Carl Weber's Kingpins (7 page)

“Putting in work for me? You ain’t never did shit for me,” he told her and turned his eyes to the front of the car again.

Day’s gaze on his face was fiery and she shook her head at her brother. He was so naïve. The ones he brushed off were the only ones who really had his back. He thought he was alone but he wasn’t. He was never alone, not even when he was at school. Every security guard hired at the school was on their father’s payroll. Some of the students on campus weren’t even really students and any day that he had class the entire building was surrounded with experienced shooters. Despite any disagreements between the father and son, King David always kept a couple of eyes on him and stayed distant at the same time. Instead of pointing all of that out to him Day just faced forward and put a hand on the gear shift.

“Do you remember last year when your updated scholarship information came late?” Her voice was soft as she spoke to, but didn’t look at, her brother. “It actually came on time.”

“What?” David Jr. asked, confused, glancing over her way.

“The first one came on time, anyway. I was nosey so I opened it.” She paused and chuckled. “It said that they had revoked your entire scholarship because you failed that math class, remember?” She clenched her jaw and shook her head. “They took all your funds away over one class, when you had straight As in all of your others. That was crazy to me, just another way for the white man to keep the black man down. And I know you, David Jr. You wouldn’t have asked Daddy for the money. Even if it was your last year of school. Since you try so hard to show him that you don’t need him.”

David Jr. sat there in silence. All he remembered was getting a letter in the mail saying that he had gotten more money toward his college education. He also remembered getting his grades back and seeing that the math course he had failed was nowhere even on the listing. He opened his mouth to ask a question but she beat him to the punch.

“I put a burner to the dean’s temple and explained to him all of the reasons why it was in his best interest to delete that grade from the system and make sure you kept your scholarship. And now here we are: me, still a savage in your eyes, and you? Still a uppity-ass nigga in mine.”

The only thing that could be heard was the purring of the engine as her words played in David Jr.’s head. He didn’t know what to say at first. The two had never really gotten along.

“Why would you do that?” he finally asked.

“Because you’re my brother, stupid.” Without saying another word Day pulled back into the interstate traffic and David Jr. didn’t say a thing the rest of the ride to their destination.

It took almost forty-five minutes to get to the address Day had scribbled down on a piece of paper. When they pulled onto a street in Fountain Park, Day slowed the car and glanced down at the paper one more time before pointing her finger.

“That’s the house right there,” she told him and parked the car three houses down from the one she had pointed at. “Here, put this on. Niggas be snitching these days.”

She tossed over to him a black face mask with the eyes and mouth cut out, and he stared blankly down at it. She didn’t wait for him to put his on before she pulled hers down on her own face. She unbuckled her seat belt and grabbed her weapon up from her lap so that she could check the clip. From the corner of her eye she saw David Jr. put on his face mask, and when he did that she reached in the pockets of her hoodie and pulled out two sets of leather black gloves.

“Hunh.” She handed one of the pairs to him. “Put these on, too. Check your clip and then we can go.”

“Where is Dad?” David Jr. asked after checking his clip and seeing that it was full.

Day grabbed a black duffle bag from the back seat before she opened her car door and looked back at her brother with a smirk. “Dad ain’t coming. He’s back at the house.” She knew that underneath his mask his expression was of pure shock. He didn’t know that it would be just him and Day.

“What?”

“The perks of being the king,” Day said, shutting her car door and waiting for David Jr. to follow suit. “You have little niggas who will handle your lightweight while you sleep. Come on, let’s get this shit over with.”

David Jr. didn’t know what he had gotten himself into. He thought that his dad would be there to oversee things just in case they went bad; he was wrong. He should have never let his ego get the best of him at the dinner table because he could be back at home in his condo right then. He was nervous because the only place that he had ever shot a gun at was the gun range. And although he had incredible aim there, those were still targets.

He fixed the mask on his face and couldn’t help but to notice that it smelled like the perfume he’d gotten Day for Christmas the year before. Holding the gun tightly in his right hand, he followed his sister as she half walked, half ran to the brick house. The spring night was cool and the fact that they wore black blended them in well with the shadows. Before they even reached the house they could hear the music booming from it and loud laughter. From the sounds of it the habitants were having some kind of party. When they finally reached the house, Day looked at her brother and prepped him.

“We’re going through the front door?”

“I’m a gangster. I don’t gotta break into nobody’s crib. We’re here to collect a debt. We get in, get the money, and leave. Got it?”

David Jr. nodded his head and asked, “What if they don’t have the money?”

“If they don’t, then we are the only ones who will ever leave this house again. Get ready, and don’t be scared. Just back me up. You’re the prince. You run shit. Remember that.”

Without wasting another moment Day knocked on the door and stepped to the side, and David Jr. did the same.

“Who is it?” a gruff voice yelled from the other side.

“Boy, stop playin’! You know it’s me,” Day called out in a sweet voice.

When the door opened she didn’t even give the man a chance to look outside before swinging her fist and connecting with his nose. When he was knocked back she rushed in the house with David Jr. close behind her. Before the man could get back up she kicked him in his temple, knocking him out cold. She quickly analyzed her surroundings and fired her gun in the air, shocking everyone in the house. The house was one story and from the looks of it everyone was having a party in the living room of the place. There were four big, bulky men, including the one she had knocked down, and four half-naked white women. On the coffee table Day saw white lines and it seemed that they were in the middle of taking them. As soon as the women saw the armed, masked intruders enter the house they started screaming at the top of their lungs.

“What the fuck?” one of the men said and boldly stood to his feet. He didn’t know who the hell they thought they were, busting into his house like the feds. “Do you know who the fuck I am?”

David instinctively pointed his gun to the living room and took notice that all the men were armed.

“I don’t give a fuck who you are, my nigga,” Day said, also pointing her gun at the man. “It’s all about who I am. King David wants his money.”

The man before her was tall and heavyset. His hair was cut low and his sideburns led into his mustache and beard. He looked at the small frame before him and matched it with the voice. He burst out laughing before he could control himself.

“So this is how King James does his business? He got bitches shooting for him now?”

“Are you Big Mike?” Day asked, ignoring his comment.

“No, bitch, I—”

Bang! Day fired her gun once and shot him in the center of his forehead. The back of his head exploded and the blood and brain particles sprayed on the women behind him before he dropped lifelessly to the ground.

“Fuck is you talking for then?” Day growled and turned back to the last two men on the couch. She eyed them and saw that one had the name MIKE tattooed on his arm, and she focused on him. He had dark brown eyes and cornrows in his hair. “You niggas are wasting my time, but even more you are wasting King David’s. You have three options: give me money or give me the drugs.”

“What’s the third option?” Big Mike said, trying to hide the fact that he was shook that little mama had just bodied his partner like it was nothing.

“Give me your soul.” She cocked her gun back and aimed it at his head.

“A’ight! A’ight!” Big Mike put his hands in the air. “I got the money! It’s in the basement, though.”

Day eyed him suspiciously before looking back at her brother and nodding her head. “Go with him and make sure all twenty-five thousand is accounted for. Especially since these niggas wanna be up here getting high with bitches.”

David Jr. nodded his head and waved his gun. “Come on,” he said to Big Mike.

Big Mike stood up from the couch and led David Jr. to the basement. David Jr. kept his gun pointed at his head the whole way down the stairs. The basement was laid out nicely, with red carpets, leather couches, and big-screen TVs.

“Over there.” Big Mike pointed to a safe behind the bar.

“Go get it,” David Jr. said. “And don’t try no funny shit.”

Big Mike nodded as he walked, and then began putting in the code to open the safe. He chuckled and shook his head at the kid behind him. “You ain’t never did this shit before, huh?”

David Jr. ignored the comment. He just threw the duffle bag at him once the safe was open.

“I can tell just by the way you holdin’ that gun, boy. You don’t even look like you’ve even busted a gun at a real person before. You scared?”

“Fuck I got to be scared about, nigga?” David Jr. asked. “I’m the one with the gun.”

Big Mike chuckled again. “Wrong.” The sudden sound of a gun cocking filled the air in the basement.

David Jr. was caught off guard when Big Mike whipped around and pointed a black firearm at him. With only a split second to react he squeezed the trigger and caught Big Mike in the neck. But he didn’t stop shooting his gun until it started clicking. He had made Big Mike dance backward before he finally fell dead with a big thud to the ground. David Jr. inhaled deeply when he saw what he had just done. He didn’t feel anything as he stared down into Big Mike’s blank eyes. He let the gun fall loosely to his side and stood still for a second. Suddenly he felt somebody come from behind him and touch his arm gently.

“Go get the money,” he heard his sister’s voice say.

When Day looked at Big Mike lying dead on the floor the only thing she paid attention to was the gun still being held tightly in his hand.

“Damn, this nigga had a gun in his safe?” She walked over and grabbed the gun that her brother had while he was loading the cash in the duffle bag. “You was scared.”

“How you figure?” David Jr. asked and zipped the bag up.

She grabbed his gun and showed him the clip. “You emptied your clip close range.”

“Nah, not scared,” David Jr. said and stepped over Big Mike to head back to the stairs. The blood spilling out of his body matched the red carpet perfectly. “Insulted. Take me home.”

The birds chirping outside of his window didn’t bother David Jr, mostly because he was already awake. After Day had dropped him off he took a long, hot shower and then tried to go to sleep. However, sleep couldn’t find him. He couldn’t stop thinking about the way Day had taken a life so effortlessly. It was almost like it didn’t mean anything to her, like she was unmoved by it. When she had seen what he had done to Big Mike he was sure that he saw a satisfied look in her eyes. She was pleased. Her brother wasn’t a pussy after all. He was sure she’d already taken the news back to their father.

He was lying on his back and staring at his ceiling, trying to get his thoughts together. He tried to make himself feel sad about taking that man’s life, but whenever he would start to feel remorse it was replaced with anger instead. He remembered the things Big Mike had said about him and he also knew that if he hadn’t shot first then he would be dead. He had to do it, and that realization alone made him sick to his stomach.

He was still lost in his thoughts when his phone started to vibrate on the oak wood nightstand beside his bed. He picked it up and saw that it was a message from his father, telling him to meet him for lunch in an hour. He sighed and tossed the phone back down. A split second later it began to vibrate again. When he picked it up that time he saw a number that he did not recognize pop up on the screen.

“Hello?” he said into the receiver.

“Hey, I didn’t know if you would be up or not.” The soft voice sounded familiar but he couldn’t put a face to it.

“Who this?” he asked.

“You don’t recognize my voice? It’s Indigo. Remember me?”

That made David Jr. sit straight up in his bed and clear his throat. “Aw, my bad. What’s up? How’d you get my number?.”

“I have my ways,” she said jokingly. “Honestly, I wasn’t going to call you,,” she admitted on the other end, “but then I saw this movie on Lifetime about second chances and decided to give you one.”

“For real?”

“Nah, I’m bullshitting you.” She laughed. “But the last time I saw you, you looked like a sad puppy dog, and I haven’t been able to get your face out of my head since.”

“I knew these handsome features of mine would be of use one day.” David Jr. grinned to himself, putting all of his negative thoughts to the back of his mind.

“Or maybe I just felt sorry for you.”

“Damn, like that?” David laughed. “Well, either way, I’ll take it. What do you have planned for the day? Can I see you?”

“Umm, sure,” she said skeptically.

“I promise I won’t kidnap you. What about tonight? We can go to dinner; and my dad owns this club. We can stop by there if you want.” David Jr. didn’t remember the last time he had asked a girl on a date. Most of the time women would just be at the parties he attended and would end up in his bed. The words felt awkward coming from his mouth.

“Okay, that sounds cool. Just text me and let me know what time and stuff. Cool?”

“A’ight, coo’.”

“What are you about to do right now?”

“Shit.” Davis Jr. stood up and stretched. “Just go meet my dad at Ruth’s Chris Steak House. He wants to talk.”

“Oooh, sounds serious.”

“Yeah, well. You know how that goes,” David Jr. said, trying to make light of the topic.

“Uh-huh,” Indigo said and then paused for a moment. “Well, I’ll let you get ready, I won’t hold you. Don’t forget to text me.”

“I won’t,” David Jr. reassured her before they disconnected the phone.

Indeed he wouldn’t. She was just what he needed to take his mind off of the world around him.

* * *

King David sat alone at slightly packed restaurant as he waited for his son to join him. He wore a casual Armani cream button-up with tan slacks, which he had hiked up slightly to show off the cream Armani socks that matched his shirt. After Day came in the house by herself with the duffle bag of money he had of course inquired where David Jr. was. When she told him that he had requested to go home he knew he needed to meet with his son and pick his brain a little bit. It was time that David Jr. embrace who he was.

When he finally saw his son being led to the table by the host, he motioned to the chair on the opposite side of him.

“What’s up, Dad,” David Jr. greeted him. “You couldn’t wait for me to order?” He nodded his head toward the steak already in front of his father.

“You couldn’t be on time?”

“I had some things to handle,” David Jr. lied. He honestly was late because he was contemplating not even going at all. He wasn’t ready to face his father and he definitely wasn’t ready to discuss anything that had happened the night before. He sat there and stared down at the Legend Blue retro Jordans on his feet, and rubbed his hands together. “So what’s up?”

King David studied his son. He couldn’t help smirking. It was almost like he was seeing himself young all over again. He had to admit that his son had much more style than he ever had, and he had much more luck with the ladies. He was also more arrogant and he didn’t know how to control his hot temper, much like Day. However, that was not a trait that he wanted his son, a man, to have.

“Why didn’t you come back to the house last night?”

“Because I have my own house.”

“Touché.” King David tilted his glass of water to his son before taking a swig. “You aren’t going to order anything to eat?”

“Nah, I’m not hungry. So what’s up, Dad? What you call me here for? You want to talk about last night or something?”

“Straight to the point I see,” King David said and cut another piece of his steak. “I already know what happened last night so there is no need for us to discuss it.”

“Then what? You called me here to watch you eat?”

“I called you here to talk about your position in the family business.” King David looked square into David Jr.’s eyes. “This is your last year of school. You graduate in a couple of months. I let you do your thing; now it’s time that I bring you back.”

“What if that isn’t what I want for myself?”

“After last night I thought you’d have changed your mind.”

Shaking his head, David Jr. leaned forward and put his arms on the table. “If anything, it made me want to not have anything to do with this shit even more,” he told his father. “If that’s the shit you have to do then I’m good. You got Day out here running around like a nigga. We could have gotten killed last night. That’s what you want for us? You want us out there like that?”

“You still don’t get it, do you? Or do I need to call off every one of the bodies I have tailing you wherever you go so you can see just how many people will come for your head? You are here. You came from me. There is no place on this earth that you can go and not be King David’s son. Understand that.”

“I can still make my own way.”

“And I can guarantee you that, when it is all said and done with, you will still end up on my side of the table. You are a Mason. There is no running from that. All that bullshit your mother put in your head got you out here acting all uppity, like you’re better than everyone.”

“You sound like Day.” David Jr. leaned back in his chair.

“Sit up straight at my table,” King David said in a low but deadly voice. When his son did as he was instructed, he continued, “Day is insulted by the way you treat her, and by the way you react to me. She knows this business like the back of her hand; and she can shoot. She’s not scared and this is the life that she has come to know. But that doesn’t make her a leader. That makes her a right hand. Yours. So the real question is, do you want her out there like that?”

“She don’t fuck with me. Plus, I already have a right hand.”

“Who, Roland? That nigga couldn’t see himself to a door if it was right in front of him.” King David put his fork down and focused on his son’s face. “That’s your problem. No matter what happens you ain’t never supposed to put anybody before family. As much resentment that Davita has toward you, she would bust her gun first at anybody who threatened you. She would lay her life down for you, but would you do the same?”

David Jr. was quiet. After what Day had told him the night before about his scholarship, he had begun to wonder if she really didn’t like him, or if it was just a show. Maybe it was always he who had pushed her away and not the other way around. He had always judged her for wanting to be a part of her father’s business instead of wanting something better for herself. He never took the time to think that maybe this was the life that was best for her. He felt like shit, because he knew that everything his father was saying was true. David Jr. had tried so hard for years to not be like his father that he forgotten he was still King David’s son at the end of the day. Mason blood coursed through his veins. It dawned on him at that very moment that he would never be able to get away from who he was. No matter how may schools he went to and no matter what job he got, he would always be a Mason.

“Yes,” David Jr. said, shocking King David.

“Good,” King David said and eyed his son curiously. “Your mother asked me to release more assets to you and at first I was against it. But then I started to think maybe it is my fault that you don’t want anything to do with my business. I have released more than half of my assets to you. I have also removed your mother from my will and you will have everything that was once released to her.”

“Why? Why would you remove Ma from your will?”

“Because she is not the woman I fell in love with,” King David responded honestly. “She does not want you to be anything like me. At one point in time I was everything to her, or so I thought. If in you she sees me and despises it? I don’t think she ever loved me at all. Why would I leave anything of mine to someone who looks down on the way I got it?”

“So then why would you leave it to me?”

“Because you don’t really look down on it, or me.” King David read his son. “I see the way your eyes light up whenever you come and do counts. You force yourself to stay away but now I think after last night you know. You know that there is no running from it. You, my son, have collected your first soul. Now you have no choice. Because, now, I have leverage.”

“You gon’ blackmail me to work for you?”

“Is it really blackmail if you do it willingly?”

David Jr. stared at his hands for a moment and thought about how he felt when he squeezed the trigger. He thought about the power he felt and the fact that he felt no regret; but still he wasn’t completely sold.

“I ain’t no street nigga,” he said, and his words got a reaction.

“You are my son and I love you. Despite the things I did to build this empire, it’s built, and I did it for you and your sister. I grew up fighting. I didn’t have shit where I came from and when my mom died I had nowhere to go but the streets. I had to drop out of school because I had to eat and the streets fed me. If I cut you off right now where would you go?” King David couldn’t help feeling slighted by his son’s words. “Exactly. I named you after myself not so that you would have to live in my shadow, but so that your name would hold power. And so that you would never have to work as hard as me, just rule. And pass on our legacy. You say you ain’t a street nigga, but I was. And look how far it got me. Now I’m the king, just like you will be. Kings never
have
to run the streets. We just go to meetings. Which brings me to the next topic.”

When King David didn’t continue David Jr. assumed he wanted him to ask, so he did. “What’s that?”

“We have a very important meeting a week from Saturday. At one p.m. sharp.”

“We?”

“We, as in you and me. You have a choice to make now. Either you come to the meeting with me and take your rightful place by my side, or . . .”

“Or what?” David Jr. inquired when his father’s voice trailed off.

“Since you want to prove your independence so bad, you do just that. With no funds from me. No home, no car. I will cut you off and you will see exactly what it is like to be a street nigga.”

* * *

The watcher viewed them as they exited Ruth’s Chris Steak House, and then turned the key in the ignition. It was time. Seeing the two men embrace and say their good-byes before they parted ways was almost sickening.

“Yeah, say your last good-byes. You son of a bitch.”

“Shut up!” The watcher hated hearing the mental voice speak.

Pulling into traffic the Escalade stayed at least two cars behind the all-black Buick. Finally the Buick dropped him off in front of a club and he walked inside alone. Parking the Escalade, the watcher casually reached over to the passenger’s seat and grabbed the 9 mm pistol and wrapped a hand around it. The watcher then reached into the glove compartment, grabbed a silencer from it, and screwed it on the gun. After concealing the weapon, the watcher stepped out of the vehicle and walked slowly toward the front door of the club. At that time of the day it was a restaurant and there were many people there dining in. Giving fake smiles to those passing, the watcher saw him get on an elevator, and then headed in that direction. Looking up at the lights, it was noted mentally that the elevator had stopped on the third floor. When it came back down the watcher got on and pressed the number three button out of all of the choices and hoped that he was there alone. However, even if he wasn’t it wouldn’t matter; nobody was going to make it back down the elevator.

Ding!

The elevator sounded when it reached its destination and, when he heard the elevator, King David turned around to see who had come up behind him. He had just opened the door to his office and he wasn’t expecting anybody at that moment. When he saw who it was he held a look of confusion on his face.

“Remember me?” the watcher said and aimed the gun.

Pfft!

The bullet caught King David in his shoulder and knocked him back. When he went for his own gun at his waist he caught a bullet in his other shoulder. And another one in his gut. And two more in his legs.