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Shy smiled. “Yes, I know. I’m his partner.”
“I’ll be honest with you, Mrs. Black, I believe that he is perfectly positioned to do even bigger things in the future. That’s the type of person I like to be in business with.” She finished her drink. “And frankly, some of those international business connections are business connections that I may find opportunity in.”
“A mutually beneficial relationship,” Shy said and raised her glass, satisfied with the answer, but still feeling that there was a deeper agenda hidden just beneath the surface, and she was determined to find out just exactly what that was.
“As all business relationships should be,” she replied, and they sipped their drinks, with Valencia hoping that her answer satisfied Shy’s logical curiosity about her interest in her husband. Like Black, she found that Shy was hard to read. All that she could do was hope that she hadn’t closed this door to getting to Black too.
“I understand, and I’ll tell you what I will do for you.”
“What’s that?” Valencia asked, excited that she hadn’t over played her hand.
“Tomorrow night we’re having a birthday party for one of my friends. It’s being held at a club called Purple. If you’re not doing anything, stop by and have a drink. I can’t make you any promises, but I’ll see about getting you some face time with Michael.”
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“That would be excellent, Mrs. Black. Thank you.”
“You can call me Shy.”
Chapter Eight
Purple, a restaurant and lounge that was owned and operated by Mileena and Yarissa, was the site of Ryder’s birthday party. With Rain as a silent partner and financial backer, the club had opened nine months ago and was just starting to take off. Mileena’s decision for it not to become just another gambling spot for The Family meant that they had to build their clientele the old-fashioned way.
“By providing food, entertainment, and outstanding service in a comfortable and relaxed environment,” was what Mileena told Ryder when she first showed her the place.
It had been a good year for Ryder, so she had more of a reason to celebrate. When Rain got out of jail, she stepped down as acting captain of Carter’s crew, but she didn’t step back, not one step.
“I do expect you to step up and assume more responsibility,” was what Black told her, and that was what she did.
The always ambitious Ryder put together her own crew that specialized in high-value robbery, and big money cons. There was even talk in some circles about her being made a captain, but since none of those circles included Mike Black or Rain Robinson, it was just talk, so Ryder ignored it for the most part. The truth was that Ryder wanted to be a captain, and everybody knew it.
But Ryder wasn’t the only one who had stepped up to meet Black’s expectations. One of those people was Money Marv. The night that Black reorganized The Family, after their war with Rona King, he decided that Marvin was more ready to step-up than either RJ or Judah and moved him over to work for Jackie. Her crew had been all but decimated when Rona targeted her for interfering when she was going after The Four Kings. Marvin going to work for Jackie also signaled the end of The Four Kings.
After his father’s death, Judah was allowed to take over Doc’s gambling spot and his legitimate businesses, but not control of the crew. Jackie moved quickly to takeover Jelly’s and Sweet Nectar because she saw the potential in them, but other than La Chat, she had little interest in anything else. After speaking with Black and Rain about it, one other change was made.
Black reached out to his longtime friend, Sherman Williams, and asked him to step back in. He had retired as captain after Warwick Barrington and Lyric Sky deeply infiltrated his crew, and Bobby almost died because of it.
“But if that’s what you need me to do, Mike, I’m more than happy to do it,” Sherman told Black, and he took over what was left of Doc’s crew, leaving Jackie free to rebuild her crew as she saw fit. Those plans included Marvin.
Long before his parents got married, he had stopped calling himself Money Marv and had changed his last name from Dancer to Simmons. His father, Nick, was a legend in The Family, so Marvin felt like he had a lot to live up to. But despite being family, Marvin always felt like an outsider. He didn’t grow up in The Family like RJ or Judah. By the time he became a part of The Family, Nick had stepped back and was running a legitimate business with his mother, April, so Marvin had to not only learn his new family’s business, he had to prove to everybody, including himself, that he was worthy of carrying the name. It was something that drove him.
Wanda had given The Four Kings to RJ; Black and Bobby gave him The Late Night; Judah inherited Doc’s when his father died. All Nick had to give him was advice. Marvin had earned everything else on his own.
Another soldier who had stepped up was Geno Crocker. He had known Carter since they were kids, and after resisting Carter’s invitations to join The Family for years, he was all-in now. As Ryder moved to setup her own crew, Geno stepped in to fill that void and had become Carter’s most valuable and dependable lieutenant. Now Geno did for Carter what Carter used to do for Howard. He just didn’t hit as hard.
The person who was making their presence known in The Family and surprising a lot of people was Barbara. Once Black and Bobby reluctantly gave her their blessing to learn how to handle a gun and defend herself, Barbara took it a step farther. She and her bodyguard, Tahanee, went to Jelly’s and asked Jackie to teach her about her family’s business. Barbara had been kidnapped, threatened with rape, and had to kill somebody to survive. Barbara was determined not to be an easy target ever again.
At Conversations, Barbara found an environment that she could thrive in. Not only did she have Jackie as a teacher, there was also Sonny Edwards, who sometimes served as Black’s consigliere in the old days; and although he was, as he called himself “a retired old man who just liked to gamble and look at pretty women”, he was a wealth of information for Barbara.
On top of that, Wanda was always in her ear. And although she spent the majority of her time in Nassau, anytime Wanda was in the city, she made sure that she made time to spend with Barbara. She and Mercedes hit it off the first time they met, and she took her shopping every week. Those trips always included lessons on how to get men to do what you want them to do, and think it was their idea.
Barbara was a student and a year later, she had found some opportunities to make money and become an earner for her family, had taken over the dance club, had established herself as a presence in the gambling room, and was looking to take that over too.
Into the midst of this room full of gangsters and killers, sauntered Valencia DeVerão. Her entrance most certainly didn’t go unnoticed; for one, she didn’t seem to belong there, and Valencia was gorgeous; therefore, dressed like she was in a Valentino asymmetric vented leather cape dress, Valentino Garavani Rockstud leather ankle boots and matching shoulder bag, she had the attention of every man in the house.
She wandered around Purple for a while, looking for Shy but hoping to see Black. Valencia made her way to the bar to order a drink. As the bartender arrived to take her order, was when she first saw Shy. She was seated in a booth with Mileena, Yarrisa, Chee-Chee, Mercedes, Carla, and Edwina. Ryder was standing up with a drink in one hand and a gun in the other, telling the story about the shootout she had gotten into with Chao Hassan at the warehouse, where DP ran his human trafficking operations.
“What can I get for you?” Judean, the bartender, asked in a voice so deep that it sent chills rushing over her body.
