Chapter 14 #2
Grizz’s head snapped up, his eyes darting between me and Jelani. “Nah, nah, I swear I wasn’t on no disrespectful shit! I just—”
My fist went across his jaw before he had a chance to finish.
“Just what?” I asked, shaking my hand out. Grizz groaned. “Just you thinking I’m pussy? Just you running your mouth? Just you being a bitch ass nigga?”
I hit him again—jab, then hook.
“Which one is it?”
Another blow.
Everything I’d been holding rushed to the surface—lunch with Jasmine. Marcus hugged up on her, both of them playing in my face.
“Money, please…” Grizz slurred, his head rolling.
“Money, please,” I mocked, yanking his head up. “Nah. I’m soft, right? That’s what you said, Gregory.”
Nobody in the room spoke or moved. They understood a point was being made.
“Speak up, Grizz. The fuck you gotta say now?” I flung his head down.
Grizz let out a gargled noise. “I’m sor—”
My fist smashed into his face again.
“Fuck your sorry!” I roared, raining blows on him. His soft grunts and the dull smack of knuckles to flesh filled the farmhouse. Blood sprayed across my face, and was getting in my eye. It still wasn’t enough to make me stop.
I blacked out. All I could see was Marcus trying to son me like I wasn’t Cash-fucking-Banks. Like this wasn’t my city.
I kept swinging.
My arms burned, and my knuckles throbbed. But I kept going.
Jelani grabbed me from behind. “He’s gone, Money,” he said, holding me by the shoulders.
I stood over the chair. My lungs burned as I caught my breath. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and turned to the others.
“This—” I pointed to the body slumped in the chair. “—is what happens to niggas who cross me. Maybe Rahmel wasn’t enough. So, here’s your visual.”
I kicked the chair over and spat on Grizz’s body. My gaze swept the room until it locked on Derrick and Chris.
“Y’all thought I ain’t know you was in on this shit too?” The others scooted back in their chairs to make room for me as I stepped toward them. “I helped get y’all niggas out the mud and run behind this nigga helping the opps?”
Chris started shaking his head. “Nah, it’s not like that, Money. Swear—”
“Shut the fuck up.”
I turned to look at Slim. He nodded, raised his gun, and pulled the trigger. Two shots cracked through the room. The smell of gunpowder hung in the air as their bodies went limp, falling limp like rag dolls.
I looked around the room again. Most tried to keep their faces neutral, but I saw the fear in their eyes.
“You either with me, or you under me. So, I’ma ask one more time—anybody else got grievances they wanna share?!” My voice boomed through the room, my whole body still buzzing.
Moe hunched over and threw up on the floor.
“Ay! You cleaning that shit up!” Slim barked.
The rest of them shook their heads. The message had been received.
“Good,” I said. “A storm’s coming. I need y’all to tighten the fuck up. If shit seems off? Tell Slim or Fontaine.”
I dismissed the rest of them. Slim, Fontaine, Jelani, and Nairobi stayed behind.
“What we doing with them?” Fontaine asked, nodding at Grizz’s body.
As tempting as it was, I couldn’t just dump him like I did Rahmel.
“Rodney’s pig farm,” I said, taking the switchblade from Nairobi and sliced off the gauze.
Marlene’s husband might’ve given his life to God, but even the Lord’s strongest soldiers were still sinners.
He built that pig farm to help Pops back in the day, and even after he opened his church, he kept it running for situations like this.
Pigs don’t leave much behind. And they supply meat for Marlene’s restaurant—it was like the circle of life if you thought about it.
I flexed my fingers as the gauze dropped to the floor, already thinking about our next moves.
“So what we doing about Marcus?” Slim asked.
I’d hoped that getting rid of Rahmel and Daemon would’ve been enough to make him back off. His product was garbage and made things too hot for us with all the ODs.
But now, after seeing him in person, my intuition told me that Marcus played dirty. That’s probably what got him locked up in the first place.
“Nai, I know you can’t stand him, but I need you to bug Kyree’s crib. I can’t let them hit our houses.”
She groaned and rolled her eyes.
“Triple. Rate.” She jabbed her finger at me and pulled her shades down.
“What about the nurse?” Jelani asked.
“What about her?”
“She’s his ex, right?”
“Hold up,” Slim jumped in. “The nurse used to date the opps?”
“Apparently,” Jelani said. “Sounds like he's still trying to see what’s up with her—”
”Shut the fuck up, Jelani,” I snapped, cutting him off. My stomach twisted at the thought of Jasmine being dragged into this. Even though we were beefing, I meant what I said. I wasn’t getting her involved. I didn’t even want her near Marcus.
Fontaine shifted in the corner. “We could use them hitting the stash houses to our advantage. Once we know which one they’re moving on, we clear most of the product out and leave just enough for them to think they hit a lick. That way, they don’t know we’re onto them.”
“True,” Jelani agreed. “Moving in too soon could spook them. But if we run the play like Fontaine said, we can flip it and hit them even harder.”
I mulled it over. This was a game of chess, not checkers. As much as I wanted to kill these niggas and get it over with, we couldn’t just go in guns blazing. They needed to think they had the upper hand.
“Alright,” I said. “Nai, bug the crib—sooner than later. Fontaine, tap Kyree and Derrick’s phones. Any movement, any meetups—I need to know.”
Nairobi nodded. “I got you, boss man.”
Everyone knew what was at stake. Marcus thought he could run shit in my city? This was my empire, and he wasn’t taking a damn thing from me.