No Honor Amongst Thieves

by Brick

  “What do you say?” Leo asked while swiveling in his chair in a slow rock.

  Reaching up in thought to run a palm over the waves of my hair, I leaned back, then exhaled lightly. “What do I think?”

  Leaning forward, I clasped my hands in between my legs and leaned on my thighs. “I want it in clear paperwork, and I want time to read over everything. I want it laid out that this joint will be mine and mine only. I want to be written in a clause that none of you can enact some type of grandpa clause on me and that you can’t make me use my place for your family business. If that’s spelled out, then we’ll see what I say.”

  “Pops thought you might say that. Here,” he said, sliding a packet to me over the desk. Leo leaned back pressing his pointer fingers against his lips. “Read it over, and I’ll speak to my lawyers to make sure everything is in black and white, clear on all fronts.”

  Swiping up the paperwork, I locked my gaze on him. “Now, what else do you want?”

  The deep, amused chuckle from Leo hit me. He was a cunning motherfucker.

  “You have more work to do for us,” he casually said.

  Now, this is the moment that I decided to press my game. “No, not really. I have one last case to handle for you all, and then we come to the renegotiations of my contract with The Family. I’m now my own boss, especially with how the Feds are on you all. Agreed?”

  Leo twitched in his chair. His eyes narrowed; then he gave a deep frown. “Agreed.”

  “Exactly. Your father and I will speak about how my terms will be laid out now with you all doing further business with me, but as of now, I am my own man.” Grinning wide, I rested my ankle on my knee. “Now, my price grade goes up. If you all can accept that, then I will happily send a new contract your way. I thank your family for training me as you all have, so I owe you all that much.”

  I quickly added, “Besides, it was your father who told me that this day would come, that I would receive something benefiting to me, a gift from him. Once that happened, my shackles to you all officially break free.”

  Silence settled between us, and then Leo shook his head, abruptly stood, then smiled at me. “I always knew that you were smarter than you looked.”

  “Of course, I’m smart. I graduated the top of my class at Georgia State, communication my main. But you forget, I double majored in political science, my man,” I said with a slight smirk.

  “I stand corrected. Dad always thought of you as another son, the one lost to him, and I did too at times. You’re cunning, and I appreciate that.” Standing in front of his massive bay window in his office, Leo placed his hands behind his back. “I’ll send everything to you. Until then, you’re only my aide. Othello Lanfair and I are distancing ourselves from each other as a necessary means to a fucked-up situation. I need you to be the intermediary between us since you’re my aide, understood?”

  Being the intermediary worked out for me, but I wouldn’t let Leo know that. By working close to but not too close to Mr. Lanfair, I’d now have even easier access to his daughter, so I was down for that.

  “A’ight, I’ll do what I can,” I said.

  “Good, because your work as a chef is on hiatus since the restaurant will be closed for a few weeks, and we can’t do shit without the Feds crawling up our asses. This Family can’t afford to lose an asset like you. We’ll be in touch,” he said turning to focus his attention my way.

  Standing, I headed to the door of his office and opened it, then paused. “You’re right. The day Senior Giulio passes is a day that I’ll mourn. I’m honor bound to him; that’s all. I’ll work that all out as always. Respect, man.”

  With that, I walked out and headed to my spot where I usually sat to throw off the Feds who followed me. I had a new future in my hand, with two paths that I now had control of. I was a killer and enjoyed being a professional hit man. I could walk away from it after crossing off my last hit for the Giulios or I could make this a permanent thing and truly take this global. Then, I also had the opportunity to take on the bistro and turn it into something incredible that honored the old man but also brought it up to date with my style and how I wanted things. I’d bring in legit money this way and not just killer money.

  I wasn’t sure what I would do, but looking over the paperwork, I saw everything looked on the up and up and nothing misleading. Damn, I really respected that old man for this. When I lost my family, and he heard my story after I shared some of it with him, he got me. Took me from the gutter in my depression and fear and turned me into a new kind of beast. In this path, the man was giving me power. Part of me knew that Leo might feel some type of way about it, but I also knew that he respected it. I mean, I was their personal cleaner. I helped Leo out in situations that his pops didn’t even know about, so if something did happen to the old man, I knew Leo would always seek me out for work, and by doing so, I’d always have money and work.

  But yeah, I needed to think this out and make sure I did the right thing.

  As my day shifted to night, I went on to my business. I hit up Sabrina and spoke some nasty shit to her, told her to pack her bags for a minitrip to St. Croix, and then I headed out to take out the last mark, some white dude named Jason Hobbs. He had an addiction to weed, black culture, and black dick. He also had a problem with leaking people’s business as well, from what I learned. Pulling my skullcap on, I moved out and handled business; hip-hop thumped through my speakers as I began to think about my future, something I never had the opportunity to think of since the death of my family. It was a new day, and I was digging it.

  Chapter Eleven

  Sabrina

  December 2011 . . .

  We never made it to St. Croix. At least not when he had planned it. Shit in our lives got pretty hectic after we decided we were going to do that thing called love. A killer and girl like me shouldn’t have even entertained the notion of being together. But Marcel and I had always gone against the grain. Not everyone was happy for us, though....

  “Excuse me,” Daddy said as he blinked rapidly and made a face that suggested he couldn’t have been hearing what he thought he’d heard. “This guy?” he asked pointing at Marcel. “This is who you’re dating?”

  I was baffled by his response. Upon first meeting Marcel, the night the mayor died, Daddy was all smiles, patting him on the back, asking him his thoughts on things. And now, when I reveal that Marcel and I were dating, he appeared to be dumbfounded. Marcel hadn’t liked the idea of me exposing us yet. Said that we should have waited, but I knew my father, or so I assumed. He’d invited me over to his place as he was throwing a private dinner.

  Leo decided not to attend as he and my father were still putting on the front that he had distanced himself. Marcel had come as a representative, and once all the other bigwigs had left, only Kat and Daddy’s guards remained. I didn’t see a problem with telling my father that I was seriously involved with someone. I just didn’t expect him to turn it into a spectacle.

  “Yes. He’s who I’m dating,” I finally responded after the wave of embarrassment wore off.

  “He’s a cook,” Daddy spat.

  He didn’t seem to care that Marcel was still even in the room.

  I glanced at Marcel who hadn’t said a word. He was dressed in a navy-blue suit with a gray dress shirt and gray wing-tipped dress shoes. He truly looked the part of an aide. There was a strange look in his eyes. One I couldn’t read.

  “He’s a chef, Daddy. He’s smart. He has degrees, and he’s an aide to Leo—”

  Daddy waved a hand to cut me off. “Sabrina, let’s call a spade a spade, shall we? All the degrees in the world and he’d still be relegated to the kitchen like the field Negro he is,” Daddy spat venomously. “You mean to tell me the pickings are so slim in Atlanta, you’ve settled for this?” he asked, pointing his thumb at Marcel.

  My eyes widened. Kat shook her head as she chuckled and sipped her wine. I got ready to speak, but Marcel laid a hand on my shoulder to silence me.

  �
�I’m sorry, Mr. Lanfair, I’m a bit confused. So, I’m good enough for you to ask my opinions on certain things, but not good enough to date your daughter?” he asked my father.

  Daddy stood up. Back straight. Shoulders squared.

  “Just what is it that you think you could offer her? What kind of future does a cook, who is an aide, have to offer my daughter? Her credentials and work ethic alone show you’re beneath her in every way. She comes from good stock, and you come from what, exactly?”

  “Daddy, stop it,” I jumped in.

  Marcel chuckled sardonically. “Good stock, huh? It was my work ethic that took me from being homeless to working for the Giulios. My work ethic ensures that I’ve kept a steady flow of employment since that time. I went from sweeping the Giulios’ floors to running the restaurant. So, my work ethic isn’t the problem. I think the reason you have a problem with me dating your daughter is because I’m a reflection of you.”

  Daddy scoffed. “Me? You, a reflection of me? In what life? You can’t possibly mean you’re a productive citizen—”

  “Nah. I’m more like the other side of you. The side underneath the slimy façade. The side that’s criminal and a snake. The side that’s going to win you the election.”

  I could feel when the mood in the room darkened. The tension that took over the once jubilant atmosphere was evident in the way Daddy stared Marcel down. Marcel didn’t seem to care one way or the other. There was a slick smirk on his face that said he welcomed the challenge Daddy threw at him.

  “Leo told me about you. Your parents came from a hood in Washington. They were no more than the bottom of the barrel, just like you are now. And for you to think you’re worthy of more than my daughter’s ass to kiss is a mind fuck I’ll never figure out.”

  “I can assure you that I’ve kissed your daughter’s ass plenty of times, and each time she’s loved it.”

  Daddy stormed over to stand face-to-face with Marcel. I stood, and Kat rushed to stand behind my father, her hand on his chest urging him to stand down.

  “You dare stand and insult me in my own home?” Daddy roared.

  Marcel didn’t back down. I stepped in between them.

  “Stop,” I pleaded. “Daddy, it is what it is at this point. There’s nothing you can do about it. I love him—”

  Daddy looked as if he was about to have a conniption. “You love him? You don’t know what the hell love is. You’re a feeble-minded child who’s been coddled all her damn life. This nigga is nothing more than a low-life thug!”

  I said before that my daddy had always hung with the hoods and the thugs back in New York. He grew up in Staten Island. Still, any time I heard the hood in him jump out, it always shocked me.

  “You want to call me a thug when you keep company with the most hooligan of them all? How fucking hypocritical of you!” Marcel snapped back, although there was a bit of sarcasm in his tone. “I’m leaving,” he said to me afterward.

  “No, baby, don’t leave,” I rushed out, grabbing his hand as I tried to stop him.

  “No, let him go. The best thing he could do for his own safety is get the fuck up out of my house.”

  Marcel had turned and was walking away. However, I knew that the fact Daddy had threatened him rubbed him the wrong way.

  He turned slowly, eyes narrowed at my father. “Is that a threat?”

  I saw when Danny moved closer to my father. I didn’t want this. I hadn’t planned for any of it to blow up in my face, but it had.

  “Marcel, please,” I whispered. “He didn’t mean it. He’s been drinking. . . .”

  Marcel frowned as he looked down at me. My eyes were watering, and I had my hands on his chest.

  “I told you,” he said to me.

  I knew what he was speaking of without him even having to say it. “I know, and I’m sorry.”

  Daddy’s voice thundered, “Don’t you dare stand in my home and apologize to this cretin! Let that nigga go.”

  Marcel inhaled, his jaw twitched, and lips turned down into a scowl. “I’m leaving. You can stay or come with me. Your choice.”

  “Baby, please.”

  “Not going to stay somewhere I’m not wanted, Brina.”

  Daddy tsked. “Brina?” he muttered under his breath. “Stripping her of her name. Sooner or later, he’ll strip her of her class.”

  I whipped around to face my father. “Stop it! You don’t have to be an asshole. You don’t like us dating? Fine. But don’t be a prick about it.”

  Before I knew it, Daddy had backhanded me and snatched me by my arm so fast, the strength and swiftness of it lifted me inches from the floor. I screamed out in shock and pain.

  “Othello,” Kay yelled. “Baby, stop it!”

  Before I could get my balance and realize what was happening, Marcel had knocked Daddy’s head back, then slammed it down on the small table where we were standing. A gun was in his right hand pointing at Danny who was about to come to Daddy’s aid. I’d fallen to the floor, face burning, ankle twisted I was sure, but I hopped up, rushing over to Marcel.

  “Back up off me, Sabrina,” he snapped while pressing Daddy’s face harder into the table. I stopped in my tracks. Marcel whispered to my father. “It’s one thing not to like me because you feel I’m not good enough for your daughter; it’s another thing altogether to put your hands on her in my presence. And the only reason I haven’t killed you is because I know it will hurt her. If you ever in your life touch her again, nigga, I will kill you.”

  He picked Daddy up by the collar of his shirt, then slammed his head down on the table again. Kat was crying and pleading for Marcel to let him go while Daddy moaned out in agony. I was too scared to move.

  Marcel kept his voice low, aggression laced with each word he spoke. “I want you to listen to me and hear the sincerity in my voice. She is not your wife. You will not treat her like she is your punching bag. If she ever even hints that you have looked at her the wrong way, I will end you in the cruelest of ways that no one will even be able to identify your body. You get me, motherfucker?”

  I knew Daddy was too prideful to respond, but judging by the way he had his lips balled, it was clear he understood exactly what Marcel had said to him. Once Marcel let him go, he stepped back and placed his gun back in the holster I didn’t even know he’d had on until he’d aimed it at Danny.

  “Get out of my house,” Daddy yelled.

  Marcel nodded once, smugness written all over his face. “Gladly.”

  I grabbed my purse and my coat. “You’re leaving with him?” Daddy belted out.

  “I am. You had no right to say any of the things you did to him. And to put your hands on me was the lowest of the low.”

  My father was incredulous. He shook his fist as he spoke, “If you leave with him, you’re done. I will never lift another finger to help you. All those clients, good and bad, will disappear. The penthouse—everything. You’re done if you walk out of here with that man!”

  Marcel was already halfway to the door. I couldn’t lie and say my feelings weren’t hurt because of the turn of events. I would never have thought my father would behave in such a way toward me. And to put his hands on me? It hurt my soul that my father would throw me away because I chose to love someone he didn’t feel was good enough. And while I appreciated everything my father had done for me, I wouldn’t be beholden to any man—father or not.

  “I love you, Daddy, and it’s a shame we’ve come to this,” I told him before rushing out the door.

  I could still hear him yelling as I searched for Marcel. He had just pulled his car around to drive away when I saw him. He stopped the car and reached over to open the door for me. I hopped in and never looked back.

  The plan had been for me to stay at Marcel’s place that night anyway. When we got there, he walked into his bathroom, then came back out with cotton balls, alcohol, and peroxide. Tears slowly inched down my face as he took the time to nurse the small cut one of my father’s rings had left on my face. I knew that if
I called my mother and told her what he had done, she would be on the first flight to Atlanta raising hell. I couldn’t believe my father had hit me. Couldn’t believe he and I had come to this all because of who I chose to love. For crying out loud, you would have thought I’d just told him I was getting a sex change. “If he puts his hands on you again, I’m going to kill him,” Marcel said to me.

  There was no need for me to question if he was serious. I knew he was. I could hear it in his tone.

  “I know,” I said.

  “I would tell you some sap shit like you don’t have to lose your father for me, but fuck him. When he put his hands on you, all bets were off,” he said.

  I lay my head on his chest, then wrapped my arms around his waist. I smiled through the tears when his arms closed around me. I couldn’t even formulate a response. I was hurting, emotionally and physically. My arm still stung from where my father had grabbed me. Face throbbed so badly I had a headache. I didn’t know what all this meant for the future, but I knew that as long as Marcel was there with me, I could handle it.

  “Senior Giulio has given me the restaurant,” he spoke up after a while.

  I lifted my head to look up at him. “Explain,” I said.

  “There’s no need to explain it, baby. Once I look over the paperwork and accept it, Giulio’s is mine. I can do with it what I want.”

  A part of me wanted to tell him to be careful. While Leo had never been problematic toward me, I still didn’t trust the man. I didn’t know too much about his father to speak ill of him.