Authors: Clever Black
“I can go along with a huge formal reception. We can rent a big
hall and invite everybody.” Junior replied.
“I like the sound of that. Dad, what you think?”
“I’m in agreement. I’m just thinking how the women
in the family will feel. This is a sudden and unexpected change of
events after all.”
“It is. But they’ll be happy to help with the planning of
the reception. Baby,” Tiva said as she went and stood before
Junior and grabbed his hands, “I believe we’ll make it
work.”
“Me too, Tiva. We both new at this thing, but I’d rather
do this with no one else in the world but you. I love you.”
“Nigga, please,” Jay-D snapped as he backed away from the
table “If that ain’t the corniest shit ever! Won’t
you get down on one knee and shit and ask her right, Casanova?”
“I will. But that’s private. Eh, Jason, I’m gone
have me a wife pretty soon. What you got?”
“A bunch of hoes is what I got. I ain’t wifing nobody—but
if I ever would? It’ll definitely be somebody like your future
bride, homeboy. Congratulations, Tiva. Tame his ass, tame his ass!”
Doss chuckled and said, “Tiva, the family will support you and
Junior one hundred percent. Congratulations, Faustino. You done
weaseled your way into my family,” he added just as his cell
phone vibrated. Doss talked for a couple of minutes and snapped his
phone shut. “Alright lady and gentlemen. Our contacts south of
the border is on their way up,” he said as he wiped his mouth
with a cloth napkin.
A few minutes later, two men were entering Doss’s suite, each
of the professionally dressed, tanned, toned and black curly haired
men were holding two large suitcases. After a brief greeting, the
men, who were two of Rafael’s soldiers, laid the suitcases on
the bed and unzipped the tops to reveal the contents.
“These are the badges,” one of the men said calmly. “The
jackets are authentic and these are the decals you’ll need to
apply to your vehicles.”
“What about the border?” Doss asked as he scanned the
items.
One of the men picked up two silk bags and pulled out a stack of
money. “On the day of, make sure you approach the outer most
lane on the U.S. side. We have a guy planted there always. Give him
this bag of dough and you’re done with the first move. When you
get to the Mexican side, you must take the inside lane on the far
left. Our guy will wave you through once you give him the second bag
of money. Use the decals, do the job and you will be forwarded the
payment.”
“How will we know when to move?” Doss asked while picking
up a couple of D.E.A. badges.
“Next month you will move,” the other man replied as he
reached down into one of the suitcases and handed Doss a cell phone.
“You’ll need to be back here in Brownsville at the start
of next month. The day of your arrival, you’re to turn on this
phone. You will sit just outside of the outbound border entrance and
wait for a message with two words—green light. It may or may
not come on the first day or the second day or the third day, but it
will come within a week’s time. Message back red light once the
job is done, discard the phone and return home, using the far outer
lanes on both sides on the inbound side.”
“Sounds like a piece of cake, except for the waiting part.”
Doss replied as he eyed the cell phone. “But everything looks
good on paper. We’ll do our part—I’m counting on
your man to uphold his end of the bargain. I don’t wanna stick
my neck out on this and have this thing backfire.”
“Our boss’s word is as good as the ten commandments. This
move will make a lot of you Americans richer than what you already
are and we have a heavy vested interest in this deal as well.”
“How heavy?” Doss asked.
“Three million dollars heavy enough? Your associate in the
north west guarantees the money once the job is done and our boss
will be ready to move more merchandise—if you can handle the
job.”
“We can handle the job,” Doss replied in a confident
tone. “But let’s not count our chickens before they
hatch. One step at a time on this, and my word is also written in
stone.”
One of the men reached out and shook Doss’s hand and wished him
good luck. “We will have our end covered. That is a promise.
Now, we have another engagement in Mexico City we must look into
today to aide in this job. The plan is all set, all you have to do is
act. My boss never fails—and we’ve heard the same about
you, Mister Dawkins. We’ll be in touch, amigo.”
The men left the room and several hours later, Doss and Jay-D
traveled back to Saint Louis with the suitcases and Junior and Tiva
headed back to Ponca City to break the news of her pregnancy and
marriage to the rest of the family.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
ONCE AND FOR ALL
Carmella’s jet had just touched down in Valle Hermoso only
minutes earlier. The weather was hot south of the in the border on
this fall evening in the first week of October 2004, but it didn’t
stop the woman from dressing in beige army fatigues, a black
tight-fitting t-shirt and black leather knee length boots. Sunshades
covered her eyes and her auburn hair was tied into a neat ponytail.
$67,000 dollar platinum dog tags with her name engraved in diamonds
draped her neck and a $90,000 dollar platinum and black diamond
Jacob’s Rolex watch adorned her wrist. She exited her plane and
was greeted by eight female soldiers standing before her three black
Jaguars where she hopped inside one of the cars and headed towards
her family’s warehouse.
“She’s here now. Should be a couple of days or so,”
DeAngelo spoke into his cell phone as Carmella’s caravan pulled
into her family’s tomato plant and rolled to a halt in front of
the building.
“Good. You uphold your end of the bargain and we’ll see
you soon, my friend,” the voice on the other end of the phone
told DeAngelo.
“Is everybody okay?”
“Everyone is fine. You’ve spoken to them already just
minutes ago. Stay focused on the task at hand and all of this will be
over within a week’s time.”
“Have your people send for me.”
“Two of my guys are in Mexico City waiting for you to do as
I’ve asked. After it goes down, you head to Mexico City and
you’ll come here and take them back home.”
“Si,” DeAngelo said and hung up the phone and hopped from
the docks and greeted Carmella a she exited the car holding onto a
black leather satchel. “We have one hundred and forty four on
hand,” DeAngelo said as he hugged Carmella. “Just as
you’ve ordered, boss. We should be done packaging in the next
couple of days or so.”
“Good,” Carmella responded. “That’ll give me
time to relax with my Ma-Ma. How’s everything else down here?”
“Going along smoothly without any problems. The mayor is still
in order and our friends from Sinaloa say they will send a squad up
to Denver to rid us of our competition next month. They were finally
able to send a team to get the job done.”
“Tell them gracias.”
“It has been a long time coming, boss.” DeAngelo ended as
he escorted Carmella into the plant where she greeted her workers and
handed out $5,000 dollar stacks of money to each individual before
she left and headed over to the villa to kick back with her mother
for a couple of days.
*******
“You’re winning the war in Denver I hear, Carmella.”
Quintessa said as she and her daughter sat in their formal dining
room eating dinner.
“Not quite, Ma-Ma,” Carmella responded as she placed a
helping of pasta onto her mother’s plate before serving
herself. “By next month, though, everything will be taken care
of.”
“Our friends in Sinaloa are very loyal to our cause.”
“Only because we make them a lot of money, Ma-Ma.”
“So do we.”
“Our risk runs higher here in Valle Hermoso,” Carmella
said as she poured a tomato, sausage, jalapeno and garlic sauce
mixture over her and her mother’s pasta and said a prayer.
Quintessa picked up a napkin and spread it over her lap. “You
don’t like the arrangement?”
“It is working for now,” Carmella answered as she
uncorked a bottle of red wine. “But once they win this battle
for us in Denver, we will grow in strength and numbers. I say within
a year, it’ll be time to renegotiate the terms of our
agreement.”
“Si.” Quintessa said before sipping her wine. She sat the
glass down and picked her fork and wiped it clean with another cloth
napkin before she began eating.
Carmella looked over to her mother in surprise. “You agree,
Ma-Ma? You think they will give us a better deal?”
“Why wouldn’t they? We will let them take the risk in
America. Desiree’s death has to repaid and they are willing to
do it for us. We grow like you said, and they will not be able to
resist us, Carmella. Cheers,” Quintessa said as she raised her
glass of wine once more and toasted with her daughter.
Mother and daughter went on to share dinner before visiting Damenga
and Alphonso’s graves, which was their normal routine whenever
Carmella was in town. They then spent the remainder of their time
tending horses, working the garden and rowing a boat back and forth
across the land’s lakes while feeding ducks. It was a time to
be cherished, but it wouldn’t be long before duty called once
more.
Two days later, Carmella was watching a trailer being loaded from
front to back with fresh tomato sauce. Intertwined with the load was
one hundred and forty-four neatly packaged kilograms of cocaine.
She’d called her team in Houston and had them ready to break
the load down upon its arrival and everything was on schedule and in
order.
“Once we set this down in Houston, I’ll be on my way back
to Denver to finish this thing with Asa Spade and his crew. The same
day, Q-man and his team will hit Saint Charles once more.”
Carmella said to DeAngelo as the two walked outside of the warehouse.
“Toodie says the place over in Saint Charles is a fortress. You
may want to rethink going after the Chicago Gang on their home turf.”
“We’re moving ahead with our plans, DeAngelo. Our first
go around with the Chicago Gang was a success. This second hit will
finish them off for good. Everything will turn out fine,”
Carmella responded as she donned a bullet proof vest and walked
around the eighteen wheeler, giving the vehicle a brief inspection.
“Good, they’ve removed those old tires,” she said.
“What time will the driver be pulling out?”
“Five fifteen, this evening, just before sunset.”
“Okay. I’m headed back to the airport to fly into
Houston. I will call you when I arrive in Texas.”
“Si, boss.” DeAngelo answered as he helped Carmella into
the backseat of one of her Jaguars before she was driven off the dirt
covered parking lot.
When Carmella reached the airport, she saw her pilot walking around
the plane doing an inspection. The old, slender, white haired
Canadian was scratching his head in confusion, placing his hands on
his hips and shaking his head in disbelief as he looked up at the
nose of the plane. Carmella paid him no mind as she hopped out of her
car and began trotting up the stairs leading into the interior of the
idling small jet.
“I hope like hell you aren’t in a hurry to get outta
here,” the pilot said dejectedly as he walked around from the
front of the plane.
“Why? What is the matter?” Carmella asked, pausing
halfway up the stairs.
“Somebody had the audacity to shatter the windshield.”
“What? How?” Carmella asked in dismay as she scampered
down the stairs.
“Shot the son-of-a-bitch one time just enough to put a
quarter-sized hole in it to where it’ll need replacing. And
knowing this town, it ain’t a fuckin’ business around for
miles and miles that has what I need to get this thing fixed before
nightfall, not to mention the next couple of days. We can’t fly
for a while.”
Carmella looked around at the females standing out beside the cars.
This was no accident, she knew; who was behind it, however, was the
sixty-four thousand dollar question. She eyed her soldiers
cautiously, awaiting their reaction. If they were staging a coup, now
would be the perfect time to strike. After several minutes of no
action, Carmella walked over to her girls and told them the
situation.
“
Que vamos a hacer ahora jefe?”
(What are we going
to do now, boss?) one of the females asked.
Carmella nodded her head at that moment, understanding that her
soldiers weren’t involved with what was going down. Without
bothering to answer the question posed to her, she turned back to the
pilot and pulled out her gold-plated .50 caliber. “Who paid you
off? Who paid?” she yelled as she racked her gun.
“What the fuck are you talking about? I been flying you around
since you been out the hospital. I don’t deal with anyone but
you, Carmella,” the French Canadian remarked as he turned to
inspect the windshield. The sixty-seven year-old man was ex-military
and was once a Royal Canadian Mounted Policemen and he was unfazed by
criminals. He went about his business with his back turned to
Carmella, but quickly took to one knee when she let one bullet fly
out of her hand cannon that penetrated the back of his leg and
shattered his left knee cap. “Shit! What the fuck is your
problem? I don’t know what’s going on!” he yelled
as he turned, sat down in the dirt and faced Carmella while clutching
his shattered knee.
Carmella and her soldiers walked and stood over the pilot as he sat
in the dirt underneath the nose of the plane. “You had one job
down here when not in flight and that was to watch the jet!”
Carmella yelled as her girls stood behind her.
“I, I went and had some fuckin’ drinks last night! Bought
a hooker and had myself a good time! The plane was safe here! How the
fuck was I to know this was going to happen?”