“I just wanna know what the fuck happened at Rashid’s place. What he saw that made him so spooked out.”
“You of all people know how Rashid was. You can imagine,” she replied.
She was right. I could imagine what unthinkable shit he saw at Rashid’s place that traumatized him into a paralyzed voice. Rashid was a monster. I knew that better than anybody. Whatever that boy witnessed in that basement was probably worse than anything I went through during my training. And I went through hell.
In a matter of seconds, Yusef rushed downstairs. He gave Zainab a hug and me a head nod before sitting down at the table. We ate breakfast together—quiet, but together. That was enough for now.
Once that was complete, he went to do his homeschool work. Zainab went to take another nap. And I received a call that I had been waiting on.
Creed.
“Talk to me,” I answered.
“It’s done.” His voice was flat. Professional. “My connect in Panama handled the situation. Kasim won’t be a problem.”
I exhaled slow. One less threat to worry about. Rashid was dead and rotting, and now his son—the one he’d been grooming from a Panamanian prison cell to come back and seek revenge—was handled too. Permanently.
“Good looking out,” I said. “I appreciate you.”
“It’s all good. Family looks out for family.” He paused. “But I might need a favor in the near future. Something’s brewing on my end. Nothing urgent yet, but when it pops off, I’ma need a nigga who knows how to move.”
“You got me,” I said without hesitation. “Whatever you need.”
“Bet. I’ll be in touch.”
The line went dead.
I stood there for a minute, processing. Kasim was gone. That whole bloodline was finished. Rashid. Farah with her one ear. Meech still missing—probably starved to death in that basement nobody knew about. And now Kasim, taken out before he could ever step foot back on American soil.
The Muhammad legacy was extinct.
Good riddance.
But there was still one problem that needed handling. One snake that was still slithering around, thinking she was untouchable.
Vivica.
I pulled up Quest’s number and hit call.
“Yo,” he answered on the second ring.
“Wha’s good.”
“Been busy but I ain’t forget about you.”
“Good. You got them phone records from Vivica’s office?”
“Already sent them to your email. Just came through about an hour ago.” I could hear him moving around.” I had to call in a few favors to get those. IT guy at City Hall owed me one.”
“I owe you.”
“Nah, you don’t. This is family business. Somebody came for your woman. That means they came for all of us.”
I pulled up my email on my phone while we talked. There it was—an encrypted file from Quest’s secure server.
“I’m looking at it now,” I said, scrolling through the records.
“Check the outgoing calls from the week before Zainab got arrested. Specifically from India Coleman’s extension.”
