“Why are you bringing this to me?”

  “Aren’t you a member of the Syndicate?”

  “Yeah, but why not Javon? You trying to set us up? Set me up?”

  “Fam, if we wanted you dead, you would be dead by now.”

  “How did you find me?”

  “That’s a ‘need to know’ thing and you don’t need to know. Turn and face the wall. Wait thirty seconds before leaving. If you leave before thirty seconds, I’ll blow up the whole place.”

  “You’re lying. You’ll still be in the building. You’ll kill yourself.”

  The man chuckled. “I’m already dead, fam.”

  “Where’s Javon?”

  “Wish we knew,” was all he said before I heard him and the woman running down the hall.

  Chapter 28

  Ms. Lily

  I heard moving around in the room upstairs. I knew that meant hell had awakened. I made my way upstairs. I pushed open the door of the room where Javon had been sleeping. His gun was placed in the center of my head before I could walk in the room.

  “Old woman,” he spat through clenched teeth, “give me one reason this bullet shouldn’t slow dance with your brain matter.”

  I stood unmoved. I was a trained assassin. Javon’s gun didn’t scare me. I didn’t care how big it was. It was light outside now. The morning had come. Javon had slept for a full eight hours.

  “You’re mad, as you have all right to be,” I said coolly. “But you should be mad at yourself for trusting so easily in this game. I simply put you to sleep, stubborn-ass boy. If I’d wanted to cause ya ill will, would I let ya keep a loaded gun, eh?”

  He frowned.

  “You been running around here like you in this fight alone. Like you ain’t got people who will go to war for you. The reason you ain’t got nowhere is because you think you Superman. You trying to figure it out all on ya own, and you don’t have to. You ain’t eating. Ain’t sleeping. Who you gone lead on low fuel, boy?” I said.

  “What the fuck did you do to me?” he asked.

  I sighed. “I just told you. I put you to sleep. You needed it. I put a little extra in the needle, too. You should feel livelier than ever. Be mad at me all you want, but Claudette was my best friend and she, too, started off shaky. She went through the same shit as you. Something similar. I ain’t having my best friend’s favorite son and best son die on my watch.”

  “You couldn’t find another way to do all this?” he questioned.

  “Would ya have listened to me if I had tried to talk rationally to ya? Ya stubborn like a jackass, like Claudette said you was. I been asking for days for you to come by here.”

  “I had shit to do, old woman!”

  “And? Ya missed pivotal information—”

  “I ain’t got time to sleep!”

  “But ya did. Nothing happened while ya slept, now did it? Shanelle was calling ya. Some fool named Lucky did, too. Called back to back.”

  Javon growled low in his throat then paced the room like a caged animal. “I have to go, Ms. Lily,” was all he said before storming down the stairs.

  I stood at the top of the stairs, watching him. “Fine by me, but, Javon?”

  He took a deep breath, then turned back around with a frown.

  “Ya Mama has peoples everywhere. All you gotta do is pay attention. You ain’t gotta go at it alone, ya hear? You ain’t gotta. But they need to trust ya, you see. They needs to know if you gon’ protect them and takes care of they families like Claudette did. Put out what she would call a bat signal, baby. See who all responds. All them bank accounts she had, the money needs to keep flowing into ‘charities.’ Got me, baby?”

  He gave a look that said he understood, but wasn’t too sure. “Okay,” he said.

  “When it’s time and you can sit and think awhile, it’ll come to you.”

  He nodded once. “I have to go now.”

  I said, “Because I loved her, I love all you strays, too. But you best kill that bitch, Melissa.”

  “I’ll handle it,” he said on his way out the door.

  “Javon,” I yelled. “Don’t you want to know what’s in the basement?”

  He didn’t answer me or didn’t hear me. Either way, ghosts were still in my basement.

  Chapter 29

  Uncle Snap

  A loud, shrill yell jerked me out of my sleep. Shit sounded like a banshee. For a second my mind was foggy. Flashes of the night before replayed in my mind. I’d gone to a place I hadn’t been in a while. Had Trey ride with me to find someone. Javon had gone missing. I wasn’t worried since the Thieves told me he had gone to talk to the old lady across the street.

  I needed a woman. Couldn’t just be any woman, though. It had to be a woman who could give me what I needed, one who looked like Mama. Trey took me to the Den. To make a long story short, the Den was where women gave you the time of your life for a price. I had never paid for pussy a day before in my life. But the Den had a woman there who looked like Claudette. I knew this because Mama kept the owner safe for a fee. The working woman was younger, but she looked like my woman. And, for a few hours last night, I was with my woman.

  Pathetic, I knew. Trey didn’t ask me any questions, just let me be free for a few hours. I couldn’t ask Javon to take me there. Didn’t want to embarrass myself that way in front of him. Didn’t want him to see me become so weakened without my woman that I had to seek out a working woman. I paid my share. The woman pretended to love me and only me for as long as I’d paid for it. And that was fine by me. Just needed to hold a warm body. Needed to drown myself between a pair of thighs, thick thighs, that reminded me of Claudette McPhearson.

  I asked her to wash in the soap Mama used to wash in. Asked her to spray herself with perfume Mama used to wear. She didn’t mind. The working woman didn’t mind at all. She saw men like me all the time, I bet. When she came from the bathroom, her hair was wet and wavy like Mama’s used to be when water hit it. Not that mixed silky shit. I meant the kinky kind of wet and wavy. The kind that caught a man’s fingers when he yanked and pulled on it.

  The steam and the dim lighting from the bathroom made it seem like she was an angel in disguise. She didn’t see me as an old man, either. I wasn’t an old man who felt aches and chills every now and again when he was out there in the streets. No, I was just a man needing a woman. She was thick like my woman used to be, too. She even smiled like Claudette. I didn’t know the working woman’s name. Didn’t even think to ask. She was Claudette to me.

  For about four hours I apologized to my woman for bringing her killer into her home.

  All those thoughts faded as I heard that woman crying again. I jumped from the bed, pulled on my slacks, and grabbed my gun. I rushed into the hall to find Shanelle, banging on Jojo’s door. Monty and Navy came running up the stairs.

  “What’s going on, Shanelle?” I asked.

  She shrugged. Niece had on nothing but a sports bra and shorts. She must have been scared; otherwise, she would never have shown herself in front of us that way. She banged on Jojo’s door like she was the Feds.

  “Jojo! Jojo, open the door,” she yelled.

  The door flung open and Dani ran out, holding a bloody lip, wailing at the top of her lungs.

  “What the hell?” Navy said then rushed into the room. I was right behind him.

  “What happened?” Shanelle wanted to know as she grabbed Dani to keep her from running down the stairs.

  Jojo sat up in bed looking like a deer stuck in headlights. His room was clean. Dani must have cleaned it. Jojo was messy. He had a wild look behind his glasses. “I ain’t mean to. I . . . she . . . I didn’t know it was her,” he said.

  Navy walked over then looked at Jojo. “Calm down, bro. Tell me what she did.”

  Jojo shut his eyes tight, squeezing them before opening them again. “She . . . she snatched the covers off me. I thought I was dreaming. She snatched the covers away. I thought she was them. I didn’t mean it. I don’t hit girls,” he pleaded.

  “Damn, nephew,” I said. We’d been through this before. There was certain shit you couldn’t do to Jojo or it would trigger a reaction. The same thing for Navy. You couldn’t say and do certain shit to them. Navy had damn near split a boy’s head open in high school. They were in the shower and the boy made the mistake of taking a joke too far. Told Navy to suck his dick. Claudette ended up having to pay for the boy’s medical and dental bills.

  Dani snatched the covers off Jojo, probably triggering him back to the most traumatic times of his life. The woman his mama had sold him to, Jojo told us, she used to snatch the covers off him at night when she was about to do something she shouldn’t have. Add that with the fighting he had to do in jail and Jojo probably woke up swinging.

  “I got it, y’all,” Navy said as he sat down on the bed beside his little brother. “Let me handle it. I got it,” he said.

  I didn’t have it in me to handle it anyway so I nodded. I backed Shanelle up out of the room. The front door opened downstairs and Monty rushed down to see who it was. I heard Javon asking where everyone was.

  “Up here, nephew,” I said while Shanelle took Dani into Mama’s old room to help her with her busted lip.

  He came bolting up the stairs two at a time. “The hell you been?” we both asked one another at the same time. I was the elder so he had to answer me before I did him. He knew this.

  “That old lady kidnapped me,” he said.

  “What old lady?” me and Monty asked at the same time.

  “Ms. Lily.”

  “What?” I asked.

  “Tell you about it later. We need to meet with Lucky. Strap up. We end this with Elias today.”

  I could tell nephew had a lot on his mind. I nodded. Went back to my room and dressed quickly. I could hear Javon telling Dani she had to leave the room for a minute. He and Shanelle argued about her staying behind. Javon yelled at her. Something he rarely did. He yelled at her, told her to sit the fuck down and listen to him for a change. For a second, I thought I was about hear furniture moving. I stepped out my room and saw Navy stick his head out Jojo’s door. Monty was looking upstairs. Dani had run downstairs. But the rest of us were waiting to make sure Shanelle and Javon didn’t revert to their old selves.

  “Gotdamn, Shanelle, why you always fighting me on some shit?” he snapped. “Listen to me, a’ight? Listen to me. I know you love me. I know you have my back. I don’t doubt that, but I got this, baby. I got it, okay? Stay here. Lock the house down. Protect our child. You owe me that. Remember? You owe me this child. You promised me. Keep your promise because I’ve kept every last one I made to you.”

  There was silence. No one was more shocked than me when I heard a light, “Okay,” from Shanelle. There was silence for a long while. I didn’t know what that “you owe me” stuff was about, but I figured it had to be deep for Shanelle to agree without a fight.

  Javon snatched the room door open. He nodded at me then looked at Navy.

  “Tell Jojo we’ll speak when I get back. Navy, I need you to be on your tech shit right now, okay? Get to the bunker, all right? Pull up the bank accounts. I’m going to give you a code. I want you to figure out which one of those accounts has the most charitable donations. See when Mama made the last donations. If they stopped right after she died, make double the donation. Melissa figured out who Mama had been paying and for what. That’s one of the reasons why our allies in the police department didn’t move faster getting Jojo out. That was how she was able to put a hit out on the three of you while in there. Get those payments sent out to all those ‘charities.’”

  I gave something akin to a smile as I watched nephew’s mind work. He then turned his attention to Monty. “The leaders of Rize will be here soon. Lock this place down. And I don’t care what Shanelle says, she is not to leave this house.”

  Monty quirked a brow then ran a hand through his long hair. I knew what he was thinking.

  I said, “Nephew, nobody trying to wrangle Shanelle’s ass but you.”

  Javon scoffed. “Y’all let her bully you too easily,” he said.

  “I heard that,” Shanelle yelled from the room.

  “Quiet, woman. Monty, she doesn’t leave this house,” Javon said, rushing down the stairs. He stopped abruptly then turned back to look at Monty. “For your safety, don’t give her a gun unless it’s absolutely necessary.” Javon gave a quick smirk then glanced at me. “Come on, Unc.”

  That boy had a fire under his ass. I didn’t know where it had come from, but I liked it.

  “Lucky got some info for us. Said some people came to his hotel room and delivered the location of Elias and his team,” Javon said.

  I strapped my seat belt on while looking at Javon, who was pulling out of our driveway. “How do we know this ain’t a setup?” I asked.

  “Lucky said the man was in a cloak.”

  “Like the man Shanelle said she chased through the neighborhood?”

  He nodded. “Allies?”

  “I believe so.”

  “Lucky sent some of his men to scope the location.”

  “And?”

  “Elias and all his men are there just like the people said.”

  I asked, “So what now?”

  “We end this.”

  It was silent in the truck until we got on the expressway until Javon told me what happened to him the night before. Told me about Ms. Lily, an ally I didn’t know Mama had. That was how Claudette worked, though. She never told everybody everything, not even me. Javon told me about how Ms. Lily had said Mama had allies everywhere. They were just waiting on him to reach out. It made sense, especially since things had been so touch and go. Shit wasn’t working like the well-oiled machine it should have been and now we knew why. Melissa had fucked us good. I still couldn’t believe it. Javon didn’t know how much that shit ate away at me. To know I’d brought Mama’s killer to her.

  “What about Melissa?” I asked.

  Javon said, “Haven’t been able to find her, but we will. I’m confident we will.”

  Chapter 30

  Melissa

  Pussy-ass men can’t do a damn thing for the enlightenment and elevation of women. Let me say that again. Pussy-ass men can’t do a damn thing for the enlightenment and elevation of women. Pussy-ass men are only good for two things: dick, and always finding ways to break a woman down. When a man shows himself to be a pussy-ass man, there’s only one thing a woman can do. Milk him for what he’s worth and use his dick game, only if it’s good, until you’re ready to move on.

  I lived by that code for years. Throughout those years, it kept me safe until I met Elias. He fooled me into thinking that he wasn’t a pussy-ass male. I thought that maybe he would be worthy of being one of my high-esteemed lovers, but sure enough, his true colors came out. He twisted me by my own game. He took my petty jealousies and cosigned them to the point that I began to believe the house that once saved me was really holding me back from greatness. Elias, smart as he was, led me to being dumb right along with him. I called him dumb now, because I now knew who Elias was and I was disgusted to my soul. I was also frightened.

  When I was at Mama’s grave, I left my tears and regret there. I left my pain and anger there as well. I yelled, and blamed her for not saving me fast enough. For Uncle Snap not coming sooner to get me out of the brothel. I slapped my hands against her stone, mad at myself for killing her and starting this war that was going to wipe out her legacy. I really didn’t want that, but I did. I mean, if it could keep everyone else out of harm’s way then so be it.

  The tears that fell from my swollen eyes as I was bound to my chair were the evidence of my grief. Yes, I had turned on my family in the worst way. Set them up for failure. At the end of the day, I didn’t know how to save them, or redeem myself, until I heard voices. My struggles with my captors kept me calm. I listened hard, learning that they were Elias’s men. Relief hit me in finding that out because I knew that I could survive this if I played it smart. Which was what I did.

  I played the scared mouse. I struggled against my bindings as a means of a show for them. I let them believe that they had won the upper hand, every day becoming cocky. And, everyone knows, cocky mouths make easy marks. Every day little slips of information came my way. Elias was the son of the former chair of the Syndicate, Delanna Gallo. That woman was dead now and he was aiming to take her spot. More little pieces revealed allowed me to deduce that Elias’s quest for vengeance was just another power play. I gathered that he wanted the Syndicate for himself.

  It was then that I realized how much of a pawn I really had been in the whole situation. I knew he had pissed me off and that I didn’t like being manipulated by him, but to realize that it was all just to get the Syndicate? Anger had me riled up. It had me thinking back to the lessons Mama gave me. Lesson one: keep a blade on you at all times. Be it your shoes, your hair, your earrings, your nails, even your pussy or mouth. Keep a weapon on you at all times.

  Mine happened to be my ring, which popped out a blade that I used to cut myself with. I used that as a deterrent. Once the men saw me sobbing and crying and bleeding too much, they had no choice but to untie me. Once they did, I used that moment to take one’s gun and take down my two captives, all blindfolded. Shit seemed impossible, but it happened.

  I grew up living in the dark of a brothel. Watching women give their bodies, and taking money. Those skills of survival had been in me before Mama. The ability to fight I learned from Shanelle, studying her and modeling my fighting style from her. My family had taught me a lot, which I was able to be grateful to now. I had messed up. I gave a seed of truth about Elias to Javon, and now I wanted my payback. I too knew people in interesting places and, if I knew Elias, those places were where he was going to head.

  After escaping, I cleaned myself up and made some calls while laying low for some days. I knew that Elias would be looking for me; however, if he really was going to war, I figured that it would distract him in hunting me down. So, I decided to send trustworthy eyes to watch him: one of my dancer friends. It was her duty to tell me everything he was doing, from afar. I needed this time so that if Elias caught me again, I had something to contribute in the event of my possible death.