“You need me to come through?” Evander asked, and Marvin nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Okay, I’ll be through there,” Evander said, and Marvin ended the call.
“Thank you,” Marvin said, took out his gun and shot Big Frank twice in the head.
“Damn,” RJ said.
“What?”
“Nothing. I just wasn’t expecting you to blow him like that, that’s all.” RJ said and took out his phone to make some calls.
By the time Evander got to the building to see what Frank wanted, Pills and Judah had arrived and were in place and ready for him.
“He’s coming on in,” Judah reported from his position outside the building.
“How many he got with him?” RJ asked.
“Two,” Judah said as he followed them in, but keeping his distance so not to be seen. He stayed with them until they got on the elevator. “They’re on the way up,” he said and ran for the stairs.
When the elevator door opened, Evander and his men got out and headed for the door. Pills cracked the door to the stairwell and watched them walked down the hall.
“They should be knocking on the door in ten seconds,” Pills said, as an out of breath Judah made it to the floor.
“We’re ready for them,” RJ said.
He and Marvin were in position on either side of the door. Pills and Judah readied their weapons and came out of the stairwell.
When Evander knocked on the door, Marvin opened it and they came on in. RJ shot Evander in the side of his head the second he stepped inside the apartment. As Evander’s blood splatter hit him and the wall next to him, Marvin shot the next man through the door twice in the chest.
When the third man turned to run, Judah raised his weapon and fired twice. The change in momentum lifted the man off his feet and he went down hard. Then Judah and Pills dragged his body in the apartment to join his dead friends.
“We need to call Billy,” RJ said to Marvin as he closed the apartment door once Pills and Judah were inside.
“Who’s Billy,” Pills asked.
“The Cleaner,” Judah informed.
In addition to running the funeral parlor, Billy Young had been The Family cleaner for years. His job was to dispose of corpses, destroy or eliminate fingerprints, blood and any other incriminating evidence from a crime scene. He was a reliable and trusted member of The Family, so when there was a knock at the door twenty minutes later, RJ assumed it was Billy and went to let him in.
“Hey, RJ,” Edwina said when she walked in the apartment with a duffel bag over each shoulder.
“Edwina?” Judah questioned.
She put down her bag, hugged RJ and then Judah. “Hey, Judah, I haven’t seen you in years. How’ve you been?”
“I’ve been good, just a little surprised to see you.”
“What are you doing here?” RJ asked.
Edwina smiled. “My father retired, so I’m taking over the business,” she said and walked over to look at the bodies before turning back to the kings.
“I heard that Billy was retiring,” Judah said. “I just didn’t know that you were taking over the family business.”
“I am.” Edwina knelt down and went in one of the duffle bags and pulled out four jump suits. “And I’m gonna need those clothes.” She looked at Marvin, Evander’s blood was all over his shirt. “Especially you,” she said and passed out the jumpsuits. “Now, you all need to go on and get changed and get out if here, so I can get to work.”
All four kings stood there with a somewhat confused but also fascinated look on their faces as they stared at Edwina like she had four heads. And it wasn’t just because she was the new cleaner. Edwina Young was fine, five feet ten inches tall, long shapely legs, golden brown skin, big brown eyes with soft curves in all the places that made her a woman.