Rude Boy USA (29 page)

After Jose’s funeral, which many of the gang leaders in the area attended, the co-leader of the Ghetto Brothers decided to call all of the leaders of the other gang families to have a peace summit. The head of each sector attended as the voice of the eleven thousand members they represented in the Bronx. After hours of arguments and tough talk about reality, they all agreed to a resolution of peace and decided to make an attempt as a whole unit to better their neighborhoods instead of tearing them apart. They concluded that the enemy was not each other but the status quo that held them all down as a community.

Chapter 14

J
ohn and a few people from the Jet Mafia met with Enzo Ambrosino. Their numbers were even. Five from each side were in attendance in the room, drawn along racial lines. John was ready to negotiate with them in exchange for the rights to the Chimera name. Both sides were armed, as this meeting could end in a number of ways. If John’s years of experience paid off, he would leave this meeting a victor, just as Bernie had done many times before when John accompanied him to meetings with other families. Enzo Ambrosino agreed to meet with John but warned him not to get out of line, or else he would end up like his wife. John enticed him with not only money but also the promise not to testify against him if anything went down with the feds. John felt that he was negotiating with the devil and had to agree to do things that he considered wrong to get things done. Enzo Ambrosino did not care about the Chimera name, as it meant nothing to him. He only wanted
the money-making potential that came with it. He did not gain much from the company when it was all said and done. They barely made anything more than their initial investment, despite the company being worth millions more. Chimera’s assets had mostly been in cash, which John had removed before the Ambrosino family raided the office and accounts. John had kept that money hidden away the whole time, using it to support himself, Jerome, and Mariana as well as to pay for the security for all of them. That totaled tens of millions. Four million was not much for him to give back to the Ambrosinos.

The thrill of taking down Chimera was already gone for Ambrosino. Enzo compared the takeover of Chimera to shooting down an animal as a hunter. He and Bernie never got along, and this had been an ego boost for him and the family. Edina’s death had been his trophy, and he could have hung her head on the wall if he had wanted to. John knew that the Ambrosino family was responsible for Edina’s death, and he added that as a negotiation tool. Enzo stared at John for a second.

“An eye for an eye. Your wife was an eye for my eye, my son, my everything, Sammy. You know of him?” Enzo said.

John stared back. “No, I don’t know anything about that.”

Enzo frowned. “Being only a witness and complacent to an action does not free you from guilt. My son, he was only nineteen years old. He had his entire future in front of him. Losing a child is a pain that no parent should feel. How would your mother feel if she lost you before she died?” he said.

John shrugged. “Oh, it’s me, of course she would be devastated. I don’t get what my mother has to do with anything
going on here. Whatever this is about, I’m sorry for your loss,” he said.

Enzo continued. “Imagine his mother’s devastation at the thought that some trash put a bag over his head and that he slowly suffocated and the extra step they took to humiliate him. The devastating thought of him grasping for his last air sent his mother and me into a breakdown.”

John responded. “One, if you are implying that I put a bag over your kid’s head. It wasn’t me. Two, perhaps your kid should have been doing other things besides activities that put him in that compromising position. Most sons are loyal, and they do their father’s dirty work if instructed. Some even do the dirty work of their fake partners. That’s something to think about isn’t it?”

Clearly irritated, Enzo responded to John, “Well, I guess our losses match up, don’t they?”

On John’s stealth instruction, the guys from Jet Mafia decided to distract Ambrosino’s security. Anytime one of the Jet Mafia moved an inch, Ambrosino’s security moved to attack by pulling out their guns. This also sidetracked Enzo’s attention. Enzo would get up to get in John’s face. While the guards were distracted, one of the Jet men took out a syringe and quickly squirted the contents in Enzo’s drink. The act took no longer than three seconds. When John noticed that it had been done, he urged everyone to calm down. The syringe contained thallium.

Hours had gone by since John left, and he had not called back to check in as he had promised. Celia began to get worried. She started looking around and noticed some old papers from Chimera—the company stationery. She looked at it and began to reminisce about the good ole days when they were all happy. She began drawing on it to see what it would look like if it were updated. She did this to keep herself busy until John made it back. He’d had the security stay with her to keep her safe. When she finished doodling, she had nothing else to do. She was becoming restless and frustrated. The worst began to invade her thoughts. If something bad happened to John, she would never be the same.

Celia decided to calm herself and sit down. She turned on the television. CBS News broke into programming to air a special report. It was about Watergate. The televised testimony about the scandal had already begun in the Senate. An informant had indicated that President Nixon had recorded incriminating conversations and that the investigation was widening. The president reassured the questioning public and Congress that he was no crook.

Celia had been so inundated with her issues that she had tuned out of what was going on around her. Back in Jamaica, the people had been fighting for economic freedom and against Kissinger for opposing their policies, but at home, the country was falling apart, with Kissinger being a participant. She wanted to leave and go back to warmth and paradise, but she knew that she needed to be here with John and her family at this time, at least until things were settled.
John had plans, but she wanted to pack everyone up and take them back to Kingston with her. Frustrated with the news, Celia fell asleep for the night with no word on John’s return.

Celia awakened the next morning. She looked next to her, and John was not there. She panicked as she got up and looked around the house and did not see him. She wanted to pick up the phone to call out, but whom would she call? She sat down on the bed. She looked over at the clock and knew that something had to have gone wrong. She put her head in her hands and covered her face. Celia felt weak and defeated. She did not know what else to do except call the police. As she sat there, something touched her shoulder. She jumped and looked up. It was John, unscathed. Relieved, she stood up and kissed him, which put a smile on his face. Then she slapped him, which confused him. “You didn’t call home. I thought you were dead,” she said.

“Bunny, I didn’t want to wake you. I sent the security home for today. We did it!” he said.

“What does this mean now?” Bunny asked.

“It means that we can move on,” he said.

“What’s next?” she asked.

“I have ideas, but we should talk about it together,” John responded.

“When I was here waiting for you to show up, I was thinking about what you said. I was looking at an old letterhead with the symbol on it. I think we should redesign it. Not change it too much, but make it represent something new,” she said. Bunny suggested that he keep the symbol but put fire around it.

“Why fire?” John asked.

“Well, I know a little about the symbol. I looked it up in the library when I first started. The sign is associated with burning rock. It’s solid, and if you burn it, the fire never goes out. You can burn it, and it stays alive,” she said.

“Wow. You’re so smart. I thought it was just some weird shit Bernie made up. The way you were explaining it, I was thinking it had something to do with the place burning down,” he said. “Fire it will be.” John paused and looked at Bunny. “I had a rough night, and I would feel better if you hugged me,” he added.

Bunny laughed. “You are such an ass,” she said. She put her arms around John, and he picked her up.

John put her on the bed and began to kiss her. He removed her clothes and took his off. He began to kiss her all over, from the top of her to her bottom, where he began to please her orally. Bunny moaned, and John kept going. As he was pleasuring Bunny, he tasted her, and the feeling lit him up on the inside. He loved it. Something popped into his head. This was it. Not only was this the moment he had been waiting for and dreaming about for years, but they would finally consummate their relationship. John and Bunny made love all day.

John went out to meet with the new partners he had recruited to help rebuild Chimera. He needed some gum and had no time to stop by a store before going to the meeting. Bunny told him that she had some in her wallet. It was smashed but still fresh. He went into her checkbook wallet, looked, and found it. He also found an old, folded napkin that
was practically flat. It was from the Playboy Club. He opened it and saw that it had writing on it. He read it and realized it was the same napkin he had given her with his old phone number on it. She had kept that paper all of this time. He could not believe it. He put it back the way he had found it and returned her wallet to her purse.

Celia finally made it back to Harlem to visit her mother for the first time in a year. The reunion was great, and they were happy to see each other. Celia felt sorry for leaving her for so long but promised to make it up to her. Celia made plans for her mother to leave finally the wasteland of Harlem and live in Jamaica with her after much convincing. Celia promised her that she would enjoy it and that she could retire in peace and the sun. They went out for lunch in Manhattan, where they sat and talked to each other for hours. They discussed Jerome and the conditions in Harlem. She informed her mother that she had promised Mariana that she would remain in their lives in some capacity. Celia felt that was the least she could do. While they were enjoying lunch, she saw a newspaper that someone had left on another table at the café. She went over and grabbed it to look at the headline. On the front page, she saw a photo of Enzo Ambrosino with a headline announcing his death. She took the paper and set it aside. She decided to pass it along to John when she went back to the house. Celia and her mother finished their lunch and returned to Harlem to start packing. Before they left, she informed her mother that she wanted to introduce her to her old, new boyfriend, John, and invite her to his first wine tasting.

“You like torturing yourself, young lady, don’t you?” her mother said.

Bunny returned to Yonkers later on in the evening and examined the headline and story further. The article stated that Ambrosino suddenly fell ill with strange symptoms and died at Bellevue Hospital. John made it back home for the day and was glad to see her as usual. Bunny walked up to kiss him. Then she handed him the newspaper. “John, did you see the paper today?” she asked him.

“I did,” he responded.

“So, you have anything to tell me?” she asked in a sweet, flirtatious tone.

“No, I don’t,” he responded in the same way. “Just because I go and see him and he dies a few days later does not mean that I had anything to do with it. He was decrepit. I had nothing to do with that. I have excellent negotiating skills,” he said.

“Uh-huh,” Bunny responded.

“Uh-huh, nothing. I have a surprise for you, but you will see that at the get-together.” John pulled her closer to kiss her.