making sure he was far away from Rhonnie. Sadie focused her attention on the other two men sitting at the table. They hadn’t said a word, and instead were observing the scene. The older one was known as King Dex. He, too, was a kingpin in Nebraska, but the two of them had agreed to coexist peacefully. He not only had a work ethic that she admired, but his love for the hustle was vintage. He ran his business out of sight the same way she did, and that was something Sadie respected. She had placed the offer on the table for King Dex to join The Last Kings, but he respectfully declined at that time. This go-around, Sadie thought it would be different. Especially since no one who wasn’t a Last King would have access to Vita E Morte.
Next to King Dex was a young man who had gotten Sadie’s attention within the past year. She’d been keeping tabs on him after the death of his older brother, Cane Anderson. See, Cane didn’t just have love in his city, he was all around the world with it. Sadie had put some money in his pockets by hiring him to put in some work for her after they met. He was a good kid who grew to be an even better man. She heard that L.A. wept when he passed, and she regretted not being able to make the funeral. It was rumored that L.A.’s kingpin, Dubb, had something to do with Cane’s death, and soon after the funeral, he was dead too. The story was what piqued her interest, but Cane’s little brother, Cyril, was what kept it.
He didn’t know it, but he had the eyes of the biggest drug operation on him the moment he accepted the role of L.A.’s new kingpin. At first, she had plans to send Rhonnie in to exterminate him so that they could move in on L.A.’s territories, because what did a kid like him know about being the head of a major operation? But then she remembered she was his age when they started The Last Kings. Instead of killing him, she decided to give him a chance.
She watched him closely and saw him come into himself. In a year’s time, Cyril became five times the boss of what Sadie expected him to be. He moved work faster than anyone she’d ever seen, and his operation was solid. What she liked most about him was that he was smart and he didn’t make decisions based on emotion. All of his moves were calculated, and that was why she approached him with her offer. Unlike King Dex, Cyril welcomed the opportunity of being part of a bigger family. Instead of needing a connect, he now was the connect for L.A., and Sadie was able to expand without another murder on her hands. Needless to say, when she called and told him about a new business opportunity, he was right there.
“What’s up, Sadie.” He nodded at her.
“I’m glad you could make it, Cyril. You too, King Dex.”
“I’m just hoping it was worth the trip,” King Dex said in a dull tone. “I hope you’re not trying to talk me into joining The Last Kings again.”
“Actually, I’m not,” Sadie said, smirking at him. “But by the time I’m done talking, you’ll be begging for a throne to sit on.”
“Is that right?”
“That’s right,” she confirmed. “Everybody get comfortable and pay close attention to what I’m about to say.”
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw movement by the stairs. When she looked, she realized that it was just Brayland switching positions with the soldiers who had been manning the basement. It was apparent that he really didn’t want to miss what was going on down there. Sadie didn’t care. She knew Ahli was just going to tell him everything later anyway. She powered on the two devices on the table and grabbed the wireless mouse for the laptop. She then directed everyone’s attention to the wall the projector was shooting on. She’d put together a slideshow for them all to view, and the first slide was three words in big, slanted letters. Walking to the wall, she used her finger to point while looking at them all.
“‘Vita E Morte,’” Sadie read aloud. “The future of The Last Kings.”
“Vita E Morte?” Arrik asked, making a confused face. “That sounds like a TV show or some shit. What the fuck is that?”
“I’m glad you asked, and so nicely, too,” Sadie said sarcastically before continuing. “Some people believe that drugs poison the world, and in a sense, they do. But we can’t ignore the fact that they often help more than they hurt. It all comes down to the user. The problem lies in the quantity of intake. The need.”
“But isn’t the need what brings the customer back?” King Dex asked.
“This is true, but we can’t ignore the danger of the large quantities people choose to indulge in, nor can we ignore the fake dealers who sell drugs equivalent to toxic waste.”
“So you want us, the drug dealers, to sympathize with the fiends?” Arrik asked, raising a brow.
“No, that’s not what I’m asking at all,” Sadie said, shaking her head with the hint of a smirk on her lips. “Arrik, do you know the one drug everyone always comes back to because it’s safe?”
“Shit, weed?”
“Ding ding! You are correct. Marijuana is the right answer. But the problem with weed is that the high wears off fast. And that’s why people search for a higher and longer-lasting high. There is a reason why it is called a gateway drug.”
“But gateway drugs have always been good for the comeback clientele,” Cyril pitched in.
“But are they really? The drugs inside those gates may have a stronger high, but they’re not long-lasting either. So they indulge in things like cocaine, heroin, and meth in large quantities,” Sadie stated and clicked the mouse in her hand to go to the next slide, which was a page filled completely with names in small font. “As you know, The Last Kings keeps a tally of their most prominent clients. What you’re looking at right now is a list of deceased clients around the country who died from an overdose in the past year. Almost two hundred names are on this list.”
“Two hundred?” Legacy chuckled, looking from the slide back to Sadie. “That list isn’t nearly as big as the list of living clients. Not only that, but with all of the expansions, especially Los Angeles, we can easily replace the ones we’ve lost, and fast.”
“True, but how fast can we do that? And who’s to say more won’t die off in that time?” Sadie asked and went to the next slide. “I took the liberty of calculating what each one of those names spent on our product alone in two years, and I came up with this number.”
“Ten million dollars,” Ahli read aloud.
“Roughly,” Sadie said. “I’m very wealthy, and even to me that number seems alarming. At the rate the economy is going, with the heightening of depression and anxiety in this country, I can see that number doubling in a year’s time. People are killing themselves with the high that’s supposed to make them feel better. Yeah, like you said, Legacy, we can expand even more to make up for what we’ve lost. But even doing that, there are startup costs for a new location, hiring people I can trust to run the operation, and distribution.”
“So, what are you saying?” Arrik asked. “I’m sure you didn’t have me travel all the way here from Nebraska to tell me two hundred people died this year for being greedy with their high.”
“You’re very right.” Sadie nodded. “I understand that we are just the dealers and that, once the drugs are out of our hands, what the user decides to do with them is on them. I also understand that there is nothing I can do to prevent someone from overdosing if they choose to intake a high quantity of drugs. We’ve already said that weed is the one drug everyone goes back to. Can anybody tell me why?”
“Because you may be a little sluggish or hungry, but you’re still you,” Cyril answered when everyone else failed to. “Coke, pills, and all that other shit changes you, and I think people know that. So they go back to weed, but—”
“The high wears off fast, putting them back in the same boat,” Sadie finished for him. “But what would you all say if I told you that I have a solution to that?”
“And that solution is this . . . Vita stuff?” King Dex asked as if the thought amused him. “You say that as if you’ve made a new drug.”
“Yes,