Tiara said her good-bye, promising to visit her whenever she came to visit her father. She stood up and turned her back on both of them to make her way back down to where her car was waiting. She walked slowly in the snow toward the silver Mercedes-Benz that she’d purchased for Keys. She was so lost in her thoughts that she didn’t even notice that Keys was standing outside of the car with an alarmed look on her face.
“What’s wrong?” Tiara asked her, wrapping the ties on her peacoat tighter on her small waist. “You burnt a hole in the leather of your car already?”
When Keys didn’t even crack a smile, Tiara knew something was extremely wrong. Hanging loosely from her hand was Tiara’s cell phone. The screen was still lit up, and Tiara made a curious face at her.
“What the fuck is wrong with you? Why you acting so weird? And why do you have my phone? I don’t go through yours, so don’t go through mine.”
Keys and Tiara had gotten close like sisters. After finding out that Keys was living in a one-bedroom house in the hood, it was nothing to move her onto the Rogers’s estate. Keys and Stevelle had been closer than anyone else in their crew. It made Tiara feel safer and like she had a piece of Stevelle with her.
“Here.” Keys was zombielike as she handed Tiara her cell phone. “I-It’s my bro.”
“Stevelle?” Tiara exclaimed with excitement in her voice and snatched the phone from Keys. “Where is he? Does he need us to pick him—”
When she saw what was on the screen, she stopped mid-sentence.
“No,” she whispered. “No!”
She caught a sharp breath of brisk air and looked from the phone to Keys with wavering eyes. On the screen of the phone was a picture. It was of a man hanging from his arms in what looked like a meat cellar. The man was almost naked. All he wore was boxers, and his body was beaten up so badly and covered with cuts. It was Stevelle. Along with the picture message, there was a regular text message.
If you want your friend to stay alive, you will do exactly as I say, my dear cousin. Not only will you pay me $1 million in both cash and product, you will take over my contract with Rodriguez and pay him back all that I owe. You have twenty-four hours to get me my first request. If I don’t have it after sending this message, I am going to slit your boyfriend’s throat. If Rodriguez is not paid in one week’s time, he is going to come after all your peoples, and after he’s done killing all the ones that you love, he’s gonna come after you.
When Tiara was done reading the text message she walked calmly to the passenger-side door. She opened it and got in without a word. Keys followed suit and put the car in drive so that they could pull off from the burial site.
“So, what’s our move? Are you really going to pay that nigga all of that money? Just give him work?”
“I can’t let him die.”
“That’s a setup,” Keys said. “He’s trying to punk you out and make you look weak to the other empires.”
“I know.”
“That nigga ain’t gon’ do shit but snake you in the end.”
“I know!”
“Then what?”
Tiara sighed and clenched her eyes shut. She had only been at the head of the table for a month, and already she had to make a life-or-death decision. With a clenched jaw, she made a choice right then and there not the bow down to a man, not even on her level of anything.
“I’m not going to let him die,” she said.
“So you’re going to pay up?” Keys scoffed.
“Hell, no,” Tiara told her, and then looked out the window as Keys drove.
The snow was a funny thing. It would come down and stay for a little while, but once it got under some heat, it would melt away.
Much like her enemies would learn to do.
“What are you saying then?”
“I’m saying that we have twenty-four hours to find Stevelle and kill Vincent. And we have one week to prepare to go to war with Rodriguez.”
