“Better than you?”
Stone looked at his son and nodded, “Better than me. That’s a smart hustler, loyal as hell. A dangerous nigga, too, them hands ain’t the only tools he’s good with.”
“Sounds like you miss him.”
“I fasho miss my brother, but this city ain’t big enough for the both of us. I’m glad he chose the highroad. Ever seen two lions in the same cage?”
Stone chuckled and poured a drink, the ice clinked as he softly shook the glass.
“You ever thought about hollering at him?”
“I tried, but it wouldn’t make a difference… I chose power, he chose pride. He has it in his head that I chose Ace over him and that wasn’t the case. Them niggas hate one another, and I don’t want to be in the middle of that shit. I made moves that got me to where I am today, moves that he would’ve never made, but I did it for us.”
“Is there really an ‘us’ in this game?” Cam asked a real question that made Stone pause for a moment.
“It is when you come in it with real people and solid intentions.”
“I’m coming in by myself, so who do I trust?”
“Yourself. Anyone you have to second guess, cut ‘em off at the head. There’s always someone ready to take your place and if you let ‘em, they will,” Stone said as if he was speaking to himself instead of Cam.
Cameron wasn’t slow, he knew there was a message in his father’s words, there always was. Stone never showed his hand, if he had a problem, he handled it and there was definitely a problem. Cam wasn’t deep enough into the business to know exactly what was going on, but he knew his father.
Cam went to his room to take a much-needed nap, but he woke up to silence being too loud. It wasn’t the normal quiet that their house carried, it was the kind that was heavy, the quiet that showed up when some shit was wrong.
He sat up on the side of his bed and rubbed his eyes. As soon as he opened his door, voices stretched through the long hallway. It was his father’s voice, low and dangerous. Ace’s voice spoke back. Cam moved down the stairs but stayed in the shadows as they went on.
Stone paced the floor with a glass of dark liquor while Ace stood still with his arms folded across his chest.
“Numbers don’t lie. My flow doesn’t drop fifty percent in one fuckin’ week!”
Ace exhaled through his nose, “It’s gotta be something new out there. New and a cheaper price that’s pulling the fiends in. First addict I see, I’m pressin’ up on ‘em and makin’ ‘em talk.”
Stone’s eyes shifted. “Somebody is bold.”
“Duke?”
“Small fish. I let him make money because his father was killed.”
Cam’s expression didn’t move, he knew who his father was, and he knew Stone wasn’t to be fucked with.
“I don’t play about my money, not now, not ever. That’s how niggas end up missing.”
Ace nodded, “You want smoke?”
“I want names.”
Cameron’s chest tighten because somebody was about to feel Stone’s wrath and he was standing ten toes down behind hisfather. This didn’t sound like normal business talk; it sounded like war.
“So what’s the move?”
“The board gets cleared, anyone not playing for our team needs to be eliminated.”
Cameron felt something crawl up his spine. Whatever had shifted in the streets, his father felt it and that was never a good thing. When Stone felt something, the city usually bled.
Stone grabbed his keys, “Watch everything and everybody,” he demanded as they walked out the door.
Cam slowly backed back up the stairs, but damn near died when he bumped into his mother.
