1. Sol
Sol
Two weeks later
“ T his nigga Casper gone end up killing this fool,” Fatz murmured under his breath.
I gave him a stern look and shook my head.
Fatz was my youngest, spoiled brother that stayed glued to me like a shadow.
Although the nigga worked my nerves, I had his front and back like he had mine.
Me and Fatz had different mothers; my father took Fatz in when he was thirteen years old.
Raft didn’t know that his baby momma had turned into a crackhead. She left Fatz to care of himself.
Fatz’ momma was a cold bitch, the type to keep a kid away if Raft didn’t want nothing to do with her.
My mom was number one in Raft’s world, yet it didn’t stop him from having a whole flock of bitches right in front of her face.
Fatz’ momma thought she had a one-up over Raft; she thought she could get to him by getting with a new man.
That same new man turned her dumb ass out.
Had her selling pussy two months after they got together, and shortly after, she was gone to a glass dick in her mouth.
As Fatz kept whispering and saying all kinds of shit about the niggas we was surrounded by, I sat still and quiet in the back of the warehouse with my legs slightly spread. My elbows rested on my knees as I watched Casper eye a potential buyer like he had a disease.
Casper didn’t speak unless it mattered; every word that left his mouth had weight and was either laced with poison or power.
You could see his disdain as he spoke to the buyer who flew in from Houston.
The nigga talked too fast, the diamonds that he rocked told us that he was trying to sound bigger than he was.
Casper wasn’t impressed, I was surprised he even took on the meeting.
Casper was in a position to not have these kind of sit downs anymore.
His investments and money were damn near clean now.
His right-hand man, Trigga, practically ran everything with an iron fist. I looked over at Trigga, he was a short stocky nigga with a permeant mean mug.
Trigga leaned against the metal post away from everyone with a loaded MAC-11 strapped to his chest and a toothpick hanging between his lips.
Trigga, Casper, and my father Raft all came up together.
They was like brothers and moved as a unit.
Trigga was always quiet and on alert, ready to black out the whole building if Casper shifted the wrong way.
The warehouse that we was in wasn’t a regular stash spot.
It was a damn fortress, similar to the one my father had over on the East side.
Every man inside was someone Casper trusted, except this Houston out of town nigga.
Nobody talked unless Casper looked their way.
This was chess, not checkers. Casper never moved his king without lining up his pawns first. The buyer sat across from him at the steel table in the center of the floor, trying to smile his way through the tension.
He didn’t know that all his pressing to get a meeting with Casper was nothing but a trap that he set out for himself.
“I’m ready to move heavy shit,” he said, twirling his diamond pinky ring.
“I’m talking real numbers. I just need access. West, East, and South of the border. Niggas in Cali making that shit happen —I mean, you the only nigga that can make that happen,” he uttered.
“Who the fuck told you that shit, nigga?” Trigga stood up straight from leaning against the wall then spat his toothpick out.
Casper looked at his right-hand man and chuckled. Trigga was the only nigga that could speak out of term and made drastic decisions at any given moment.
“I mean, niggas talk. It’s why I caught a flight out to meet the man himself.” His eyes left Trigga’s and went back to Casper’s deadly gaze.
Casper’s gaze made his pussy ass uncomfortable, so he looked at no one in particular.
“What about Raft?” Casper asked flatly.
I shifted in my seat hearing my father’s name mentioned as if he was still here.
Then something dawned on me, Casper was still trying to sort through the snakes that was bold enough to come around begging for business when Raft was also a part of the empire.
My father ran the Eastside, Trigga never had a desire to take over any side until his brother Casper included him.
Everything was split fairly amongst each other; they never had any quarrels about money and percentages.
“I never heard of that nigga.” The Houston nigga shrugged.
Casper didn’t blink. He leaned forward, his hands pressed together like he was preparing to deliver a scripture.
“You asking me to hand you power that most men die for. Before I decide to give you anything…you need to know something.” Casper smiled evilly.
The buyer shifted in his seat and raised his brows.
“What’s that?”
Casper’s lips curled into a warning.
“I don’t shake hands with niggas I plan to bury in the near future,” he gritted.
The air seemed to drop by five degrees. The Houston nigga went pale in the face and nodded his head fast, like the threat was a blessing.
I felt something in my chest, that pressure of what I was getting ready to insert myself into.
It was nothing but a reminder that this is what men like me was born into.
Casper, Raft, and Trigga didn’t just build a business. They built a kingdom.
Men of all walks of life bowed to them because they knew the crowns on their heads was heavy with blood and no remorse. I should have been focused on the conversation. On learning the game down to my bones like Casper and my father always told me, but my mind wouldn’t stop drifting. To my father.
The hole in the ground that they dug up six months ago still was fresh to me.
I still could feel the grip that Casper gave my shoulder as I stood there, numb as hell, trying not to let the tears show.
Casper didn’t speak that day, neither did Trigga.
I didn’t need them to; they understood the silence that I needed while all the other snake ass niggas made their way to my face with fake sympathetic speeches about Raft.
Raft always got careless, and Casper always reminded him of how he should have been moving. My father thought loyalty and money would protect him from bullets. It didn’t, so now his empire was on me. The weight and all the blood shed that Raft caused was now mine.
Casper glanced over his shoulder, eyes landing on me. They were black as coal, steady and unreadable. I could already tell what he was thinking. Pay attention, young nigga; you next. I straightened my back and swallowed down my emotions, because emotions were for bitches to have.
The meeting ended like most of them do. Every one shook hands except Casper and Trigga.
Casper watched every movement like he could smell a set up before it hit the air.
He was always the most paranoid one out of the three of them.
If Casper thought it, rather it was true or false, he acted out on it.
Once the Houston nigga walked out with a big smile on his goofy ass face, the rest of Casper’s men fell back into a small conversation with Trigga.
Casper lit a cigar stuffed with weed and jerked his head toward the back staircase.
“Come on, Sol.” He stood and dusted invisible lint off his black slacks.
“Don’t say shit, just wait for me, nigga.” I turned to Fatz and stood.
“Hurry up, a nigga hungry and ready to go. Feels like I been in church for hours and shit,” Fatz complained.
Casper and I walked up into the private loft above the warehouse.
It was considered his sanctuary. I could hear the wind whistle through the steel beams. His thick desk sat in the middle with dusty ass picture frames that he never cleaned.
A heavy safe was embedded in the concrete wall behind it; it was closed tighter than a casket.
The air smelled like aged wood, fresh powder, and weed smoke.
His office looked just like my father’s, they both had shit set up the same. Raft’s office was down the hall from Casper’s office. He didn’t sit behind his desk, he leaned on it with his cigar tucked in the corner of his mouth.
“You good?” He asked just as the ash from his cigar tumbled to the ground.
“Shit been smooth, just getting situated.” I nodded.
Casper squinted his eyes at me, smoke curled from his lips.
“Don’t lie to me, I see it in your face. You carrying pain like it’s a second spine.” Casper turned and stared out at the warehouse floor through the glass wall.
“I carry my pain differently. It’s still pain, nevertheless.
Raft was my brother, we shed blood together, broke bread, and buried too many associates to count.
Raft was loyal, not always smart…but loyal.
In this new day and age, niggas don’t carry the same loyalty,” Casper said, more to himself than me.
I swallowed the lump in my throat and got mad that I still wasn’t able to contain my raw emotions for my father.
“He wasn’t ready to go,” I stated painfully.
Casper turned to me slowly.
“None of us are. At least not in this lifetime. We get two options. Die early or die legendary.” Casper took steps until he was right in front of me.
“You remind me of him. You got the same heart you don’t wanna admit you have. You smarter though, and much more quiet… kind of like me. Let me tell you something that I never got the chance to tell him. It’s something that my father told me, and it stuck with me throughout life.”
I lifted my eyes to meet his.
“You want to stay alive in this game? You got to decide who the fuck you are before the streets decide for you. You can’t be half killer, half lover.
You can’t be half business, half revenge.
You gon’ have to bleed one part of yourself out and feed the other.
Fuck a bitch, they good for giving life, a legacy to carry your last name.
They nurture you and drain ya nut sack when it’s time for that.
Let your mind lead and your heart beat, nigga.
I can very well take the load off your hands and give your father’s legacy to one of these money hungry niggas.
It’s in your blood though, and I know that you can do it.
Lot of these niggas go and fall in love with a bitch.
Next thing you know, the same bitch they fell for is the cause of them running shit with too much emotion. ”
Casper’s words hit like a gut punch. He was right, I had to get up out of my feelings and make shit tick again. Casper stepped back and went behind his desk. He reached into his top drawer and pulled out a matte black gun then set it down on his desk.
“This was Raft’s favorite piece. I’ve been holding it, waiting for you to be ready. You put in work already, caught a couple of bodies for the past couple of months. If you ready to step into his shoes, pick up his piece.”
I stared at it for a couple of seconds then reached out to wrap my fingers around the handle and nodded. Casper didn’t smile, he never did, but his eyes warmed from approval.
“Good. There’s a war coming, niggas gone get real testy because they haven’t seen you on the Eastside.
Shit been running, with Trigga stepping in causing the havoc he always bring.
But, niggas think that Raft’s spot is wide open.
You can’t flinch, it’s time to lay the law down and let niggas know some shit.
” Casper grinned, showcasing his gold tooth.