by J. L Rose
“What do you want to do?” Dwayne asked his wife. “I’m all for whatever makes you happy, and who am I to turn down an offer like this one Dante’s offering us?”
Brenda broke into a big smile and turned back toward her son. “When can we begin looking around for houses?” she asked.
“We can go as soon as Alinna contacts a real estate agent,” Dante told his mother, just as the front door opened, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Dante!” Melody cried out happily as she and her boyfriend entered the house. “What are you doing here?”
“Momma called me,” Dante answered while staring at the guy with his sister. “Who’s homeboy you with?”
“Dante, this is my boyfriend, Norise!” Melody told her brother and then introduced Norise to him.
“Boyfriend, huh?” Dante stated as he stood up from his seat, only to have his phone begin to ring from inside his pocket. He dug out the phone while staring at Norise.
“Yeah!”
“Dante, it’s Floyd, Cuz.”
“Yeah! What’s good, Cuzo?”
“You still wanna get a look around the spots like we spoke about?”
“Yeah! Where you at?”
“I’m out at Brooklyn Park now. You wanna come through, or do you want me to come to you?”
“Naw! I’m on my way now,” Dante told Floyd before hanging up the phone.
Dante then looked over at Norise and said, “We’ll talk later, boyfriend. We will talk later.”
“Dante, are you coming back for dinner tonight, baby?” Brenda asked as she stood up and began walking her son to the front door.
“I’ll be back, mom,” Dante told her, kissing his mother’s cheek before following his boys from the house.
* * *
Dante left his mother’s house and drove over to Brooklyn Park. There he spotted Floyd, Nina, Beast, and the twins, Kaos and Corrupt, standing beside a Lincoln Navigator. Dante then let down his window as Gage pulled up behind the Navigator.
“What’s up, Cuz?” Floyd called out when he saw Dante, walking over to the Escalade passenger window. “You ready to go?”
“We’ll follow you, Cuzo,” Dante told his cousin before he let back up his window as Floyd walked back over to his team.
Dante left Brooklyn Park and followed behind the Navigator into which Floyd and his crew climbed. He then got a look around the city and saw the different spots that were being worked by different hustlers. Dante watched the Navigator as it pulled to a stop in front of a Quickie Mart that looked surprisingly busy, even with the five guys that hung out around the front of the store.
“Here comes your cousin,” Gage told Dante, seeing Floyd climb from the SUV and then start in the direction of the Escalade.
Dante let down his window as Floyd walked up.
“What’s good, Cuzo? What’s this spot right here?” Dante asked.
“This is the spot I told you about that I was fucking with until those niggas Gator and Fish Man saw how busy this shit be and put a team out here to get money.”
“So that’s the team right there?” Dante asked, nodding over to the five guys positioned out in front of the store.
“Yeah!” Floyd answered as he nodded across the street and nodded again toward the end of the block on the corner. “There are two more. One’s across the street, and another one is on the corner on the right from us.”
Dante slowly nodded his head and then called out to Dre in the back of the Escalade.
“What’s up, fam?” Dre answered as he sat forward between the two front seats.
“Fam, you and Tony T go up there with Floyd. But I’m sure y’all know what’s up, right?” Dante asked his brother.
“About time we get to have some fun!” Dre stated as he and Tony T climbed from the Escalade.
Dante watched as Floyd walked toward the five guys up to the front of the store, with Dre on his left and Tony T on his right.
“Take care of the two lookouts!” Dante called to James.
* * *
“If it ain’t lil’ man, Floyd!” Tank stated, smiling as Floyd walked up in front of him and then noticing two unknown faces. “I see you brought new friends with you. What you want out on this end?”
“I’ma make this quick, son,” Floyd told Tank. “This spot right here is under new management from this moment on. You and ya boys can leave or get carried off. What’s it gonna be?”
Tank laughed in Floyd’s face after hearing what he had to say. He then looked to his right at his boy, nodding to Floyd. He looked back at Floyd only to freeze and instantly lose his smile as he stared down the barrel of a chrome .45 automatic.
“Maybe you thought my little cousin was playing about what the fuck he just said!” Dre stated in a calm voice. “So let me make this shit clear. It’s over with. So as of right now, I’ma need you and the rest of ya boys to get naked, just like you dropped out of the pussy, and lay the fuck down on the ground!”
After seeing Tank look past him on his right, Dre smirked and nodded to his left.
“Looking for those two right there?” he asked.
Tank looked to his far right, only to see a white boy holding both his backup men at gunpoint on their knees with their hand behind their heads.
“Who the fuck is you niggas?” Tank looked back and asked Dre.
“Just tell ya boss, Fish Man, that his old friend from Miami says, ‘What’s up!’” Tony T chuckled.
* * *
“Man, you niggas is mad wild as hell!” Floyd laughed with his crew and Dante’s team as they stood watching Tank and his boys running naked up the street after just being stripped at gunpoint and forced to leave the Quickie Mart. “This how y’all get down back in Miami?”
“I’m feeling that shit!” Kaos stated while still laughing.
Dante smirked as he sat in the passenger seat of the Escalade watching the show. He shook his head and then looked at James. “J! Go ahead inside the store with Floyd and make the owner an offer. Let him know we’ll pay him $5,000 a week for the use of his store, and we’re also offering protection as well as help with whatever work he may need help with.”
“I got you,” James replied as he waved for Floyd to follow him.
“I really see why muthafuckas are all fucked up about this nigga!” Beast stated with a smile to Dante. “This nigga is really on some boss shit!”
THREE
Fish Man listened to what the muthafucka was telling him over the phone about what had happened to him and his whole team over on the east side of Brooklyn by some niggas with the young punk Floyd. Fish Man not only balled up his face in anger because he was being disrespected, but also because the niggas in New York claimed to be from Miami and supposedly friends of his.
“What was that about?” Gator asked Fish Man as his boy hung up the phone once he was finished talking with Tank.
Fish Man shook his while sitting behind his desk at his six-bedroom, five-bath estate that he and his lady, Shawna, lived in together. “Some clowns that claim to be from Miami just took back the Quickie Mart spot out in East Brooklyn.”
“What’s up with Tank and them niggas?” Gator asked. “They at war with these fools or what?”
Fish Man shook his head and replied, “From what this fool Tank says, he and the team we put out there with him got stripped naked and made to run up the street.”
Gator burst out laughing after what Fish Man had just told him. “You mean some niggas ran down on Tank and his boys and clowned them niggas in the middle of the streets?”
“That’s what he told me.”
“Man, if them niggas let some clowns run down on them and bitch their ass up like that, then that’s good for their ass! Where’s their ass now?”
“Tank’s at his lady’s crib now. He says he ain’t sure where the other niggas are.”
Gator shook his head and waved his hand as he turned and left Fish Man’s office while talking under his breath.
* * *
&n
bsp; Dante arrived back to the hotel a few hours later after getting a good look around the city and even speaking with a few hustlers that quickly recognized him at first sight. Dante gave out a few business offers and got back some agreements as well, and a few other hustlers said they wanted to think about his offers, which was alright with Dante. He said he’d give them a few days to get back at him with an answer.
Once he was back at the suite, Dante unlocked and opened the door, just as his cell phone went off. He pulled it out and saw Alinna had called.
“What’s up, shorty?”
“Dante, you out?” Vanessa asked him once she heard his voice.
“Naw! I’m at the suite,” he answered Vanessa. “Where’s Alinna at?”
“She’s taking care of something, but we’re on our way back to the suite now,” Vanessa told him. “Alinna wants you out front when we pull up.”
“Everything alright?”
“Yeah, boy. Just be out front in fifteen minutes.”
Dante heard the call end after Vanessa hung up the phone. He was just sitting on the sofa when the suite door opened and in walked Rose, Emmy, Natalie, and the kids.
“Daddy!” Mya cried out happily after seeing her father. She then took off and rushed over to his side and jumped into his lap.
Natalie smiled at the sight of her husband and handed Damian over to Emmy. She then followed Dante Jr. and Andre Jr. over to the sofa on which Dante was sitting.
“Where y’all just coming from?” Dante asked his wife, after receiving a kiss from her.
“Daddy, we went to go shopping, and then Natalie took us all to eat,” Mya answered for Natalie.
“That’s why you smell like pizza breath, huh?” Dante asked his daughter playfully before turning around and looking toward his son and nephew. “What’s up, fellas? Y’all was taking care of Mya and Natalie, right?”
“We got this, Dad!” Dante Jr. told his father, earning a smile from Dante.
“Daddy, can we watch TV?” Mya asked her father while already climbing from his lap.
A second later, she took off to the back of the suite with both her brother and cousin behind her. Dante shook his head and smiled as he looked over at Natalie. She leaned in against his side and laid her head against his chest while he laid his arm around her.
“Where’s Gomez at?”
“He’s with James, Dre, and the others guys,” Natalie answered. “And, yes, he was with us, along with ten other security men, Dante!”
“That’s my girl!” Dante replied, bending his head down and kissing Natalie’s lips, only to have her wrap her arms up around his neck and deepen their kiss, before being interrupted by his ringing cell phone once again.
After pulling out of the kiss and receiving a protesting moan from Natalie, Dante dug out his cell phone and saw that Alinna was calling.
“Yeah, Alinna!”
“This is me, my husband!” Yasmine told Dante. “Can you come downstairs to the front of the hotel? We are pulling up to the hotel now, and Alinna wishes to show you something she has for you.”
“I’m coming down now, Yasmine,” Dante told her as he hung up the phone, only to have Natalie ask him what was going on.
“Alinna and the girls want me to come downstairs to see something Alinna bought for me,” Dante explained to Natalie as he held out his hand. “Come with me.”
Natalie smiled as she took his hand, stood up from the sofa, and allowed her husband to have his way, leading her to the front door of the suite.
* * *
Dante and Natalie stepped off the elevator a few minutes later and walked hand in hand through the hotel lobby to the exit. When they stepped outside, they saw a crowd of suit-wearing Japanese security men blocking off the front area of the hotel parking lot.
“Baby, there’s Vanessa and the girls there!” Natalie told Dante, pointing to where Vanessa stood talking with the other Blackwell family women.
Dante released Natalie’s hand as they headed over to the other girls, because Vanessa reached for him, only to cover his eyes.
“Vanessa, what the hell is going on?”
“Just relax and wait, boy!” Vanessa told him with a smile.
“Vanessa, you’ve got two—!”
“Boy, be quiet!” she told her brother, just as Alinna was turning into the hotel parking lot followed by a team of security filling the inside of an Escalade truck.
Vanessa waited a few moments until Alinna parked the new gift for Dante, and then she removed her hands from over his eyes.
“Now you can look, boy!”
Dante blinked his eyes a few times and then focused on the sight before him. He slowly began to smile his famous smirk while staring at Alinna, who was climbing from the driver’s seat of a midnight-sapphire-colored new model Mercedes-Benz G63.
“What do you think?” Alinna asked as she walked over to her husband. “Is this a good enough replacement for the Audi I gave to Kyree?”
Dante chuckled lightly as he walked over to the G-Wagen. He looked inside at the dark bourbon leather seats. He then looked around the inside of the truck.
“I’m loving it, shorty! You did this?”
“Actually,” Alinna started as she walked up beside Dante, “Yasmine picked this out for you. This was her gift for you since your birthday is this Friday. You’ll get my gift soon as well as Natalie’s gift.”
He smirked as he shifted his eyes and looked over at Yasmine as she stood smiling and watching him. Dante motioned her over.
“Yes, my husband?” Yasmine said as she walked up to Dante.
“Thank you!” Dante told her, kissing her lips.
Afterward, he motioned for Natalie and then asked, “How about we go for a ride and then go over to my mother’s house for dinner?”
“That sounds good,” Alinna stated, getting agreeing nods from both Natalie and Yasmine.
* * *
Fish Man stepped off the elevator and headed up the hallway until he reached Diamond and Meline’s hotel room. He then knocked on the door and waited a few moments. He was just about to knock again, when the door was unlocked and slowly opened up a little.
“What do you want, Kyle?” Diamond asked in her normal attitude she kept just for him.
“Diamond, come on, baby! Let me in!” Fish Man begged as he stepped forward, only for Diamond to stop him with her hand.
“Why are you here, Kyle?” Diamond asked him. “Why aren’t you with that bitch Shawna? That’s who you wanted, right?”
“Diamond, come on, baby!” Fish Man stated as he gently grabbed her hand and held it up to his lips, kissing it while staring into her eyes.
He took another step forward and kissed Diamond while stepping into the hotel and getting past her this time. Unbeknownst to Fish Man, but not to Diamond who spotted him, Gage shook his head sadly after she closed the hotel room door behind her and Fish Man. Gage shut the hotel room door that was directly across from Diamond’s room, and pulled out his phone and called to let Dante know that Fish Man was with Diamond.
* * *
Dante pulled up in front of his mother’s house at 8:35 p.m. He parked the new G-Wagen and climbed out as Alinna, Yasmine, and Natalie all exited the Benz as well. He glanced right and then left and quickly spotted the Escalade with James, Gomez, and six backup security team members parked across the street.
Dante walked around the SUV with Natalie holding onto his arm, after she climbed out from the Mercedes on his side.
“I was wondering if you all was still coming!” Brenda stated, after opening her front door and seeing her son and three wives get out of the Benz.
“It’s my fault we’re late, Momma Blackwell,” Alinna admitted as she held up the plastic bag with ice cream that she made Dante stop for. “We got a taste for ice cream!”
“She’s got a taste, Momma!” Dante said, causing his mother, Yasmine, and Natalie all to burst out laughing while Alinna playfully rolled her eyes at him.
Once they were inside th
e house they could smell fried chicken. All three women sat down in the front room while Dante headed straight for the kitchen. Brenda smiled and shook her head watching her son, but then sat down across from the wives.
“We’re waiting on Dwayne to get back. I sent him to the store to pick up some sodas,” Brenda explained.
“Why didn’t you just tell me to bring some, Momma?” Dante asked, walking back into the front room eating a piece of chicken.
“It’s fine, sweetheart,” Brenda told him as he sat down beside her. “So, how are things going so far?”
“You mean business or personal, Momma?” Dante asked, finishing his chicken wing.
“Both!” Brenda asked as her son left the room again.
She looked over to Alinna as her son’s first wife spoke up.
“We’ve decided to stay here longer than planned, Momma Blackwell. Dante and the family have all decided to expand the Blackwell business out this way and in New Jersey as well,” Alinna explained.
“We also want you to be a part of it, Momma,” Dante stated as he entered the room drinking a glass of milk and sitting back beside his mother.
“What do you mean, Dante?” Brenda asked, looking from her son to his wife and then back to Dante.
“Momma Blackwell,” Alinna started, getting Brenda’s attention, “I’ve spoken with Dante, and he’s told me of your past history as you’ve told it to him. And with how fast Dante moves, it would be great to have a second person to help with decisions, since the family would rather leave the major decisions to Dante and me.”
“So, what do you say, Momma?” Dante asked as he lay against her shoulder. “Will you join your son and daughters-in-law?”
Brenda smiled down at her extremely handsome son. She then ran her hand over his wavy hair and sighed. “Okay. I’ll be there when you all need my help.”
“Thanks, Momma!” Dante said, kissing his mother’s cheek just as his phone went off. “Yeah, what’s up, J?”
Dante listened to what James had to say, and then hung up. “Dwayne’s outside. And Melody and this boyfriend she got just pulled up as well.”
