by Glenn, Roy
“I’m gonna kill André,” I declared.
There was complete silence in the room.
They all sat there looking at me and one another, until Bobby started laughing. Everybody did at first, until they noticed that I wasn’t laughing.
“You serious, Black?” Freeze asked.
“Deadly.”
“How you gonna do it?” Nick asked.
“What you gonna do? Just walk into his office and blast him?” Bobby inquired, but his eyes were still on Nick. By that time, Bobby had figured out that Nick was fuckin’ Camille behind his back. I should have done something about it then, but I was too catch up in my plan to kill André. Then Bobby slowly turned to me.
“No. I have a plan,” I said.
“You plannin’ on taking over after he’s dead, Black?” Nick asked.
“The gambling houses and the women, yes. But I’m gettin’ out of the dope game.”
Nobody was really surprised by that. They’d all seen it coming. After Vickie died in my apartment smoking cocaine, I turned totally against drugs. I even stopped smokin’ weed. And I loved to smokin’ weed.
“We’d be givin’ up a lot of money, Mike. I don’t think that’s good for business.” Bobby said.
“Maybe. No. You’re right, Bobby, it’s not good for business. We’ll just have to find different ways of making money. But when I walk around here and I see what it’s done to the neighborhood.” I looked at Jamaica. “To people. I just can’t be involved in that anymore. Anybody who wants to is free to do whatever he wants once this is over. As long as you don’t do business around here.”
I looked around the room.
“Bobby, you with me? I can’t do this without you.”
“You don’t even have to ask me, you know I am,” Bobby said.
“Even though it’s not good for business?” I asked him.
“Business will just have to suffer.”
“Anybody else?” I asked.
No one said a word.
“All right then. My plan is based on the fact that for every action there is a reaction. If certain things happened, I can get people right where I need them to be. Now, there are enough people who hate André to go around. Cops won’t care, and as long as business doesn’t suffer, no one else will care either.”
“Just as long as everybody continues to get paid, you’re right. Nobody will care.” Bobby added.
“We have to kill Ricky. Him and André started out together. He’ll try to take over. Benny and Dupree were loyal to André, so they gotta die too. And that’s it. Now if André dies, Cazzie will try to move on us. So we have to kill him too. Killin’ Cazzie will be harder, but not impossible.”
“Go on,” Bobby said.
“All right now, everybody pay attention. Benny and Dupree are the key to it all. They make the rounds every night to collect the money from all the houses. On Friday nights there’s more than a quarter of a million dollars. They start at one o’clock, and by three thirty they’ll be coming out of the last house. That’s where we’ll hit them. Nick, you, and Freeze will be waiting for them. As soon as they get to the car, you and Freeze blast them. Nick, you cover while Freeze gets the money.”
“Done,” Nick said.
“Now, Benny and Dupree are dead and the money is gone, what’s gonna happen next?” I asked.
“Somebody will call Ricky’s punk ass,” Freeze said.
“Exactly. Someone in the house will call him to tell him about the robbery. Ricky will be at his after hours spot. Sitting in that office, just like he does every fuckin’ night. As soon as he gets the call about the robbery, he’ll call André and they’ll meet at André’s office. Bobby, when Ricky comes out of the office and starts to make his way through the crowd, you and Jamaica take him then.”
“What about Cazzie?” Nick asked.
“He’s the wildcard in all of this. Problem is, there’s no way I can control his movements the way I did everybody else.”
“Black,” Jamaica said. “Let me take care of Cazzie. I know how to take him.”
I looked at Jamaica for a long time. I knew Jamaica was off the chain with that heroin. Him and Vickie were real close and when she died, he turned to the needle to ease his pain. “Okay, I’ll leave that all to you, Jamaica.”
“What about your boy, André?” Freeze asked.
“When he gets to his office, I’ll be there waitin’ for him. Now for this to work, everything has to run on schedule.” Black gave me, Bobby, and Jamaica a pager.
“What’re these for?” Bobby asked. “I already got a pager.”
“When you complete your assignment you page the next man. Three sevens if everything goes as planned. If anything goes wrong, you page the next man with all nines. When it’s over, we all meet here. Anyone get nines, we abort and meet back here. Any questions?”
It all worked out just like he planned it. Except for Jamaica disappearing, it all went off clean and easy. When he didn’t show up afterwards at The Late Night nobody really gave it much thought. We all just figured he was off somewhere getting high. Like I said, we all knew Jamaica was off the chain with the heroin since Vickie died. He and Vickie were real close. Used to get high and hang out all the time. But, shit, hangin’ out was all Vickie ever wanted to do anyway.
Freeze and Nick hid behind their car and waited. Just when they got to the car, Freeze and Nick raised up and blasted them. They never even got off a shot. After they were dead, Nick covered while Freeze got the money.
When Ricky got the call, he came out of the office and started to make his way through the crowd, Bobby was waiting for him. Bobby walked up behind him, covered his mouth, stuck a knife in his back and turned it. Then Bobby walked away. People told me that Ricky must have fallen into a chair and nobody noticed he was dead until the spot closed at eight the next morning.
Police found Cazzie dead in the hallway the next morning. As far as I knew everything was cool. When André he got to his office I was waitin’ for him. André rushes into his office, and there I am, sitting on his couch.
“Black, what are you doin’ here?” André said, rushing into the office.
“Waiting for you.”
“Waiting for me? I’m glad you’re here. We got robbed tonight.”
“I know.”
André looked puzzled. “Damn word travels fast. How did you hear—nevermind. Ricky will be here in a minute, and we’ll figure out what happened.”
“Ricky ain’t comin’.”
“What?”
“Ricky is dead. And so are you,” I said, drawing my gun and pointing it at André. “You’ve been dead for more than a year.”
“Stop fuckin’ around, Black.” André looked at me, shocked that I would turn on him. “You’re serious.” I stood up, took André’s gun and pushed him against the wall.
“Open the safe.”
“What’s with you man?” André asked as he slammed into the wall.
“Open the fuckin’ safe.”
André opened the wall safe.
I threw him a bag. “Put the money in there.”
While André filled the bag with the money from the wall safe, I turned over André’s desk. Kicked the carpet out of the way revealing another safe.
“You gonna tell me what this is about?”
“This ain’t no fuckin’ movie! Open the fuckin’ safe and put the money in the bag.” André got down on his knees, opened the safe, filled the bag and handed the bag to me. André started to get up.
“What now, Black? You gonna kill me?”
I kicked André in the chest, and he fell back to the floor. I aimed my weapon at his head. “Stay down. Get on your knees.” André got on his knees. “You remember the last time I saw you on your knees like that?”
André paused and thought for a moment. “You talkin’ about that thing with Frankie?”
I smiled. “No, it couldn’t have been. You told Carmine you took the gun from Frankie. Come on, take the gun from me, t
he way you did Frankie,” I said, placing the barrel of his gun on André’s forehead. André held up his hands.
“Wait a minute, Black. Carmine was gonna kill me. What else could I say, I had to tell him—”
“Your weak ass had to throw me to the wolf. Is that what you were gonna say?” I took out his other gun. “I’m gonna give you a chance to stay alive. You take this gun from me, and I won’t kill you.”
“Please, Black, you know I can’t take no gun from you, or anybody else. Please, Black don’t kill me. You can keep the money.” André pleaded for life, but I just smiled. I pointed both guns at André. “I’ll leave the country.”
“I don’t think so,” I said and I emptied the clip in André’s head. Picked up the bag with the money and left through the window.
Chapter Eleven
Shit got wild after that and it seemed that all my shit we fallin’ apart. First Jamaica disappeared, then Bobby and Nick got into over that bitch Camille.
I was in my office at the late Night with Bobby and Wanda when Nick walked in. before I knew it Bobby had his hand around his throat and his gun in Nick’s mouth.
“I know what you doin’ mutha fucka. I’ll kill you!” Bobby screamed.
“Bobby put the gun down,” Black yelled.
Bobby’s hand tightened around Nick’s throat. “I’ll kill you!” Bobby screamed.
I took out my gun and put it to Bobby’s head. “Bobby please,” I said quietly. “Take the gun out of his mouth and put it down.”
Bobby let go of Nick’s throat and I moved my gun away from Bobby’s head. Then he slowly eased the gun out of Nick’s mouth. Nick reached for his throat and took a step away from Bobby.
Bobby just stared at him. I had never seen Bobby like that before. “Don’t think this is over.”
Nick started to walk away, trying to catch his breath.
“I’m kill you!” Bobby shouted. “And that bitch!”
Nick left my office and walked across the dance floor on my way out the club. Wanda ran after him. “Nick wait.” she said.
Just then, Freeze came in the club carrying a big envelope. “Yo, Nick, you’re gonna wanna to see this,” he said. But Nick just kept walking.
“What’s goin’ on?” Freeze asked and handed me the envelope he was carrying.
I looked at Bobby. It was like he was in a trance.
“Bobby just tried to kill Nick over Camille,” Wanda said and she looked at Bobby with pure disgust.
“Then y’all definitely gonna wanna see that.”
The envelope had a notebook in it. I sat quietly and began to read. It was a journal. A very detailed account of all contact Camille had with any of us. All about our operation. Where our gambling houses were, and who ran them. Everything. From the first time she met Freeze at the Knicks game and fucked him afterwards. She wrote at length and in great detail about me. How it troubled her that she never could get me to talk to her, much less tell her anything important. She wrote, “Black would say just enough to get me out me dress.”
Camille wrote about her and Bobby. About how she was so turned on when she met Nick. She wrote everything, every conversation she’d heard, everything she saw. Everything Nick ever told her. She even described her desire to seduce Wanda.
When I finished with it, I handed it to Bobby, who by that point had calmed down. “Where did Freeze find this?”
“I searched her apartment.”
“What was you doin’ there?” Bobby demanded to know.
“Black sent me,” Freeze said.
After we read the journal, I made Freeze take Bobby home. Then me and Wanda went to see Camille. I offered her twenty thousand dollars to go back to Barbados. She refused. I asked her to explain herself. She said it was just to protect herself. And that she had another copy of that book and she would use it when she needed to, and for more than twenty thousand dollars.
Camille laughed at me and what happened next shocked the shit outta me. Wanda reached for the gun in my waist. She stepped up to Camille, who was too busy laughing to see Wanda coming. Wanda put the gun to her head at pulled the trigger.
I snatched the gun outta Wanda’s hand. “Somebody had to do it and I knew you wouldn’t.” she was right, I don’t like killin’ women. “She was poison, and she was eating her way through our entire organization. There’s enough evidence in that journal she was keeping to put all of us in jail for long time.”
Nobody saw or heard from Nick after that night. About a week later, I found out that he had joined the Army. It couldn’t have happened at a worst time.
Chapter Twelve
After André died I took over. He had a meeting with Vincent Martin, Jimmy Knowles and Charlie Rock. I told them that I was getting out of the drug business. Which was cool, until I said that I wouldn’t let anyone sell in my neighborhood. Back then the hood was wide open. So I pissed off a lot of people, `cause they were makin’ crazy money.
Two days later three of their people tried to kill me outside of my house. I sorta expected it. I recognized them right away, they were Charlie’s boys. I was comin’ down my steps when I saw them coming. I put my hand on my gun. When the first one reached for his, I pulled mine and shot him in the head. I hit the ground and pulled out my other gun. The other two took cover behind a car. We shot it out, until one tried to run, he fired a couple shots. I got up on one knee, took aim and fired. I turned to the last one. He came out from behind the car and raised his weapon. When he did I hit him with two shots to the head. And then I went looking for the guys who sent them. I found them in restaurant on the avenue.
I walked into a quiet restaurant and approached a table where Jimmy Knowles and Charlie Rock were enjoying their meal. They both looked surprised to see me when I joined them at the table. At first, I made out like nothing happened. I ordered a glass of lemonade and we talked briefly.
“By the way, three mutha fuckas just tried to kill me. You’re boys, Charlie.” Then I got up and turned over the table. Then I shot them both in the head with my drink still in hand. I finished my drink and left.
After that, it was on. Vincent and Charlie was like brothers and he went to war. A bloody war, complete with drive-by shootings, cars and businesses being blown up and people executed in public.
One night me and Freeze were involved in a runnin’ gunfight through the streets. We had shot one man on the run, the other had run out of bullets. I ran him down and pistol whipped him while a crowd formed. A woman ran up on them and tried to shoot me in the back. She missed, and hit me in the right arm.
Before she could get off another shot Freeze shot her. I yelled, “That bitch shot me! Hey mutha fucka! Your bitch shot me!” Then I made the beaten man get on his knees and shot him once in the head. I always aimed for the head. Less chance of them gettin’ up when you shot them in the head.
That’s when my mother, Emily stopped speakin’ to me. She said I caused her so much grief, pain and so much embarrassment. She couldn’t walk down the street or even go to church without somebody pointing a finger and whispering. It wasn’t easy being Vicious Black’s mother. “Day after day, having to hear who and how many people my son killed today. I was ashamed of my own son,” Emily said.
Me takin’ the neighborhood to war effected more than just my mother. There was this young boy named Frankie. He always wanted to be down with us, but you know I wasn’t havin’ it. I told Frankie the he needed to get an education and get a job. Make something of himself.
But Frankie was on his way to bein’ a thug nigga. Used to hang outside The Late Night ‘cause we wouldn’t let him inside. So Frankie used to hang outside with the rest of the wanna-bees.
I he had just sent Freeze to get the car, and me and Bobby were waitin’ outside. I didn’t see the car coming, but Frankie did. He yelled, “GET DOWN BLACK!”
Everybody dropped except Frankie. He pulled the gat and started bustin’. He got hit with three shot’s. By that time Freeze rolled up with the car and me and Bobby went af
ter them. We caught up with them on Barnes Ave. They lost control of their car and ran into a parked car. After they got out the car and started runnin’; me and Bobby went after them. Freeze drove up ahead and cut them off, and killed the driver when he tried to run.
Me and Bobby followed the other one into a building. The guy ran up the steps to the roof, bustin’ shots all the way. So when he gets to the roof he’s out of bullets. He starts backin’ up beggin’ us not to kill him, until he gets edge. He tried to run again and almost falls off the roof, but Bobby grabs him.
“Who sent you?” I asked while Bobby held him.
“Vincent sent me! Please don’t let me go!” The guy yells.
“Who?”
“Vincent, Vincent Martin! Don’t tell him I told you; he’ll kill me.” he said. the mutha fucka was cryin’ and shit.
“He ain’t gonna kill you, cause he’s a dead man,” I said. “Stop cryin’ like a bitch and die with some honor.”
Then I turned to Bobby.
“Drop him, Bobby.”
When we got back to the club they told me that the ambulance came and they did what they could but Frankie was dead.
After that, Vincent Martin kept it goin’ for a long time. Until one night we caught Vince and his whole set laid back. They were all at Vince’s house chillin’. Me Bobby and Freeze walked in blastin’ and killed them all.
Nobody even got off a shot. Must have been eight of them mutha fuckas in there. We killed everybody quick, except one guy. He said he was layin’ on the floor shakin’ with his gun in his hand. I walked up to him and sat on the floor next to him.
“Bet you wanna know why you’re still alive.”
But by the time, he was so scared that he can’t even talk; he just shakes he head.
“Tell Chilly to come see me.”
The next night, Chilly came to see me at The Late night and we ended the war. I told Chilly that my only condition was that he wouldn’t try to roll in my neighborhood. “No problem,” Chilly agreed. “Considered it a dead zone.”
