She was confused. She didn’t know anything about the meeting. I still didn’t tell her the shit about Mook. The plan was to tell her tonight though, especially since she was leaving with me, and coming back home with me. I already told her this morning that I wanted her to spend the night at my crib tonight.That would be new for me. I’ve never in my life did some shit like that before.
“Yeah. The meeting not for everybody though. Go ahead in there. Diego, Bray, and Kendrick already in there,” I told him.
You could see the hesitation all in his eyes. He stood there, staring at me for a few seconds, then he nodded his head, and he walked away.
“I’ll come back and get you when I’m finished, aight?” I asked her.
“Okay. Is everything okay though?” she wanted to know.
“Yeah. I’ll tell you after,” I said. She just nodded her head, and she got back to work.
I looked around the large room, just paying attention to what everyone in here was doing. Everybody had their own thing going on, working at their own speed, not paying much attention to what Riot and I had going on. Knowing that, I was able to walk up behind her, wrap my arms around her waist, and I kissed her on the back of her neck a couple of times.
As I was holding her, I could literally feel her body melting into my arms. She turned her head around, even as I was still holding onto her, and for a few seconds, the two of us just locked eyes with one another. I could see the yearning in her eyes that she had to kiss me. She got out of her head long enough to stop worrying about what others were going to think of us, and she pecked me on the lips a couple of times, and then she parted her lips, so that we could engage in a passionate tongue kiss. She only allowed it to go on for about five seconds, and then she pulled away, so that she could get back to work.
“Aight. I’ll come get you when I’m done,” I tried to play it off, and pretend that a nigga wasn’t dizzy off that kiss, knowing that I was.
I eventually walked out of the room, and I went down the hall, where the meeting room was. Everybody was sitting down,just waiting for me to walk in. I paid close attention to Mook, as I made my way towards the table. He sat, bouncing his right leg up and down. He had on a hoodie, so his hands were inside his pockets. It was hard to read him right now, so I couldn’t tell you if he was nervous about what was getting ready to happen.
Mook was the kind of nigga where he could be standing in a room with a bunch of snakes, slithering up to him, ready to demolish his ass, but he wouldn’t show that fear. That’s how all of us was though. He knew the things that he had been doing behind my back, so I’m sure that he was sitting there, contemplating if that’s what this meeting was going to be about, but you wouldn’t know because he wasn’t showing it.
“What’s up? What this meeting about? I’m thinking this some shit that the whole MBM was going to have to sit in for. At least, that’s how you made that shit seem when you hit me yesterday. What’s good? I know ya’ll were just in Mexico, visiting Octavio and shit. I know how he is. He trying to change shit within the business? What’s good?” he asked.
Even though he might not have been sitting here showing off his nervousness, the second he opened his mouth to speak, firing off all these questions like this, he was showing his guilt.
My brother, Kendrick, and Bray even peeped that shit because I turned to look at each of them, and they had that same look in their eyes as I did. Basically, one where we knew we were sitting across from someone that feared their shit hitting the fan.
I went ahead and cleared my throat, not going to beat around the bush with him. The plan was to get right to the point and get this nigga the fuck out of here. It was going to hurt me to have to do so because this was like my brother at the end of the day, but I couldn’t have snakes around me.
“Ima get right to the point man. A little over a month ago, we noticed that there were inconsistencies within the product. Inconsistent to the point that you could easily look at it and tellthat some shit was off. There were bags that were packed exactly how they were supposed to be, but then there were others where the weight was off. The count. The quality. All that shit. I never wanted to accuse anyone. Never wanted to pull anybody to the side and ask them shit either because that’s the quickest way for somebody to get offended. Instead of going that route, where I accuse somebody of something major like that, I did the one thing to me that made the most sense. I decided to put cameras in the inventory room,” I started, and the second I spit out that last sentence, this nigga started sweating, and he looked over at me as if he’d just seen a ghost.
That tough look that he had been sporting, where his body language was hard to read, all that shit had gone out of the window by now. I watched him as he turned to look at Diego, Bray, and Kendrick. He lifted his hand, and he scratched at his head.
“The thing that made the most sense to you was to put cameras in the inventory room? Years ago, when we started this shit up, I thought that we all agreed that we would never put cameras in rooms where we store product. You always said that if the feds ever came knocking, the first thing that they were going to look for was the surveillance footage. You always said that the footage would expose too much. It would show all the weight that we’ve been moving, putting each of us in a position to get buried under the prison,” he went on to say, and I nodded my head at that because that was true.
“I did say that. You know as much as I know that business and rules can change over the years. It’s a lot of shit that I said that I would never do, but I ended up doing it. When we first started, I used to say that only men could work for me because I used to think that women were too emotional and couldn’t handle being in a business like this. I quickly changed that rule when I sat down and realized that a lot of women were actuallysmarter than niggas. Bringing women on was an asset, so I switched that rule. I used to swear on not letting anyone else count the money, and product. I used to want to be the only one overseeing everything, but I had to learn to trust and get it into my head that I couldn’t micromanage everything as business expanded,” I went on, pausing for a little bit, looking him in his eyes, trying to think of the last example that I wanted to throw out.
“Shit, I used to always say that I would never mix business with pleasure. Swore that I wouldn’t get involved with someone that’s working under my operation. My girl so motha fuckin gangsta though. That’s the best fuckin rule that I ever broke. The point that I’m trying to make to you is that a smart businessman has to know when to adjust,” I finished, picking my phone up, unlocking it, going for the video of Mook, and once I pressed play, I tossed the phone in front of him, so that he could watch it.
He was a smart nigga, so he knew exactly what I was showing him. All he gave it was two seconds before swiping the phone out of the way, pushing it back to me, and he angrily glared at me.
“Motha fucka, we all do shit that we aren’t proud of. Yeah, I been snorting for a little bit. You ain’t perfect, nigga! Who the fuck are you to point out my flaws, especially with other niggas in the room with you? If that’s what you found on your little camera footage, you should have pulled me to the side and said something to me about it then! I’m sure you got skeletons in your closet too, nigga! I snort a little coke from time to time! It’s niggas out here that’s doing shit way worse than that!” he snapped, feeling like he was saying some deep shit, but really, he just sounded stupid as fuck!
“You don’t snort a little coke from time to time! Nigga, you snortmycoke from time to time! Coke that I had to spend money on. You know what that’s called, homie? Theft nigga! You stealing from me. From us! From the same motha fuckin tablethat you’ve sat down and ate at for years. Had it been any other person outside of you, Diego, Bray and, Kendrick, I would have probably just took that shit to the chin, and known that we live a life where people will backdoor you, but I never expected this from you. You my brother. A brother not supposed to go behind my back, and take from me, especially when you should know that there isn’t nothing that I wouldn’t have given to you. Nah, I wouldn’t have given you any coke to snort, and fuck your life up with that shit, but I would have offered some kind of help for you!” I was angry, sitting across the table, looking at him.
Crazy because he was just as angry. You saw that shit in his eyes. He sat there looking like he wasn’t the one that had gotten caught stealing.
“Your position here is done. You no longer have a seat at the table with us. You are no longer a member of MBM. Please, sit your motha fuckin keys down on the table, and leave willingly. You can walk out of here on the same two feet that you came in here with, or you can make shit difficult for you, and never walk out of this bitch again. You can get carried out of here in a body bag. Pick the option that you want,” I said, standing up, and when I stood, I had two of my security guards come in the room, and them niggas were posted up, each having big AK- 47 guns in their hands, ready to use that shit if they needed to.
Mook sat there surprised. You could tell that he didn’t expect for shit to come to this. He thought that I was just going to embarrass him in front of the men about his snort habit. I don’t think that he ever expected me to get rid of him. With that, this goofy ass nigga ended up laughing, shaking his head, and he tilted his head to the side, while looking at me like I was crazy.
“I can’t even say that I’m shocked, nigga. You was looking for a reason. The second you walked in that meeting room that night with that lil bitch of yours, I knew?—”
“Watch that bitch word, homie. Last time you did that, you were eating my fist. Watch it. I love her now, so I just might fuck around and kill you if you say it again,” I cut him off calmly, and you could tell that my words really bothered him because he laughed again. It was an angry laugh though.
“Oh, you love her now? You should have kept that shit to yourself because you literally just proved my fuckin point for me. The second you walked in here with her, I already knew what was up. That’s why I got so offended when you took her with you that night to go on that ride and didn’t take me. I was sitting right there on that fuckin couch, and you could have took me with you to see what dem 9 boyz were on, but you took her. You took her with you to Mexico to meet Octavio. You showing her all the ins and outs of the business. You think I’m stupid, nigga? You been trying to replace me. You just finally got your reason to do it!” he snapped, raising from his chair.
“I showed Riot the ins and outs of the business because I wanted to put her on. It’s enough money going around this motha fucka for her to have a seat at the table, and for you to have still held onto yours. By the way, Riot didn’t want to go to Mexico. That girl never been on a plane prior to when she just went to Mexico with us. I made her ass go because Octavio threatened me to bring her. He wanted to meet her. You speaking on shit that you don’t know anything about. You would have known how Riot ended up on the trip if you were in Mexico with us, and not back home in Miami, coming to the spot, snorting coke!” I snapped, and I guess he didn’t like the last part of the sentence because he swung.