"That all sounds good but he doesn't give a fuck about your girl. He wantsyou."
"And I'm going to make him think he gets me."
"Nah, we're not fucking around with that. You have too much to lose. I know you're feeling this girl but…"
The men locked into a war of wills. Niles communicated the thoughts already circulating and Asao pushed back with a warning to let that shit ride. Using his demons to question his movements was out of the fucking question. This wasn’t about Na’Mya or the way he felt responsible for the shit that had gonedown ten years prior. He spoke that affirmation in his head, no matter how little truth was attached to the words.
"There are no buts. She needs my help and she's getting it."
"Not at the expense of fucking up your career dealing with Cobra."
"I have it figured out," was all Asao offered.
"Care to share? Because right now you're talking stupid."
Niles was pissed, for good reason. They had never experienced an encounter with Cobra that didn't end with one of them wanting to fade that muthafucker.
"We're going to do a music festival. If we lock down the amphitheater, that's sixteen thousand tickets. I sold three times that with my last show within an hour of the tickets going live."
"If you're trying to convince me this is a good idea, you're doing a terrible fucking job, Sao,” Niles muttered, running the idea through his head. “It’s March.”
“And?” Asao stated bluntly, considering the issue. Spring in their city could mean heavy rain, or on the flip side, snow. Music festivals made more sense in summer or fall. They didn’t have that long. He needed to get this done now.
“How the fuck you expect me to pull this together that fast?”
“My name is on it, so sponsors will be breaking their necks to be attached. Use them to pull that shit together. If you play this right, we can make it happen in a couple of weeks. The tickets are gonna sell.”
“I’m not worried about the damn tickets. I’m worried about a fucking disaster with your name attached if this shit doesn’t play out the way you want. I’m also not feeling you letting that muthafucker even think he can be in the same headline that has your name on it. He has ties to shit we walked away from a long time ago. If the perception is that y’all are cool, they’ll be knocking on our doors with their hands out. You prepared for that?”
Cobra did dirty deals which was why he had endless amounts of cash flow. That cash flow was attached to names in the city who considered a life for a life as an acceptable way of doing business.
"That's just to get his attention. If I go to him, he'll see straight through that shit. But if we promote that I'm headlining a festival locally, he'll reach out to try and get his people on stage. Cobra is arrogant but he's also not stupid. Even with all the artists he has, he can't bring out the numbers I can."
"I'm still not seeing the fucking point, Sao."
"I'll agree to bring on his artists but he's going to have to let Samari out of her contract."
“What happened to just making him believe you’re fucking her? I liked that plan a lot better than this shit.” Niles yanked a hand down his face, feeling annoyed. Asao was his brother tenfold. Anything that fucked with his boy fucked with him. Being screwed over by Cobra wasn’t the move and that was always a possibility with the route Asao was trying to take while navigating this.
“He knows me. If I express that I don’t want my girl to be connected to him, Cobra won’t see it as anything other than my ego. He knows how I move. How I get down. That’s more believable. Since Samari has been quiet, no moves to free herself from his label, no interactions or pushes to make music, then he will believe she’s done. That muthafucker likes to believe he breaks people. Let him think he did that with her and he’s happy. Plus, if I offer something with Nefatari, he’ll be too eager to gain the opportunity of me putting her on to worry about Samari.”
“Are we really adding his people?” Niles asked.
“Yeah, but we’re going to work the contracts so they collect the money after we get our cut. We put enough money directly in their hands.”
“Aight, I fuck with that,” Niles said and leaned back to dig his phone out of the front pocket of his jeans. Once his eyes were on the screen, his expression grew tight. “I need to handle something. I’ll start working on this and get back to you when I have everything in place. I need to see if we can secure the amphitheater before we put anything out there.”
Niles stood and shoved his phone back into his pocket. The way his mood shifted had Asao frowning. “You good?”
“Yeah I’m straight. Just something I need to work out but nothing serious.”
“Aight but you know what it is. You move, we’re moving right beside you.”
Niles nodded, knowing for sure he had his boys on his left and right. “It isn’t that type of issue but I appreciate that.”
After his boy left, Asao decided to get his ass out of the house too. The destination was set but he needed a location, so he grabbed his phone and sent a text.
Asao: What you into today?
