by J. L Rose
“Dante, behave!” Brenda told her son, seeing the look on his face.
Brenda stood up and went over to the front door. She unlocked it and swung it open, just as Dwayne stood in front of it.
“Perfect timing!” Dwayne told his wife, kissing her cheek before stepping inside the house.
“Momma, is Dante here?” Melody asked as she and her boyfriend, Norise, stepped up to the front door.
“He’s inside,” Brenda told her daughter with a smile as she allowed her daughter and Norise to enter the house.
FOUR
After Dante finished dinner, he took meals across the street to James and the others keeping watch in the Escalade at his mother’s orders. On the way back to the house, his cell phone went off. He pulled it out and recognized the name but not the phone number. “What’s up, Lieutenant?” he answered the call.
“How are you, Dante?” she asked. “I have the information you’re looking for on those two people you asked me about.”
“Where are you?” Dante asked while motioning over James and the others.
Dante listened to Lewis as she gave up her location. Dante stepped up to the front passenger window of the Escalade with Gomez inside. Dante then told the lieutenant to hold on while he gave James and Gomez directions of where to meet the lieutenant. He followed up by giving them instructions of what he wanted done.
“Lieutenant!” Dante called into the phone, after James pulled off.
“I’m here, Dante!”
“I have someone coming over to you now. Look for either a white guy with short black hair or a huge muscular guy.”
“I’ll contact you once I’ve spoken with your people.”
After hanging up with Lieutenant Lewis, Dante slid his phone back into his pocket.
“What is it you want?” Dante asked.
“How?” Norise started, staring at Dante as the kingpin legend turned around to face him. “How’d you know I was standing here?”
“I heard the front door when it opened, and I saw your reflection in the window of the truck,” Dante admitted, before asking again, “What do you want?”
“Ummmm,” Norise started up before he took a deep breath and then continued, “look, Dante, I know we don’t know each other, and even though the world may know who Dante Blackwell is, I don’t know you really. Melody tells me you’re a businessman, and I’m in the business of dealing with weed. But the dude I’m dealing with ain’t really a major hustler, and I’m trying to really get in some major moves. So what I’m saying is that I got $48,000, and I’m trying to get on with you, my nigga. I know you work with some of everything, but weed is my thing.”
“My sister sent you out here, huh?” Dante asked him as he walked over to stand beside his sister’s boyfriend.
“Yeah!” Norise answered truthfully. “We spoke about it, and Melody told me if I came at you like a man, you would consider my offer. So here I am!”
Dante slowly nodded his head while pulling out his Black & Milds. He took out one of the cigars and remained quiet until the Black was lit and he was blowing smoke from his lips.
“Tell me something, boyfriend. Can you handle twenty-five pounds?”
Norise was surprised at first with the number Dante had thrown at him.
“Yeah. I can handle it!” he responded after he got control of himself.
“Alright,” Dante said, nodding his head as he blew smoke from his mouth. “I’ll have someone contact you in two days, but keep your money. Matter of fact, spend it on my sister. You work for me now. I’ll have you a spot set up soon. Be ready to work!”
Dante left his sister’s boyfriend standing out in front of his mother’s house with a big smile on his face. Dante then spotted his sister peeking out the front window and staring straight at him. He walked up to the front door, only for Melody to meet him as she quickly swung it open.
“Dante, did you—?”
“Relax, baby girl!” Dante told Melody, cutting her off. “I put him on!”
Melody smiled after hearing what her big brother had just told her. She threw her arms around his neck and hugged him tightly. “Thank you, Dante!”
* * *
Dante relaxed with his mother as the two of them sat together on the couch. Alinna, Yasmine, and Natalie were sitting on the sofa while Dwayne was in his La-Z-Boy watching Will Smith’s movie I Am Legend, which Melody and Norise brought with them to watch. Dante sat up from leaning down on his mother with his head on her chest as she rubbed his head. He then dug out his ringing phone to see Gomez was calling him.
“What’s up, Gomez?” Dante answered the phone.
Dante sat listening a few minutes as Gomez explained to him what was going on. After finding out the location where his team was located, he then hung up the phone.
“My husband,” Yasmine called out, watching Dante and seeing the change in his facial expression. “What is wrong?”
Dante simply nodded his head to her question and winked his eye at her. He then looked at his mother.
“Momma, how about we go for a ride? I got something to show you,” Dante asked her.
“Dante, what are you—?”
“Momma Blackwell,” Natalie spoke up, cutting off Brenda, “I mean no disrespect, but it’s best to just follow Dante and not question him when he’s like this.”
Brenda looked over at Natalie and then back to her son, and she saw the expression on his face.
“Don’t look like that. I’ll go with you,” Brenda said as she gently brushed her hand down Dante’s face.
* * *
Dante left his mother’s house and found the address Gomez had given to him over the phone, along with help from his mother. He pulled the G-Wagen through the front gate of a nice-sized house. He drove up the driveway and turned off into the front parking area beside the Escalade and instantly spotted two of his men posted at the door.
Dante climbed out of the SUV and then opened up the passenger-side door for his mother as Alinna, Yasmine, and Natalie climbed from the back of the Benz. Dante then closed his mother’s door and escorted her up to the front door.
“Dante, whose house is this?” Brenda asked her son as she followed Dante inside.
“You’ll see,” Dante replied, seeing James standing in the opening that led into the den.
“What’s up, bruh?” James said before he nodded over toward the couch. “There goes your boy right there.”
Dante shifted his attention over to the sofa and saw Gomez standing over a dark-skinned man and an older, redboned woman. Dante called to his mother, but when he looked over at her, he saw she was already staring at both the man and woman seated on the sofa.
“That’s the nigga right there you wanted?”
“Brenda!” Antonio Mitchell said in disbelief, staring at his one-time girlfriend. “What are you doing here? What’s going on?”
Brenda walked over to stand in front of Antonio and the woman who she recognized as her best friend at one time. “I bet you didn’t think I would find you, did you, Abigail? My so-called friend all along wanted not only my sorry-ass man, but my life, huh?” Brenda addressed the woman.
“Brenda, it wasn’t—!”
“Shut the hell up!” Brenda told her ex-best friend, her voice raising enough to cut off the other woman. She then looked back toward Antonio Mitchell and met his eyes. “Do you remember what I told you all those years ago, Antonio? I told you you would pay for what you did to me! Well now it’s judgment day!”
“So, calling the devil himself is your way to get back at me, huh?” Antonio Mitchell asked, smirking as he cut his eyes over toward Dante. “Dante Blackwell. So you’re doing Brenda’s work now, huh? I wouldn’t believe someone like you would do dirty work for someone like this!”
“Like what?” Dante questioned, and was up on Antonio Mitchell before homeboy could finish what he was saying. He had Antonio Mitchell up against his right eye socket. “Finish what the fuck you was saying, or has your punk ass had a chan
ge of heart?”
“Dante!” Brenda said in a calm voice, watching her son shove Antonio back into his seat and step back to stand beside her.
Brenda then walked back over to Antonio and said, “I apologize, Antonio. Allow me to introduce my son, Dante Blackwell Jr. My first boyfriend I left and ended up with you!”
“Your son!” Antonio repeated, looking at Dante as the young killa stood staring at him with gun in hand.
“How you want this done, Momma?” Dante asked while still staring at Antonio. “Fast or slow?”
“Make it slow, sweetheart!” Brenda answered her son with a grin, only to hear Dante call out to his wife, Yasmine.
* * *
Brenda quietly sat back in the front passenger seat of her son’s Mercedes after just watching Dante’s third wife skillfully torture both Antonio Mitchell and Abigail Harris, until they both stopped breathing. Brenda looked over at the expression of her son while he quietly drove home. “What’s on your mind, sweety?”
Dante lost his train of thought and looked over at his mother. “I’m good, Momma. I’m just thinking,” he answered.
“About?”
“You remember when I was talking to you about this fool from back in Miami that moved out this way in New Jersey?”
“Fish Man! I remember!”
“I’m just thinking how it’s possible to run a business and deal with this beef at the same time, Momma.”
“Dante, listen to me, sweetheart,” Brenda told her son in a motherly tone. “I’ve spoken with your wife Alinna, and from everything she’s told me about everything the two of you have gone through, you’ve changed from the Dante you once was. You’ve joined in on the business full time instead of part time, Dante. My advice to you is to go back to the Dante you used to be and let Alinna do what she does best: running the business part of the family. But assist her when she needs it. I’ll do as much as I can, but do what you’re known for. Do you understand me?”
Dante slowly nodded his head after listening to his mother’s words. He then looked back at Alinna through the rear-view mirror, met his wife’s eyes, and winked at her.
“I understand, Momma. I got you,” Dante said.
five
Alinna heard her son yelling out for her. She opened her eyes when the bedroom door flew open and Dante Jr. burst into the bedroom and jumped into the bed. Alinna rolled over to smile at her handsome son, just as he began pulling at her arm for her to get up.
“Dante Jr., what’s wrong?” Alinna asked, sitting up on the bed.
“Dad wants you out front,” Dante Jr. told his mother. “He’s about to leave, and he wants to talk to you.”
“Tell your father I’m coming,” Alinna told her little man, smiling as he took off out of the bedroom.
She climbed out of bed and first headed to the bathroom and took care of her woman’s needs. Five minutes later she was dressed in jeans and one of Dante’s T-shirts.
Alinna left the bedroom and walked out to the front room where she heard voices, only first to see Gage leaning against the wall near the front door with his arms folded across his chest. She paused when she noticed the immediate family standing or sitting around the front room of the suite.
“What’s going on in here? Everything alright?”
“Everything’s cool, shorty,” Dante spoke up from across the room while leaning against the dresser that held a television on top of it. “I wanna talk to everybody before me and the rest of the fellas leave.”
“Where are you going?” Alinna asked as she sat down beside Vanessa.
Dante ignored Alinna’s question and instead said, “I’ma make this quick because we got work to do. From now on, things are going back to how they was back before we got to where we are now. My mom made a good point yesterday. So as before, the women will have majority say when it comes to the business part of this family. Alinna will be at the head, and the guys will make sure there are no problems or issues with nobody, because we all know how things will turn out. Does anybody have anything to say?”
“Will things stay how they are concerning Fat . . . I mean Fish Man?” Harmony asked, causing a few of the family members to laugh.
“Nothing’s changed with that!” Dante answered. “I’ll handle Fish Man and will keep everybody on point with that, but Kyree will still report to Alinna since it was a direct order from her to him. Are there any more questions?”
“Yeah!” Vanessa spoke up, drawing Dante’s attention. “What happened to the suits, pretty boy? You back to the jeans and Air Max?”
“I’m back to the Dante you first met, baby Sis!” Dante told Vanessa, winking his eye at her.
Just then there was a knock at the suite door. Dante looked over at Gage and nodded. He watched his personal bodyguard unlock and open the door, and he saw his mother standing there. Dante smiled at the sight of her. He kissed her on the cheek when she walked over and stood beside him.
“Hey, Momma!”
“Hello, sweetheart,” Brenda replied as she straightened out her gray pantsuit.
“Alright, family,” Dante said, getting the family’s attention. “From now on, Alinna and my mother will be the heads of the business. Alinna runs it, and my mother will assist her through everything. And, Yasmine?”
“Yes, my husband?” she replied.
“I need you to contact your father and have him send my mother his best bodyguard. Tell him I will pay the price for him or her if needed,” Dante told his wife, receiving a bow from her in return.
Dante kissed his mother’s cheeks and then first kissed Alinna, then Natalie, and finally Yasmine, before saying his goodbyes to everyone. He then started for the door with his brother behind him.
“James!” Alinna called out.
“Yeah, what’s up, Alinna?” James looked back and answered, after hearing her call out his name.
“Watch my man’s back, James,” Alinna told him, in a tone that caused James to smile and nod his head in response before turning and following the guys out of the suite.
* * *
“Yo, Floyd!” Eddie said, tapping Floyd’s arm and getting his attention away from texting on his cell phone.
“Yeah,” Floyd answered, looking up and over at Eddie, only to see the boy nod out of the driver’s window.
“Here comes Dante and them!” Eddie said, watching as Dante and his boys exited the hotel, and noticing how people stared at the five men.
Floyd climbed out of his Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT. He called out to Dante by waving at him to get his attention.
“What’s good, Cuzo?” Dante asked, dapping up with Floyd. He then nodded to Eddie on the other side of the Jeep, before looking back at his cousin. “Where’s your team at?”
“Waiting for us at Brooklyn Park now,” Floyd answered, but then asked, “What’s up? What happened to the suits?”
“Hung up in the closet. Let’s go!” Dante told his cousin, walking off and heading over to his G-Wagen.
Dante followed the Jeep out of the hotel parking lot a few moments later and headed toward Brooklyn Park, where the rest of Floyd’s team was waiting. Dante drove quietly and smoked one of his Black & Milds while he put together a plan inside his head. Dante saw Beast and the rest of Floyd’s team by the time Gage pulled up to the area. Dante told Gage to keep the Benz running and to let down his window. He let out a loud whistle to get Floyd’s attention and waved him over.
“What’s good, Cuz?” Floyd asked as he walked up to Dante’s window.
“Listen! We’re gonna do this like this, Cuzo. Send me the twins, and I’ma send my brothers, Dre and Tony, with you. We starting with Brooklyn, and then the rest of the boroughs. We’re taking New York first and building here, but Jersey is our destination. I’m telling you this because we’re moving fast out here. My advice is to let my brothers take leads and be ready to let your hammers sound off, because if shit gets stupid, it’s probably gonna be Dre and Tony acting out!”
Dante nodded to both Dre and T
ony T and then looked back at his cousin. “Text me the locations of the spots that are pulling in some cash, and we’ll start from there!” Dante told Floyd.
Dante then waited as twins Kaos and Corrupt took Dre and Tony T’s spots inside the G-Wagen. Dante began explaining to the twins exactly what was about to begin happening, finishing what he had to say by asking if they were ready to put in some work.
“We was wondering exactly when we was actually going to get in some play time!” Corrupt told Dante.
“Put us in, coach!” Kaos chimed in.
Dante nodded his head in approval of what he was hearing. He was definitely going to see what his younger soldiers were all about very soon.
* * *
Alinna left the hotel and first met up with a real estate agent and looked at a few new places for the family as well as Brenda and her husband. She and her mother-in-law then discussed different business ideas. Alinna even caught Brenda’s idea after mentioning how the setup was that she and Dante had back in Phoenix with the Council Covenant.
“So basically what you’re saying is that you want to build our own council?” Brenda asked Alinna while thinking on the idea a bit more.
“Dante wants the women to run the family business. So with me, you, Vanessa, and the rest of the women in the family as the council members, we can then make this work! Dante will have his say as always, but it will be us who control the council.”
Brenda slowly nodded her head, looked back at Alinna, and said, “I like this idea. Let’s do it!”
“First we need a building where we can set up the council,” Alinna told her mother-in-law.
“I know the perfect place, my daughter,” Brenda replied.
* * *
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Dante barely watched the hustler’s body hit the ground after peeling back his top and putting three rounds to his face in front of his crew. Dante then shifted his eyes around to the other six dudes who stood staring at him like he was insane.
“Now! Do we understand each other, or is there somebody else here who doesn’t agree with me taking over this area?”