Crossroads

Ch. 38: Silent But Deadly

Daniel

"What's the problem Tank?" I asked as I walked into the warehouse we did our business in. It was about a 45 minute drive from the city. The location was to help us keep a low profile.

Tank, the tall and muscular man with a bald head approached me. He reminded me of The Rock. A frantic look was on his wrinkled face as sweat poured down his chiseled brown skin. He worked with my uncle for years and he was the one who taught me the rest of what I needed to know to be able to successfully run this operation.

"We got a big problem, boss." He paced in front of me.

Seeing him panic like that made me begin to build up some anxiety and I hated that feeling. It was like something was wringing my gut. I was no expert at this. I was still learning and hearing him say we had a problem scared me because that meant I needed to provide a solution.

"I already told you about calling me boss, Tank. You're more than two times my age. I'm still the same Diggy who used to run around here messing with shit." He nodded but I knew he'd still end up calling me boss again. I didn't consider myself anyone's boss, I was just handling my business as they should theirs. "Now what happened?"

He pulled out a white rag and wiped his sweaty face. "Okay, so remember how AK went and made that drop to our client down by the university this morning?"

I shook my head; already knowing I was about to hear some bullshit. Anything involving AK was sure to be a big ass mess. He was 23, older than me by almost 3 years but he matured slowly. He was a big fuck up and the only reason I kept him here was because of uncle Deuce. He was my uncle's step-son. He only had up to a 10th grade education by choice because he was drawn to the street life. I swear if I didn't have the heart I possessed I would've kicked his ass to the curb but I knew he had mouths to feed at home.

"Yeah. So what happened?" I crossed my arms preparing to hear whatever went down.

"So yeah, he was about to make the drop but it turns out it was a set up. Ol' dude was attacked by two of Juan's little bitches." I clenched my jaw as I became angered and was processing what was being said to me. "They tried to kill AK but he managed to shoot one of them and the other one ran off with the product man. I'm sorry."

"What the fuck? I should've know better than to let him do that shit alone! Fuck man, that's a lot of fucking money just gone. Plus taking a loss like this just makes us look weak. That's bad for business. Now every little wannabe gangster is gonna think they can get one up on us."

The drop was 34 kilos of ecstasy which estimated to around 1.5 million dollars. One of our loyal clients to supply was a dude down at the University of Southern California. He could get rid of that portion in two weeks tops. He had a nice little system set up since he was a student himself and knew the high demand for some X. He would've given AK the amount in full in exchange for the drugs.

Our organization wasn't to supply dealers with drugs but apparently Tank had been selling our product to the kid for a couple years because it was an easy flip versus having to wait for the corner-boys to get rid of it. I was just putting my foot in the game so in a way I had to follow Tank's lead since he was running shit before me. I needed to learn the ropes from him.

"You sent everyone else out to transport out of state, remember? And we were calling you since early this morning to figure this shit out but you weren't answering. We got the nigga that AK shot tied up in the back room but we wanted to wait until you came before we did anything. We need your approval boss man."