The Pleasure of Pain by Shameek Speight

and they didn’t have enough time to hide it right because I saw it just in time.  I jumped the fuck out of the car, but not soon enough, the fucking blast knocked my ass out. The cops said it was C-4 in the car and were asking all kinds of questions like who wanted to kill me. Shit, if I knew that, the motherfucker would be dead,” Bless stated. He got angry just thinking about it. “Yo, let’s get out of here before those cops come back asking more questions. We don’t need 5.0 all in our business when we’re so close to our goal.”
    “Baby , did the doctor say it was okay for you to leave,” Tess asked.
    “He said I’m okay , but he wants me to stay the night. I’m not with that. So, we’re out,” Bless said.
    “Okay Baby,” Tess replied. On the drive home, Bless was in deep thought. ‘Who would try to kill him? He had no beef with anyone, if he did, he and Tess would have handled it by now.’ Tess was thinking the same thing and hoped it wasn’t her past coming back to bite her in the ass, but she knew she’d been careful with all of her hits and no one knew she was behind them.

 
    Slowing Shit Down
     
    Chapter 17              
    Back in the Bronx, Jose was paying anyone who had information about his brother’s murder. He was on the phone all hours of the day and even put the word on the street that he’d pay three million dollars for information and more if someone brought the killer to him. This worried Ricardo. He knew if his brother kept digging he would soon find the information he wanted. The streets were always watching and listening and someone would find out. Ricardo couldn’t let that happen because it would lead back to him. There was only one thing to do. Ricardo went into the back bedroom leaving Jose on the phone in the living room.
    In the bedroom, Ricardo pulled out his cell phone and called Danilo. “Yo,” Danilo answered already knowing who it was from the caller ID seen on his cell phone.
    “Danilo I need you to handle something for me in Brooklyn.” Ricardo said.
    “Say no more,” Danilo said already knowing what Ricardo wanted to be handled in Brooklyn. Danilo had been waiting for this call for a while. Ricardo had told him months ago what he wanted him to do, but told him to wait for his call.
    “You know what to do,” Ricardo said.
    “Yeah Ricardo, just drop that off at the same spot as always.” Danilo was talking about the money and with that said Ricardo hung up.

 
    The Canarsie Mayhem
     
    Chapter 18                            
    “Damn that was good boo,” Omar said to Ebony. “You know I needed that,” Omar stated.
    “Yeah, but nigga you said it would be a quickie,” Ebony said with a smile. “Shit that lasted for two hours. You fucked the shit out of me.”
    “Yeah, yeah, I love you too,” Omar said. “But on the real I have to get ready to drop off this money at the stash house,” he said while pulling up his jeans.
    Bless and Tess had stash houses just for money and drugs all over the city. Ebony watched his body as he got dressed. Omar was skinny, but cut up. He was brown skin with long dreads that came down his back. Ebony had been running the Brooklyn spot by herself until Bless put Omar on.  Together, Omar and Ebony ran Brownsville, Crown Heights, Flatbush, South Ozone, and Queens for Tess and Bless for years. They had soldiers that held the block down and Ebony and Omar just picked up money or handled problems when someone tried to take one of their spots or sell on their blocks. They gave the soldiers orders and did hits with them. Each spot had their own lieutenant and any problem got handled through the lieutenant then through them if the lieutenant couldn't handle it. Omar and Ebony was always together which also led into a deep relationship between them. They bought a two-story house in Canarsie together that Tess' real estate company helped them to find.
    Ebony was on the bed counting the rest