“Fuck that, if I’ma die, I’ma die like a mutha fuckin’ man, nigga,” Whitey said and beat his chest.
When he did, I started laughing.
“I ain’t gonna smoke you, Whitey. I just wanted to tell you that this is our spot now. You and me are partners. Seventy-thirty your way. You run the spot and we kick up twenty-five percent to André.”
Now Whitey was laughing. “I can get with that.”
I went back inside with Whitey and hung around until the spot closed, just in case anybody had a problem with Whitey taking over.
“One thing I learned a long time ago. You spread enough money around, niggas memory gets real short and their loyalty changes,” Whitey said.
“True, true.”
After a while, I went down in the alley to make sure that Freeze had done his job and taken care of the body.
It was almost eight in the morning when me and Wanda came out of the building and we walked to her car. Once we were in the car, she told me that she was hungry, so Wanda drove us to the Royal Coach Diner. Both of us ordered the Angus rib eye that came with three eggs and Wanda added French toast with a side of home fries to her order. I don’t understand how she can eat the way she does and not gain an ounce.
“What are you going to do now?” Wanda asked when we finished eating.
“I ain’t tired, so I don’t know. What about you?”
“I don’t know why, but I’m not tired either. I wanna do something.”
“Thought you had to study today.”
“I do, I just don’t feel like it. It’s been a while since we hung out all night and I’m having fun. Seems like all I do is study. Go to class and study.”
I stood up, reached in my pocket and dropped some money on the table.
“Come on, let’s ride and holla at Sherman.”
“You driving?”
I just looked at her.
“I didn’t think so.” Wanda stood up and grabbed her purse. “I’m gonna ride and holla at Sherman. You wanna ride with me?” she asked, as she passed on her way out of the diner.
Sherman Williams was a pretty large numbers banker who operated out of the bodega he ran with his wife, Ester, for a long time. He relied on André for protection from the cops that André was paying off, and he relied on Sherman for information. Sherman always seemed to know everything that was going on and since his bank was large, so was his influence.
As soon as I walked in the store, Sherman raised his hands. “You can kill me but don’t shoot Ester,” he said but when he saw Wanda, he put his hands down. “Oh, it’s okay, baby, Wanda’s with him,” he laughed. “If it was Bobby or The Kid, we might be in trouble.”
“Hello, Mrs. Williams,” Wanda and I both said as Sherman came from behind the counter.
“Let’s talk in the back,” he said, and led the way to his office in the back of the store. He locked the door and turned to us. “Are you here to kill me?”
“No, Sherman, I ain’t here to kill you.”
“Just thought I’d ask. So what’s really going on, Black?”
“Some people haven’t been coming correct, so I’m making sure that they do.”
“Word is you’re taking over the streets.”
“Same thing.”
Sherman laughed. “So, if you ain’t here to kill me, what are you doing here?”
If I was gonna do what I planned, I needed Sherman and his influence. See, my plan wasn’t just to take over a few gambling operations and tighten up on the rest. My plan was to organize. One of my best friends was a guy named Angelo Collette, so I spent a lot of time around the Italians. Me and Angee have done some things that have made us a lot of money over the years.