by Roy Glenn
When he ended the call with Rain, Carter bounced out of bed, hurried to get dressed and was out the door and in the Caddy five minutes later. On the way to J.R.’s, he wondered what was going on. Although Carter was used to Rain calling at all hours of the day and night, there was something about the tone of her voice that said this is bad, so he drove a little faster.
When he got to J.R.’s, Rain was standing outside waiting for him. Carla had already called and had given Rain the location of where the money stopped.
“I’ll keep monitoring and let you know if it moves. By the time you get there, I hope to have eyes on,” Carla said, but when they arrived at the spot where the money was, it was a different story. “The outside is clear, but I am blind inside. No security system or cameras to hack into.”
“Heat signatures?” Rain asked.
“Not from where I’m sitting.” Carla paused. “Damn, I knew I should have got my ass out of bed and came down there.”
“It’s all right, Carla. Tell me what we’re looking at.”
“It’s a laundromat, with office space above. Based on the altitude, I’d say the money is somewhere on the third floor. I have access to the original architect’s drawings and a directory of who had offices on that floor, but it’s the best I can do.”
“It’s all right, Carla,” Rain said as she opened her trunk. “Keep this line open. I may need you to cut the power.”
“Acknowledged. Accessing power grid.”
Once she and Carter armed themselves, they made their way toward the building.
“There’s an alarm, Carla,” Rain said.
“Does it have a keypad?”
“Yes.”
“Can you remove the cover?” Carla asked, and Rain looked at Carter. He took out his knife.
“I got a knife, Carla and I’m gonna try to get it off.”
“Gently. You don’t want to set it off.”
“Right,” Carter said and went to work. It took a minute or two, but, “I got it.”
“Take the cover off and send me a picture of what you’re looking at,” Carla requested, and Rain complied.
“Don’t tell me … you want me to cut the red wire, right?” Carter said.
“No, if you cut the red wire, it will trigger a silent alarm.”
“Because it’s not getting power, the system will assume that it’s being compromised,” Rain said.
“Exactly,” Carla said and both she and Carter were impressed.
“What? I pay attention when Monika talks,” Rain said. “So what do we need to do?”
“I’ll cut the power, it’ll reset the keyboard, so you’ll have a minute to disable the lock and get in undetected.”
“Acknowledged,” Rain said, and Carter did as Carla instructed and then Rain picked the lock and they were in. They bypassed the elevator and quietly made their way upstairs to the third floor.
When they got to the third floor and Carter opened the door, Rain stepped in and quickly found out that the original architect’s drawings were outdated. Where there were once offices, the entire third floor was now one open storage space.
When Rain saw three men standing around a table with her money, she pulled out her gun. When they saw Rain and Carter, the three grabbed their guns.
“Look out!” Rain dove for the ground and the three men began firing at them. When Rain and Carter returned their fire, the men scattered as Rain kept firing until the clip was empty and she was able to get to her feet. The men took cover to regroup, leaving the money on the table. They returned fire as Carter grabbed her by the hand and they ran away from the door to cover. Carter and Rain both came up blasting as the men came toward them firing. One of them was now armed with an AK47. As he blanketed the room with bullets, the other two men marched, firing their weapons toward the money on the table.
Carter fired several shots, one of the bullets found its mark and killed one of the men. Rain rose up, fired twice and hit one of the men in the arm, but he kept firing and they made it to the back door. Carter and Rain fired at the men as they ran down the stairs. Once they were outside, they separated and ran in different directions.
Rain went after one. “I’m going after the money,” she shouted, leaving the one with the AK to Carter.
“Right.”
She ran down the street firing along the way. When she emptied her clip, Rain 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 got to the car, he fumbled with his key and it gave Rain the time she needed to catch up. He fired at her, got in a Passat, and drove straight at Rain. She planted her feet, gripped her nine with both hands and kept firing at the windshield. Rain dove for the ground and lay motionless until the car drove on. Rain got to her feet and kept firing as the car drove away fast.
Meanwhile, the other man had Carter pinned behind a car and taking heavy fire. Carter got to his feet, exchanged gunfire with him, and dropped back for cover. That was when he saw the Passat coming and Rain running behind it blasting.
When the driver brought the Passat to a screeching stop in front of his partner, Carter rose up and shot him before he could get in the door. Before the driver could drive off and leave his dead partner, Rain caught up and fired repeatedly through the window until he was dead. Carter went around to the driver’s side door, jerked the dead man out of the way and picked up the bag with their money.
“Everybody all right?” Carla asked now that the shooting had stopped.
“Yeah, Carla, we’re good,” Carter said as he and Rain walked away from the scene.
Chapter Five
Since the execution of his brother, Big Frank and his partner, Evander Truman at the hands of Marvin and RJ, over a gambling debt, Derick Mobley had taken over the drug business. A position that he had always seen himself in – on top, where he belonged. To him, Evander was dumber than a box of rocks, and although he hated to say it, Big Frank wasn’t much smarter.
The fact was that him and Big Frank had planned to kill Evander and take over anyway, Marvin and RJ simply saved them the trouble. But then they killed Big Frank, and despite the fact that Mobley knew that eventually he would have found it necessary to kill Frank too, he was his brother and that demanded that he do something in retaliation. “It’s a matter of respect.”
“So, what you gonna do?” Psych asked him.
“I don’t know yet,” Mobley said and thought about everything that he either knew as fact or had heard about people going up against Mike Black and his crew and their success rate wasn’t good. Dead is how most of them end up and that wasn’t for him.
He knew that he had neither the manpower or the resources to go up against them and besides, war was never good for business and he was in this for the money. Fuck the street fame, give me money was something he believed wholeheartedly. But the fact remained, he had to do something.
“Something that makes a statement,” Mobley said, but doesn’t get him, and what was now his business, wiped off the face of the earth in one night.
“Let me handle it,” Psych said, and Mobley looked at him. He had known Psych since they used to bang. Mobley didn’t see Psych as being any smarter than Frank or Evander, but what he was, was a soldier. A no questions asked, first to spit bullets soldier that could be counted on to get the job done.
“What you have in mind?”
“You know them niggas is openin’ a new spot called The Late Night, right?”
“No.”
“Yeah, the grand opening is tonight. They gonna have The Regulators there and shit. If you wanna make a statement, that’s the place to make it.”
Mobley sat back and thought for a while about it. The grand opening of their new spot would make the kind of statement he needed.
“It’s your baby, you handle it,” Mobley told Psych and he got up to leave. It was then that Stanley Hogan came in the room.
“There’s some people here to see you, Mo,” Hogan informed
.
“Who is it?”
“They wouldn’t say, but the man said you’d wanna hear what he got to say.”
“A’ight, I’ll be out in a minute,” Mobley said and turned his attention back to Psych. “But you go ahead and handle that for me and I promise you, there’ll be big things in the future for you.”
“I’m counting on that,” Psych said and walked out with Mobley. Once he collected his boys, Latavius and Odell, they left the spot.
“So, what we gonna do?” Latavius asked.
“We gonna hit this nigga, Money Marv,” Psych informed.
“I never liked that nigga no way,” Odell said. “When we gonna do it?”
“Tonight, at their new spot, The Late Night,” Psych said. “All we need now is a shooter.”
“I know somebody,” Odell said.
Later that evening, The Late Night was set for its grand reopening and The Regulators were set to perform. Back in the day, when Black and Bobby ran the place, it was an after-hours spot that opened late and stayed open until seven in the morning. Business was good; so good that they had to open another spot on the opposite corner called the Blue Room to accommodate all the wannabe’s that couldn’t get in The Late Night.
When Black and Bobby first took their sons there, RJ had a vision of what he wanted The New Late Night to look like. In addition to the two long abandoned clubs on the corners, there were also several vacant buildings. Since they owned the block, RJ gutted the structure to create one large space. His plan was to have three clubs in one, a dance club, a comedy club and a cocktail lounge, all under one roof. However, there was one thing that the entertainment complex wouldn’t have and that was a gambling room. At Wanda’s urging, RJ made the decision to reopen The Late Night as a completely legitimate business.
The only problem with the plan was the location. The streets were in desperate need of repair and just as it was when their fathers ran it, there were a lot of people that just hung around the area. With the help of Wanda and her political contacts, suddenly the streets were paved, police presence was increased, and members of The Family’s private security company were dispatched to patrol the area in cooperation with the police.
“When you have money to spread around to the right people, you can do just about anything,” Wanda advised RJ. “Remember that.”
Meanwhile, at The Four Kings, Marvin sat alone in what was now his office, getting ready to leave for the grand reopening. With RJ moving on to run The Late Night, The Four Kings was his now. He considered that to being part of the steps he would have to take to live up to his legacy. “Running that spot is gonna give you a base of power,” Nick told his son. “So, the first thing you need to do is establish yourself and then make your base strong.” Nick laughed. “You’re in the construction business now. Think of your base as the foundation that you’re gonna build on.”
Marvin had become his father’s student. He now showed up for dinner at least twice a week. Having her baby come over made April happy, and Marvin was happy for that, but he was really there to see his father. Although she was glad that Marvin came around more often, she had noticed the change in him. Her baby wasn’t a baby anymore. Marvin was a man that wanted to be like his father.
After dinner, father and son would spend hours together. Nick telling old stories and Marvin listening and absorbing the knowledge and wisdom that his father was dropping on him. Here before him was a legend: his father. RJ could only take him so far and could only teach him so much. But not Nick, he had seen it all, done it all, so who better to learn from?
Marvin had taken what he had learned and was putting it to practical application. “You used to sell weight, what about the guys you used to do business with?” Nick asked.
“What about them?”
“You ever think about bringing them in and showing them another way to make money?”
“Like RJ did with me,” Marvin acknowledged.
“Exactly. What you’re selling is protection. Protection from the police and anything that may come at them. Whatever it is they need, you’re the source. Understand?”
“I got you, Pop.”
The following day, Marvin was in the streets, his mission was recruiting. He showed them, as he had learned, that his hustle was in the long run, much more profitable than being out in the streets slinging.
But the information that Marvin found most useful was how to handle Serek Pearson, his new partner in the construction business. In addition to having his representative, Ramel Quincy, working in Serek’s office, the following day, Ebony Maddox arrived in the office.
“Can I help you?” Jennifer, Serek’s receptionist asked.
“My name is Ebony Maddox. I’m Mr. Simmons’ attorney and I’ll be working out of this office. Where can I set up?”
The move caught Serek totally off guard and Sataria had to make some quick office changes to accommodate Ebony. Once she was settled in, she took over. Requesting – no demanding to see all the records and by midday, she decided that she needed to bring in an accountant. The following morning, Dominica Paris arrived and was set up in the conference room to review the records. She reported to Ramel and Ebony that the records were a mess and she’d need bodies to bring order to the chaos. By week’s end, Ramel was out looking for new office space.
It was necessary to bring the company under control because Marvin had plans for it. Nick had given his son a ten-acre track of property in Long Island to develop and build luxury homes. As for Serek, he was happy about the expansion, but he was embarrassed by the state of his records and felt left out because it was obvious that Ramel and Ebony were now in charge of his office.
Sataria thought Marvin taking over her husband’s business was a good thing. She was excited about the expansion because it meant more money for her. When Serek came to her and said that he had to give Marvin twenty percent of the company and asked her to give up ten percent of her shares, she refused. Sataria owned forty-nine percent of the company. It made the company a double minority-owned business because an African-American female was part owner. That status gave them greater access to government contracts. With Serek now only owning thirty-one percent, that made her the majority owner.
A fact that Marvin was well aware of. At this point, Marvin felt good about where he was and where he was going. He was an earner now; a productive member of The Family.
After making one last pass-through of the club, he and Ayisha were getting ready to leave for the grand reopening when Marvin saw somebody that he wanted to talk to. “Go ahead, Ayisha, I’ll see you there,” Marvin said at the sight of Sataria Pearson, Serek’s wife. She had come to the club once before to see him and now here she was again.
“Hello,” Marvin said in her ear when he walked up behind her. She was startled by the sudden burst of baritone in her ear, but it made her smile.
“Hello, yourself,” Sataria turned to say. Then she stepped to Marvin and kissed him on the cheek. “How are you doing?”
“Doing great. About to head out. One of my partners, RJ is opening a new club called The Late Night.”
“Really. I heard the commercials on the radio. I just didn’t know that it was RJ. He’s the one that came with you when you came to the office?”
“Yes.” Marvin stepped a little closer to Sataria and inhaled her scent. “You should come with me.”
Sataria stepped closer to Marvin and put her vicious body against his. It made his dick hard for her, harder than it already was. He had wanted Sataria since he first saw her leaning over Jennifer’s desk that first day he walked in there with RJ.
For Sataria, the feeling was mutual. When she looked up and saw Marvin standing there and heard his voice, she was done. She knew that she wanted Marvin and the fact that she was married to his business partner didn’t seem to matter to Sataria. And now, with her body pressed up against his, Marvin didn’t care either. He was more than ready to take her by the hand, lead her to his office, strip her out of the dre
ss that hugged her curves like a second set of skin, and fuck the shit out of her.
“I can’t. I just stopped by on my way home to say hello. Serek is expecting me.”
“I understand. And I appreciate you stopping by to say hello,” Marvin said with his eyes scanning the area between her pretty eyes and her abundant cleavage. “Do you have time for me to buy you another drink?”
“No, thank you,” she said and finished the one she was drinking. “Sadly, I have to go. But I would love a raincheck,” Sataria said, but didn’t back away from him.
Marvin signaled for the bartender. “What you need, Money?” Montez asked when he walked up.
“This is Sataria Pearson. She is my personal guest.”
“Understood,” Montez said and dropped a bar napkin in front of her. “What can I get for you, Ms. Pearson?”
“Nothing right now,” Sataria smiled. “I am about to leave for the evening.”
“Next time you come, you be sure to see me, Ms. Pearson, I’ll take good care of you.”
“That’s good to know,” she said as Marvin extended his hand toward the exit. When they got there, Marvin gave the same instructions to his front door security.
“This is Sataria Pearson. She is my personal guest.”
“You got it, Money.”
After that, Marvin escorted Sataria to her car, said good night to her, and then headed for The Late Night. As he got closer, he could see the search lights. When he rounded the corner, he saw the long line outside waiting to get in. There was a red carpet leading to the club where the invited guests would enter the new spot to the envy of those who had to wait in line.
“There he is,” Latavius said from the car that he and Psych were waiting in.
“Showtime,” Psych said and started the car. He watched as Marvin drove his Traverse into the line of cars.
“He’s next,” Latavius said.
“Let’s do this!” he shouted, dropped the car in gear and slow rolled toward their unsuspecting target.
When it was his turn to get out to walk the red carpet, Psych picked up speed, Latavius took aim and opened fire on Marvin and the crowd. At the sound of gun fire, Marvin dropped to the ground as bullets flew. The shooting didn’t last long.