Suave’s anger returned. “Tell me again what that fool said.” His face was bent out of shape as Cobra relayed the conversation he’d had with the supplier earlier that day.
“That’s a loss for us because he was giving us a very good price,” Daddy Lizard noted.
Suave leaned back and stared up at the ceiling, deep in thought. He didn’t want to get into a war with King Kong, but in the same breath, he couldn’t allow him to ruin his business. “We fight fire with fire.”
Daddy Lizard and Cobra stared at him, waiting for an explanation.
“I know that Queen Bee also supplies King Kong. So, what do you say we make her an offer to cut him off and deal with us exclusively? At least for a while, just to make King Kong sweat a little. You know he can’t do much with that fool in Spain Town.”
Cobra smiled. “That’s why you’re the boss.”
Daddy Lizard grinned. “Let’s do it.”
Suave took out his cell phone to call Queen Bee. “I hope he stays in his corner now that he sees he can’t beat me,” Suave said in reference to King Kong. “There’s enough business for everyone, so he better know his place.”
But King Kong was just getting started. The big gorilla would roar again... and louder than before.
Chapter Twenty-six
Life had been very productive for Suave in more ways than one over the next decade. He had built his drug empire and was the most lucrative drug dealer in Jamaica. He had workers in all fourteen parishes, successful businesses, numerous luxury houses, vehicles, expensive jewelry, and more money than he’d ever spend in a lifetime. Smooth Suave was the man.
Suave was also the father of eight children, and he couldn’t have been happier. His live-in girl, Monica, had given him two children, Rayden and Raven. The stripper twins, Charlene and Darlene, each had a daughter with him, Alissa and Janelle. Freaky Abby “accidentally” got pregnant and just gave birth to a baby girl whom she named Angel. The cute, youth church choir director, Carol, fell from glory and gave him his daughter, Tiana. Barbara, the conservative secretary by day but bedroom bully by night, had a daughter for him named Natasaja. And, of course, there was Suave’s firstborn, his beloved son Joel.
“Man, don’t you think you have enough kids?” Cobra asked Suave one night as they relaxed on his veranda in Belgrade Heights. “What, you won’t stop until you get a dozen?”
Daddy Lizard and Suave laughed merrily.
“A man needs his legacy.” Suave beamed with happiness. “Who am I going to leave all this to, huh?” He made a wide circle with one hand as he glanced around his posh house sitting on the hill. Suave had moved up to “the hills,” as he had told Nadine many years ago. “You know I love all my kids.”
Cobra and Daddy Lizard agreed. Suave was a whoremonger, but he took care of all his children. With a busy schedule running his drug empire that was now one of the largest in Jamaica, he still found time for all his children.
“Joel is coming to spend the weekend with us tomorrow,” Suave informed his right-hand men. “That boy is so smart that he’s making his teachers look like fools.” Joel was a student at Jamaica College, a prominent all-male high school, where his mother, Nadine, was also an English teacher.
Cobra and Daddy Lizard chuckled. They knew how much Suave liked to boast about his children, especially Joel.
“Monica really loves Joel,” Cobra noted. “She treats him like her own.”
Suave nodded in agreement. “Joel even has his own room at the house. Monica also gets along well with Nadine.” The house Suave was referring to was the home he shared with Monica and their children in Jacks Hill. The house in Belgrade Heights was called “the hut” and was his secret getaway home. No one except the part-time housekeeper, Cobra, and Daddy Lizard knew about this house.
“That’s because Joel and Nadine came before you met Monica.” Daddy Lizard winked at Suave. “The other trailerload of kids and baby mommas were during your relationship with her. How do you expect her to like those women?”
Suave sucked his teeth loudly and cut his eyes at Daddy Lizard. But Daddy Lizard was right. He had been unfaithful to Monica throughout their entire relationship, begetting one child after the other, but she still stayed with him. Suave loved Monica but not enough to settle down with her. “She treats my children well whenever I bring them to the house, though,” Suave noted. “Monica is a good woman. That’s my wife.”
“Uh-huh, so what are you waiting for to marry her?” Cobra asked Suave.
“As soon as I get out of the game.” Suave looked down the hill at the thousands of pecks of flickering lights in Kingston City. “I’m a rich man now. It’s almost time to call it quits and go straight. You know what I mean?”
Cobra and Daddy Lizard bobbed their heads in agreement. They too had thought about getting out of the game. Of course, they didn’t have Suave’s level of wealth, but they had accumulated some money working with him over the years and had families of their own.
“What do you say we take care of loose ends and bow out in a few years?” Cobra looked from Suave to Daddy Lizard. “We just open up some more businesses and live a good life?”
Suave raised his glass with a little leftover rum and Coke in salute. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
“All right, we’re heading out,” Daddy Lizard announced. “We need to collect some money from the soldiers in the field.”
“Leave the garage door up. I’m heading over to Queen Bee myself,” Suave said. “She just got a supply of the good snow.” Suave was distributing cocaine as well as marijuana. The drug was becoming more prevalent in Jamaica, and all the dealers were dabbling in it.
After Cobra and Daddy Lizard left, Suave locked up the house. He
