10,000 Hours With A Rich Menace (Caselli Family Book 1)

“I called and double checked if the pasta is made from scratch. You hate that boxed mess, and I would rather know before you try and throw somebody through the window,” Jeffie informed me, never looking up from her iPad.

I pulled my eyes away from the window, wondering if she slept with that damn iPad. It was never away from her. Whenever you saw Jeffie, just know you saw that iPad right with her.

Duke, my armed guard and driver, looked into the rearview and nodded before he got out. In the back of my Rezvani Vengeance, I was untouchable. It wasn’t only bullet proof; the shit had a military armored package on it.

I’ve always known the Eaton name was powerful, and the amount of power my wicked ass uncle had was something I probably would never understand unless I was in his position. I was now in his position, and I realized that our family had our hands into everything.

That Eaton name made the entire world rotate, and when I took over, I held that power in my hands, and now the Caselli name made the world go ‘round. I couldn’t move like I used to, and I had to be ten times smarter because there were men who wanted my position.

Weirdos probably woke up thinking of the day that they could take out Menace Caselli. If I learned one thing about my uncle, it was to trust no one. That was easy for me because I was naturally fucking paranoid, which is why I stayed to myself.

Here I was wiping my uncle out because of the fuck shit he did to my parents, only to step into a role where there were men out there in the world that wanted to kill me. They would never admit it, and they would shake hands with me and make deals while seething on the inside. Added with the fact that I knew every government official’s dirty secrets. I wasn’t foolish enough to think because they spent money with me that they wouldn’t snake me.

You see how the fuck they did Malcolm X, and the founder of the Black Panthers. When it came to those bitches, they liked to hold shit over your head, not the other way around.

To make sure nobody decided to start feeling themselves, I had security with me at all times, and I drove around in this fucking tank. Duke knocked on the back window and Jeffie looked at me, as she checked her gun in her purse, and I leaned forward, and grabbed mine from the divider between us.

Hopping out, I put my gun in the back of my sweats, rounded the truck and went into the restaurant. There were thousands of restaurants within the city, however, this one was a special one. Any time I came to this restaurant meant I was meeting with the other founding families of Staten Island.

I made sure Jeffie was in front of me as she pulled her purse onto her arm, and Duke watched my back as we entered the restaurant. “What do you think this meeting is for? They don’t ever call a meeting randomly like this… you nervous?” she whispered as we entered the restaurant.

“The fuck I need to be nervous for… those niggas breathe the same as I do.” I looked around the dark restaurant with ambient lighting.

I usually hated coming here because you could barely see your food or the menu. They were so busy trying to create the ambiance that I was going blind trying to read the menu or examine my food.

Jeffie shook her head. “Aside from Karter, you are the youngest at the table. You should be at least a little worried about this meeting.”

I wasn’t nervous because I always played my part. The Caselli family didn’t make any noise unless noise needed to be made. We were quiet, and not too many people knew about us unless they were about to be dealt with. I ran shit peaceful and never made much noise because I didn’t have to.

The Eaton name was loud while the Caselli name was quiet. “You worry too much.”

She snorted. “My job is to worry about you, Maverick.”

Jeffie knew I hated whenever someone called me by my government name, and she was one of the only people that honor was extended to. Jeffie was my family, and at times I liked to call her my savior. She knew me better than anybody, and she often pulled me in when I felt myself slipping away. Aside from Corleon, she was someone who knew everything about me.

Even if Jeffie told me tomorrow she couldn’t work for me, she would always be taken care of. She had a loyalty that you didn’t find anywhere else in the world, and for the Caselli’s that meant everything.

Loyalty wasn’t something that was always extended to us.

From Kora to Zoya to Landon, she had a relationship with each of us. I knew we drove her ass crazy at times, too. We all had grown up together, and there was a bond between all of us that couldn’t be broken.

“You need to focus on your own life, too, feel me?”

She cut her eyes at me as we continued toward the back of the restaurant. “We both need to focus on our own lives. Kora, Zoya, and Landon are grown, and you need to worry about your own now.”

Waiters pulled the curtains back, and we entered the room with a dining table. Awaiting at the table was Ghost, Rahmeek, and Karter.

“Meeting in the middle of the day… dramatic much?” I stood at the top of the table, knowing that none of them would move to dap me up.

I was particular about people touching me. It took nearly five years for me and Corleon to embrace. They all understood and respected that it was love and nothing personal.

“You’re a busy man, Menace… plus, I got some other shit coming up, so this needed to be done now.” Ghost was the first one to speak.

“Who the fuck died?” I asked, as I slumped down in the chair on the other side of the table. Jeffie made her rounds hugging each man, as they asked how she was doing.

After her little greeting parade, she finally sat her ass down beside me and pulled her iPad out to work, which is what she usually did at these meetings.

In between eating, she would work while we hashed out whatever the meeting was being called for. Today, she wasn’t so into her iPad because she wanted to know why the fuck we were here in the middle of the day.

“Your family’s role within the three families.” Rahmeek cleared his throat, cutting into his bleeding ass steak.

“Beating around the bush hasn’t been something we’ve ever done, so why we about to start now?” I questioned, sitting up in the chair, snatching the menu from the waiter.

I always knew what I wanted before I came to a restaurant. Even though I didn’t eat out much and had a chef at home that would prepare me whatever I wanted. I couldn’t focus on the menu because I wanted to know the true reason for this meeting and why the fuck they wanted to talk about the Caselli’s role within the three families.

“You right.” Ghost cleared his throat, taking back his drink before looking at me. “When you came to us about the problem you had with your uncle, we gave you the approval to proceed and take his role within the three families.”

“And for that you always have my respect and loyalty. There’s nothing that you can’t ask for when it comes to me… have I not been loyal to each of you niggas?”

Karter nodded. “You already know.”

Rahmeek finished chewing his food before he spoke. “You have. However, you’re a man that always holds up his end of the bargain, and you haven’t.”

“The fuck is he talking about, Ghost?” I turned my attention to Ghost who sat at the head of the table looking between me and Rahmeek.

“You’ve been able to step into your uncle’s role, even changing the family’s name. The one thing we asked was that you take on a wife and produce an heir… which you haven’t done.”

“Fuck,” I grumbled under my breath.

“Yeah, fuck,” Karter mocked, clearly tickled that it wasn’t him up on the chopping block this meeting.

“You wiped your family out, Menace… while I respect and support your reasons, because my daughter, Skye, was impacted by the sick shit that your uncle has done… you gave your word and now it’s time for you to stand on it. You need an heir and a wife… I don’t care the order.”

“His ass needs a wife… someone to calm his ass down. Free is my voice of reason, the calm within my storm.”

Rahmeek took back his drink and nodded his head. “Giovanna is the same to me. As much as I handle business, she’s always that voice of reason and has been that for years. Every strong man has a smart woman beside him.”

I looked at Karter who nodded his head in agreement. “Star is my life… couldn’t do what I do without her. As much as we never agree with these old heads, I have to side with them this time, Mens. I’m able to run Kew because of my wife.”

“I agree,” Jeffie added, and I nearly snapped my neck turning to look at her traitor ass. She was acting like my name wasn’t on those deposits that went into that account. “Sorry, Mav… you do need a wife. You have to start worrying about putting down some roots of your own.”

Ghost smiled at Jeffie. “Listen to my girl. She has kept you from going off the rails for years… she knows a thing or two.”

I leaned back in my seat and looked at all of them. “This a meeting to talk shit about how Menace lives his life… why he don’t got a bitch.”

“Not a bitch… a wife,” Rahmeek corrected.

“And an heir… you have neither,” Ghost reminded me. “We need to know if something happens to you, you have that heir who will step in for your family.”

“Landon would step in.”

“He’s not an heir,” Ghost countered.

“So? How many times has Staten stepped in for you at times?”

Ghost wiped his hands and sighed. “Steps in for me… not runs shit for me. I have a son who will step in.”

“Same. Lennox will step in when it’s time,” Rahmeek added.

I looked at Karter. “Nigga, I got my heir… being that the Vanducci and Cromwells are roped into one family technically, I’m good.” He polished off the rest of his drink. “They had the same talk with me… can’t help you out, homie.”

I rubbed my hands together and looked at them becoming anxious and annoyed at the same time. This wasn’t the conversation that I thought I would be having today. We could have discussed any damn thing, not this.

“The fuck y’all want me to do? Find some random bitch off the street and make a child with her?”

“How the fuck else you think kids are made? You got to actually touch a woman, Mens.” Ghost laughed.

Even Jeffie’s messy ass snickered while pretending to look at her phone. “Getting pussy is never the problem… these bitches,” I shuttered.

“Kim is not that bad, Mav… you are way too hard on her. She’s not perfect, no woman is perfect. You’re never going to find the perfect woman.” Jeffie gave me the same speech that she seemed to have programmed in her brain.

“Kids are fucking dirty…. Landon was the worst growing up. Nigga liked to play in the dirt…willingly,” I expressed.

Ghost and Rahmeek both laughed. “You made us a deal… we came through on our end… you need to come through on yours. I would hate to cut you out that import deal that we have with the Delgatos and Infernos… you not hurting for money, but the money we’ll make from that deal…” Ghost whistled.

I don’t know why they didn’t just have me meet them at a gas station. They had us meet at this restaurant and I didn’t have a fucking appetite because my mind was in overdrive. The thought of finding a woman to share my space with and produce a child with sounded like fucking torture. They should have just whooped my ass and tossed me in a cage.

Scooting my ass across hot coal sounded more pleasing than having to be nice to some bitch that I didn’t want, just to produce a child and give her my last name.

A child that was full of fucking germs and coming from the mama who was a germ. The shit had my chest tight just thinking about it. “Mens, you alright?” Jeffie had the nerve to ask.

She looked at me picking the skin on my thumb, and I stopped and focused my attention back to the three dick wads who decided to ruin my life this afternoon. “Yeah.”

“Kim isn’t that bad, and she would make a good wife for you.”

I looked at Jeffie like she had spit in my face. “Wow, now I have to tell Corleon that you doing that shit now… why put me in that awkward situation, Jeff?”

She rolled her eyes. “Kim is very nice, and she actually put up with you… came when you called. I would say she would make a great wife and mother.”

“And I would say sleeping with dolphins is also safe, Jeffie.”

Ghost chuckled. “My daughters swam with dolphins… they had a ball.”

“And I should call CPS on you and Free.” I pointed across the table, snatching my phone up because I was ready to go.

“Mens don’t risk being put out of this deal… get married and produce an heir… or step away as the third family,” I heard one of them call behind me.

My name was powerful, and I had connections all over the world. I had the world at my fingertips so the threat of not being the third founding family of Staten Island shouldn’t have meant shit.

Except, it meant everything.

In a time when everything was so murky, Ghost and Rahmeek trusted my word and took me under their wing. As everything was being turned over to me, and our name was being switched, it was them who was there to help me keep my head in order.

As much as I couldn’t wait for the day to end my uncle, it wasn’t as easy wiping out my family. It was something that kept me up some nights. All of them deserved hell, but it was different when you had to be the person sending them there.

Stepping back as the third founding family meant losing that connection. That sense of family that we had built. We weren’t the closest, and I didn’t spend holidays with them. Still, I knew when I picked up that phone and needed a favor, they didn’t hesitate to come through for me. If I couldn’t be there for one of my siblings, I knew without a doubt that the Davis and Vanducci-Cromwell’s would step in and take them under their wing. That was what the founding families offered each other.

Loyalty.

Security.

It wasn’t some shit that could be bought or spoken about, these men had stepped up and showed me that they would be on the front lines, and I have done the same for them.

“And allow the fucking Amante family to step into my position? I killed for this shit… deserve to be in this position.”

Rahmeek nodded in a proud father type of way. “Then do what needs to be done…that import deal is too big for you to step away from. I don’t care how many billions you have.”

I turned to leave as Jeffie went to say her goodbyes, and I pulled my phone out. Don’s ass had called me hella times like I was his bitch or something. I picked up the phone and hit his name and listened to the call connect.

“Yo, we got a problem.”

“Meet me at my crib,” I replied and ended the call.

It was always we had a fucking problem, and never Menace we got you a gift for being great.

Jeffie caught up to me, and I made sure she was in front of me as I held the door open for her, then walked around and hopped in the back. “Take me to the crib, D.”

“Got it, boss.”

I pulled my phone out my pocket as I scrolled all the Case House requests while picking with my skin. “Stop doing that… we’ll figure it out.”

“I don’t remember him saying you had to marry some bitch and get her pregnant.”

Jeffie snorted as she laughed. “We don’t need to focus on that right this second… I think the guys just want to see some progress that it is happening. They don’t expect you to fall in love, get married and have an heir all at the same time.”

I denied a request for one of our Case House girls and then closed out the app, putting my head back to enjoy the rest of the ride back to my house. It was rare that I left my house for anything.

My crib was designed so I never had to leave that bitch. The only time I left the crib was to leave the country, and that was to make money. I spent most of my time alone, aside from when Jeffie was around.

How the fuck was I supposed to open my heart and allow someone in? Shit sounded impossible. Kim was good because she knew how to open her mouth to suck dick, and her legs to take it. After that, I usually sent her on the way because she got on my nerves.

Whenever I was around Kim, I felt overstimulated. From how much perfume she used to her nails clacking on her phone when she would send a text message. Not to mention the bitch kept the typing sound on her phone.

Every time she came around me, I always weighed my options on how bad it would be if I killed her. Shit, it wasn’t like she was useful for shit anyway. Bitch was always doing shit to fucking get me mad.

We been distant since I threw her out the villa in Monaco and accused her of fucking dogs – which I still had a suspicion of.

There wasn’t the right woman out there for me. My own siblings barely wanted to be around me, so how was there a woman out there for me when my blood barely came around. I mean, shit, I couldn’t really blame them.

I wasn’t the most pleasant brother growing up, and I had did some shit that some of them would never forgive me for. I always moved in love because I wanted to protect them. They never saw that part though; it was always me being the bad guy – ruining their lives.