t know that yet. For now, she simply stood under a dim light in a small bathroom staring at an old photograph.

  The picture had faded some but it was still Sunny’s favorite. She had a frame for it but lately she had taken it out so much she just didn’t bother to put it back in anymore. She stared at it, studying it as if it was the first time she had seen it. She examined the little girl, around five or six years old playing next to a beautiful fountain in puffy red dress with white trim and very very tiny white polka dots sprinkled throughout the pattern. Her face was frozen in a playful scream as she was trying not to get splashed by a torrent of fountain water charging up at her from the pool courtesy of a tall slender man with a short sleeve blue and white collared shirt and dark blue jeans. His hair was full but not yet approaching an afro. He had both hands full of water with a heavy stream headed directly at the little girl. Sunny paused at his expression as she always did. His mischievous smile was so big it almost seemed like his face wouldn’t be able to contain it. Every time she saw it she swore she could hear him laughing through the picture. Off to the right barely making it into the frame was a woman in a beige and dark brown dress also laughing at the silliness happening before her. Sunny stopped on her face for a while too, admiring how beautiful the woman looked when she smiled as her shoulder length curly hair subtly pushed by a breeze. Standing beneath her was a little boy, even younger than the girl, distracted by a nearby bird or squirrel outside the frame, completely oblivious to the scene in front of him. Sunny was always amazed at how focused he appeared at whatever he saw, impressive even for a child, his face and body hinting at the possibility of capturing the poor animal that sparked his interest. It was an amazing scene every time Sunny saw it. Perfect really. Even the way the picturesque stoic statues hoisted in the center of the fountain looked over the happiness bursting from the people below. She looked one last time knowing it was time for her to go. She turned the card over and stared at the date. August 18, 1986. She kissed the picture and put it back in the left drawer next to the sink.