“What’s up? I’m Asante. I just bought this place and the old owner told me I should make myself known to you guys when I got the chance.”
“That’s what he said, huh?” he asked. I nodded. He chuckled. “I’m King.” He offered me a hand. “Nice to meet you, Asante.”
“Nice to meet you too.”
King Barron was an average height man with a fade and clean cut beard and some of the deepest brown eyes I’d ever seen. He looked at his section then back at me.
“Come on up. Let me introduce you to my family.” He nudged his head to the side and I walked around the railing to close in on him.
“Aye, this is Asante,” King addressed the group and hit me on the back. “He just moved out here and brought this place so we’re going to be seeing him around,” he explained. “Asante, this is my wife, Xavia. That’s my second and younger brother, Knight and his wives Casmi and Nova,” he pointed out each person, “and these are my youngest brothers, the twins, Rook and Bishop.”
My eyes snapped to Rook and Bishop at the mention of their names and a smile crossed Rook’s face slowly letting me know he’d caught the knee jerk reaction. I gave the group a half nod as I took them in.
Knight seemed to be the only one of the four siblings to have light brown eyes even though all four of them had the same deep brown skin. He was sitting with his wives, apparently plural and he had an arm around each of them as the three of them talked to each other. He turned to speak into one of their ears and I noted that he also had a snake tattoo.
It had to be some kind of calling card and the fact that Bishop didn’t have one had alarm bells ringing in my head.
I shook the hands of each of the main players in front of me anyway.
“Look, the first thing I was told when I started talking to the past owner about buying this place, was that sometimes people,” I looked around the section, “have meetings and shit here and that it’s supposed to be a safe and neutral spot. I’m cool with that. I don’t expect anything to change. Shit can stay business as usual. I just wanted to introduce myself and ask if I can be notified when these meetings are going to be taking place so I can make sure security is staffed appropriately and so that my guys at the door know not to let as many people in.”
“Yeah. That’s not going to be a problem.” King nodded. “I’ll have Bishop get with you in advance. He heads our security.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Yeah.” Bishop stood up and closed in on King and me. “I’ll make sure you have at least a three day notice if possible. If you’re still with the same security company, I have the contact for them already.”
“Yeah. Well, I’d rather you contact me directly if possible.” I pulled my phone out of my pocket and offered it to him.
The corners of Bishop’s mouth tilted upward but he didn’t comment. He just took my phone, typed his number in and handed it back to me.
“Cool.” King nudged his head toward Bishop. “Bishop is your point of contact then. You need me, you go through him now.”
“Done.” I nodded once.
King hit me on the back and walked over to Rook, Knight and the women.
Once we were alone, I looked Bishop up and down and shook my head.
“You good, my nigga?” Bishop checked.
“Yeah. I just can’t believe I didn’t put two and two together about you being one of the Barrons.” I chuckled. “Bishop Barron,” I said his name slowly, seeing if I liked the way it tasted falling from my lips. “I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Good. Believe all of it.”
“And what if I’d rather find shit out for myself?”
Bishop lifted an eyebrow and I chuckled.
“We’ll see, I guess.”
“Yeah, I guess.” I licked my lips. “I’ll see you around then, yeah?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded once, gave a brief nod to everyone in the section and turned around to leave them to their partying.
I returned to the bar so I could start my time being a waiter and carrying drinks and stuff to the VIP sections. I was shocked by how little they needed overall but I was also extremely aware that they probably would have purchased more if I was a beautiful woman bringing their liquor to them. I took note of that and made sure I had it on my mind to talk to the women specifically how they felt about their uniforms and opening up an option that covered a little bit more skin in case they wanted it.
