A1: The Don (GirlxGirl)

Chapter Four

"I'm hoping, I'm waiting, I'm praying you are the one..."

Delaney was really something else. Crazy. Feisty. Funny. Sexy. A little goofy. I had never found all of that in one woman. It was usually one trait or the other, but they all resided within her. She was like a dream come true. I knew I had to sit some time aside and get to know her better. Right now, I was interested in her but I knew things could quickly change. She could end up being like all the other girls I've tried to be with or maybe things just wouldn't work out. Either way, I was going to try to get to know what she's really about and take things slow. Rushing things never had good results, especially not with me.

I've dated quite a few women and was even engaged once. I was a stupid ass nineteen year old about to elope with a no good b-tch who was sleeping around with half of the crew. She had me hooked and was playing me the whole time. From that point forward, I haven't been trying to rush or look for love. It'd come when it came. My princess was somewhere and she'd be revealed when the time was right. For now, all I could do was focus on the family and whatever sh-t we had going on. At least, that's what I kept telling myself. I kept telling myself to focus on the family when in reality my mind was on Delaney.

Last night while I was with her, I was enjoying myself being wrapped between her legs and kissing those luscious lips of hers, but I got interrupted with a call saying that there was a hit on one of our safe houses. A few of our members died and we weren't sure who the hell did it. They burnt the place down and not too many of our members were able to escape. Within the fire, were a couple of unaccounted for bodies that weren't part of our crew. They were probably girls hooking up with the members or friends of the family. Either way, we lost quite a few of our people. Payback was on the way, but first we had to figure out who actually had the balls to do it. Last night, we had no clues. We decided to get a night's rest and meet up at our headquarters the next day.

It was noon when I got to our headquarters which was in a high class neighborhood where most of the heavy hitters of the family stayed, including myself. I lived in the neighborhood, as well as Leo and Lin. Our houses were only a few doors from each other and headquarters was just a few blocks away from my place. Normal residents didn't live in our neighborhoods. Only the De Palma family members that could afford it and affiliates of our organization such as our self-paid lawyers and doctors.

When I got to headquarters, a count of about fifty people were there. They were all chilling, drinking beers, smoking pot, watching television, f-cking, you know, the normal. I said my hellos, but then quickly made it to the sanctuary. The sanctuary was where we held meetings. Sometimes we all came together and voted on decisions, sometimes we drew on the whiteboard our strategies, sometimes we had debates about what we needed to change; whatever it was, it was usually settled in the sanctuary. When I walked in, Lin, Leo and Rafael were all sitting down and laughing.

Leo, Lin, Rafael and I were pretty big in the family, but we weren't exactly top dogs. We got looked up to and we were very well respected, but really we didn't have much control. We led meetings, produced strategies and held voting for sh-t but that was about it. I guess, in the real world, we'd be called assistant managers, but in our world, we were called chiefs. The person we looked up to and who we went to when we couldn't settle the problem was the head honcho, Jimmy. Anything Jimmy wanted, we did. He treated us more like f-cking assistants than anything. He was probably the worst head honcho in the history of the family, but of course I would never denounce him aloud. I knew most people felt the same way though. After the head honcho was the don. The don was probably the biggest role someone could have.

In our family, we had 50 dons, one for each state. If we kept spreading then I'm sure we'd have more for other cities in other countries but we hadn't grown worldwide just yet. The don of California was Vinny. Very nice guy. He was Jimmy's boss. Whenever we got Vinny involved, it was always for some serious sh-t. He'd always help us with open arms. If we needed more troops in Santa Monica, he'd send some from another city. If we needed anything, he was the one we went to. Very reliable man with a huge ass responsibility on his back. Vinny had to make sure every chapter of our family in California was in good condition and keep his headquarters in Los Angeles contained as well. I don't think I could ever be a don. I didn't see how he did it. Being a don was a precious title and showed how much you were respected, but man was it hard work. I was fine with being a chief. I had just enough say and control. I didn't want the power like my father had. I just wanted the respect and the love he got.