The Black Corleones (The Beginning) (7 page)

Chapter Eight

The next day, The Corleones met in the gardens at Samir’s newly acquired trap spot. They were there right after the bell rang for their 6
th
period class. Those that was there when Samir first walked through the doors were anticipating what their boss had in store. Some of them were vexed about taking orders from a baby, but they would never speak on it out of fear of Carlyle and Samir’s older brothers. Plus, with the money they made with Samir’s family, challenging any decision made would prove to be a highly uneducated decision.

Once Samir walked through the doors he
began to lay out his plans for the sets he controlled under his reign. Tim came to the meeting just to make the transition a little smoother for Samir and his set.

“
What’s up my niggas, most of y’all probably don’t know me, but my name is Samir and I’m taking over this spot. And before anybody look at me and feel like I’m too young to handle this position, get that shit out your head right now because I’m well equipped to handle my business. So, before we go any further, let me start first by introducing my boys. This is Meko, Seven, Cesar and Chase. Chase will be responsible for overseeing the Gardens down to Riverdale and Dolton, if there’s any type of issue they must be directed to Chase and Chase only. Seven will be in charge of everything from a hundred and thirtieth down to a hundred and fifteenth. Meko and Cesar will be in charge of all of Roseland, Harvey and Markham. My niggas will handle business and they will make sure that the money and the work is right. They’ll have authority over placing and removing people.” Samir continued.

“I don’t know how my brother handled issue
s, but with me, we gone use a chain of command. You’ll have to go through your top guy, and if they can’t handle the issue then and only then will they bring that shit to me. If you have a problem with the niggas running the block or the niggas running the spot, then you have to set up a meeting with one of your top guys and come up with a well thought out argument of why he should be removed. They’ll bring that to me and we’ll make the final decision. No nigga in this crew will make any type of decision about this operation without first getting the okay.”

“Next order of business is how we distribute this work. When the shipment is in
, we’ll have a set amount of work that’ll get broken down to zones and smaller. The other set of work will be designated for wholesale only. Wholesale work will not be broken down to half’s or nines whatsoever. If a nigga wanna deal on a wholesale level, he must be able to purchase at least three at a time. We don’t have time to baby sit niggas. We not playing with that one brick shit. Three brick minimum is a standard. The only exception would be to a nigga that’s a loyal customer. As far as fronting goes, we’ll only front three bricks, maximum, therefore, a nigga has to buy at least four keys upfront before we give him credit. Lastly,
never
cross over into territory that isn’t under our supervision… meaning, don’t go over into my father’s sets or my brother sets at all. Are there any questions?” Samir wrapped up his ground rules.

No one posed
a question because everybody was impressed by Samir’s knack for the game. They had no choice but to respect how he took charge. He did, however, hear one of the workers make a comment referring to his mind set and the fact of him trying to organize them like they were the mafia, but Samir quickly fixed his workers attitude. “Actually, big homie, that’s exactly how I want my shit to run. The mafia and the la costa nostra are the longest running criminal organizations in American history; and that’s dating back to the eighteen hundreds, so yeah, I’m trying to emulate their success.” Samir quickly educated his brethren. He went on to explain to everyone that his brothers tracking system would remain in place and sent all the workers back into the streets.

Each of The
Corleones, were now in charge of their sets and it was time for them to take those sets to the next level. Once Samir’s work was delivered, it was split it into sections; wholesale and breakdown.

He gave each set their cut and the rules of engagement for ho
w the operation would run from here on out. Samir made it very clear that only the top guys of each set and the overseer of his trap, would have direct contact with him. Everyone else had to follow the chain of command he set in place if they needed to get to him.

Allowing only the most important
members of his operation direct contact with him eliminated the unnecessary from knowing who he was, so they were giving an even lesser chance to speak his name in the streets. Those who were there when Sin was running the set were very impressed by how this young boy came in and took command. It was as if he had been built for the game and they were all confident in his ability to run the sets effectively, even at his young age.

Samir named
Valli the overseer of the trap house and held him personally responsible for anything that went wrong. Nothing was to come in or leave out without Valli knowing about it. Valli respected the fact that Samir made the decision to put him in charge because it showed that Samir trusted him, something he didn’t feel with Sin, so he made a silent vow to himself that he would have Samir’s back at all cost, and that meant eliminating anything and anybody that didn’t respect what Samir was trying to build.

The one thing that the old crew members
liked about Samir; was his level of respect for each of them as men. He didn’t approach them like they were beneath him; instead, he made each one of them feel as if they were his teammates, rather than his subordinates.

Samir understood
, in order to get people to risk their lives for him every day, he needed to make sure their morale remained high. If the workers are happy, then the organization ran smoothly.

Samir had a 30 day deadline to get his father the return on
the work, so he put his crew under an even stricter deadline. He wanted to push them further so he could weed out the weak links in his crew. He understood that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link, so his crew had a 15 day deadline. If they survived this test, then he would increase the deadline to 28 days, like a bitch’s menstrual cycle. He would do this in order to hit his father every 30 days.

_________

Two weeks later
, while Samir’s crew was in the streets grinding to meet their quotas, Carlyle felt the need to keep a tab on his son’s progress. He made sure Tim watched over the operation from a distance and reported back to him, once a week.

“So
, how’s he doing, Tim?” Carlyle asked his right hand man, as they had their weekly crew meeting.”

“Man
; that young man is pumping. I’m impressed as hell bro. He’s only been at it a little under a week and a half and word is, he’s about to run out of work. He’s gonna need to re-up soon,” Tim responded.

“What you mean
, out of work already. His brother didn’t even go through thirty bricks that quick.”

“Well
, from what Valli told me, Samir gave the crew a fifteen day deadline. He had a long talk with them about respect and not turning down bread from nobody, no matter what their gang affiliation was. And since most of these young hotheads are so wrapped up in that gang mentality, they only move work to niggas they’re affiliated with. Samir, on the other hand, is fucking with everybody, and they say he even got a few out-of-town buyers. Your son is smart as fuck, Lyle… and the boy was seriously built for this.”

“Well
, we just gone have to see what the young buck does soon, aren’t we.” Carlyle responded. He had a proud and boastful smile on his face.

Meanwhile
, on the other side of town, Samir stopped by to check on his spot after class. He was informed that most of the work was gone and everybody made their drop off’s for the past two weeks. He made sure Valli kept a detailed, encrypted log of what everybody received and what they would have to return; as far as Valli was concerned, everybody met their quotas for the two weeks that past.

Samir was pleased to hear of the progress because the following day would be deadline time.
Valli let him know who still needed to make drop-offs and those who were squared away.

“So
, the only set left to make the drop off is Ces’. My nigga, everyone else is squared away. And I made sure everybody was paid today. I got the numbers for you on the jump drive, bro.” Valli explained to Samir.

“Cesar know when the deadline is
, so don’t worry about that. His crew will be good before the day is over. Make sure we know how much we got left after the close of business today and what I need to re-up on and have them numbers for me tomorrow, so I can pay my pops what we owe.” Samir told Valli.

“I’ll have that for you
, my G and I’ll have pops’ return separated for you as well. But from the way things are going, we gone need to re-up as soon as possible because our out-of-town niggas are trying to cop as soon as they can and we need to have enough for them.” Valli told his boss.

“Ok
ay, so how many orders we got for outta state, do you have a clear number, because I need the numbers before we re-up.”

“Yea
h, we need to ship twenty five whole ones outta state, so I think we need at least seventy five so we can have enough. I wanna have at least thirty for outta state to be safe, that way we’ll have forty five for the sets and wholesale for the city.”

“Ok
ay, I’ll keep that in mind. I’ma meet with the fellas tonight, before we re-up and I’ll see y’all tomorrow.” Samir left the spot confidant that his father would be impressed with what he was doing with his brothers set. After his first drop off and re-up, he told himself that he would no longer look at the sets as his brothers, but start looking at them as his own. His brothers were going to be away for the next five years, so now it was time for Samir to shine without the watchful eyes of his older brothers, or his father. With the work his crew put in on, on the initial run, out the gate. No one could deny that Samir had what it took to be in the game. For the first time in a long time, He was at a state of contentment. His wasn’t Ace and Sin’s baby brother or Carlyle’s baby boy, he was his own man, and this was his own game to play, how he saw fit.

Chapter Nine

Later that evening, Samir met his crew for an update on what was going on in the hood. It was the first time he was able to speak to his crew since they took over the set, so he was anxious to hear their thoughts on what the next moves should be and to hear what the streets had to say about them.

With their second shipment coming in, Samir wanted to make sur
e his boys were on point and able to handle the next test in their dope boy career. He wanted to make sure that he wasn’t putting more on them than they could handle.

As he pull
ed up to his destination to meet with his crew, he got a phone call from Valli, informing him that Ceaser had not come through with the profit from his sets.

“I been waiting around
, my nigga, but it’s getting late and it’s about time to shut the trap down, my G,” Valli explained

“How many did his set get this go around?” Samir asked
, concerned.

“We gave him
six and a half, G.”

“
Aight, go ahead and shut the trap down for the night. I’m about to meet up with this nigga now.  Ill figure out what’s going on with his sets.” Samir ended the conversation with his overseer and headed into Bennigans. When he walked inside the restaurant, Meko was already seated, waiting for everybody to arrive.

“What’s up Joe, why you look so stressed my boy?”
Meko asked feeling something was amiss with his friend.

“
Valli just hit me a second ago and told me this nigga Ces aint come through with that bread. He knew today was deadline day, shit just bothered me. You talk to this nigga today?” Samir questioned, as Chase and Seven joined them at the table.

“Na
h, Sam. I haven’t heard from that dude today.”Meko responded.

“You nigga
s spoke to that nigga Ces today?” Samir asked of his other crew members.

“Na
h, I haven’t.” Chase responded

“I spoke to him earlier today when he hit me to find out where we were meeting tonight
,” Seven interjected.

“Just so y
’all know, before this dude get here, I’m not accepting anybody being late with the money. The deadline is for everybody, so I want each one of you to understand that if your set is late; I’m holding you personally responsible, boy or no boy. This is a business and friendship doesn’t play a role when it comes to the business we’re building. We can’t afford to have any fuck-ups because my pops is looking for a reason to pull the plug on this operation.” Samir urged. Just as he was wrapping up his speech, Cesar walked in, joining them.

“What up
fam, you niggas couldn’t order me a drink?” Cesar asked, sarcastically as he took a seat.

“
Ces, what time did I tell you to meet us up here, Joe.” Samir snapped.

“Nigga
, I don’t remember… and besides, I got caught up with something after class today.”

“Fuck you mean
? What the fuck is more important than what we doing right now? And I didn’t get that bread from your set, so I hope your disrespect to us as a family for showing up to this meeting thirty minutes late is because you were coming up with that money.”

“First off
, nigga, don’t try to put me on blast in front of the rest of these niggas like I’m some lame ass nigga or some shit. Next, it’s taking a little while for my set. I’ma tell you like I told that Valli nigga, I’ll bring the fucking money when we get it.” Cesar snapped back.

“
Aight, how about we all just calm down before we say some shit we shouldn’t say,” Seven jumped in, trying to keep the peace.

“I’m calm Seven
, but let me help you understand one motherfucking thing, Cesar… I gave everyone the same time frame. You had the same fifteen days that the rest of the sets had. I’m trying to build something here my nigga, and if you ain’t with that, let us know right now Joe.”

“Hold up Joe, are you really questioning whether or not I want to get this money
?” Cesar asked.

“No, my nigga
; I’m questioning whether or not you want to be down with what the rest of us are trying to build because if you are like you say you are, then you would understand the importance of meeting the deadline and leading by example,” Samir stood his ground against his best friend. He had to be sure that Cesar understood that this was business and it wasn’t anything personal. He couldn’t let his boys think the rules didn’t apply to them. That’s one of the biggest things he picked up from watching the way his father ran his business. He didn’t let the fact that his sons were his sons affect business. He held them to the same standards as every other person who worked under his reign.

They hadn’t been in the gam
e a full month and Samir was already addressing a problem, and it was from his inner circle, nonetheless. Nobody around him trusted Cesar because of his family tree, but Samir trusted him with his life and he had to be sure that he wasn’t wrong in how he felt about his boy. He had to nip this in the bud now so it wouldn’t come to bite him in the ass later. Instead of letting this situation blow over, he had to assert his position on Cesar and that’s the one thing he never wanted to do.

He wanted his crew to feel like they were in th
e game together. He didn’t want one man to feel like they were beneath the other, but the fact remained that he was the boss and he had the added pressure of living up to his father’s and his brother’s name.

“Listen
, Ces… I aint about to go back and forth with you, bro. I set the deadline and you disregarded it. If you needed more time all you had to do was let me know, not just take it upon yourself to do what you wanna do. I’m head of this camp and the ground rules I set are for everyone to abide by. Today is the deadline, so I’ma need all the money y’all made up until this point and I need to know how much work y’all got left because that’s all y’all gone have to work with during this next re-up.”

“Nigga
, we got the money, so that aint a problem, I just had some other shit to do and it’s my fucking set, so I was gone bring the money when I got the time. If I’m running these sets then it’s my rules and my way,” Cesar casually dismissed Samir’s position as the leader of the newly formed Black Corleones.

The
statement was enough to send Samir over the top. Cesar didn’t have a care about what the rest of the crew was trying to build. That made Samir’s blood boil; a normal mild tempered Samir felt himself losing control on his best friend.

“N
o, muthafucka, those are my sets. I set the rules and I say when my fucking money is returned. I say who gets the work and who doesn’t. This is my shit! I’m the boss of all bosses you stupid muthafucka. You have until midnight to get my money, or I’ma show you who’s really running shit.” young Samir barked at this childhood friend. The rest of the crew sat in shock because the never heard Samir raise his voice, let alone raise it against one of them.

They knew Samir
’s character, so they didn’t take his words of being the head nigga in charge as shots towards them. They understood if he didn’t make a stand then the lines of friendship and business would eventually be blurred. Samir had to get a handle on the situation quickly, even and if it was against his closest niggas.

Cesar
, on the other hand, took his words personal, but he would never let the rest of the crew see him sweat.

“
Aight, my G. I got you. I understand you under pressure from pops, so I got you. You my nigga and I love this shit so I’ll have that for you tonight. It won’t happen again.” Cesar took replied.

Samir shook his boy
’s hand and let his words roll off his back. He let the disagreement go out the window. He understood the potential of his young crew and he knew if he could keep them on track they would take Chicago by storm, all before they graduated high school.