When legislation produced heftier penalties for grand theft auto, Oshun stepped in to help Uncle Pete restructure his hustle. Instead of stealing the cars himself, she had him contract out the work. She also had him taking on more insurance fraud cases than before. Stealing cars brought unwanted attention. Frankly, there were too many people who wanted to cash in on the insurance money when payments became too much to handle. So now, Pete didn’t have to worry about breaking into and stealing cars himself. He simply designated a drop off spot with the owners, picked up the unwanted vehicles, and broke them down for parts.
Each one of her council members leveled-up when Oshun gave them a plan to run their businesses more efficiently, as well as in ways that didn’t put them in opposition with the community.
Her plans always focused on minimizing risk and maximizing profit. The only thing the members had to sacrifice was violence and drugs.
It had been difficult to get them to give up their interests in guns and drugs. Getting them to police their people and penalize them for breaking council rules had been damn near impossible. But over time, these three learned times were good when they followed Oshun, and not so good when they went against her wishes.
Oshun quietly took her seat at the table, and waited for Aesop to close the door and take his place standing behind her seat.
“Someone want to tell me what happened?”
She watched the three council members gathered around the table, each directing their eyes to anywhere but where they needed to be, on her.
“Don’t all speak at once,” she said to the still-quiet room.
When no one spoke, she stood up, placing spread palms against the table as she braced herself. These three people had helped her bring Brownsville up out of the dark hardships that plagued communities of lower socioeconomic status.
No, it wasn’t a wealthy haven overflowing with milk and honey. But, with hard work, Brownsville had become a working-class neighborhood. The council initiated programs geared to teach skills to the unemployed and undereducated. They’d sponsored grants designed to place competitive tools in their schools, and provided opportunities for residents to attend college, and start businesses within the community. They were doing good work. Brownsville was still on the come-up, but at least they were moving in the right direction. Tonight was the first time in her ten-year reign she worried all her work could be undone.
“What the fuck happened? As far as I understand it, the plan was for us to sneak in and fuck up their shit enough to cause code violations for the inspectors coming in a few days. How the fuck did we jump from that to burning down their fucking buildings, along with the neighboring houses owned by our damn people?”
Uncle Pete, an older man who was an original gangster from when her father was running Brownsville, finally turned his gaze to hers. He still wore wool fedoras or Bermuda hats wherever he went. He took a pull from the cigar resting between the thick pointer and ring finger of his right hand.
“It wasn’t part of the plan, Oshun. Shelly, Craig, and me put some of our best people on the job. Aesop oversaw it all. Them damn Yakuza was waiting on them when they got there.”
She turned to Aesop, her right hand, for confirmation of the old man’s version of events.
“They ambushed us,” Aesop said as he nodded his head. Just as we were finishing up, they caught us. There was a struggle between one of them and Craig’s people while he was messing with the wiring. A light broke, and the fire started. We barely made it out alive.”
She digested Aesop’s comments, turning them over repeatedly in her mind. There was something picking at the back of her mind that didn’t sit right with her. They’d watched this site for more than a month to get AAM’s pattern down. They’d known everything about their security and had planned this job accordingly. Oshun wasn’t sloppy, and she didn't allow her people to be either. Something was wrong here.
“How the fuck did they know we were coming?”
Again, everyone sitting at the table remained quiet.
“Someone talked,” she answered her own question. “That’s the only way they could’ve found out about our plan. Find out who the fuck is telling tales. We reconvene in two days. By then, y’all silent asses better have answers for me.”
She stepped away from the table, walked up the stairs and out of the club. Her anger turned to breathtaking pain when she glanced at the burned ruins marking her failure to keep her promise to her people.
The sadness cloaking her soul weighed heavily on her, pulling her into a sinking pit of despair and disappointment as she stood there trying to figure out how she was going to fix this. The easy fix was to help her neighbors rebuild. That would take some of the burden off, but she knew it wouldn’t repair the parts of their spirits that were destroyed with their mementoes, and memories that often colored the places a person called home.
“Oshun?”
She turned around at the familiar voice calling her name. It was out of place, somehow not fitting properly into her surroundings.
“Masaki? What are you doing here?”
It seemed like hours since she’d left him standing pissed off at his front door. A quick glance at her watch told her only forty-five minutes had elapsed. Did he follow her? Did he track her down to this site? She shook her head, trying to loosen the discomfort those thoughts brought to her.
He couldn't have followed you. You would’ve noticed a tail. But how and why was he here?
“One of my employees called to alert me of the fire. What about you?”
“I know many of the people who live in this area. I needed to come down and see how bad it was. Needed to see if there was any way I could help.”
It wasn't a complete lie. It was mostly true. Yes, she did know the people who’d lost their homes. But Masaki didn't know about the true nature of her ties to the club. He didn’t know she was the owner, and he damn sure didn’t know about her connection to the underground council that, until tonight, protected Brownsville from all threats.
She replayed his words in her mind on a loop until something clicked in her head. “Did you say one of your employees called you?”
