by Rose, J. L
Climbing from the U-Haul truck, both of them were happy to find the business closed and the parking lot empty. Dante snatched up his duffel bag and closed the passenger door.
Walking around the back of the truck to meet James, Dante nodded for James to follow him and then asked, “You strapped?”
“I got a lil something,” Dante heard James answer as he lifted up his shirt showing a .38 snub nose.
Pulling the banger from his back, Dante flipped the .45 automatic around with the handle facing James and said, “Take this!”
“What about you?” James asked, taking the gun from him.
“I’m good!” Dante replied, smirking.
They made it to the warehouse and noticed there were no vehicles in sight. They could, however, hear noises coming from inside the building the closer they got. Dante held his finger up to his lips for James to be quiet and then whispered, “We not gonna just walk straight through the front door. Walk around back and see if you can find another opening into the warehouse. Text me if you can.”
As he watched James jog off and disappear into the darkness, Dante turned his attention back to the warehouse. He was staring at the top level of the building when he noticed headlights and then caught the sound of an approaching vehicle.
Taking off into the darkness, while pulling his second banger from the front of his jeans, Dante laid his back against the side of the warehouse as he listened to the wheels of the vehicle pull up. He peeked around the side and smiled at seeing Stevens and two other guys in suits. They were getting out of the same limo he saw him in earlier, noticing more security than before.
“What the fuck is going on out here now?” Dante said to himself. Then he froze at catching the sound of footsteps. It was too late, though, as a gun was placed against the back of his head.
“Move and I promise I’ll open the back of your head!” the security threatened. He forcefully pushed Dante out from the darkness and called out to his boss.
* * *
Hearing his name, Stevens turned and looking around to his far right, he could see someone walking out of the darkness from the side of the building. He recognized the second person as one of his own men. He stood staring as both men walked closer to him. He began to slowly smile, recognizing the young man with the gold inside his mouth.
“Well, if it isn’t Dominic’s newly hired bodyguard,” Stevens said, smiling harder once Dante stopped in front of him.
“I found him hiding over on the south side of the building,” the security guard told his boss, gun still held at Dante’s head.
Shifting his eyes back to Dante while still smiling, Stevens asked, “So tell me, how did you find this place out here in the middle of nowhere?”
“I got lucky!” Dante answered, staring hard straight at Stevens.
“Well, I guess your luck has run out tonight,” Stevens said. He ordered the guard, “Take him up and lock him inside my office until I’m finished with Mr. Sutter.”
“Get moving!” the guard told Dante, pushing him forward.
Dante walked to where he was told and entered the building through a side front door, while Stevens and the company he was with entered through the front double-sliding steel doors. Dante looked around and saw people carrying boxes and stacks and stacks of barrows all over the warehouse.
“Keep moving!” the security guard told Dante, shoving him forward again towards a set of steel steps.
“You do know I’ma kill you, right?” Dante asked him, as he made his way up the stairs.
“Shut the fuck up!” the guy told Dante, shoving him forward again, causing Dante to stumble.
Catching his balance while shooting homeboy a murderous look, Dante continued up the steps and followed directions. He then turned to walk toward the skybox-like office when he heard somebody ask, “Yo, Dante! You need some help?”
Spinning around at the sound of a voice, the guard stared at the white boy smiling at him. Just as he was about to ask who he was, a pain exploded from the side of his neck causing him to stagger.
Following the forearm he slammed into the guard’s neck, Dante caught him before he dropped to the ground, as he twisted and broke his neck. He gently laid him on the ground.
“What the fuck took you so long?” Dante whispered, as he picked up both the guard’s gun and the duffel bag that he had taken from him.
“I was waiting for the right time,” James said, watching Dante pull another gun from the dead guard’s pants.
“Right time, huh?” Dante said, shooting James a look as he tossed the duffel bag strap around his left shoulder and neck. “Whatever, but listen to this . . .”
“I already know,” James said, as Dante pulled out a MAC-11 from inside the duffel bag and handed it over to him. “I saw Stevens outside. Where the hell did you come from?”
“You know how to use one of them, right?” Dante asked, while pulling a Tec-9 from the duffel bag for himself.
“Yeah! I got this,” James answered. “What’s the plan now?”
“Just follow my lead!” Dante told him, nodding for James to follow behind him.
* * *
Stevens walked with his new potential buyers, showing them the barrows he had packed with heroin at the bottom while Dixie Crystal sugar bags aligned the top for safer transport. Stevens watched Mr. Sutter and his entourage examine the heroin when the shooting started.
“What in the hell?” Stevens yelled, spinning around to see his security team being shot down.
“What’s going on here?” Mr. Sutter yelled to Stevens over the shooting.
Stevens watched as his men were being gunned down, before turning his attention to the young black man with the semi-automatic gun in his hand. He was insanely walking out onto the main floor and firing his gun while killing more of his men. Stevens caught the expression in the young man’s eyes at the same time he let a burst of bullets go from his gun. Running out of ammo, he dropped the gun and snatched two more from his waist. He opened fire again on two more of Stevens’ men who ran up on him.
“What the hell! Who is this guy?” Stevens said.
* * *
As Stevens and his goons make a run for the door, Dante broke off in a sprint. He ended up sliding to a quick stop before stepping into a kick that slammed into the knee of one of the men that rushed at him.
Dante quickly dealt with two more men before putting a bullet into the guy’s head whose knee he had just broken. He took off outside, finding James standing over Stevens and his remaining associates pointing his MAC-11 at the three of them.
“What the fuck took you so long?” James asked, cutting his eyes over to Dante and then back at Stevens and his friends.
Chapter 14
Clearing out as many of the sugar barrows as the U-Haul truck could hold, they left Stevens Collmen and his men inside the burning warehouse after releasing Stevens’ two business associates with the understanding of what I.O.U. meant. Dante sat inside the passenger seat listening to the phone ring as he called Dominic’s private line while smoking one of his Black & Mild’s.
Dante apologized for interrupting Dominic and Carmen’s evening as he explained that he had the heroin from Stevens’ warehouse and needed directions to where to go drop the stuff off.
Dante hung up from Dominic and repeated the directions to James. Then he called Natalie.
“Who is this?” Natalie answered the phone.
“Whoa! What’s wrong with you?” Dante asked, surprised how she answered the phone.
“Dante, where the hell are you?”
“Alright, hold up!” Dante told her, stopping the whole conversation. “How about we start over and you tell me your problem, Natalie.”
Dante listened as Natalie told him about Mari’s supposedly new friend disrespecting her by trying to touch and flirt with her when Mari left the room to use the bathroom. Dante interrupted asking, “Where he at now?”
“I had Carlos escort him out.”
“Alright! I
’ma be there in a few minutes.”
Hanging up with Natalie, Dante told James about Mari’s friend and what Natalie told him had happened.
Turning his attention out of his window after telling James what happened and thinking about the comment Edwin made earlier, Dante nodded his head yes at hearing James ask if the girls were OK.
Once they arrived at the storage location, Carlos was waiting with a team of security. Dante also saw Dominic’s Bentley parked between two Range Rovers.
He climbed out of the U-Haul once James parked and shut the front door. Carlos walked over and opened up the back door of the Bentley as a smiling Dominic stepped out.
“Dante!” Dominic said, still smiling as he walked over to him. “I assume that after what was said over the phone that Stevens Collmen will no longer be a trouble to us?”
“Mr. Saldana, sir!” Carlos called out from the back of the U-Haul.
Looking back, Dante was smiling again as Dominic said, “Let’s see what the two of you have brought me.”
Following alongside James as Dominic led the way to the back of the truck, Dante stood as Dominic and Carlos marveled at all the sugar barrows packed inside the back of the truck.
“I’m not sure how much heroin is inside each barrow, but there are bags of real sugar on the top,” Dante explained. “No disrespect, Dominic, but I need to get back to the mansion.”
Nodding his head hardly listening to what Dante had just told him. Still struck by the amount of goods they had stolen, Dominic looked to both James and Dante and said, “Very well done, Dante and Mr. Grant.”
“Not a problem, sir!” James replied, with a slight nod of the head.
When Carlos whispered something to Dominic, Dante shifted his eyes over to Dominic’s face. He saw his expression change immediately before he looked over at Dante.
“Is everything alright?” Dominic asked, balling his face up a little.
“It will be,” Dante replied, with a serious expression on his face.
“I trust that it will,” Dominic said, his smile returning. “I have a car for the two of you to use to get back to the mansion.”
“Thanks!” Dante replied, as Carlos handed him a set of keys.
Breaking off from Dominic and Carlos, the two headed over to the metallic black BMW M3. Dante tossed the keys over to James and instructed, “You driving!”
* * *
They made it back to the mansion in about 20 minutes; especially with the way James was working the BMW’s stick shift. Dante hopped from the car as soon as James parked out front.
Running upstairs, with James right behind him, Dante shot past the head maid as she held the door for the two of them.
Dante took the stairs two at a time to the second floor, taking a left at the top and sprinting down the hallway.
Pushing open the theater doors, he found the room to be empty. Dante then dug out his cell phone and called Natalie.
“Hello!”
“Natalie, where you at?”
“Baby, I’m in the guest house. What’s the . . . ?”
Hanging up the phone, Dante called to James as he took off back towards the stairs, shooting back down to the bottom floor and jogging towards the guesthouse.
“Natalie!” Dante yelled, as he snatched open the front door to his place.
“Dante!” Natalie called, as she rushed from the kitchen. Seeing both Dante and James, she said, “Baby, what’s wrong? What’s happened, Dante?”
“You okay?” Dante asked, as he grabbed Natalie, looking her over.
“Dante, I’m . . .” Realizing what was wrong with her man, Natalie broke out in a smile as she wrapped her arms around his waist, laying her head against his chest. “You was worried about me?”
“Of course, I was worried about you!” Dante realized Mari was standing at the kitchen’s breakfast bar watching them, as he looked over Natalie’s head.
Releasing Natalie, Dante walked over to Mari. He dropped his arms across her shoulder and asked, “You alright, shorty?”
Nodding her head yes, Mari leaned into Dante apologizing for causing trouble.
“You good, Mari!” Dante told her. “How about we continue with what we planned.”
“Dante, it’s only three of us though,” Natalie spoke up.
“Naw!” Dante replied, looking over to James. “What’s up, J? You feel like going out with us tonight? You can hold down Mari tonight.”
“I’m cool with it, if Mari is cool with it,” James said, looking from Dante to Mari.
“So what’s up, baby girl?” Dante asked, looking back to Mari. “We going out or what?”
* * *
Hearing her phone start to ring as she and Alex lay together, Alinna snatched it up quickly, answering it before it could wake Alex from his sleep. “Yeah!”
“What’s up, Alinna? Remember me, bitch?”
“What? Who this?”
“Oh, you can’t remember now, huh? Well, let’s take a trip down memory lane,” the voice told her laughing lightly. “Remember the last time you and I met, your last words were that ‘this was your city and that business between us wasn’t gonna happen?’”
“How the fuck did you get my number, bitch-ass nigga? What the fuck do you want?” Alinna said angrily, realizing whom she was talking to.
Laughing over the line after hearing Alinna recognize who he was, the voice said, “I’ll let you get back to you rest with your new husband, since I’m sure the two of you been at each other since you entered homeboy’s condo. I guess it’s true what everybody says after all. Dante saw what type of bitch you are and left your ass. But I tell you what. I’ll offer you a deal this time. Come work for me and maybe I’ll let you taste this dick from time to time. Think about it!”
Hearing the phone hang up, Alinna crawled out of bed naked, left the bedroom, and called Vanessa.
“Yeah?” Vanessa answered half asleep after three rings.
“Vanessa, wake up!”
“What. Who this?”
“Nessa, this Alinna! Wake up, bitch! We got problems to handle.”
“Hold on!” Vanessa told Alinna.
Peeking back inside the bedroom at Alex to make sure he was still asleep, Alinna focused back on the phone call, hearing Vanessa call her name.
“Yeah! Yeah! I’m right here.”
“Alright! So what’s going up that you had to call and wake me up at three in the morning?”
“You not gonna believe who just called my phone, Vanessa.”
“Who?”
“Stupid-ass Fish Man!”
“You talking about that dude we got into it with some months back who wanted to do business with us?”
“The same muthafucker!” Alinna replied. “This muthafucker got the nerve to offer me a deal to work for his punk ass. He also mentioned Dante and that we’re not together no more.”
“How the hell he know that?” Vanessa asked. “Where the fuck his ass been hiding at?”
“I have no idea but I’ma find out where his ass at and deal with ‘em!” Alinna said. “Do me a favor! Talk to Wesley, have him talk to his people, and see what they can find out about Fish Man and get back to me.”
“Where the hell you at?” Vanessa asked. Sucking her teeth, she continued, “Don’t even worry about answering that. You with that nigga you messing with. Bye!”
* * *
Hanging up with Alinna and shaking her head, Vanessa turned to head back inside her and Dre’s bedroom but stopped short when she had a thought.
Pulling up a number in her phone, Vanessa walked off from the bedroom to make a call.
“Hello!”
Hearing the female voice answer after four rings, Vanessa said, “Ummm…is this Dante’s phone?”
“Mmm huh! Who’s calling?”
“Who’s this?”
“This is his girlfriend! Who’s this?”
“Hold on! This Natalie?”
“This is! How do you know who I am? Who is this calling?”<
br />
“I’m sorry! This is Vanessa, Dante’s . . .”
“You’re Dante’s sister!” Natalie cut in saying, “Dante talks about you a lot. How are you?”
“I’m okay,” Vanessa answered. “Is Dante there?”
“He’s actually asleep right now. We just got . . .”
“Who’s that, Natalie?”
Hearing Dante’s voice in the background, Vanessa heard Natalie tell him she was on the phone.
“What’s up, Nessa?” Dante asked, as he came over the line a moment later.
“Hey, playboy! I see you went ahead and got with the girl, huh?”
“Yeah! What’s up though, lil sis? Everything good?”
“Actually no!” Vanessa answered. She went straight into the story that Alinna had just told her about the phone call from their old friend, Fish Man.
“So, what? This fool still trying to cause some problems since Alinna ain’t wanna fuck with ‘em on a business level?” Dante asked, once Vanessa was finished explaining.
“That’s what it sounds like,” Vanessa answered.
Sighing deeply, Dante said, “Alright! I’ma leave and head back there. I’ma call you when I hit Miami.”
“Alright! I’ll let Angela know you’ll be here since she been asking about you lately. Love you!” Vanessa hung up the phone, with a smile.
* * *
“Dante, you did not just say that you was leaving and going back to Miami?” Natalie angrily asked, as soon as he lowered the phone from his ear.
“Natalie, come on! You need to . . .”
“Do not tell me to relax, Dante!” Natalie shot back, cutting him off. “You’re just going to agree to leave and run back to Miami without discussing this with me first?”
Sighing as he sat up in bed with Natalie angrily staring at him, he found himself explaining the problem his family was having back in Miami. He promised Natalie he would be back within two weeks.
“I wanna come with you!” Natalie told him.
“No, Natalie!” Dante told her, staring hard at her.
Ignoring the look on his face, Natalie replied, “I wasn’t asking, Dante. I’m telling you I want to go.”
“Natalie! Look! I hear what you saying, but I’m serious. You’re not coming with me. I can’t focus on what I’m supposed to be doing down there if I’m worried about you at the same time. Just stay here for me, Natalie.”