I turned my head to look at my brother, wanting to see if he was going to be the one to answer the question, but once I saw this nigga standing there shaking, sweat on his forehead, looking like he was getting ready to pass out at any second, I knew that I was going to have to be the one to speak for the both of us.
“Eduardo, we fucked up man. We didn’t reach out and tell you about it because we’ve been trying to handle it on our end. We been beefing with this other crew heavy for the past few months. They’ve taken out some of our guys, and we’ve taken outsome of theirs. They took a lot of our corner boys from us. Those corner boys must have given them the info on our drop because when we had the drop, they came through, killing all our men, and taking our product. We trying to fix it man,” my voice was shaking as I was speaking to him because in this moment, I just knew that I was knocking on deaths door.
I just knew that a bullet was getting ready to fly out of one of those guns that was pointed at my brother, and I. Eduardo wasn’t going to allow me to say this shit to him and not kill us. It just wasn’t happening.
“I just want to get something straight. Maybe I misunderstood you. I’ll say it my way, and you can correct me if I’m wrong. So, you said that you’ve been in an active war with another crew. With that, there have been men dead on both sides. A lot of blood spilled. This same crew that you are in an active war with, turns around, and they take your corner boys. Those same corner boys that were taken from you, they knew where my shipment would arrive. They knew what time it would arrive. They knew who would be there,” he went on, and then took a long pause.
I hated that he was calling it out because when he put it that way, he made my brother and I sound like some fuckin rookies that didn’t know what the fuck we were doing.
“Despite all these things, neither one of you thought that it would be a good idea to move the drop? Did neither of you think that the men taken from you would possibly switch sides and tell the same men actively trying to kill you where millions of dollars’ worth of product would be?” he asked, and again, neither my brother nor I said anything.
“Interesting,” was his response.
“Come together please. The two of you. Please stand side by side,” Eduardo ordered my brother and I to do.
We walked over to him, and we stood in front of him. I didn’t mind him making me stand next to my brother because if he was getting ready to kill us, at least I would die right here with my brother.
Eduardo took a couple of steps forward, standing in front of us. He picked his hands up, placing them on either side of me, and Elias’s face, bringing our heads together. With a serious look in his eyes, he stared deeply at us.
“Here’s what we’re going to do here. As of today, business between me, and you two ends today?—”
“Eduardo, man. Come on. We can fix this shit!” I cut him off, damn near on the verge of tears.
“No. You cannot fix it. If you had the mental capacity of fixing it, it would have been fixed already, and I wouldn’t have had to fly out here. And please, if you interrupt me again while I’m speaking, I’ll have your blood splattered on this wall,” he was firm, still holding our heads together, as he looked at me.
I sighed, keeping quiet, going to go ahead, and let him finish with what he was saying.
“I no longer have any interest in continuing business with men who are sloppy. You knew all the things that could possibly go wrong, yet you decided to ignore all the signs. I will never understand how you two thought that it was okay to not protect millions of dollars’ worth of product. I want to make something very clear to you two. The only reason why you two are even breathing is because of who your father is. Before you two sloppy fuck ups existed, there was Everett. I never had these kinds of problems out of your father. He was a true businessman. He was calculated. Very disciplined. Vert smart,” he went on.
He then cleared his throat, and I could tell that this was probably the final thing that he was going to say to us.
“You have seven days. I want every fuckin dollar that was tied to that shipment. If I don’t have the money that I needin seven days, I will be sure to offer Everett my condolences. He knows how this games works. He understands the rules of this life. Your father was in this line of business for a very long time before stepping down, and giving it to you two idiots, so he’s aware that when men choose this business, they are also choosing the consequences attached to failure. He knows that your shortcomings often become your demise. Seven days is all you have,” he finished, and our heads that were held together, he pulled them away for a second, only to slam them together, and it seemed as if I was seeing stars.
Elias and I stumbled, trying to keep our balance. Eduardo pushed his way through the middle of us, and he walked over to the front door.
Before he walked out, he turned to glance at my brother and I one last time.
“One more thing before I leave. The crew that you were at war with. The ones who intercepted my shipment. Who are they?” he wanted to know.
“MBM,” my brother was the one to respond.
“Who’s running it?” he inquired.
“His name is Dominique. Everybody calls him Dolo,” Elias was singing like a motha fucka.
“Let that no longer be your concern. You two have more than enough problems, like getting my money. I’ll deal with Dolo myself. You couldn’t get to him, so allow me to do it,” was all he said before turning his back on us, and his men were the ones to reach for the door handle, and they pushed it open. The door was fucked up, so they left it open once they walked out.
We were in some deep shit. We had to get this nigga a couple of millions in seven days. When you weren’t apart of the dope game, people would often assume that niggas just had millions of dollars laying around, collecting dust. Shit didn’t work likethat, man. If it did, I would have told Eduardo to just follow me to a spot, and I would have handed the money to him in cash.
In this business, money came, and money went. This was a business at the end of the day, so there was payroll, product, lawyer fees, weapons, all that shit. All those things were big fees that added up, so millions weren’t just lying around.
This nigga wasn’t asking us to cough up chump change. He wanted millions out of us. Millions in seven days. I know for a fact that if we didn’t cough that money up to him in the time frame that he’d given us, that we would be dead men.
Chapter 11
Riot St. James
PROVIDENCIALES, TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
