"What, is this where you renege on your promise and decide to intimidate me into going along with your asinine plan?" Young Buck said with a smug look on his face.
Darien calmly approached the table and looked up at the bigger man. He reached behind his back and pulled out the massive hand cannon he'd acquired from the gun safe at the Westin house. Someone had wanted to compensate for something when they’d purchased the Desert Eagle, but Darien was glad of it. The big gun flashed in the late sunlight that streamed through kitchen windows. The white light that glinted off of its barrel was matched only by the wide white eyes of Young Buck when he saw the maw of the pistol approach his face.
"Nah,” Darien said slowly, “I ain’t gonna try to intimidate you. I’ll just blow your head off, and that will be all the intimidation I need to cow the others into toeing the line. Don’t you think?”
"You're a madman!" one of the others gasped.
"Your point is taken!” said Roly-Poly quickly. He put up both hands in an attempt to stop Darien from about three feet away. "Please, don't do it!"
Darien took his time and stared at Young Buck. He was tall, strong, and would probably make a good worker. He tilted his head and examined his opponent out of one eye. Tears streamed down his face, and his lip trembled when he blubbered incoherently about a wife and child. His hands came up and shielded his face.
Darien lowered the pistol and clapped him on the shoulder. "See? That wasn't so bad was it?" He tucked the pistol behind his belt again and addressed the others. "That took less than five seconds. I don't want any more questions going forward about who runs this place. No one's going to investigate me and my crew, no one's going to come by the house unannounced, and no one's gonna cause us any trouble. Right?”
"And in return?" asked Roly-Poly shrewdly. Darien nodded. This one had some brains. "In return, the board—meaning you," Darien said, “is disbanded. There is no more executive board. I'm dissolving it. The entirety of the Homeowners Association Board of Directors is now sitting in this room. Harriet Spalding is now the Executive Director. Any objections?" Darien asked casually. He grinned. "Seeing a no objections, Harriet Spalding has been unanimously approved.”
Darien looked around at the stunned faces. “This is what's going to happen next. You're going to feed me information on what houses have supplies, or weapons, or whatever I decide is useful. Food, medical supplies, drugs—you name it. Every empty house belongs to me. And you guys will get a share of the take."
"But…what about the needy? We were going to redistribute that—“ began Roly-Poly.
Darien reached behind his back and pulled the pistol free again. "Do I need to redistribute some bullets around here? I. Don't. Care. This is the end of the world ladies," he said to the all-male crowd. Harriet stiffened next to him, but she wisely kept her mouth shut. "What we've seen lately is just the tip of the iceberg. I'm going to take over this neighborhood, and I'm going to defend it. Because trust me, there are bigger dogs out there than me. And once they start sniffing around, they're not gonna go easy on you like I am."
"Go easy on us? You just put a gun in my face," Young Buck spat in an attempt to regain some of his lost manhood.
"And the next time you open your mouth without asking for permission, the guns gonna go off in your face," Darien said without missing a beat. "We’re going to roll out some drastic measures. For starters, we’ll need to barricade the front entrances to this place. I don't want anybody else getting in here except those of us who are already in. Trust me, you guys are gonna like this place once we get everything settled down in a week or two.”
“A week or two?” asked Roly-Poly.
Darien nodded. “Sure. There's gonna be an adjustment period," he said with a nod. "I'll be upfront with you—some folks ain’t gonna like it. And it’ll be up to you guys to help solve that situation."
"You mean like a resistance?" asked Roly-Poly.
"Exactly," Darien replied. "We need to find out who's going to resist and how hard they're gonna push back."
"I got news for you, nobody's gonna push back harder than that old man on Orchard. What's his name," Young Buck growled. "The one next to that Lavelle woman that pulled out the shotgun on us the other day," he said as he looked at Harriet.
Harriet scoffed. “Oh, Marty Price. He and Cami, the woman across the street from me that I told you about?” she said to Darien. “Those two will probably be among the top of our shortlist of troublemakers."
"Well then, I know who me and my boys are going to visit first. But we’ll leave that for tomorrow. For now, you all need to spread the word delicately through the unwashed masses. There's gonna be a change in leadership in this place, and they better get with the program if they expect to stay here."
"The homeowners association does not have the power to evict members from their homes," Roly-Poly advised.
"Oh, the homeowners association won't be evicting anybody," Darien shot back with a grin. “I’m gonna need workers to build the roadblocks, right? From now on, me and my crew are going to be the teeth of the Bee’s Landing Homeowners Association. When something needs to be enforced, we’ll be the ones to do it.” He looked around and let that sink in.
“You just remember, I'm the one telling you what needs to be enforced. Do we have an agreement, gentlemen?" he asked, as
