Snapped (6 page)

“You said you told your side already.” Frankie cut a glance at Gillian out of the corner of his eyes. He cleared his throat and continued. “Couple of days ago, we ran into Dusty and some other character at Roseland. Dusty was talking real reckless and Baron was talking back. It got out of hand. You know the rest.”

Nobles sipped his drink. “Continue.” It didn’t sound like a request.

Frankie felt uncomfortable. “That clown threw a drink in Baron’s face, on some bitch shit,” he explained. “So Baron cracked a bottle over his head. Things escalated and it
spilled outside. We left then and I got Baron home and everything got squashed. I haven’t heard from him in a few days, but when I left him, he was out of harm’s way.” He exhaled. “That’s it.”

“And what happened to Dusty?”

Frankie looked at Gillian. He wondered how much she’d actually told her father. The truth was, he and Baron
had
squashed things that night. But they had caught up with Dusty two days later and Baron had shot him. They had disposed of Dusty’s car in the wee hours of the morning, and it had been Gillian who picked them up from the remote location at the very tip of Brooklyn, surrounded by woods and weeds, where they’d dumped Dusty’s remains. The spot was one they’d used before in situations like this. Times when Baron’s temper had gotten the best of him and Frankie, true to form, had been on point and cleaned up the mess. This time it was a fool with a mouth just as loud as Baron’s and a point to prove. Baron had mirked him. And now Frankie looked at the beauty before him and wondered if she had really been tainted against her brother all along.

“I don’t know,” he said.

“Gillian told me something different.” Nobles watched Frankie’s reaction, and noticed that he was careful not to show any clues of what he was thinking. “She said that you all went to the party and everybody was having fun. She said Baron threw a drink in Dusty’s face. Not the other way around. That Baron broke a bottle on the muthafucka’s skull. Gillian said that you tried to calm the situation, tried to get my son to leave quietly. But he kept talking shit. Then it spilled outside.”

“That’s when I left,” Gillian said quickly. She looked at Frankie, hoping again to make eye contact.

Nobles watched the exchange between his “son” and his beloved daughter and cleared his throat. “Don’t cover for him, Frankie. Tell me the truth.”

Frankie said nothing.

“I think you know exactly what Baron did.” Nobles was hoping he could coax Frankie to tell him everything. But part of him admired the man’s obvious loyalty to Baron. It made him respect Frankie even more.

“I dropped Baron off at home that night. And Dusty was still breathing the last time I saw him.” Frankie was looking at his hands now.

“So neither one of you knows what happened?”

Frankie looked at Nobles and breathed a quiet sigh of relief. So she
hadn’t
told him everything. When he looked at Gillian again, he could read the expression on her face. With her eyes, she was saying,
Follow my lead this time.

Frankie spoke up at last. “I’m telling you what I know, Pops. They did have a fight, and we all got tossed out. Once we got outside the party, we squashed it and everybody drove off peacefully. I got Baron to let me drive him home. Gillian left right before we did.”

Nobles drank some more in silence. Several long moments passed this way, with both Frankie and Gillian sitting in anticipation before him. “Dusty’s missing. That’s the word on the street.” Nobles was eyeing Frankie.

“Baron didn’t have nothing to do with that.” Frankie could feel sweat forming on his brow. He hated lying to this man.

Nobles was no dummy. “I don’t believe that. And Dusty is major. He’s high profile. It’s not like nobody’s gonna notice he’s missing. Jojo is losing his mind, searching for his brother. What the fuck was y’all thinking?”

“Baron’s all right. That’s all that matters.” Frankie was walking a thin line between dry snitching and being honest with the man he loved like a father. The truth was, Baron was out of fucking control. He was doing too much, too fast, and he was beginning to feel invincible. It was working against him, and in turn it was working against the family. Baron had another dead body on his hands, and ultimately it would be Nobles who would have to make this whole thing go away. But Frankie didn’t want to get caught up in all this. All he wanted to do was make money and enjoy spending it.

“I want Gillian to take over.” Nobles laid his case out flatly. “I’m getting old, this disease is kicking my ass, and I know I can’t live forever.” He sipped his drink. “When I’m gone, I don’t want to have to worry that Baron fucked up everything I worked hard for. He’s gonna have to scale back, and I already know he’s not gonna like that. He’s cocky just like me, and when he realizes that Gillian wants in, he’s gonna fight that. I need you to help him listen to reason.”

“What?” Frankie sat forward in his seat. “How?”

“Make it happen,” Nobles said.

Frankie looked at Gillian. So that’s what this was about. Gillian was making a power move and using Frankie to accomplish it.

“I want to split everything three ways when I die.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Frankie said, waving his hand dismissively. “You still got a lot of living to do.”

“The reality of the situation is that I’m getting older. I’m not gonna live forever. And when I’m gone, I want each one of you to take an equal piece. Baron, Gillian, and you,” the old man stated.

Frankie felt both honored and guilty. “I don’t deserve that.”

“You deserve it the most.”

Frankie could feel Gillian’s gaze on the side of his face as she watched the exchange between two men she loved so much. She uncrossed her legs and sat up, growing animated. “I love my brother to death. You know that.”

Frankie nodded. “He loves you, too, Gillian. And you know he listens to you. So you could talk to him yourself and leave me out of it.” Gillian was the one person, besides Nobles himself, who could ever get through to Baron whenever he went over the edge.

“I know, Frankie. But he won’t listen to me when it comes to this. He thinks I’m not cut out for this life. But what it’s really about is that he doesn’t want to share the spotlight. You know that my brother respects you. If you make him see that it’s a good idea, maybe Baron will change his mind.”

“So what am I supposed to do to make him feel better about it?” Frankie asked, confused.

After several silent moments, Gillian shrugged. “Baron needs help, Frankie. He’s making big mistakes, and it’s gonna backfire. You know it’s true. I only told Daddy about the fight at the bar because I knew eventually somebody else would tell him. We owe it to Daddy to bring family business to him before the streets get to him first. That’s how I feel.” She looked at her father. She was telling the truth. She loved Baron, but her loyalty was to her father first and foremost.

She looked at Frankie again. “I don’t know what happened after the party,” she lied. “But Baron is putting us in the spotlight, and that’s the last thing we need. Even if he didn’t have nothing to do with Dusty’s disappearance, it looks bad. The last time anybody really saw him, he was
beefing with Baron. That puts the focus on us whether we’re involved in it or not.”

Frankie was noticing several things. For one, Gillian was smarter than he gave her credit for. This was clearly a power move, designed to give her more control of the family business than she’d ever had while endearing her to her father more than ever. He also noticed that suddenly she was using the words “we” and “us” very liberally in relation to family business. And Nobles wasn’t correcting her. She had figured out a way to convince her father to let her get deeper in the game. Now she was trying to reel Frankie in as well.

“I taught Baron maybe a little
too
well.” The liquor was making Nobles introspective. “I taught him all about the game, taught him how to get money. But I didn’t teach him how to appreciate the power that comes with all of that. You have to have something or someone that you love more than the money. Baron doesn’t have that. He has no life outside of this one. All he knows is this family.”

Frankie shook his head. “So what’s the problem?” He held his hands up as if in surrender. “That’s what any organization wants in their leader. One hundred percent dedication. You have that in Baron.” He looked at Gillian with new eyes. No longer was she his platonic best friend with the phat ass, the one who was like family to him due to the fact that her father had practically raised Frankie. She was now a grown woman, ready to contend for her share of the family business. With a brother as ruthless and addicted to power as Baron was, that was brave, to say the very least. “Can you be one hundred percent dedicated to this shit, Gigi?”

Gillian looked at him, happy that he was still calling her
by the nickname he alone had given her. Calling her Gigi was the first sign that Frankie still felt some endearment toward her. “Baron is just like Daddy. He likes to handle everything by himself. But I’ve been learning the ropes by watching my brother, my father, and
you
.” She flashed her pearly whites as she said this. “I know I can do it.” She didn’t verbalize it, but she knew that in order to get Baron to let her take over with no hard feelings, she needed Frankie’s help.

“I’m not thrilled about this, either.” Nobles spoke up.

“Like father, like son,” Gillian observed, smiling.

Nobles smiled back at his beloved daughter, who knew him so well. “I don’t want my baby girl to get hurt.” Nobles shrugged his shoulders. “But I worry about Baron, too. I don’t want him to wind up fucked up like I am.” He pointed to his wheelchair, which was leaning against the wall. He had been confined to it since being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis eight months prior. “All that work and stress, long hours and endless days catches up with you. And if that doesn’t do it, haters in the street will do you in. I always said that having one head of the family is stupid. When I got sent up north, we could have lost everything if Baron wasn’t ready to step into my shoes. Now that he’s in control, who will be ready to take his place when and if the time comes? If my son isn’t careful, he’s gonna be an easy mark for some young cat trying to make a name for himself. And where does that leave the rest of the family?”

Frankie nodded. He understood where Nobles was coming from. Still, he couldn’t see why he had to stick his nose into what amounted to family business. “Why do you need me to explain that to him? You could tell all that to Baron yourself.”

Gillian smirked and shook her head. Nobles took another sip of his drink before answering.

“Well, Frankie,” he said. “It’s not just about Baron. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want Baron to think I’m playing favorites. He has to think it’s his idea. But there’s another reason why I need you. I told Gillian that the only way I trust her getting deeper in this business is if you go in by her side. That way I’ll know that she’s being kept out of harm’s way.”

Frankie frowned again. “What are you talking about? Baron would look out for her. She’s his sister.”

Nobles drained his glass. “Baron looks out for Baron.” He set his glass down on the table and sat back. “Make no mistake about that.” Nobles sounded so sincere.

Frankie shook his head. “So, let me get this straight. You want me to convince Baron to step down and let Gillian take over. Plus you want me to walk her through that transition. Baron’s gonna flip the fuck out when he hears that. It sounds like a takeover, and I’m not trying to get caught up in all that.”

Gillian touched Frankie’s leg ever so briefly. “Please,” she said, softly. “I need to do this. We could lose everything unless we stop Baron from messing it all up. Daddy and I think you can make Baron see it your way.”

“My way?” Frankie asked. “Or yours?”

Gillian ignored the question, batting her long curly lashes instead. “You have a way of suggesting things to people and making them feel like the whole thing was their idea.”

Frankie laughed. “Do I really?”

Gillian smiled. “Yeah. You do. So just suggest it to him and make him think it was his idea from the get-go.”

Frankie laughed again. “You give me too much credit.”

Nobles shook his head. “No, she’s right.” He looked at Frankie. “You’re like a son to me, Frankie. You know that. You probably don’t realize how valuable to this family you really are.”

Frankie felt good hearing his father figure say such nice things about him. But he was still hesitant to get involved in Nobles family business. He shrugged.

“What is Baron supposed to do while Gillian’s taking over and I’m helping her take over? He’s supposed to sit around and watch from the sidelines, playing video games or some shit? And you think something that I can say will make him feel better about that? That don’t even sound logical.”

Their discussion was interrupted when Nobles’s wife, Mayra, breezed into the room. Wearing a long silk bathrobe cinched tightly at the waist, she excused herself. “Sorry to interrupt,” she said as she smiled at Frankie before turning her attention to her husband. “Baby, don’t take too long in here. Remember we have that party tonight and we don’t want to be late. You still have to decide which suit you’re wearing.”

Frankie had known the family since he was a young boy. He remembered meeting Mayra for the first time and thinking she was the most beautiful woman he’d ever see in his lifetime. Baron was eight years old when his father divorced his mother and married Gillian’s mother in the same year. Baron’s mother—Celia Parker-Nobles—was a well-educated woman from a proud lineage. She’d lowered herself, according to her family’s standards, by marrying Doug Nobles, who was in and out of prison as a result of his criminal activity. She took it understandably hard when her
husband of twelve years left her and their son, and married his deceased best friend’s widow.

Mayra Leon was a beautiful Cuban woman with milky pale skin and long flowing dark hair. She had been married to Harvey Leon, one of Nobles’s dearest friends. When Harvey was murdered in a robbery, it wasn’t long before Nobles began an affair with her. That affair turned into love, and he left his wife alone with their son in their New Jersey estate and moved into a huge Westchester mansion with his new young bride.