This nightmare began the night Frank Sparrow defended his middleweight crown at The Garden. When I got there with Wanda, Black said he wanted to talk to me. Both Wanda and I cringed, thinking that he had found out about our covert relationship and was about good on his threat to kill whoever it was that Wanda was involved with. But what he wanted was something that I never expected to hear from him. “I need you to watch Freeze.”
“Freeze? Why?”
“His boy Mylo arranged for Frank to take a dive.”
“What?”
“Told Frank I wanted him to do it.”
“You think Freeze knew about it?”
“I don’t think so, but this nigga Mylo is his boy. Keep your eye on Freeze, but you don’t let Mylo outta your sight.”
“I’m on them, Black.”
That was the promise that I made.
And the promise that I didn’t keep.
After the fight, Sparrow jumped up on the ring ropes and pointed his glove at Mylo. Black hadn’t counted on Sparrow calling Mylo out like that. We had to fight our way through the crowd to catch up with him. As soon as Mylo and Masters could, they separated.
“Freeze, you and Nick get Mylo. Bring him to the parlor. I’ll meet you there.” Black told me that night.
“Where you goin’?”
“Get Mylo.”
“What about him?” I asked quietly since he thought Freeze might have been involved in the plot.
“He’s good. Just get Mylo,” Black said, and he and Bobby went after Masters.
All they knew was that Masters was involved with Mylo in the plot to kill Black, and that was enough reason to kill him. They both turned out to be DEA.
By the time we caught up with Mylo he had made it out of The Garden and was on 35th Street. He was startled when me and Freeze caught up with him in the crowd. “Where you goin’ in such a hurry?” Freeze asked as soon as he was close enough to put his hands on him.
“No where. Just tryin’ to get out of here. You know, get back to the house; see how things are goin’.”
“You not goin’ to the after party?” Freeze asked as we walked alongside of him through the crowd.
“Yeah, I’ma stop by there later, you know; once the real after party gets goin’.”
“You oughta come ride with us,” Freeze told him.
I guess Mylo knew that if he went anywhere with us that we would kill him the first chance we got, and he was right. Mylo reached for his gun and turned to Freeze.
He fired two shots.
Freeze grabbed his stomach and fell into my arms. I laid Freeze on the ground. “Don’t let him get away, Nick,” Freeze told me as he grimaced through the pain.
I looked around and didn’t see Mylo anywhere. He was gone. “I’m not leaving you.” I said and held onto Freeze.
How could I have been so stupid?
Why didn’t I take Mylo’s gun right away?
It’s my fault that Freeze is dead. Even though they tell me that it’s not, I know better. Freeze is dead ’cause I got careless. And even though I avenged his death so Freeze could rest in peace, I haven’t found any peace for myself.
Freeze started workin’ for Black when he was sixteen years old. He was a kid, but Black saw something in him. That’s what we used to call him, The Kid. Back then, all Freeze did was run little errands for Black and hang out at the club messing with the ladies. That all changed one night after we robbed a warehouse and somebody robbed our load.