Chapter 6
In Harlem, the Lucas name rang bells different, they were the kind of people mentioned carefully.
The kind of family that survived every era Harlem threw their way: crack era, cocaine era, raid, gangbanging, you couldn’t name it without a Lucas being a part of the story.
Rosemary “Momma Lu” Lucas was at the center of it all, the real queen of Harlem.
She carried that name on her back, it wasn’t built off social media or any of that new age shit, Momma Lu was street built.
Inside a brownstone tucked on a lowkey block that many didn’t turn down, soul music filled the house while food simmered in the kitchen.
Momma Lu stood over the stove in a silk moo-moo and gold jewelry, very old fashioned.
A cigarette hung from her lips while she cooked enough food for ten people instead of her boys.
“Moon!” she yelled, never dropping the cancer stick from her mouth.
“Yeah, Ma?”
“Set this table.”
“I came to eat, not work,” Moon shot back but doing as she asked.
Momma Lu made sure her sons could do everything for themselves as men, but she made it clear that a woman was always needed in a man’s life.
She took her seat at the head of the dining table, her gold bangles clinked with every movement of her arm.
She watched all three of her sons. Different shades, different tempers, and different personalities, but same blood, dangerous blood.
At thirty-four, Love was the only Lucas brother who had settled down, and Momma Lu secretly appreciated it. She wanted wives for all her boys but not just any bitch would do, not carrying her name.
“Moon, when are you going to settle down with one woman?”
Moon gave her a stale look while placing a plate on the table, “Why you ain’t ask Kyst that?”
“I asked who I wanted. You’re thirty, no kids, and a different woman calls that phone every time it rings.”
“I’m in my prime, baby,” he joked, kissing his mother’s forehead before taking his seat across from Kyst.
“It’s lonely when you grow old alone,” she replied, putting her cigarette out in a glass ashtray.
Kyst’s face was buried in his phone, so much so, he wasn’t listening to the conversation at hand.
“Exactly, the nigga gon’ die lonely and single,” Love chuckled without looking up from the tablet in his hands.
Love kept the books for the family, kind of like the accountant and a certified killer without question.
Moon handled meetings because he had the gift of gab and could talk his way into or out of anything.
Kyst was the enforcer, he kept the blocks running like water, but all three of the Lucas men were handlers.
“And you about to be trapped.” Moon laughed.
“Engaged ain’t trapped.”
“Marriage is. Same bitch, same pussy, same nagging ass voice for the rest of your life.” Moon was quick with the comebacks.
Love shook his head, “Yo dick gon’ fall off.”
“Long as it’s inside of a bad bitch, I’m cool with it. Being with one-woman gotta be a headache.”
“A woman is supposed to bring peace, not just pussy. I taught y’all to survive without a woman, cook and clean for yourselves, but I never said they weren’t needed. A man depending on a woman for survival becomes weak.”
Moon looked, Love nodded, and Kyst stayed quiet.
“So you saying keep a woman but don’t need one. I’m confused,” Moon smirked, being the arrogant asshole he was.
“I’m saying know the difference between love and dependency.”
That shut him up. Momma Lu noticed that Kyst hadn’t said a word and that wasn’t like her baby boy.
“What’s up with you, Baby Lucas?” she asked, calling him what she often called him growing up.
Kyst placed his phone on his lap and looked up at his mother, “Nothing much.”
“He must be arguing with that crazy ass Ty,” Love said while still looking over numbers.
“Nahhhh, his new bitch whooped her on Lenox,” Moon said as Kyst looked at him.
Both Love and Momma Lu looked at Kyst.
“New bitch?” Momma Lu quizzed.
Moon talked so much, the shit didn’t make no sense, Kyst wasn’t ready to bring Nyla completely into his world.
“It’s not serious yet.”
“Yet? Oh, so there’s potential?” Momma Lu pressed.
Kyst nodded, “She does.”
Nyla stayed on his mind and his phone more than she should. The way she carried herself like she belonged in any room she stepped in. Her Chicago energy was raw and sharp, the way she fought Ty with no fear, no bitch in Harlem would fuck with Ty like that.
“Ok. Don’t get distracted from the business,” her tone changed.
“Especially not right now, I need all heads on a swivel,” Love spoke words that shifted the room.
“What’s going on?” Moon asked as a silence followed.
Love looked over at Momma Lucas and she nodded. The Lucas family had hands in everything, money laundering, drug routes, nightclubs, casinos, trucking, and anything else that kept their names clean and their accounts loaded. People disappeared behind Lucas business, quiet and permanently.
“Somebody thought they could rob one of our shipments,” Love finally spoke as Kyst and Moon gave their undivided attention.
“Who the fuck is stupid enough to do that?” Moon asked with a frown.
“Was. Who was stupid enough, it doesn’t matter, they will never try that again. I say that to say it’s time to make a move; Harlem is too small.”
“What you thinking?” Moon leaned in.
“We all need to temporarily relocate to a city of interest. I’m going to Cali, Chicago and Baltimore are up for grabs, but we gotta step on these soils on business.”
“I’ll take Chicago,” Moon said with the quickness.
“I’m not going to Baltimore.”
Moon shook his head because he knew like everyone else, Kyst’s word was bond. He did nothing that he didn’t want to do and his family respected that.
“Man, how long is temporary? I don’t know nobody in no fuckin’ Baltimore.”
“Good. I’m thinking over the summer, that’s about four months to get our product pushed through the city.
Find a couple businesses to wash your money and stay the fuck out the way.
There will be enough soldiers in the city with you to handle whatever beef comes your way, but that doesn’t mean go looking for trouble, Moon.
” Love called his hotheaded brother out and continued.
“This is not a vacation, this is work.” Love laid down the law but all Kyst knew was that he was going to the Windy City to be with his baby.
Momma Lu stood up and walked to the window overlooking her city.
Rain streaked against the glass while she looked out.
She had never been away from her boys, but she knew what needed to be done.
Momma Lu and Love’s bond was tighter because he was her first born, he handled shit when she couldn’t.
She had yet to tell any of them that a case was built against her, but she wasn’t worried.
As much as she loved Harlem, she would wipe her city off the map before it took her away from her sons.
That was the real reason she wanted them to find love because she didn’t know how long hers was going to be around.
She knew there was only two ways out the game she played since she was thirteen years old, jail or hell.