I didn’t hover over my workers, but I didn’t look away either. My supervision mattered.
“Make sure them bags sealed right,” I said calmly. “If weight starts disappearing, we gon’ have a real fucking problem.” Nobody said shit back, they just moved sharper.
My mother sat at the small kitchen table by the window, legs crossed, with a cigarette balanced between her fingers like it belonged there. Her ass needed to stop smoking, but you couldn’t tell my mom’s shit.
Shaunie Maddox still carried herself like a woman who had ran the streets long before I ever knew how to spell the word hustle. Even now, with gray creeping into her hair and her body slowing down, the room still bent around her presence.
“Sosa,” she said casually, blowing smoke toward the ceiling. “I need some money.” I sighed quietly but didn’t turn around right away,
“For what?”
“Bills and shit I want. Whatchu’ think it’s for?”
I reached into the drawer beside me, peeled off a few racks, and slid them across the table toward her. “That’s all I got for you right now, don’t come back tomorrow asking again.”
She smirked, tapping ash into an empty Pepsi can. “You always act like I’m draining you.”
“You always act like I’m yo’ nigga or something, steady asking me for money,” I replied.
“You’re my son,” she shot back,
“So, I already do what I should as your son, which should be enough.” She didn’t respond, only laughed under her breath, I knew she was already counting the money like the conversation was over, because it was. I would do anything for my mom, and she knew it, but I didn’t mind because she was my favorite girl in the world.
Before anything else could be said, the front door swung open hard enough to rattle the frame. I was on my feet in an instant, reaching for my Glock that was tucked in my waistband. Every head in the room turned at once.
Trigg stepped in first, his face was tight, his eyes already scanning the room like something was off. Rah came in right behind him, followed by BooMan, both of them talking at the same time and between them, practically being carried, was lil’ Tj.
"The fuck happened?" I demanded, moving toward them.
Tj's face was fucked up. his right eye was swollen shut, his lip was busted, and blood was caked up around his nostrils. His white tee was now crimson in spots, dirt staining the knees of his jeans. At sixteen, he was one of the youngest in my crew, he was just a lookout really. He wasn’t supposed to be in any real danger.
"Zach's peoples caught him coming out the store on Vincennes, they jumped him." Trigg explained, his normally joking face was dead ass serious.
Rah cursed immediately. “I told you them niggas been watching how we moving,”
“They waited on him. Four niggas deep.” BooMan added Shaunie shook her head slowly, with her cigarette dangling from her mouth.
“Zeus’ bloodline still think they untouchable.”
That name rattled something in me. Zeus had been my introduction to the game. Zach’s older brother. The nigga who thought giving me a lane meant he owned me. I learned everything I needed to under him, then branched off and built my own shit. That move alone made us enemies for life.
“What they getchu’ for?” I asked Tj.
“They took my phone and my money,” he said quietly and that was enough to change the temperature.
Rah slammed his palm against the counter. “We gotta light they ass up tonight, we ain’t letting shit slide.”
BooMan nodded fast. “Facts. These niggas testing us.”
I lifted my hand slowly, and the room fell silent. Everybody knew better than to keep talking when I did that.
“Ain’t nobody moving without my say so,” I said evenly. “Zach wants a reaction outta me. We don’t give him one that’s sloppy.” I looked around the room, letting my eyes settle on each face. “Y’all remember how this shit started?” Nobody spoke, but they didn’t need to.
“I was seventeen years old, working under niggas who didn’t respect me and didn’t pay me right,” I continued. “I watched everything. I learned everything. I let them niggas think I was comfortable being small.”
Trigg met my eyes and nodded once. My nigga been here with me from the beginning. He knew the truth. Trigg been my homie since I was nine years old. We did everything togethere, from freshmen year when we were running the halls of Dunbar high school, skipping class to count the money our mothers had us holding. Rah joined us when we were fifteen, when he transferred into the school sophomore year. BooMancame a year later, when him and his granny moved into our neighborhood, niggas tried to fuck with him because he was from the northside but that didn’t last long, he quickly developed a reputation for beating niggas asses, he definitely was the enforcer of our crew.
“When I broke off from Zeus, I didn’t steal weight or money,” I said. “I took knowledge. I took experience. And I took my hunger with me.”