by J. L Rose
Dante received no response, but he saw the facial expressions from the crew members.
“It’s good to see we can come to an agreement. Look for somebody of my family to come by here to drop off your new product. But know that if I hear or suspect any disrespect, I will come back and kill each of you and your families. On the other hand, if you respect me and work hard, I will guarantee that each of you will have everything you want. More money than your kids’ kids can spend. Remember what I said, because I will not repeat it!”
Dante then turned and walked away with James, Gage, and the twins following behind. But he kept his eye on the crew whose lieutenant he just laid out on the sidewalk—and whose last thoughts ran out all over the concrete and into the cracks of the sidewalk.
Once they were all inside the G-Wagen, Dante started the engine, and they pulled off to yet another trap spot that Lloyd had texted to him. Dante pulled out his phone just as Kaos called to him from the backseat.
“Yeah!”
“Big homie, you do know whose spot that used to be, right?” Kaos asked, leaning forward between the two front seats.
“I’m aware, youngin’,” Dante answered. “But it don’t even matter, since this nigga Gator fucks with this chump-ass clown Fish Man. The way I see it, them niggas are breathing their last breath once I run down on their ass!”
“That nigga Gator better breathe deep then!” Corrupt stated, smiling as he shook his head.
Dante caught Corrupt’s comment and showed Gage the next location they were heading to just as his phone began ringing and cleared the screen with the trap house list.
“What’s up, shorty?” Dante answered, after seeing Alinna was calling.
“Dante, where are you?”
“Everything alright?”
“Yes, Dante. I just need you to come and see something. Can you come by?”
“Send me the location and I’ma come through in a little while.”
“Thank you.”
After hanging up with Alinna, Dante looked over at Gage and said, “Change of plans. We’re gonna see what’s up with Alinna.”
“What’s up, D?” James spoke up, after hearing Alinna’s name. “Alinna in trouble, fam?”
“Naw!” Dante answered, smirking back at his brother after hearing the concern in his voice. “She just wants me to see something. We about to roll real quick and see what’s up.”
* * *
“What’s up?” Fish Man answered his ringing phone while still laid up with Diamond from spending the night with her.
“What the fuck’s going on?” Gator yelled, once he heard Fish Man’s voice over the line. “Where the fuck you at nigga?”
“I’m chilling right now. Why? What’s up?”
“Fuck you mean?” Gator yelled. “Nigga, if you was out here handling business, you’d know what the fuck was going on!”
“How about calming the fuck down and telling me what the fuck you talking about, nigga!” Fish Man told his partner as he sat up in bed next to Diamond, who was still asleep.
“Muthafucka, we’re losing spots out here in New York,” Gator yelled again. “I just received another call after five other muthafuckas called in telling me some bullshit about this nigga Dante Blackwell showed up!”
“What the fuck did you say?” Fish Man yelled as he leapt out of the bed. “Who the fuck you just say, nigga?”
“You heard what the fuck I just said, muthafucka!” Gator told Fish Man. “Supposedly, that punk-ass nigga you was telling me about and who be on the news here in New York is fucking with my money, and you’re missing in action all of a sudden!”
“Fuck all that shit you talking about? You at the crib?” Fish Man asked as he began picking up his clothes.
“I’ma meet you at your spot!”
Once he heard Gator hang up, Fish Man continued dressing.
“So, you leaving now, huh?” Diamond called over to Fish Man.
“I gotta handle something!” he told her as he grabbed up his things.
“Well, you coming back, right?” Diamond asked him, seeing him toss some money on top of the night table.
“I’ma call you later,” Fish Man called out as he rushed out of the hotel room, leaving Diamond on the bed but missing the smile that was on her face.
* * *
Dante excused himself from the conversation going on among him, Alinna, his mother, and the leasing agent overseeing the sale of the office building that his wife and mother wanted. He then pulled out his ringing phone he gave to Diamond and Meline.
“Yeah! What’s going on, Diamond?” he answered, glancing back over where Alinna and the others stood continuing their conversation.
“Boo, I don’t know what the hell you’re doing out there, but you got Kyle and his friend Gator losing their minds!”
“What’s going on, Diamond? Where you at?”
“I’m still in the room.”
“So what’s going on?”
Dante listened to Diamond as she told him about the last few minutes since Fish Man got a call from his partner and she saw the panicked look on his face before he rushed from the room half-dressed. Dante stood smirking and nodding his head in agreement at what Diamond had just reported to him.
“Where’s Meline at?”
“She’s probably in the other room. You wanna talk to her?”
“Just tell Meline to call me later.”
After hanging up the phone, Dante called up Dre.
“What’s up, fam?”
“Be on point, fam! I just got a call from Diamond, and this clown Fish Man and his boy Gator just found out we’re here.”
“About time!”
“Keep handling business, Dre. We wait until we get out to Jersey to show out!”
“I got you, fam. I’ma let Tony T and them know what’s the deal.”
Dante hung up with Dre and started back over toward Alinna and the others, when his phone went off again. He dug it out and smirked when he saw who was calling.
“Blood clot!” Wesley sung into the phone happily. “What go on, me brethren?”
“You guys here?” Dante asked.
“Yes, sir!” Wesley answered.
“I’m on my way!” Dante told his brother, before hanging up the phone and walking over to Alinna and whispering in her ear. He let her know he had to handle something but he’d call her in a little while.
“What do you think about the building?” Alinna asked Dante as he kissed his mother’s cheek.
“I like it. Get it!” Dante told her, motioning James and his team to follow him as he headed for the exit.
SIX
Alinna got back to the hotel after finishing up with the leasing agent and buying the eleven-story building near their new mega-mansion that the family was going to move into in Buffalo. While she was sharing pictures of the new mansion with Natalie and the rest of the women, her mouth dropped open when she saw her sister walk into the suite.
“Amber!” Vanessa cried in shock when she saw her sister walk in with Wesley following her.
Vanessa then leapt off the sofa at the same time as Harmony, Alinna, Keisha, and Maxine all followed.
“What are you doing here?” Alinna asked Amber with a big smile, after releasing her sister.
Vanessa got in line next to hug Amber.
“Dante sent for us,” Amber told Alinna as she hugged the other women. “Dante wanted his brother out here to play with him. From what I hear, Dante’s back to his hell-raising ways and he needs his brothers to back his ass up!”
“That’s what it seems like!” Harmony said playfully while rolling her eyes at Dante, who stood talking with Wesley and Gage.
Dante then winked over at Kaos and Corrupt.
Once the women got Amber back inside their crowd, they found out that Dominic and Carmen Saldana were taking care of things back in Phoenix. Dante then interrupted their time just as there was knocking at the suite door and Gage walked over to answer it.
“Wh
at the fuck!” Tony T yelled as soon as he saw Wesley enter the suite.
“What go on, brethren?” Wesley said with a smile as he embraced Tony T and then Dre.
Wesley then looked at the young boy and the big guy who was a little smaller than Dre and was standing next to a cute brown-skinned younger female.
“Who dem, Rastaman?” he asked as he nodded toward Beast and Nina.
After Dante made introductions, he then brought everybody up to date on what was told to him about Fish Man and Gator knowing he was now in New York.
“I’ll see what Kyree has to say when he calls me tomorrow, since it’s Friday,” Alinna told Dante. “Also, we can move into the new house by tomorrow afternoon. Everything was taken care of by a lawyer Momma Blackwell introduced me to.”
“That’s right on time!” Dante replied, but then asked, “What about my momma’s place, Alinna?”
“She’s agreed to stay at one of the detached houses off the main house,” Alinna announced to him.
“Wait a minute!” Amber said, getting everyone’s attention. “You say one of the detached houses from the main house? Just how big is this house actually?”
“Let’s just say it’s bigger than both the mansions in Miami and out in Phoenix,” Vanessa told Amber.
“Boy, do you ever stop?” Amber said to Dante as she looked over at him and shook her head.
“After New York and New Jersey, then you can ask me that question again!” Dante told Amber with a smirk. “We got two more family members on the way out here. Both Monica and Nash are getting transferred out here for some time until things are under control, and then they’re flying back out to Phoenix.”
“So what do we all control now, Dante?” Alinna asked her husband.
“Truthfully,” Dante started, “half of Brooklyn!”
“This boy is just too damn much!” Vanessa said, smiling at Dante and then shaking her head.
Dante winked at Vanessa, which caused her to laugh, and then he looked over at Alinna. “I’ma give you and your girls a list of the new spots we now control, and some of them already have workers ready to get going. You have any problems just let me now and I’ll deal with it, but they know what my promise was to them. I’ve already contacted Kevin Kim and should be getting a shipment out here by tomorrow night. So it’s time to get to work. Yeah! There’s also gonna be some weed on that shipment. It goes to my sister’s boyfriend, so set that to the side for me,” Dante said.
“Where are you going now?” Alinna asked as Dante and his brothers turned to leave.
“There’s work to do. I’ma hit you later on, and Nina now works with you and your girls. Call me if you need me.”
Alinna shook her head as her husband exited the suite followed by this brother. She then looked over at Brenda, only to see her husband’s mother smiling proudly while staring at the front door.
* * *
Fish Man left Gator in the office after Shawna announced Kyree was at the house waiting on the back patio for him. Fish Man headed downstairs toward the back of the house to the patio where Shawna and a few of her friends were. They were doing the same bullshit they were always doing.
“Yo, Kyree!” he called out, seeing Kyree talking with one of Shawna’s homegirls that he didn’t like too much himself.
“Fish Man, what’s up?” Kyree answered.
Kyree told Marsha, one of the girls who Shawna introduced him to, he would get back to her. He then walked over to Fish Man, who was waiting for him.
“My fault for getting here so late, but I just found a new spot out this way, and I had to handle a few things,” Kyree explained.
“It’s cool!” Fish Man told Kyree, motioning him into the house. “Guess who is here in New York?”
“Who that?” Kyree asked, even though he was sure he already knew, since he had been hearing Dante’s name all over the city.
“Word is this nigga Dante Blackwell is out here in Brooklyn,” Fish Man told Kyree, glancing over to him as they started up the stairs.
“Fish, you serious?” Kyree asked him, playing the worried emotion. “You seen this nigga Dante out here for real?”
“Naw! I ain’t seen ’im yet!” Fish Man admitted as he led Kyree into his office where Gator was waiting.
“What up, Gator, my nigga?” Kyree said, dapping up with homeboy.
“So, you finally decided to get with the winning team, huh?” Gator asked with a smile. “Well, did Fish Man tell you who else is in town out there in New York?”
“I was just telling him!” Fish Man told Gator, before he looked back at Kyree and said, “We ain’t seen this nigga Dante out there. But the muthafuckas who work for us say there’s some dude out there claiming to be Dante Blackwell, and he’s been costing us some fucking money at different locations over there in Brooklyn!”
“So basically we’re not sure it’s Dante, right?” Kyree asked. “Fish Man, you and I both know how this nigga Dante gets down. If there ain’t a pile of bodies out there in Brooklyn, and I mean a pile, then it ain’t Dante. We both know how that fool can get down, and if they ain’t say nothing about a huge muthafucka with this Dante, then it ain’t Dante. Dre don’t let Dante play alone! You see Dante, you gonna see Dre. Period!”
Fish Man heard the truth behind what Kyree had just said. He then relaxed a little more at hearing Dante Blackwell himself wasn’t nearby. But he was still heated that he and Gator now had problems to deal with out in Brooklyn with whoever this supposed Dante Blackwell guy was causing trouble and fucking up cash flow.
* * *
Dante watched as both Monica and Nash Johnson walked out onto the lobby floor at the airport after just landing in New York. He locked eyes with her as she looked directly at him. She was unable to miss Dre’s huge body along with Tony T, James, Gage, and Wesley—who was upset because he couldn’t finish smoking his joint once they arrived inside the airport.
“Hey, you!” Monica said happily as James took her bags. She then wrapped her arms around Dante’s neck and hugged him tightly. “I actually missed you, Dante!”
“I missed you too, Monica!” Dante replied while holding onto her small waist and then giving her a kiss. “Thanks for coming.”
“Why wouldn’t I? You said you needed me, so here I am!” Monica told Dante as she smiled and then released him.
“What’s up, Nash?” Dante said, looking over at his gunman and Monica’s backup help.
“What’s up, boss man?” Nash said, smiling as he nodded to his boss and the guy he learned to respect in such a short time and considered a friend. “I got a favor to ask.”
“Nash!” Monica cried, shooting her partner a look.
“What is it, Nash?” Dante asked, shaking his head and chuckling.
“I had a package sent out here. Can we pick it up at the post office?” Nash asked.
Dante shook his head and was still chuckling as he wrapped his arm around Monica’s shoulders. He started toward the exit.
“Was that a yes or no?” Nash called out.
Once they were all outside and climbed into the G-Wagen, Dante had Dre sit up front while he, Monica, Tony T, and James got in the back. He told Gage they were going to the post office for Nash, and then he sat telling Monica and Nash about everything going on, as well as his future plans. Gage pulled the Benz into the post office parking lot while everyone sat waiting as Nash went inside.
“Dante!” Monica said, getting his attention. “How did everything go with meeting your mother when you got out here?”
“Everything went good,” Dante answered. “You’re about to meet her in a little while.”
“Dante!” Dre called out. “Here comes your boy now.”
Dante looked out the window to see Nash exiting the post office and carrying an extra-large black leather duffel bag with a handful of papers. Dante waited until James helped out with the bag, and then both guys got back inside the Benz.
“What’s up with the bag, Nash?”
“Dis the
same way the blood clot boy had dem gunz dem last time!” Wesley stated, staring at the duffel bag. “Where me AK, rude boy?”
“Good memory, Wesley,” Nash told him. “I made sure there’s at least one AK-47 inside for you.”
“Blood clot!” Wesley sung happily.
“You brought guns, huh?” Dante asked with a smile.
“Small and big toys, boss man!” Nash told him. “I also bought you a new vest since Monica told me you left your last one back in Phoenix.”
“She told you, huh?” Dante stated, cutting his eyes over toward Monica, only to have her roll her eyes at him.
SEVEN
After the arrival of Monica and Nash, Dante set the two of them up inside his new field office with the New York DEA location. Dante and the rest of the family spent the remaining time through the week taking over the different boroughs around New York while the women of the family went about getting things taken care of with buying and setting up the new building the family bought for the Blackwell Council. They also moved the family from the hotel to their new thirteen-bedroom, eighteen-bath, eight-car garage mega-mansion, which all the women fell in love with instantly.
By Friday, which was Dante’s twenty-second birthday, Alinna had set up a birthday party of which he knew nothing about but she was sure he would love. She had remembered that Fish Man visited the same night club every Friday night.
“Daddy!” Mya screamed as she burst into the master bedroom at the new mansion and caught Dante brushing his teeth. She ran right up beside him and threw her arms around his waist. “Happy birthday, Daddy!”
Dante rinsed out his mouth and then dried his face. He then tossed his towel onto the sink and turned to his daughter, picked her up, and kissed her cheek. “Thank you, baby girl. You remembered Daddy’s birthday!”
Mya hugged her father’s neck, kissed his cheek, and then loudly said, “You got to come with me, Daddy.”
Dante lowered his daughter back to her feet and then allowed her to lead him by the hand from the master bedroom and out the door. Dante couldn’t help the smile on his lips as Mya led him downstairs, bypassing the elevator, and headed to the bottom floor, where he could smell breakfast.
