There Can Only Be One

by Hood Rich

  One of the Mexican stewardesses brought him a Cuban cigar, with the end already clipped off. He took it, and she lit the tip for him, smoke wafted into the air. She smiled and walked away with her ass switching from right to left.

  “Your name is ringing in the underworld, Rich. Cabo wants to know what kind of man you are. He hears good things, but it’s not enough. You must approach him with the utmost respect and think before you speak. Any sign of weakness will reflect not only you but myself as well. You have my stamp of approval and that holds a lot of weight. Lastly, do not let him find out, you’re my son. He’ll cry a case of nepotism, we don’t need that. I need you to be your own man in this game.”

  I watched the clouds float by outside the window. It was bright and sunny over the area we were flying. I was thinking about, Aaliyah more than what he was saying to me. We had a doctor’s appointment scheduled two days from this day. I just wanted to be by her side for it. That was my job.

  I took a sip of the champagne. “Pop, I got this, I understand you’re a lil’ worried, but it’s good. I know how to hold my own, always have. I’ma treat this dude just like I’d expect to be treated. It’s as simple as that.” I took a pull off the blunt and inhaled. I was missing Aaliyah.

  My father sat back in his seat and shrugged his shoulders. Three big muscled bound guards were stationed around the plane with scowls on their faces. My father pulled one of the stewardesses down onto his lap.

  She giggled and wiggled her bottom on him. “Que Paso, Senor Paulie.”

  He squeezed her thigh and slid his hand under her skirt. His arm began to move back and forth, as she started moaning out loud in heavy gasps.

  “Son, you are a man now. I have full faith in you to do what is expected. I’ve never held your hand, and I won’t start, right now.” He nodded and snapped his fingers. “Enjoy yourself.”

  The second stewardess came over and tried to sit on my lap, but I stopped her. “I’m good, shawty. I ain’t on that, right now.”

  She looked down at me confused, then placed her hand on her hip, and shrugged her shoulders, before sitting on my father’s lap, unbuttoning her blouse.

  I pulled out my phone and called, Aaliyah. I just wanted to make sure she was straight. I needed to hear her voice to calm my soul. I spent the rest of the flight to Brazil on the phone with her. Her voice was like food to my soul.

  * * *

  The meeting was held in a swampy dungeon. In order to get inside of it, we had to travel up a big hill, riding Mopeds. We rolled past a bunch of the locals that looked poor and starving. Their homes consisted of brittle shacks, with aluminum roofs. The streets were narrow on each side of us. There seemed to be a whole community of people outside. Even though, the sun was beaming worse than ever. It was super humid. We had to dodge more than five different soccer balls that rolled into the street. Kids chased us for sometime laughing and begging for money. While others had weapons in their hands looking for an opportunity to rob us. They were frail and looked malnourished.

  When we made it to the middle of the big hill. I noticed there were clouds all around us. I began to panic deep within my mind. I knew I couldn’t let my father see it, but he looked just as sick. We hopped off the mopeds when we came to a cave. Once there we were ordered to switch over to four-wheelers. Six armed guards were in front of the cave with AK47’s against their shoulders.

  They searched us thoroughly before we could get on the four-wheelers and drive into the cave. It got cool as soon as we were about ten yards inside of it. It was dark, and I could hear bats flapping overhead. I felt itchy, and a little on edge. I didn’t know nothing about Brazil. My father’s men had been made to stay outside, and we’d been searched so good that it was impossible for us to bring anything along with us. I felt at the mercy of the Brazilians. I didn’t like it one bit. The big lights on top of the four-wheeler illuminated our path. More than a few times bats flew close enough to my face, I could smell the stink of them. I swung at them, missing by inches. I couldn’t wait until we got to our destination.

  Ten minutes later, and after exiting the four-wheelers and getting searched from head to toe once again. We were led into a big arena, where Cabo sat in the middle of, with twenty armed guards behind him. In front of the table were seven men hanging from big metal hooks by their wrists that were roped around. Cabo stood when he saw us.

  My father walked in his direction with his hand extended. They met and shook. I was two paces behind my father. “Cabo, it’s good to see you again, man. It’s been a while.”

  He shook and smiled, looking over my father’s shoulders. “And this must be the rich kid from the hood. I’ve heard a lot about you, kid. I take it Don Paulie has brought you up to speed with who I am?” he stepped past my father and shook my hand.

  I shook his. “Yes, he has. It’s an honor to meet you, Senor Cabo.”

  He smiled, and opened his hand, asking us to sit without saying the words. We took our seats at the long table. He walked around to the other side and sat across from us. There was a man on each side of him. They eyed us with hatred and didn’t say a word. Cabo took his seat and waved his hand in the air. Out of the shadows came five women with tight black shirts and white blouses that were so snug I could make out the areolas on their breasts. They covered the table with all kinds of food. Along with fresh fruit, and Champagne, they set one dish in front of Cabo, in a metal tray with a covering. He nodded at them, and they disappeared back into the shadows.

  It felt like soggy dirt under my feet, I could see all kinds of insects crawling beneath us. It smelled like wet earth all around, and there were still seven men hanging from ropes behind us. It freaked me out a little bit, but I kind of liked Cabo’s swagger. He gave off deadly vibes, cold, and raw. I dug the whole set up and couldn’t wait to see what this meeting was all about.

  He smiled, “Rich, you’ve been moving a lot of kilo throughout Milwaukee. I would say, that you’ve made quite a pretty penny for yourself. Have you not?” He grabbed a glass and poured some red wine into it. Then he slid it across the table to me.

  The men on each side of him looked at me as if they wished I died before them. I could tell they were waiting for me to say the wrong thing, so they could snuff me.

  I nodded my head. “It’s been quite a ride on my way to the top. I’m eating, but it could be better.”

  Cabo laughed. “You hear this, Vato?” He asked the man to the right of him never taking his eyes off me. “He sounds like a greedy son of a bitch, doesn’t he?” Cabo lowered his eyes and looked from my father to me. “You’ve moved hundreds of kilos. Killed off a bunch of the Spanish Flies, then flooded their territory with your dope. Now you have not only their people hooked on it but yours as well. I’d say you’re doing quite alright for yourself.”

  I grabbed one of the grapes and tossed it into my mouth. It tasted a little sweet and sour. I chewed it and nodded my head. “Something tells me that all of this questioning’s leading somewhere?” I grabbed another grape and ate it.

  Cabo stood up and held out his right hand. One of his armed guards came over and placed a machete in it. He scooted his chair back, walked over to one of the seven hanging men, took the tape from his mouth and dropped into the dirt. The man started screaming something in a foreign language. He began shaking and twisting against his binds. He was butt naked, with blood dripping from his mouth. He looked as if he were ‘bout forty years old. A businessman of some sort.

  Cabo mugged me. “There’s only one problem with you doing what you were doing, Rich. I didn’t give you permission to soar as high as you have. Somebody has to answer for that mistake. Just like this peasant right here. He had the nerve to make a hundred million dollars off cocaine, that my Cartel supplied and didn’t send me one penny. How do you think that makes me feel?” He faced the man, raised the machete over his head and slammed into the man’s torso with two hands, and drug it inward, splitting him in two. I watched his insides fall, it was so gut-wrenching that I
had to rub my head. Now I was getting a lil’ worried. I felt like me and my old man was under the gun. I began to fidget in my chair, I felt a big ant crawling up my leg and shook it off. Then I started feeling itchy all over and sweat decorated my forehead. I had never been more nervous in my life.

  Cabo walked over with blood dripping from the blade of the machete. He wiped it on my father’s shirt, looking him in the eyes. “You have vouched for this black kid. That means that his sins are your hands. Your soul in the underworld. How do you look to rectify this, old friend?” He placed his hands on my shoulders.

  My father smiled and grabbed his glass of wine. “He’s a good kid. I take full responsibility for his transgressions. As a show of apology, I am looking to compromise.” He swallowed the entire glass of wine, then poured him another.

  I was beginning to think that my pops was an alcoholic or something. I wasn’t feeling how he drank, I saw it as a sign of weakness.

  Cabo stepped in front of the second man, raised the machete, and sliced him down the middle, just as he’d done the first victim. The man’s blood skeeted out of him and splattered into Cabo’s face.

  Cabo walked over and wiped it on my cheek. “And what compromise can you make for me Don Paulie, I’m all ears? As you can see I’ve cleared two spots on my hooks for fresh meat. I think you and this Mayate could fit quite well up there.”

  My father frowned and adjusted himself in his seat. He looked fire hot, I think he must’ve known what Cabo called me in Spanish, but at the time I didn’t. I was more heated about this punk putting blood on my cheek. Aaliyah was pregnant, and I didn’t want to expose her to anything. I’d already broken a condom while fucking, Poverty. Even though they were swearing that I was her first I wasn’t so sure.

  “It just came down from the courts that gambling is legal is in all fifty states. Are you, familiar with this?” My father asked him, running his fingers through his silky black hair.

  Cabo shrugged his shoulders. "Yeah, I heard about that, but what does that have to do with me? I am a drug lord.”

  My father smiled a crooked grin. I could tell he didn’t like, Cabo at this time. I could see his face turning red and everything. I was wondering how it must’ve been for him to sit back and listen to Cabo be so disrespectful. My father was a plugged man in his own right.

  “Now that I am in the wings of becoming the official Don of the Bertolli family. I have access to two very important one-hundred million dollars a year grossing strips. One in Las Vegas, and one in Atlantic City. That’s two-hundred million a year. I’m willing to cut you in on twenty-five percent of the real estate. That’s a cool fifty million a year, depending on how you use the space. It could be more. You will have full backing and I’ll make sure you are led in the right direction. That’s my word to you, Cabo.”

  Cabo leaned over my chair and placed his sweaty palm on top of my waves. “You’ll do all of that for this black hijo de puta?” He smiled and nodded his head. “Well, it’d be stupid of me to pass up such an opportunity. Long as you follow through on your word and this Bastard can kick in what he owes to me monthly, we shouldn’t have any more problems. In fact, I have an idea. I’m going to do something that might just make all three of us a lot of money.” He picked up the bottle of Champagne from the table and sipped out of it.

  Behind me, I could hear the guts of the hanging men that he’d sliced open falling on to the ground. The men sounded as if they were gurgling on their blood. It was enough to drive a man crazy. I was ready to get out of there, and as far away from Brazil as possible.

  My father nodded and looked up to, Cabo. “Let’s hear it.”

  “Since this Black kid has made such an impact in a small city like Milwaukee in such little time. How about we use his skin complexion, and intelligence to venture out into the cities to do business with Blacks. He understands their street lingos like I understand Spanish.” He laughed and popped a grape into his mouth, he chewed it and looked from my father, then to me. “Keep in mind that everything he does he’ll have to answer to me at the end of the month. I’ll fulfill any order he can handle at sixty percent, he pays nothing up front. He books the order the order, and I’ll supply it. One way or another, you’re talking millions from the gambling. I’m talking millions from my field of expertise. You understand me?”

  My father nodded at him. He turned to me and place his hand on my knee. “Are you ready to step into an arena as big as the one he’s offering you? This could spell millions in a short amount of time.”

  I wiped some of the blood off my cheek and sucked my teeth looking up at Cabo. I thought about what the money would mean for Kesha, Aaliyah, our child and even myself. I’d always wanted to be my own boss and buss major moves on my own account. Now I was being offered the game in a way that most didn’t. I knew I was ready. I didn’t care what came along with it. I would adjust. I’d do whatever it took to provide for my family and those that I cared about. It was my obligation as a man.

  I looked into my father’s eyes and nodded. “Hell, yeah, I’m ready, Pop. Let me do this.”

  He searched my eyes for a long time without saying a word. “Cabo, he has my support. I feel he is ready to step into the big leagues.” He sat back in his chair, after picking a strawberry off the platter of fruit, and eating it, then smiled at me.

  Cabo tapped me on the shoulder. “Stand up.”

  I made my way to my feet and wiped the rest of the blood off my cheek. I felt angered and disgusted at the same time. He placed his arm around my shoulders and walked me down the line of the seven hanging men. When he got in front of the black dude, with long dreads.

  He stopped and looked up at him. “This the last Black man that I put my faith and product into. New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Dallas and every city that is dominated by your people in between. I placed all those drug markets at his feet. Told him to get rich and just pay my sixty percent monthly. No harm no foul.” He laughed while still looking up at him. “But this stupid muthafucka tried to double cross me and run to Haiti.” He scrunched his face and handed me the Machete that was in his right hand. “If you want the power that he had, you take this, and you kill him, just as I’ve killed those down there.” He pointed toward the carnage he’d created.

  The men’s intestines hung out of them and dripped blood into the soil. I took the Machete, looked over the hanging man, and felt nothing. It was what it was. He was standing in a position that I needed more than he did.

  “Go.” Cabo took a step back and smiled.

  I raised the machete over my head like he had with two hands and brought it down with all my might into the man’s chest and sliced downward. Ripping through his midsection, all the way through his balls. His insides poured out of him and down to the soil in a heap of steam and blood.

  Cabo clapped his hands together and placed his arm back around my neck. “Never let him become you. Here’s how things are gonna go.”

  Chapter 10

  It wasn’t more than two weeks after I’d officially plugged in with, Cabo, and I was slanging kilos of pure heroin and cocaine, not only in Milwaukee, but I moved a hundred a week down to Chicago, a hundred to St. Louis, a hundred to Detroit, a hundred to Cleveland, Atlanta, and even Dallas. The process kick-started faster than I felt I was ready for. I felt like I was losing my mind until my father stepped away from his Mafia and came alongside me to teach me a system that would burst work for me and the demands I had all over the United States. It was because of him that I never delivered more than a hundred kilos a week to any city.

  He said it wouldn’t be smart to put too much of my footprint in one spot. I had to leave room for other drug lords to move some of their product. To corner the markets totally would bring on too much hatred and spell disaster. The last thing I needed was to go to war with any major dealers while I was still getting established. Cabo didn’t care what I got into, or how much I got into it, with anybody. He expected to have four million dollars a month wired into his accou
nt in the Caymans no later than the thirtieth of each month. No excuses. He didn’t care if I was in prison, or in a hospital. If I was still alive I was responsible for his product, and the payment of it.

  I started recruiting dope boys in every major city I served to. I snatched, up them grimy niggas that were starving. They were my caliber. I made sure I put a government like system in place so that rules were implemented and followed. If anyone of my rules was broken, I was having your ass gunned down or beheaded. I figured since my life was on the line from fucking with Cabo. Then every nigga I put on life was too. It was how the game went, and I had very little problems because I set examples in each city straight out the gate. I massacre a mufucka publicly in front of my dope boys and his family. Niggas wasn’t trying to see that fate, so they stayed in line and ate as much as they could.

  I made sure to keep all their home addresses and the addresses of the main people in their lives. I made sure I had niggas being monitored and that the ones monitoring them, were also being monitored. After, Cabo’s four million a month, I was seeing about two for myself. That’s not counting the money coming from the strip clubs and the dope my pops had given me before I linked up with Cabo. If all of that was added, I was seeing about three point five million a month.

  I strengthened the businesses in my ghetto by upgrading their material and fixing up the outside and the inside as well. I snatched up more than a hundred sistas out of the hood and put them in salons, restaurants, clothing stores, cell phone shops, and even massage parlors. I made sure they were paid a decent wage, and in addition to their paychecks, I took care of their rent, and car notes, as long as they purchased their vehicles from one of the three car dealerships that my pops had helped me purchase. I just wanted to see my people thrive and get in a better position. I knew it started with the women in my old community.