American Gangster (2 page)

After he left us with nothing, the beautiful woman I knew and loved disappeared herself. In her stead was a hard bitter shell that lost sight of anything good that the world had to offer.

She’d tried for a while after he’d gone. I think she’d even convinced herself that he would come back. But the day we went by our old house when she learned that he was living there again, that he’d had us thrown out but had had no intentions on leaving, that was the day he finally broke her.

The young girl that came to the door, because that’s what she was, couldn’t have been more than twenty. She was dressed in one of mom’s outfits with her jewelry around her neck and wrists.

I remember being so angry at the sight that if I’d had a gun back then I would’ve killed her on the spot. “Who are you?” I hated my mother in that moment, hated her weakness and her lack of shame for bringing us there. I was ten years old and even I knew who she was.

The smile she gave us was chocked full of condescension and pity, it was the damn fake pity on her face that made me want to throw the fuck up. “I’m the lady of the house who are you?”

She opened the door a little wider so we could see inside, see what she’d done to the place mom had worked so hard to make a home. It looked like every trashy wanna be mansion I’d seen on Reality T.V.

“Brandi, who is it dear?” It was him, coming to see who was at his precious door. For a split second I felt hope rise up in my chest but it didn’t take him long to squash that shit and any lingering hope I might’ve been harboring even then.

“What are you doing here Alice?” I remember thinking even her name sounded old next to the much younger sounding Brandi.

“I, we…” she stumbled over her words giving him time to spew his hate all over us. Not us, he didn’t even acknowledge my presence. “You’re not supposed to be here. I told you when you called my office the last time there’s nothing left to say. If you keep this up I’ll have no choice but to call the authorities and have you stopped.”

“Wait, she still calls your office? I want the number changed NOW.”

“Calm down love there’s nothing for you to worry about.”

“Dean how can you be so cruel, your son…” For the first time I thought I saw a softening in him. I guess the new sidepiece saw it too because her claws came out even sharper.

“I can’t believe you were ever married to her. Look at that horrible skin, and that hair ugh. Get rid of them Dean before the neighbors start complaining that we’re harboring vagrants.”

That’s when I’d lost it, when I’d leapt for her throat. I didn’t think didn’t feel, all I knew was that standing before me was the reason for the demise of my family, my very life, and if my mom was too weak, too scared to deal with her then I will. “Don’t hurt my mama.”

The voice came out of nowhere and we all turned to look at the little angel. Swear to fuck that’s what I thought she was for a minute, before reality came crashing back in.

Her mother had replaced mine and she had replaced me. I hated her on sight but there was something eerily compelling about the way she looked into my eyes. It was as though her very presence changed the tone of the whole evening.

My mother for whatever reason backed down, even though on the way there she’d sold me a bunch of shit about getting our life back. I think she actually believed that he was going to remember his great love for her and take us back in.

I’m sure after seeing his new bedmate she was no longer under that delusion. Dad wasn’t looking for love; he was looking for whatever would make his dick happy. I learned a valuable lesson in that twilight hour. I learned that love and happily ever and all that other bullshit was never going to be for me.

GAGE

I don’t remember how we left there I just know that we did. I remember carrying the image of her in my mind all the way home. I played with her name on my tongue, the name her mother the viper had called her when she’d told her to go back upstairs and play.

I remember that she was dressed like a little princess. It was only long after that I learned that their story, our story, was like a reversal of fortune comedy farce. It seems Brandi and Amber had once been down on their luck, but Miss. Brandi knew what a pussy was for and she used it.

Anyway, mom didn’t last too long after that day. She went back to her parents’ house and just molted away. She stopped going to the little waitress job she’d got down at the diner and just stayed in her room crying her eyes out.

She didn’t turn to drugs or alcohol. I think maybe I could’ve understood it better if she had, but she just gave up. I think in the end she forgot she even had a son. That made two parents who’d abandoned my ass and my disdain for the human race just kept growing.

I saw dad once after that since we didn’t live in the same neighborhood anymore. It was at an away game. I was on the Varsity football team. I remember getting there and seeing that head of hair. I don’t know how I knew it was her I just knew, and the way my heart and body did that weird thing it had done almost eight years earlier, I knew.

She had to be about fifteen then, I’d just turned eighteen. I was stymied for the first few seconds until the nagging voices of my teammates intruded.

I don’t know what made me look up but I did and there he was. Our eyes connected, and though it had been a while he knew who I was. He seemed shocked, but he never made a move towards me, never acknowledged me. Instead he turned to the woman next to him, turning his back on me.

I played my worse game that night with her on the sidelines and him in the stands, ended my fucking football career and any dreams I had of a scholarship. After that night everything went down hill.

I was back to being pissed, back to remembering how he didn’t even have the decency to bury my mother after he’d killed her with his bullshit. How we’d had to bury her in an unmarked grave in Potter’s field.

That shit had been too much for my grandparents and they never recovered. They’d hung on long enough to seem me reach adulthood before following her one after the other within six months of each other, just shy of my nineteenth birthday.

They’d left me the house, which I’d sold and was surprised at the nice little nest egg it had brought me. It seems the place had been paid off in full some years ago and I found the best damn realtor in the area to get me top dollar.

She hadn’t been a bad lay either. It turned out I had my dad’s head for business but I wasn’t interested in board meetings and suits. I went to what I knew, what I had become comfortable with, I went to the streets.

I ain’t gonna lie, in the beginning I pushed anything. If you could snort it shoot it smoke it, I sold it to ya and didn’t give a fuck. As long as you were over the age of eighteen you were fair game.

I didn’t go looking for them they came looking for me. I read up on every successful gangster in U.S history and what I needed to protect myself.

Since a very young age I’d been into martial arts and shit. Mom’s dad was a prize fighter in his day before someone hit him once too many times in the head and he had to give it up to go into construction.

But the old man never forgot how it was done and he taught me everything he knew. When I was old enough I sought out others who could teach me how to survive on the streets. I always knew I was gonna end up there some day, but I was determined to run the streets and not let the streets run me.

I steered clear of trouble the best I could but I didn’t back down. A motherfucker came at me hard I came harder. Eventually I gained the reputation of a gangster. No one knew where I came from no one knew my story.

You see; after I sold up I did my research and found out where there was a need for supply and demand. I traveled to the ends of the fucking country for that shit. Any place where it’s dark and cold as fuck twenty-four hours a day for at least three months outta the year, have to need some good shit.

I wasn’t there six months before I made my first hundred grand, and the shit just kept coming in. Of course once fuckers knew you were doing your thing they had to start shit, that’s where the rep came in.

The first time I hit a motherfucker over the head with a pint and took his gun from him they started looking at me squinty eyed. Add the fact that he was a soldier from the local post and well, everyone thought I was nuts.

He obviously had a whole barracks full of brothers in green who were gonna come kick my ass. That might’ve been true if half his brothers in green weren’t my clientele.

In the past six years I haven’t given much thought to my past. My life is what it is. I’d moved away from the hard stuff after I saw what that shit did to a friend of mine and started growing my own weed.

Believe it or not that shit was an even bigger seller. I couldn’t grow and dry the shit fast enough. The business grew, the clientele expanded, and my reputation along with it. Except in the lower forty-eight, which is where I am now.

GAGE

Carlos the asshole from whom I’d just made my escape was a cousin of the wife of one of my most trusted confidants. He’d ordered a shipment, promised to have my money by a certain time, which I’d gone for because at the time I had been looking to open a market down here.

I guess he heard that I was from Alaska and I don’t know what backwoods T.V. program he got his ideas about what that meant from, but apparently he thought it meant sucker. I had come here knowing I was going to kill him. I hadn’t bargained on seeing her here though.

I checked into the hotel I’d rented way on the other side of town. I’d learned long ago that you didn’t have to look like you have money, as long as you did. A lotta broke motherfuckers walking around in designer wear. I dress the way I like, for comfort and easy access. My jeans are baggy for a reason they hide shit I need to keep hidden.

In the room I headed for the shower to wash the stench of that bitch off me. I closed my eyes as I soaped up my cock and saw those sea-blue eyes. I kept stroking as my mind played out a scenario.

Her on her knees with my cock in her mouth, her bent over while I fucked her ass hard from behind. Oh there were so many ways she was gonna serve me and I can’t wait to get started on each and every one of ‘em.

Daddy’s little princess was about to reap what the fuck he sewed. I shot off at the thought of bending her to my will before switching off the water. Suddenly I felt like champagne and steak. “Why the fuck now?”

“Yes Mr. Stevenson?” I gave my order and hung up before laying across the bed to contemplate my next move.

***

I enjoyed my meal as I studied murder. No skin off my nose, he wasn’t the first and probably won’t be the last. The old dog eared copy of Sun Tzu’s the art of war sat next to me on the table as I cut into my steak with the aplomb of an English lord. Dad would be so proud. I wonder what ever happened to the old fuck, and how his stepdaughter, my new little sister, had ended up in a drug dealers bed?

My gut cramped at the thought, funny I don’t think I’ve ever given her a thought in all these years, but just that one look brought it all back. Those eyes, yeah, I think I could fuck her just for those eyes alone.

I chased the last bite of meat down with a nice sip of Cab before wiping my mouth with the crisp linen napkin and rising from the table.

Outside the dark was coming on. I do my best work in the dark, fuck I dwell in it half the damn year. I chose my clothing wisely, black on black. There was no need for baggy jeans this evening, instead I went with the body fitting Kevlar that was made to look like a turtleneck, and slacks made of the same material.

The shit had cost me a mint but it was worth it. I’d tested it myself and knew it could withstand some heat though I wish they’d figure out how to make some shit that could take the damn sting out of the blow.

It might stop the bullet from penetrating, but didn’t protect from the bruising that followed. Shit didn’t make any sense if you ask me, but hey, maybe that’s why I’m not the one making them.

I sat out on the balcony in the cool breeze as I waited for full dark. It was a good thing I’d bought these clothes as backup. It was also good that I’d had my stuff sent to the hotel before Carlos’ little smoke screen had come to pick me up.

I let my mind wander to her, no not the used up piece that had taken my last nut, but hopefully not my last if you know what I mean. No, the other one, the one I planned to fuck as soon as I got her back here.

That reminds me, I need to grab a mega pack of rubbers, I think I was down to three and for what I have planned we’re gonna need a hell of a lot more than that.

GAGE

It was time. I’d called downstairs and taken care of the condom situation as well as ordering her a douche, no wasted movements, but I bet the concierge was wondering what the fuck.

I checked and rechecked my piece and my backup, along with my knives. I wasn’t sure if he was expecting me to come back. I had deliberately not called home, and not answered the phone when Tommy or any of the others had called. Keep them guessing.

I left the penthouse and walked to the bank of elevators where the attendant greeted me politely and pressed the button for me. You see, men like Carlos this is what they want, but don’t want to work for.