Page 145 of Lau Ahi
Fatih’s smile was so full of pride I felt immediately settled again. “No, baby, we’re Black. We’re seen as the worst of the worst just because of that. No one focuses on the good that drug dealers did back when there was a moral element to what they did. Now that it’s purely capitalism and greed driving their moves no one is winning.”
“So you all want to sell drugs?”
Faith released the tension in her face slightly. “No. That was a soapbox of my own bitterness. My family’s problem is that they got comfortable being at the top of the food chain. People might not know theConsortiumby name but they understand when they hit a brick wall and can’t move the way they want to. We are that wall. We only allow you to know who we are and what we do when we deem you necessary. If you never reach that level of importance, you don’t get your way. If you want to go around the protocol then you’re exterminated without question.”
“That easily?”
She bit her lip uneasily but I knew she wasn’t going to condemn the tactics used and that intrigued me. “We haven’t existed for longer than our people had legitimized freedom to end up on someone’s radar. With the type of wealth that flows through our six families and the branches beneath us, the wealth of several large nations would be in jeopardy if anyone tried to take us down.”
“I notice you sayusa lot. Not them. You’ve been gone for twenty years and yet you still speak fondly of something that apparently cost you everything you loved.”
She shrugged and I don’t think she noticed that when she spoke of power she spoke of them but when she talked about work, the real effort that was needed to make all of this function she included herself.
“It’s ingrained in me. And I could never blame theConsortiumas a whole for what happened with me and my husband. He wasn’t the right type of person to partner with. I needed to learn the ropes of the business because I’d been kept away from so much of it. My friends Safi and Babette tried but I felt intimidated.”
“Why?”
Her eyes lowered a fraction as if she felt shame for what she was about to admit. “I wasn’t like them. Never raised to be in this life and frankly my father resented the fact that he had to put me in this position after my older brother died and had no kids.”
“Not a warm and fuzzy kind of family?”
“No. My father was a happy misogynist and saw women as pawns. That’s why he transitioned the family into what he did.”
“Which was what?”
“The skin trade.” Faith said it so bluntly I was gobsmacked.
I wasn’t a prude but there was no way she’d said what I thought she had. “I’m sorry?”
“Sex. Porn. Peep shows you name it and he had a hand in it all. He ran the red-light district on the East Coast and had one of the largest Black-owned sex studios.”
I tried my hardest not to show how surprised I was at the revelation but it was nearly impossible. “That doesn’t seem like something theConsortiumwould abide.”
I didn’t know any of these people for sure but seeing the caliber of man that Ori was and the way he spoke abouthis friends, I couldn’t imagine this group welcoming someone who would do something that was so close to being morally reprehensible.
“They hated it. But you can’t interfere with someone else’s business unless they’re bringing the wrong type of attention to the group. That wasn’t the case with us so they had no choice but to stay out of it.” She sounded disgusted and it was clear this was the part of her family’s legacy she didn’t like.
“I’ve heard the way Ori speaks about the sons and daughter of these families. He has respect for them and I can’t imagine him respecting people who would be so milquetoast with a family messing up.”
“This generation is better than mine was. They’re bonded. Ours had fractures that were evident for a long time but we tried to forge ahead with life and not do more.” The wistful look was again on her face and I wondered if she felt like a failure.
“Do you regret it?”
“No. Everything played out the way it was supposed to. I don’t mean it religiously just that we’ve all ended up where we should’ve been, mostly. Some of us didn’t fare the way we should’ve.”
“To whom are you referring?” The sadness that seemed bone-deep wasn’t for herself. She wouldn’t afford herself that type of grace.
“The head of the families, the Benoits. They didn’t get to live to see their daughter grow up. Their son was thought dead and it wasn’t until recently that the kids were found.”
“So you all are not as untouchable as you think.”
“Sadly no. We’ve had deaths. All of them untimely and all happening to good people. Three in my generation alone.”
“Half the families?”
“Just two. The Benoits were married and then a friend of mine, Pope was murdered.”
These people were her family. It was obvious from how she looked and the sadness etched into her features that they were truly missed.
