Manhattan

Caesar had never felt the kind of fury Nasir had ignited in him. When the Feds finally came, Amira was long gone. They ransacked his entire home in hopes of finding the thing that wasn’t there anymore. Caesar felt like a fool. He allowed himself to trust the man and really believed Nasir had his best interests at heart. But just like with Gerald, Caesar had been a bad judge of character. Along with the anger, he had so many questions. Why was Nasir trying to frame him with Cassius’s death? None of it made sense. And the only way to get those answers was to go straight to the source.

He didn’t want to show up with a whole army. He knew he would never get any answers that way. But he wasn’t stupid enough to go to Nasir’s home alone. Niles accompanied him and was just as eager to figure out what Nasir’s angle was.

“When you think about it, there’s no way to justify what he did,” Niles said as they neared Nasir’s mansion. “He’s the enemy.”

“I know. I just want to know why he did it,” Caesar said. “He and my father did good business together.”

“Exactly. He did good business with Cassius, and now that he’s gone, he probably wants the whole pie to himself.”

If that was the truth, Nasir could have just killed him. There had to have been more to the story than just that. When Caesar pulled the car up to Nasir’s house, there were more Italian men than last time waiting outside. It felt to Caesar like they were waiting for him.

“You sure you wanna do this?” Niles asked, eyeing the guns in their hands.

“Yeah. This motherfucka tried to send me up the river. Let’s go.”

The two men got out of the car and approached the front door. The Italians moved in front of it, forcing them to stop.

“Tell Nasir I’m here to see him,” Caesar said.

“No need. He’s waiting for you already,” one of the men said and opened the door.

“You must have just wanted to say that. Why did y’all even move in front of the door in the first place?” Niles asked. “Just stupid.”

“What’s stupid is you being foolish enough to come here. Your funerals though.”

They laughed and closed the front door when the two men were inside. There were more Italian men standing in the foyer of the mansion waiting for them to enter so they could disarm them.

“Get your fuckin’ hands off me! I don’t swing that way!” Niles shouted as they restrained him.

Caesar, on the other hand, was calm. He let them find and take all his weapons without fighting. Once they were done, Caesar and Niles were led to the same office in which Caesar had first met Nasir. He was seated at his desk wearing a nice suit and puffing a cigar. The sun filled the office with natural light as it shone through the window. Nasir didn’t bat an eye when Caesar and Niles were thrown into the room.

“It’s good to see you again, Caesar. I was expecting you yesterday, but today is as good a day as any. Take a seat,” Nasir instructed.

“We’re good where we’re at,” Niles told him.

“I wasn’t giving you a choice.”

He leered at the two of them as they slowly sat down. The only thing about Nasir that was the same to Caesar was his looks, but everything else had changed. The energy around him seemed dark, and the way he spoke was ominous. Caesar couldn’t see his father willingly doing business with a man like that. He wouldn’t have trusted him. And neither would have Caesar had all the colors been shown.

“I guess I don’t need to ask you if you did it, do I?” Caesar asked.

“Plant the gun? Yes.”

“Why?”

“You came all this way to ask that simple question?” Nasir laughed. “It’s a question you can answer yourself, really. You’re smart. You can figure it out.”

“Humor me.”

“Fine,” Nasir sighed in a bored fashion. “Your father, Cassius, and I did good business together. Great business, but the truth is I never really told him the truth. You see, I have a problem with not putting all my cards on the table. I don’t like people to see everything in my hand. I have my own plans, and unfortunately your father’s plans were getting in the way of them. I couldn’t have him getting all high and mighty on me before I could really get into position. If he had control over each borough, how would I ever be able to kill him?”

“Kill him? You didn’t kill him. Ed and Joseph did!” Niles exclaimed.

“No, don’t you see, Niles? He set it all up,” Caesar said, not taking his eyes off Nasir. “Didn’t you?”

“Guilty.” Nasir grinned devilishly. “But in my defense, Ed and Joseph were already halfway out the door. I just gave them the final nudge. There’s nothing like murder without getting your own hands dirty. I wish I had been there though. I would have loved to see the giant fall from the beanstalk.”

Caesar could tell that he was trying to get a rise out of him, and he was. Caesar’s blood was boiling at a dangerous temperature, but he kept his face calm. Nasir had already taken enough from him. He refused to give him any more.

“And once he was dead, you needed me out of the way next.”

“Ding, ding, ding! But see, I couldn’t just kill you. I have a detective in the borough, and I was just trying to throw them a bone. It would have been a win-win for everyone. I should have known you would be crafty enough to have a few in your pocket as well. You should have just taken that way out. Now I have to take your soul.”

From under the desk, Nasir brandished a gun and pointed it between the two of them. He gave Caesar a sickening smile and then slowly pointed it at Niles. Niles, who had never been a man to show fear in the face of death, stared down the barrel of the gun, ready to part with the earth.

“I thought it was me who you wanted,” Caesar said as Nasir fingered the trigger.

“It is, but before I kill you, I want to see the look on your face when he dies. I can tell you’re very close.”

Nasir squeezed the trigger on the word “close” and sent a bullet whizzing past Niles’s head, shattering a statue. He shot the gun again, that time lodging a bullet in the wall. Niles flinched at the second shot, and there was joy in Nasir’s eyes. He was playing with him. Caesar knew then that it was time for him to stop playing with Nasir.

“You said earlier that you don’t like to let people know all the cards you hold? Well, neither do I,” Caesar said, allowing a slow smile to come to his face. He could tell his sudden change in demeanor got Nasir’s attention. “I kind of figured you had something to do with my father’s death when I found the gun, but I still needed to hear you say it. Now you can die.”

“How are you going to kill me when I’m the one with the gun?”

“I never said I was going to be the one to kill you,” Caesar said and pointed at Nasir’s chest.

Nasir glanced down at the collared shirt under his jacket to see a red dot dancing there. His eyes widened, and he tried to jump out of the way before the shot came. He managed to move to the left seconds before the window shattered from the gunshot, but he still got hit in the shoulder. When he fell to the ground in agony, Niles jumped into action and grabbed the pistol from Nasir’s hand.

“Now who’s got the gun, sucka?” Niles said, aiming the weapon at his head.

More gunshots could be heard outside the office as a fight ensued. They were getting closer and closer, but Caesar didn’t budge.

“What’s going on?”

“Right now, your men are being slaughtered like cattle,” Caesar told him. “And as far as you, I don’t know if that was Damián who shot you. Or it could have been Benjamin, maybe even Domino.”

“What are you talking about? Those are—”

“The heads of the most powerful families in New York. I know. I did something that neither you nor my father ever could. I formed an alliance with them, and now going against me is going against them. Surprise.”

“No.” Nasir shook his head.

He used his good shoulder to scoot backward toward the bookshelf on the wall. Caesar was enjoying watching him look so weak. Nasir’s biggest mistake would forever be underestimating him.

“Kill him,” Caesar instructed.

Niles went to pull the trigger, but the office door swung open, and an Italian man stumbled through. He was holding a gun in one hand and clutching his stomach, trying to stop blood from leaking out. He was clearly badly injured, but that didn’t stop him from defending Nasir. He shot wild shots at both Caesar and Niles, forcing them to take cover. Niles switched targets and shot the Italian in his face. Caesar scrambled back to his feet just in time to see Nasir escaping into a secret passage behind the bookshelf.

“No!” he shouted and tried to make it to him before he closed the bookshelf.

“Better luck next time.” Nasir winked and slammed the bookshelf shut.

“You bastard!” Caesar shouted. “If you ever show your face anywhere in New York again, I will kill you! Do you hear me? Everyone will have orders to kill you on sight!”

War