by W. S. Greer
“You’re exactly right, Junior. He’s forgotten who he is and where he came from. We decided as a family a long time ago that we’d never get involved with selling any kind of drugs. We agreed that it was bad to be putting that shit out in the streets, and we agreed that it was destroying our youth and ruining the heart of our city. We said we’d never do it. He’s breaking a promise that we made decades ago, so that he can make a new promise to the fucking Russians. I just never thought anything like this would happen.”
“The question now is, what’s the next move for us?” I said, looking up at Mikey through the rearview mirror. “I know you have Lauren and your life to figure out, but what the hell are we supposed to do? Are we really naïve enough to believe that he’s just gonna leave us alone? I saw the look on his face as we were leaving, and I know he’s not done sticking his nose in our lives.”
“Well, I’ll tell you what I’m gonna do, then I’ll tell you what the two of you need to do. What I’m gonna do is go home, kiss my beautiful wife, and tell her that we’re packing up and leaving Chicago. I love this city with everything I have in me, but I know that if I stay here, Senior will find me, and he’ll find a way to keep himself in my life, and I just can’t have that anymore. This was the last straw for me. It might take us a few weeks to get everything sorted out, but I think it’s the only way I can get a clean break from him and protect myself and my wife.”
“Damn, Uncle Mikey,” Kelvin said, looking over at his uncle with a disappointed look on his face. “You’d leave Chicago? That’s deep. You’ve lived here your whole life.”
“I know, and I never said that it’d be easy for me to do, but I really don’t see any other way.”
“You’ve always been my rock, Unc. I’ve looked up to you more than I have my own father. I understand what you’re saying and I know that you’re right, but it’d be shitty to watch you go. I’m not sure how I’d feel about living here if you weren’t here.”
Mikey looked over at Kelvin with a look of sorrow. “I know. You’ve been like the son I never was able to have, but you’re also a grown man, and you’ve got your own life to live. Which is what I suggest you do.”
“That’s your advice to me? Live my own life?”
“Yes, actually. My advice to you is for you to take sole control of the Red Chip, and make that shit yours. Owning that casino could be a very lucrative thing for you, but you have to cut out all the dirty money. Get rid of all that illegal gambling that your father has going on in the fucking basement, and clean that place up. You have to figure out how to get your dad to sign that casino over to you, Junior. That’s your ticket. What the hell else are you gonna do? Go back to college? Why go through all that and run the risk of never being hired in whatever field you choose to go into, when you can own your own business at the age of twenty-two?
No matter what happens, don’t let your dad start bringing drugs into that place. If you do, you’re fucked. It’ll ruin everything, and every chance you have of being financially stable at a young age. You’re the one chance the Carters have at having someone have success without having to get involved in this gangster lifestyle. You can be our success story, Junior. You can come up, and you can do it without having to look over your shoulder for the fucking cops every day. That’s where your focus needs to be, Nephew. Taking the Red Chip and making it your own.”
Kelvin nodded as his uncle, and then turned around and nodded at me. When I nodded back at him, I hoped that he knew that I was agreeing with his uncle. In my opinion, Mikey was absolutely right. I knew that Kelvin had no desire to go back to college, and when things weren’t completely hectic with his family, he was running the day-to-day stuff at the Red Chip already anyway. It was his plan all along to gain full control of the casino and turn it into his vision, and separate himself from his father, and with everything that had just happened, now seemed like the best time to try to do that. The only problem was, how the hell was he supposed to convince Senior to sign over the casino? Especially after all the drama that just went down.
“That’s exactly what I want to do, Unc,” Kelvin finally replied. “The hard part, however, is having to go through my dad in order to become the full owner. He has to sign it over to me. I get the feeling it’d take a lot of convincing to do that.”
“Well, then you better figure out when you’re gonna get started convincing him,” Mikey said as we pulled up to the gate leading to his house, and waited for it to open completely. “Don’t get caught up in what I’m doing. Me and Lauren are gonna be fine. Just do what you have to do. Maybe you need to take a page out of your father’s book and manipulate him into doing what you want him to do. If I was you, that’s what I’d do.”
Mikey drove the luxury car through the gate and into the garage.
“Well, that’s a lot easier said than done, Unc,” Kelvin said. “I can’t do that kind of shit. I’m not him.”
“I know that, and I wouldn’t insult you by saying that you’re like him, but it seems like a pretty smart thing to do, because he’d never expect you to do it.”
The three of us all got out of the car and made our way inside. When we walked through the door, Lauren was already standing in the hall smiling at us.
“You’re back,” she said, reaching out to hug her husband. “How’d everything go? Did you do it?”
The three of us looked at each other, wondering which one of us was going to be the one to tell her everything that had just happened. Kelvin and I smiled at each other, and then we both turned to Mikey, who caught on quickly.
“Oh, I guess I get to be the one to tell this long, elaborate, drama-filled story,” he said to us before turning his attention back to his wife. “Let us all get changed and then we’ll sit down on the couch and I’ll explain everything.”
Then, minutes later, we were all seated on the couch in the beautifully decorated living room wearing our baggy “house clothes”. All four of us had some sort of alcoholic beverage in hand while Mikey proceeded to tell his wife all the craziness that had just happened. The look on her face as he told the story was priceless, and I couldn’t help but smile, even though I knew the story was actually pretty ridiculous and nothing funny. We all could use a laugh and smile in this fucked up time.
“So, they shot their own brother right there on the street?” Lauren inquired, still surprised by the news. “And Senior knew all about this the whole fucking time? And now he wants all of you to start selling fucking heroin, and hiding it in your establishments? Holy shit!”
“I know,” I interjected. “That’s pretty much the exact same thing all of us said.”
“Okay, so what now?” Lauren asked, looking at all of us.
“Well, I told Senior that I’m out, Baby.” Mikey answered. “I told him I didn’t want any part of the shit that he’s doing with the drugs and the Russians, and I’m out.”
“You’re out? What about the rest of your brothers? Did they say they were out too?”
“I don’t know. At least not while we were there, they didn’t. But, it doesn’t matter. We’ve been able to put aside enough money from the club that we really don’t need anything else from Senior. We can move on and be fine without…”
Suddenly, there was a loud buzz that startled us all.
“What the hell was that?” I asked, looking around to try to figure out where the sound came from.
“Somebody’s at the gate,” Mikey replied. He got up and walked upstairs and into his bedroom for a brief second, then came sauntering back down into the living room with a baffled look on his face. “It’s the cops. Chicago PD.”
“What the fuck would Chicago PD be doing here?” Lauren asked.
“I guess we’re about to find out. I just let them in the gate.” Mikey made his way over to the front door with the rest of us trailing behind him. He opened the door and stood out on the porch as two Chicago PD cruisers pulled up to the driveway.
Once they stopped, four officers got out, two from each c
ar. The moment I saw the one who was obviously leading the group, I felt my heart sink to the pit of my stomach. I’d seen him once before.
“Is there something I can help you officers with?” Mikey asked, purposely standoffish.
“Yes. In fact there is something you can help us with, Michael,” the short, stocky officer in the front said. I found myself staring at the tattoos that were running up his neck. The same tattoos I’d seen the day Kelvin checked out the hospital. Then, he held up a piece of paper for all of us to see. “I’m Officer Garin, and what I have here is a search warrant. We received an anonymous tip that you have drugs on the premises.”
“What the fuck? An anonymous tip, huh? Yeah, I bet it was anonymous,” Mikey said as he snatched the warrant out of the officers hands. “This is bullshit. I don’t have any fucking drugs in my house. Feel free to search the house, and then feel free to get the fuck out.”
“I didn’t say anything about the house, Mr. Carter. I said the premises.”
The two officers in the rear walked over to their car and popped the trunk, then pulled out two shovels.
“I’m gonna need you to lead us to your backyard, Mr. Carter,” Officer Garin said in his deep, husky voice.
“My backyard? You’re gonna dig in my backyard? I don’t think so.” Lauren asked, trying her best to hold back her anger.
“Let me handle this, Lauren,” Mikey interrupted. “It’s fine. Just do what you’ve gotta do and then get the fuck out of my house.”
Mikey turned around and led all of us through the house and out the back door. As we walked, I felt my heart beating violently in my chest, and I couldn’t shake the feeling that something serious was about to happen, and it absolutely was not a coincidence, just like this tip was not anonymous.
When we stepped outside, the three other officers followed the only one who’d said anything over to the edge of the decking. They all seemed to be looking down at the same spot.
“Right here,” Officer Garin stated, pointing to an obviously freshly dug spot in the ground. It was the only place in the entire backyard that wasn’t completely covered with thick green grass, and the moment I watched them start digging, I knew what was happening.
“What the fuck is this?” Mikey snapped. “That spot has never looked like that before. Look at my yard. There isn’t a patch of dirt anywhere, but all of a sudden there is a perfect circle of dirt right here on the corner of the decking? What the fuck is going on here?”
The cops didn’t even bother answering. Instead, one of the men with the shovels reached down into the shallow hole they’d just dug and pulled out a small duffel bag that had only been buried deep enough to just cover the top of it.
“Is this what I think it is, Mr. Carter?” Officer Garin asked with a patronizing grin.
“Man, what the fuck! I’ve never seen that shit in my life. That shit isn’t mine!”
Officer Garin placed the bag on the ground, unzipped it, and pulled out two brick-shaped bags of a yellowish brown substance—the same substance that we’d just seen at Senior’s place.
“You motherfuckers!” Mikey blared. “You’re trying to set me up! You’re trying to frame me!”
“This looks a lot like heroin, right here in your backyard Mr. Carter. That’s all the information we need,” Officer Garin replied. “You’re under arrest for possession of narcotics.”
The other three cops all rushed Mikey at the same time. Two of them held him, while the third put the handcuffs on him. Lauren watched in horror as they pushed Mikey back inside and started leading him through the house.
“Those fucking drugs aren’t ours! Senior did this!” she screamed as the cops opened the back seat to one of their cruisers and shoved Mikey inside. “This is a setup!”
Officer Garin walked over to Lauren and stopped only inches from her face. “Senior? Hhmm. I have no idea who you’re talking about. But, whoever it is, maybe your husband should’ve listened to him.” Then, he walked over to his car, smiling at Kelvin and me as he closed his door, and drove away with Mikey staring at us through the window of the backseat.
“I know you’re upset, Kelvin, but you really need to slow down. The last thing we need right now is to be pulled over by Chicago PD.”
“I’m sorry, Babe, but I can’t,” Kelvin replied as he continued to weave in and out of traffic in his uncle’s Escalade on our way back to the Red Chip.
After Mikey’s arrest, Kelvin seemed to explode into a fit of worry and panic, and anxiously told Lauren that he needed to borrow Mikey’s car. When she gave him the keys, he snatched them out of her hand and ran into the garage. I had to run at a full sprint just to keep up with him, and to make sure that he wasn’t going to leave me behind.
Now, as we dodged cars and pedestrians, Kelvin still hadn’t calmed down even a little bit, even blowing through a few stoplights. Luckily, there weren’t any cops around to haul us off to jail. From the way Kelvin was acting, I was pretty sure he’d keep going if the cops did pull up behind him.
Kelvin turned into the parking garage of the casino entirely too fast and I felt like the SUV was going to tip over from how much it leaned. The tires screeched as we came to a very sudden stop in the parking space that his Camaro used to occupy before it was shot to hell by Ilia Baskov’s crew—who apparently intentionally did not kill us. Kelvin slammed the car in park and jumped out of the seat, and then ran over to the elevator, pressing the button about fifty times as he waited for the doors to open.
Once we were finally inside, my heart was pounding from all the adrenaline and worry, yet I still had no clue what was going on.
“Okay, you’re really starting to scare me, and I don’t know what the fuck is going on. So, please take a minute to slow down and tell me what’s up,” I pleaded.
Kelvin stood across from me, tapping his foot anxiously and still breathing hard from his panic.
“I just have a feeling about something, and I need to be sure,” he said, just as the doors slid open and he ran out of the elevator and into the penthouse.
First, he ran into the bedroom and started opening all the drawers on the nightstands. When he didn’t find what he was looking for there, he flipped the mattress over, then flipped the box springs over and looked under the bed. His erratic behavior sent my heart into a confused overdrive and I had to back up as he came running out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. I watched in dismay as he opened all the cabinets, and then the dishwasher, and then the oven. Then, he ran into the living room and pushed all the couches out of their normal positions, and only after he didn’t find whatever it was that he was looking for, he finally stopped, and stood in the middle of the living room looking around at nothing in particular, with anger and fear spread across his face.
“Kelvin,” I said nervously. “Please talk to me. You’re acting crazy right now, and you haven’t told me what’s going on. How am I supposed to have your back if you don’t tell me what’s going on? Just stop for a second and talk to me.”
“I don’t know exactly what it is yet,” Kelvin answered between breaths. “It’s just a hunch, and I have to be sure.”
“Okay, you have a hunch. A hunch about what?”
Suddenly, Kelvin took off running into the entertainment room next to the living room. I followed him in as he ran over to the pool table and looked inside every one of the holes. Then, he ran into the bar and started moving bottles around, still searching for something.
“Goddamn it, Kelvin!” I blared. “This is nuts. You have to calm down, and slow down so we can think rationally about this.”
“I can’t slow down, Lilliana!” Kelvin barked. “We might not have much time. I have to make sure that…” Kelvin stopped talking in the middle of his sentence, staring down at a spot behind the bar that I couldn’t see from where I was standing.
“What?” I inquired. “What is it?”
“Come here,” Kelvin said, waving me over with his hand. “Is it just me, or is that panel a slightly differ
ent color than the rest of the panels?”
I quickly walked over to where Kelvin was standing and looked down at the wood paneling underneath the bar that he was pointing to. Sure enough, there was one piece of wood that was a slightly lighter color than the ones that were surrounding it, and I knew for sure that when this bar was built, there was no way that it was made like that.
“It’s different,” I said. “It’s not as dark as the rest of them. But why…”
All of a sudden, Kelvin lifted his foot and kicked the panel with all of his strength, sending tiny wood splinters scattering across the floor. I scrunched my head in confusion when I realized that that particular spot was hollow. What the hell?
Kelvin dropped down to his knees and reached inside the hole, and I could hear him struggling to grab ahold of whatever was inside.
“What the hell is that?” I asked.
“Goddamn it! Motherfucker!” Kelvin screamed as he pulled a small black duffel bag out of the hole. He slammed it on the ground in front of him and yanked the zipper open, revealing five plastic bricks of a yellowish substance—heroin.
“Son of a fucking bitch! I knew it! He set all of us up!” Kelvin exclaimed. “This was a part of his plan all along. He knew we’d be resistant to his plan to work with the Russians, so he planted his new heroin supply all over our establishments, so that he could set us up if we didn’t go along with the plan. That’s how they got Mikey. My dad set him up.”
“Well, aren’t you the little private eye detective,” a deep voice said from behind me. I jolted and quickly turned around to find Senior standing in the doorway to the room wearing a black jacket with a matching black fedora hat, and a thick cigar in his mouth. “I see you found my little stash.”
My heart was pounding as I stood between the two of them, hoping that I wasn’t going to become collateral damage in a vicious father/son fight.
Kelvin looked up at his father and I swore I could feel the hatred emanating off his body as he stared daggers into him.