Ain't Nothing To It, Real One Aint Nothing To It, Boss

Urban

I sat at the head of the boardroom table surveying the other seventeen members of The Trust, who were all upstanding members of their communities when they weren't running one of the most infamous drug cartels on the East Coast. We ran some of the purest cocaine on this side of the northern hemisphere through the Port of New York and New Jersey amongst other hustles including trafficking arms, cars, and other choice drugs polluting the streets. We also controlled a bulk of New York City's prime real estate and nightlife, . I was handed the head of the table after my father's disappearance, and after running The Trust for over a decade, I took a small cartel and turned it into a conglomerate. Like any young nigga, I received plenty of resistance at first, but now the men and women making up The Trust respected me with their livelihood the same way they trusted me with their pockets.

"What are we doing about the Tres Jinetes?" A, one of the Trust members, asked, stroking his salt and pepper goatee. "Word travels fast, and I heard from a friend of mine that Veracruz is trying to pin the death of his son on us."

"I got that under control," I lied, knowing there was no way to explain to everyone that Malone was sloppy enough to kill the boy at my nightclub.

B, a beautiful middle-aged sistah that was a well-respected high school principal out in Park Slope, shook her head. "Don't sit here and bullshit us, Urban. If there's problem we need to get ahead of it before it digs a hole under us."

"I said I have it under control. The Jinetes will have another suspect by the end of the day," I said in a tone that let her know the conversation was over.

B pursed her lips and said nothing more, but I knew she would find me the second our meeting was over to question me further. Instead of allowing space for anyone else to question me, I moved to end the meeting, but was cut off by Malone barging into the room with Koi hot on his heels. Both men took their assigned seats and spoke at once.

"We just got hit," Koi said the same time Malone shouted, "These motherfuckers want a war!"

B cut her eyes at me and turned to Malone. "Tres Jinetes?"

"Hell yeah," Malone said, grabbing one of the pristine water bottles sitting in the middle of the conference room table and popping it open. He finished off the bottle in three gulps and continued, "Before coming to the meeting, I decided to stop at the warehouse and make sure everything was running smooth for our next delivery. I'm on my way out, and we get hit with gunshots. Niggas ain't see Koi pull up, so he got the upper hand on them—Pop! Pop! Pop!—taking them niggas out on some sniper shit! We secured the warehouse and came straight here."

The members listened to the story with telling eyes, going wide from shock to slit, and finally landing on me. I was backed into a corner, forced to make a decision that I wanted to sleep on for as long as possible. My eyes landed on Koi, who was my right hand, whose head nod was so slight that I was sure everyone missed it. I focused on Malone next, and I could see triumph in his eyes.

"We'll do whatever we need to do in order to protect what's ours," I said with a curt nod of the head. "Consider it handled."

The meeting was adjourned with a hand slap on the table and an announcement for our next meeting, which was fifteen days from now. The members left out of the conference groups of twos and threes, their lips pursed with unspoken words due to the nature of our business. Far more infamous cartels had been taken down using less words, and I refused to have mine destroyed the same way. Malone grinned at everyone on their walk out the door, oblivious to the cold glare I had set on him. Koi cleared his throat, and when that didn't work, he nudged my brother for me.

"Do you have any idea what you just did, Malone?" I hissed, leaning in as far as the table would allow. "This entire situation could have been handled in a much more professional manner, but you gotta come up in here on some fucking hood shit!"