Peter had always told him to leave him out of all the dirty shit that went down with his crew. When Gates first started running and learning the ropes in the streets, Peter tried to get him to stay focused on getting good grades in school and getting a scholarship to college. But he was never book smart. He had a business mind but not the kind that’d have you sitting behind a desk dealing with paperwork for the rest of your life. The brothers were completely different. Peter ended up going to medical school while Gates stayed in the streets and built his crew. It was blood and street money that paid for Peter’s education. But now Gates felt guilty that his brother paid the ultimate price.
“Boss?”
The voice interrupted S. Gates’s thoughts. Something he hated. S. Gates turned around slowly and ice-grilled Blaine, one of his workers.
“I just got back from seeing our contact at the police department, and he gave me these to give you,” Blaine rushed his words out, extending a large manila envelope toward S. Gates. “It’s from their investigation into the explosion, but he said he thought you would want to see them right away. In case you wanted to take on the job before they do.”
Gates took the envelope, turned it over, and dumped the contents into his hand. He squinted his eyes as he examined the large, eight-by-ten glossy photographs.
“What is this?” S. Gates asked, his jaw going stiff and his eyebrows dipping on his face.
“Those are the images from the security cameras outside of your brother’s house. It was dark but, as you can see from these, it doesn’t look like it was men who put the explosives in the car. The cops are thinking it was two women, from the profiles they see here. The hoods make it hard to see the faces, but you can clearly see breasts on one of them, and you can see ass on both,” Blaine explained. He walked closer to S. Gates and extended his hand, “May I?” he asked.
Gates nodded, handing Blaine the stack of pictures. He loosened his tie and flexed his neck. Suddenly his expensive Brooks Brothers suit and custom-tailored dress shirt felt too small and too scratchy against his skin.
“In this one, you can see a partial face. Like I said, it was dark and the pictures are grainy, but it’s a start. I’d say it looks like a female for sure,” Blaine said, handing his boss one of the pictures. He studied the picture closely, his nostrils flaring.
“So if it was the Diablos who sent the hit, either they are hiring women now, or we got the wrong clues about who carried out that hit and we went after the wrong people.”
“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing, boss. I was even starting to think maybe this didn’t have anything to do with Los Diablos at all,” Blaine continued, treading lightly with his next words. “It could be possible we went after the wrong people. Did your brother have enemies or was he into any weird shit?”
Gates considered what Blaine was telling him. If they had gone in under the wrong assumptions, it was too late to go back on it now. As far as considering if this had something to do with his brother, Gates highly doubted it did. His brother was quiet guy and didn’t have issues with anyone as far as he knew. Peter was all about his job at Rollins. Often times Gates would tease him and ask him if he had a side chick in there because he seemed to spend more time at the facility than he did at home with his wife.
He stood, brooding, his chest rising and falling rapidly. He turned back toward the double-sided mirror and glanced out at the bruised, bleeding, half-dead victim on the other side. Gates didn’t allow a lot of people to know who he was in the streets, but those who did get to be in his presence knew that he had a short fuse and a penchant for extreme violence when the situation called for it.
“No matter what those pictures say and who we think carried out the hit, the fact remains we are at war with somebody,” he said evenly. “Make sure my wife doesn’t get wind of those pictures. She is still convinced it was faulty wires in the car that caused the explosion and that’s the way I want it to stay. She’s been through enough already.”
Chapter 11
A few days had passed since Cee Cee had returned home. It was crazy to think that she felt like stranger in the house she grew up in. After the initial encounter between her and her mother, they hadn’t exchanged many words. She purposely avoided Marie and mostly stayed in her room. She was pleasantly surprised to learn that her room hadn’t been turned into a guest room and that her things were still there exactly as she’d left them. Maybe her mother did have a little love for her after all.
“Good morning, Sleeping Beauty.”
She heard a voice coming from behind her. She spun around to see Vinny standing in the doorway of the kitchen. She had come down to grab some cereal for breakfast. “Good morning.”
“So you do come out of your room.”
“I come out when I need to,” she replied.
He got straight to the point. “So, what’s your problem with me and your mother? You know I always cared about you two.”
“My problem with you and my problem with her are two different things,” she began to explain as she carried her bowl of cereal to the kitchen table and took a seat.
“Go on,” he said as he followed her. He sat in the chair directly across from her.
“My problem with you is that you left my father to die the night he was killed. From what I was told, you were standing right next to him when he was stabbed and, instead of helping him get to the car, you ran off and just left him there stabbed up and hurt like that. He was your best friend, Vinny, and like a coward when shit hit the fan you abandoned him and left him there to bleed out and die. He had nobody there with him when he took his last breath.”
“I don’t have to explain shit to you about the night your dad died,” Vinny responded as he looked her square in the eyes.
“No, you don’t, because there is nothing you can say to me that is going to change anything anyway,” she agreed with him. For a good thirty seconds, they just sat there staring each other down, neither of them breaking contact or blinking.
Vinny finally broke the silence. “Explain the situation with your mother.” His facial expression seemed dark and cold.
“My mother is a sneaky, weak bitch with no loyalty,” she said with no emotion whatsoever. “She knew exactly what she was doing when she got the doctor to prescribe all those antidepressant and anxiety pills. She knew I wasn’t doing well and she purposely kept talking to me about overdoses and shit like that. It’s like she wanted me to kill myself. Then she has me locked up in the psych ward and ends up fucking you and moving you into our house. I will never respect that.”
“So if you hate me and you mother so much then why the fuck are you here?” he asked.
“I came by because I need work. I want to do a few jobs so I can make some money for myself,” Celeste said pointedly, now finishing up her breakfast. She looked at Vinny to see if she could read him and get a feel for what was going through his mind.
He threw his head back and laughed raucously. “Work? You putting in work now?”
“Yeah, I am, and I’m probably better than all these clowns you got working for you and you know it. I learned from the best; or did you forget that my father started teaching me the ropes from when I was fifteen?” Cee Cee retorted, glaring at Vinny to put emphasis on her words. She wanted to make sure to remind him of her close relationship with her father.
“How could I forget?” he said as more of a statement than a question.
“He wanted me to learn everything so I could eventually take over,” she went on. “But, now that he’s gone, I see you have stepped in and have basically replaced him in everything.”
As if on cue, just as she finished her last statement her mother walked into the room. “Morning,” she said nonchalantly, not realizing she had just walked in on a very serious conversation. “What are you two talking about?”
“Oh, nothing,” Cee Cee replied just as nonchalantly as her mother. “We were just talking about how Vinny is trying to replace Dad and seems to want to pretend
he’s him. He sure as hell fooled you since you got him living in here running shit,” Cee Cee said and started laughing sarcastically.
“Listen, Celeste, you will respect me as long as you’re in this house.”
“Oh, I know you’re not talking about respect, Mom. You have no idea what the meaning of that word is. Look how you’re disrespecting Dad’s memory by having Vinny be all up in this house like he owns it.”
“Okay, I’ve had enough of your shit,” Vinny snapped. “I worked with your dad half of my life. I ain’t trying to replace or pretend to be nobody. I know who the fuck I am. I will never forget Louis. He saved me from the streets when I was young, and he took me in and let me come into the business when he didn’t have to. He treated me like a son, and I won’t ever forget that,” Vinny said, his voice going low. He hated when he talked about Louis like that. He hated when people compared him to Louis or reminded him that Louis was responsible for his rise. “What I’m doing here is keeping his dream alive. Handling his business to keep his memory going,” he stated with pride.
“Well, in his memory, give me a chance to prove myself,” Tiana said.
“Prove yourself doing what?” Marie quizzed.
“I want to prove that Daddy taught me well on how to get paid from people. I wanna prove that I can make my own money. I wanna get an apartment and take care of myself. I’m not trying to live off nobody else. I can put in work just like anybody. Plus, nobody will see me coming, unlike those gorilla goons you got working for you who are probably like bulls in a china shop.”
“A’ight, let me see what I can arrange,” Vinny said as the wheels in his head began spinning.
“Wait one fucking minute,” Marie said, trying to voice her opinion. “I don’t want you out there—”
“Marie! Leave and let me speak to Celeste!” Vinny snapped. “Get the fuck outta here!” he exclaimed, waving his hand at Marie dismissively.
Cee Cee felt a warm twinge of satisfaction in her chest as she saw the hurt register on her mother’s face. She smirked, watching her mother turn and walk out of the kitchen. She made her way up the stairs without saying another word like a scolded child.
Weak bitch, Cee Cee said in her head.
“So, let me talk to you in my office.” Vinny grinned as he walked out of the kitchen and made his way down the hallway to his office in the back room of the first floor, with Cee Cee following.
It used to be Louis’s office, but it had undergone a major renovation since Vinny took it over. Louis used to have dark burgundy on the walls and liked large, bulky, handcrafted wooden furniture. Vinny had different tastes. He loved light colors and preferred sleek and edgy furniture. When he took the office over, the first thing he did was replace that dark color on the wall with a light gray and white honeycomb wallpaper. He put a glass-top dark tinted desk with charcoal metal legs and a black leather chair on one end of the room. On the desk, all he had was his silver HP desktop.
On the other side of the office, he had a wet bar installed. He kept the wet bar stocked with only top-shelf liquors. Directly across from the wet bar he put two gray tufted chairs and a small gray love seat. A black coffee table with silver encrusted coasters stood in the middle of the chairs and love seat. The floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the greenery in the backyard were covered with mustard yellow curtains. The color of the curtains gave the room a perfect balance of colors.
Vinny walked into his office and took a seat on the love seat. Once he was comfortable, he turned his attention back to Cee Cee. He patted a place next to him on his gray microfiber couch. Cee Cee sat down, but not as close as Vinny had summoned her.
“I don’t bite,” he said, urging her closer. “You wanted to talk business, right?” he said, giving her a large, wide smile to reveal his pearly whites.
Cee Cee moved a few inches closer to him, convincing herself to just go along with him so she could get him to give her an assignment. The closer she got to Vinny, the stronger the scent of his Platinum Chanel cologne became. It was the scent Dr. Syed always wore, so the fact that Vinny was wearing it made Cee Cee’s stomach churn.
“I always thought you were beautiful, Celeste. More beautiful than Marie or any other woman I know,” Vinny whispered, touching Cee Cee’s hair softly.
Cee Cee scrunched her face and snaked her head away from his hands. This wasn’t what she was expecting.
“You know, all of this was meant for you to have. That’s the way Louis always wanted it. A young guy like me should have a young woman like you as my queen,” Vinny said seductively, his hand moving to Cee Cee’s thigh. The hairs all over her body stood up, and she balled her toes up in her sneakers.
“I stayed with her because I felt sorry for her after Louis died,” Vinny continued, nodding toward the front of the house. “I never felt for her like I always felt for you. I was just waiting for you to grow up. I always wanted you for myself. You’re so much smarter. You deserve to be the queen.”
Celeste was twelve when her father came home with Vinny. Vinny was six years older than her. She was just a kid when they had first met. As the years went on and Vinny saw how she was filling out, he became attracted to her. Now that she was nineteen and her father wasn’t around anymore, it was the perfect time for him to make his move.
“What?” Cee Cee snapped. “You’re fucking my mother, and you think I would fuck you too?” She gasped in disbelief. If eyes could kill Vinny would’ve died on the spot from the sharp glares she shot his way.
“No. You misunderstand. I don’t want you both at the same time, Celeste. I will get rid of her if I can have you. She won’t suffer. I know she’s fucking weak, so I won’t turn her out with nothing. I will put her up and make sure she’s taken care of if you come and sit by my side as my lady. You’ll be the queen of the new crew. There’s been a lot of changes since you been gone. We’re not lending people money anymore. We’re done with all that shit. I ain’t got time to be chasing people for money they don’t want to pay back,” Vinny explained to her.
“I shook hands with some people and I partnered us up with the Diablos now,” he revealed proudly. “So our job is to take out whoever they need us to take and make collections for them. We in a whole different ballgame now. You can have everything that I have. You have no idea for how long and how much I’ve wanted you. Things are different since Louis’s been gone. I run a different type of business. More lucrative. More ruthless. I get more business than your father ever did because people know I don’t care what the fuck is going on. I get money one way or another. Times changed so we had to change. The guys are happier. They’re making more money than they did under your father’s reign. You could still benefit from what should rightfully be yours, Celeste.”
Cee Cee’s skin crawled as she listened to Vinny. My father must be turning over in his grave right now, was all that ran through her mind listening to everything Vinny was telling her. How could Mom just stand by and watch this happen? At the same time, it was no surprise that her mother had just let everything go down the way it had. She never cared about anything but herself. As long as she had everything she needed to keep herself up, she couldn’t care less about the details.
With Vinny taking over and teaming up with another crew, everything Louis stood for had probably gone to shit. Louis was old school with old school, old gangster philosophies, and although he was ruthless and killed a time or two he always believed in rules and order. Louis’s number one rule was to not ever kill innocent women and children. It was for that reason that Cee Cee had been so upset about the kid who died in the explosion with Dr. Syed. She felt like she had gone against everything her father had taught her.
Cee Cee was pretty sure from hearing how Vinny was talking that he was running the crew as the complete opposite of how her father had run it. Vinny’s new school crew had no rules, no charter, no morals, and for them it was money over everything, even if it meant women and children had to die in the crosshairs.
C
ee Cee got to her feet, her face folded into a frown and her fists clenched at her sides. “I’m not looking to be nobody’s queen. And I’m not interested in being a part of your new crew. If you say you are in charge of offing some of their rivals and collecting for them then just send a couple of assignments my way. I just want a few jobs so I can get on my feet. I’m not trying to be committed to nobody right now. I want to be independent. I have to get my life in order,” she said proudly.
Vinny’s smile dropped, and he clenched his hands into fists. He bit down into his jaw, and his eyes hooded over. Taking rejection wasn’t his strong point. He thrived on power plays and aggression. “So you deny me? Just like that?” he asked.
“No. I will do jobs for you to get paid,” Cee Cee clarified. “But I won’t be your queen and be all wifed up with you,” she said as she stood up from the couch.
“If I give you jobs what are you going to give me?” he asked, his jaw rocking and his head moving up and down.
“The best work for less money,” Celeste replied. “If you pay your guys fifty stacks for a job, I’ll do it for forty. I can do any job they can do and probably better.”
“What other jobs can you do better?” Vinny asked, getting to his feet, and moving his body behind Cee Cee until she could feel his erection pressing on her ass. She felt the heat of his breath on her neck. “What else will you give me?” he breathed into her ear, his hands traveling to her breasts and his tongue touching her cheek. Cee Cee felt anger flaring in her belly and was about to push him off of her when her mother walked into the room.
“Celeste, why did you come here?” Marie’s voice boomed from behind. Vinny jumped and quickly moved away from Cee Cee. “You came to take my man? Huh? To ruin my life all over again?” Marie spat, moving around Cee Cee like a lioness on the prowl. “It wasn’t enough you stole your daddy from me when I had you; now you came here to try to steal my man again! You never wanted to see me happy! Did you? Did you?”
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