by Roy Glenn
He had known Doc as long as he could remember. R.J. respected him enough to understand that this, like everything else, is a lesson you gotta learn, he could hear his father saying.
“I expect a lot from you boys. You’re the future of this family. So play time is over,” Doc said, and then he explained what he had learned at that night’s meeting and then he told them that Rain had assigned him to hit the sports betting spot. “And I’m assigning that task to the four of you.”
All four Kings smiled because this was the opportunity to step up that they’d been waiting for, that they had talked and dreamed about. They listened as Doc explained the details of the job and how Rain wanted it done.
“Get the civilians out, kill everybody and burn the place to the ground.”
“Make a statement,” R.J. said.
“Send a message,” Doc said.
After he went over the details that they needed to know about the spot, he sent The Four Kings off to do their work.
On the way there, they reviewed the job. According to Carter, there were only two exits, one in front and one in the rear. There were four men that ran the spot. One at the front door, another near the back of the spot, while the other two were in an office near the bar.
“Me and Pills will go in the front, Judah, you and Marvin take the back,” R.J. ordered.
“When we get inside, I’ll take the one at the door, Marvin, dude at the back is yours. While Pills clears the room, me, Marvin and Judah will move to the office.”
Once assignments were issued and accepted, they talked about how they were going to do it. And then the Suburban got quiet as each man thought about what they were going to do that night.
“Y’all realize that we’re all gonna make our bones tonight. Together, the way it should be,” R.J. said, and Marvin decided that he wasn’t going to contradict him.
He had never told them that he already made his bones one night in the office at The Four Kings with his father. This life requires commitment … commitment to this family, Nick told him the night Marvin killed Stacks.
“I thought Judah and Marv already made their bones?” Pills asked.
“No,” Judah said. “Mutha fuckas was shooting at me and Marv and in the process of defending ourselves, we killed several people.”
“This is different,” R.J. began. “The Captain of our crew just came from a meeting with the boss of this family and the other Captains. When he came back, he ordered us to kill on behalf of The Family. So we make our bones together.”
“Four Kings for life,” Pills said as he drove.
“For life,” his brothers said.
And then, once again, the Suburban returned to silence, until Marvin began telling R.J. about what happened with Sterling at the club. “What happened?” R.J. asked.
“Monique said his boys was rollin’ in the spot, so I reminded him that it was against house rules,” Marvin said.
“How’d he take that?” R.J. asked.
“Not well,” Pills said.
“Words were exchanged, guns were drawn, Sterling left,” Marvin told him. “And in case you’re wondering, Venus wasn’t with him.”
“I know.”
“We thought he came back and was gonna pull a drive-by,” Judah said, and explained what happened. “But with all that’s going on, now I’m thinking that it could have been Coleman that came at us.”
“Fuck all that, R.J.,” Marvin said. “Fuck you mean, you know?” Marvin asked. But he already knew the answer.
“I mean, I know Venus wasn’t there that night.”
“No you didn’t?”
“Yeah, Money, I did.”
As it does with most things, it started out simple.
R.J. saw Venus when she’d come to the club with Sterling and he would admire her beauty every time. And Venus was a beautiful woman that stood five feet, eight inches tall and to R.J., she had a perfect asymmetric body. But despite his admiration, he kept his distance, until one night at the club while Sterling was in the gambling room, a man was bothering Venus and R.J. came to her rescue.
It was nothing really, R.J. and Pills stepped up, grabbed and escorted the man out of the club. When they came back inside the club and he saw Venus, she smiled and nodded her head in appreciation.
After that, any time they’d see each other, they’d smile and nod to acknowledge the other’s presence. That went on for a few weeks and then it began.
One night, R.J. was standing at the bar with Marvin and Judah, when Marvin saw her walking through the club.
“There goes your girl,” Marvin said, and pointed in her direction.
“Where?”
“Right there,” Judah pointed. “You can’t miss her, fuckin’ fine as she is.”
“That she is,” R.J. said and nodded his head.
Venus stopped when she saw him at the bar. Then she looked around for a second or two before she walked right up to him.
“Here she comes,” Judah said as he and Marvin moved out of her way. R.J.’s heart began to pump hard in his chest.
“Hi,” she said with her hand out.
“Hello.”
“I’m Venus.”
“R.J.”
“I just wanted to introduce myself and actually say thank you for getting rid of that jerk for me,” Venus said and stepped closer to R.J. When she did, Marvin and Judah started looking around for Sterling or any of his crew.
“Not a problem, I was glad to help.” R.J. stepped a little closer to her. Close enough that she could feel the heat coming off his body. “Venus, or should I say, Aphrodite of Milos,” he said to impress her.
Venus smiled. “Very good. Most people don’t know that.” She laughed. “My mother actually wanted to name me Aphrodite, but my father wasn’t hearing that, so they settled on Venus de Milo Phillips.”
“Venus de Milo,” he paused. “The Greek goddess of love and beauty. You wear the name well,” R.J. said, and after she thanked him once again, Venus went back to the table where Sterling and his boys were seated.
Simple.
After that, anytime she was at The Four Kings, at some point during the night, Venus would ease away from Sterling so she could talk to R.J. and it wasn’t long before cell numbers were exchanged.
For the next two weeks, R.J. and Venus would talk at least once every day. They were never long conversations, and for obvious reasons, it was always Venus that called R.J., but they were just enough for her to let him know that he was on her mind.
It was just this past Thursday afternoon, before the trouble began that R.J. was at The Four Kings when Venus called. Since he chose not to take any classes that summer, R.J. had been spending most of his days and nights at the club with Ayisha Diaz. She was teaching him the business of running a legitimate night club, and the business of running an illegal gambling club within the confines of that legitimate business. She understood perfectly well who R.J. was and what he represented, and what it meant for her and her future in The Family.
Venus had been out all day, getting her hair, nails and toes done, and after that, she called R.J. to talk on her way home. Once he told her where he was, she invited herself over. It only took Ayisha hearing one side of that conversation to announce that she was gone for the day.
When Venus arrived, R.J. let her in, and they returned to his office. R.J. shut the door and locked it before turning to Venus. She looked into his eyes. Even though she was involved with Sterling, there was something about RJ that made Venus want to fuck him. Made her want to fuck him every time she saw him. And unless her senses had deceived her, R.J. looked like he wanted to fuck her every time he saw her too.
He stepped a little closer to Venus. The fuck me now look in her eyes was making his dick hard.
“You better stop looking at me like that if you want to keep your pretty hair in place,” he teased.
She smiled at him and approached, eager to close the distance between them. “What’s going to happen if I don’t?” Venus
asked, wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his lips.
It didn’t take long for R.J. to take over the kiss and become the aggressor. Capturing her tongue, flicking it, then kissing her neck before going back to her lips.
It felt as if her head was spinning from his kiss and before long, the red jersey dress that Venus had on was being pulled over her head, her bra was being pulled down and R.J. was leaning forward to take the tip of her nipple between his lips.
“Damn, I need you inside me now,” Venus whispered as she unbuckled his pants. R.J. reached behind her back, unhooked her bra and then he stepped back a bit to admirer her beautiful breasts.
Venus pulled his pants down as he pulled down her thong. Once each stepped out of their remaining clothing, they rushed back into each other’s arms. Their tongues intertwined as they literally stumbled to the couch and he was inside her warmth, bouncing her up and down on his dick.
The sounds of her wet pussy popping filled the air, the clap of her jiggling ass against his skin. He fucked her hard, grabbing her tits, smacking her ass, making her suck on his finger, and she loved it. Venus had cum over and over and over again before she was finally able to pull a nut out of him.
“That was so good, R.J.,” Venus said as she fixed her dress and tried to make her hair look somewhat presentable before saying that she was leaving.
“Where are you going?” R.J. asked.
“I gotta get back,” she said sadly.
“I don’t want you to go.”
“I don’t wanna go.”
“Then don’t.”
Venus thought for a minute and then she pulled out her phone to call Sterling. She made up some excuse about having a very sick aunt in Baltimore that was in the hospital and they were calling for family members to come because the doctors said that it wouldn’t be long before she passed.
When a broad smile flashed across her lips, R.J. knew that they were on and he could take his time and have her again.
“That was Venus you’ve been with?” Pills asked.
“That’s who I been with,” R.J. said as they arrived at a sports bar called The Players’ Lounge, which was Coleman’s sports betting spot.
Knowing that they’d have to deal with the repercussions of R.J. fucking Sterling’s woman later, Marvin shook his head.
“You ready for this?”
“Yeah, let’s do this,” R.J. said as he and the other Kings pulled down their ski masks, Pills grabbed the gas can from the trunk and they got out of the car.
Marvin and Judah went around back, while R.J. and Pills headed for the front entrance. When R.J. gave the signal, they went inside. He put his gun to front door security’s head and took his gun as Pills raised the pump. He fired one shot at the ceiling, and as expected, it got everybody’s attention.
“Nobody moves, nobody gets hurt!”
When Marvin came through the back door with his man, he and Judah made their way to the office. While Pills covered the room, R.J. moved his man to the office, and they went in. The men were startled at their sudden appearance and when one reached for his gun, Marv shot him immediately.
R.J. nodded at Pills and he fired the shotgun at the ceiling again. “Everybody out!”
Once they cleared all the civilians out, Pills began spreading gasoline everywhere. In the office, Marvin, and Judah took all the money while R.J. covered. Once all the money was secure and Pills finished his work, R.J. called him in the office where the remaining three men were on their knees. R.J., Judah and Pills stood in front of Coleman’s men, raised their weapons and fired.
Once they were out, Judah set the place on fire and The Four Kings left.
Chapter Thirty-five
When Ed Weather came out of J.R.’s he got in the car with Reynard and they drove off. As Reynard drove, Ed thought about the task that he’d been assigned and more importantly, how he was going to get it done. He had lost all his best and most trusted men in the shooting at Paradise Fish and Chicken. Ed looked at Reynard, he was just a kid and had no experience in dealing with situations like this.
“But I gotta have somebody,” Ed said aloud.
“What you say?”
“Nothing kid. Just drive.”
As Reynard drove, Ed knew that he’d need at least two men, two good men that he could trust to ride on the gambling spot. But he was already in the process of rebuilding his crew, and taking the loss at Paradise didn’t help matters.
It wasn’t like Rain didn’t know all that when she assigned him to hit the spot. So it was getting done regardless. He thought for a while and came to the conclusion that he knew a good man, someone that he once trusted. All he had to do now was decide if he wanted to do it.
Ed Weather took a deep breath. “Take me to Pago’s,” Ed said, and Reynard headed in that direction.
Pago’s was the night club that was run by Darius Wilkerson, who was sitting in his office, thinking. Like so many others, he believed that he should have been made Captain when Sherman retired. But unlike Jab and Kenard Turner, Darius wasn’t disloyal. So he accepted it, and was content to wait for his opportunity. His plan was to gather support for the day when he would make his move, but to this point, he hadn’t found anybody willing to get behind him.
“Ed Weather’s a good man. With all that’s going on, we need to give him a chance,” was the type of response that he had gotten.
So for Darius, it was time to check himself and decide what type of man he wanted to be. Was he willing to let his thinking that he should be Captain destroy all the years of unswerving allegiance, devotion and faithful service to The Family? The answer was no. Like Ed Weather, Darius Wilkerson was a loyal soldier.
Just then, there was a knock at the door.
“Come in,” Darius shouted.
Butchie opened the door and stuck his head in. “Ed Weather’s here,” he said, and before Darius could answer, Ed pushed the door open and stepped in.
“What’s up, Darius? I need your help.”
“I’m there for you,” Darius said, and stood up.
“We need another man,” Ed said as he turned to leave.
“Come on, Butchie,” Darius said as he passed and Butchie fell in behind them.
On the way to what was now the last of Coleman’s gambling spots, Ed Weather told Darius and Butchie how Carter said they were set up and then he told them how Rain wanted it done. Now that everybody understood what they were gonna do, Butchie put a silencer on his weapon. When they got to the spot, Ed told Reynard to wait by the car, while he went in with Darius and Butchie.
When they got to the place, they saw the door man that Carter said controlled access to the spot coming toward them. The second he was close enough, Butchie raised his weapon and fired twice; one to the chest, one to the head and kept walking. Each man put on a ski mask and went inside. Darius raised the AK, pointed at the ceiling and began firing. When he stopped shooting, Ed stepped up.
“Everybody out!” he yelled, raised his AK, and began firing at the ceiling.
As people rushed by them and crowded the door to get out, Darius saw three men with guns coming toward them.
“We got incoming!” he yelled and opened up on them.
The men scattered as Ed Weather and Butchie joined in and kept firing. When one of the men went down, Ed Weather came out blasting as three more men came out the door firing. Ed fired several shots and killed one of the men. One of Butchie’s shots hit another man and he went down and then he took cover.
Once he checked his weapon, he came up firing, but before Butchie could drop back for cover, one of Coleman’s men fired and his shot found its mark.
The firefight was intense, and Ed and Darius were forced to take cover as the four men kept firing at them.
There’s a lot more mutha fuckas in here than Carter said there’d be, Ed thought. With his AK empty, Ed took out both of his guns. Darius put his last magazine in his AK and readied himself to return fire. Ed Weather rose up, fired twice, and hit one
of the men.
When one stopped firing to reload a fresh clip, Ed Weather stood up and hit him with two shots to the chest. The man went down and Ed took cover as his partners began firing at him.
Darius rose up, fired and hit another in the arm as he tried to move in on them. He got up and fired at Darius as he ran out the back door. Darius got to his feet, took out his Beretta and went after him, while Ed exchanged gunfire with the remaining shooter.
Darius ran down the street firing at his prey. When he emptied the clip, Darius reloaded on the run and continued firing. The man kept firing as he ran, until he had just about made it to a car. When he turned and fired, Darius returned fire and hit him with multiple shots before he got in the car. With his man down, he ran back inside.
Meanwhile, Ed went after the shooter. As the shooter stopped and fired at Ed, he took cover and returned fire. When the shooting stopped, Ed Weather stood up and slowly moved out with his weapons raised. He stopped when he heard a noise. With his back to the wall, Ed moved to the corner and peeked around.
There was the last man, crotched down behind a table, trying to reload. Ed stood over him and fired one shot to the head. Then he put one in his chest as Darius arrived.
“I see you got him.”
“Yeah. Go get Reynard, and bring the gas,” Ed Weather ordered.
Chapter Thirty-six
Kenard Turner was a pimp, that’s where he started out. It didn’t take long before he started running with people in Howard’s crew that he got into loan sharking, extortion, and number running. But at his core, Kenard Turner was a pimp. That night, he was at Veneshia’s sampling the new merchandise when Carter and Rain arrived outside and he parked the car.
“Veneshia’s.” Carter took a deep breath. “I haven’t been here in years,” he said, and thought about his incarceration. “I haven’t been a lotta places in years.” He took out his Glock.
“I hear this place got history,” Rain said.
Carter laughed while he checked his weapon. “Veneshia used to be Black’s bottom girl.”