Bad Apple - the Baddest Chick(49)
“Whateva!” Apple snarled back. “I just came to see how you were doing.”
“What did you f*ckin’ do, huh? You leave here, don’t go to your f*ckin’ sister’s funeral, and then you bring this nigga into my home. How dare you, bitch!” Denise screamed.
“Ma, you need to chill right now. I came up,” Apple replied.
“I need you to get this muthaf*cka out of my house. How dare you disrespect me like that? You done lost ya f*ckin’ mind, Apple! But I see you good now. You got this nigga taking care of you now, huh, Apple? After what you said he did to us, you betray your family and run into his f*ckin’ arms! Your sister needs to be here to kick your f*ckin’ ass!” Denise’s screams echoed throughout the rooms. Then she added, “The police came talking to me and shit, and where were you?”
“They came to you about what?” Apple asked.
“This nigga here.” Denise pointed at Supreme. Then she screamed at him, “You took her from me!” Enraged, Denise charged at him.
But Apple grabbed her mother by the arms and held her back a few feet, stopping the assault on her newfound man. She tussled with her mother then pushed her into the sink and shouted, “Ma, relax ya f*ckin’ self!”
Supreme decided to intervene, stepping between mother and daughter with a strong presence. He then looked down at Apple’s mother, his eyes set in a caring manner, and said to her, “Look, I’m sorry about what happened to your daughter, and I know there are some things being said about me. Shit ain’t true, but I’m here to make things right wit’ you.”
Supreme reached into his pocket and pulled out a wad of bills. Then he counted out five hundred dollars and pushed it into Denise’s hands as a peace offering.
A surprised Denise looked over at Apple and asked with her eyes, Is he for real?
Apple smiled. A good sum of money could easily shut her mother up and change her mood.
“And there’s more where that came from,” Supreme said, “if you just chill wit’ things. I’m not here to cause any trouble for you. I just wanna make it right.”
Denise took a seat at the weathered kitchen table and counted her money. She then took another pull from the cigarette, looked up at Apple and Supreme with a shift in her attitude, and asked, “So where you been at, Apple?”
“DC.”
“I would like to go next time. I never been anywhere.”
Supreme smiled. “Then I won’t forget you when we leave again.”
Denise smiled warily. The two women quickly reconciled with each other and decided to put their past behind them.
*****
It wasn’t long until Apple started to learn the loan-sharking and bookkeeping business with Supreme, who picked up on her skills and wanted to bank on it. Apple was fresh, but had ideas herself, and she saw how Supreme made the bulk of his money—using intimidation to get debtors to pay him back at a high interest.
Within weeks, Apple came to realize just how successful and devious Supreme was with the illicit business he ran. She began doing bookkeeping for him, managing his organization, and maintaining some of his debt collection records. She also managed a few of his real estate holdings. She saw the money he was bringing in and was turned on by it.
One of Supreme’s major loan-sharking schemes was through the restaurant businesses that occupied Harlem’s busy streets. He had implemented the scheme about a year earlier. He would take patrons’ credit card information when the failing restaurants couldn’t make their loan repayments. Sometimes, if the owners couldn’t pay him back, he demanded the credit card information of their customers by brute force and threats of death. Supreme would walk into several of the struggling businesses and lend the proprietors the money they needed to keep their businesses afloat, charging them exorbitant interest rates. Some he hit with the “juice” system—If a business received a loan of $10,000, then Supreme required them to pay an extra four points, which was $4000 or more a week.
The owners, scared to get any help from law enforcement, did what they needed to do to survive. Supreme would walk into the establishments under his domain, and he and his goons would eat for free, creating bills in the hundreds, sometimes thousands.
Supreme also had scouts going out into the streets of Harlem, and occasionally downtown Brooklyn, to look for potential victims he could invest in. His young scouts, young boys and girls ranging from ages fifteen to nineteen, would walk into different stores looking for the unfortunate ones who couldn’t afford the items and mostly window-shopped. His scouts would strike up a conversation with the customers, and with influence and game, before day’s end, get them to borrow the cash under the “juice” system, depending on the size of the loan. The customers had a certain amount of time to pay back the money borrowed, with the points added.
Supreme profited well from both schemes. If they couldn’t pay in time, then intimidation and violence followed. Sometimes he would threaten to kidnap family members and loved ones, guaranteeing to the debtors that every week they were late with payment, they would receive a piece of their loved ones in the mail. The women, they had two choices—Pay back in cash or work it off sexually. Supreme’s goons would rape them or occasionally force them to work as prostitutes or hostesses in sleazy nude underground spots throughout the city to pay off their debt.