“I’m letting you out here,” he said, looking straight ahead. I stared at his balding head. “And, Sierra?”

  “Yes, Paul?” I asked.

  “Be careful.”

  I understood then why Paul didn’t look back at me. He might not have let me out of the car if he did. But he was loyal to my mother and knew that her work couldn’t die with her. I leaned up and kissed him on his cheek.

  “I’m an orphan, Paul. My mother is dead. I never knew my father. Even if I didn’t want to do this, I would. It’s all I know.”

  Paul nodded his head slowly and handed me a set of keys.“These will get you into every locked room in the house,” he said as I took the keys.

  I pulled a black face mask over my face and instead of responding, I checked the clip to my gun again and, without another word, I got out of the vehicle with the duffle bag slung over my shoulder and sprinted toward the house. All the homes were large, and, even in the dark, I could tell they were beautiful. I was thankful the house was in Hyde Park. I didn’t have to worry about anyone being outside that time of night.

  It didn’t take long for me to get to the big white house, and when I did, I saw the black Chevy Tahoe parked a few houses down. I checked my surroundings before sprinting to the back of the house, moving in the shadows. I used one of the keys Paul gave me to open the back door and quickly shut it behind me.

  My mother’s scent invaded my nostrils, and my legs threatened to give way under me. My stomach filled with knots as I remembered seeing her severed body in the box. I shook the thought from my head because I knew I had to finish what I set out to do. I hadn’t allowed myself to mourn my mother just because a part of me was still in denial.

  I forced myself to remember Neffy’s instructions and used them to guide me through the house, using my flashlight and keeping my gun raised. I was careful not to look at or touch anything until I reached the kitchen and spotted the door Neffy said led to the cellar. I used another of the keys Paul gave me to unlock that door and cautiously walked down the stairs. Once my feet were planted on the cellar floor, I flashed my light on the wall to my right in search of the light switch.

  I flipped the switch and lit up the entire cellar. “Now, where the fuck is this door?” I said to myself, setting my gun and flashlight down.

  The cellar had a bar and was filled with bottles of wine. I smiled because I knew this wasn’t my mother’s forte. Smooth had taste. Everything, including the bar, was made of fine marble, and the walls were filled with pictures of him with my mother. My eyes fell on a life-size picture hanging on the wall, separated by every other photo. It was a picture of my father by himself. He stood next to a Lexus dressed in a suit with a smile plastered on his face. One hand was in his suit pants pocket, and the other was up like he was waving at somebody. He was handsome, and my mother was right. I was the spitting image of him. His hair was just as red as mine, and the freckles on his light skin were the mirror image of my own. The only difference was our eyes. I had my mother’s hazel eyes.

  I smiled at the picture, suddenly forgetting why I was in the cellar in the first place. I walked up to the tall picture until I was eye to eye with Smooth. I never knew him, but I felt closer to him at that moment like I’d known him. I was him. Without thinking, my hand raised and pressed where his hand was in the picture. I imagined what it would feel like if our palms touched, and just as I was about to withdraw my hand, I felt warmth beneath it and heard a click behind the picture. Instinct made me jump back as the wall behind the picture suddenly opened like a door. The hidden door.

  Instead of standing there dumbfounded, I pushed the door open more and stepped through it. What I saw took my breath away. I was now in an artillery room. Weapons were hung up and covered all four walls. The room wasn’t very large, but it was big enough. In the center stood a table, and on it, at least 200 bricks of pure cocaine. My duffle bag was big, but it wasn’t big enough to take it all. It could probably fit fifty in it. I didn’t want to leave anything behind, so I put it upon myself to make four trips to and from the truck. Risky, but I refused to leave any behind. I even planned to take some of the guns and explosives that caught my attention on the wall.

  Everything was going without a hitch, but on the last trip, I began to bag the last of the product when I suddenly heard footsteps above me. I paused to make sure I wasn’t going out of my mind, but then I began hearing voices.

  “Fuck,” I said aloud and zipped up the bag.

  I slung it over my shoulder and shut the hidden door, not knowing when I would need to visit it again. I figured they were robbers who noticed the house had been untended for a few days. I didn’t care to preserve anything in the place just because it meant nothing to me. I was quiet as I listened to the voices upstairs. I could tell they were in the kitchen by how well I could make out their words. I went and grabbed my gun and flashlight from where I’d set them down and proceeded to go through the window in the cellar to get to the truck.

  “Jah!” I heard a man’s muffled voice say, and I stopped in my tracks. “Where you think this bitch kept it at?”

  Jah? I thought to myself.

  “I don’t know, Smoke,” I heard another man’s voice say. “But I know it’s in this house. The way Smooth and Chleo used to keep this muhfucka guarded, I know it’s here.”

  “I still can’t believe Lou hacked that bitch to pieces, and she still ain’t sing,” the other voice spoke again as I heard them moving around the house.

  “Well,” Jah said, “she was a little too much like her dead husband—stupid muhfuckas. I think I let her live a little too long. I should have had her killed the same night Smooth died. This shit has dragged on for years. I had to play my cards right, but don’t trip. Chleo never told me when she copped. I just knew she had it. But this time, she let it slip that she had just re-upped. I knew then that it was time for Chicago to see a king again. She was too soft in the streets. If it wasn’t me, it would have been somebody else.”

  More words were spoken, but my blood was boiling. Jah killed my mother? Jah was Smooth’s right-hand man. My mother constantly spoke of his loyalty to her. But it made sense now. Smooth didn’t tell him the information that he told my mother. I understood why. He’d set my father up, and now, he’d killed my mother. I dropped the flashlight in my hands and began making my way up the stairs, prepared to kill Jah and the other man whose voice I heard. But before I could open the door, I heard several more footsteps and more muffled voices. Jah was barking out instructions to what seemed like a small army, and I knew I couldn’t do much. I was positive every man in the room was armed. I weighed my options and decided now wasn’t the time to wage war. I’d die. Instead, I bounded back down the stairs.

  “That’s the door to the cellar. Shoot that muhfucka open,” I heard Jah say when I was halfway back down the stairs.

  I didn’t skip a beat. My footsteps were loud as I ran down the remaining stairs.

  “Jah . . . Jah, I think somebody is down there!”

  Go, I willed myself.

  As they shot at the door leading to the cellar, I shot out the window leading me out of the house. I threw the huge duffle bag out the window, and just as I heard the footsteps bounding down the stairs, I hoisted myself through the window.

  “Shoot them!” I heard somebody shout behind me, but I was already gone and in a sprint to where Paul was parked a little ways away, waiting for me.

  Chapter 3

  Once I was inside the vehicle, Paul sped off. My heart was racing, and I kept looking behind me in paranoia, hoping nobody had followed me. We drove back to the new house without stopping. When I got to the house, it had to be almost two o’clock in the morning. The neighborhood was still, and nobody was outside, although a few lights were on. We pulled into the driveway and noticed Neffy’s light was still on, and I knew it was because she was waiting on me to get home safely. I needed some fresh air and time to take in my newfound knowledge. I rolled down my window and sat there for almost five minutes before deciding to move the product into the house.

  Paul opened my door and let me out, and just as I was about to start walking, I saw a shadowy figure approaching me. My instinct was to grab my gun and aim it.

  “Whoa!” I saw the boy from across the street standing beside the car with his hands up. “I just saw y’all sitting here for a long time. I was just coming to make sure you were straight.”

  The look on his face was sincere, but I still took my sweet time lowering my gun. I looked at Paul, who looked ready to shoot the dude himself, and let him know it was okay. He nodded and got back inside of the car to back it up to the garage. The boy’s eyes traveled to the bag I held, and his eyes got big.

  “Yo, what the fuck?” he said. “You some type of queen pin or something?”

  I didn’t respond. Instead, I went to press the code to open the garage.

  “You need help?” the boy said, and I just stared at him.

  “No thanks,” I said bitterly.

  I contemplated whether I should let him live as I began unloading the car. He’d seen too much; he was a liability. When I was finished, I turned back to him.

  “I knew you were leaving on some gangster shit,” the boy continued. “Now I guess you either have to kill me . . . or cut me in. That has to be at least a million dollars’ worth of bricks right there.”

  “Glad to know you know your math.” I glared at him with my trigger finger itching.

  He saw my finger move and shook his head, placing his hand on his brush cut.

  “So, since you gon’ kill a nigga anyway, just do me a favor and set my grandma up real nice. I’ve caused her enough trouble in my 26 years of life,” he told me, accepting his fate. “But before you pull that trigger, I think I have a right to know who’s taking my life.”

  I studied his physique and stared at the determined look on his face. I didn’t know him from a can of paint, but something told me to trust him.

  “What’s your name?”

  “Calvin,” he answered.

  “Well, Calvin, my name is Sierra Thompson, daughter of Chleo and Smooth Thompson. Everyone calls me Fire because of my hair.”

  Calvin’s eyes got big and instantly shot to my red hair.

  “Ain’t that about a bitch,” he said, shaking his head again. “You look just like that nigga.”

  “You knew him?”

  “No, but he did some business with my uncle back in the day. If Chleo is your mother, what you doing in a neighborhood like this? She runs the streets. Why aren’t you in a mansion somewhere?”

  “She’s dead,” I said, shutting the back door of the truck and turning to face him again. I didn’t know why I was telling him everything, but some part of me felt the need to say it aloud. “She was murdered three days ago, and her body was delivered hacked into pieces at my front door. The niggas who did it were at the place where I had to grab this shit from. Trying to get it for themselves . . . It was my father’s partner. His best friend. He was also my mother’s business partner when my father was murdered. I found out tonight he was behind both deaths. Now I’m alone. The only thing my mother taught me how to do is kill. She never got around to showing me how to run an empire. So I’m stuck with $4 million worth of cocaine, and I’m supposed to continue my parents’ legacy . . . but all I can think about is killing the nigga responsible for it all. Jah.”

  Calvin was quiet. He just stood and stared intently into my eyes with his dark brown ones, and his chocolate brown skin glistened in the night. I couldn’t read the expression on his face, but what he said next shocked me.

  “Let’s kill him,” he finally said in all seriousness.

  “What?” I asked, looking dumbfounded.

  “If I help you kill him, then you let me live and get in on everything you have going on. My uncle knew your father. He lives in New York right now and, to your luck, is looking for a new connect. By one look at you, he’ll know you’re legit. Only thing is, I won’t give you any of his information until you give me your word.”

  I laughed. “You don’t know me.Why would you help me? You could be setting me up. How do I know that putting a bullet in your head won’t be a lot safer for me?”

  “I don’t have to. A little behind-the-scenes from me. A few years ago, I was a little heavy in the streets, making my money how I knew how. A nigga stepped to me, and I killed him. But I was acquitted of the murder charge, and my grandmother went broke paying my lawyers. Your mother looked out for us. You see, my grandmother was known in our hood. She used to feed the whole block. Your mother was notorious for stopping by to grab a plate of my mother’s spicy greens. She bought my grandmother this house just off GP when we got evicted. Chleo had a good heart. You are just giving me a chance to pay back an old debt. Plus, if I want in on this shit here, I have to prove my loyalty somehow. Feel me?”

  I stared at him, trying to determine whether he was telling the truth. When I saw no lies, I nodded my head.

  “Come in,” I finally said, and Calvin followed me inside the house after I shut the garage door.

  “If you don’t mind me asking,” Calvin said once we were in the living room, “why didn’t anybody know that Smooth and Chleo had a daughter? You should be the princess of the streets right now.”

  “For my protection,” I said, sitting across from him. “And now I know why I needed to be protected. ”

  I broke down my whole story . . . my birth all the way to the present. I told him I refused to mourn my mother until she was avenged. Everything was happening too fast for me, but I knew what I needed to do. I had the resources to do it all. I just needed the right setup. I knew at that moment Jah was feeling it. He had no idea who had gotten to the house before him, and I was sure he had the streets being swept. That was right where I wanted him. I just needed to figure out how I would be able to touch him. I was sure everyone loyal to my mother was now Team Jah, so I knew his security would be highly enforced now that I’d gotten to the cocaine first. I told Calvin that I didn’t give a fuck about that, though.

  For the rest of the night, he and I devised a plan. We had to make sure there were no loose ends. After a few hours with Calvin, I didn’t find it odd that he had just met me and now was helping me plot out a murder. He was just a young nigga looking for a come-up, and in me, he’d found one.

  Chapter 4

  Our plan was foolproof. I had complete confidence that it would work. Calvin and I took one more day to ensure all loose ends were tied. Since we both knew that Jah was looking for a connect, Calvin’s role was to pretend to be that. We took him shopping to look at the part, and then he would make contact. Neffy had been in the family since before I was born, so she could tell me all Jah’s common spots. The only thing she didn’t know was where he laid his head. But the information she gave us was sufficient.

  Calvin’s face was known in the streets of Chicago from his past of moving weight, so when he walked up to Jah in his favorite bar, he could step to him without a problem. Calvin’s story was that his uncle in New York was thinking about expanding to Chicago, and he needed somebody there to partner with. Jah knew who Calvin’s uncle was, and to make matters even better, Calvin had some product for Jah to sample. Calvin threw Jah some powder and the deal, and since he was thirsty to get some new work, Jah jumped at the opportunity. They set up a time that night to meet and make the transaction.

  When Calvin told me the story, I couldn’t believe how easy and fast it was all going down. We were sitting in the basement of my house, getting everything ready for the transaction. The past few days, I made Calvin stay at my place in the basement. That way, I could be sure he didn’t try to do any funny shit. I didn’t think he would, but I still had to be cautious.

  “Be careful, Calvin,” Neffy said. “I always felt that Jah was a snake, and now I know I was right. He’s the type of man to want the world without paying for it.”

  Since we moved into the neighborhood, Neffy had taken a particular liking to Calvin. She liked his sense of business savvy and how he had turned it into a business venture instead of robbing me.

  “That’s where I come in at, Nef,” I said while shining my gun. “One-woman army.”

  “Fire—” Neffy started, and by the tone of her voice, I already knew what was coming next.

  “It’s too late, Nef,” I told her. “I’m in too deep. I can’t sleep at night knowing the man who killed my mother is still breathing, knowing that the people she fed already forgot about her and just moved on to the next nigga. I can’t.”

  “I was just going to say”—Neffy came and hugged me—“I’ve been around for a long time. Working for your mother and father, I’ve seen a lot. But just know that your bloodline is like royalty in the streets of Chicago. Ever wonder why they took so well to a woman queen pin after Smooth was killed? No, they were not bound by blood, but she was created in his image. He made her who she was, just like she made you who you are. Do not be angry at the people, baby. Their loyalty is only in limbo because you are. Think about that one. I love you.”

  When she was gone, I looked at Calvin, who was loading the chrome 9 mm pistol I’d given him and preparing to place it in the waist of his Armani slacks. His hair was freshly cut, and his strong jawline was clenched. The expression on his face spelled one word: determination. He grabbed the jacket to his suit from one of the tables in the small basement and put it on.

  “You know you might die tonight, right?” I asked. “I might die too. You sure you want to ride this out with me?”

  Calvin finished buttoning his suit jacket and smoothed it down. He stood before me, not looking like the thug he had when I first laid eyes on him. He stood before me, looking like a boss. He took his time with his response.

  “I always watched movies . . . when niggas meet a bitch and randomly come up with her. When I was out there handling my business, the most I ever saw was five hundred thousand. I’m trying to see my first million. I never thought that shit could be real life. When I first saw you, I had plans to come at you, but I didn’t know how. You got this aura about you that women older than you would admire. Of course, there is a possibility that we will die, ma. But honestly, I don’t have much to live for right now. However, there also is that possibility that we won’t. And if we don’t, that means a future with a lot of money and a beautiful woman by my side. I’ll take my chances.”