CHAPTER 32

ERIC

 

Eric sat on his leather sofa with his feet kicked up on the coffee table thinking about how much his life had changed in just a few weeks. Catching his wife cheating on him changed his entire thought process and had him looking at life differently. All his life, Eric had been doing everything by the book and it hadn’t gotten him nowhere. Now with him taking on a more violent approach, he immediately noticed the change from how people treated him to how they spoke to him it was as if his respect level had elevated and Eric was enjoying being treated like a man for once and not some flunky. Eric looked down and heard his cell phone vibrating on the coffee table he looked down at the screen and saw Mr. Goldberg’s name flashing across the screen. “Tell me something good,” he answered.

 

“He wouldn’t budge,” Mr. Goldberg said. “I think he needs to see firsthand what the Mason Family is all about.”

 

“I’ll take care of it,” Eric told him and ended the call. Eric stood to his feet and quickly got dressed. A face-to-face meeting with Mr. Chambers was needed. Eric returned back downstairs dressed in an expensive looking black Ferragamo suit. He grabbed his cell phone off the coffee table when he heard a loud knock at his front door. Eric walked over to the front door and snatched it open expecting to see Kelly standing on the other side. She had been calling him nonstop every day for the past couple of weeks. Eric was ready to curse Kelly out but stopped when he saw a six’ five” beast with a teardrop tattoo on his face standing on the other side of the door. “Can I help you?”

 

“You, Eric?” The big man asked.

 

“Yeah why?”

 

The big hand extended his hand, handing Eric a cell phone. Eric took the phone and put it up to his ear. “Hello?”

 

“Hey son it’s me.”

 

“Mommy?”

 

“You don’t know your mother’s voice by now?” Millie joked. “That man standing at your door step is a good friend of mine his name is Pistol Pete. I heard about the problems that your brother and father has gotten the entire family into so Pistol Pete is going to protect you.”

 

“Thanks ma but I can handle myself,” Eric said quickly. “I’m not a baby anymore.”

 

“You’re always going to be my baby,” Millie corrected him. “And what’s all this news I’m hearing about you out there carrying a gun?”

 

“Can’t believe everything you hear ma.”

 

“Eric this life isn’t for you, I didn’t raise you like this,” Millie said. “You’re better than this, much better than this.”

 

“I know ma it’s just I’m tired people not respecting me or taking me serious.” Eric told her.

 

“Listen to me Eric this isn’t the way to get respect all I’m asking is that you stay out of trouble until mamma comes home and I’ll take care of everything,” Millie said. “You are the most valuable person in this family because your hands are clean, no matter what promise me that you’ll keep your hands clean.”

 

“I promise.”

 

Millie knew that this was a dirty game and the last thing she wanted to see was her son get caught up in some foolishness. “And I want you to go and apologize to your brother.”

 

“Apologize to him? He should be apologizing to me.”

 

“You harmed your blood over someone that wasn’t blood you owe him an apology,” Millie explained. “I don’t ever wanna hear about you going against the family for an outsider ever again that’s not what we do because at the end of the family is all we got.”

 

“You right ma,” Eric said. After listening to Millie, she made some good points and gave him a lot to think about. “I have to go take care of something.”

 

“Okay son you be careful out there,” Millie said then ended the call. Eric turned and handed Pistol Pete back his phone. “So what’s your story?”

 

“Just here to watch over you,” Pistol Pete said simply. He was an intimidating looking man. Just from looking at him, Eric could tell that he enjoyed violence and had been to jail more than once. “I promised your mother that I would look after you until she’s released.”

 

“So what are you supposed to like follow me around everywhere I go?”

 

Pistol Pete nodded. 

 

“Good I have a meeting downtown and we have to get going,” Eric said as they climbed inside Pistol Pete’s bulletproof Cadillac truck.

* * *

Mr. Chambers sat behind his desk looking at some documents when his office door busted open and Eric and Pistol Pete walked in.

 

“Can I help you gentlemen?” Mr. Chambers said with a nervous look on his face.

 

“Eric Mason,” Eric extended his hand. Mr. Chambers hesitated for a second before shaking Eric’s hand.

 

“My lawyer tells that you had a problem with my proposition,” Eric helped himself to a seat.

 

“Yes my chain of hotels are not for sell.”

 

“I just want to buy one, not all of them,” Eric countered.

 

“I’ve worked my ass off to get these hotels and you or no lawyer are going to talk me out of it,” Mr. Chambers stood his ground.

 

“I’m willing to make you an offer you can’t refuse,” Eric said. He hated people like Mr. Chambers the type of man that had way more than enough and refused to give other people a crumb. Eric pulled out a sheet of paper from the folder he held. “Here’s the contract and you’re going to sign it.”

 

“Fuck you!” Mr. Chambers spat. He refused to let a family full of criminals have a piece of his empire. Before Mr. Chambers knew what was going on, Pistol Pete had slapped him across the face, grabbed him by the back of his neck and shoved his face down into the desk, then pressed a gun to the back of his head.

 

Eric smiled. “You have two choices, choice number one you can sign this contract with a pen or choice number two I’ll sign it for you in your blood you choose.”

 

Mr. Chambers picked up a pen from off his desk and signed the contract. He looked up from the paper with a scowl on his face. “I’m never going to let you get away with this,” he said with venom dripping from his tone. If looks could kill, Eric would have died a horrible death. “I’ll come after you and make you pay if it’s the last thing that I do.”

 

Eric nodded. “I’ll look forward to seeing you again.”

 

Mr. Chambers stared a hole in Eric’s back as him and his bodyguard made their exit.