R.I.C.O Volume 1

by Corey Bryant

  “Already! Man, I heard a lot about you!” Said Johnathan.

  “Oh yeah?” I said because my red flags were up! What had this dude heard about me besides my being CEO and owner of R.I.C.O entertainment? Okay… I might be paranoid, so I’ll let it go… for now.

  “Yea maine! Heard nothing but good things.” Said Johnathan. “This nigga can stand some watching,” I said to myself.

  “That’s wusup!” I said pushing the conversation on. “Have a seat Johnathan and let’s talk business. First of all, you don’t have an agent or manager?”

  “Do I need one?” Said Johnathan.

  “Well… not necessarily, just proper business practices.

  “Well, I’ll take that into consideration later, but right now I’m my own manager.” Said Johnathan.

  “Okay… ain’t nothing wrong with that as long as you know the business side of the game. I like to do square bizness with no bullshit ya feel me?!”

  “Already! What… y’all plan on signing me?” Johnathan said with a sly smirk on his face.

  Marco and I exchanged a look. I looked at Brainhead as well. He had a smirk on his face. I slowly said… ”Yeah! We going to sign you!”

  “Already!” Said Johnathan as we shook hands.

  “Welcome to RICO Records… Fam!”

  Chapter 14

  It had been a couple of years since Carlos Desendez had lost his son at the hands of some African American hitman. He can still hear the shots, screams, and cries of his son as he was being shot at close range while standing over a hole that he fell in. It was his grave in a desert. He could tell from the background. Well, the little background he had seen. It was so dark on the video which was sent by the killer from his son’s phone to his and Mexico was full of desert land.

  Carlos Desendez had been in the witness protection program for the last 8 years. His handlers, the Feds kept close tabs on him through a series of agents. Three or four of them, but he only reported to one while the other 2 or 3 played the shadows and followed him while he did his daily routine. Carlos knew this though since he was a very cunning person. Naturally, he’d picked up on their so-called surveillance. Carlos was raised in the trenches of Mexico in the rural area of Soliceno and he frequented the city of Matamoros as a child. That’s where he met Garcia Abregado and started his life of crime.

  At the young ripe age of 12, Carlos and Garcia had been petty criminals at first. Stealing, burglarizing cars, homes, and targeting tourists by pickpocketing them. They even built up their nerves to commit a few robberies. They both had come from poor families, so it was all about the come-up and the hustle!

  Carlos’s father was a farmer’s helper and he definitely didn’t want to follow in his footsteps. Garcia’s mother and father both worked in a garment factory for low wages which wasn’t enough to feed their 8-children. Garcia is the oldest of the children who took charge to help his parents take care of his other 7-siblings. Especially, his baby sister Conswela! The thought of her being hungry drove Garcia deeper into a life of crime. All the little legal side jobs he would do weren’t making enough money.

  By the age of 16, Garcia and Carlos had joined a local gang which led to peddling marijuana and kidnapping for ransom. By the age of 18, they both worked for the local cartel. Providing protection to other drug trafficking organizations that needed to move there and work through their turf. Also, they performed hits!

  By the ’80s their leader and bossman Luis Espanzo was mysteriously murdered in his house in Soto LaMarina, South of Matamoros. This angered Garcia who was now age 20 and very loyal to Luis who mentored Garcia to the dope game and the game of life! Garcia was adamant about finding out who killed his partner Luis.

  Luis always told him to follow his gut feelings, instincts, and what they were telling him about a matter. While the rest of Luis’s organization acted as if they were bewildered about what was going on Garcia wasn’t!

  Oscar Medrano, Luis’s 3rd in charge was acting real peculiar to Garcia. Luis’s right-hand man and 2nd in charge Francisco had come up missing and later found murdered in Brownsville, Texas which Garcia found out was a stash house! Garcia always suspected Oscar of being a snake. He could always tell that Oscar was a jealous-hearted man and he could also tell he wanted to be “The Man”!

  Garcia’s gut instinct told him that the housekeeper knew something. He could tell the way she was acting after the body was found. She had an alibi because she was off that day at her daughter’s house helping her clean up. But the day before she was at the ranch cleaning up the house. Once Garcia caught up with her, his instincts were right! She knew enough to convince him that his instincts were on point. She didn’t tell the policia out of fear of retaliation.

  Also, she didn’t tell anyone out of the organization because she didn’t trust any of them besides Garcia. She told Garcia that she had stumbled upon Luis and Oscar having a heated argument about a guy name Fernando and his protection fee to move a load of cocaine and weed through their turf. She said she heard Oscar saying something about being unfairly cut out of the deal for being the middleman because he is the one who brokered the deal between him and the Columbian drug trafficker named Fernando who was seeking permission from Luis to move his load through Matamoros.

  So, Garcia put 2 and 2 together and figured out the play. Somehow Fernando got to Luis himself and made the deal cheaper by cutting out the middleman. So, Oscar killed Luis & robbed him for the dope, which was being stored at the ranch waiting to be transported to Matamoros and then across the border to Brownsville to a stash house. Then he went to Brownsville and killed Francisco or had him killed then took the dope at the stash house.

  After the murder, the organization was dismantled except for a few who were loyal to Oscar. Garcia knew that Oscar wouldn’t trust him due to his loyalty to Luis. So, he kind of went incognito to make it easier to sneak up on him and murk him!

  And that’s exactly what he did! Right at the time when Fernando was to bring his load through Matamoros. Garcia and Carlos assembled their own little crew and captured a member of Fernando’s crew. Then, they beat information out of him concerning the time, place, how the load would be delivered, and the underhanded deal put together by Fernando and Oscar. The deal was to cut Luis all the way out of the equation. Garcia and his crew were on point when the load landed by murdering everybody who was there including Oscar!

  Garcia and Carlos got the load of drugs and went to one of Oscar’s stash houses and recovered the remaining stash of Luis’s dope which Oscar took from him and started their own organization. Garcia, being the loyalist he was made sure to take care of Luis’s family. Garcia got in touch with a few of the old members of Luis’s distribution network in the United States and began supplying them with the drugs. Garcia got in contact with Luis’s old plug and made deals. From there, he started his own cartel with his childhood friend Carlos Desendez as his right-hand man and his childhood sweetheart Anita as his first lady.

  As far as the eye could see everything was cool between Garcia and his right-hand man Carlos. They both were getting rich. They both were feared and ruthless men, but there was a flaw in Carlos. He had always been envious of Garcia on the low. Something bout how people gravitated towards Garcia but would never take notice of Carlos. Not to mention how the ladies gravitated towards Garcia! That was the straw that broke the camel’s back! When Garcia got Anita way back in their middle school days. Carlos had a spark of jealousy in his heart and over the years that spark grew into a forest fire! Garcia never really paid Carlos’s envy any mind. He thought it was minor jealousy, but all the time Carlos wanted to be Garcia.

  So, that’s why when it was time to be real and the Federales came. Being real wasn’t even in Carlos's vocabulary. He flipped on Garcia without any hesitation and he paid for it in the form of his son’s demise. Now, he was out for blood! His little mission was to get back at Garcia and whoever else was involved in his son’s death. He knew Garcia had something to do with it because
of what was said on the phone. “Don’t come back to court!” He knew that Garcia stood a good chance of getting back in court. That’s if he didn’t show up!

  As Carlos was doing his daily routine, he decided this day was the day he would be leaving the witness protection. They had stepped their security surveillance up when Carlos’s son was murdered. They had snatched Carlos and his wife and any other family members they could get to.

  After a while, the feds allowed them to move around once again and resume their lives under aliases. Carlos had noticed a couple of months ago that when he went to work that he had some rookie federal agent cold trailing him. He would be at this store which was close to the plant where he worked every morning when he got to work. He arrived about 30 minutes before Carlos got off and right before Carlos’s lunch break. He cased the side door of the plant and he had a mountain bike hidden in the bushes near the side door. From there he took a side road and pedaled the bike 2 blocks to a nearby neighborhood where he had an old Toyota Camry parked behind an abandoned house.

  After about 5 hours on the road, Carlos stopped and got him some rest. As Carlos laid back in a hotel, he was formulating plans in his head like where would he strike first to get the info he needed. “Texas!” Whispered Carlos.

  He knew that the feds would be looking for him there, but he didn’t care. He knew with the right amount of pressure applied he would find what he needed to know. That’s where Garcia’s family lived, and he would find out just where!

  Chapter 15

  “Antonio, I had to have you flown down here and meet with me to tell you the good news in person!” Said Anita.

  As we looked out at the ocean, as we sailed out on the Atlantic from Miami Beach on Anita’s yacht.

  Garcia’s lawyer had been working around the clock on Garcia’s appeal from his 2255 Federal Habeas Corpus. He was getting good friction with a lot of his issues, but the main one was the government’s provision of inducements to its witnesses.

  “Garcia is close to getting a new trial! He got a reversal in the Appeals Court and if everything goes right. He stands a strong chance of getting his freedom in the next couple of months!” Said Anita.

  “Damn! That’s good Anita!” I said as I hugged her. Reading my mind Anita said, “No, I don’t think he’s showing up in court!” Said Anita, referring to Carlos. “Some of our people informed me that Carlos escaped from witness protection somehow.”

  “Well, I hope that’s a good sign, Anita!”

  “Yea… me too!” Said Anita as she looked in my eyes deeply. From my experience dealing with her, I knew what that look meant!

  “I need to find him to make sure that he doesn’t come to court,” I said. Really, halfway asking to see if my instincts were right.

  “Yes… He does need to be found!” Said Anita. “Actually, I have somebody on that right now.”

  The wheels in my head were turning 100 miles per hour! Anita may have had somebody on Carlos’s trail, but she also knew that I would put in the work out of loyalty to her and her husband who was my potna!

  “Antonio, I know things have picked up tremendously on your end so I wouldn’t want to take you out of your schedule… and.”

  “I’m on it!” I interrupted Anita. She looked at me as if she were weighing my assurance.

  “Just wait it out, Antonio. He is a very slippery adversary and a real dangerous one too!”

  “I heard!” I said, “I think the element of surprise could down a gorilla!”

  “Yes… But we need to find him… besides… the elimination of his son is what drew him out!” Said Anita. “Once we locate him, we quickly will form a plan to erase him!”

  “And what about the other witnesses?!”

  “They’re all doing a bid but are in the process of being dealt with.” Said Anita with a gleam in her eyes. “A couple of them will recant their testimony, while the other 3 will probably die mysteriously or in a riot!”

  I knew these Mexicans were very powerful and rich. So, to reach into some federal lockups and touch someone wasn’t impossible.

  “As I said, Antonio… when the time is right, you will be contacted,” Anita said this not knowing that we will see Carlos sooner than we think. The hunted has become the hunter!

  Chapter 16

  “A record deal?! Man, what type of shit he on?!” Questioned Big Lo, concerning Johnathan’s new record deal with R.I.C.O Entertainment.

  “That’s his strategy yo!” Said Big Lo’s people from New York.

  “Strategy?!... When this nigga and his lil twin hoes going to dead these niggaz B?! Sounds like he came to Atlanta like the rest of these dream chasers! He supposed to be getting up on these niggaz and whackin 'em!” Said, Big Lo.

  “Lo, wit all due respect if it was that easy yo. Seems like you would’ve been done silencing those cats!” Said Big Lo’s New York people.

  “Nigga I’m a boss! I’ve been left that hands-on shit alone!” Said, Big Lo. As he straightened out the imaginary wrinkles in his Armani suit jacket.

  “Okay, that’s what I mean so let him handle it his way!” Said Lo’s NY people.

  By now Johnathan had snapped out of his codeine and cush induced nod.

  “Look here, Big Lo… Either you gone let me fuck this cat and you hold the tail… nawl matter of fact my twins going to hold the tail. Either you gone do that or I’ll just let the cat go and live. Matter of fact, stroke the cat, let it purr for me, and still get rich and famous! So, what’s it going to be? Chili sauce or what?” Said Johnathan. In his Morris Day impersonation as he gave one of the twin’s high-five.

  Big Lo just stared at them for a few seconds before he answered.

  “Okay… just make it worth the wait!” Said Big Lo as he left Johnathan’s room.

  Johnathan was working on his plan. He was working it all the way and it worked itself out! Once he found out he was being hired to knock off an up-and-coming Black-Tycoon. He had to approach it from a different angle. For one, the object was to get away when you made a hit. This dude Antonio was kind of hard just getting up on to shoot without getting caught or seen by somebody. Simply because he kept shooters around plus, he stayed strapped! These targets were gangstafied in an organized way. So, now he was trying to figure out how to get up on him. It was hard to trail him. Johnathan hasn’t been to his house, so he didn’t know where he stayed. He always got with him at the studio, his office, or one of his strip or jazz clubs. So, he figured he could play up under Antonio through the rap game!

  Johnathan’s friends and family always encouraged him to rap and take it seriously enough to make a career out of it. Johnathan wasn’t really like a lot of other talented young Black men! The streets had allured him with their shine. Johnathan liked the fast money, flashy things, and fast women! He resorted to being a Jack-Boy-Hit man. Jackin and performing hits all through the South, West, even the East coast. That’s how Big Lo’s people ran across him. He had been up in Jersey putting in work for somebody there and they referred him to possible customers.

  So he is now in Atlanta trying to put in work and ran up on a record deal! Everything was smooth with that except that R.I.C.O Entertainment’s flagship rapper Brainhead was feeling some type of way. Jonathan didn’t know if it’s jealousy or what. They did 2 songs together, one for Brainhead’s album and one for Johnathan’s album.

  “Yella ass nigga, it’s something bout you! Um doing this song wit you on the strength of Antonio and the label, but straight up bru I don’t fuck wit ya!” Said Brainhead, in the studio when they recorded their first song together.

  “Already! Likewise nigga! What you mad cause I murdered you on yo own song!?!” Said Johnathan.

  Antonio and a couple of the staff members had to get between them. He didn’t know if Brainhead was onto him or what. He thought about whackin Brainhead on G.P. general-purpose! He had made himself a promise that when the time was right, he would leave Brainhead wet up and dead! What his focus was on was catching Antonio slipping and d
o him first. Kill the head and the ass would surely die! Johnathan had already done his homework and found out that Big Lo’s nephew had been beefing with Brainhead and his crew from the start. So, he felt it was a must to get at Brainhead. Even with this young fool, it was hard to just catch him slipping so he had to come up with a plan.

  With the record deal and all, it was really a blessing and a curse! A blessing because with the money they were paying like the advance with the rest to come with it like points off CD sales, downloads, streams, and show money. it was killing the fee for the contract murders and he could leave the street shit alone, all together! This was something he would have to really think about by weighing the pros and cons.

  In all actuality he was a hitman down for making a nigga disappear for the right price… but at the same time, this was what his grandmama used to tell him.

  “What the devil meant for bad in yo life, God will take it and guide you through it to make good out of it Jon-Jon!”

  Jon-Jon wasn’t really all that religious, but he did give that statement some thought. How would it affect his rep in the underworld if he backed out of the hit with no legitimate reason like F.B.I. was onto you! He thought about using these niggaz to get him some fame in the rap world and when the time is right, he would still whack Brainhead and Antonio. Collect the rest of his scratch from these New York niggaz and then use his fame and a small fortune to start his own label.

  “That’s what it be!” Said Jon-Jon.

  Chapter 17

  After leaving Anita discussing business. I had caught a flight to Birmingham, Alabama to get with my lawyer Janice Riddlesburg. We had some business to handle like cleaning up this money and putting this dick on her! I was traveling around scouting for my sports agency.

  After I leave Birmingham, I have to fly to Louisiana to talk to one of my future clients after the Bayou Classic. He plays with Grambling, a six-foot-three receiver by the name of Dee Banks. He had a bright future and I was trying to help him reach the N.F.L. with some big money for him… and me! He had a fine ass 41-year-old mother who from the first time I met her looked at me like she wanted to eat me alive! She was caramel brown with some Mary J. Blige slanted eyes & lips and an ass that wouldn’t quit. Mouth size titties, small athletic waist, nice round hips, and thighs! A body that if a nigga be around her in the house all day his dick will stay hard looking at her strut around in some boy shorts! I’ll tell you about the situation later… back to Birmingham, Alabama.