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I went back inside the lounge and told my guys I’d have to get up with them later before heading to At Steak. It was one of several legal businesses we had and used to clean our money. Thankfully, it was in the downtown area not too far from the lounge. I ended up pulling up about seven minutes after the call.
The place was packed, which was no surprise to me. Patrons may have thought we had award-winning chefs in the kitchen, but nah. We employed men and women with felonies who could cook their asses off but not get a good-paying job anywhere else. The steakhouse was probably my favorite business of ours outside of the strip club because of the eclectic mix of people it brought in.
On any given day, you’d find a Grizzlies player in one booth, the mayor in another, and a drug dealer tucked in the back at his own table. As always, Pops was at his reserved table in the back by the exit. Seated with him was Terrance, his advisor; Denim, his money man; and my cousin, Omari—my right-hand man. The small group was alarming. Typically, our business meetings were planned and included most of our lieutenants so they could relay any necessary messages to their men.
I shook everyone’s hand, then took the only other available seat at the table.
“Glad you could join us,” Pops said, using his hand to dismiss the waitress, Amber, before she could ask us if we wanted to order any food.
“What is this about?” I asked.
“We have way too much product on the shelves.” Pops leaned forward in his seat. “Robert being gone is causing us to take a huge loss. The product I’m not selling to him means millions that aren’t coming in.”
I hoped that wouldn’t be the case. Robert had been gone for six months and Pops hadn’t put anyone in his place yet. Robert was the only man outside of the family that Pops supplied in about a decade. At first, I wasn’t sure if we could trust him. I didn’t trust a man who had never been to jail or taken a life to do what we did, and both of those were the case when Pops first pulled Robert into the fold. Also, Pops was firm on keeping things in the family, and we weren’t related to Robert.
I couldn’t deny the reach Robert had. He went from bringing in five figures a month to six then seven. He was doing better than any of the other dealers, and losing him was truly a loss.
“Are you not willing to bring in another dealer?” Omari asked.
“Even if I did, they wouldn’t have his reach, his reputation, and his customer base. It’ll take me ten men to bring in the profit Robert was. For the last six months before he died, the man brought in seven figures a month. Now I can’t speak on his profit after he paid his team, but that was the highest profit I had coming in from a dealer.”
“What about his son?” I checked. “Is he going to continue to run the business? Did Robert have a plan in place for his death? Who’s running that shit?”
“I set up a meeting with his son to discuss that. We’re having dinner with him and his sister tomorrow. From what I’ve heard, Carlos wants to run the business, but I don’t think that will work. He’s young and not likable. Robert’s men won’t be loyal to him if he doesn’t do a one-eighty. If I work with him, I feel like I’ll end up killing him and taking over the organization myself, but I don’t want to run it. I would give it to you.”
And that’s why he wanted to meet.
While I wouldn’t deny I desired my own organization, I wasn’t sure I wanted to get one that was taken from a father and son duo. Logically, I’d have to trust those men would be more dedicated to the money than their feelings about Robert and Carlos. On top of that, if I handled business differently from them, I ran the risk of losing money or men. It would have been my preference to build my team from the ground up, but I would be a damn fool to turn down an organization already in place with a multimillion-dollar clientele.
“I don’t know about all that, but I do agree that we need to find a way to offset the loss in profit now that Robert is gone,” I said, and we bounced ideas off each other for the next forty-five minutes.
Once the meeting was over, everyone began to leave. When it was just me, Pops, and Omari, my cousin asked, “What you gettin’ into tonight?”
“We need to continue to talk,” Pops answered for me. “You’ll have to catch up with him later.”
I could tell by Omari’s hardened expression that he had something to say, but he bit his tongue. We shook hands and he excused himself from the table, leaving me and Pops alone. Finally, he called Amber over so we could order some food. I had no idea what else my father could possibly have to say…
4
Beethoven
It wasn’t until we’d finished our steak and potatoes that Pops finally continued the conversation. I didn’t know what else he could have wanted to say that required privacy, but I certainly wasn’t expecting it to be, “I need you.”
Out of my thirty-one years of life, my father had never uttered those words. In fact, I’d never heard him say he needed anyone. For as long as I could remember, he was always independent and the boss of all bosses. He didn’t need anyone; people needed him—and that included my mother.
I didn’t think they’d ever showed me a loving, healthy relationship. They showed me partnership and respect, but over the years, that faded away. My last year of high school, they divorced. Though my mother wanted me to live with her, I chose to stay with my father. We were closer, and as a man, I felt like it was more beneficial that I stay and continue to learn from him. While I wouldn’t say I regretted that decision, not having my mother around to shield me from who my father truly was showed me sides of him I didn’t respect.
When it came down to business, I admired Tim Smith, boss of all bosses. As a father and a man, I resented him. Even with that resentment, I understood that was my issue and cross to bear, not his. He gave all he could and raised me as best as he could. Where he lacked, it was my responsibility to ensure I became a better version of him.
My mother and I were closer than ever. I respected her for staying with him as long as she did, but I was glad she was free to live as she pleased and be loved in a healthy relationship. Though she hadn’t remarried, she’d been in a committed relationship with the same man for the last five years. Pops was married to the streets. He was passionate about this shit and didn’t let anything come before it, not even his family.
“What do you need?”
Sitting back in his seat, he took a sip of his Old Fashioned.
“Your uncles and cousins are concerned. You know they always felt some type of way when it came to Robert. Envy. They hated that I let a non-Smith into the fold. Worse, he did better than them.”
I nodded my agreement. That had never been a secret. Even though Pops was the boss of all bosses, he ran his organization like it was any other business corporation. He had a second-in-command, stand-ins on the off chance anything happened to him, lieutenants who worked directly with our men, and an advisory board that operated to make sure my father did what was best for the business as a whole, not just himself. So he may have made the final decisions when it came to things, but if at any point they felt like he could no longer run things successfully, they could have him removed.
