G.A.B.O.S. (Original Version)

Chapter V

Lynise sat at the head of the large table on the back patio of Tremaine's Atlanta estate, filing her nails and occasionally glancing at the watch on her wrist as she waited for the big hand to land on the five. On either side of the table, three men sat impatiently, waiting for Lynise to begin the meeting. They gave her their most intense death glares, to which she responded by smiling and pretending not to notice them. Directly to her left, Tremaine's right hand man Blue sat, mugging everyone that looked at Lynise the wrong way.

Each person present held down a major city in Georgia. Lynise and Blue were representing Atlanta, Six Trey's sweater broadcasted the fact that he was from Augusta, Heathen was acting for Savannah, and his twin brother, Juvenile, was from Albany. These were the savvy businessmen. The ones who peeped that Tremaine was full and wanted a piece of the pie. They saw that the product Tremaine was selling had fiends popping up out of the woodwork and, while they weren't willing to join his team, they were willing to invest in his seemingly abnormally-addictive supply.

With the exception of a few people that Tremaine wasn't powerful enough to touch, everyone that was eating in Georgia was sitting at that table. Tremaine's young boys had specific orders to shut down any operation in the state that was moving anything other than what he was selling. His rule was that you ate with him or you starved; it was as simple as that. Anyone that didn't fall in line got dealt with by Tremaine personally. Whether the situation was resolved through violence or not was solely up to the attitude of the other party involved, but there were rarely ever cases of complete amnesty on Tremaine's part.

Lynise looked up from her nails when she felt Blue tap her shoulder. She checked the time, and then stood up, scanning the faces at the table and waiting until she had their full attention. "Let's keep this short and sweet. I'm sure that everyone here knows that Tremaine is in Miami, and will most likely be there for a while. Until his return, Blue and I will be in charge of collecting money and distributing work. Any questions?"

"Hell yeah, we got questions!" Six Trey announced, rising from his seat and reminding everyone of where his nickname came from. "Why did he put you two in charge? That's bullshit, man!"

Blue stood up and gave Six Trey a menacing glare. "I think you need to sit back down and watch how you talk to Lynise, Six. All that ain't called for, my man."

Six Trey sucked his teeth and reclaimed his chair. He smirked and put his attention back on Lynise. "Excuse me, baby, but why the fuck would Tremaine put you in charge? Is that better?"

Lynise ignored his sarcasm and answered his first question. "Tremaine trusts me enough to know that I'm gonna keep his shit in order. And if I need a little bit of muscle to handle hotheaded muthafuckas such as yourself-" she used her head to motion toward Blue- "that's what my friend here is for. Any other questions?" She paused, waiting for someone to speak up. No one did, so she continued. "Alright. We're not copping work from Tremaine's godparents anymore, which means that our supply is of a different quality."

Juvenile raised his hand as if he were in school, and then he licked his lips and ran his hand over his waves before he began speaking. "We're moving the some of the best coke in Georgia. What the hell did we get a new connect for? All we're gonna do is lose money."

"I didn't say that we got supply of a worse quality. I said different, Juvie. What you were pushing before is nothing compared to what we have now. This work is about to have addicts following you around all day, begging to suck your dick just to see a dime bag. I have two hundred and fifty keys at the moment. Tremaine's team is taking sixty, and the rest of you get sixty-three each. We're letting these go for twenty-four a piece. Let's begin."