by Brick
Rebuffing the glass, I shifted the folders away and stretched out an arm over the back of the chair. “No, thank you. I don’t indulge while I’m doing business.”
“Smart young man,” he leisurely stated. “Then you are more like Claudette than I assumed.”
“Of course I am, sir. Which is why it amuses me that you lie in front of your council of mobsters about just how interwoven the debt is.” Leaning forward, I pushed the glass away then reclined, keeping my gaze on the old man and folding my hands over the files on my lap. “Each and every one of you owes my family a debt. Many. That will not erase itself just for me being here.”
A quick glint of anger flashed across the old man’s face. “What do you know of debts owed! Debts paid off with Claudette’s murder!” he barked out, ice clinking in his glass.
“Nothing was paid off with my mother’s death! Nothing!” I found myself shouting fist clenching at my side. A simmering passion blazed through me as I stared at a man Mama had mentioned countless times in her journals. A man who allowed her to die, in my eyes, if Cormac had anything to do with her death.
“If anything . . .” I paused and toned down my anger before continuing. “If anything, it’s double bound due to your neglect in not protecting her and not protecting the one thing she loved. Us.”
Silence blazed between us. An unspoken challenge of wills had been kicked off because of what I now clearly could see: our love for Mama and our grief.
“She chose him over me,” the old man grumbled low.
The tone was so harsh that I noticed Lucky looking our way from the parlor and taking a few steps toward the room before a hand stopped him. It was then that I could see the elder woman. Immediately, I pushed up from the couch and almost fell backward in fear. I was staring at Mama. She was alive, looking over Lucky’s shoulder. I blinked rapidly, trying to comprehend who I was looking at because I was there when we buried Mama, so I had to be losing my gotdamned mind as I stared at her mirror image.
When Mama’s twin moved around Lucky, she turned her back to me. African-print fabric swirled against the floor where she moved. She wore what I could tell was a couture-style dress, with dripping diamond necklaces around her neck. On her fingers were various rings and around her wrists were diamond bangles. Coiled gray hair swung against her back, and because she was closer, I could see she was slightly younger. This wasn’t Mama, but it was almost a twin in a sense, with varying differences, such as the jewelry and her state of dress.
“I loved your mother dearly,” I heard by my side. “Even in our . . . complicated friendship. I loved her, and tried to move heaven and earth for her. So when whispers in the crime world started that some heat might have possibly been coming for the Syndicate, your mother was the last one I ever thought would be the one to be eliminated. She knew something was brewing. Told me as much, but she told me it was what came with the territory. Said not to worry about her. I was too late, son. There is much that you can’t even begin to know. So tell me clearly, what of the debt specifically are you pulling here?”
With a glance, I stared at the side of the face of a man who was in just as much pain as I was over Mama’s death. My shoulders almost dropped at what was told to me, but I kept my cool, then turned my attention back to the woman in the room.
“She stopped a bullet from going into your heart,” I said.
I couldn’t believe how much that woman looked like Mama. I turned to back to the old man.
“Yes. That’s the first debt I owe her.” A gentle smile spread across his face as he lit up a cigar. “Let me share with you why because what I want to share wasn’t appropriate for our meeting with the others.”
He made sure that I understood that in the life of a leader, not all parts of you are meant to be shared, just the overview; and I respected that. “It was the late eighties. Your mother came to New York at my request to work for me and as a means to secure her own rise in the South as a queen pin. After King had died, word on the street was that his woman was taking his place. I knew this to be true as King and I done business before. Good business. I’d met Claudette before then, got the scars to prove it. I felt something for her the moment I first laid eyes on her. With King gone, I figured she was fair game on the other side of business if you know what I mean.”
I nodded.
Plumes of smoke rose between us. It was then that I turned to grab that offering of amber liquid. Yeah, just moments before I said I didn’t drink and do business, but I needed something to be able to handle all I was hearing. I listened to him tell me things about Mama I had no clue about. I was sure that there were more journals that I needed to read about Mama’s early days.
“She glowed in her intelligence and ability to command a room. At her side was her trusted right hand and protection. A young kid named Snap. At the time, I was intent on having my own time with her, because her beauty and the way her mind could summarize business deals and plans aroused something in me.”
I glanced at the Old Italian, then chuckled. It didn’t take anything to fill in the cracks of what wasn’t being said. Shit, I was experiencing a taste of that same game through Lucky. So, I chuckled low realizing that this was the additional piece of Mama’s life not written in the journals I did read.
Sliding one hand in my pocket just to relax, I said, “You made sure to keep him busy?”
“Of course, I tried, but Claudette wasn’t about to allow him to be treated like the help. He was her right hand after all. Besides, whenever Claudette visited, my coffers runneth over with coins. So she kept all of us busy anyway. She was good like that. Could make me work when I said I wouldn’t.”
I listened to a rich, deep rumble of laughter come from the old dude as he spoke on. “It wasn’t easy to get along with Snap. I tell you that. A man knows when another man is after something that he had laid claim to; but beautiful Claudette insisted that he’d learn everything, so he complied. She asked me not to do and say certain things around him because it angered him. I respected her so I kept my mouth closed. I was rewarded behind closed doors.”
The old man moved away from my side and walked to the large panel windows overlooking the city. “We took over the city. I wined and dined her. In our prior years of friendship, it was a simple thing to do. We spoke of when we first met, which was in Vegas where it was her smart thinking that got King to the top of the food chain of the Syndicate and me in line to run the Commission.”
As he spoke, I sat back amazed at the brilliance of Mama and ingenuity she had to make a business deal no matter the cost. Which led back to the debt business, as the day turned into night and we both sat back full off of seafood, Italian pastas, and wine.
“There was a property in Queens that I was showing your mother the ins and out off, when I was ambushed by several of my rivals. Before that, in my limo, your mother and I . . . engaged ourselves in the act of coitus. It was during that when I learned that she was with child. Had I known prior that that day would have been the day of all days that I was to be tested and challenged for my life, I wouldn’t have ever brought her to Queens. On my word.”
A pained expression appeared on his face. It made the old man furrow his brow and close his eyes at the memories as he spoke.
“There was blood everywhere, too much to be normal.” The old man’s voice softened and he shook his head. “She ran right out in front of me like a gazelle. Pushing me back into the limo, using her body to shield me, as bullets peppered the limo and our bodies.”
From the way he cleared his throat, I could sense that he was holding back tears. “It was a simple acquisition of property. I was go to in, collect my money from the family who was running the butcher shop. Only, the Ajello family was adamant about ending me and everyone associated with me that day. Alas.” He flipped his hand then pressed it against his eyes. “She lay in my arms bleeding everywhere. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“She lost the child?” I quietly asked, feeling a sharp pain in
my heart.
The old man was eerily quiet before he finally answered me, which had me thinking. Especially when I heard Lucky’s laughter nearby.
“Indeed,” he finally said. “She was in shock. Calling out to the father of that child, Raphael. I listened to her telling him that she was sorry for failing him and their bambino. I didn’t realize until we escorted her to the hospital and put her in protection just how much she loved the man. Rightfully so, he hates me for her being shot and I hate him for the loyalty and love he was able to win from her. However, I owe him as well, which is why I never told him that she was carrying his child. Your mother bound me by my word to not tell the truth of the situation. She never told him either. By the time he got to the hospital, they had her stable and all she told him was that she had been shot.”
When the old man looked at me, it was if he was being shot at again. The pain was exceedingly raw and it hurt to my soul to know that I knew what it was to lose a child too.
“I killed every last member of that family, Javon. Personally washed in their blood. Made them experience pain and loss that I did, the day they decided to overthrow me. This is what you must do as you rise in power, Javon. Never let your enemies know your fear!”
Again, a subtle silence fell between us. I sat in shock at everything that was shared with me. When a man loses all he loves, if you don’t kill him, then he will rise like a demon and take all that you cherish, so I learned. Never leave your enemy breathing.
The old man cleared throat again, then shifted back in his chair. “So, this debt is lifelong, generational, because it was almost your mother’s death, then it was death of the unborn child. It also includes the thievery of her ability to have any more children after.”
Folding his hands in front of him, the Old Italian stared at me in assessment. “In totality, that has put the responsibly on my shoulders to answer any call that Claudette or her children may have. Which is why I allowed you to speak so disrespectfully and why I omitted some information with my council. They didn’t need the details; you did. So, now we continue this negotiation and I will use my power to help you in any way, son.”
After handling business in New York, I came back home. Everything during my trip fell how it was supposed to. I guess that was Mama guiding me in her lessons again. I ended up having everything negotiated it to a T. What I did in meeting the Old Italian had been a major gamble. But, in the end, I learned a lot and knew that if I didn’t have Mama’s notes, and her explicit messages that if I ever needed to pull an ace these were the people who you start with, then I would had been signing my own death certificate. Mama had been clear in making a big note about that in her journal.
So, in addition to being aware of all of that, I personally needed to recognize that my rash plan could end me. I had to have that understanding that if my attempt to personally kill every Irish that I could get my hands on would ever go south, then I needed to be aware that the family would be left to their own devices, and Mama’s plans and dreams would be nowhere. So that was why I made sure to add one more clause to the debt I’d collected from the old man. Mama’s plans were birthed with ill intent. I had to be the living embodiment of Mama’s contingency plan. I now had to man up and follow through with everything.
Chapter 23
Javon
This was the quiet before the storm. The moment when old secrets could either shake up our foundation, or help educate us. Checking out the woman of my life, my “before all else,” who had held me down through everything, I studied how Shanelle sat in the middle of the bed after debriefing her. She was beautiful how she was positioned in the middle of the bed surrounded by pillows, and turned-down bed linens.
I was fresh out of the shower, skin still slightly moist even after oiling my skin. I had on drawstring pants and a towel around my neck. Shanelle was baffled. That was apparent in how her head was tilted to the side, and how she stared up at me and blinked slowly in disbelief.
Honestly, I was the same way when the Old Italian told me about Mama’s secrets. It was wild to even think of Mama having such an experience, but she did. So, I wasn’t sure where to go with expressing that to Shanelle. So, I walked her way in concern, my bare feet feeling the familiar knots and dents in the wooden floor under me.
“So, why can’t you tell Uncle Snap?” she asked speaking low just in case we were being listened to.
When I dropped down beside Shanelle in Mama’s bed, the bed creaked and the comforting softness pressed in my hands. I couldn’t help but remember the times I used to come in here as a child to wake Mama up or help her clean. Now, her room was ours, along with her secrets; and I missed her deeply.
“Because, it would break Uncle Snap’s heart,” I heard myself explain while still in my thoughts.
I shared the rest of my trip with Shanelle. Explaining where I went and who I met and why. When it came to Mama’s secrets, I did my best in relaying everything.
“I don’t understand,” Shanelle said taking my hand and shifting in the bed to lay her head against my shoulder.
Honestly, I wasn’t sure how I could explain it, but I chose my words to the best of my ability. “With seeking out those old heads, I had to pull up a lot of old history. Old things between Mama and the Old Italian up North.” I worded it like that because, as I spoke, I was rehashing everything again. “Mama always told Uncle Snap that she wouldn’t give him a kid, but she did; at least, she was carrying when she went to NYC to do work for the old man up North.”
Taking my time, I tossed my towel away from me. I then locked eyes with Shanelle while we spoke. “While she was working with the old man, she saved his life by taking a bullet for the dude. It wasn’t on purpose, she had said in her journal. She wrote that it just fell that way. But, according to the old man, it was on purpose because they had been ambushed by a rival family. He said there was a lot of blood. Too much blood, baby.”
Frowning, I knew what I was sharing about Mama would bring up my similar history with Shanelle. Emotion shimmered behind her eyes. I knew that she was putting the pieces together. My hands wrapped around Shanelle’s legs; then I pulled her to me, so that I could lay a kiss on her temple, wrap her legs around me, and hold her close as I knew she enjoyed.
“She lost that baby in the middle of the battle. Blood everywhere. The Old Italian witnessed it and it broke his heart. His life was spared by her risking her own life, and sacrificing her child, and her ability to create life again. That started the life debt. I didn’t know the full story of it all when I presented to him that I was cashing in on that debt but, in the end, it worked out for us, baby. We talked for hours and he understood why I chose that deep of a debt in my request for help in taking down the Irish.”
Pausing, I brushed my knuckles against Shanelle’s neck to check if she was still listening and make sure she was okay before continuing. “The old man gave me a pass because Mama’s kids were being attacked in a ruthless, dishonorable way. Besides, I learned that he and Mama had a small sexual thing in the past as well and that he was still in love with her.”
Eyes bugged out, Shanelle covered her mouth. I knew what I shared was bringing up our own pain and losses. There was no way around it, but I knew that I could bring her comfort, so I did. I leaned in to kiss her moist, fluttering eyelashes.
“Get out of here. Really?” she softly muttered, her voice coated in unshed tears.
“Yeah, baby.” I nodded with a lighthearted sigh. “It was hard to read all of that in the journals and hear it from the old man’s mouth. Before going to NYC Mama and Snap fought over that.”
“Wait, is Lucky—” Shanelle started.
“No. I actually was able to meet his mother. Funny enough, but not really because it broke my heart. She resembles Mama,” I explained then scratched my head. “If he was, I’m not too sure how I’d feel about that. I mean what’s the point of all of what she had us do, you know?”
Resting her head against my chest, Shanelle closed her eye
s and slid her hand against my stomach feeling my abs. “Maybe to give you both seats as a means to show her love and atone for her mistakes? I get why she was in tears when we lost our baby.”
What she said hit me heavy. If Lucky had been Mama’s child from the affair with the Old Italian . . . damn. I couldn’t call it though. The game would change and the idea that Mama set this all up for us both to rule would make for some interesting camaraderie within the Syndicate. Shaking that thought off, I moved on trying my best to not break down about Cory and Inez. I needed to check on the rest of the family before I did that, so I got up, and helped Shanelle up while thinking about Jojo and Naveen.
“I need to check on Jojo and Naveen, on all of them,” I said tilting Shanelle’s chin up. “You good? Don’t think I didn’t see how you went commando on the Irish. That was the sexist shit I ever saw.”
She blushed when I said that. That brief flash of a blush wrapped me in a brief moment of light in the darkness that surrounded us.
“I had to hold it down, you know that. I had to for the family. I’d do it again if it would bring Cory and Inez back,” she said.
My silence was painful at the mention of them. It was one thing to think about them but hearing their names out loud brought back that fresh pain. I clenched my fists and looked away before standing up from the bed. In my mind I could imagine how pissed and scared they were when their truck flipped.
“Von?”
Their screams echoed in my mind. I felt hot suddenly. Felt burns over my flesh, smelling the scent of smoke, hearing the deep laugher of a male voice hurting me, then the memory of large hands snatching up Cory.
“Von!” Shanelle shouted at me.
I was losing it. I lost my brother because I wasn’t strong enough for him. Lost him because I wasn’t devoted enough for him. Then, Inez, I failed her the most. It’s sad but I should have protected her from Cory. He wasn’t who I thought he was. Wasn’t able to separate himself from the demons. Fuck, I hadn’t either. Everyone saw Shanelle and me as perfect but we weren’t. I fucked up all the time, every day with her. I just learned from it and she forgave me. I wished my brother were here, not to tell him all of that but to show him that I accepted him and not the addict he became.