Brooklyn

by C.N. Phillips

Genres: Urban Fantasy

Synopsis

After his father’s murder, Boogie is thrust into taking over the family business and hellbent on revenge, no matter the cost…
 
While most young people are just getting their footing in life, 24-year-old Bryshon "Boogie" Tolliver is already being groomed to be a boss by his father, Barry Tolliver. At first, he's not so sure he wants to take his father's place in the family business. He has dreams of being the most prominent chef in New York. However, things change when Barry is murdered in cold blood and everything he built is left at Boogie's feet. Gone are those chef dreams, replaced with a new resolve to prove himself worthy of upholding his father's legacy.
 
Boogie takes his rightful place at the table of the Five Families of New York and is quickly taken under the wing of Caesar, the head of the organization. Known as The Godfather's Godfather, Caesar shows Boogie what it takes to be a boss.
 
The deeper in Boogie gets, the more obsessed he becomes with finding his father's murderer. When all signs point to the person Boogie knows is untouchable, he'll do anything to even the score, even if it costs him his seat at the table.
 

Release date: March 30, 2021

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 288

Sample

The forceful sound of a set of tall double doors opening and hitting the wall stoppers made everyone inside of a large high-rise office look up. If they had been in the middle of conversation, they were quiet as church mice when they saw the fiery eyes of the man who’d just burst in. Caesar King stood in the doorway, surveying his three peers sitting at the circular table before him. Diana, Marco, and Li all had the same question written across their faces.

“Leave.” Caesar motioned for their entourages to wait outside the door with his own hired hands. “And close the door behind you.”

They obliged him, and within seconds they were out of the room. As soon as they were all gone, Diana, a woman in her sixties who had aged like fine wine, leaned forward in her seat. She watched Caesar like a hawk with her light brown eyes as she awaited his next words. But she knew what those words would be. They all did. News traveled fast through the underworld grapevine. That much Caesar was certain of.

“I called you all here tonight because I want you to hear from me that it’s true.” Caesar’s deep baritone voice vibrated off the walls. “Barry is dead. His boy still needs to identify his body, but it’s him. His people phoned me when his body was found earlier in one of the drop spots they rarely use.”

“Shit,” Marco said, shaking his head.

“How did this happen?” Li asked in his usual fast rate of speech. “No one has dared to step out of line since the Pact was put into place.”

“I don’t know how, but I can tell you that it wasn’t quick. These were sent to me from an unknown number.” Caesar pulled his phone out and passed it around the table. “Whoever did this made sure Barry suffered. He was tortured, terribly. And they sent those to me as a warning.”

“Are . . . are his toes missing?” Diana asked, aghast.

“Yes, they are,” Caesar confirmed. “Along with his ears and his tongue.”

“Who would do such a thing?” Li asked.

“No, the real question is, how did they get close to him in the first place?” Marco chimed in. “It had to have been an inside job.”

“I don’t know.” Caesar gritted his teeth as he took his phone back. “But it’s something that we all need to look into.”

“It wasn’t anybody in my camp,” Diana’s smooth, soft voice spoke up. “They know the consequences of breaking the Pact.”

“As do those in my camp,” Li said. “The Chinese know honor. There is no honor in this.”

Everyone turned to Marco, who seemed to be lost in thought. When he noticed all the attention he was getting, he hurried to sit up straight. “You motherfuckers would be foolish to believe that anybody under me would be dumb enough to harm any leader of the Five Families.”

“Weren’t you the last to see Barry out of all of us?” Diana asked suspiciously.

“Sí, he came to see me. But that don’t mean me or any of my people killed him, Diana.”

“Why was he in Queens?” Caesar asked Marco.

“Guns. We were conducting business. I was telling him about a new shipment of military-grade weapons that just arrived, and I wanted to see if he needed a few for his men. He was supposed to come back with payment to receive them, but he never showed up. It was unlike him to do, but I figured something must have come up.”

“Diana, why do you think Marco was the last to see Barry?” Caesar turned to her.

“He came to the club,” Diana answered, making reference to her gentlemen’s club. “You know Barry was always too bourgeoisie for the pussy I have walking the streets and was never too proud to walk through the doors of the Sugar Trap. After he relieved himself with his favorite girls, we talked for a second. It didn’t hit me until now that he seemed . . . on edge.”

“On edge?”

“Maybe that’s not the right phrase for it. But most times after a man drains his dick, he’s more relaxed than he’s ever been. Barry seemed unsettled about something. I never asked what. However, he did tell me he was going to stop over in Queens to see Marco before he went home.”

Caesar mulled over her words and couldn’t help but wonder if what she said was true, about Barry behaving that way. He’d known Barry many years, and nowhere in his memory consisted of him outwardly showing his discomfort about any situation. It made whoever had done him in even more curious to Caesar. Who could put fear into Barry Tolliver’s heart? Nobody Caesar knew, and that left him once again at a dead end.

He looked at Diana, Li, and Marco, trying to see through any lies that may have been told. But he wasn’t sure they had told any. They’d all respected the Pact all those years with only minor disagreements among them.

The Pact was something put into place after they all went to war with each other. Back when they were all fighting, Caesar’s father was still alive. King Cal groomed his son as his right-hand man to be the king and take over when he was gone. The fighting was always over turf, who was allowed to do what where. King Cal always told him the other Families knew that they were the strongest Family, so they would do whatever they had to do to weaken them. And they did. Many died over those notions, including Caesar’s mother, who was killed in cold blood. Caesar never found out which Family was responsible for shooting her through the window of her Cadillac at a traffic light. But that was the moment that forever changed his fate.

When Caesar was 12, his father, the kingpin of Manhattan, had already started grooming him to take over the game. By 14, Caesar had already taken his first life. It didn’t stop there. He had so much rage inside of him from his mother’s murder that he jumped headfirst into the war. He had been just a kid, but Caesar was respected and feared all over New York. He was a menace. But when his father died in 1978, Caesar called for a ceasefire. It took him losing too soon the last parent he had to realize how much senseless violence had taken place among the Five Families over one thing: money. The other Families respected the King Cal legacy enough to stop fighting and listen to Caesar’s proposal.

Each Family was given a trade. The Colombians were given the prostitution game in Harlem. The Mexicans were given a weapons operation in Queens. The Asians were loan sharks who loaned both money and hired hands at a cost in the Bronx. The other black Family ran their own theft ring in Brooklyn while Caesar remained the kingpin in Manhattan. Under the Pact, every Family was off-limits to another, and due to the difference in trades, business could be conducted in each other’s territories. They would be allies and always aid each other in need. At the end of each month, each Family would have to pay their dues into the pot. That money went toward, but not limited to, community action, cleaning up their messes, and the occasional payoff to the police department.

Somehow, they all agreed. And there they were decades later still living in peace. Or so they thought. If none of them broke the Pact, someone did. And that was what they needed to find out.

“Until we know who did this, I need everyone in this room to tighten up on security. Nobody, and I mean nobody”—Caesar cut his eyes to Diana—“is to go anywhere alone.”

“Don’t look at me like that,” Diana said snippily. “I can handle myself.”

“You may look good for your age, but that doesn’t change the fact that you’re sixty-four. Keep someone with you at least until I have a conversation with the Italians.”

The Italians were the only ones who did not sign the Pact. Their territory was in Staten Island, and they did a little bit of everything. However, since they didn’t sign, they weren’t permitted to do business anywhere else. Knowing about the alliance, they never tried anything foolish, seeing that they would have the weight of the Five Families on their back. Still, Caesar figured it would do good to pay his old friend Bosco a visit.

“This might not be the right time to say this,” Marco said, clearing his throat, “but who’s gonna fill that seat?” He nodded toward Barry’s empty seat.

He was right. It wasn’t the right time. However, it was something that had to be talked about. Another clause in the Pact was that no head chair would be left empty if someone stepped down or died. However, not just anyone could be a replacement. There had to be a vote.

“It’s tradition to pass the family business down to the oldest child,” Diana reminded him, and Caesar raised a brow.

“His boy is only twentysomething.” Caesar shook his head.

“And isn’t he in school to be a chef?” Li spat and shook his head. “Barry didn’t even mold him to take over anything. What about his friend? He seems to have good leadership skills.”

“Julius? He’s too power hungry.” Diana shook her head. “Giving him a seat would be the wrong move. Sometimes there is a reason for a second in command. I say we give the boy a chance. Caesar, you may think he’s young, but you were around the same age he is now when you formed the Pact. Even younger when you got into this business. I’ve been around the kid a time or two. He’s a bright kid. Real smart.”

“But what does he know about the underworld?” Marco threw in, trying to thwart the idea. “The kid is trying to be a chef for crying out loud. If Barry wanted him to know the family business, he would have already been groomed.”

“How do we know he isn’t and just chose a different path?” Li pondered.

“I don’t know,” Caesar sighed. “But we have to vote on it.”

“I say hell no,” Marco spoke up.

“Well, I say we wait on the vote,” Diana said.

“Wait for what?” he asked.

“For Caesar to check the kid out and bring him before us.” Diana and Caesar connected eyes.

“Diana . . .” He started.

“Barry only had one child. It would be disrespectful to his family name to vote his legacy to someone who didn’t build it,” she said, and it was her turn to cut her eyes at him.

If Caesar was the godfather of the Families, Diana was the godmother. They’d grown close over the years and had always been able to give each other counsel when needed. Caesar sighed again and nodded reluctantly. He hated to admit it, but she was right.

“All right. Julius will fill in for the time being since business must continue and dues must be paid. In the meantime, I’ll check the kid out. But as of right now, Barry’s seat is vacant.”

Breathing heavily, Bryshon “Boogie” Tolliver fell through the door of his Brooklyn condo in a rush. He checked the hallway behind him to make sure he had not been followed before shutting the door. Stumbling into the large kitchen area, he let the loaded duffle bag on his shoulder fall to the ground and gripped the edge of a counter tightly with his hands. Beads of sweat dripped off the tip of his nose as he thought about how everything that night had gone wrong. His eyes fell on the slightly open duffle bag at his feet. A few stacks of hundreds were poking out. It barely seemed worth it at that moment.

Growing up on fast money, Boogie was used to a more upscale lifestyle. He had grown accustomed to designer clothes, fast cars, and fine places to live. All of that just added value to his good looks and charming smile. However, when he decided that he wanted to follow his dream of becoming a chef, his father, Barry Tolliver, cut him off for not following in his footsteps in the family business. Boogie was able to keep his Ferrari and his condo, but his line to the family account had been snipped. And because of that, he had to figure out a way to make money on his own.

Boogie was 12 when Barry began teaching him how to be the perfect crook. Not only did he learn how to use a gun, but he learned how to pick every kind of lock and open any kind of safe. In fact, he grew a knack for it, so much that he figured he could make a side job out of it to keep some paper in his pockets while attending New York University. Finding and hitting licks wasn’t hard, given the fact that his rich college peers were so chatty. They had no discretion when letting it be known that their folks would be out of town for the weekend or when inviting anybody and everybody over for the kind of wild college parties where everyone ended up passed out drunk. That was Boogie’s favorite kind of lick because they were so easy. Not only that, but he always left with cash. He never tried to leave anyone’s home with their assets, because in order to get them gone he would have to contact Toby, Barry’s fence. Toby would buy almost anything and could sell it without a trace. However, he still worked for Barry, which meant that was where his loyalty rested. Toby eventually told Barry what Boogie had been doing, which led to Barry making a surprise visit to Boogie’s home the night after finals.

“I knew this shit was in your blood, boy,” Barry had told him. “How about I cut you a deal?”

“What kind of deal?”

“Work with me in the summer and part-time while you’re in school. Give the family business a real go. None of this petty shit you’ve been doing, but some real hard-hitter shit. You’ll even have your own team.”

“And if I still don’t want that life forever?”

“Then I let you be Chef Boogie in peace,” Barry said with a shrug.

“You’re serious?”

“I already cut your access to the family account back on,” Barry told him and gave him a look of sincerity. “Look, son, you know I’m not good at this heart-to-heart shit, but you’re my only boy. And this time without you around hasn’t been easy on me. I admit that I might have been a little harsh by doing away with you so easily. You’re your own man, and in order to not lose you, I have to accept that.”

“Okay,” Boogie said after a few moments of thinking over his father’s proposal. “We can get busy this summer, but when school starts back up, I’m out.”

“We’ll see.”

The truth was that Boogie had been serious about wanting to get out of the game. After he graduated college, he planned on moving to the West Coast and opening his own restaurant along Santa Monica Beach. With school starting back up soon, he was trying to find the right time to tell his father the news. However, now he didn’t know if he would even make it that far. He’d messed up, bad. And he didn’t think even Barry could get him out of that one, especially since the job he’d gone on had been off the record.

The team Boogie had been working with that summer was a solid one. It consisted of three other men besides Boogie. A-Rod, Bentley, and Kirk were thorough, and the heists they went on together went off without a hitch. The only thing was that, as a collective, they were only able to keep 20 percent of their earnings while the rest went to Barry. Barry called it the operations fee, being that they were only hired hands. Soon, though, a 20 percent split per job wasn’t satisfactory to the other men, and they began working jobs Barry had no idea about. If he ever found out about them, they would all be dead men, especially since the jobs could easily be tied back to him. The hits Barry sent them on were calculated, not rogue. So, when Boogie, who was supposed to be their team leader, found out, he was plagued with the decision of whether to turn them in to his father. A-Rod was a smooth talker though. He could hustle a hustler out of all his dope without ever paying a dime if he wanted to. And Boogie fell for it. Although, thinking back, he wished he hadn’t.

“C’mon, man. Your pops will never find out about this. We get in and we get out. Simple.”

Boogie listened to the words coming out of A-Rod’s mouth, coupled with the sure expression on his face, and still felt unsure of what was being put on the table. He glanced at Kirk and Bentley, taking notice that they were watching him like a hawk at their table. The four men had met up at a local diner for what had seemed like a casual lunch, but in truth Boogie had just wanted to te. . .