The Black Corleones (The Beginning) (8 page)

Chapter Ten

The next day
, Samir rose from his bed early because it was re-up time and he was anxious to see his father’s reaction. He was impressed with himself and his first run in the game. He managed to cut his father’s deadline in half and he was ready to flood the streets on his next run.

Cesar came through with his set
’s profits so there was nothing left for Samir to do but take the money to his father and request a re-up of 75 kilos. He knew it was a little ambitious, but with his previous performance Samir knew his crew was up to the challenge.

He dressed and headed out the door for his mundane school schedule. He was so excited to meet with his father that he
just knew the day was going to drag.

When the last bell rang for the day, Samir
was more than relived. He left school grounds and headed straight to his father’s house. When he arrived at the house, his father was already waiting for him. He was greeted by his step mother and told that his father was in the basement, anticipating his arrival.

“What’s up pops, how you feeling?” Samir greeted.

“What’s the deal son, I hear you got something for me.” Carlyle responded, as he hugged his youngest son.

“Yea
h, I got your money and I need to re-up. My trap is running dry and I got a few out-of-town orders that I need to send out in the next week or so,” Samir explained

“Let me see what you got for me and then we can talk about your next shipment.”

Samir handed his father a Marc Jacobs duffle bag containing $150,000 of neatly bundled, hundred dollar bills. Carlyle ran the money through three money counters to make sure what Samir said was in the bag is what he was actually counting.

His
approach to Samir wasn’t a father/son approach, it was that of any other made nigga on Carlyle’s team. Truth of the matter is, he didn’t trust anybody and Samir was no exception.

After the money was counted
, Carlyle sat in silence at the success of his baby boy. Samir was barely 16 years old and just handed over $150,000 in less than 30 days. Impressed was an understatement for how Carlyle felt. The sense of pride he was experiencing at that very moment was indescribable. After a few moments of silence, he continued his business with Samir.

“So
, what was your profit from the shipment, Sam?” Carlyle inquired.

“Well
, they were going for twenty two grand in the city, so we decided to come in at nineteen, wholesale. We sold two wholesale and broke down ten. We made three hundred and eighty thousand off the wholesale work and another three hundred on the broken down. So, we made six hundred and eighty thousand in fifteen days. I brought you a hundred and fifty, so that left me with a profit of five hundred and thirty for this run. I got seven main niggas on my pay roll, so that leaves us with seventy five thousand, seven hundred and fourteen dollars profit each. I took home sixty thousand because I had to pay a few of my low level niggas in the trap, and so did each one of my main niggas because each one of them set aside fifteen thousand, seven hundred and fourteen dollars for their workers. Meko, Chase, Seven and Cesar have five workers for their sets, so they each made a little over thirty one hundred, which is a good number seeing as these little niggas aint seen money like that ever in their lives.” Samir gave his father a complete run down of how he broke down his money and his father respected his ability to realize that the people under him were his top priority. Without them, his empire was nothing.

“So
, you need to re-up now; how much we talking about?”

“
The way we moving, I’m gonna need about seventy five of them thangs, because I got a long list of orders to ship out the state. I need to make sure my shit don’t lack because I’m sending all my work outta town.”

“
Seventy five is big number, son, especially on your first re-up out the gate.”

“Pop, I think I prove
d I can handle myself with every test you’ve given me. I can move the work, pops. You don’t have to worry about what I can do because I’ve shown you what I can do, over and over.”

“I don’t doubt you for one second
. You have proven you can handle this game and I have full confidence in your ability. So, since I have that confidence in you, here is what I’m going to do. Your birthday is coming up and you’ve been pretty successful thus far, so I’m going to give you one hundred keys instead of seventy five, but I only want a return on the seventy five you asked for, so consider the extra twenty five as a gift from me to you, in honor of your sixteenth birthday.”

“I appreciate that pops
. You won’t be sorry, I promise you that.”

After spending a time with his fathe
r, Samir called Valli and let him know to expect a shipment of 100 bricks. He explained to Valli that they only needed to put aside a return for seventy five. He also had Valli inform all of his out-of-town clientele that their work was on the way.

In a few short weeks
, Samir had outgrown the shadow of his brothers and his father. The Black Corleones’ crew was quickly becoming a hood staple. By the time Samir’s 16
th
birthday arrived, a few weeks later, they had already sold the 100 kilos. They pulled in $1.9 million in record time. Carlyle was quickly realizing that putting Samir in charge of Sincere’s set was proving to be the best decision he had ever made.

Most of the Chicago was flooded with work sporting the Black
Corleones’ logo. Not only did they have Chicago on lock, they were moving work in six other states. Samir was building an empire so vast that he even inspired his older brother Keith to adopt that mob mentality for business by joining forces with his little brother and becoming a part of his Black Corleone Family. With Keith and Samir joining forces, Carlyle was making more money with his sons at the wheel than he ever did.

With all
the success, Samir never once wavered from what was motivating him; his brothers and the fact that they were proud of him. It was his birthday and it was the first time he would be celebrating it without Sincere and Ace. He decided to bring it in with a visit to his brothers.

Before he headed to the jail
, he made sure he stopped to put money on each of their books. When he arrived for the visit, he didn’t have to tell them anything because they had their ears to the street.

His brothers expressed how proud they were of him and how they wanted him to continue to run business his way. When his
visit was up, his brothers wished him a happy birthday and requested that he partied hard enough for them and to relax because he deserved it.

After visit
ing with his brothers, Samir met with his crew and they went to his newly acquired Condo, to celebrate the day of his birth and their success.

Samir was proud that he was able to provide his boys with a way to take care of their
families. If it wasn’t for the four of them, Samir’s dream would still be just that, a dream. They held him down in every decision he made. He didn’t have Sin and Ace to spend his day with, but he did have Meko, Seven, Chase and Cesar; and life couldn’t be any better.

That night
, they headed downtown to Club E2 to celebrate. When they arrived, they were treated like hood celebrities. They were escorted in the club by the bouncer and their VIP section was already set up. They got love from everybody.

“The Black
Corleones are in the fucking building, happy birthday to my nigga, Samir!” the DJ announced. They were the youngest niggas in the club, but their reputation exceeded itself. Samir didn’t have to spend a dime because once the DJ announced his arrival, bottles poured in from everywhere. Dudes who respected him and even dudes who didn’t respect him sent bottles to his table. It was out of love. Samir and the Corleones showed loved to everybody and got the same respect from the hood.

That night
, The Black Corleones were solidified in their position as major players in Chicago’s under world of drugs and drug dealers. Niggas wanted to be them and the hoes wanted to be with them. With all that Samir and his crew were doing in the streets, the veterans of the game couldn’t do anything but respect the young bucks.

Carlyle even made the rare appearance to celebrate his son’s success and birthday. With all the love Samir was being shown,
Meko, Seven and Chase understood and embraced Samir as the face of their crew. They understood that he would be the one with all the stress of running the operation. They accepted their position because their child hood friend never made them feel as if any of them were beneath him and without him none of this would have been possible.

Cesar
, on the other hand wasn’t feeling all the attention Samir was receiving. In fact, he felt like Samir wasn’t the reason they were successful. He tried not to show his hatred for Samir, especially since he wasn’t over their little blowout they had at the meeting, weeks earlier. But he decided to put his personal feelings to the side and toast to the good life.

The Black
Corleones partied like rock stars amongst some of Chicago’s elite in the dope world. Life was good for them at the moment. They achieved what they set out to do and they were making money in the process. The five of them had quickly become Chicago’s top dope boys and they were all under 18 years old.

Chapter Eleven

The Corleones became young millionaires quicker than anyone anticipated. Their first year in the game, they became legends. They couldn’t picture where they would be at this point in their lives when they met at Meko’s grandmother’s house and mutually decided to risk their freedom and their livelihood for the power of money.

It was their senior year in high school and they made more money in a week
, than their teachers made all year. But things began to change within the dynamics of the crew. The more money they made, the cockier Cesar became. Samir didn’t notice what money and success was doing to his brother. He just took it at as Cesar being Cesar. Besides, he hadn’t caused any problems for the crew or for their operation. So, Samir didn’t let the minor changes in Cesar’s demeanor bother him.

Graduation was approaching quickly and The
Corleones were coming up with a plan to focus on their business without the added distraction of school. School wasn’t their main focus and the fact is; they only stuck to it to make their families happy. After graduation, Samir had a plan to expand their market from the Midwest and East Coast, down to the south.

He knew the market down south was untapped territory that even his father hadn’t explored. He set his sights on Houston after meeting a freak from Houston who had a few ties that w
ould prove to be beneficial.

He made sure his freak linked him with her connections
, so Samir had to come up with a plan of how to expand his operation to the Houston market; as a test zone for his down south operation. As soon as everything was locked in, he would inform his crew and his father of his plans, out of respect.

He also needed to make sure Sin and Ace were aware of him going south
, because Sin had a few niggas that owed him some favors in the Houston area.

Meanwhile
, everything for them was moving along smoothly. They were moving 100 bricks a month and things were going off so quick that Carlyle had to cut Samir down from his re-up schedule to keep unnecessary heat off of his Corleone crew. With what they were doing in the streets, it was easy for niggas to start feeling envious of The Corleones.

Seventeen year old Samir was a full fledge boss and his team handled business with
finesse. They covered all their bases, so they never experienced any real problems, but all that was about to change. They were so used to things going smoothly that they never had to flex their muscle. They got so much love and made so many people so much money; you would have thought they were the hood’s godfathers.

The team never had a problem getting their money when they front
ed someone work. Although Samir had made a name for himself in the streets and people respected him on a certain level, he was still under the protection of being Carlyle Kendall’s son and Sin and Ace Kendall’s younger brother; so even if somebody wanted to fuck over Samir’s team, they thought twice about it.

But the
Corleones would soon learn that if you don’t rectify the problem the first time, then who would take you serious the next time that same problem arose.

________

The
y met at Samir’s downtown condo, for their weekly meeting. The meeting was about the next re-up and Samir’s plan to take their product down south. It was also the time he used to see what orders his crew’s sets had, so they could have an adequate amount of work for everybody. Samir made a point to never let his traps run dry so he never waited for all the dope to fly before he commissioned his father to re-up.

“I was thinking that we need to take your pops up on that offer to start investing in some shit to cover our asse
s; just in case shit gets hot. I mean, this last year has been crazy and we’ve slowed down a bit, so we need to think about that bro. All this money we making, it’s only a matter of time before them people start sniffing around,” Meko said, as he looked at the cards in his hand.

“I
’m already two steps ahead of you, bro, I been looking at some properties to rent out in the burbs, maybe Tinley park and Orland park.” Seven added.

“
Aight, I’ll talk to my pops and see what he suggests. We not doing any of the typical dope boy investment shit.” Samir responded.

“I got this older shorty I
’m fucking with who got a clothing store concept; we could look in to that. I think it would be good, on some real high end exclusive shit,” Chase added his opinion.

Cesar joined the conversation while he cut Samir’s ace of hearts
, “Y’all remember that nigga, Kyle, from Harvey?’

“Yea
h, I remember him, why, what’s up?’ Samir asked.

“I ran into
him the other day at Georges’, when I was in Harvey and we chopped it up. He was trying to fuck with us on some front shit. He got his cake up so he able to cop at least six, but he needs ten. So, he wanted to see what we could do on the front for the other four. What y’all think?”

“I don’t know
Joe. I heard that nigga be on some jack shit. Heard that nigga fucked over some niggas in Oklahoma on the same type of shit. I don’t know if we should get in bed with that,” Meko interjected.

“I
don’t think we should be turning down bread off of
‘he said, she said, shit’
.” Cesar replied.

“I didn’t say that
, but we don’t have to fuck with everybody. It aint like we have to establish ourselves, we already did that a year ago.  And we most certainly ain’t hurting for no money where we have to take every offer.”

“No disrespect
Mek, but this aint your decision, it’s Samir’s, he’s the boss,” Cesar said, sarcastically.

“Actually
, it’s all our decision. There’s no one man above the next.” Chase added.

“I just think that if a nigga can meet our mini
mum, than we should consider the front. What we got to lose, it’s just more money for us and a new potential customer.”

“I don’t doubt that
, but we’re brothers here, so don’t just disregard how Meko feels Cesar. So, I tell you what… let’s take a vote but the vote would be to meet up with the nigga and get a feel for him before we vote to front him, cool?” Samir added.

“Cool
. All in favor of taking a meeting with Kyle vote yay or nay. And I vote yay.” Cesar started the vote.

“Aint no harm in a meeting,
yay” Chase voted.

“Cool with me
.” Samir voted

“I still say no to a meeting and fronting that nigga.”
Meko opposed

“I’m with
Mek on this one,” Seven also opposed.

“Well
, there you have it, three against two. I’ll set up the meeting for tomorrow.” Cesar confirmed.

“
Aight, just let us know and we’ll all have to be there, even those of us who opposed. We all have to be comfortable with this dude,” Samir said.

The
Corleones proceeded with their meeting and discussed all of the plans they had for their upcoming re-up. They had more out-of-town orders this time around, so Samir wanted to make sure everybody was on one accord about what needed to be done.

With so much on their plate this go round, Samir decided today wasn’t the day to discuss his plans for moving into Houston. After listening to the stress of keeping
a tab on all their other out-of-town spots, maybe venturing down south would be a little too much for them to handle at this particular time. He would eventually put it on the ballot for the team to vote on.

After their meeting
, Cesar headed to Harvey, to meet with Kyle, to let him know what his crew had decided on.

“What up Joe, I’m on my way
, meet me at the fruit stand on Halsted and Dixie Highway,” Cesar inform Kyle.

“Cool
, I’m in the hood now, so hit me when you’re closer to the area,” Kyle responded.

Cesar pulled up to their destination 15 minutes after he hung up with Kyle
. He was driving a brand new, 1987 Chevy Caprice on 20 inch rims with the Corleones signature, white candy paint.

Kyle watched in envy as Cesar got out of the car
. It was the third vehicle Kyle had seen him in that week. Cesar was dressed in a blue Addidas sweat suit with a fresh pair of Air Force Ones. In his left ear he rocked a three carat diamond and on his right wrist was the Rolex watch that all the Corleones wore, symbolizing their brotherly bond. From the way Cesar looked, it was apparent that the Corleones where getting real money. They were clocking much more money than Kyle and his crew but he had to contain his jealousy in order to put his plan in motion. He knew he had to gain The Corleones trust if he was going to set his crew out off of their expense.

“So
, did you think about what I asked you, my G?” Kyle asked, as he dapped Cesar.

“Yea
h. I talked to my guys about it but they were a little apprehensive because of your rep in these streets. If you want to get in bed with us you gone have to get that shit straight. We haven’t decided to do the deal just yet, but we have decided to meet with you as a whole tomorrow and give you an answer from there. So, be at the Dan Ryan Park tomorrow at five thirty, my nigga.” Cesar informed Kyle.

“
Aight, I’ll be there tomorrow with the money for the six, just so you know we serious about this.”

“Cool.”

Kyle watched Cesar drive away. He was disgusted with the fact that he even had to play the role with this fuck boy Corleone. He called his right hand man and informed him that they were one step closer. “These fuck boys aint gone know what hit them. They trying to be on some cover they ass shit, but just be patient, our time is coming.”

Kyle hung up the phone content that his plan to r
ob the Corleones blind was finally set in motion. He knew Cesar’s greed would be the only way inside of the Corleones’ tight knit operation. His plan was to get them to front him and resell their work to a customer he already had lined up. He wanted to give them their return early to gain their trust. He would do enough business with them and build a relationship with Cesar so he could get close enough to know how they moved and hit them when they least expected.