“I should have stomped his ass. It bit me. I hate rats.”
“Do you have any idea how much I love those rats?” I screamed. “After my wife, they are everything to me. Everything!” I grabbed my blade and drove it into his heart. Lincoln’s head slumped onto his chest, and I looked up at Elijah. “Now that that’s done, let’s go kill some Duncans.”
LC
20
“Gentlemen, you’ve given us a lot to think about. We’ll be in touch.” Orlando and I rose, shaking hands with Popeye Wilson and Tony Williams, two of the most powerful black gangsters in the world. Popeye, a short and stout, well-dressed man, ran his operations out of Washington, D.C., and Tony was a skinny-as-a-rail know-it-all from Atlanta. We’d distributed narcotics to both of their organizations for years, which technically made them beholden to us, but with everything going on with Brother X, they were suggesting a merger, so to speak. Our recent problems were putting us in a precarious situation, as far as the power structure was concerned. People who were once reliant on us were now looking to become partners.
“Well, LC, you know we’re here for you if you need us,” Popeye said.
“Yeah, man. We Blacks need to stick together like the Koreans, the Italians, and the Jews,” Tony commented as they headed out the door.
“I know we need soldiers, Pop,” Orlando’s voiced under his breath as we watched them leave, “but are we really going to do this?”
“It’s something to consider. Besides, it’s better than the offer we got this afternoon, don’t you think?” Truthfully, it was starting to look like we didn’t have a whole lot of options. At least none that I liked.
“I don’t know, Pop. I’m afraid that if we let them in, we’re never going to get them out.” Orlando’s tone was serious. He’d been that way ever since he was a kid, always thinking things through and imagining every possible outcome. It was the reason I had chosen him to take over the family business when I retired—if I ever got the chance. It seemed every time I thought things were falling back into place, another crisis hit the family and I was forced to delay my plans. Still, I appreciated Orlando working side by side with me through it all.
“You know as well as I do that Popeye and Tony will sell us down the river first chance they get.”
“I know that, Orlando, but blood has already been spilled on both sides. With Junior MIA and Kennedy dead, we’re going to need all the help we can get. Those men have small armies—armies we may need to use to take X and his people out.”
“Maybe, but I’m starting to think that the offer we got this afternoon might be the way to go. It’s a win-win for us all.”
“Everything that glitters isn’t gold, Orlando,” I replied, pulling a crisp Cohiba cigar from my breast pocket. “Let’s just hope Vegas has good news.”
“Okay, if you say so, Pop.” I patted him on the back.
“Look I’m gonna step out back and smoke this stogie.” I ran the cigar across my nose, inhaling the scent. “And don’t tell your mother I was smoking.” I loved my wife, but the older we got, the more she started to act like my mother. That was the reason I only smoked after hours at the dealership, when no one else was around.
“Wouldn’t think of it, Pop. I know how much it relaxes you. Look, I’m going to see if I can get a hold of Junior. I’ll be in my office if you need me,” he said.