“You know the crackdown that’s been happening on the hood lately. I can barely get my men on the street. I’ll be a little late with the payment, but I’m still paying,” Diamond said. “This isn’t even necessary. Running up into my club, scaring my woman, damaging my property. This isn’t going to make me get the money to Antonis faster.”
For a beat, nothing was said as Christos stared at Diamond, who was still trying to catch his breath. Christos then turned to look at Jackson, who nodded in turn and pulled his gun out, pointing it at Diamond’s woman, who looked stunned as she looked at the barrel of the gun pointed at her face.
“Woah! Woah! Woah! Hold up! That’s not even necessary. I just told you I’ll pay the money!” Diamond shouted as he stared helplessly. There wasn’t much he could do, not when he was surrounded by a group of seven individuals, all of whom werearmed. And with all of Diamond’s men beaten down on the ground with no fight left in them, it was just Diamond on his own.
“You seem to be mistaken, thinking that we came here to negotiate with you. Antonis doesn’t negotiate with anyone. Either you come up with the money now, or your woman will be no more,” Christos said.
Nikos stood motionless, wishing he were anywhere but here. He wasn’t even really participating, more of a bystander, and yet this was still too much for him. The fear in the woman’s eyes was not something he cared to see. He liked entertaining women, loving them, and leaving them with good sex that left them breathless, not making them terrified and physically hurting them. But this lifestyle promised mercy for no one.
Diamond looked torn as he looked between the locker in the corner of the room and his woman, and though Nikos felt a smidgen of empathy for the man’s plight, knowing that there was real humiliation in being weak and helpless in front of your woman, he could tell from that look alone that Diamond did have the money to pay Antonis. Because if he didn’t, he wouldn’t look torn as if he had an option. He would look distressed instead.
“Just leave my woman out of it! I told you I don’t have the money!”
Christos nodded, and Jackson started counting down from ten. With each number that went down, Diamond grew more anxious, and his woman grew more terrified.
“I told you I don’t fucking have it!”
“Five,” Jackson continued, ignoring him as he eagerly smiled at the girl. “Four—”
“Just come up off the money,” Nikos said, exasperated. “If that’s your woman like you claim, you wouldn’t let her go through this right now. Look at her.”
The Hispanic woman stared at the barrel of the gun, tears falling down her eyes rapidly. No words would fall from her mouth though her lips were parted. Nikos was certain she would piss herself soon. That was real terror on her face. Diamond stared at her face until he gritted his teeth, but he still didn’t look like he was ready to tell. Greed was truly a curse.
Jackson arched a brow, shocked that Nikos interrupted him, but Nikos couldn’t take it anymore, especially when this was easy to solve.
“You got two options,” Nikos told Diamond. “Either I’ll take the money on my own, and you pay two times more than you owe, or you save us all the time and tell me yourself.”
Diamond frowned. “You don’t know where the money is.”
“Try me,” Nikos said. “I have nothing to lose, but you do. It seems that threatening your girl won’t get you to say anything, but I bet you won’t be too happy if you lose everything you’ve been saving.”
Diamond gritted his teeth, and again, his eyes flitted over to the corner of the room where the locker was. Christos noticed it too, this time.
“Either you’re going to make the choice yourself, or I’ll make it for you,” Nikos said.
“Damn!” Diamond cursed before he lowered his head. “It’s in the locker.”
Christos nodded to two men from their crew, who went over to the locker. They broke the chain on it, and there were a couple of duffle bags filled with money stuffed inside the locker.
“One bag is enough to pay Antonis,” Diamond said, glaring. “Now, can you take the fucking gun off my girl? Shit.”
Jackson smirked as he lowered the gun, and Diamond’s woman fell to the floor, breathing wildly as she tried to catch her breath. Nikos shook his head. No morals. Diamond wasn’t a man at all. He would never put his woman in a situation like this. Not even his brothers would, which was why Aris kept Mia away from this life, and even Pierce, when he had been with Evelyn, had protected her as much as he could from the war.
“If we have to do something like this again, we’ll take the club from you,” Christos threatened, and Diamond’s eyes widened abnormally large. “The only reason you still have this club is because of your connections and respect in your community, but you’ve been taking advantage of that, and Antonis won’t tolerate it any longer. Another late payment from you, and Uptown will have a new manager. Take two bags for our troubles.”
Diamond’s mouth hung agape as they left the backroom, heading out onto the floor where the party continued. Most of the people here were Black, and the strippers were too. The atmosphere was very different here compared to the Gentlemen’s Club. The dancers here seemed more athletic on the pole, doing moves that Nikos had never seen before. On the way out, Nikos glanced at the wall on his left and saw photos posted up. It seemed to highlight moments when rappers and other celebrities had been there. Nikos’s eyebrow rose when he noticed someone familiar.
“Honey used to work here a couple of years ago,” Christos said as they exited the club. Once they got outside, they got into their separate trucks. Christos put the money in his trunk while Nikos got in the passenger seat, and Jackson hopped in the back. Everyone else departed in other trucks.
“You’re smart,” Christos said as he started the car up. “I liked the way you handled that back there. I was surprised.”
“You were surprised?” Jackson said, disgruntled. “Iwassurprised. I was this close to killing his bitch, but you jumped in the way. We do things by order here.”
Nikos shrugged. “It wasn’t any point. He barely cared about that girl. If he did, he wouldn’t have put her life at risk over money anyway. The only thing you can threaten him with is money.”
“Still, the stupid nigger and his bitch should have gotten what they deserved,” Jackson argued. Nikos turned in his seat and looked back at Jackson. He didn’t really know the guy too well and hadn’t spent as much time with him as he had with Christos and his cousin. But from what Nikos knew of him, he didn’t like him, especially after what he just said.
“My sister-in-law is Black,” Nikos said, turning a serious glare on Jackson. “Watch what you say about Black people around me.”
