Chapter One
Big Ace sat back, shaking his head in disbelief. Focusing on one son, then the other, he reached for his glass. With one short swallow, followed by a huge gulp, Big Ace let the dark top-shelf liquor warm his throat. He knew his boys were half crazed. The entire city of Detroit knew it as well. The sometimes-wannabe-proud father knew his offspring were both born acting a fool. Since they’d come out of their mother’s womb, it’d been that way. Although he’d tried his best to mold them into mirror images of himself, he’d failed. Some would say maybe not miserably, but close enough. Big Ace was different. He was a polished gangster. He’d been that way for some time. With the way his boys acted he wanted to question their DNA, but they looked too much like him to do so. The judge and half the jury would run him clear out of town if he ever did try to deny them. Back in the day, in his youth, Big Ace had his own demons of being wild. He and his homeboy Kamel ran the streets. They were reckless and were known to clown on more than several occasions. Yet they were never idiots as big as his seeds were. But he continued to hope for miracles when it came to their behavior, both business and personal.
Big Ace and his sons were content. The stuffed trio was seated in the rear of the crowded Detroit-area restaurant. Finishing up their dinner, each felt that they’d gotten their money’s worth. The hardworking waitress cleared the table of several huge plates of broken shells from jumbo crab legs. Moments later she returned, bringing the three of them dessert. While devouring that as well, they plotted. Deep into the conversation, they began to exchange ideas. While some of their schemes would involve much more time to achieve hood results, others didn’t.
What was needed and agreed upon was a temporary solution to the boys’ problem at hand, which was an almost-complete halt to business at a few of their eastside weed spot locations due to some still-nameless dudes with some hellava strong bud. Normally Big Ace wouldn’t even entertain the notion of helping them nurse their own hustle, but after receiving calls from both his sons raising the Bat-Signal for his assistance or least advice, the loyal father stepped in.
“Okay, y’all two. I done finished my food, so go ahead. It ain’t no way I wanted to hear y’all whining on a fucking empty stomach!”
“Dad,” Elon complained as he lied, “come on. It ain’t even like that. We already know what we gonna do about the slowdown. We just wanted to run it past you first because we might have had to borrow some of them thangs to make shit unfold faster.”
“That’s right,” Donte automatically concurred.
Big Ace leaned back and disapprovingly grinned at his sons’ weak attempt to fool him. “Look here, if you cats knew what to do, then why in the hell we here? And as for borrowing my Peacemakers, that shit’s definitely out the equation. You two make more than enough bread to purchase ya own damn artillery! So if somebody is stepping out of line and on your territory, then do what y’all gotta do! That’s my best advice!”
Both brothers, knowing that if they really told their father the real deal he’d most definitely clown them, wisely decided to figure shit out on their own. “Matter of fact, Dad, we about to head to the crib and meet up with our crew,” Elon said, continuing to lie as he looked down at his constantly ringing cell phone and put it on mute.
“Look, Elon, you and your brother go on and handle y’all little situation while I sit here and eat my dessert. Besides, you ain’t the only one whose phone is ringing,” Big Ace informed his son. “And please pull up those sagging jeans and act like a grown-ass man!”
Elon, who followed his father’s orders and pulled his pants up on his waist, and Donte excused themselves and headed out of the restaurant and toward the parking lot. As they drove off in their separate trucks, Stuff and Marie were driving in through the other parking lot’s entrance.
“What it do, baby doll?” Big Ace raised the last bit of his double-layer chocolate cake to his lips. “What you need from your big daddy?”
“You ain’t gonna believe this wild-ass bullshit I’m about to tell you!” Simone whispered into the phone’s receiver as the warm water in the tub soothed her body. “First of all, when I got back to my house this afternoon you wouldn’t believe how this little motherfucker had my crib looking. And if that shit weren’t bad enough, his behind wanna go for bad now and sling goddamn trees.”
“Okay, and?” Big Ace swallowed, tossing his fork down onto the table and overlooking what she’d just said about Terrell selling weed. “Big deal, he selling to a couple of his schoolmates!”
Simone relit the half-smoked blunt and choked two good times before delivering the shocking “gotcha gotcha” punch line to their conversation. “Well, the weed ain’t the big deal! It seems like Kamal’s son is running around here fucking stank-ass project bitches like you and his no-good daddy used to do back in the day!”
“Damn, Simone! Good for Terrell!” Big Ace laughed out loud and signaled for the waitress to bring his bill. “Ain’t nothing wrong with a little bit of low-class ghetto booty every so often. And don’t forget me and you both was raised in the projects too.”
Immediately offended that Big Ace had thrown up her humble beginnings smack dab in her face after she was trying to put him on to game, she blurted out what she’d originally called to say. “Oh, since you being so Obama this evening, I guess you don’t care either that my son is sticking his dick all up in Monique’s daughter’s pussy!”
“Monique?”
“Yeah, nigga, you heard me! Monique!”
“Monique who?” Big Ace, tired of the cat-and-mouse game Simone was intent on playing, stood up to leave after paying the bill. “I know lots of chicks named Monique!”
“Oh, well how many of them set your dumb, good-tricking ass up at the Red Roof the same damn night Kamal and Joey died, then mysteriously somehow ended up dead as a motherfucker her damn self? Now tell me, do any of that shit ring a bell with ya self-righteous ass?”
“Where you at right now?” Big Ace’s tone got very serious. “I need you to meet me at my house ASAP!”
“Boy, bye,” Simone snickered, knowing she’d knocked him off his square bringing up Clip-N-Dip Moe and that awful night he’d gotten his balls damn near stomped out of his asshole. “I’m relaxing taking a hot bubble bath, and then maybe my future daughter-in-law and me might watch a movie.”
“I’m not fucking around with you, Simone.” He demanded, “I’m leaving out now so be there in thirty minutes, period!”
Let his ass wait for me for once and see how he feels. Simone leaned back smugly as her phone rang loudly once again. I know this ain’t him calling right back, is it?