by J. L Rose
“What hospital is he at?” Fish Man asked, shaking his head.
After hanging up the phone after getting the name of the hospital, Fish Man heard Kyree speak up. “What’s up, Fish, my nigga?”
Fish Man repeated the same story to Kyree he was just told and then said, “We need to ride out over to Brooklyn General. I wanna talk to this nigga Spider.”
* * *
Kyree pulled inside Brooklyn General ten minutes later and found an open place to park the Audi. After he shut off the engine, he and Fish Man climbed out of the car. They walked across the parking lot and entered the hospital. Kyree followed behind Fish Man to the elevator. But he noticed the expression on Fish Man’s face after he heard the news about the takeover in Brooklyn and the Bronx and the way Dante’s family strong-armed back and left behind a pile of bodies.
Once they got to the third floor where Spider’s room was located, Kyree followed Fish Man off the elevator. Kyree pulled out his phone and sent a quick text while he continued to follow Fish Man.
“Here it is!” Fish Man announced as the two of them stopped in front of Spider’s hospital room.
Both he and Kyree entered the room to find Gator standing beside the bed while the boy Spider sat up talking. But Spider paused when Fish Man and Kyree walked in.
“About time you decided to show up!” Gator stated, shooting Fish Man a look.
Fish Man ignored Gator as he walked up beside Spider’s bed. He saw he was okay other than his thigh was wrapped up.
“How you feeling, lil’ nigga?” Fish Man asked.
“Like shit!” Spider answered. “Fish Man, I’ma be real with you, my nigga. I don’t know how the fuck you got this lunatic after you, but dude ain’t playing, son! Dude says he’s coming for you and your nigga Gator!”
“How’d you get away?” Kyree asked, even though he already knew.
“He wanted me to tell Fish Man and Gator that he was coming to see them real soon!” Spider answered Kyree.
“Tell me how this nigga looked you’re talking about?” Fish Man asked Spider, feeling his heart speeding in his chest.
“Son, about five foot eleven or maybe six foot and got a slim but muscular build. Dude’s got a six-pack of golds at the bottom of his mouth, and homeboy had these two boys with him who move just as deadly as he’s moving. What’s crazy is that one of his boys was a crazy-as-hell white boy who broke a nigga’s neck in the middle of gun play, Fish Man! This shit’s for real, my nigga!”
Fish Man recognized Dante’s description and suddenly felt light-headed. He was out in the hallway before he realized it as he headed toward the elevator in a hurry.
NINE
Dante enjoyed the rest of his birthday that Friday with Alinna and the rest of the family. He gave them off that day; however, he and the rest of the guys in the family—both old and new members—went hard in the streets afterward, gaining control over New York. In fact, it was a lot easier than he expected. Although most hustlers wanted to fuck with him and his family based on his legendary past, most of them knew what the outcome would be if they refused to either buy their product from him or join his team. He still dealt with the hardheaded hustlers who wanted to test Dante’s gangster mentality, but those individuals only ended up adding to the body count that the NYPD was continuing to collect.
After gaining control over New York and then moving into New Jersey, Dante had the family move around New Jersey a little differently than when dealing in New York. He wanted Fish Man and Gator to know that he was on their part of town now. He even heard from Kyree through Alinna one night that Fish Man was hiding out and letting Gator and Kyree run the business now.
Dante received a call from Diamond a few days after hearing about Fish Man. He got word from her that Fish Man was hiding out in Albany with Shawna, but that he still met with her and Meline on Fridays. Dante began putting together a plan and setting things up for the coming Friday. Dante then brought the news to the family, and both Alinna and Vanessa wanted to be there when everything was supposed to go down with Fish Man.
Plans changed when Gator brought pressure to the family by first going at one of the new spots out in Rochester and then hitting another spot in Manhattan. Dante had given those areas to Eddie to run, but he wound up with two bullets to the chest and one to the stomach.
When they arrived at Manhattan Hospital, they found out Eddie was laid up in a coma. Dante stood and dealt with his cousin Lisa, who was blaming him for what had happened to her boyfriend. He felt his anger boil over after hearing his cousin confess that she was pregnant with Eddie’s baby.
“Dante!” Alinna yelled as he tore out of Eddie’s hospital room. She took off after him, catching him just outside. “Baby, where are you going?”
“To end this shit!” Dante told her, before turning and walking off.
“Shit!” Alinna cried as she turned to rush back to the room, just as James and Gage shot past her following behind Dante.
Alinna shook her head and returned to the room, only to catch everyone’s eyes as soon as she stepped inside.
“Alinna, where’s Dante?” Brenda asked her daughter-in-law.
“He said he’s going to end this, Momma Blackwell!” Alinna admitted.
“Hell naw!” Vanessa cried out as she dug out her cell phone. “I’m calling Andre.”
* * *
Once Dante got outside the hospital and climbed into his G-Wagen, he pulled out his phone and called Kyree.
“What’s up, Dante?”
“Text me Gator’s address.”
“Dante, I don’t know it. But I do now where his girl lives at with her sister.”
“Text me the address, now!” Dante said, before hanging upon Kyree.
“We grabbing up this clown’s people?” Gage asked while he glanced over at Dante.
“Naw!” Dante answered as his phone vibrated inside his hand. He looked at the text message and then held the phone out to Gage and said, “We gonna get this fool to come to us.”
“Then he’s dead!” James finished from the backseat.
Dante looked back at James through the rear-view mirror and gave him a small smile. “That’s pretty much how it’s gonna play out!” Dante explained.
* * *
Dante found the address Kyree had given him, only to pull up in front of a two-story house where he noticed a car pulling up and slowing beside his G-Wagen. Dante sat staring out the driver’s window from the passenger window as the window on the Audi slid down.
“What’s up, family?” Kyree asked, nodding over to Dante.
“What are you doing here?” Dante asked him, staring hard at Kyree and still feeling oddly about the boy.
“I figure I could help out with getting Gator’s girl to let me inside, and then you three just kick in the door. This ain’t Brooklyn or New Jersey,” Kyree explained to Dante. “Robin knows me, and she’ll let me in.”
Dante stared at Kyree a few moments and thought over what the young hustler just said. But he came up with his own idea instead and called back to James.
“Go with Kyree. Hit my cell phone once you’re inside and you got both girls and whoever else is inside the house under control,” Dante explained.
Dante still stared at Kyree as he and James climbed out from the G-Wagen. Dante then turned his head once James shut the back door, which broke his stare. “Gage, go ahead and drive around the block.”
* * *
Less than five minutes later, waiting at the end of the block, James called and let Dante know everything was under control. Dante told Gage everything was ready, and then he waited until the G-Wagen was pulling back in front of the house. As Dante got out, he told Gage to hang out inside the Benz and let him know when he saw Gator pull up.
Dante exited the G-Wagen and entered the front gate of the house as Gage drove off. Dante then stepped onto the front porch as the front door swung open and Kyree stood there with a small smile on his lips.
“I had Robin call Gator,”
Kyree told Dante as he walked into the house. “He’s on his way here now.”
Dante saw the four women and one man all seated inside the front room with James standing next to them, leaning against the wall with his arms folded across his chest. Dante then looked at the group of five for a few moments.
“Which one of you is Robin?” Dante asked.
After a few moments in which nobody spoke up, Dante slowly began to smirk.
“I tell you what, if I have to ask again, I’ll just start bodying one of you every time I have to ask,” Dante threatened.
“Alright,” Robin spoke up, seeing the well-known face as he began pulling out a chrome and gold gun from his shoulder holster under his left arm. “I’m Robin. Why are you here?”
Dante stared at the light-skinned female who was actually cute looking.
“This isn’t about you or your friends, but it is about your boyfriend or whoever he is to you. I won’t lie to you, I’m going to kill Gator!”
“What about us?” Robin asked Dante. “Whatever you and Gator got going on don’t have nothing to do with us.”
“Who are—?” Dante began, but then paused when he heard his cell phone go off. He looked at it and saw that it was Gage calling. “Yeah?”
“He just pulled up, Dante.”
* * *
Gator hung up his phone as he walked from the driveway to the front door. Gator dug out his house key and was just reaching up to the door when it slowly swung open for him.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Gator started to say after seeing Kyree at the front door.
He paused when he felt the familiar feeling of something pressing against the back of his head.
“Come on inside,” Kyree told Gator with a smile as he stepped aside to allow both Gator and a gun-wielding Gage into the house. “Someone’s here who wants to meet you.”
Gator entered the house and first saw his family and his lady friends all sitting in the front room. He then noticed the white boy, before he locked eyes with the same man who not only ran the entire city of Miami’s underworld but also had powerful people working for him.
“Welcome home!” Dante stated, smirking as he stared straight at Gator.
* * *
Alinna left the hospital and returned to the mansion, where she got Lisa to come back with her. Alinna had one of the servants bring everyone something to drink, and then she sat down beside Vanessa. Vanessa was on the phone with Dre, who still could not reach Dante on the phone.
“Lisa, are you okay?” Natalie asked her, watching the young woman from across the room. “Eddie’s going to be okay.”
Alinna heard the intercom buzz throughout the front of the mansion. She looked up to see Rose walk over to the speaker that was on the wall at the entrance to the kitchen.
“It’s Floyd, Alinna!” Rose told her, receiving an approving nod from Alinna to let him inside the front gate.
Alinna then turned her attention back to the others, only to hear Maxine and Keisha both call out to her. She looked over at the twins and saw the news and the reporter talking about a huge fire in the upper-class neighborhood over in Albany.
“Oh shit! Look!” Maxine cried, pointing at the television screen. “There are James and Gage.”
“That is!” Alinna said, spotting both of her husband’s bodyguards just as her cell phone began to ring. She picked it up from the coffee table and saw it was Dante. “Dante, where are you?”
“I’m on my way home in a little bit,” he told her. “I just had to handle something.”
“I know,” Alinna told him. “We’re watching the news now, Dante!”
“News?”
“Yeah, Dante! And you need to get James and Gage off the camera.”
“I got it!” Dante replied. “I’ma be home in a little bit, Alinna.”
Alinna shook her head as she hung up with her husband.
“Is Dante alright, Alinna?” Yasmine asked.
“He’s on his way home, Yasmine,” Alinna told her, shaking her head again as she thought about Dante and the things he was able to do.
TEN
Dante got a call from Diamond a day after the whole scene took place with Gator. He found out that Fish Man had once again left the city, leaving a message on Diamond’s hotel message mail and saying nothing else. Dante repeated this message to Alinna and the others, letting the family know what Diamond had told him.
Dante then received a call from Lieutenant Lewis about an hour after Diamond called to report about Fish Man.
“What’s up, Lieutenant?” Dante answered.
“Dante, I received the papers your DEA friend sent to me, and I’ve read them with the chief. Right now we can’t do much with him, because your friends were suddenly burned inside their home and no one has been able to find the other one. So Detective Howard can’t be tied in. My advice though is to keep an eye on him, and I’ll help also.”
“I’ll do that, and thanks, Lieutenant!” Dante told her as he hung up the phone afterward.
Dante sat down on his bed after speaking with Lewis and thought a few minutes, before he picked up his phone to call Monica.
“Yes, Dante!”
“Where are you, Monica?”
“On my way back to the office. Why?”
“I was wondering if you was ready to leave?”
“Leave? Where are we going now, boy?”
“I did promise you to fly out to Puerto Rico to find Angela, right?” Dante asked her. “You still have that information you found on Angela, right?”
“Of course!” Monica answered. “Are you serious, Dante?”
“Give me two days to get everything straightened out with Alinna and the family, and then we’re out of here!”
“I’m ready when you are!”
After hanging up with a hyped-up Monica, Melody and Natalie rushed into the bedroom. But Dante could barely understand what either of them was saying.
“Whoa! I can’t understand what you two are saying!”
“Baby, Alinna just called. They’re at the hospital and some detective is stopping Alinna and the others from leaving the hospital with Eddie,” Natalie explained to her husband.
“Call Lieutenant Lewis and tell her I said to meet me at the hospital,” Dante told Natalie as he snatched up his keys and took off from the bedroom.
Dante was outside three minutes later jogging to the garage and hitting the remote to raise the doors. He hopped over the car door and dropped into his Bugatti, since the top was down. He started up the engine, and within seconds he was backing out of the garage and flying out to the front gate.
* * *
“Detective, as I’ve said before,” Alinna was saying, only to get interrupted by the detective who introduced himself as Detective Howard.
She looked to her right as Vanessa was hanging up the phone.
“Dante’s on his way now,” Vanessa whispered into Alinna’s ear.
“Detective,” Alinna said again, raising her voice, “my mother-in-law is coming out here in a few minutes with a family member, and we need to have everything ready. I’ve told you we cannot help you with your questions and now we’re leaving!”
“I’m not done talking to you!” Detective Howard barked, stepping in front of Alinna, just as an Asian woman swiftly stepped between the two of them.
“Detective, I ask that you allow us to leave now. Please!” Yasmine requested in a calm but strong voice while staring the detective directly into his eyes.
The detective was opening his mouth to respond nastily to the Asian woman, only to pause and swing his head around to his left when he heard the loud roar of a powerful engine. He then saw the black and orange Bugatti swing into the hospital parking lot.
“Here we go!” Harmony said, shaking her head when she saw Dante quickly hop out of his car.
“Dante!” Alinna called out.
Alinna was not surprised that Dante completely ignored her as he walked right up into the face of the detec
tive.
“Is there a problem?” Dante asked in a low growl as he stared directly into the detective’s eyes.
The detective stepped back after instantly recognizing Dante Blackwell himself, now standing face to face with him.
“Dante Blackwell, himself! Welcome to my city, you son of a—!” Detective Howard said with a small smile.
“Correction, you stupid muthafucka!” Dante stated, cutting off the detective. “This is my city, and I’m only giving you this warning once: Stay the fuck away from my wife and my family, or I promise you I will murder you and everyone that knows you! Are we understood?”
“Muthafucka, you’re under arrest!” Detective Howard yelled as he grabbed Dante’s arm.
However, the detective soon found himself on his knees with the same arm of the hand that touched Dante now bent backward behind his back. That was in addition to the twenty guns now pointing down at him.
* * *
“Shit!” Lieutenant Lewis cursed as soon as she turned her Jaguar into the parking lot at the Manhattan Hospital.
She slammed on her brakes, jumped out of the car, and rushed toward Dante’s side.
“Dante, that’s enough!” Lewis yelled, pushing through the crowd to stand beside him. “Dante! Let him go! I’ve got it now!” she continued as she grabbed his arm.
The lieutenant sighed once Dante released the detective. She then looked at the detective as he quickly stood to his feet, grabbed his arm, and stared hatefully at Dante.
“Detective Howard, I’ve got it from here!” Lewis said.
“This mutha—!”
“That’s an order, Detective!” Lewis told him, cutting him off and receiving a nasty look before the he began to slowly step back and walk away while talking to himself.
Lieutenant Lewis shook her head as she stood watching Detective Howard climb into his car. Moments later he flew out of the parking lot of the hospital. Lewis turned to face Dante and saw him standing in front of Alinna and Yasmine. She stared at him for a moment and caught a glimpse of a different side of the young legend.
