Chapter 4

In the morning I'm pulled awake by the loud screaming match going on. At first I think it's Simon and Mama going at it again for Simon's shoplifting habit but when I flutter my eyes open, I'm not in my bed. In fact, I'm not in a bed at all. It takes me a second to register that the white walls and grey furniture are Caesar's. I sigh remembering all the bullshit that happened the day before.

"What the fuck you talking about Keyana? I never made us official," Caesar yells.

I jerk up. I peer over the sofa to see Caesar standing at the door. His body is blocking whoever's on the other side.

"Why you playing with me Caese? How you switch up all of a sudden? One minute you telling me you want me to have yo kids and the next you not letting me into yo house. The fuck is up?"

"Look, I need some space aight."

"For what?"

"Something came up. I got business to tend to," Caesar rubs the back of his neck.

"You said you was done with that shit in New York. What happened to you going back to school? Moving to Colorado? I didn't follow you down here to be toyed with. Did I?" The girl sounds like she's a step away from crying.

"Keyana, I love you," My heart stops beating hearing Caesar say the words, "But something from my past came up. I didn't plan it but I gotta see where it leads."

"Something from your past or someone from your past?" Keyana says.

Caesar doesn't answer.

"Call me when you figure out if you want to stay in this life or move forward with me. Goodbye, Caesar," The girl says.

Caesar stands at the door for awhile before closing the door. He leans his head against the door and presses his knuckles into the door. When he turns around, I duck below the seat and pretend that I'm sleeping. The conversation seemed private and as curious as I was about Caesar's relationship status, Keyana and Colorado, now isn't the time to ask.

I hear him shuffling around in the kitchen, opening and closing cabinets. The fridge hums when it's opened. I hear the clink of glass colliding against each other and then he makes his way over to me. I feel the weight shift on the sofa as he sits down. Now's the perfect time to act like he'd woken me up.

I flutter my eyes open and yawn. His eyes shift from thoughtful to amused as he looks down at me.

"Morning, Red," He says.

"Hey bighead," I smile.

I watch as he shovels a spoonful of Raisin Bran into his mouth. Once again, I wrinkle my nose at his choice of food.

"Good thing you up. We gotta' head down to your brother's loft to meet some people," Caesar says.

I sit up and stretch.

"What loft? Ace doesn't have a loft. If he did, he wouldn't be up my ass and around the house all the time," I say.

"There's an extra toothbrush in the bathroom cabinet. I put a few towels in there so you can take a shower. You might have to wear that fit again though, cause we don't got time to stop at your house," Caesar says.

I roll my eyes at the fact that he blantaly ignored my questions about this mysterious loft my brother owns. I shuffle to the bathroom on the first floor but Caesar stops me.

"Candyce,"

I turn around expectantly.

"The shower in that bathroom doesn't work. I haven't installed the showerhead yet, so you have to shower in the one upstairs. In my room."

I raise my eyebrows, nasty scenarios immediately flooding my mind that I know won't ever happen.

"Okay," I say.

I skip up the stairs to his room. Of course, the bed is smooth and tucked in all corners. His cleanliness was starting to irk me. I pushed open the only black door in the room. My mouth drops at the beauty. The decor was simple, black, stone grey and silver like the rest of the house but I could tell every detail was chosen carefully. The floors are black tile. The counters are marble and the shower is see-through and wide enough to fit two people at once. I don't let my mind get all twisted in fantasies cause I notice a pink and white toothbrush sitting in the holder next to what I assumed was Caesar's. Then I start to notice women face cream, hand lotion and shaving razor. These must belong to the Keyana that Caesar loves and want to have children with. Suddenly, I get real irritated, like I'm infiltrating on his life. Ugh, I wish Ace would have just brought me home last night.

I don't take my time in the shower like I would do at home. I get in and get out as fast as I can. I open the mirror cabinet and find the spare toothbrush Caesar suggested. I redress in my same clothes but I do sneak another T-shirt from Caesar's draw. I tie it up in a knot above my belly button ring and head back down the stairs.

Caesar's dressed in a white tee, dark blue jeans and all white Reebok classics. He must have gotten changed while I was in the shower. It gave me goosebumps imagining a door being the only thing in between my naked wet body and Caesar.

He's sitting on the sofa, typing on his phone when I approach.

"Bout time, damn girl," He says.

He scoops his keys from a bowl on the coffee table and away we go.

...

The loft we pull up to is on the East Bank. It's right in the middle of the city, an easy access point to all the action. I follow Caesar up the elevator to the fourth floor. When we exit the elevator, a young black nigga with a low haircut steps up with a machine gun strapped across his chest. I hide behind Caesar, but he isn't fazed by the lil nigga at all.

"Wassam Rico," Caesar daps the boy off.

"Wassup Bossman," He says, "Wassup Candyce," He nods his head at me.

How the hell this boy know my name? Oh God, was he at the stripclub that night? And wait, did I just hear him call Caesar "bossman"?

"Why is he just standing there with a gun in his hand like anybody can't just step onto the floor and see him?" I ask Caesar.

Caesar laughed, "We own the building, baby. There's another Rico posted on every floor, except the lobby. But don't think for a second we letting anybody on the elevator we don't recognize."

My mouth drops open. I knew Ace was pushing dope but I never in a million years expected him to be on Daddy's level of moving weight. Maybe since he was my brother, I always looked at him like an amateur. And why the hell is Caesar saying "we" own the building?

Caesar takes a left down the hallway and knocks on the first door. I'm getting a contact high just standing by the door. Eventually, the door opens and another young dude with dreads opens the door with a blunt between his lips and what do you know? A machine gun strapped across his body.

Caesar takes the lead.

"Mad Max," Caesar daps him up.

"Caese," The dude grinned at him, "What's good, Candyce?"

I look back and forth between him and Caesar. Caesar grabs my hand and pulls me inside. Inside, the weed is louder. There's too much smoke in the air and entirely too many nigga. For every step we take, there's at least two niggas sitting around on couches, posted up near the banister, sitting on countertops and above it all, at the top of the stairs is Ace.

Everyone speaks to me as we walk by. All their faces blend together but Caesar daps them up and calls them by name as he passes.

Ace walks down the stairs and him and Caesar dap up.

"How you slept?" He asks me.

"Good."

"Good. Cause we got some people we need you to meet."

"Everybody crowd around. We got some shit to discuss," Ace calls.

All the talking subsides, and I see people putting out their gars. The boys from the countertops move from their post to stand closer. With everybody up close, I see there's about 28 of them all together.

"Aight. I done told y'all about the shit that went down with our plug. For those who don't know, he pulled out the deal. Unfortunately for him, we didn't part ways amicably. He put a target on our backs and he's not gon stop til he fucked up our whole operation. The number one way he gon try to hit us, is standing right in front you," Ace points to me.

"Y'all all know my sister, Candyce," Ace says.

"Heyyy, Candyce" the crowd sings like I'm a guest in their show-and-tell kindergarten class.

Everybody laughs. Even Ace smiles.

"I usually don't like to bring my family into my business but Jefe knows what my sister looks like. I need everybody to be watching over their shoulder for her. If anything happens to her, nobody eats," Ace says.

"She gon be hanging with us from now on, so we can keep an eye on her. Which means she gon see some shit, she gon hear some shit, but she ain't gon say shit," Ace looks at me while he says it.

"Candy, you gotta know who you around at all times. So, let me introduce you to our coke runners first," Ace says.

"Alec, Lonnie, Q, Mase, Daz, Gee, Rik and Neno, all touch the weight before anyone else, except us. We get it from the plug, dish out to them and they divvy it up and bring it to the traps. They also touch our money before we do. They collect from the traps, and bring it back to me. They ain't fail us one time."

I watch as a few niggas stand up. Ace was going too fast to allow me a chance to put faces to names but I stare at them to get their face in my mind.

"Next up, we have our trappers. These motherfuckers make sure shit get done. They oversee business on the street-level and report back to us. Gecko, Rooney, Munch fat ass over there in the kitchen now, D-money, Styles and B. Frazier."

Munch is the only one I have time to process cause he's the only one in the kitchen. Besides, he is fat as hell. There's really no missing him.

"Next, we have our hitters. Most of the time we like to handle shit on our own to make sure shit gets done, you know that now," Ace says to me.

My stomach hurts at the reminder that I got Tony killed. Apart of me was hoping they hadn't done it since there was no mention of him until now. I wish Ace would have left it that way. But then again, it's my fault. It should weigh just as heavily on my conscious as it is on Ace or Caesar's.

"But we don't always have time to handle shit so we trust that shit will be taken care of with these young wild mothefuckers," Ace continues.

"You know that," Someone pipes up from the crowd.

Everybody laughs again.

"Sit yo self-incriminating ass down, Torian," Ace says.

The boys start laughing louder.

"So you dry-snitching now, Ashton?" Torian says back at Ace.

"Bitch, I told you my name is Ace. I don't know where you gettin' this Ashton shit from," Ace laughs.

"Mhm. Yo' mama ain't name you that shit. I'ma ask Candyce what's on that birth certificate," Torian keeps going, blowing out smoke from the gar.

"Yeah whatever. Candyce, this is Tory," Ace chuckles, referring to Torian.

"Next to him is Keezy, Rondo, Cutta, Tony and Bee. The way shit looking, you might not see them around as often. I gotta feeling they boutta be real busy," Ace says.

"And finally, the ones puppeteering the show. Me, Caesar, Cam and Reese. Cam is out of town handling something for us and Reese ain't flown in yet. You gon' be with us majority of the time."

I look at Caesar sitting on the steps behind us. He's been quiet this whole time, letting Ace run the show. I had a feeling that was just like he liked it. Almost like a silent partner. I didn't know why I ain't put it together first. Ace and Caesar were thick as thieves growing up. Ain't no way Ace pick up where Daddy left off without some help. And like Caesar said, he was hustla. He was under Daddy's wing just as much as Ace was. Daddy probably taught them both the game.

"You ain't meet the corner boys cause the streets don't stop for nobody, not even us. There's more to us but the rest of them come and go. These niggas in front of you rarely get replaced. When they do, more often than not it's like trading in a body bag for a new recruit, understand?" Ace asks me.

I swallow the lump in my throat. I nod my head. So, Ace is more comfortable putting people under than I realized. It's not like I thought my big brother was a saint. There was no way you could be in the drug game. But to me he always just an annoying brother who was always in my business too much. Now that I think about it, he had to be. He had all these niggas he had to look out for, plus dozens more. He dealt with off-the-wall niggas like Jefe all the time. The last thing he needed was to worry about our family too.

"Now that the meet-and-greet is over, we all got shit we could be doing. Let's get to the money," Caesar stands and says.

Instantly people start getting up and heading towards the door. I wait behind with Ace and Caesar until the room is cleared out. On the way out, Mad Max is the only one at the door. He daps up Ace and Caesar, says goodbye to me and then we're on our way down the elevator.

As we leave the building, I peer back at all the windows in the building.

"Caesar, you said there was other people guarding the rest of the floors. What's on the other floors?" I ask.

Caesar chuckles, "One step at a time lil' one."