Carl Weber's Kingpins by Keisha Ervin

supposed to put anybody before family. As much resentment that Davita has toward you, she would bust her gun first at anybody who threatened you. She would lay her life down for you, but would you do the same?”
    David Jr. was quiet. After what Day had told him the night before about his scholarship, he had begun to wonder if she really didn’t like him, or if it was just a show. Maybe it was always he who had pushed her away and not the other way around. He had always judged her for wanting to be a part of her father’s business instead of wanting something better for herself. He never took the time to think that maybe this was the life that was best for her. He felt like shit, because he knew that everything his father was saying was true. David Jr. had tried so hard for years to not be like his father that he forgotten he was still King David’s son at the end of the day. Mason blood coursed through his veins. It dawned on him at that very moment that he would never be able to get away from who he was. No matter how may schools he went to and no matter what job he got, he would always be a Mason.
    “Yes,” David Jr. said, shocking King David.
    “Good,” King David said and eyed his son curiously. “Your mother asked me to release more assets to you and at first I was against it. But then I started to think maybe it is my fault that you don’t want anything to do with my business. I have released more than half of my assets to you. I have also removed your mother from my will and you will have everything that was once released to her.”
    “Why? Why would you remove Ma from your will?”
    “Because she is not the woman I fell in love with,” King David responded honestly. “She does not want you to be anything like me. At one point in time I was everything to her, or so I thought. If in you she sees me and despises it? I don’t think she ever loved me at all. Why would I leave anything of mine to someone who looks down on the way I got it?”
    “So then why would you leave it to me?”
    “Because you don’t really look down on it, or me.” King David read his son. “I see the way your eyes light up whenever you come and do counts. You force yourself to stay away but now I think after last night you know. You know that there is no running from it. You, my son, have collected your first soul. Now you have no choice. Because, now, I have leverage.”
    “You gon’ blackmail me to work for you?”
    “Is it really blackmail if you do it willingly?”
    David Jr. stared at his hands for a moment and thought about how he felt when he squeezed the trigger. He thought about the power he felt and the fact that he felt no regret; but still he wasn’t completely sold.
    “I ain’t no street nigga,” he said, and his words got a reaction.
    “You are my son and I love you. Despite the things I did to build this empire, it’s built, and I did it for you and your sister. I grew up fighting. I didn’t have shit where I came from and when my mom died I had nowhere to go but the streets. I had to drop out of school because I had to eat and the streets fed me. If I cut you off right now where would you go?” King David couldn’t help feeling slighted by his son’s words. “Exactly. I named you after myself not so that you would have to live in my shadow, but so that your name would hold power. And so that you would never have to work as hard as me, just rule. And pass on our legacy. You say you ain’t a street nigga, but I was. And look how far it got me. Now I’m the king, just like you will be. Kings never have to run the streets. We just go to meetings. Which brings me to the next topic.”
    When King David didn’t continue David Jr. assumed he wanted him to ask, so he did. “What’s that?”
    “We have a very important meeting a week from Saturday. At one p.m. sharp.”
    “We?”
    “We, as in you and me. You have a choice to make now. Either you come to the meeting with me and take your rightful place