A month went by. It was school by day, lieutenant by night, and Jessica whenever possible. February turned into March, and there were a lot of springlike days, but I wasn’t thanking Mother Nature. The neighborhood had come out of their homes, and people were hanging around on porches, doorsteps, and street corners. I had to be ultracareful—any group of guys I walked by could be Bloods waiting to spot one of Tony’s lieutenants.
Kessler called every few days on the secret cell. She was different from Prescott; though she asked me questions about Tony’s operation, she never pushed me to dig deeper. As much as she wanted to put Diamond Tony away, she didn’t want me taking any extra risks. I bet if it was up to her, she’d rather have me out of the game than supplying her with information.
But it was too late for that.
I’d finally found my groove as a lieutenant. It was all about problem solving. You got customers being a nuisance. You got loudmouthed mamas trying to shove the dealers off their corners. You got cops scoping the neighborhood. As soon as you fixed one problem, another cropped up. And just when you thought you had it all under control, you were proven wrong.
Like when I found two of my dealers in an alley, beaten bloody.
“They took everything,” Busy said, cradling his arm and moaning with pain.
I crouched down beside P-Free. He was out cold.
“Is he dead?” Busy was panicked.
“No.”
I called 911. Tony wouldn’t like it, but P-Free was in bad shape. I wasn’t going to risk him dying.
“Who did this?” I asked Busy.
“Don’t know.”
“Do you think they were Bloods? Were they wearing colors?”
“No colors. They were all in black. Pantyhose over their faces.”
The ambulance was there five minutes later. I knew the cops wouldn’t be far behind. I helped Busy up. We had to leave the scene before they arrived.
Busy leaned on me heavily as I walked him home. I dropped him off in the lobby of his building, stuffing his pay into his pocket.
Then I headed for the stash house. It was a town house five blocks north of Busy’s building. Sometimes the place was a crack house, but whenever Tony wanted to use it, his guys pushed the squatters out, cleaned it up a bit, and moved in for a few days.
The house was under guard, of course. Three guys were on the front porch, two in the back. They acted like they were chillin’, but they watched anyone who came within twenty feet of the place like hawks. By now they knew me, so when I came up, they let me right in.
Kamal, one of the executives, was inside counting cash. When he saw me, he gave a grim nod. “I heard.”
It had just happened, and he already knew. That showed how good Tony’s pipeline was. He knew all the neighborhood events in real time.
“Did they recognize who jumped them?” Kamal asked.
“No.”
“Must be Bloods.”
“Maybe, but—”
He gave me a look that shut me up. I had the feeling it was going to be the Bloods whether there was proof or not.
The door burst open behind me, and a gust of cold air came in as Tony entered with Marcus and Pox.
“How much did they get away with?” Tony barked at me.
“Couple hundred, tops. I’d done a pickup an hour before.”
“Blood motherfuckers messing with my corner. Cops crawling all over the place.” He paced the room.
“I had to call nine-one-one.” I was more afraid of what I held back from Tony than what I told him. He could see anything as a deception. “If P-Free died, we’d have even more cops coming around.”
Diamond Tony inhaled sharply, but he didn’t say anything. Pissed as he was, he knew it was the right call.
Eventually the rest of the lieutenants showed up to make their drop-offs. Everybody talked revenge, war, murder. Tony waved his hand, which meant the discussion was over. He would retaliate, but he wasn’t going to tell us how.
When the lieutenants were done for the night, we went to Chaos. I was surprised that Jessica was working. Usually she only worked weekends, but she must’ve picked up a shift. I went over to her and gave her one helluva kiss.
The guys cheered and snickered when I sat down at our table.
“Last time I touched a waitress like that, I got slapped,” Wallop said, taking a swig of beer.
“Looks serious,” Ray-go said. He and Abdul were the lieutenants who’d been at the mall with Vinny when we’d encountered the Bloods. Ray-go was as clean-cut as they come, while Abdul seemed to have a new tattoo every time I saw him.
“Darren’s gonna give her something serious when she’s done her shift, all right.” Abdul pounded fists with Ray-go.
“Why wait till she’s done? That’s what the VIP coatroom is for.” Wallop smirked. “She’s fire hot, that one.”
It was just as well that Jessica was working the other end of the club—I hated her anywhere near the VIP tables. On the whole, the lieutenants weren’t bad, though. They talked tough, a lot like the guys in juvie. But unlike in juvie, these guys had my back. Diamond Tony’s lieutenants were loyal—to him and to each other.
“The Bloods are gonna hear about what happened tonight,” Ray-go said to me. “Even if they didn’t do your dealers.”
“I was thinking the same thing.” Tony would use this as an excuse to continue his war with the Bloods. If he struck soon, it would appear to be payback.
“Tony’s a master of neighborhood PR. He’ll make this work for him.” Ray-go’s voice was full of admiration.
Ray-go reminded me of a young professor, and it wasn’t just because he wore glasses. He had a razor-sharp mind and took the game seriously. The other lieutenants looked up to him. If there was anyone to imitate, anyone who could show me how to walk the line, it was Ray-go. But I also knew that he was the one to watch out for. Of all the lieutenants, he was the most likely to sniff me out.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. It was a text from Busy.
@hospital. Doc says pfree got concushion + broken bones but will b ok.
P-Free would live after all. But someone else wouldn’t. The war would continue. Diamond Tony would make sure of it.