“Then you be damn good at it.”
Her eyes lit up because she wasn’t expecting that response. It felt like a weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
“Would you teach me?”
“Don’t I teach you everything?”
She hugged him and told him everything her and Kayla did, he wasn’t even shocked to find out that she was in on it, they had always been partners in crime. Rich thought he would never have to sit in that seat because he had daughters. He was expecting boy problems and girl fights, but his girls were a different breed. Rich helped build Stone’s empire and he sat back and watched him reap the benefits long enough. He built it once, he could do it again with his daughter, and that time around, he wasn’t getting knocked off the thorn.
“Listen, school is still number one, no matter how much money starts coming in. Remain humble and grounded, no drugs allowed in this house.”
“Ok, but where do I get it?”
“I got connects that owes me favors. My name still good in the streets.”
“Damn. My daddy is the man.”
“Nah, yo daddybeenthe man, I just let niggas pretend.”
Diamond had questions, real questions.
“So, Stone is an enemy. I know it was something from the past, but what actually happened because you gave the watered-down version?” He leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees.
“We were once you and Kayla, thick as thieves. He was my brother from another mother. I knew his roaches and rats at his house and he knew mine, we were that close. We were young, cold, smart, and hungry. What’s even crazier is we came in the game just like you, we robbed a trap house, and no one suspected us because we were nobody, just some dirty ass kids.”
“Sounds like real friendship.”
Rich nodded, “Indeed it was, I could never take that away from him. We touched real money together; we had a system that worked. It was all good until he brought Ace on the team, he got in Stone’s ear about me, and Stone believed him over me. The money was still flowing, then mine started getting cut short. Stone started moving funny, doing deals without telling me. Making plays behind my back.”
Rich chuckled, but it wasn’t funny.
“Stone looked like he wanted to say something to you the other day.”
“He tried talking to me plenty of times, but I don’t want to hear shit he has to say. I’ll see him at the top.”
Diamond thought a conversation was needed, but she wouldn’t tell him that, not at that moment anyway.
“What we gon’ do about Momma?”
“We gon’ get this money and get her the help she needs.”
A week later,Rich put Diamond in the car and took a drive.
“Where we going?” she asked from the passenger seat.
“The spot. This is where we talk business, store product and money, nothing goes where we lay our heads. Understand?”
“Yup.”
“Another thing, you can’t tell Kayla everything, her mind isn’t strong enough. I don’t even want her in this business.”
“We gon’ need her.”
“No. We got it, but once I build us a solid team and smooth operation, I want you out. This shit is temporary.”
Rich’s words went in one ear and out the other, especially when she followed her father into a storage unit. Her mouth dropped, there was three bricks and a pound of weed.
“Daddy, this is a lot!”
