Diamonds and Pearl (36 page)

“What the hell happened?” Hank offered by way of a greeting.

“This fucking idiot has gone and gotten himself arrested over some dumb shit,” Diamonds fumed. “It's just dumb luck that they brought him to the precinct a friend of ours in blue works out of.”

“What's the charge?”

“They wanted to hit him with assault and destruction of property, but a few coins placed in the right hands brought it down to drunk and disorderly. They're going to release him with a desk appearance ticket. So long as we take care of the fine, it'll get swept under the rug.”

“This ain't good.” Hank shook his head. “In every city we've swarmed, anonymity has always been our greatest asset. By the time anybody even notices we're in town, we've already infested their hoods. We invade, we feast, and we move on. Landing on the police radar, even for something as petty as this, can crack the whole foundation of we've taken all these years to lay.”

“Thanks for pointing out the fucking obvious, old man!” Diamonds snapped.

“This old man can still kick your ass, so you might wanna watch that mouth of yours,” Hank warned. “Look, kid. I know you're frustrated, but I ain't the one you need to be sore with. Buda ain't been right since he lost John-Boy, and that bottle ain't helping him none. My heart goes out to the boy, but I ain't trying to die or go to prison because he can't let go of them demons. Bottom line: Buda is going to bring this whole operation down unless we do something about him.”

“So what you saying? You suggesting I clip my best friend?” Diamonds asked defensively.

“No, I'm suggesting you put that dog on a leash before he winds up biting you next.”

Diamonds didn't want to admit it, but he knew Hank was right. He wished could've said he hadn't seen it coming, but he had. The tea leaves had told him as much. Each time he gazed into the remains of the brew that Auntie had taught him to make when he was a kid, he hoped for a different outcome, but the story in the leaves never changed. In his arrogance he had thought he was skilled enough in the dark workings of the here and there that he could intervene on what fate had already predetermined, but he had only made things worse.
The same power you crave so desperately is going to rise up and swallow everything you hold dear to your heart
: the curse Auntie had laid on him right before he'd stolen her life. Her power rang in his head. The old witch was probably sitting somewhere in the pits of hell, cackling her ass off at him.

“Did you hear what I said?” Hank snapped Diamonds out of his daze.

“Huh?” Diamonds hadn't even realized Hank was still talking.

“I said your boys from Queens called again about the meeting,” Hank repeated.

“How many fucking times do they need to go over this shit? Three days from now we sit down with their people and negotiate terms,” Diamonds said in frustration. The two guys who were supposed to introduce them to the heroin supplier had been on his back about the deal since he agreed to do business with them. They had to be two of the most paranoid fuckers he had ever met, but considering the audacity of the double cross they were pulling, he was having a hard time blaming them.

“That's the thing: the plans have changed. They need to meet today,” Hank told him. “Apparently, the leader of the crew had some kind of family emergency. Appears a friend of his got himself cooked in that mysterious fire that broke out uptown last night.”

He now had Diamonds's full attention. “You've got to be shitting me.”

“I wish I were.”

“They know how the fire got started?” Diamonds asked.

“Nah, they got the same story everyone else did that it was an electrical fire. I guess they got some family coming into town to take care of the arrangements, so he'll have his hands full with that and wants to sit with you beforehand. He just wants certain assurances that we'll be able to handle the arrangement.”

“Assurances?” Diamonds made a face as if this were laughable. “They only thing they need to be assured of is that when they open the pipeline, I'm gonna flood this city with dope!”

“You know it and I know it, but with the tense nature of everything in the streets lately, they want to make sure their investments are protected.”

“Hit them back and tell them today is no good. We got TJ's shower, and I don't wanna hear him crying about us missing it. If my word that I can do what I say ain't good enough, then they can go fuck themselves. I ain't got time to be keep explaining myself to these New York niggas. I'm a gangster, not a politician.”

“That's the cost to be the boss,” Hank reminded him. “Now, if you wanna blow these jokers off, that's up to you, but you might wanna take into consideration what it could do to the deal. You said yourself that hooking into these Haitians niggas is the power play we need to really establish ourselves in New York. Now only that, but think about all the money we stand to make by pumping heroin into other cities we got business in, like Miami and Dallas. You slight these boys all because you feel like being petty, they could snatch the deal off the table. Now, I'm pretty sure we could find another dope plug, but it'll take time, and there's no guarantee the next connection will have access to the kind of weight we'll need to really step it up. So you need to ask yourself: Is your ego worth more than this paper?”

Before Diamonds could answer, Buda came walking out of the precinct. His shirt was torn, and there was some slight bruising under his eye. When he saw Diamonds and Hank standing at the curb, waiting, a look of shame crossed his face. He knew he had fucked up.

A second or two after Buda, another man came out. He was tall, with brown skin and an angular face, and dark keen eyes that seemed to look everywhere at once. He had thick sideburns and a deeply cleft upper lip that gave him an almost canine appearance. With his hair in cornrows and his baggy jeans cuffed over his Timberlands, he looked like your everyday corner boy, but the badge hanging from around his neck said he played for the other side. He paused just long enough to look at the trio like they were shit on a shoe before ambling across the street to the bodega.

“Diamonds,” Buda began, “before you start in, let me explain. It wasn't my fault.”

“It never is, Buda,” Diamonds said sarcastically.

“Don't you even wanna hear my side of the story?” Buda asked, not feeling the way Diamonds was looking at him.

“Ain't no need, because whatever you got to say is likely only gonna make my mood worse. This shit is a never-ending saga with you, Buda. Go with Hank and wait by the car while I finish cleaning up your fucking mess!” Diamonds spat.

“So you're just gonna dismiss me like I'm some kid?” Buda asked angrily.

“Buda, with the shit you been pulling lately, you need to consider yourself lucky that all I'm asking for is your absence and not your life,” Diamonds growled. The minute the words crossed his lips, he knew he had crossed the line, but it was too late to take it back so he stood on it.

There was a tense moment between them. Both men locked eyes, ready to react to whatever the other was contemplating.

“Buda,” Hank called out. He felt a storm coming and wanted to defuse it before the situation exploded. “Take a walk with me.”

Buda gave Diamonds one last hard look. “A'ight.” He backed away, keeping his eyes on Diamonds.

When Buda was out of sight, Diamonds let out a long, fatigued sigh. He and Buda both knew how close they had just come to throwing blows. It wouldn't have been the first time since they had known each other, but this time it was different. The stakes were higher, and a simple fight amongst friends could affect the balance of power. Buda had been his right hand for a great many years, but there was only room enough for one ass to sit on the throne. Putting his frustration with Buda to the side, Diamonds got back to focusing on business.

He ambled across the street and entered the bodega. In back, near the deli section, the detective who'd come out behind Buda stood, ordering a sandwich. He spared Diamonds a brief glance before turning back to the man behind the counter and commanding that he put more mayonnaise on his hero. Diamonds stopped short of him and began perusing the rack of potato chips as if he were having trouble making a selection.

“If your friend is any indication of the kind of dysfunctional niggas you've recruited into your little army, you ain't gonna last long in this city,” the detective said over his shoulder, keeping his eyes on the man making his sandwich.

“Your counsel is always appreciated, Detective Wolf, but who I keep company with is my business,” Diamonds said.

“Your business becomes my business when I have to convince my watch commander to give a pass to a guy who put two people in the hospital,” Wolf retorted.

“What the fuck happened?” Diamonds asked.

“According to the uniforms who brought him in, he got into a head-busting contest at this spot uptown. The unofficial word is that there was some kind of dispute between him and another dude over some broad, and your boy went postal and started busting the place up. He sent two of the bouncers to the hospital. The only reason your friend is getting just a slap on the wrist instead of charged with something heavy is because the place he trashed ain't exactly legit, and the owner pays the cops handsomely to look the other way when shit like this occurs. I know the owner personally, and despite his flamboyant appearance, he's an extremely dangerous man. It's a wonder Buda ended up in the tank instead of the morgue. But Christian ain't gonna let this rest without some type of compensation. I can squash it for you, but it ain't gonna be cheap.”

Diamonds cut his eyes at Wolf. “I see that badge ain't took none of the larceny out of your heart.”

“It's the larceny that keeps me from digging into my pocket to pay for a bridge every time somebody like you comes along, trying to sell one,” Detective Wolf capped, accepting his sandwich and making his way to the register to pay for it.

Diamonds followed, carrying a bag of onion-and-garlic chips and a soda. “Your envelope will be in its usual place, waiting for you,” he said to the detective's back while he waited his turn in line. “When you come up with a number to squash my boy's mishap, just push it through to my people and I'll make sure you're taken care of.”

The detective nodded. “That's why I like you, Diamonds. You and your crew are about as big of hillbillies as I've ever met in my life, but you pay like you weigh when you want shit done. I don't have to haggle over paper with you like I do with some of these local shit-birds.”

“Chalk it up to my Southern charm,” Diamonds said.

“Whatever, nigga.” Wolf laughed and walked out of the bodega. He stopped on the sidewalk to take a bite of his sandwich and allow Diamonds to catch up with him. “I'm usually not in the goodwill business, but I kinda like you, kid. If you don't fuck around and get your head blown off before you can complete your hostile take-over, you might wind up being somebody in the world. That being said, does the name Eddie Costas mean anything to you?”

“I've heard the name, but can't say I've ever met the man personally,” Diamonds lied.

“So then I guess there's no cause for concern that his people have been asking a whole lot of questions about you?”

Diamonds shrugged. “People are curious about the unknown. I suspect that before long, I'll be the topic of more than a few conversations.”

Detective Wolf nodded. “Just be sure they're the right kinds of conversations. There's a condo in Miami that I've had my eye on, and at the rate I'm cleaning your messes up, I'll have the down payment in no time, provided you don't get yourself whacked or locked up first.”

“Spoken like a true pig,” Diamonds capped. “In any event, thanks for the solid you did for Buda.”

“No problem.” Wolf took another bite of his sandwich. “One day I may call on you for a favor, and I trust you'll pay me the same courtesy,” he said suggestively.

Diamonds read between the lines. Thanks to Buda, he was now in the detective's debt. “You got that,” Diamonds assured him before walking off.

*   *   *

As usual, Diamonds's chat with Detective Wolf proved to be both informative and frustrating. He hated the way the narcotics detective spoke in riddles. It was like you could never get a straight answer from him unless he was telling you how much you owed for whatever nasty little deed he'd taken care of for you.

The news about Eddie digging into Diamonds's past was something he had expected to happen, but not quite so soon. He was content to bide his time and let Eddie continue to think he was just a country-ass nigga who was happy to be eating, until the time came to show his true hand. But once again TJ had altered his plans by running his mouth. He'd allowed his anger at his cousin to cause him to give Eddie a glimpse of the monster beneath the mask. Unlike TJ and the others who Eddie could twist to his will, Diamonds's spine was made of steel and would not bend. Eddie was a lot of things, but you didn't make it to his status by being a fool. He'd be paying closer attention now, so Diamonds had to move wisely going forward.

Then there was the issue of Diamonds's latest business partners, or at least that was what he allowed them to think of themselves as. They were really just stepping stones to the next level of his dastardly plan. Had they been just any random New York cats who'd pitched him about the heroin deal, he'd have told them to fuck off, but their affiliation gave them credibility. If they could deliver half of what they had promised, then they'd indeed prove valuable.

As he approached the car where Buda and Hank were waiting, his cell phone rang. A cold chill settled in his belly, and he was hesitant to answer it. With the mood he was in, if he got one more piece of bad news, he was going to lose it. “What now?” he answered angrily.