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I went straight to my email after we hung up. Something was off. I could feel it before I finished reading the attachment.

I headed back into the room where Yomi was waiting.

We were in the middle of figuring out how to make shit right after the port ambush. I had to eat the loss and was working on smoothing things over with Jean-Pierre. There were a few leads on who did the hit on my shipment, but none on who shot my pops. It was like those niggas had vanished into thin air like ghosts.

“We good?” he asked.

“I need you to run something when we’re finished. Get your boys to look into Blackwater Associates. I want to know everything about them,” I said.

One thing about Yomi, the nigga worked fast. He called me the very next day as I was on my way to Nyack to check on Pops. He was making a steady recovery but needed physical therapy and wasn’t happy about it.

“What’s up?” I answered.

“That Blackwater thing you had me look into. It seemed legit at first. They’re registered in Jersey but have a virtual office in Midtown. Check this though. There’s no website, no LinkedIn, no staff on record. It’s a front.”

“Okay.”

“The two fifty moved from Meridian went through two intermediary accounts before it hit Blackwater. Whoever set the transaction up had clearly done something like this before. They staggered the transfers to avoid any flags. Curtis only caught it because this was his month to reconcile the accounts.”

I tapped my finger on the steering wheel. “Isn’t Meridian one of the companies we use for restaurant supply stuff? Who has access to it?”

“You, me, and Curtis’ team. There’s over forty million in its portfolio, which is probably why they chose it.”

“Who’s they, Yomi?”

“The incorporation documents were filed under the name Jody Cromwell.”

I frowned, racking my brain. The name didn’t sound familiar at all. “Who’s that?”

“Jody Cromwell doesn’t exist—well Jody does, but that’s not her last name. It’s Evans. She’s a forensic accountant. Consults for a bunch of law firms in the city.”

My stomach dropped. “Evans?” I repeated.

“She’s Belle’s cousin, Dez.”

I sucked in a breath and tightened my grip on the steering wheel. I cut across two lanes of traffic so I could pull over onto the shoulder. My pulse roared in my ears.

“You there?” Yomi asked.

I closed my eyes. “Yeah.”

“I ran it three times,” he continued. “Jody filed the incorporation for Blackwater a year ago. Belle’s listed as the beneficial owner.”

I couldn’t even process what I was hearing. Anger I knew what to do with. But this was like finding out the foundation of your house had been sitting on cinderblocks the whole time.

“Dez.”

“I heard you. How much total?” I asked.

“Yeah. That’s the other thing. Blackwater’s been receiving transfers since late July. They took from Meridian, Holbrook, and Crescent. Fifty thousand from each company. Nothing big enough to raise any alarms,” he said.

“Yomi, how much?”

He shuffled some papers. “Four hundred thousand dollars.”

I rubbed the back of my head. The burners. The gun. Belle was a fucking scammer.

“What do you want to do?”