by J. L Rose
“About time you two showed up!” Alinna said, smiling at the sight of both her husband and Mya.
Alinna walked out of the kitchen, got up on her toes, and wrapped her arms around his neck to passionately kiss him.
“Was that my birthday present?” Dante asked as he held her around the waist, both hands gripping her ass once the kiss ended.
“No!” Alinna answered, smiling up at the holder of her heart. “That was because I love you! Come on!”
“Where we going?” Dante asked as he and Alinna made their way over to the glass double doors that led out to the custom pool in the backyard.
“You’ll see!” Alinna told him as she opened the patio door and led Dante onto the back patio.
“Happy birthday!”
Dante was caught off guard and slowly smiled. He saw the entire Blackwell family, Natalie’s parents, Yasmine’s father, business associates, and friends from back in Miami. Dante was then rushed by his kids and nephew. He hugged each of them and then began hugging his family and friends, starting with his mother and sister.
“Zoe Papi! Rafael!” Dante exclaimed, embracing both of them. “I’m surprised you two came out here and didn’t just send word to me for my birthday.”
“You no expect me to come see me brethren on his birthday?” Rafael asked, smiling at Dante.
“How could I miss the chance to catch up with the baddest muthafucka I know? Happy birthday, gangster!” Zoe Papi added.
Dante then hugged and talked with Dominic and Carmen, and then he walked over and spoke with his father-in-law, Kevin Kim, who introduced Dante to a young-looking Japanese man named Jung. Kevin told Dante that Jung was his best bodyguard. Dante then called over his mother and introduced her to her new personal bodyguard.
* * *
Once breakfast was served and everyone sat down to eat, both Rose and Emmy directed their new staff. Alinna then pulled both Natalie and Yasmine off to the side.
“What’s wrong, Alinna?” Yasmine asked, once the three of them were a short distance away from the others.
“Everything’s fine, Yasmine. I just wanted to know if you both had Dante’s gifts ready?” Alinna questioned them.
“I have Dante’s gift ready,” Yasmine answered with a smile.
“My gift for Dante arrived this morning. It’s ready,” Natalie told Alinna, also smiling.
Alinna nodded her head and then said a few more words to both women. She then returned to Dante’s side and received a smile once he noticed her. She gave him a kiss just because.
After the food was gone and breakfast was finished, Alinna nodded to Yasmine and then stood to her feet and called for everyone’s attention.
“First, I want to thank everyone for coming to my husband’s party for his twenty-second birthday. If you give us a few minutes, Yasmine, Natalie, and I first would like to give Dante his gifts, and then you all can give him yours.”
“Blood clot!” Wesley cried out. “Me don’t know what to give me brethren when the Rastaman has everything already.”
“I’m sure your gift will be good enough, Wesley,” Alinna told him, smiling while everyone laughed.
Once everyone calmed down, Yasmine approached her husband and offered him an oak wood box that had his name printed across the front in gold letters.
“This is a special gift I had designed for you. I hope you love them, my husband.”
Dante took the box from his wife and then surprised Yasmine by pulling her down into his lap. He first kissed her and then turned to focus on the box. As he opened it, he slowly smiled when he saw the twin chrome .40 calibers that were edged in gold. One of the guns had his full name engraved in gold, and the other had her name. There were also two extra chrome and gold magazines in between both pieces.
“Now this is what I’m talking about, baby!” Dante told Yasmine, smiling as he kissed her again, only longer and more passionately this time.
“Yasmine!” Natalie spoke up, interrupting the kiss between her husband and Yasmine. “Can I have him for a few minutes, please?”
Yasmine kissed Dante one more time before she got up from his lap. She then stepped back, smiling down at Dante as Natalie took his hand.
“Come with me, baby!” Natalie told Dante, pulling him up from his seat.
She led her husband around to the far right side of the mansion as all the guests followed. They walked around to the garage and stopped in front of the middle garage door. Natalie smiled back at Dante and then pressed the remote button, causing all eight garage doors to begin lifting.
“Wait right here!” Natalie told Dante as she walked into the garage.
Dante watched as his wife walked inside and stopped next to a metallic black and orange-edged car with which he wasn’t familiar. He continued waiting and watching as Natalie got inside the car. After she started it up and it barely purred, she backed the car out. He instantly recognized the style of car it was.
“Blood clot!” Wesley cried out recognizing the car as he and the rest of the men crowded around Dante.
Natalie then parked the car in front of Dante and climbed back out with a huge smile on her face.
“So what do you think, baby?” Natalie questioned as she tossed Dante the keys to his new car.
Dante caught the keys out of the air and shook his head. He smiled as he walked over to the brand new model Bugatti Veyron. He then looked over at a smiling Natalie and motioned her over to him.
“You do know I love you, right?” Dante asked Natalie as he wrapped his arms around his wife.
“I know!” Natalie answered, smiling as she reached up and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I love you too, Dante, with everything in me. I do!”
* * *
Dante enjoyed the party and kicking it with his family and friends. He ended up carrying his daughter, Mya, around during the entire party since she refused to leave his side, even when she had to eat lunch. She sat in his lap and ate with him until Brenda had her go and eat with the other kids. He found himself soon holding his youngest boy, Damian, after Natalie brought him over to him. Dante then looked around for Alinna and found her inside the house talking on the phone with her face balled up in anger.
“Vanessa!” Dante called out to his sister, handing his son to his auntie. “I’m gonna be right back.”
Dante left the back patio, entered the house, and walked up to Alinna as she was hanging up the phone.
“What is it?” Dante asked.
“This was supposed to be a quiet birthday, Dante!” Alinna told her husband with a sigh. “That was Kyree calling. He says Fish Man and his friend Gator sent two teams out to two of our new spots. They took control again, Dante!”
Dante chuckled and then kissed his wife as he walked back out on the patio and released a loud whistle to which his team instantly responded. “Let’s get going! We’ve got work to do fellas!”
* * *
“Alinna, what’s happened?” Natalie cried out as she and the other women rushed over to Alinna as she exited the house.
Alinna watched as the guys all followed Dante back into the house. She then turned back to face her girls and also her mother-in-law.
“Kyree just called me. He says Fish Man and Gator just took back two of our spots out in Brooklyn, so now Dante’s going to deal with it!”
“Well!” Brenda spoke up, drawing the women’s attention to her. “Since Dante and the men are dealing with this small issue, we have time to handle a few business plans of our own! Alinna, why don’t you send two of the girls to make sure things at the new club you’ve bought for Dante and yourself are set up, and each of us can deal with other business matters we have been seeing to as well.”
Alinna nodded her head in agreement as she got right to work assigning both Vanessa and Harmony to handle things at the new club. She then led the rest of the women back inside to get to work.
* * *
Dante broke the guys into two teams and got the locations of the spots Fish Man and
Gator had gone after from Alinna. Dante then climbed into the G-Wagen with James, Gage, Floyd, Beast, and Norise while Dre, Tony T, Wesley, and a team went with them.
Dante loaded the new .40 calibers that Yasmine bought for him as Gage was pushing the G-Wagen back across town into Brooklyn. Dante slammed the magazine into the .40 with Yasmine’s name on it. After putting a round inside the chamber, he filled the open slot inside the magazine and then repeated the same with the other .40.
“What’s the plan, Cuz?” Floyd asked from the backseat of the G-Wagen.
“The plan is to erase every face that’s out there, because they’re not with us!” Dante told his cousin as he was lighting up the joint Wesley gave him before leaving the mansion.
* * *
“Bomba clot!” Wesley yelled as he jumped from the back of Dre’s new all-black 2009 Hummer H2 SUV, with his AK-47 in both hands. He began letting the AK speak just seconds before Tony T and the rest of the team in the Escalade began letting their bangers sing as well.
Dre pulled out his .45 and hopped from the Hummer after seeing two dudes duck off from in front of Brooklyn Park and hide behind a parked SUV a few feet from the Hummer.
“What’s up, fella?” Dre yelled.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Dre dumped on the two clowns that were hiding out, just as they looked up to see who he was. He then dumped two more rounds into each body, and then turned and jogged back over to the Hummer.
* * *
“This is your lucky day!” Dante told the muthafucka he was standing over, pointing his .40 down at his face. “I’ma let you live this one time, but I want you to go back and tell Fish Man’s bitch ass that I’ll be by to see him soon. Also, let Gator know that since he wants to be a part of this shit, he can expect a visit from me real soon too!”
Boom!
Dante blew a hole in homeboy’s thigh and then turned and left him laid out and screaming at the top of his lungs in pain. Dante walked over to where the G-Wagen was waiting, with both James and Gage following behind. Once they got inside the Benz and ignored the bodies laid out in the streets, Dante pulled out his phone as Gage was driving off. He punched in the lieutenant’s phone number.
“Lieutenant Lewis here!”
“This Dante. There’s an issue out on—!”
“I’ve already heard, Dante,” she cut him off. “Your wife Alinna called and warned me you were handling something, and I just heard the call on my radio. You’re not still there, are you?”
“No!”
“Good! I’ll take care of this and call you once I’m finished.”
After hanging up with Lewis, Dante then called Alinna.
“Where are you?” Alinna asked, answering on the start of the second ring.
“On the way home,” he replied. “Wait until tomorrow and let the team know they can get back to work.”
“You spoke to Lewis?” Alinna inquired. “I told her to be ready for the call.”
“She told me you called. But she’s handling it now.”
“Are you okay?”
“Yeah! I’ll be home in a minute.”
“Love you.”
After hanging up with Alinna, Dante’s phone began ringing again, and he saw it was Dre.
“Yeah!”
“Fam, this is Tony T. That’s taken care of.”
“Everybody good?”
“Everybody’s good, fam.”
“I’ma check y’all when y’all get back to the house.”
Dante hung up with Tony T and then dropped the phone into his lap. His mind then raced to thoughts of getting at Fish Man and Gator.
EIGHT
Lieutenant Lewis heard all the stories, but she was unable to truly believe it until that very moment when she pulled up her Jaguar to the surrounding massacre. She saw at least six covered bodies laid out all over the street and parking lot. She found a place to park and then climbed from her car. Instantly, microphones and cameras were shoved into her face and questions were yelled at her.
Lewis ignored the reporters and walked off, crossing the yellow crime scene tape. She was approached by a uniformed officer and told that Detective Aaron Howard was overseeing the investigation. She thanked the officer and approached the detective from behind.
“What do we have, Detective?” Lieutenant Lewis asked, stopping beside the squatting detective as he was looking over a body.
The detective looked over and saw Lewis standing over him. Detective Howard dropped the sheet back over the body and then stood to his full five-foot-ten height.
“Looks like we have a small war zone out here. There’s a total of eleven bodies and one wounded.”
“One wounded?”
“Yeah. He’s over with the EMT getting ready to head to the hospital. He took a bullet to the right thigh.”
Lieutenant Lewis looked over at the EMT van and told the detective she would be back. She then made her way to the van. She motioned to the female paramedic and told her she wanted to speak with the wounded man, receiving the EMT’s approval. Lewis climbed into the back of the van and sat down beside the young man.
“How do you feel?”
“How the fuck you think I feel?” he yelled, spitting out his words in anger. “I’m fucking shot, and who the hell is you?”
Lewis showed the young man her identification and shield, and then asked, “What’s your name?”
“What the hell you wanna know my name for?”
“How am I supposed to talk to you if I don’t know your name?” she asked him. “I’m not here to arrest you. I just want to find out what’s happened out here. Who’s responsible for all those bodies out there?”
“I don’t know shit about nothing!” he told the lieutenant and then shut his eyes.
Lieutenant Lewis saw no more reason to speak with the young man, but she planned on keeping an eye on him. She thanked him and then climbed from the back of the EMT van. She then saw the detective on his phone arguing with someone, so she pulled out her cell phone and pulled up Dante’s number as she walked to the side of the scene.
“Yeah!”
“Dante, it’s Megan.”
“What’s up, Lieutenant?”
“I’m at the scene now and it’s a mess out here. But I just met the responding detective who’s overseeing the investigation, and truthfully he’s a hot mess. I’m going to have to watch him closely. Also, you made a mistake and left one person alive.”
“That wasn’t a mistake!” Dante informed the lieutenant. “I left him with a message to report back to Fish Man and his boy Gator. But tell me something though. Is this detective you just mentioned gonna be a problem?”
“Possibly!”
“What’s this detective’s name?”
“Aaron Howard.”
“I’ll call you back.”
After Dante hung up the phone, Lewis looked back where Detective Howard was standing, and saw that he was still arguing on his cell phone with someone. She then turned and walked back to her Jaguar.
* * *
Dante hung up on Lewis and then called his mother’s number. He sat staring out the passenger window of the G-Wagen listening to his mother’s number ringing.
“Hello!”
“Momma, it’s Dante.”
“Hey, sweety. How did everything go?”
“We are on our way home now,” Dante informed her. “But I need you to do something though.”
“What is it, Dante?”
“I need you to contact your friend and have him call me. I need to talk to him.”
“I’ll do that right now, sweetheart.”
After ending his phone call with his mother and pulling up Monica’s new cell number, Dante waited two rings, when the phone was answered.
“Yeah, Dante?”
“I need some information.”
“I’m not surprised. What’s the name of this person?”
“Detective Aaron Howard.”
“Detective, Dante?”
�
��I need all the information you can find on this guy. Call me back when you got it, Monica!”
“Whatever, boy.”
After hearing Monica hang up, Dante called the lieutenant back.
“Lieutenant Lewis.”
“It’s Dante. I just contacted my friend with the DEA. They’re looking into a few things for me, and I’m passing the information off to you to deal with this guy, unless you want me to deal with dude my way.”
“I’ll handle it, Dante.”
“Good!” he replied, before hanging up the phone with the lieutenant.
* * *
Fish Man exited the hotel after visiting Diamond but catching Meline in the room by herself. He then walked out to Kyree’s Audi with a smile on his face, with the thought of the past hour and a half he spent alone with Meline. He walked around to the passenger side and then climbed into the Audi.
“What’s up, my nigga?” Kyree said once Fish Man was inside the car.
“What’s up, player?” Fish Man replied. “Good looking out on coming to snatch me up.”
“Where’s ya ride at anyway?” Kyree asked, glancing over at Fish Man and seeing homeboy with his head laid back and his eyes closed shut.
Fish Man heard his phone begin to ring before he could answer Kyree. He dug out his phone and saw Gator was calling. “Yeah!”
“Where the fuck you at?”
Fish Man opened his eyes and lifted his head from the back of his headrest after hearing the tone of Gator’s voice.
“I’m with Kyree,” Fish Man answered. “What the fuck’s wrong with you now?”
“Muthafucka! This shit is really starting to piss me the fuck off!” Gator yelled into the phone. “I just got a call from this nigga Spider. Whoever the fuck this muthafucka is who’s supposed to be that Blackwell nigga, dude just took back not one but both spots we just took. And this muthafucka sent us a message!”
“What message?” Fish Man asked, sounding a little worried now.
“This muthafucka says he’s coming to see us soon!” Gator told Fish Man. “Where the fuck you at? You coming out to the hospital to holla at Spider?”
