Stan when he needed Brad the most. He knew he had to reap it later, but for now, all he wanted to do was get the hell out of prison, check up on Diamond, and get out of Brazil with her by his side.
There was a clicking sound, and then the cell door opened.
“Come on,” Paco said.
Everyone followed his lead out of the cell. Brad stopped one moment to look back at Stan. “Deuces, my friend,” he said in a whisper.
When he was heading out to meet his boys, out of nowhere, someone jumped on Brad’s back, pulling him down. The crew pivoted to see what was going on. They saw that it was Brad and Stan, fighting after they thought everyone in the cell was dead.
“You ain’t going no-damn-where,” Stan hissed like a demon. “You gon’ stay in here with me and be the new bitch!”
“Get off me,” Brad said, pushing him back and then putting him into a headlock. Stan was no longer the nice, funny guy Brad used to work and hang out with anymore. Stan had turned into a wild beast thirsty for blood, but Brad couldn’t blame him. Brad had sacrificed his friend to the wolves, seeing and hearing his friend being beaten, raped, and the Nigerian warlords selling him for cigarettes or soap. That would make anyone go crazy.
“All I can say is I’m sorry,” Brad said in a low voice while trying to calm Stan.
“Fuck you and your ‘sorry.’ I’ma—”
The sound of firecrackers went off. Brad was in a state of shock as blood splattered all over him from his friend’s brains being blown out. Stan’s lifeless body fell to the ground, and when Brad looked up, he saw the person who shot him. It was one of the officers that worked for Paco.
“Move it, fat ass, and catch up with your friends if you want your freedom. I’ll take care of this piece of shit. Go!”
Brad stepped over Stan’s body and hurried to make his way to his crew so they could get the hell out of prison.
Once the guys were outside, one of the other guards had a black van waiting for them. Brad smelled the air. It was so sweet. Now that he breathed the sweet victory of freedom, he thought about how he was going to get away from everyone. He didn’t know his way around, and even if he got to the airport again, how would he be able to board one of those planes and get the hell out of there? He was sure that Diamond could help him, and he could help her too. She appeared to be a trustworthy person, and there weren’t too many other people that Brad trusted right now.
As the van drove off, they all lifted their hands, waving goodbye.
* * *
While the van drove down the streets of downtown Rio, the fellas, Paco, and his crew were shouting, laughing, and drinking beer while saying, “Thank God. Free at last.” “Costa Rica, here we come.” That was, except for Brad, who was looking out the window and smelling the fresh night air. He glanced at all of the buildings and at the ocean that reflected the moon in the night waters. The scent reminded him of his arrival in Brazil, but then the flashbacks of his best friend shot in the head came back to haunt him. It wasn’t the first time Brad had seen someone killed, but that was his boy. He soon snapped out of the flashback and gazed at his friends and cousin, not knowing who they were anymore. Paco had really filled their heads up with bullshit, and Brad refused to be one of Paco’s puppets. He took a deep breath as he was preparing to make one of the biggest decisions of his life.
“Midnight, pull over,” Brad said in a soft tone.
Everyone shifted their heads to look at him.
“Bruh, what did you just say?” Swag said, frowning. “We gotta get outta here ASAP.”
Brad ignored Swag. To him, Swag was a perfect stranger instead of the cousin who’d had his back growing up. All Brad had now was himself.
“Midnight, let me out now!” This time, he put a little more bass in his voice.
Paco sighed and shook his head. “You stupid fool. I figured you would change your mind, but go ahead and be an idiot. You won’t get far. You’ll be killed by morning. I’m not going to stop you from getting out, and with one down, there will be more freaking money for us.” Paco looked at Midnight. “Pull over and let this dumb-ass piece of shit out ’fore he get us all caught up.”
Midnight waited until he found a dark alley; then, he parked.
“Cuz, are you crazy? What’re you doin’? You tryin’ to get caught?”
“Nah, man. I just don’t think this is the way forward. I’m gon’ take my own route and see where it leads me.”
“There is no other way,” Travis said. “And I believe this is more about you trying to go back to that girl than anything else.”
“Right. It’s a bad time for yo’ big ass to be thinking about some punany,” Tyler said. “There’s goin’ to be plenty of Costa Rican ass for you to bone.”
“Man, to hell with all that!” Brad shouted. “I just need to get out of here!”
“All y’all shut the hell up!” Paco yelled as he looked at Brad. “Go, you fool. I can’t afford for you to slow us down. None of you will slow us down!”
Brad didn’t wait another minute. He got out of the van, barely having time to look at his crew and give his final goodbye. They all shook their heads, thinking that Brad had made a horrible mistake by not staying with them. Then Midnight sped off.
And Now . . .
Chapter 1
The New Beginning
When Brad got out of the car without as much as a goodbye, Midnight sped off in the van like a bat out of hell. Swag looked back at his cousin for the last time before he saw smoke and nightfall cover Brad. Much love, cuz.
Swag turned back around and looked at Paco and his crew, plus Tyler and Travis, who continued their little party in the van. Swag couldn’t believe Tyler and Travis continued partying with Paco after losing their friend since junior high. He shook his head and felt disgusted that he had just lost the only trustworthy and loyal person that had his back, no matter what. He and Brad had been through a lot together growing up in St. Louis and coming from a fucked-up family. Brad, however, got to know his father, who turned out to be an asshole. Swag had never met his dad. He ran out before he was born. That had always bothered him, and after what had just happened, Swag sat back on the seat with a pounding headache.
He’d been through a lot these last few weeks, particularly from getting locked up in one of Brazil’s notorious prisons for trying to traffic drugs back to the United States. He was thankful that Paco Hernandez, the former head of the Hernandez Cartel of Texas and Mexico, saw potential in him and the fellas. If it weren’t for Paco, he and the fellas would’ve been someone’s bitch in that cell. The whole ordeal was scary, and Swag regretted what had happened to his friend, Stan, in prison. His conscience started to kick in, and Swag knew he was dead wrong for feeding Stan to the wolves. He should have known Stan wasn’t built for, or about, that life, and he had betrayed him.
Back in the day, he viewed Stan as one of the lucky ones who grew up in a two-parent home with a father, who was the chief of police of Creve Coeur, and his mother was a nurse-turned-homemaker and president of Creve Coeur Police Wives Club. She spent most of her days taking care of her home, family, and planning/organizing events for the club. Stan was living the dream that every little black boy in the hood wished they had. He grew up not wanting for anything, but then Swag remembered that Stan’s parents cut him off when they found out he flunked out at Lincoln University. After that, they made him get a job at the restaurant. It wasn’t enough to pay his bills, so when their friend Armand mentioned the 50K deal to the boys, Stan saw a way out of his financial state and a chance to get out of his parents’ home. Swag knew Stan was too much of a sheltered suburban type to take on this type of work, and in the end, it cost Stan his sanity, pride, and his life.
Swag