Hostile Takeover

by Roy Glenn

I moved to the nearest car and assumed the position, glad that I didn’t have a chance to get another gun out of the safe in the office.

  Since I had the right to, I remained silent while the officer patted me down and then handcuffed me.

  “You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney and to have an attorney present during questioning,” the other recited, and then they put me in their car.

  When we arrived at the police station, I wasn’t booked, but I was taken to a holding cage and they shut the door. Since I don’t wear a watch, I don’t know for sure how long I was in there, but it seemed like a long time. Then two guards came to the cage. “On your feet.”

  When I stood up, one came in, cuffed me and then I was taken to an interrogation room. Once I was cuffed to the table, the officer left me alone again to wait. Since there was a clock on the wall, I knew that I had been in there for a half an hour before the door opened and in walked Detective Cavanaugh. I relaxed a little because he had been on André’s payroll for years.

  “What’s this about, Cavanaugh?”

  That was when another cop that I had never seen before walked in behind him.

  “No big deal. The detective here just has some questions for you, Black,” Cavanaugh said, and sat down. “I’m just along for the ride on this one.”

  “Mr. Black, my name is Detective Kirkland.”

  I nodded. “Detective.”

  “Before we get started, I need to advise you that you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say may be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to me and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. If you decide to answer questions now, without an attorney present, you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney. Knowing and understanding your rights as I have explained them to you, are you willing to answer my questions without an attorney present?”

  He recited the entire speech while he looked me directly in my eyes. I guess that he was trying to intimidate me, make a tough first impression, I don’t know, but I looked directly into his eyes until he was finished reading me my rights.

  “What do you want to know?”

  “Do you know a man named Butler Griffin?”

  “Who?” I asked, and Cavanaugh smiled.

  “Maybe you know him by his street name,” Kirkland said. “He’s a pimp they call Silky. You ever hear of him?”

  “Yeah, I know Silky. What about him?”

  “When was the last time you saw him,” the detective asked.

  “I saw him a couple of nights ago. He was slapping one of his hoes around so I stopped him.” I looked at Cavanaugh. “I don’t approve of men putting their hands on a woman.” I turned back to the detective. “I can think of better things to do with a woman than beat her, detective.”

  “How did you stop him, Mr. Black?”

  “I walked up.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “When I walked up, he stopped hitting her.”

  Kirkland let out a laugh that spoke of his disbelief.

  “Why would he stop beating one of his women just because you walked up?”

  “I don’t know; you’d have to ask Silky that.”

  “I would, but he’s dead. Somebody beat him to death a couple of nights ago. The same night you saw him,” the detective said, and waited for me to say something, which I didn’t. “Nothing to say?”

  “Was there a question you wanted me to answer?”

  “You don’t have any reaction to that?”

  “Rest in peace.”

  “Talk on the street is that you threatened to kill Silky,” the detective said.

  “To my knowledge, I never said that.”

  “Was he alive when you left him?”

  “He was.” I laughed. “Probably went right back to slapping that hoe around the second I was gone.”

  This would be where he’d say that he had a witness that saw me and Bobby beat Silky to death, but he didn’t. He just glanced at Cavanaugh, which told me that he didn’t have a witness. Now it was my turned to glance at Cavanaugh. When he shook his head slightly, I knew for sure that he didn’t. And if he didn’t have a witness, he was wasting my time. “Am I under arrest, Cavanaugh?”

  “No, Black, like I said Detective Kirkland just had some questions for you, that’s all.”

  “If I’m not under arrest, uncuff me, detective.”

  Kirkland and Cavanaugh looked at each other, and then Cavanaugh leaned over and whispered something to Kirkland. He nodded his head and then they both stood up. Kirkland reached in his pocket for his handcuff keys. Once he unlocked the cuffs he said, “You’re free to go.”

  I stood up and rubbed my wrists as Cavanaugh opened the interrogation room door and held it open for me. I looked at detective Kirkland. “See you around, Detective.”

  “You can count on it, Mr. Black,” the detective told me, and I could tell by the determined look on his face that he meant it.

  Chapter Ten

  The sun was coming up when I walked out of the precinct, and a cool breeze was blowing. I turned the collar up on my coat and walked home. On the way home, I gave some thought to who could have told Kirkland that I threatened to kill Silky. I thought back to that night, there were plenty of people there, so it could have been anybody.

  Truth was that we beat Silky to death in front of his hoes and Joe Bones. I wasn’t really worried about Joe; he lived by a code, which meant he wasn’t telling the cops shit. His hoes, on the other hand, under a little pressure from Kirkland, any one of them could turn and snitch me out. I would send Freeze to talk to them and explain why talking to the police would be a very bad idea. Or I could just have him kill them all.

  I hadn’t really slept in two days, so I was tired when I got to my place. I got a little sleep on the bench in the cage before the cops took me to interrogation. I took off my coat, rolled and smoked a bob before I got up and went in my room. When I opened the door, I was surprised to see that there was a woman asleep in my bed and since there was a pile of clothes on the floor near the bed, I assumed she was naked. Whoever it was had their back turned to me, I walked around to the other side of the bed to see who it was, but I had a good idea.

  “I thought it was you,” I said when I saw it was Vickie.

  Even though she has a place of her own, she has keys to everybody’s apartment, so it was common for her to crash at whoever's apartment was closest.

  I thought about waking her up, but why bother?

  I pulled back the covers and I saw that she was indeed naked. Vickie says that she’s more comfortable when she’s naked, so I had seen her naked before. We did it once, a long time ago and we both agreed that sex between us felt too creepy. “It was like fucking my brother,” Vickie said, so we’ve never done it again. Since she doesn’t like to sleep alone, we’ve slept in the same bed before and nothing ever happened. Seeing as I sleep naked too, I got undressed and got in bed with her.

  “That you, Mike?”

  “Who else would it be?”

  “I don’t know. Could have been Bobby, or one of your many women,” Vickie said, and snuggled up close to me, laid her head on my chest and I put my arm around her.

  “None of them have a key.”

  “Where you been all night?”

  “In jail.”

  “For what?”

  “Somebody killed Silky,” I said, but she had already drifted back to sleep.

  Now I gotta tell you, Vickie is fine than a mutha fucka, so even though I had seen her naked plenty of times and she was like a sister to me, her naked body pressed against mine did get my dick a little hard. Okay … okay, it was rock hard. But after a while, I was able to talk that bad boy down and then I drifted off to sleep too.

  It was dar
k outside and Vickie was gone when I woke up. I laid there for a while thinking about what I was going to do next. I had some place to go, but I needed to decide whether I wanted to or not. And then there was the more important question of what was going to happen if I did decide to go?

  I got out of bed and went to take a shower. While the water beat down on me, I weighed the pros and cons of it. Before I broke it off with her, Carmen had invited me to a fashion show at Lincoln Center that night. She always invited me and although I would always promise to be there, I never did make a single one. Since I had never been, I decided that I was gonna go, you know, to see for myself what I gave her up for.

  Once I was dressed, I took the train downtown, and even though she told me that she had left a ticket for me at the will call window, I bought a ticket and went in. Seeing that it was at Lincoln Center, I figured that it was gonna be a big deal, but I wasn’t prepared for what I saw.

  The shit was major and Carmen was the featured model. She was amazing. Everything that Calvin said about her was true. Her astonishing beauty, her carriage and her poise were all on display. I left there knowing that I had actually done the right thing for a change. Carmen was in her rightful place, on the runway; not rolling around with me, waiting in the car while me and Freeze killed people.

  Now I was able to put it behind me.

  When I got to The Late Night, we weren’t opened yet but Bobby and Freeze were there. He poured me a drink and I told him what happened the night before after I left him and André in the office.

  “For killing Silky? I didn’t think anybody would give a fuck about that mutha fucka. I felt like killing him was a public service,” Bobby said.

  I looked at Freeze. “I want you to run down all of his hoes and make sure that they know to keep their mouth shut.”

  “Understood.”

  “And find Joe Bones and end his ass.”

  “I don’t know about Joe, but he ain’t gonna have to look far for the hoes.” Bobby laughed. “All them hoes been hangin’ around Drew’s, talking about they your hoes now.”

  I dropped my head and laughed.

  “Especially Veneshia.”

  “Which one is that?”

  “The one that wanted to give you that pussy. She says she’s your bottom girl now,” Bobby said, and continued laughing his ass off.

  “Did Drew put them to work?”

  “Hell no. He said them busted up hoes can’t work in his joint, but don’t worry, Veneshia got them hoes out on the corner humpin’.”

  I shook my head and looked at Freeze. “Go on.”

  “And you get that money from Veneshia,” Bobby said.

  “Understood.”

  I knew that by right and tradition, they actually did belong to me now. I killed their daddy. And if that was the case, I would clean them up and find them somewhere to ply their trade safely. I protect what’s mine.

  “We still going to pay Sly B a visit tonight?” Bobby asked once Freeze was gone.

  “For sure.”

  His name was Sylvester Bradshaw and he ran the biggest bookmaking operation around. He liked to hang out and run book out of a pizza shop called Romans. I knew by now that he, like everybody else, had heard what was happening, so I sent Nick and Jamaica to feel him out, and see where his head was.

  “You tell that nigga Black that he could kiss my natural black ass. And you tell André if he knows what’s good for him, he’ll call that nigga off and stay the fuck out my business.”

  Oh really?

  When Nick told me that, I started to go straight to Romans and deal with his ass, but I took a deep breath and realized that Sly B’s business was worthless without him. That pretty much made him untouchable, because without him, who would his people call to place their bets?

  But he had a weakness and with Bobby’s help, I planned to exploit that weakness.

  We left The Late Night and Bobby drove us to Sly B’s apartment. Not that we expected to find him there. I knew he’d be at Romans until the west coast NBA and NHL games were over. What we expected to find there was his weakness.

  “Hello, Jelinda,” Bobby said, and shoved his gun in her lovely face. She was his woman and she was his weakness. That mutha fucka was desperately in love with her pretty ass. I can’t say I blame him, because Jelinda was sexy as fuck. She was a scandalous hoe, but you couldn't tell him that.

  What?

  I’m just being real about it.

  Jelinda started backing up into the apartment as she stared down the barrel of Bobby’s gun.

  “Hello, Jelinda,” I said as I walked in the apartment.

  “Sly ain’t here, Black.”

  “I know.”

  “What’s this about then?”

  Bobby sat her down on the sofa and held his gun to Jelinda’s head.

  “I need you to call Sly at Roman’s and tell him what’s going on here,” I said, and sat down across from her. “No. Tell him that I’m gonna kill you.”

  Jelinda quickly picked up the phone and dialed the number. “Let me talk to Sly,” she said, and then we sat and waited for him to come to the phone. “Baby, Mike Black and Bobby Ray are here and they got a gun to my head and they’re talking about killing me.”

  Whatever he said, he said it quickly, because Jelinda hung up the phone. “He’s on his way.”

  Bobby moved his gun away from her head and we waited. It wasn’t a long wait. Exactly sixteen minutes later, we heard footsteps running down the hall, followed by the sound of Sly fumbling for his keys. Bobby put the gun back to her head and I pointed both of my guns at the door.

  “What the fuck you think you doing?” Sly said, when he burst through the door.

  “It’s simple, Sly. You work for me now.”

  “Fuck you and fuck André! I ain’t giving you mutha fuckas shit!” Sly said defiantly.

  “Kill her, Bobby,” I said calmly and Bobby cocked the hammer.

  “Wait!”

  I stood up and put my gun to his head. “Wait for what? You ain’t giving me shit, remember. Kill that bitch, Bobby.”

  “Wait now.”

  Sly looked at me.

  “Shit!” And then Sly looked at Jelinda. All of a sudden, tears were rolling down her face. “Its gonna be alright, baby.”

  “No, it’s not. You’re both about to die,” I said.

  “Okay, nigga, shit!” Sly yelled.

  “What that mean?”

  “I work for you now, Black.”

  “Good man,” I said, and lowered my gun.

  Chapter Eleven

  I looked at Bobby; saw the way he was looking at Jelinda. I couldn’t blame him. Like I said, Jelinda was sexy as fuck. More importantly, I saw the way she was looking at him. Jelinda was wearing some tight ass booty shorts and a lace camisole with spaghetti straps that didn’t seem to want to stay up. While we were waiting for Sly to show up, neither me nor Bobby said too much, but I did notice the way they were exchanging glances. Every time a strap would fall off her shoulder, Jelinda would pull it back up and then she’d smile at Bobby.

  Bobby looked at me and then he cut his eyes toward Jelinda. I looked at her, she was no longer crying. In fact, she had a little smile on her face. I had known Bobby long enough to know what he had in mind.

  “Let’s go, Sly.”

  “Where we going?”

  I pointed my gun at him. “Roman’s,” I said, and pushed him toward the door.

  He looked back at Bobby and Jelinda. By now, he had to have seen how his woman was looking at Bobby.

  “What we going there for?” Sly asked.

  “I want a fuckin’ slice. What you think we’re going there for?” I asked, because I had no idea.

  “What about Bobby?” he asked.

  Bobby bounced up and he put his gun in Sly’s eye. “I’m gonna stay here and keep Jelinda company until y’all get back. Give you a reason to behave yourself.” He said, and I wondered what I was going to do with Sly while Bobby fucked his woman.

&
nbsp; When Bobby moved his gun away from Sly’s eye, he pointed it at Jelinda. “Don’t think I won’t kill this bitch.”

  I pushed Sly toward the door again. “Let’s go, Sly.”

  We left his apartment and I sat in the back seat with my gun to his head while Sly drove back to Romans. I got a slice with sausage and extra cheese and we watched the Lakers play the Trail Blazers.

  When the game was over, I took all of Sly’s money, which I could have done after he stopped taking bets, and then we drove back to his apartment. When we got to the apartment, I could hear them laughing. Sly looked at me and stepped a little quicker.

  He put his key in the lock and we went in. they were right where we left them, sitting on the sofa. Only difference was that Jelinda was no longer wearing a lace camisole and those coochie cutters. Now she had on a red silk robe.

  Bobby stood up. “Took y’all long enough,” he said, and we walked out. As we walked down the hall, we could hear Sly asking her what she was doing in that silk robe. I held out my hand and Bobby gave me a pound and winked his eye.

  “What you wanna do now?” I asked Bobby when we got in the car.

  “Let’s roll by Roscoe’s.”

  Roscoe Simeon owned a strip club called Passion, where he ran gambling in the basement. He was one of the people that we didn’t have to threaten, beat or kill. When Nick and Jamaica paid him a visit, he rolled over quick. “I don’t want no trouble with André or Black,” he said. “That nigga’s crazy.”

  When we got inside, the place was packed. There were three women dancing naked on stage and men were standing around the stage dropping money on them like it was water. It was like that all over the club.

  Just about every woman in the house was either naked doing table dances or they were leading some man to the VIP area for a private show.

  “This is what I like to see,” Bobby said.

  “What’s that? Naked women?”

  Bobby laughed. “Is that what you see? ’Cause all I see is money up in here.”

  I laughed, but he had a point. This was our spot now, and that money was ours. “I hear you,” I said, and we stopped at the bar to get a drink and I saw somebody that I hadn’t seen in a long time.