Page 30 of Honey's Special Roux

“Marq, you collecting today?” Quintin asked as he approached the car.

Quintin was no older than nineteen or twenty. He’d been on the block for about a year and a half. We took him in when his grandmother passed away. We got him a steady cash flow so he could take care of his little sister and brother.

“Yeah. What you got for me?” I inhaled from the perfectly rolled blunt.

“Twenty in the duffel and six in the backpack. The last couple weeks been good to us, especially with ol’ dude’s crew moving blocks.”

“Good job. Keep the six and stop by Banks’ spot for the re-up.”

“Yes, sir.”

He passed me the duffel, and I tossed the black bag into the passenger seat.

“Keep yo’ head up and pay attention to your surroundings. Y’all doing good shit out here. I appreciate how hard y’all work.”

“You keep our pockets fat too. We are loyal to that.”

“Good. Be safe.”

“You do the same.”

I pulled off and continued to make my rounds. I had a good groove set as I checked in on all the runners and team leaders. Mostly everyone was in good spirits, with their minds locked in on getting to the money. I’d been to three blocks before my work phone rang and threw me off my route. It was Banks.

“Yeah?”

“Head over to Chris’ spot. They got trouble.”

“What’s going on?

“I think Gee crew fuckin’ with them. I received an SOS from Toon.”

“You go handle that situation with Toon, and I’m gon’ go swing by Gee shit.”

“Fa sho.”

I hung up and busted a U-turn in the middle of the street. My tires screeched against the pavement as I zoomed down the road to Gee’s spot. He and his lame ass friends were the ones we got into it with on the block back in the day. Those sorry ass niggas couldn’t take their L and had been messing with our blocks for years. We ain’t mind because all they did was talk shit, but I guess his workers were feeling froggy and wanted to jump today. Regardless, streets were about to turn red.

On the way to Gee’s spot, I called my uncle.

“Marq.”

“Merlot, Gee’s crew giving the runners hell. I’m headed over there now to put my foot so far up his ass?—”

“No. Hold on. We don’t need a war right now.”

“It’s not a war. It’s retaliation for them pushing up on our blocks.”

“It’s not the time. We’ve got too much shit goin’ on, Marq. It’s not worth it.”

“Nah, man. I can’t let this shit go unchecked.”

“Marq! What did I say?”

“You made me your second in command?—”

“That doesn’t mean you call all the shots. You want to go guns blazing, and we don’t have time to cleanup with so many other priorities.”

“A’ight.”

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