White Lines (26 page)

Jada didn’t have other friends. It was just her sister, Ava, and no one else. By then Ava was attending the University of Pennsylvania, and she was on the right track. Jada spent all her time with Born, and they became partners in crime.

Born was still connected to Dorian, the guy from Brooklyn. He was dealing costly fish scale in assorted quantities. He also sold cheaper cook-up cocaine and did business with small-time hustlers as well. Dorian had been in the game for years, and in all that time he had never seen anyone hustle the way Born did. The kid was relentless. Born was never short with money, and often came back to re-up long before Dorian thought he would. He had never seen the young hustler with a crew, or with any henchmen. He worked alone, and Born was making lots of money—and bringing Dorian big money in return. They began to form a mutual admiration for one another’s style. Then a situation arose that intensified that sentiment.

Dorian found out that there was a plot to set Born up. Another hustler from Staten Island was talking too much, and news in Dorian’s circle had traveled faster than the speed of light. Dorian heard from more than one reliable source that a hustler named Celly from Stapleton was after Born’s spot. Celly was trying to lock down the island with his wholesale coke and heroin trade. But Born was making it hard, with the top spenders in the game spending their money with him instead. Celly couldn’t beat his prices. So rather than find a way to compete, he wanted to take the competition out of the game.

Dorian liked Born, and admired him, because he reminded him of himself when he first got into the game. He saw the hunger in Born’s hustle. Born seemed like an example of how to play the game rather than to allow the game to play you. He was never in the police’s radar, and never unfair to those he did business with. He got his money, and kept it moving. But what Dorian admired most about Born was the fact that he worked alone. He stood firmly on his own two feet, with no crew behind him. Born knew when to be loud, and when to be low-key, and Dorian liked what he saw in the young hustler. Celly, on the other hand, was a hater and a rat bastard. One of Dorian’s boys had been locked up with Celly, and told him that the nigga was snitching. Nothing was worse than a snitch to Dorian. He and Celly had no love between them, only business. And even the business Celly brought to Dorian was sporadic. He didn’t cop from Dorian nearly as much as Born did. Celly only
talked
big. So it was a pleasure for Dorian to alert Born to what was about to go down.

He discussed the situation with Born, telling him to watch his back. Born didn’t take such things just at face value. For all he knew, Dorian could be throwing shit in the game, just to get rid of a thorn in his own side. So Born did his homework. He put his ear to the street, and sure enough, he was able to confirm it. In a borough where all the hoods combined would equal only half of Brooklyn, news traveled easily. Born was grateful to Dorian for possibly saving his life. He had been the first to tell him what was brewing, and no one knew when Celly was planning to strike.

Two weeks later Celly was executed in his kitchen, along with his uncle and his brother. Never one to pay someone else to do his dirty work, Born had pulled the trigger himself, and he did it discreetly. He simply ambushed Celly’s little sister as she came home from school. He snuck up behind her, and made her open the door. Once they gained access to Celly’s house using her key, Born held the ten-year-old girl at gunpoint until her brother finally came home. Celly, his uncle, and his brother were met with immediate gunfire, and may never even have known who caused it. Born left Celly’s little sister tied to a bench in Tompkins Square Park. By the time the police found her, she was too petrified to tell them about the man who had killed her brother and uncles. Their bodies weren’t discovered until the stench from the decomposition drew the neighbors’ attention. It was a crime that rocked the borough, and one that made niggas think twice about what they said. Everybody knew that Celly had loose lips. He never cared what he said about anybody. Though many suspected that Born had been behind Celly’s murder, the dead man had far too many enemies for anyone to know for sure. From that point on, Dorian and Born had a great business relationship, as well as a blossoming friendship. Dorian remained professional. But he had a soft spot for the thoroughbred he saw in Born.

Usually when they did business Born came by himself. He had been buying weight from Dorian, and cutting some of it down into twenty-and fifty-dollar quantities, while the rest he sold in ounces. But now Born
wanted to discuss something else. He wanted to change the game, and he felt that he had a proposition that Dorian would be unable to refuse. Born invited Dorian to bring his wifey, Sunny, along to dinner with him and Jada. Dorian accepted, figuring that whatever Born had on his mind might be interesting. He gladly brought Sunny along to balance out the equation.

Dorian told Sunny that one of his “clients” wanted to come and meet with him. Never one to divulge too much information to Sunny at once, he explained that the client was bringing a female friend with him, and that she should get dressed and put on her finest shit. He was taking her out for a night on the town. Sunny understood that this meant that the men would discuss business while she was expected to keep the female entertained. This would probably be a close working relationship between Dorian and this other party, because bringing wifeys into the equation always signaled that big business was being conducted: Dorian bringing Sunny along on business was a sign that this client was welcome in his cipher. She couldn’t wait to see who it was.

When they arrived at Calalou’s, the best West Indian restaurant in Manhattan, Sunny was surprised to see that Born was the client Dorian had been talking about. She had seen Born on only a handful of occasions. He seemed serious and no-nonsense. He was polite and not nearly as gutter as some of the others she’d seen. But her opinion didn’t matter much. If Dorian was meeting with him, he must be alright.

Sunny walked in wearing a cream-colored Gaultier dress with beaded Lauboutin sandals. Her short, light-brown hair was cut perfectly and slicked back off her softly made-up face. Her haircut was edgy, a look one could only pull off if she were as stunning as Sunny. She looked like she belonged on a runway. Dorian looked just as regal. But that would have been the case regardless of what he wore. Dorian was a tall and well-toned, brown-skinned brother. He had a neat mustache and goatee that accented his juicy lips. His eyebrows were thick and dark, his nose in perfect proportion. Dorian was clearly older than Sunny. But they made an amazing couple. He was dapper in a tan pair of slacks, Stacey Adams footwear, and a simple, brown button-up shirt.
He spotted Born sitting at a table in the back with his lady, and he led Sunny toward them.

Sunny would always remember the first time she saw Jada. There was something about her that she liked instantly. Jada was a stunning brown-skinned beauty with a delicate smile. She wore her hair upswept, accented by bangs cut to precise perfection. She wore a shimmering silk bronze-colored halter top paired with sexy tight jeans. Instinctively, Sunny looked at Jada’s shoes as she and Born stood to greet them, and saw that she wore a pair of Gucci slingbacks. Nice. Sunny had the meanest shoe game in town, and she could see that Jada’s wasn’t bad, either. She took in the Gucci alligator bag that sat on the table beside Jada, and Sunny concluded that Born was keeping his girlfriend well appointed. Sunny didn’t hate at all, because she knew that no one in the room had more money than Dorian did. Born himself was decked out in a pair of baggy black jeans, Wallabies, and a crisp white linen shirt. Born never really dressed up, and even though the venue this evening was an upscale restaurant, he still kept it somewhat gangsta. Sunny was a fashionista, so seeing Jada laid out so impeccably made her warm up to her immediately. They exchanged smiles and a handshake as they were introduced, and then they sat and began their evening.

“So, what y’all feel like eating tonight?” Dorian asked, in his heavy baritone. Sunny put her elbows on the table and clasped her hands together under her chin as she waited for the answer.

Born sat back and looked at Jada as if he wasn’t really sure what he wanted. Jada shook her head, smiling. “I want to apologize up front for how my baby eats in public!” She scowled at Born, and he laughed. His lack of table manners had not changed.

Dorian laughed as well, and looked at Jada. “Okay, I can tell that you and Sunny got a lot in common,” he said. “She stays on my case about shit like that.” Looking at Sunny, Dorian grinned, and said, “While we’re issuing warnings, let me tell you right now that Sunny don’t know how to bite her tongue,” he said. “I keep reminding her that everything you think don’t need to be spoken. But she don’t hear me. So let me apologize now for whatever comes out of her pretty little mouth.”

Sunny rolled her eyes at Dorian, and then looked at Born. “So I guess
we’re
the ones with the fuckin’ problems, huh, Born?”

Born laughed, and said, “Yeah, I see they put all our business on Front Street as soon as we sat down.”

“I mean, my ass had
barely
hit the seat before they got started!” Sunny was laughing, and Dorian held his hands up, and said, “I rest my case.”

Sunny waved her hand at Dorian, playfully. Then she turned her attention back to their dinner companions. “How long have y’all been together, Jada?”

Jada smiled at the exchange. She could tell that she was going to like Sunny and her no-holds-barred personality. “Just a few months,” she said. “How about you two? How long has it been?”

At this question, Sunny smiled. Her face was lovely, and smiling only made it lovelier. “Nine years,” she said. “I started out with this dude when I was seventeen years old. I’m the reason he’s the big success he is now!”

Dorian laughed. “Yeah right!” Sunny also laughed, as he nudged her playfully. “You’re the reason my blood pressure is high.”

Born and Jada laughed, and the waitress came over and took their orders. Jada, true to form, followed her man’s lead and ordered the same as Born—chicken roti on that particular evening. Dorian ordered jerk chicken. Sunny ordered a lobster. Secretly, Jada was intrigued by Sunny’s choice of lobster, since Jada loved to eat it, but didn’t know how to eat one publicly. She had eaten lobster at home, using all kinds of things to crack the shell. But in a fancy restaurant like this one, she wondered how Sunny would eat it. Jada was still becoming accustomed to living the good life, and she could tell that Sunny was already acclimated to it. The waitress took their drink orders, and was gone. Bob Marley crooned from the speakers, and the candlelight flickered from every table throughout the cozy restaurant. The place had an elegant decor, and all the patrons were dressed up, out for an evening with friends. The small talk lingered for a short while.

Eventually, the men began to discuss business in hushed tones, with Born outlining his plan to take over a larger chunk of Staten Island’s
drug trade. Born saw weaknesses in every crew on Staten Island’s north shore, and he had already conquered his share of turf in that section of the borough. He wanted to branch out to the south shore, which was where the white people lived. That was where the money was, and Born was eager to get his hands on some fish scale in order to tap into the wealthier clientele. All he needed from Dorian was a good price, and exclusivity. He wanted Dorian to agree to make Born his sole Staten Island connection, so that Born could really begin his planned takeover of the borough’s cocaine trade. That’s what this meeting was about.

Born was already consistently moving large quantities. He had started out buying bricks of plain cook-up cocaine from Dorian at the low price of seventeen grand per brick. Born had made a lot of money this way, breaking it down and easily quadrupling his profit by selling it retail. He had two workers who split the day into two shifts—day and night. One hustled crack from sunrise to sunset and the other did the opposite. With their help, he was already making a killing on the streets of Shaolin. Now he wanted to diversify his drug sales from strictly retail dimes and twenties to wholesale as well, selling grams and ounces of cocaine to other dealers. If Dorian agreed to deal with him exclusively, in no time Born could be Staten Island’s only kingpin. Soon he would have a better product than the competition, and he could really shut ‘em down. By dealing with keys of fish scale Born was set to go from being a low-level hustler to a big-timer.

Dorian could see that the young man was ready to step his game up. Born was one of the few who were making big moves in Staten Island, and he had brought Dorian a lot of business already. The other dealers Dorian did business with in Staten Island weren’t nearly as consistent as Born. It wouldn’t be much of a loss at all for him to give Born the exclusivity he wanted. Dorian smiled at the young playa with as much heart as Dorian had had himself at that age. Now Born was about to get his hands on the goods, and his operation would take place on a much grander scale from this point forward. Dorian felt it could prove to be a mutually beneficial arrangement. Born mapped out his plan, explaining that for every key he got from Dorian, he would wholesale five hundred
grams of it to other dealers, and retail five hundred grams of it, selling it in small quantities to the fiends. If the young hustler could continue to move as many bricks as he was moving, it would have been enough for Dorian. But here he was with a proposal to move even more! By tapping into this market, the white folks with the money to purchase large amounts, Born was setting a goal for himself of shutting down the borough and being on top at last. He was prepared to go block by block and get a bigger piece of the pie, while Dorian was determined not to take a loss.

Finally, after weighing the pros and cons of the situation, Dorian offered Born what he felt was an excellent price for the keys he needed: twenty-five thousand per brick. Born was pleased, and they shook on it. If this worked out, they could both be very wealthy men in a very short period of time.