Like a Boss Page 5

  the end as he strolled; he then noticed something near the mailbox. It looked like a box; he wondered who dropped it there as it wasn’t there the previous night when they got in the crib.

  He drew in the last puff of the cigar and then sent it flying into a heap of snow nearby. He blew the smoke out into the air as he got near the mailbox. He knelt, ruffling the snow from the box; he opened and fell back with fear. Without thinking much about it, he carried the box and jogged into the apartment.

  “Fire on the line! Fire on the line!” he cried as he dropped the box on the center table. The rest of his syndicate ran into the parlor to check what was happening. They were all dismayed as they realized what was happening.Lyingin the box was the decapitated head of Gunplay, anda bloodstained paper which read ‘4 DOWN’ meaning they had killed four of the rival gang and the score line had to be equal for a truce to be discussed. They knew it was a message warning from Black Jesus and so they had to prepare for what was coming.

  Quickly, Wale addressed them about the looming attack which could come at any time from now. As he was still giving them a pep talk, they could hear the sound of cars outside screeching to halts. Cyrus ran to peep and gave them an alert; it was Black Jesus in droves, coming to seek out revenge on them. They all rushed to pick their firearms and then stood at alert in their vantage positions, waiting for the

  kill.

  Cyrus then hurried to hide Redbone in the closet before the gunplay began because he was too weak to participating in the shootout.

  Black Jesus’ gang barged in and then the shootout begin and lasted for about five minutes. Finally, Black Jesus retreated and zoomed off before the cops came, leaving the house looking like a 7.4 magnitude shakeup on the Richter scale.

  Cyrus who was shot in his thigh then limped around to find all the members of his gang dead. Feeling despondent, he hurried back into the closet to help the wounded Redbone to the car before the cops would come. As he was about to leave the apartment, he heard someone cough. He turned back to see Wale struggling to breathe; his clothes were stained with blood as he had his body riddled with more than a dozen bullets in the arms, legs, and chest.

  “Wale!” Cyrus cried as he gently placed Redbone on a sofa and rushed to help his dying boss. He raised his upper body to rest on the skirt of the sofa opposite where Redbone sat.

  “Hey...” Wale managed to say, he looked at Cyrus who was in tears already and grinned “You survived” he said, with blood gushed out of his chest at each

  stressing of the words. Cyrus nodded and he grinned again, revealing his blood-stained teeth. “You’re a ghost” he added, laughing and coughing up blood at the same time. Cyrus nodded harder this time

  “Go to my room and take the money bag. It’s yours now” he managed to say as blood kept oozing out of his body

  Cyrus nodded his head in disapproval as he sobbed. “If you don’t take it, then the reason why we robbed that bank would be defeated” Wale said. Redbone unbuttoned his shirt, revealing where the bullets had dug into his chest.

  “Before you go…” he said as he coughed some more “shoot me in the head”he added

  “No” Cyrus managed to say

  “It’s the only way you can help me. I’m already in deep pains, more than you can imagine” he said

  “Just do it, bruh. He’s dying!” Redbone called out to Cyrus

  Cyrus had never bought into the idea of having to euthanizing a dying person by himself. The last time he had to do that was in Panama when one of his fellow comrades fell in a shootout with the local rebels.

  Cyrus stared into Wale’s eyes for seconds and then picked up the pistol lying near him and stood up. With a great deal of determination, he aimed the gun at him and then pulled the trigger; sending the bullet wheezing through the air leaving Wale dead as he slumped on the floor.

  With tears streaming down his cheeks, he ran upstairs into to carry the money bag. Some seconds later, he was downstairs, trying help Redbone to his feet; he was also dying on the inside because his wounds were already infected with tetanus.

  As helped Redbone into the car, he could hear the blast of siren wailing in a distance. Without thinking twice, he popped the trunk of the car and then dropped the bag of money in it. Many scared white onlookers were in hiding as they saw him started the car and drove off in time before the cops came.They quickly gave the cops directions, and they began to give Cyrus a hot chase. He lost them twice but somehow, he was being tailed by other police cars. It got to a point, he pulled over and gave Redbone the money bag and told him to run into hiding. Redbone hesitated but he was able to convince him. They hugged each other in tears and he drove off after Redbone took the money and disappeared into the bush

  As he was still driving, he was ambushed by the police who had sandbags positioned on the road. He was forced to pull over and raised up his hands in surrender. He was subsequently arrested and taken to their station where he was

  made to write a statement and then straight to jail without trial.

  Luckily for Cyrus, he was transported to the same prison facility he was once convicted. After going through the mug photographs process and medical checkup, Cyrus had to change clothes into a new orange jumpsuit he was given and then he was escorted to the facility. Some of the inmates that knew whistled out to him. He was taken to a cell by a white warden and then locked up. He sighed and turned to see who he had as a cellmate this time around. He looked at the face, he wasn’t mistaken. Standing in front of him was the priest who was Frankie’s cellmate

  “Heyy!” He exclaimed

  The priest smiled and they shook hands

  “El Cura yeah?” he inquired. The priest nodded. For the first time, Cyrus noticed the well-toned budge in his biceps and his strong and firm palm. He wondered if priests exercise their body too.

  “Si” El Cura responded affirmatively in Spanish

  “What happened? Where’s Frankie? Cyrus asked, obviously concerned about the welfare of his friend.

  “The wardens got a whiff of his plans to escape the facility. Three wardens raided our cell and found out he had been hiding a hallagan tool all along under his bed. We had to be displaced from the cell” El Cura said, speaking with a strong Hispanic accent.

  Cyrus sighed. “Nice to see you again”

  “Same here, mi hermano” he said, shaking El Cura again

  Later in the day, the inmates were allowed to go out for an hour. Excitedly, El Cura took Cyrus to see Frankie who was surprised to see him again in the facility.

  They talked for minutes with Cyrus relaying to him all what happened outside the walls. Tears rolled down his cheeks as he talked about his relationship with the gang and how Wale had raised him up from the streets and how he is forever grateful to him. Later he then told Cyrus and El Cura of his plans to escape from the facility. El Cura, not wanting to soil his ecclesiastic reputation asked him how sure he was that the plan would work this time around.

  He had a hard time convincing the both of them and how that he would need

  manpower this time around for the breaking of the walls.

  The next day, during the one hour free-period, Cyrus got to see his former cellmate; Blair who looked emaciated. He had been sick all along. He took him to meet Frankie at their usual joint at the back of the chapel.

  When they got there, they heard the rustle of leaves near a garbage can at the back of the chapel. Wanting to know what was happening, Cyrus walked there to see another inmate sucking Frankie’s dick. Obviously disgusted at the scene, Cyrus left without saying a word to Frankie who rushed to catch up with him as he was trying to zip his jumpsuit. He apologized and then told Cyrus that he had told him the last time that he was a prison wolf.

  Cyrus said he remembered but he didn’t tell him what it was about. Blair then told Cyrus that it meant that Frankie was gay within the walls of the facility but straight on the outside, and that most of the inmates were wolfs. After a while, they drifted the discussion to initiati
ng Blair into the group.

  Two days later, Frankie had told them the point of exit was a secret underground in the storehouse. And so for them to pass through, they would have to dig a specific part of the floor that would lead to the underground.

  They planned to dig each time they were allowed the mandatory one hour break.

  But some days later, they heard there was going to be a shakeup in the administration of the facility, some of the personnel in the present administration were accused of embezzling of the funds meant for the management of the facility. The proposed new head of the correctional facility was a shrewd man and that would mean a lot of problems for the inmates.

  Frankie and his gang knew they were going to need more manpower to complete the digging process soon enough and so they decided to recruit new inmates. In the meantime, Blair brought his roommate along; a fat blackguy with bald head called Dwayne.

  Frankie brought his own roommate; Tunde, a huge Nigerian who was endowed with a lot of strength. Somehow, they were able to boycott the guards and completed the digging.

  They were to do the jail breaking the next day so everyone prepared themselves for the task ahead. During the one hour break, they all gathered inside the storehouse and changed their orange jumpsuits to some of the workers’ clothes they found in a big chest and then when everyone was ready, they proceeded to the jail break; in broad daylight. As fate would have it, warden who was just passing by heard muffled noises.

  He ran into the storehouse to check what was happening. He caught the sight of

  the last person; fat Dwayne who was finding it difficult to wriggle through the big crevice. Quickly, he blew his whistle so many times whilst trying to get a hold of Dwayne but the rest of the gang who knew their cover had been blown held onto the legs of Dwayne in a bid to pull him down by force.

  When the warden realized the force pulling the escapee downwards was greater than his, he hit Dwayne on his bald head with a club, and he passed out instantly. The rest upon realizing what was happening took to their heels.

  After some minutes, they were out in the woods. They could hear the blast of siren, heavy footfalls, rustling of leaves and the barking of greyhounds some miles away. They ran but Cyrus couldn’t run that far because of the wound in his thigh. All of a sudden, he felt a strong force carried him up.

  The rest watched as El Cura lift Cyrus with his upper body slumped on his shoulders. And for the first time, they noticed how strong the priest was.After a while they got to the main road linking to Wakulla Springs. A delivery man had just dropped a mail into the mailbox and was about to get into his van when the gang pounced on him and hijacked his van and zoomed off with El Cura on the driver’s seat. He told them he had a place in the outskirts of the town where they could live for a while.

  After what seemed to be like hours, he finally pulled over at the back of an abandoned cottage just at the outskirts of the town. When they got inside, they could see different Renaissance paintings hung on the wall; covered with spider webs.He went into the kitchen and brought out canned food and drinks for them and they had conversations until midnight. El Cura treated Cyrus’ thighs with medications and he was okay days later. Two days later, Frankie left them saying he wants to go and find Redbone.

  After a fortnight, a new Ford swerved off the road and pulled over at the cottage. Cyrus was surprised to see Redbone with Frankie; they hugged each other with tears of joy as they caught up old times. Frankie said he knew where he was gonna be and so he went to look for him there.

  Redbone then showed them the blueprint of the architectural building plans of a bank structure in Orlando. But for them to rob the bank, they had to come together and form a robbery syndicate.

  They all agreed and the next issue was who to appoint as the head honcho. After much deliberation, Frankie was appointed as the leader of the gang.El Cura then asked Tunde to follow him to the basement.

  Minutes later, they came out carrying a coffin. El Cura laughed so hard much to the bewilderment of his comrades. Tunde, who was naturally fearless, opened the

  coffin; they were stoned. Lying in the coffin were assorted types of firearms and ammunitions; sawed-off shotguns, pistols, revolvers, grenades and a violin box. One by one, they started to pick their choice weapons.

  Cyrus took special interest in the violin box as it reminded him of her mother; she was a good violinist. Way back when he was young, she would play and sing to lull him to sleep at night. He opened the violin box to see a Thompson submachine gun lying peacefully with a linen fabric wrapped round it. He fell in love instantly as he inspected every part of the beast. The rest of the gang started laughing; jolting him out of his momentary reverie.

  Days later, they set out on the road to the bank in Orlando after they had mastered the structure of the building. They robbed the bank successfully and carted away the sum of $81,000. They robbed three more banks after that all over the state of Florida. Two weeks later, Frankie had a run-in Black Jesus’ gang. He was shot and he died instantly. It was a gloomy week for Cyrus and the rest of the gang. They had to appoint Cyrus as the next leader. He told them not to rush to avenge for their fallen comrade but to be proactive in mapping out their strategy to annihilate their rival syndicate totally. Cyrus also changed the tactics with which they performed the art of the heisting.

  In order to rob the bank successfully, the gang employed military-tactics taught to them by Cyrus. Tactics included the use of roles during the robbery; lookout; getaway driver, lobby man and the vault man. Gang members had modern weapons like the Thompson submachine gun and also had bulletproof vests. Redbone brings in the architecture of the bank’s structures. El Cura told them his real name was Gary Mendez and that he used to work for Pablo Escobar in the US under the guise of a priest. He allowed hoarding of hard drugs in his church steeple but somehow, he was found out and jailed. He removed his shirt to reveal a big chiseled chest that had a big dragon tattoo drawn all over it.

  About two hours later, they were at a bank in the Keys. They wore their grim masks and fired shots in the air as they pulled over just in front of the bank. There was pandemonium as the people who were passing by in and outside the bank ran for their lives. Cyrus and Redbone walked into the bank, leaving El Cura, Blair and Tunde outside to watch out for the cops. Cyrus cocked his tommy gun and fired few more shots into the ceiling.

  “Get down all of you!” He bellowed with his gun raised up high.

  “Do what he says y’all motherfuckas” Redbone said as he grinned, a double barrel

  sawed-off shot gun in his left hand. Everyone scampered for safety, with their faces flat on the floor. Redbone walked over to the cashier and raised him up drawing his left ear “where’s the key to your bank vault?”

  He stuttered “sir, I don’t have the –“he fell down as Redbone pumped bullets into his chest. He didn’t want to wait to hear what he had to say. Everyone else in the bank started muffling their wail.

  “Sir I have the keys to the bank vault!” a young white lady cried. Redbone laughed “I like you. You’re smart. You’re loyal…take me there” she stood up quickly and led the way to the vault.

  Cyrus walked around. Everyone trembled as they heard the heavy thud of his boots sounding close to them. He saw an old white lady trying to hide under a table. He laughed and helped her up. She was bent and petite with white hair all over her hair.

  “Hello ma’am” he said. She didn’t look at him. She kept sobbing and trembling. Cyrus smiled. “Go home ma’am”. She was surprised; he led her to exit and called out to Blair to help the woman cross the road.

  “Anyone else want to go home?” he snarled. Nobody answered

  He cocked his gun out loud enough for everyone to hear. They trembled.