The Diamond Syndicate

“Done. What else?”

“I want you to stop running around with them niggas and stop scheming to get money.”

“And do what? Stay on welfare? That ain’t gonna happen.”

“What about getting a job?”

Diamond laughed out loud. “Doing what, Dante? Bagging groceries out of the store you work at?”

“So you’d rather stay a whore than to be a woman?”

When Dante saw Diamond’s facial expression, he wished he hadn’t said it.

Diamond jumped up and charged him.

All Dante could do was try and block the many punches that she threw at his face. Anger crept into his body. But he knew he could never put his hands on his mother, so he continued to block her punches, stiff-arming her to keep her at a distance.

Diamond finally tired herself out and stopped swinging on him. She stood there staring at him with daggers in her eyes, while her chest heaved as she tried to catch her breath. Her hands hurt because his body was so tight that when she hit him it felt as if she were punching a steel slab.

Dante stood there looking at his mother, who sat there on the bed, seething.

“You haven’t even sent any money over for the rent,” he whispered with his head lowered.

Although Diamond hardly ever came home, she made sure the rent was paid. With her still being on welfare, her rent remained two hundred dollars a month. She would send one of the boys to the apartment or by the store to drop off money to Dante, but then that stopped. Dante was too proud to ask his mother for money, so he struggled, trying to make ends meet with the money he made at the grocery store.

“So what have you been doing for money?” She frowned, realizing she hadn’t sent money to him for a while. She hoped the guilt wasn’t evident on her face, because she had been so caught up in her busy life, she’d forgotten about her only son.

“Trying to pay bills with the money I make from work. I don’t make enough to pay for all this stuff by myself.”

“No wonder there wasn’t any food in here. I had to go back out to the store to pick up some stuff so I could cook for you.”

Silence filled the bedroom.

“Yeah, Dante, you’re right. You are my son, and if anybody got my back, it’s you. You’re right, I do trust you the most,” she said, finally realizing he was making sense.

“You trust me more than Trey?”

“Of course, I do. What kinda question is that? You’re my son. Why would I trust him more?”

“I don’t know. Maybe because you two are running around here like a modern-day Bonnie and Clyde?”

Diamond was spent. She sat there trying to figure out who had told him so much about her and Trey. She knew she had a pretty loyal bunch, and not knowing who’d betrayed her was driving her crazy.

“Who told you, Dante?” she asked, defeated.

“That don’t matter. But why Trey? It’s bad enough you fucking with young boys. I just want to know why my boy—somebody I grew up with? What do you think his mother would say if she knew?”

“First of all, I don’t give a shit what anybody has to say. Trey is out on his own and is holding shit down like the next man. Second, I’m sorry you feel the way that you do, but he’s much more mature than you know. Just because he’s young . . . he’s still a man to me.”

Dante just stood there looking at the floor.

“Listen, Dante, I’m really sorry you feel the way you do, but Trey takes good care of me, and we click. I can’t help it, but we do. I mean, I would’ve thought that you would at least be more understanding, because it’s your friend. You know your friend ain’t gonna let nothing happen to me on the strength of you.”

“On the strength of me?” Dante laughed. “I ain’t got nothing to do with that sick shit.”

“Call it what you want, but I’m not gonna change anything about what I’m doing. Now you can still come on board and handle some of the things for me with no problems, but I ain’t gonna stop seeing him. If you think this is gonna be a problem for you, or it may cause some problems for us, then maybe you need to reconsider what you want to do.”

Dante didn’t respond. He didn’t know how to respond. What was the point of responding when regardless of how he felt or what he thought, she was still gonna be with Trey?