Since the execution of his brother, Big Frank and his partner, Evander Truman at the hands of Marvin and RJ, over a gambling debt, Derick Mobley had taken over the drug business. A position that he had always seen himself in – on top, where he belonged. To him, Evander was dumber than a box of rocks, and although he hated to say it, Big Frank wasn’t much smarter.
The fact was that him and Big Frank had planned to kill Evander and take over anyway, Marvin and RJ simply saved them the trouble. But then they killed Big Frank, and despite the fact that Mobley knew that eventually he would have found it necessary to kill Frank too, he was his brother and that demanded that he do something in retaliation. “It’s a matter of respect.”
“So, what you gonna do?” Psych asked him.
“I don’t know yet,” Mobley said and thought about everything that he either knew as fact or had heard about people going up against Mike Black and his crew and their success rate wasn’t good. Dead is how most of them end up and that wasn’t for him.
He knew that he had neither the manpower or the resources to go up against them and besides, war was never good for business and he was in this for the money. Fuck the street fame, give me money was something he believed wholeheartedly. But the fact remained, he had to do something.
“Something that makes a statement,” Mobley said, but doesn’t get him, and what was now his business, wiped off the face of the earth in one night.
“Let me handle it,” Psych said, and Mobley looked at him. He had known Psych since they used to bang. Mobley didn’t see Psych as being any smarter than Frank or Evander, but what he was, was a soldier. A no questions asked, first to spit bullets soldier that could be counted on to get the job done.
“What you have in mind?”
“You know them niggas is openin’ a new spot called The Late Night, right?”
“No.”
“Yeah, the grand opening is tonight. They gonna have The Regulators there and shit. If you wanna make a statement, that’s the place to make it.”
Mobley sat back and thought for a while about it. The grand opening of their new spot would make the kind of statement he needed.
“It’s your baby, you handle it,” Mobley told Psych and he got up to leave. It was then that Stanley Hogan came in the room.
“There’s some people here to see you, Mo,” Hogan informed
.
“Who is it?”
“They wouldn’t say, but the man said you’d wanna hear what he got to say.”
“A’ight, I’ll be out in a minute,” Mobley said and turned his attention back to Psych. “But you go ahead and handle that for me and I promise you, there’ll be big things in the future for you.”
“I’m counting on that,” Psych said and walked out with Mobley. Once he collected his boys, Latavius and Odell, they left the spot.
“So, what we gonna do?” Latavius asked.
“We gonna hit this nigga, Money Marv,” Psych informed.
“I never liked that nigga no way,” Odell said. “When we gonna do it?”
“Tonight, at their new spot, The Late Night,” Psych said. “All we need now is a shooter.”
“I know somebody,” Odell said.
Later that evening, The Late Night was set for its grand reopening and The Regulators were set to perform. Back in the day, when Black and Bobby ran the place, it was an after-hours spot that opened late and stayed open until seven in the morning. Business was good; so good that they had to open another spot on the opposite corner called the Blue Room to accommodate all the wannabe’s that couldn’t get in The Late Night.
When Black and Bobby first took their sons there, RJ had a vision of what he wanted The New Late Night to look like. In addition to the two long abandoned clubs on the corners, there were also several vacant buildings. Since they owned the block, RJ gutted the structure to create one large space. His plan was to have three clubs in one, a dance club, a comedy club and a cocktail lounge, all under one roof. However, there was one thing that the entertainment complex wouldn’t have and that was a gambling room. At Wanda’s urging, RJ made the decision to reopen The Late Night as a completely legitimate business.
The only problem with the plan was the location. The streets were in desperate need of repair and just as it was when their fathers ran it, there were a lot of people that just hung around the area. With the help of Wanda and her political contacts, suddenly the streets were paved, police presence was increased, and members of The Family’s private security company were dispatched to patrol the area in cooperation with the police.
“When you have money to spread around to the right people, you can do just about anything,” Wanda advised RJ. “Remember that.”
Meanwhile, at The Four Kings, Marvin sat alone in what was now his office, getting ready to leave for the grand reopening. With RJ moving on to run The Late Night, The Four Kings was his now. He considered that to being part of the steps he would have to take to live up to his legacy. “Running that spot is gonna give you a base of power,” Nick told his son. “So, the first thing you need to do is establish yourself and then make your base strong.” Nick laughed. “You’re in the construction business now. Think of your base as the foundation that you’re gonna build on.”
Marvin had become his father’s student. He now showed up for dinner at least twice a week. Having her baby come over made April happy, and Marvin was happy for that, but he was really there to see his father. Although she was glad that Marvin came around more often, she had noticed the change in him. Her baby wasn’t a baby anymore. Marvin was a man that wanted to be like his father.