Eddie was the first to complain. "Goddamn, Prince," he began, "you mean to say that's all we're going to get? We did all the work, now you goin' take all the money."
Prince met his stare without batting an eye. "I ain't taking all the money, fool," he replied sharply. "But since some of you will be bitchin', it's best I explain." His sharp eyes covered all the men in the room. They met his gaze without turning away.
"First of all," Prince explained, "there was more people than just you involved. All the people in the riot belonged to us. I've got to make bond on at least fifty people, plus pay the men who ripped off the gun shop. They didn't make nowhere near the kind of money you guys did. In fact, they didn't make any money at all, yet they stuck up the joint so we would have guns whenever we needed them." He waited until his words had sunk in, then continued. "That should be enough for all of you, but if it ain't, I ain't got but one more thing to say. If you still don't like the way the money was split, kiss my black ass!" Ruby, bringing the drinks, stopped and laughed harshly.
"My, my, my, just listen to daddy. What ya done done, Preacher? It ain't too often I hear my old man inviting you muleheaded bastards to do such things." She set down the tray of drinks, and from under it pulled out a pistol. Without pointing it at anyone in particular, she made her point clear. "I don't understand why any of you are complaining. You got more money than you've ever seen, yet you want more." She gave the pistol to Prince.
He stuck the gun in his belt. "All that money on the bed is spent, except what you guys made out of it. The rest is going back into this organization. Lawyer fees, bond money put up for later on.... I ain't goin' make a slug out of it, yet I planned the whole fuckin' thing."
"We hadn't thought about it thataway," Preacher answered, speaking for the group. "At least, I hadn't." The two brothers nodded their heads, while Eddie managed sullenly to show that he was in agreement.
"I ain't said nothing about the split from the bell, Prince," Hawk stated. "However you handle it, man, is cool with me. I know you ain't goin' fuck over me for no reason at all."
Prince relaxed a bit. "I owe you an apology, Hawk, and the rest of you, too." Prince picked up a drink, then glanced at his men closely. "It's going to be kind of tight for a few of you. I know you'll probably want to get away from here and spend some of that cash, but it ain't goin' work like that. I want you to hang out here for a few weeks. We'll try and let the heat cool off. Preacher, I'll have to have you back downtown to help me take care of a little business, but the rest of you can make yourselves at home. It won't be but for a few weeks, then you can go wherever you want."
"That's cool with me," Hawk said quickly. "I ain't got no place to go. With all this ass running around out here, this is about the hippest thing going anyway."
Prince waited until all of them had agreed to stay around. "Preacher, I want to talk to you about some important business in your neighborhood. You and Ruby stick around. The rest of you can go on back downstairs and start having big fun again. We'll be down in a little while."
He waited until the door had closed behind the last of them, then turned to Preacher. "Preacher, after this evening, I want you to get back into the city and raise the dues on all the prostitutes in your district. Instead of five dollars a night to work, they got to come up with seven. I'm going to get in touch with Chinaman and have him start putting the pressure on every Puerto Rican and white whore in his district. Our protection money has been coming in too slow. It ain't paying for itself. The cost of some of them goddamn kids we have to support is keeping me busted."
Preacher listened to him quietly, not surprised. :'We been having a little problem with the Black Cougars in our neighborhood, Prince. They been trying to stop the prostitutes from working out on the streets. It's a rumor out they're going to start trying to close down the dope houses in all the black neighborhoods."
Prince laughed. "If things get any worse, they won't have to close them down. I'll do it for them. I ain't been able to keep half of our dope houses supplied."
"What about that nigger, Fox?" Ruby asked curiously. "I thought he was supposed to raise so much hell when he got out of prison. He's home now, and he sure ain't keeping my girls up with enough dope to take care of no city."
Prince shook his head. "It ain't his fault, honey. The man ain't never had any reason to handle so much stuff before. You know, we buy a lot of poison in the run of one week. He's trying to fix up a new connection now that might be able to handle our problem."
"What about these Black Cougars, man? You ain't worried about them closing up none of our joints?" Preacher asked stubbornly.
Prince made his familiar gesture of impatience: his hand cut down with a swift, chopping motion. His eyes glittered dangerously. "Nobody, and I mean nobody," he said coldly, "is going to close down our places, unless it's the man, and then we're going to open up another one around the corner."
16
THE OUTER OFFICE of the storefront headquarters of the Black Cougars was decorated with posters of black revolutionaries. A large poster of Chairman Mao adorned the wall just over the entrance of the inner office. Inside, three dedicated young black men watched Chinaman as he paced back and forth. Blanca sat on the couch by herself, watching her man closely. What had just been revealed to him would have far-reaching repercussions.
"Sonofobitching dirty- bastard," Chinaman cursed. "You mean all those people were just used so that Prince could rip off them joints?" He asked the question of no one in particular. It was the rambling of a man who has been hurt by someone close. He was hurt, yet he still searched for an excuse for his friend. His eyes were full of unconcealed pain.
"Don't take it too bad," a tall black man stated. "You're not the only one who was played on. Everybody out there marching that day was used. It just hurts you more because you realize that you were put on Front Street."
Chinaman stared up at the six-foot-six giant. "I don't want to believe it's true even now. It's not bothering me that I was the one out on Front Street. What really hurts is that so many of the kids out there believed in us. They put their faith in me-me-then ended up being crossed." He dropped his head, looked away for a moment, then turned back. "Mr. Yates, do you think there's any way for me to regain the confidence of those people?"
The huge, dark-skinned Mr. Yates smiled reassuringly, with a tenderness surprising for a man his size. "Most of the people who were caught up in that madness don't realize it was all planned. The only reason we know about it is that one of our men happened to be in the crowd of agitators. He likes it when it's hot, so he went along just to get in a few licks at the pigs."
"I wouldn't have minded being up on that myself," one of the other Cougar members said. "It's not every day that we get a chance to knock a few heads without worrying about reprisals."
"I'll go along with that one hundred percent, brother," added the third Cougar present in the room. "You see?" Yates asked, pointing at the others. "Both of my devoted brothers are ready to go on the warpath. Any other time, Mr. Davis and Mr. Williams would both be preaching patience."
Both men laughed good-naturedly. Yates continued. "You have nothing to worry about on that point, Chinaman. In fact, we would like to see you continue with the work you began. From what our source has told us about you, plus what we have been able to learn for ourselves, we believe you're completely dedicated to working for the freedom of all men of color." He waited until Chinaman had nodded in agreement, then spoke softly. "If you are really sincere, Chinaman, there's no reason why you can't pull your people into our organization. I don't think anyone could find any reason not to like the idea of us combining. After all, brother, our organization is nationwide."
Chinaman shivered visibly. "Ain't no sense in me foolin' you, brother. Prince ain't goin' like the idea at all." His eyes searched out Blanca on the couch. He could tell that the idea of trying to put Prince out of the organization had shaken her up, too.
Mr. Yates had noticed their shock. "We rea
lize that Prince could be a problem for you, but we have taken it on ourselves to handle this responsibility. If you will give us your word on this matter, we will take it from there." He hesitated briefly, then walked over and opened the door to the outer office. He glanced out and beckoned to the young woman sitting on the bench.
Ruby threw down the magazine she had been try ing to read for the past ten minutes. She twisted around on the bench and stared angrily at the young man sitting behind the scarred desk. She wished Prince had accompanied her to this meeting. When the huge black man beckoned to her, she was already highly irritated. She marched into the inner office, swinging her pocketbook by the strap.
When Chinaman looked up and saw Ruby come storming in, he had to sit down on the couch to stop his legs from trembling. The other men stared at her in open admiration. Mr. Yates bit his lip. He had heard about how beautiful she was, but this was the first time he had ever seen her.
Ruby stared at Chinaman and Blanca with anger. "Does Prince know you're here?" she asked sharply. She didn't bother to wait for an answer. She stared up into the face of Mr. Yates. "Prince was busy," she said coldly. "He said to tell you, if you had anything to say, to send the message by me."
"I would have rather taken up my business with Prince," Yates began. "In fact, I don't know if we can really get anything handled without him being here."
"Either you take it up with me or you don't take it up at all," Ruby said flatly.
Davis spoke up, stung by her words. "Tell the sister what the real deal is, Bobbie," he said, speaking to Yates.
Bobbie Yates hesitated, then beckoned towards Chinaman and his woman. "We have just been enlightening these people on how your man used them to start that riot so his men could take off that bank and gun shop."
Ruby tried not to reveal her surprise. As far as she knew, no one knew about the robbery except the people who were up on it. "So you say," she replied slowly. "You don't really have anything to prove that."
Bobbie shrugged his huge shoulders. "It doesn't take proof in this case, sister. We are up on what happened, and so is the brother and his lady."
Regaining his composure, Chinaman spoke up. "We realize we been played on, Ruby, so it ain't no reason for you to try and deny it. As of today, we're pulling out of everything Prince has a hand in, plus taking as many members of the new club as we can pull. After we get through pulling their coats to what went down, there won't be enough people left for you to waste your time on."
Anger blazed in Ruby's eyes. She spoke without thinking. "What you better realize, Chinaman, and you too, Blanca, is that Roman and his woman were found in a motel in Chicago burned to death."
Her words had an immediate effect on Blanca. Her eyes grew large and she clutched frantically at Chinaman's arm. She put her face against his chest and muttered over and over again, "I told you, I told you, I told you."
Chinaman held her in his arms and glared at Ruby. "Bitch!" he began. Bobbie Yates cut him off. His eyes were flashing dangerously as he whirled on Ruby.
"Sister," he began, "we would like to avoid trouble if at all possible, but we won't go out of our way to step around it. Now, what I want you to do is to inform Prince that Chinaman and his lady are both completely under my personal responsibility. If anything should happen to the brother and sister, I'd use every resource at my disposal to correct the wrong."
Ruby snorted. "Your name ain't Jesus by any chance, is it?" she asked sarcastically. "If I were you, I'd remember your ass ain't made out of stone, either."
Yates stared down at her with a deep hurt in his eyes. At first the sister had filled him with pride. To see such a lovely black woman come marching into the room with her head back and eyes flashing had made him smile. But after a while, he realized that she embodied something unspeakably evil and vile. Suddenly he knew that he was facing the most dangerous woman he had ever met.
"Sister," he said slowly, "I'm aware something could happen to me any day. If not from your group of people, the white pigs might decide to get rid of me. But that is not important." His voice rose, filled with pride. "For every one of us black brothers that falls, you will find three more ready to take his place." He waved his hand at the two men standing behind him. "If I should fall, these two would quickly take over. If they should fall, we have others. As soon as you leave, I'm calling our headquarters in Los Angeles, sister, and tell them just what's happening out here. Our organization is nationwide-in every large city and many smaller ones. So it's more than just me or my few members you'll have to deal with if something happens to this couple."
He waited until he was sure she understood, then added, "I hope you explain this to Prince, and while you're at it, tell him he has more to worry about than Chinaman. We are starting a program of wiping out all the dope in black neighborhoods. I'd rather Prince would just quit backing the dope in our ghettos, but if he doesn't, we will personally put his dealers out of commission."
Ruby threw him a withering look. "I'd say your best bet was to get on that phone and call those other people, because if you start stepping on Prince's toes, I'm sure he won't waste any time getting you off." She turned on her heel and stalked out of the room.
"Well," Chinaman began, "it's all left up to Prince. I don't know how he'll take this, but I'm sure he'll give it a hell of a lot more thought than what Ruby would. She's ready now to start fighting in the streets."
When Ruby arrived back at the Twenty Grand Motel, Prince was just getting out of bed. He listened quietly as she told him what had happened, then went into the bathroom and took a quick shower. She tapped her foot impatiently, then got up and went in the bathroom.
"Honey," she began, trying to use as much patience as possible, "what we goin' to do about Chinaman and that little bitch of his, huh?"
Prince cut the water off and stepped out of the shower. Ruby grabbed a towel and dried off his back. "Nothing," he replied sharply. He took the towel out of her hands and finished drying off. "I don't know if you know anything about the Black Cougars or not, but I do."
"I know this much about them," she snapped, "they said you wasn't nothing but a white man's nigger. They said you was worse than a black plague to our people, that's what they said!"
Prince forced a laugh. Her words had hurt him deeply, but his face revealed nothing. "Just because I'm out for the almighty dollar, that don't make me no white man's nigger, and you know that as well as I do. They can say whatever the fuck they want to, it don't mean nothing."
Ruby nodded. "I know, honey," she said with the intuition that she had hurt her man. "But what about our dope houses? They said they was going to close up all our places. You ain't goin' stand still for that, are you?"
"Ruby, just stop and think for a minute, baby. The police ain't able to close up our dope houses, so what makes you think the Cougars might be able to do it? They don't have half the people the police got, so why worry? All we got to do is wait and keep gettin' money, that's all. This little shit you're worried about will blow over sooner or later."
"Okay, daddy, if you say so. I still don't like it, though. I'd feel better if we sent some people down there and cracked some heads. That way they would know we ain't laying down for no fuckin', you can bet on that."
Prince smiled at her. "Don't let it worry you, baby. Just remember, the last thing we need is an out-and out war with some of our own people. So what if we blowed that organization? If Chinaman wants to spend his time trying to help out the have-nots, that's up to him. You just keep on remembering that it's only two kind of people in this world, Ruby, that's all. The have-nots and those that have." He waved his arm around at the suite they lived in. "We pay more rent in a day for this place, baby, than some people make all week. It speaks for itself. You don't see no goddamn roaches running all over the walls, do you? Let the Cougars and Chinaman work out of the love-yourbrother shit. We goin' continue to work out of lovethat-green-stuff, baby, can you dig it?"
She smiled at his words, and some of the
worry left her face. Slowly, she moved into his arms, enjoying the feel of his muscles tightening around her. As he kissed her on the neck and shoulders, she squirmed in his arms, then pressed her body tightly against his, feeling his manhood pushing against her thigh. They fell over on the king-size bed and lost their anxiety in each other's arms.
17
THE WINTER WIND had run most of the night people off the streets and into the bars and after-hours spots, poolrooms and greasy spoon restaurants. The neon lights beckoned them to the dim-lit places of entertainment that were their very existence. Many had been victimized, but still they returned, night after night, in search of fugitive pleasures. The dopefiends, whores, muggers, and other parasites who earned their income off of them moved with them through the shadows.
Frankie, a tall, brown-skinned lesbian, walked from one end of the Silver Dollar Bar to the other, cursing fluently. "I'm not going to pay no goddamn protec tion dues so that my whores can work," she yelled in her masculine voice.
A short, slim Negro spoke up from the bar. "You must not have seen what happened to Chico's girls, did you?" he asked, glad of a chance to put this arrogant dyke on the spot.
"That's because they had a punk for a man," Frankie replied harshly. "You didn't see it happen to any of my girls, did you?"
A fat prostitute sitting in the rear of the bar remarked drily, "It might be because you've been paying your dues these past few weeks just like the rest of us."
"You're telling a goddamn lie," Frankie said, glaring at the girl. "If I was you, bitch, I'd think twice before telling that goddamn lie again!" She stared at the other people in the bar. "I ain't paying a damn penny and ain't planning on paying one either."
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