by Styles, T
My father had the same complexion as me but his eyes were lighter and he was much shorter. I stood at about 6'1 while he only reached a little over 5'4. People said that was one of the reasons he was so ruthless, because he had a short man’s complex but I couldn’t be sure. Rick was mixed with Mexican and black while my mother was straight African-American and his Mexican heritage could be detected in his voice.
"We have everything set up for you back at the house.” He told me. “You should be very comfortable.”
Here it was, I was born in L.A even though my heart screams Washington, DC.
“What’s up? What’s on your mind?” He asked.
“I can’t believe I’m from here. I can barely remember shit about it.”
“Trust me when I say it was for your own good. I would not have sent you away for so long, if I thought you would be safe here. But from what I’m told, you’ve made quite a life for yourself in DC.”
“I’m doing aight.”
“Come...We have much to discuss."
We walked to a white limousine and a white man opened the door for me and said, "Welcome to California, sir."
I nodded and stepped inside the limo, looking around inside. Moments later, the bodyguards piled inside with us. He seemed to have a lot of people around him all the time. Two bottles of Moet sat in buckets and I shared a bottle with my father. It didn’t matter that I was only seventeen and would be eighteen in a month, to him I was now a man. As I sat in my seat, I thought about everything that happened and how I almost was responsible for Harmony’s murder. Shit wasn’t going the way I planned with us but fuck it, it was what it was.
I looked at his bodyguards again and saw that they seemed to be more interested in what was going on outside of the car, than they were with what was going on inside. It made me think at any moment someone would start firing at us.
"Don’t worry, Jace. You're safe here." Rick said.
He must’ve seen it in my face. "I’m not worried." I told him remembering my ordeal a week ago.
We drove for ten minutes before we pulled up to his new house. I hadn't been there since I visited briefly last year. When we pulled up in the driveway, a fence and men in black expensive suits surrounded the large property. All of them were armed and wearing wired ear plugs in one ear. When the limo stopped a young Pakistan man in his early thirties opened the door and Rick got out and follow him.
"Welcome to California, Jace. We have been waiting for you. I am Ahmed, and I am here to see that anything you need is taken care of." He told me.
"Thank you." I nodded grabbing my bag.
As my father spoke to a few of his staff members off to the side, I walked through the large foyer covered in marble and gold. The ceilings had elaborate paintings on them and everything looked larger than life. Two men followed me and I got the impression that they were protecting me and not watching me. Even in the house my life was not safe. I had to find this nigga Massive and I had to find him soon.
To my right was a huge dining room, which could seat about twenty people, and to my left was a large entertainment room filled with large screen TV’s and a huge stereo system. When I walked upstairs and saw six closed cherry wood doors. I stared at all of them wondering which one I would be in while I was here.
“Right this way, sir," Ahmed said walking up behind me before walking ahead of me to lead the way.
I didn’t even know he was following us. If I was gonna run a successful operation, I had to remember to check my surroundings at all times. It didn’t matter where I was since it was evident that for as long as Massive was alive, that he’d be after me. And although the man who kidnapped us was not Massive, but one of his flunkies, I knew I could never afford to let them catch me slipping again. When I walked into my room, I could tell it was recently designed for me. Everything smelled new and a large TV was on my favorite station, MTV.
"Please let me know if you'll be needing anything else." Ahmed said walking to the door. "I am here to serve you."
I walked deeper into my room and sat on the edge of the bed. It was the first time I had been alone since I’d been kidnapped. I made a call to Tony Wop to be sure my plans for my operation were in motion. When Tony told me that both Herb Dayo and Sick Sense were missing I got noid.
“We haven’t been able to get a hold of ‘em, man. Something’s up.”
“What about Kali?”
“He around…But you know that’s your man, not mine. I deal with him when I have to.”
“Well deal with him now. If Massive’s involved, you need to be careful and Kali not afraid of doing what’s needed.”
“Do you believe him about the girl thing?”
“Not over the phone. I’ll rap to you about that later.”
“Aight…I know you got a lot to deal with, but call the girl Brittany when you get a chance. I ran into her at Karen’s house, and she said she gotta talk to you. Said it was important.”
“Aight.” I said ending the call.
Then I called Brittany, a chick I fucked on the side every now and again. As a matter of fact, we had gotten together right before my trip to L.A.
“Jace, I been trying to reach you! We gotta talk!” She said hyped.
“What’s up? Why you sound all extra?”
“Jace, are you still fuckin’ Harmony?” I hated when she asked me that shit because before we broke up, she knew I was. “I need you to tell me right now.”
"Jace, come downstairs. We're having a meeting." Rick called from the intercom within my room interrupting our call.
“I gotta go.”
“Jace, wait!”
I hung up, hit the intercom button and said, “I’m on my way.”
I don’t know what shit she was on but it was a mistake calling her ass anyway. I was here for business, not to be rapping to no bitch. When I got downstairs, I saw a few men inside the large dining room. They all stood when they saw me enter, before sitting back down.
"Gentlemen, this is my son, Jace Sherrod." Rick said clapping his hands. They all clapped before stopping abruptly.
"Welcome, son," one man said.
"We've been wanting to meet you officially," said another. “Your father has told us a lot about you.”
"Please introduce yourselves." Rick advised everyone.
I wondered how he could tell anybody about me, when he really didn’t know me.
One man stood up. His skin was real light and his nose was so crooked it looked broke. "The name's Russ Gamber." He said pointing to himself.
"He’s muscle." Rick said. "He makes sure I’m protected wherever I go before I get there."
"That’s right, and it’s because of me you still alive today.”
“Awe, here he goes again sucking his own dick,” one man said. The room erupted in laughter.
“Well it’s true. I don’t miss a thing, son. If there's a problem, I smell it miles away." He continued. “Trust me, around me your father is beyond safe.”
"Yeah...Look at the fuckin’ nose of yours. What else you gonna do with that thing but smell." Another man said.
“Or fuck a bitch with it! I heard it’s bigger than his dick.”
All of the men laughed again.
“Fuck you!” Gamber said.
Someone else stood up and said, "Anyway, son, I’m Sammy Batters. I run distribution." Sammy was shorter than my father and his skin was very dark.
"Sammy's the man who will have everything set up for you in DC.” He paused. “You need anything for the business, you call on him first." Rick added.
As Sammy sat down, another man stood up." And I’m Leo Lips. I help Sammy with distro in California and I am in charge of meeting our connect."
Leo looked Spanish and judging by the tattoos all over his arms, I could tell he was either involved in gangs in the past, or still active. He also had a lot of tattoos of babies over his arms and I could tell he had a lot of children. Leo also seemed nervous and out of place and that made me uneasy.
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br /> "Other than me, Leo's the only one who has direct access to our connect. We are dealing with some Arabians who’ve found their way into the industry. But we may be moving over to the Russians soon. Right now, the Russians have lower prices.” Rick said.
“So why not drop the Arabians and do what we have to do?” I questioned.
Rick smiled. “Look at my son, thinking outside the box already.” He paused. “Let’s just say that for now, I’m doing what’s best for our operations. Sometimes rocking the boat unnecessarily can cause more problems than it’s worth. You should run your operation the same way." He said leveling a serious look at me.
"I’m Chin Chu, I’m one of Rick’s lawyers."
Chin was Chinese and had a serious glare on his face. Even when he laughed earlier his face expression remained the same.
"And I’m Terrace Strong, you met me before, a long time ago. I’m your father's other attorney."
"Oh that's right. You handled Cornell’s daughter’s estate. What did he leave her before he died? A million?”
Terrace looked at me and I knew then that she didn’t get anywhere near that amount of money. “Yeah…About that.”
"You still talk to her anymore, Jace?" Rick asked me.
"Not since that shit with Massive's peoples kidnapping us." I told him.
"That's right.” He paused. “Massive...Well...That brings us to business at hand." Rick said preparing to take a seat. “So let’s get right to it. We have a lot to discuss.”
"Massive is planning something now and I don’t know what."
“You may be right. Two members of my crew have gone unaccounted for and we can’t get in contact with them.” I paused. "The only thing is, I figured he’d leave DC, after the failed kidnap attempt."
"He'll do whatever he can to get at you. So it’s quite possible." He paused. "Okay, these are the issues at hand. The DC market is growing rapidly. Crack is the drug of choice now and we are in every position to provide the choice. The problem is, Massive won’t allow us to move smoothly. We've already lost five good men by his hands and although we've taken out his entire crew that doesn't make him more vulnerable. It makes him invincible."
"Why?" I asked.
"Because unlike me, son, he doesn't have anything else to lose. And if he hurts you, I don’t know what I’m going to do." he took a deep breath and said, "So, I don’t intend on letting him catch you.”
The men moved around in their seats because Rick’s show of emotion made them uncomfortable.
“Tony Wop is staying in DC to help you get things off the ground. I've taught him everything I know, Jace. When you're really ready to stand on your own, he'll release you to run things. Now the reason why I asked these men here today is because over the next few months, before you go back to DC, they will give you a few skills necessary to be the best in the drug game. But with my guidance you'll be even better than me."
"I appreciate the opportunity, Rick."
"I know you do, son. But there's one thing you have to do before we get started."
Everyone shuffled in their seats again and I knew something serious was coming my way. "What’s that?"
"Russ, bring her out."
Russ went into another room off of the dining room we were in. Then he wheeled a Spanish lady into the living room in an office chair. Her hair was matted down to the sides of her face and her makeup was smeared all over her eyes.
"Who is she?" I asked standing up straight.
"Your first kill."
"What she do? I mean, why kill her?"
The men in the room looked at one another and I could tell I made a comment they weren't comfortable with. I guess questioning Rick no matter how unreasonable was out of the question.
Rick walked around the table and up to me. Then he placed his hand firmly on my shoulder. "Jace, I know I haven’t spent much time with you. If I had, you would know better than to question my authority.” I felt the seriousness in his voice. “So I’ll answer you once and from here on out, you are never to question me again. Got it?”
“Yes.”
“Good…The woman before you was a nobody, just some girl who sold her body to me for money. Now after meeting you,” he smiled, “her life will have purpose, and meaning."
"And why’s that?" I asked staring at the woman who was pleading to me with her eyes.
"She'll be the reason I can know that no matter what, you'll be willing to do what’s necessary for our operation. She'll be the reason our bond will be strengthened. And she will be the reason that more than anything you will know that you are ready.” He paused. “I heard about the situation in DC, Jace.” He paused. “You know, with Bam and the kid.”
I swallowed hard.
“You know your men will never respect you if you aren’t willing to go the extra mile.”
“I thought bosses didn’t have to get their hands dirty. I thought all I had to do was give the right orders and watch the money roll in.”
“All chiefs have at one time or another, been soldiers. You are no different.” He said seriously. “Jace, your enemy will come to you in all nationalities…Both female and male, some young…Some old. And you have to be ready to make the hard decisions when the right times come. One of those right times is now. "
I looked at my father and then at the men around the room. He was right and I knew it. "Where's the gun?"
He smiled and said, "A gun is so impersonal. Here's a knife." He placed it in my hand. "Now kill her like you mean it."
Local News
Constance
Constance sat glued to the TV watching the local news. The news was airing a story about a brash outbreak of syphilis within the DC area amongst people under the age of 21. In less than two weeks over twenty people in the southeast DC area had gone to a free clinic for testing only to find out they had been infected. Although those were the people who had gone to the clinic, there were many more who didn’t exhibit any signs, and were unaware of how bad things had gotten for them, too. The trouble was, the longer the disease stayed in their blood system without treatment, the worse things became. Before long, it would be untreatable and may even lead to death.
Constance thought about the news she had recently been given from the doctor that she too had contracted syphilis. Despite it all, what hurt worse was that Brittany had told her that her best friend had been sleeping with her boyfriend. She wondered, could it be true and decided to talk to Trip first.
Meanwhile on the other side of DC, at Ebony’s house in Northwest, she was crying after learning that after doing her best to maintain a safe-sex relationship, that she had also contracted syphilis. She didn’t know that had Harmony not sat her diseased ridden ass on the edge of her toilet seat, which was oozing vaginal secretions filled with the virus, and had she not followed behind her and sat on the edge of the seat by mistake too, that she would not have contracted the disease. How could she? Instead she immediately blamed her friend.
But Constance and Ebony were just two cases of those infected by Harmony’s raunchy irresponsible wrath. Many others would be finding out that they were also infected. Although not everyone would ever discover that she was involved many more would find out in the months to come.
Two Weeks Later
Southeast, Washington, DC
Bring The Pain
Harmony Phillips
All day my stomach had been bothering me. I tried everything I could to make it go away, but nothing worked. At first I thought it was the fact that I hadn't spoken to Jace in three weeks. But when the smells of certain foods made my stomach churn, I realized it was much more. I had to be pregnant. If only I could tell Jace, I’m sure he would take me back and we could work things out.
When my phone rang right before I left the house, I knew it was probably Trip, Ebony or Constance. They kept saying the same things over and over and I was tired of hearing it. When I did speak to them, Trip asked me did I tell Ebony she stole from her. And Ebony said Trip said it was me
who stole her shit and all she wanted was her stuff back. While Constance called me to tell me that Brittany said that Ebony was fucking her man. I was wondering why Brittany didn’t tell Constance it was me the moment she found out Kreshon was cheating or why she hadn’t told Jace. Now it all made sense, he was fucking Ebony on the side, too and had gotten caught. Was I a little mad that Kreshon was with both of us? Yes. But I still didn’t need any of the drama when all I wanted was Jace back.
I put on my gold hoop earrings, with the word Princess in the middle, courtesy of Ebony and was leaving out of my house on my way to the store when Kali pulled up. I could tell he was coming into a little money but knew he'd never make as much money as Jace. He parked and jumped out of his 300 ZX and a pair of Versace shades covered his eyes. The leather strap holding his hatchet still on his back.
"You aight?" He asked me after parking his car. Sometimes he was real nice and at other times he could be very mean. It seemed like any little thing could set him off. “You don’t look too good.”
"No...I been sick all week, I think I’m coming down with something."
"You want me to grab you somethin’ to eat?"
"Naw. I was going to A & B store to get some liquor, but now I’m thinking about going back inside to lie down now. What you doing here?"