Heart of the Hustle

by A'zayler

  A medical student at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine in Columbia, South Carolina, and a year away from graduation, Angel had plans of his own. He’d been in medical school since the fall after he graduated with his master’s. Unlike any of the other men in his family, Angel aspired to be more than just the common thug.

  Growing up in a cartel full of killers and dealers, Angel hadn’t had it very easy when he refused to take any part in the drug business. However, that was something he wouldn’t worry himself with. He had enough on his plate with his classes and schoolwork.

  Oftentimes, busier than everyone in his entire family, he never really had time to just get out and enjoy himself, but this weekend was different. He’d taken his last final for the year, his birthday was a few hours away, and he was planning to celebrate both with as much fun as he could handle.

  The wind blew through the driver side window, through his hair, and into his face as he sped up a little more. The smell of fresh air brought a small spurt of tears from the corners of his eyes, while the potent smell of weed and chili cheese fries filled his nostrils.

  After finishing off the rest of his neatly rolled blunt, he’d stopped by Jack in the Box and grabbed one of his favorite foods. Every time the wind wafted the smell of the greasy calorie-packed potatoes up his nose, he pressed the gas a little harder in an effort to make it home a little quicker so that he could demolish them.

  This was the life. Nothing but success was on the rise, with legal and legit money in his pocket. Angel DeLuca screamed at the top of his lungs in excitement. Life couldn’t get any better than it was at the moment. He was happy, and that was all there was to it. Too bad good things didn’t last forever. The blue lights flashing in his rearview were evidence of that.

  Angel rolled his eyes and released an exasperated breath as he pulled his car over to the side of the road. Annoyed and ready to be on his way, Angel checked his rearview mirror once again to see the officer who had pulled him over. He was short and chunky with a crooked hat. Angel was tempted to hit the gas and drive off on his ass while he was fixing his pants, but figured that would be more trouble than what it was worth.

  The closer he got, the more annoyed Angel got. By the time the officer had gotten to his window, his irritation had maxed out. He hit the button to turn his music down and eyed the officer with disdain.

  “In a rush, sir?” the officer asked.

  “Kinda,” Angel replied.

  “Where you headed?”

  “Why?”

  The officer’s bushy brown mustache curved upward as he frowned. “Don’t question me, DeLuca.”

  Angel’s head whipped around quickly once the officer called him by his name. His face held a frown just as deep as the officer’s. They stared at one another for a minute until the officer’s frown was replaced with a smile.

  “Wondering how I know you, huh?” A boisterous laugh resonated throughout the darkness as cars continued whipping along the highway past him. “You dumb fuck. Who doesn’t know the DeLuca boys?”

  Angel’s body grew hotter and hotter as he sat listening to the officer. Still a bit dumbfounded but angrier than he’d been seconds prior, Angel shifted his car back into gear.

  “Oh, you’re going to drive off now, huh?” The officer hit the roof of Angel’s car before leaning down closer to his face. “You’re not above the law, even if your father has you thinking you are.”

  “Fuck you. You don’t know my father.”

  He laughed again, this time harder than the last. “You know”—he tapped his chin—“I know your father quite well . . . we all do.” He touched his police badge for emphasis.

  Without another word or thought, Angel shifted gears and drove off. The speedometer flipped from one end to the other rapidly as Angel surged the gas. He was so riled up, he ended up staying on the highway a lot longer than he should have.

  He spent the time trying to calm himself down. His mind was everywhere. Never in all of his years had he or his family had a run-in with the law, and when they did, it was on simple shit. Never anything that insinuated that the cartel was on the radar because half of the cops were on the DeLucas’ payroll anyway. When Angel could no longer take the rapid thoughts, he called the only person who would know what to say.

  “Son,” Vinny answered.

  “Daddy, I just got pulled over for speeding,” Angel said into the phone.

  Vinny laughed. “I told Empress not to get your ass that car.”

  “The police was talking slick shit about knowing us, and thinking we’re above the law and shit.”

  The phone went quiet before he heard Vinny clearing his throat. “No worries, son. I’ll take care of it.”

  “You think it’s some fight behind his bark?”

  More laughter from Vinny. “Hell no. It never is. Don’t worry, and don’t tell your mother.”

  Angel chuckled. “I won’t.”

  “See you in a minute.” Vinny ended the call.

  Like always, after talking to Vinny, Angel was able to calm down. He’d slowed down, making the ride to his parents’ house longer. The time was spent ridding his mind of the negative, and focusing back on the positive. His life was too good for him to stress over something that small. He had everything that he could possibly want, from his family to his personal life.

  Even with school stressing him completely out, it was all worth it. He had his girl, Genesis, whom he loved with every fiber of his being. And unlike some of the guys he went to school with, he didn’t have any kids . . . neither did his girl. The two of them spent most of their free time partying and hanging out. They shopped in the highest-end stores, balling out at clubs, toasting with the stars, and just having fun. A young, get money couple with no worries, doing their best to enjoy life while doing their own thing.

  With his music blasting and his head back bobbing to the beat, Angel slowed his car down and took the exit to his parents’ estate. He had an hour before he had to pick Genesis up from class, so he would use it to chill with his family.

  Being that they were the only part of the DeLuca Cartel that was in South Carolina, they were pretty much all each other had. The DeLuca Cartel was mostly run in his home state, California. They ran dope through the West Coast—California, Mexico, Nevada—and a few southeast states, Georgia, Alabama, Florida, and recently, South Carolina.

  He hadn’t been at all happy about his father deciding to push dope through the city of Columbia, South Carolina, but what say did he really have? That was the way they ate and the reason he had gone to school with not one student loan since graduating from high school. He’d made it very clear that he wanted to live a life outside the cartel, which was why he’d moved to a state that they didn’t serve, but they’d changed all of that with hardly any effort.

  With not much argument from him since it all started, Angel accepted the fact that his parents were going to do what they wanted, so he had to do the same. He did his best to move around the product and plans his father had for their newest city without any involvement, and so far, he’d done a pretty good job.

  Hopefully he would be allowed to continue, but judging by the unnecessary traffic stop just then, he wasn’t so sure anymore. He’d bent over backward to keep his name from being tied to anything dealing with the cartel, but clearly that was inevitable.

  When he turned into his family’s estate, passed the guards, and headed through the entryway of trees, he parked behind his mother’s cranberry-colored Rolls-Royce and cut his car off. He hit the locks on his doors, grabbed his food, and hopped out of the small car. Before moving, he stretched his long legs and arms. Once he’d worn off the tightness from his limbs, he began walking down the winding sidewalk to the front door.

  Angel was busy digging in his pocket for his keys when the front door opened. He raised his head to find his mother standing there. She was cloaked in a white and gold dress with an array of colorful jewels decorating her neck and wrists.

  Her d
ark skin sparkled beneath the fluorescent lights on their porch, and her smile brightened the darkness of the night. His beautiful black queen. Empress DeLuca was pure royalty, and the key to his heart. Everything about her represented the essence of what a woman should be. She was loyal and nurturing, and the most important person in his world.

  The connection that he shared with his mother was out of the world, and she loved him just as much as he loved her. Empress loved Angel, her youngest child and third protector, like no other, and he knew it. Even if she hadn’t said it to him enough to last three lifetimes, the smile on her face every time he came around expressed it for her.

  She loved his older brother just the same, but the bond she shared with Angel was different. He was sure it was because he was a good man who made her proud. Even with him wanting nothing to do with their family business, he was still her favorite. He was a stand-up guy who never indulged in unnecessary shit that caused problems for the family like D’Angelo did. D’Angelo was the oldest but acted as if he was the youngest.

  “You must have been sitting in the window waiting on me?” Angel asked her with a smile as large as hers on his face.

  “Actually, I saw you on the cameras.”

  Angel stretched his arm out and circled her shoulders with it when he was close enough to her. “Ma, who do you think you’re fooling? You were probably sitting in the window waiting for me to get here. I know how you are.”

  Empress tittered and pushed at his side playfully. “Boy, please, I wasn’t thinking about you.”

  Angel and Empress walked farther into the massive great room, immaculately decorated in gold and black. Their sitting space was larger than some people’s entire house put together, and that was the way Vinny liked it. Vinny DeLuca was Angel’s father and one of the flashiest men Angel had ever known.

  For as far back as Angel could remember, every home they’d ever had had been over the top. Vinny had money and loved to show it. His ostentatious attitude, with Empress’s expert eye for interior design, made their homes look more like castles than ordinary houses. Pictures, plants, statues, and a host of other things occupied the walls and floors of their three-story home.

  “Lies, I tell you.” Vinny’s subtle laughter tainted every word he spoke.

  Angel found his father seated in the La-Z-Boy large enough to fit four people. That was his favorite chair, and where you would probably find him 90 percent of the time. Angel smiled as he studied his father’s sandy-brown skin with the reddish-brown hue to it and the jet-black hair surrounding his head, lips, and eyes.

  “She’s been there since you called an hour ago.” Vinny shook his head without moving his eyes from the enormous flat screen TV mounted on the wall in front of him. “I tell her over and over, you’re not a boy anymore.” Vinny threw his hands up in defeat. “She won’t listen, so I’m just going to keep my mouth shut. If she wants to sit in the window like a puppy until you get here, I’ll let her.”

  Angel and Empress both laughed as they took their seats on the plush, white furniture; he on the love seat by himself, she on the couch, at the end closest to his father. Her feet were tucked comfortably beneath her, while she rested her elbow on the fluffy arm cushion.

  Though she was seated fully on the sofa, the top part of her body was leaned over toward Vinny. It was obvious that she wanted to be near him, and Angel wasn’t the least bit surprised. The love his mother and father shared was unlike any other.

  Outside the fact that Empress was a passionate woman, she loved Vinny DeLuca. They had been married going on forty years but still acted as if they’d just begun dating, from the way they hugged every time they parted ways, to the small comforting kisses and soft touching they did throughout the day.

  Like right then, Vinny’s hand had just found its way to the top of Empress’s leg, while the hand she wasn’t leaning on rested on top of his. Angel craved a love like that. One that was so magnetic that he and his lover couldn’t fight the desire to touch one another. He’d once had a love that felt like it would last forever, but that had been a lifetime ago, and things changed.

  “How’d you do on your test?” Empress asked her son.

  Angel was busy removing his fries from the brown bag when he answered her. “I think I passed.”

  “You think?” Vinny finally made eye contact as the sternness in his voice subtly corrected Angel’s uncertainty.

  “I know.”

  “That’s more like it.” He nodded before looking back at his television.

  Ever since he’d been a child, Vinny had accepted nothing less than Angel’s best, no matter what it was. Nothing was too small or too big for either of his sons to master.

  I don’t care if you boys are emptying trash for a living, as long as you’re emptying the most trash. Vinny’s voice echoed in Angel’s head. Angel had been hearing that line his entire life and hadn’t understood it one bit until he’d grown old enough to demand the most from himself as well.

  “Was it hard?” His mother’s tone was much softer than his father’s had been.

  Angel shrugged and stuffed a fork full of chili and cheese in his mouth. “It was hard, but I’m smart and I’ve been studying nonstop for weeks now. I did fine.”

  “Well then, we should celebrate!” Empress beamed at him. “I could invite some people over for a small party tomorrow.”

  Angel rubbed the back of his neck in anticipation of what was to come next. “I kind of already made plans for tomorrow.”

  Empress’s neck snapped toward him, while Vinny’s large stomach shook lightly from laughter. Clearly Vinny knew just like Angel did that Empress was about to show out.

  “Plans? With who?” she asked.

  “Genesis.” Angel spoke lower than he had been.

  The loud noise coming from his mother sucking her teeth had Angel clearing his throat in discomfort. He had known before he even said his girlfriend’s name that his mother wasn’t going to like it.

  “How are you just going to make plans with that little trick without even considering the fact that we might have wanted to celebrate with you? After raising you for twenty-eight years, I would think we could at least get that courtesy.”

  “Ma, it ain’t like that. She suggested it after we finished studying last night.”

  “I just bet she did.” Empress mumbled something a little lower, and Angel had to strain to hear what she’d said, because there was no way she’d said what he thought he’d heard.

  “Say what, Ma?”

  “Leave me alone, Angel.”

  Angel sat up so that he was on the edge of the love seat. “Nah, tell me what you said. I ain’t hear you.”

  Empress rolled her eyes at him but said nothing.

  “She said Genesis probably suggested it after she finished sucking your dick last night.” Vinny serenaded the room with a robust chuckle.

  Angel looked from his mother to his father before they both burst out laughing. That was what he’d thought he’d heard, but he hadn’t been sure. Empress was known to get a little catty when it came to Genesis and had even said similar things like that in the past, but it still came as a shock to Angel every time.

  His mother was one of the sweetest people he’d ever met but could say and do some things that made a person feel like only a black woman could.

  “Ma, I can’t believe you would say something like that.” Angel was still laughing. “Daddy, you need to get onto her. That mouth is ridiculous.”

  Vinny’s laughter became more boisterous as he looked over at Empress. “Sorry, son. There’s nothing I can do for you. My darling has been this way for years. I think it’s too late to try implementing any type of change now.”

  Empress stood from the sofa. “You’re damn right it is. I am who I am.” She looked to her son. “Angel, if you don’t like it, all you have to do is get you another girlfriend. Nobody told you to fall in love with that little gold digger anyway.”

  With that, Empress stormed from the living room
, but not before leaning over and slapping Angel upside the back of his head. He and his father both watched her walk out of the living room before falling into a fit of laughter. Empress hated Genesis, and it always made for a good laugh for him and his father.

  Much like any other mother would, Empress did nothing to hide the way she felt about Genesis, which left the door open for all types of nasty comments and attitude-filled moments. Angel did his best to keep the two of them away from each other, but sometimes it was inevitable, and one of them would end up mad with him.

  “She’ll be all right,” Vinny said. “She’s just mad right now. She hates that girl you like.”

  “I know.” Angel wiped his mouth and stuck his trash back into his bag. “I don’t know why, though. Genesis is cool.”

  Vinny’s head turned in Angel’s direction. His face was serious, void of the humor that had just adorned it.

  “Your mother doesn’t dislike people for no reason, so if she hates Genesis like that, that should tell you something.” Vinny rubbed his chin. “We can’t tell you who to date, but we raised you to be a lot smarter and more observant than you are.”

  Angel frowned. “Ah hell, Ma done brainwashed you too?”

  “You know me better than that,” Vinny told him without blinking. “I’m not brainwashed, but I value my wife’s feelings and opinions. Like I said, if she doesn’t like that girl, then she apparently sees something she doesn’t agree with. I’m sure you will too in due time.”

  Versus arguing with his father, or saying anything in an effort to disagree with him, Angel sat back on the love seat and pulled his phone from his pocket. Arguing with his parents wasn’t something he liked to do because he always ended up feeling slighted in the end.

  The three of them were practically best friends, so of course he took the things they said to heart. Even when he didn’t want to hear what they were saying, he heard them. Which was why he was so troubled when it came to Genesis. He was in love with her, and yet his parents couldn’t stand her. That was pure turmoil.