The Pleasure of Pain by Shameek Speight Page A

replied.
                  “It’s good to see you,” Bless stated.
                  Omar was one of Bless’ many Lieutenants, but he watched all the other spots. Omar and Ebony were in charge of running the Queens and Brooklyn spots.  Omar hugged Bless. He did miss his boss. Tess and the girls were cool, but he felt as if they were always keeping something from him. So now Bless was back and it felt good to have another man around.
                  Bless had been filled in on Tess’ new Dominican drug connection, Ricardo, and had a meeting set up with him for later on today. Everybody was sitting at a round table in Bless’ living room. Vanessa and Ebony sat together, Omar next to Iris, and Bless and Tess sat together. Tess spoke first, “Listen, I been running things for the last three years, but now my King is back. We’ll run this together like it always was.”
                  “By now we all should have made enough money to stop,” Bless stated, “and that’s what me and Tess are going to do after six months.”
                  Everybody looked at Bless and Tess with shock. “What you mean you’re going to stop?” Iris yelled.
                  “We’re done, no more,” Bless replied.
                  “What the fuck, Tess. Bless comes home and you want to quit the game on us?” Iris yelled.
                  “Watch your fucking mouth, Iris, and remember who you’re talking to and for your information that has always been my plan from the start. No one is trying to do this shit forever,” Tess responded.
                  “Everybody just fucking listen to what got to be said,” Bless began to talk. “For those of you who want to continue to stay in the game, that’s cool. We’re handing the Brooklyn and Queens spots to Ebony and Omar and the Philly spots to Iris and Vanessa. Iris will be the new boss. This will be me and Tess’s last run. Is everyone straight with the new terms?”
                  “Yeah we straight,” everyone said, but Iris.
                  Bless looked Iris in the eyes. “Iris,” he said.
                  “Yeah! I’m straight,” she replied. While everyone was leaving the Brooklyn townhouse, Iris stayed behind to talk with Tess.
                  Bless was outside talking to Omar, “So how’s Daman?”
                  “He’s cool he reminds me of you a lot when you was young. He’s always out to prove he’s crazier than everyone else, but he takes care of his business. His money is always straight and his crew is holding things down in Brownsville.”
                  Daman was one of Bless’s younger Lieutenants that he had taken a liking to. They had a history Bless put him on five years ago when he was fourteen years old and now the kid had Brownsville on lock. Omar put Bless onto what was going down in the hood.
                  Inside the house Iris was looking Tess in the eyes, “Yo! Tess you haven’t come to see me in a while. I miss you,” Iris stated.
                  “I miss you too, Iris. You know you’re my best friend,” Tess replied with a smile.
                  “Have you told him about the contract killings we’ve been doing for Ricardo?” Iris asked.  Tess never told the other members of her group who they were doing the hits for. She only told Iris because they were close.
                  “No, I don’t really know how to tell him,” Tess responded.
                  “What! You told him about the four million you have, right,” Iris replied.
                  “I haven’t told him yet. I got the money stashed in a Swiss bank account. I’ll tell him soon somehow.”
                  “So how much he think you got?”
                  “Three million in drug money,