“No. What? You think you was just gonna walk over here and get it?” Bobby laughed. “You gotta come and take this shit from me, playboy.”
He was so focused on Bobby that he didn’t notice that I had gotten up and had worked my way behind him. When he raised his gun, I put mine to the back of his head.
“Your move.”
Bobby punched him in the face and then he picked up his gun and started beating the man in the face with it. They may call me Vicious Black, but fuckin’ Bobby’s the vicious one.
When Bobby had enough of beating him, he pulled him up. “Next time you think about calling a man a cheat, you think about this beatin’ you just begged me for.” Then he let him go. “And be happy I didn’t kill you.”
After that night, I was convinced that I was on to something, but I took my time and spent the next few months going around and checking out everything that I planned to take over. I took my time because I didn’t need the operators noticing and I damn sure didn’t want André to hear about it before I was ready to bring it to him.
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When I had seen all I needed to see, we made a plan on how we were going to do it. I knew who my allies were, who my enemies would be and I knew who I was going to have to kill. Once I had all that down, I went to André.
In addition to controlling just about all of the criminal activity uptown, André had an office at the real estate brokerage firm that he legitimately owned and his wife, Shawna, managed. I just happened to drop by at a time when I knew his partner, Ricky would be there and Benny and Dupree would be dropping off the protection money.
“I don’t want to hear no excuses, just tell me who came up short and who ain’t paid this time,” André said the second they walked in the room.
“Henderson and Dayton was short. Lamont said to give him a couple of days and we couldn’t find Simeon or Bodie.”
“You stay on finding those niggas. You hear what I’m sayin’?” André asked, and pointed at Benny and Dupree.
“Yes, sir.”
“Now get the fuck out my sight.” André shook his head and picked up his drink. “I don’t know which one is sorrier,” he said as soon as the door closed.
“My money is on Dupree,” Ricky said.
André took a sip. “If he wasn’t Shawna’s cousin, I’d shoot his sorry ass.”
I studied André’s face as he tore into the envelopes and counted the money. “Shit.”
“That bad?” Ricky asked.
“Bad enough. I may have to send you and Bobby around to see some of these niggas ’bout my money.”
“You oughta let me run all that for you,” I said.
“Making collections?” André shook his head and then he laughed. “That’s errand boy shit, I got bigger shit to use you and Bobby on than that.”
“Maybe he needs something else for The Kid he lets hang around do, other than picking up his dry-cleaning from Howard.” Ricky laughed, but André didn’t, so he stopped.
I don’t like Ricky; he was a yes man with money and muscle behind him. But him and André came up together, so I just ignore half the shit that comes out his mouth.
“The Kid ain’t ready for that; is he Mike?”
“No, he ain’t,” I said, even though Freeze was more than ready. “But that wasn’t what I was talking about.”
“Then what you talkin’ about?” André asked, as I stood up to fix myself a drink. “Make me one too.”
“I’m talkin’ about you letting me run all that other shit for you,” I said as I handed him a glass and sat down.
“You ain’t make me one?” Ricky asked.
“Didn’t know you wanted one.”
Ricky looked at me for a few seconds, I guess he was waiting to see if I was going to get up and fix his drink. I stared back at him like he was a fuckin’ fool and then I turned to André.