The Officer and the Thug: The Officer and the Thug, #1

Prologue

Officer Down! Officer Down!

Officer? Samson thought, as the woman’s high pitched scream made its way down into the vent where he was still hiding. Who was the officer? Sapphire? Tony? He hadn’t been able to see much through the hail of bullets that were flying in each direction. He couldn’t make out any faces, only shadows. Cops didn’t usually come with no warning and guns blazing, so he’d assumed that whoever came for him was looking for drugs, money, or both.

But an officer?

He didn’t have time to think about who it could have been. Not right now. Right now, all he could think about was getting out of that hotel and back to Baltimore before the people on the other end of that police radio showed up. He slid toward the glimmer of moonlight at the end of the dark tunnel. The rusty grate was only attached by one remaining bolt. With of a tap his foot it released and clanged against the pavement.

Shit! he whispered. But with the sirens now whirring in the distance and getting closer every second, the grate only drew the attention of a cat playing in the parking lot, who looked up and ran away. He wiped the dust from his dark jeans and walked a few feet before hurling the gun over the railing, into the ocean waves below. As the police and ambulances screeched into the parking lot and crowds gathered in front of the building, he shoved his hands into his pockets and blended in with the rest of the people moving around South Beach, disappearing like a shadow into the warm Miami night. 

Chapter One

Samson

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I fucked up. I tapped my pen over and over again against my desk at King Enterprises, the umbrella Organization for all of my legit businesses. I was looking out over the Inner Harbor through my penthouse office suite window, but I could feel Jamar’s eyes burning a hole into the back of my head, and even though I deserved it, I didn’t need that shit. I already couldn’t sleep feeling like I had Tony’s blood on my hands. If I had let him know where I was, where I was going and what I was doing, he wouldn’t have been scurrying around trying to keep up with me. He would have been able to scope things out first.

Yeah. You did. I mean, shit happens, but we can’t be playing fast and loose right now with the way things are. You’re the one that told me that. And then the officer...

That’s what I heard her yelling on the police radio. But in the news, they would have put something out if an officer got shot. All that was in the Miami paper was two fatalities. An officer they would have made a big deal about.

True, unless one of the people you were shooting at was an undercover who got wounded and survived. You dumped that piece right?

I looked up at him like that shouldn’t even be a question. After I threw the piece into the water, I got back up with Pook and Dante who got me on the plane back to Bmore the next day. I didn’t dash out of Miami because I didn’t want it to look like something was wrong. For all anyone knew, Tony was down there messing around with Sapphire while I was out doing my own thing when whoever ran up on them. I left the bike I had been riding in the hotel parking lot. It wasn’t registered in anybody’s real name so I wasn’t worried about it. Other than Jamar, there were only three people who knew what really went down in that hotel room, and two of them were dead.

Make sure his family is taken care of. As a matter fact, drop off that mil to them that he was supposed to get for the trip. And let them know we’ve got the funeral.

Jamar nodded. I got up and walked over to the bar in my office to pour some Hennessy and mix it with a little Coke. So what’s up with that snitch?

That might take a little time. 

We don’t have time. Abdul is talking about holding off on the next shipment. They messed up my deal with the Midwest. We can’t play around trying to figure this out. Did you look at Tino and Blaze?

Tino and Blaze have never been anything but good soldiers.

I don’t know. I think they might be on some jealousy shit. We need to send a message to the Organization to anybody who wants to even look halfway shady. I say we do both of them. Ain’t no friends when it comes to money. That was the motto that Nico, my mentor in the game, taught me. He’s locked up now, but he was running things back in the day. Under him, I went from slinging on the corners, to moving packages and climbing up the ranks of the Organization. Nico got locked up for life because he broke his own rule; set up by somebody that he let in the circle that turned out to be a cop all along. Most of the old Organization got killed or locked up. A lot of the OGs are still doing 25 to life.

I got off easy. Even though I was mid-level, I was only 17 at the time and the Organization lawyer made sure I got charged as a juvenile. I did 18 months and my record got expunged when I turned 21. Since then I have managed to run the entire Organization without having any scrapes with the law.  In my territory, which is most of the Mid-Atlantic, outside of a couple New York boys trying to get in the game, I’m the one who controls everything that moves and where it goes. But I fly all the way under the radar. I make enough money clean, through the real estate that I own, music studios, restaurants and a couple clubs, that the cops can’t knock me about my lifestyle. I never touch dope. Never even see it. I don’t even have to be strapped. I’m always rolling with enough muscle that I don’t have to be, and the pieces I own are legit. Nothing illegal and can’t connect any of them to a body. But more than anything, I watch my circle.

Jamar, my right hand, has been running with me since before I got hooked up under Nico. We came up together from nothing. He is my eyes and ears when it comes to running the Organization and keeping that circle as tight as a chain. If any chain link ever looks weak, Jamar’s job is to get rid of him, no questions asked. Usually he is right on point with those that have to go, but every now and then , somebody gets knocked off of some bullshit, some intel that isn’t right. It’s fucked up when that happens, but better that we be careful and do somebody innocent, than destroy the whole Organization trying to be sensitive.  Ain’t no friends when it comes to money. I learned to live by the rule Nico broke. Which is why I didn’t understand why Jamar all of a sudden seemed to be going soft.

The only kind of message that would send is that the Organization isn’t loyal to its soldiers, Jamar said. Plus we don’t need that kind of heat on us right now.

I say we do it. I want it done.

Sam, you might be running this, but don’t forget who’s been by your side the whole time. You already fucked up once this week. I’m not standing by to watch you fuck up again.

I leaned back in the chair and folded my hands. As much as I didn’t want to admit it, Jamar was right.

*******

I had made my first mistake less than 24 hours earlier. I fucked up how most niggas fuck up: chasing pussy. Well, not really chasing, because I don’t have to chase. I just go get. But I shouldn’t have been getting it in Miami. Miami broads had too many connections in too many different places. Cuba, Colombia, Jamaica, Ecuador; I never knew whose daughter was who, whose brother was who and I didn’t need to get caught up getting pussy from a woman who wanted vengeance. I had too many other places in the world that I could get my dick sucked and too many other women willing to do it that I didn’t need to do it there.

I flew down to Miami to meet with Abdul, our connect, about some new real estate I had scoped out in the Midwest. I wanted to find out what kind of deal he could give me on product for the expansion.  If Jamar had been there, I probably wouldn’t have gotten into the trouble that I got into, but I took Big Tony with me instead of Jamar because some of some of our small stash houses had gotten robbed and it had me thinking there was a rat in our camp. Jamar needed to stay back in Baltimore to keep an eye on things and figure out the weak link in the chain so he could stop the leak.

––––––––

I should have known the trip wasn’t going to end right when it started going wrong from jump. Abdul and the cartel had gotten wind of the leak in our Organization and had pumped the brakes on our expansion.

Samson, we have reason to believe there is a mole in your camp, he said as we sat on a bench in a park in South Beach. Abdul sipped on a cup of coffee in spite of the fact that it was hot as hell outside. Someone is alerting law enforcement to the inner workings of your Organization. We can’t take the risk on an expansion right now and in the process bring attention to our cartel.

That’s being handled, as we speak, I said. I could feel myself getting hot. I had put too much work into expanding to let a snitch derail my plans.

Samson, you know we work by show, not tell, Abdul said. Fix your Organization. Stop the leaks. And then we can do business. We won’t compromise our organization because you can’t manage yours.

I wanted to yell, fuck you, your organization, and your shipment. But I wasn’t going to let my emotions get in the way of my money, so instead we shook hands and parted ways.

If Abdul hadn’t been on that bullshit, maybe I wouldn’t have hit up Sapphire to help get my mind off of things. Sapphire worked at Vino’s, a little South Beach spot that I own. It’s a smaller strip club, the kind of spot that grown men ballers go to find quality. We don’t have the most girls, but guaranteed, we have the baddest ones around. Sapphire was the most beautiful of the bad.

Last visit, me and Jamar were coming into the club when I saw her leaving out, getting off of work.

She was the most beautiful thing I had seen. Not woman, thing period. She looked like my Maybach; her dark skin was shiny and flawless, her high cheekbones, the twinkle in her eye and those slender curves.  It wasn’t love. It was that feeling I get when I see a watch that I want or a condo in just the right spot with the perfect view. I didn’t want to love her. I wanted to own her.

The night that I first saw her she was uninterested in anything I had to offer, and the fact that she turned me down made me want her even more. I got her number from Shep, the club manager, and had been talking to and texting with her since. I didn’t fuck in Miami, but I made my own rules, so I could decide when and where to break them. Tonight, especially after the day I’d had, I wanted Sapphire to myself.

I knew I should have told Tony, Pook and Dante where I was going and what I was doing, and let our driver, DeAundre, take me where I needed to go. But I had let my hot head get the best of me. I was tired of reporting to people, tired of being babysat and tired of not being able to trust who was around me. I grabbed one of my smaller pieces, went down to the condo garage and hopped on my Ducati, then flew out of my complex down South Beach toward the club. I walked into Vino’s just as the sun completely set over the ocean to the sound of trap music playing in the background. Tell Sapphire to meet me in VIP, I said to Shep when I walked in.

Sorry boss, he said. She’s not working tonight.

Where is she? Call her ass up and tell her get in here or she’s fired.

Boss...

You know what, just call her and let her speak to me.

Shep dialed her number and handed me the phone.

Hello? 

You’re supposed to be at work. I said. I wanted to yell at her, but her quiet, raspy voice massaged the inside of my ears.

Who is this? she asked. I already called and told you guys that I’m working late at my other job.

It’s Samson. You owe me a dance. I leave out of here tomorrow and I’m not leaving until I get one. Where do you work and what time do you get off.

She got quiet. Samson...I could leave I guess around 11. I work at the Cabana.

Nah, be outside in an hour. I said. 

I saw her silhouette in the distance as I pulled up to the Cabana. She was wearing a white minidress that clung to every curve on her body.

Put this on, I handed her my second helmet as I pulled up in front of her on the sidewalk.

Well, hello to you too, she smiled. Her white teeth were perfect behind her red lipstick. Her long dark hair looked thick and frizzy from the humidity, the wildness of it made her look even more beautiful to me.  I didn’t bring my stuff for the club.

We’re not going to the club, so you won’t need it.

Hold on, she said. I’m not just hopping on a bike with you without knowing where I’m going. How do I know you’re not a serial killer or something?

I put the bike in park, walked around to where she was standing and grabbed her around her waist. She stiffened her body, but I could tell she was feeling it. You know I don’t need to do all that, I said. If you stop trying to play games with me, after tonight you can quit this other job. How much is it going to be for me to have you? Name your price.

She pushed me in the center of my chest and stepped back. What do you think I am, some kind of prostitute? I dance to pay the bills. I don’t fuck for cash.

Good, because I don’t deal with prostitutes, I said. Look ma, when I first saw you I wondered why you were dancing at the club. I’m the owner, so I know our standards when it comes to women, but you could have anything you want and you’re throwing it away every night on that stage.

She rolled her eyes and folded her arms over her chest.

You wouldn’t be hustling this hard if you didn’t have dreams. I’ve met a lot of dancers at the club and every last one of them is dancing for a reason. Why are you here? What are you dancing for?

She sucked her teeth and looked down. I’m saving for medical school and I can get there faster dancing than working retail. It’s a lot less of a headache than trying to chase modeling jobs or be somebody’s side piece. The work is steady. So here I am.

One year’s salary and medical school paid for, I said. One night of your time. I’m trying to make dreams come true. Mine and yours. It’s not trickin’ if you got it, they say. I have it. Enough of it to get whatever I want, and tonight I wanted Sapphire.

Sapphire was trying to play it cool, but I could tell she was blushing even underneath her ebony skin. I don’t do this, Samson, she said.

Sometimes we have to break our own rules, I said.

She gave me a shy smile, grabbed the helmet and climbed onto the back of bike. I could feel her legs pressed against my sides and the heat from between her thighs against my back as I rode. I took off fast down the street making her squeeze her body in tighter to mine.

Even though I was ready to drop a few hundred stacks on her, I didn’t know this chick so I wasn’t trying to take her back to my place. We stopped at a high rise hotel right on the shoreline. I couldn’t wait to bend her over the balcony and take her while we both looked out at the beach.

Take this and check in, I handed her a prepaid card. Come back out as soon as you get finished with the key.

Sapphire came back with the room key and we took a glass elevator overlooking the ocean up to the penthouse suite. We stepped out into a small hallway leading to the suite door. I opened the door and then blocked it with my arm.

Take off your clothes, I said.

In the hallway? You joking?

Nah, take them off, put them by the door. Leave your heels on. Leave your phone out here too. We’re in the penthouse. Nobody’s coming.

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