by W. S. Greer
“Yeah, I remember that conversation pretty well, actually, and I know that I told you that I wasn’t sure about doing this shit. So, based on how that conversation ended, what makes you think that I’ve decided to do it already?”
Senior stares at Kelvin without saying a word. His jaw is tight and he looks like he’s getting angrier by the second.
“So, you’re saying no?” he finally says. Something about the way he asks the question sends chills up my spine. There was something ominous about the way he said it.
“That’s not what I said. I’m saying that I’m still thinking about it. Look, I never wanted to sell any drugs, Dad. You have to understand how hard this decision is. There are no guarantees here. I just think I might be stuck selling drugs, putting my life on the line forever.”
After Kelvin finishes his statement, everybody in the room looks over at Senior to see what his reaction will be. It seems like all of our heads turn at the same time.
“Guarantees. You want guarantees? I already told you my only guarantee. If you don’t do this, you’ll be out on the streets. You’re not gonna defy me, and then stay in my hotel for free.”
“Defy you? What the hell are you talking about? You want me to endanger my life. I take all the risks, while you sit at the top of the Royal Flush counting money without ever having to worry about getting caught, because the cops will never know it was you and Ilia bringing in all of this shit. All the pressure is on me. That’s a big risk. You don’t see that?”
We all look back to Senior, who glances over at Clarence for a brief second. It’s almost like they spoke to each other telepathically—something that the rest of us weren’t allowed to hear. They don’t hold eye contact for any longer than a second, then Senior goes back to Kelvin.
Senior lets out an exasperated sigh. “You’re pathetic, you know that?”
“Excuse me?”
“All you’ve done since you got here is go against me. You think because you’re my son, that you can just do and say whatever you want. It’s been that way from the beginning, even before Fab died. You just think you’re so fucking special. You want to try to pressure me into a guarantee? Nobody pressures me. I’m Kelvin Carter! I run every motherfucking thing! How about I take this opportunity to remind you who you’re dealing with.”
All of a sudden, Clarence reaches into his waistband and pulls out a silver nine millimeter. I feel my heart go into overdrive as he aims it at Kelvin.
“Hey! What the fuck are you doing?” I shout, but Kelvin raises his hand and waves me off.
“Nah, it’s okay, baby,” he says calmly. “What the fuck are you gonna do, Uncle Clarence? You gonna shoot me? You gonna kill your own nephew? You gonna kill me because I don’t wanna risk my life to sell drugs for you?”
“Save the fucking dramatics,” Senior counters. “Of course I’m not gonna have Clarence kill my own son. That’d just be brutal and heartless. I’d never kill you, Junior. You’re my son, and I’m not like the Russians, who kill their own family members to gain power. Nah, that’s not how I do things. However, I do, sometimes, have to prove myself.” Senior looks over at Clarence and nods his head once. Then, Clarence turns the gun on Phillip, and pulls the trigger.
The bang of the gun sends me reeling. My heart is pounding, and the next thing I hear is Phillip screaming. I look over at him and see him lying on the ground, clutching his knee. There’s blood all over the floor and Phillip’s hands, and I can see the massive hole just above his kneecap.
“What the fuck?” Kelvin screams.
“You motherfucker!” Trey bellows as he takes off in a full sprint towards Clarence, but before he gets to him, Clarence turns the gun on him and he stops in his tracks.
“You don’t want to do that, Trey,” Clarence says, aiming the gun at Trey’s forehead. “I’d hate to have to kill you. You’re the one I like.”
Phillip curls up into a ball on the floor, holding his knee with both hands and writhing in pain. My senses seem scattered, and I can’t believe that Clarence actually shot him because Kelvin didn’t want to sell drugs. This is fucking insane. It’s too much, and I want nothing to do with it.
“What the fuck did you shoot him for?” I hear Kelvin say.
“I told you I needed to prove a point. I don’t think you understand who you’re talking to sometimes. I’m the boss of this family. That means that you work for me. You do what I say, or else there’s consequences. I’d never hurt you, but sometimes other people get hurt. Either way, I’m gonna get what I want, Junior. You understand what I’m saying?”
“So, what the fuck are you gonna do? You gonna shoot my friends if I don’t sell your drugs for you?”
“See, there you go again, thinking that you still have a choice. You don’t get it. You’re gonna sell the dope because I said you’re gonna do it. There’s no decision to be made here, Junior. I’ve made it for you. You get to keep living in the penthouse forever, because you’re gonna help us sell this shipment of dope.”
“No! Fuck you, Senior!” I hear myself shout. I’m a little startled that I actually said it out loud, but I’ve had all that I can possibly take. I’ve reached my limit. This is it. This is where Kelvin and I separate ourselves from this drama.
The room goes silent. Even Phillip stops screaming as if my outburst has temporarily numbed his pain. I walk over to Kelvin and grab ahold of both of his hands. I can feel everyone staring at me, but I’ve never given a fuck less than I do right now.
“We don’t have to do this, Kelvin,” I say, looking him straight in the eyes. “You don’t have to take this crazy shit. This is insane, and I don’t want this in my life, baby. We can make it on our own. Let him have the fucking Red Chip. We’ll move out and find our own place. You’re extremely smart and resourceful, so I know you can find a job somewhere else. I don’t need the lavish penthouse, or the fancy cars. All I really need is you. I don’t care what kind of car your drive, or if you wear suits. You could wear a fucking Ronald McDonald costume for all I care, and it still wouldn’t stop me from loving you. Don’t think that you have to put up with this bullshit just to keep me. I don’t need this, baby. We don’t need this. All I need is you. Let’s just walk away from all of this. Please. Fuck them.”
I see the tension in Kelvin’s face fade away as he looks down at me. The sides of his mouth have the beginnings of a smile, but before he can say anything, I hear the sound of another gunshot and I feel myself being spun around.
The next thing I know, I’m lying on my back on the dusty floor. I feel dizzy, like I’ve been spinning on a merry-go-round, and I have no idea what happened or how I ended up on the floor. I look around the room and I see Phillip on the ground next to me. He’s looking at me like I’m a ghost, his eyes bulging, and then his eyes dart up above me. I follow his gaze and see that Kelvin is standing up just above me. The look on his face scares the shit out of me and I feel a terrible panic flow through my body. I feel like I’m having a panic attack and I have to concentrate just so I can breathe properly or I might pass out. I think that I should ask Kelvin what the hell just happened, but my thought process is cut off by a sharp stinging pain in my right shoulder. I look down at it and see that I’m bleeding. What the fuck? I look up at Kelvin again, and that’s when I see Senior standing behind him, holding a gun. When I finally realize what just happened, I’m filled with anger, hatred, and shear panic. Senior just shot me.
The next sound I hear is a blood curdling scream from Kelvin, then he turns on his heel and darts towards Senior. My eyes bulge as Kelvin runs towards his father, who is now pointing the gun at him, but Kelvin doesn’t seem to care at all. He just keeps running and screaming. Then, out of nowhere, Kelvin is tackled by Clarence. The two of them hit the ground hard and immediately start to wrestle, but Kelvin quickly gains the upper hand and gets on top of his uncle. I see him throwing huge, haymaker punches that land with all of his bodyweight, but somehow, Clarence manages to push Kelvin off of him and grabs his gun. Just
as the two of them stand up, Clarence aims the gun at Kelvin’s face.
“No! Kelvin stop!” I scream at the top of my lungs, fearing that if Kelvin moves another inch, Clarence will kill him. “Please stop!”
Kelvin gets to his feet completely, but he doesn’t go after Senior or Clarence. Surprisingly, he looks over at me like he’s realizing for the first time that I’m not dead. I see hateful, vengeful, tears in his eyes as he stares at me, completely frozen.
“Whoo,” I hear Senior begin. “You’re fiery over that girl, aren’t you?”
Kelvin’s face hardens again as he turns to face his father, but he doesn’t speak.
“You made me do it, Junior. You pushed me to it. You think I wanted to shoot your little girlfriend? Of course not. But, like I said, people around you might get hurt, but I’m gonna get my way, no matter what. I think you understand that now. So, here’s what’s gonna happen. Like I said before, you’re gonna help us move this new product out as fast as possible. I don’t care if you run it out of the Red Chip, or if you go down to the streets and put in the fiend’s hands yourself. I don’t give a fuck how it gets done, but you will play a part in this. I expect the turnaround in the next week, or there’s gonna be problems. Judging from how this little scene looks right now, you don’t want or need any more problems. Now, we’ve got a lot of product to push, so I suggest you get started, and I expect to hear from you soon. Got it?”
Kelvin still doesn’t say anything. He just stares at Senior with hatred in his eyes.
“Good,” Senior continues, ignoring Kelvin’s silence. “I’ll have somebody come by and pick up the rest of the dope and the eighteen wheeler in a day or two. Make sure everything that we unloaded today is back on the truck by then. Now, go get that little bitch of yours cleaned up. I’ll be in touch.”
“Good morning. I guess I should apologize for just how early it is in the morning, actually. I assure you that there’s a reason that we’re meeting here at two in the morning in the middle of the week. I know you all should be asleep right now, getting ready to get up early to come here to headquarters to start your daily routine of serving and protecting our city of Chicago. However, you’ve all been called here for a very important reason, and I think when I tell you exactly why we’re here, you’ll be glad you got this call.
“You all know me already. I’m Agent Russell Jenkins. I’ve been here with you all for about fifteen years, and some of you are my close friends. You also know that I’ve been gone for a quite a while now. I haven’t been anywhere near HQ in a long time, and you’ve probably heard plenty of rumors about me. One of which is that I’ve been on administrative leave this whole time, dealing with personal issues. I’ve even heard that some people think I quit, for whatever reason. I’m sure it all gets confusing, but today you’ll learn the truth, and you’ll be the only ones to know the truth. Not one word of what we say tonight will be spoken outside of this room. Not one word. My life depends on it.
“Now, the truth is that I haven’t been on leave for any reason whatsoever. I’ve been working, just like you. For the past one hundred eighty-seven days, I’ve been undercover as a driver for Clarence Carter, the underboss of the Carter crime family. You all know very well who they are. Captain Perez and I managed to come up with a way for me to infiltrate the family with the intent of bringing them down, because we found out that they were smuggling heroin into the city via our resident crooked cop, Viktor Gavlik. I know you all have seen how crazy it’s gotten out there over the past few months. Seems like we can’t turn a corner without seeing a doped up fiend or witnessing a drug transaction right in the broad daylight. Well, you can thank Kelvin Carter and Ilia Baskov for that. The two families have linked up to create a mega crime family hell-bent on making as much money as they can by selling heroin and turning our young citizens into addicts. This new brand of heroin has gotten out of control, and I’ve been inside trying to figure out how to bring it all down. That’s the reason we’re having this meeting at this hour. At any moment, I could get a phone call from Clarence, asking me to take him somewhere, and I have to show up when he calls. That’s my job. It’s been six months and I’m still undercover. However, I haven’t lost sight of why I’m here. I’m a cop, first and foremost, and I want to see Kelvin Carter locked up forever for all the shit he’s done. That’s why you’re here.
“A few days ago, I drove Clarence Carter and his young nephew, Kelvin Carter Junior, to an apartment complex on the south side, known as the Blue Projects. The two of them went inside without me, unfortunately, but when they came out, Kelvin Junior seemed really panicked and upset. He didn’t like whatever it was that he’d seen, and Clarence wanted him to keep his mouth shut about whatever it was that went down inside. So, I had Captain Perez look into it, and as it turns out, Clarence and Kelvin murdered a known heroin addict, by the name of Derrick Malone. Derrick’s mother found his body and reported it. We had our guys run forensics on the apartment, and as of this morning, Clarence Carter is officially wanted for murder. His fingerprints were all over everything, especially the victim. Somehow, Kelvin Junior managed to not leave any fingerprints at all, but I’m sure we’ll find something on him in the very near future. Clarence, on the other hand, is fucking cooked. For six months I’ve been living with these bastards. They’ve been extremely careful and have covered their asses well, but all it took was one slip. All it took was Clarence being naïve enough to think that nobody in that neighborhood would call the cops. Fortunately for us, it was the mother who found the body. The mothers of murdered kids don’t give a shit about street code. So, that’s where we’ll begin.
“Now, in front of each of you, there’s a large folder. Included in this folder are the backgrounds of every member of the Carter and Baskov families. Names, birthdates, whereabouts, arrest records, outstanding warrants, traffic violations, and everything that I’ve recorded during my time undercover. We know everything about every one of them, including Deshaun Carter, who was killed a little over six months ago by the previous Russian mob boss, Ivan Baskov, who is now also deceased, killed by his younger brother, Ilia. Yeah, it’s all fucked up, I know. We have all the information we need to move on them. The problem is that we don’t have enough criminal evidence to put them all away for life, which is what we want. We want them off the streets for good. Which is why I’m also glad to say that Judge Newburg has granted us warrants to start running full-time surveillance on all of the Carters and Baskovs. The brass gave us the green light, and we’re a go to start setting up wire taps, tails, and video where ever we need it, immediately.
“Gentlemen, this is the ultimate big fish. The five of you have been called upon to bring down Chicago’s biggest, most dangerous crime families. This task force is only seven deep—the five of you, plus myself and Captain Perez, so we have to be extremely careful. You’ll take your orders from me, while I work everything from the inside. Nobody outside of this room can know absolutely anything about this, so you are all officially off the grid. You will not be showing up to work in the morning. Instead, we’ll meet up in the afternoon, outside of the city to go over surveillance set up, starting with all of the Carter establishments. I want wire taps every-fucking-where. We will not skip a beat on this, and we will not fuck it up. When this is over, all of them will be in jail. Every fucking one of them.
“Once we go over surveillance, we’ll begin a step-by-step process of shutting down these families. Step one is using Derrick Malone as our way inside. We use that to get us deeper into the Carter’s shit than we could have ever thought possible. We’re gonna create our own little Trojan horse.
“So, go home and get some rest tonight, gentlemen. Tomorrow is the beginning of the end.”
“You really think that was the best idea?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You shot his girlfriend.”
“Yeah, I know,” I reply as the doors to the conference room close behind us. “She had it coming. Come one, Clarence
, you know that little bitch can be annoying. She thinks she runs shit. That bullshit might fly with Junior, but it doesn’t fly with me. I had to prove a point.”
I take off my blazer and throw it on the bar counter, then I plop down on the couch and cross my legs.
“Okay, maybe she can be annoying, but you know how Junior feels about that girl. He’s gonna be pissed,” Clarence responds as he takes a seat next to me, his excessive weight making both of our cushions sink. “I know you saw the look on his face as we were leaving.”
“Sure, but the big question is—who gives a fuck? I don’t care that he was pissed. I’m pissed! I’m fucking tired of him and that girl being the cause of all of our problems around here. It’s been nothing but drama with Junior since Fab died. I’m fed up with it, Clarence. I’m not taking his shit anymore. He’ll do what I say, or he’ll wish he had. Yes, he’s my son, but he still works for me, and I’m still the boss of this family. I’m done pulling punches for him and Lily.”
“I hear what you’re saying. I’m just saying that your son has that mean streak in him. I know he can get all soft and lovey-dovey, but he’s still your son. He’s still a Carter. He has his limits, just like Fab did.”
“You might be right, but I really could care less. What’s he gonna do, Clarence? Is he gonna come kill me because I shot at his girlfriend?”
“Shot at her? Nah, you shot her, Senior. She was bleeding,” Clarence says with a chuckle. I love his demented side. Its stuff like that that reminds me why I promoted him to my number two after Mikey got himself into trouble.
“Oh I’m sure she was fine. Acting all dramatic, spinning around and shit before she hit the ground. She’s so annoying. It was the only way I could get her to shut up. Did you hear all the crap she was saying to him? That’s the reason he’s all soft, right there. She’s always in his ear. How’s a man supposed to live his life with a fucking woman always in his ear, yapping away? It’s fucking impossible.”
