The Diamond Syndicate

“You sure can, baby. You sure can.”

***

Later That Night

“Dante!” Diamond called out to him when she heard the front door open and close.

“Yeah, Ma.”

“Come here.”

Dante walked into his mother’s bedroom and found her sitting at the foot of the bed.

“What’s up, Ma?”

“Have a seat.” She pointed to a chair that sat in the corner of the room.

Dante did as he was told.

“All right, here’s the deal. I need your help on something.” She looked at him seriously.

“Ma, I told you before, I ain’t with the welfare thing. I don’t want to be a part of that.”

“Boy, shut the hell up! You ain’t a part of that, but I see you don’t mind taking my money when I give it to you.”

He didn’t respond.

“I thought not. Anyway, I want you to help Trey move some weight.”

“Uh? No, Ma, I can’t. I got school, and my classes are getting harder. I got promoted at the store to team lead. I ain’t tryna mess that up.”

“You can make more money with Trey,” she said, dismissing his reasoning with a wave of her hand.

“Ma, I don’t want to quit my job. I like it there. Plus, I worked my way up. In another six months, I’ll be manager.”

“Manager? Boy, please. With the loot we gonna be making, you can buy the damn store.”

“No, Ma, I ain’t selling no drugs,” he said, shaking his head.

“Dante, shut the fuck up for a minute and listen to what I’m saying!”

Dante patiently waited for his mother to finish.

“You ain’t gotta sell shit, just move it from one location to another.”

“I can’t believe you. You of all people always drilled in my head that you didn’t want me to sell drugs and how I better not be out there selling drugs, and now you asking me to get my hands dirty handling drugs.”

Diamond thought about it for a moment. He was right, but she would never admit it to him. She just got caught up in the hype of it all. When Trey told her how much money they could make if he started dealing in weight, she got caught up. In her book she would rather Dante not be involved in the drug end of it anyway, since he wasn’t street smart enough to handle the job.

“You always fuck up everything for me!” She pouted and walked out of the room mad.

Dante wished his mother would just act like a mother was supposed to act. Dante never liked his mother messing with boys who were his age or younger. He’d voiced his opinion, but she was gonna do what she wanted to do, no matter what he thought. He also saw how dumb most of these boys were—throwing paper at her like it was water. He reaped the benefits of their stupidity, so instead of continuing to fight against it, he embraced it and milked it for all it was worth. Besides, they’d made an agreement. She agreed not to bring them in the house anymore if he stopped bitching about her being with them. Diamond was known to tell a lie or two but Dante decided to trust his mother on this one issue because he felt she knew how this hurt him deeply.

Thankfully Dante still didn’t know about his best friend Trey sleeping with his mother and being her number-one dick. He simply thought Trey was working for his mother, naïve as it may sound. Trey’s reputation had climbed over the years, with him putting niggas on their asses. He thought Trey was watching his mother’s back as a friend. Dante wouldn’t allow himself to think anything other than Trey working for his mother in their little schemes. Trey had dropped out of school, and Dante gave up talking to him about it. And since they were no longer as close as they once were, Dante had no idea Trey was doing his mother.

Dante didn’t respond. He just sat there with his head hanging low, preparing to hear the I-raised-you-by-myself speech that Diamond always made when ranting and raving.

“And another thing,” she said, walking back into the room. “If I tell you to do something, then just do it. I raised you by myself. I’m tryna do something that’s gonna get us back into a nice neighborhood like before, and you sitting here asking me questions, like you don’t trust me or something. You don’t trust me?”