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  His heart went out to his cousin Shaheem. Shaheem hadn’t been out of the bing six months and he was already gone. Trae knew that he wouldn’t be able to rest until he served street justice. Tasha and the twins she was carrying would just have to wait. He knew Shaheem would have done the same for him.

  Shaheem was a Macklin and they had been raised as brothers. Each was his parents’ only child. They had played together, gone to school together, lost their virginity together, and both accepted Kaylin and his family as their extended family. The only time they had been separated was when Shaheem went to juvie hall and that was when he took the weight for Trae, Kaylin and Kyron. The same with this last bid. It was for having Trae’s and Kaylin’s backs. Shaheem and Kyron were always the muscle in their crew. They loved getting down and dirty, just for the rush.

  Tasha, as always, was in tune with her man. She lay in her bed back in Cali wondering what Trae was doing and if he was safe. She had not heard from him since that day in his old bedroom.

  Aunt Marva peeked in and interrupted her thoughts. “You still up? What? You’re worrying about him, aren’t you?”

  “I can’t help it,” Tasha replied.

  “You want something warm to drink?” Aunt Marva offered.

  “No thank you.”

  “Okay then. I’ll see you in the morning.”

  “Marva, thanks for coming home with me. I really do appreciate you making the sacrifice.”

  It was the day before Trae disappeared when Trae had asked Aunt Marva to come live with him and Tasha in Cali. Aunt Marva protested at first, but Trae convinced her that she would be a great help around the house, especially after Tasha gave birth and since he didn’t want Tasha to be by herself.

  After some serious thought and constant nagging on Trae’s part, Aunt Marva finally gave in. She could now have a new start at life along with helping to raise other children. It would be a way of correcting the mistakes she had made with Shaheem.

  “I told you, there is nothing in that city for me anymore. Everything’s gonna be just fine. Good night, baby.”

  “Good night, Auntie.”

  Tasha hugged her pillow tighter, closed her eyes and went back to thinking about Trae. Knowing him so well sometimes spooked her. The love she had had for her last boyfriend, Nikayah, was nothing compared to the oneness she felt with Trae. The two men were so much alike, yet they were so different. They both were laid back, but Nikayah was more trusting and chilled; Trae would be watching you like a hawk and ready to pounce. Trae wouldn’t sleep. They were hustlers, but Nikayah again was laid back with his and would be content. Trae on the other hand wanted it all and wouldn’t stop until he got it all. Trae saw Tasha and he didn’t stop until she was his. And then when it seemed that Nikayah had a problem with it, Trae got Nikayah out of the way permanently. His body was found in a Dumpster just like Shaheems. Talk about karma. She would always say that if something happened to Nikayah, she would be able to go on. And she had. But if something happened to Trae, she didn’t see how she could do it. She closed her eyes and for what seemed like the thousandth time prayed for Trae to come home safe.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Newark, New Jersey

  Sabeerah lived in a second-floor, two-bedroom apartment on Hawthorne Avenue. This week had been pure heaven for her. She was preparing for college and as a graduation present she had gotten a new digital camera. Now all of her family was gathered around for her older sister JuJu’s baby shower. Sabeerah watched out her second-floor balcony window as her family exited the cab. They had traveled all the way from Haiti. And they had all moved over here to the States in search of the American Dream, but instead found the Ghetto Dream. JuJu nabbed a baller. Her baby daddy Deontay sold crack for a living. And his drug proceeds upgraded their lives. Sabeerah’s belly had never been empty again like in those old days in Haiti.

  Deontay was holding Deontay Jr. with pride written all across his face as he beamed down at his new son of three weeks. Then JuJu opened the framed picture of Deontay Jr. that Sabeerah had painted. It got oohs and aahs from everyone in the room. It was lifelike.

  Toying with her new digital camera, Sabeerah used her graduation present to zoom in on her sister’s gifts. She focused the camera on her sister’s new diamond earrings. She zoomed down to the Prada gym shoes on her feet, and then to her expensive outfit. Sabeerah fantasized about going to the beauty salon, getting her hair fly, nails done, a whole new outfit with those same Prada shoes on and going to school. Sabeerah wanted to be just like her big sister. Now if she could just snag her a baller. She hadn’t figured out how to do that yet, especially since her mother kept her under lock and key and couldn’t wait to send her off to college. But Sabeerah had made up her mind. Once she was out of here and off to college, she was going to get loose. Her mom was already disappointed in JuJu for having a child out of wedlock. But Sabeerah was determined to get her a baller or somebody who would afford her the glamorous life. “As soon as I’m out of here,” she mumbled.

  After another twenty minutes of recording everyone fawning over her new nephew, Sabeerah grew bored and decided to go on the balcony and get some shots of the block. If she had been back in Haiti, she would have been guaranteed to get some award-winning footage. But the block would have to do for now.

  It wasn’t quite winter yet, but it was definitely a brisk afternoon. She focused in on the regular runners on the block. The Hawthorne Avenue Posse worked the corner from sunup to sundown. Then they moved shop down the street. There were Ja, Cassie, Dre and Lil’ Spruce. She then panned over to a long stretch Mercedes limo as it pulled up. The scrawny Caucasian driver jumped out, looked both ways and jogged over to Cassie. They slapped hands and the driver turned around and jogged back to the limo, not giving a damn that he almost caused an accident. She had seen this same limo driver buy crack off this block on several occasions. Didn’t he realize this stretch limo, smack dab in the hood, stuck out like a sore thumb?

  “Oooh. There he is.” Sabeerah froze in place as soon as the words slipped from her mouth. Magnificent the God. Sabeerah had a serious crush on him. Ja, Cassie, Dre and Lil’ Spruce all came running over to him. “Damn, y’all, just bow down and kiss the God’s feet, why don’t you!” she hissed under her breath. Magnificent was as close to Ne-Yo as she was going to get and he ran Hawthorne Avenue.

  Beep. Beep. The limo driver was lying on his horn. Sabeerah focused on the limo, and figured that he had probably just finished smoking his rock and was now hyped and ready to go. Two cars with New York license plates had blocked him in. Magnificent the God was flexin’ for his workers when two of the dudes from the New York vehicles came over to him. Magnificent looked over the two dudes standing before him and then he arrogantly waved his runners away. But as soon as he did that the dude with the long leather Pelle Pelle jacket pulled a hammer out of his waistband and shot him right between the eyes.

  Sabeerah dropped her camera and stood there frozen in place as everyone down below scattered. The two gunmen both looked up at her, and the cute triggerman aimed the gun at her. She quickly hurried back into the house and stood peering out behind the curtains. The triggerman turned around and smiled at the dead body, and then both men jumped into the car and sped off. Oh shit! Forget Mr. Magnificent. Mr. Triggerman was gangsta. I’ma have wet dreams about you tonight, Mr. Triggerman.

  “Sabeerah, get your behind out of that window, gal. It sounds like dem fools are out there shooting dem guns.” Sabeerah was still peeking from behind the curtain.

  Slowly Sabeerah eased out on the balcony, picked up her video camera and came back into the house. She went into her bedroom and locked the door.

  “JuJu, I don’t know if I should send Sabeerah away to college. What if she gets sick and does something bad?”

  “Mom,” JuJu sighed, “Sabeerah only talks to herself. That is not a sickness. She’ll be okay. Let her get away from here.”

  “JuJu, have you listened to her? She sounds different when she talk
s to herself,” her mother pleaded.

  “Mom, then take her to the doctor’s, if you are so concerned. I think you don’t want her to go and you are using not going away to college as an excuse,” Juju snapped.

  Sabeerah’s mother, Winsome, was getting ready to argue with her daughter but changed her mind. She could hear her grandson crying. “Go on and get your baby,” she sighed.

  “Mom, she’ll be fine.” JuJu waved her off as she went to get Deontay Jr.

  “Trae, why the fuck did you shoot him, man? That wasn’t the plan,” Omar barked.

  Trae was emptying out the Philly as he calmly said, “I didn’t like his attitude and plus you know I gotta get back home to Tasha. I don’t have time to fuck around with the nigga. He did Shaheem so I had to do him while I had the chance. Who knows when we would have caught him again? Hell, it took us damn near a week to find him.”

  “Man, there were witnesses and one of them had a video camera!” Spit was flying out of the corner of Omar’s mouth.

  “Chill nigga, with ya scary ass,” Trae’s cousin Bo snapped from the backseat. “Dee’s people live in that apartment. I’ll take care of it.” He turned to Trae. “And Trae—”

  “Bo, at this point I really don’t give a fuck,” Trae said, cutting him off. He looked at Omar and said, “My cousin… our cousin is gone. Plus, that’s our man’s people who had the camera. Ain’t that what Bo just said?” Trae leaned back in the seat, lit the blunt, took a drag and closed his eyes as if he didn’t have a worry in the world.

  “I hope you don’t think you’re going back to the West Coast before we get that videotape,” was the only response Omar could come up with.

  “Nigga, can you let me enjoy this moment, please?” Trae snapped as he shrugged Omar off.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Tasha and Aunt Marva were standing in the twins’ bedroom, going over it for the twentieth time. Tasha had to admit it to herself, it felt good having someone around the house to help out and keep her company, especially since Trae was out of town. Slowly but surely everything was beginning to come together. Tasha was surprised at how much she was able to get done with the help of Aunt Marva.

  “Girl, this room is ready. You can’t put nothing else in here,” Marva scolded. “You’ve changed the curtains a hundred times. The babies aren’t going to be paying those curtains any attention. Hell, they can’t even see. They will only be interested in eating, shitting and sleeping. I’m going over to my friend Ms. Millie’s house.” She left Tasha standing in the middle of the room. Tasha had started to protest but changed her mind. Aunt Marva had already made new friends. She was doing all she could to deal with the pain of losing her only child and keeping Tasha from worrying about Trae and for that she was grateful.

  Tasha looked around the room, fluffed up the crib pillows once again and then headed downstairs to the family room. She settled on the couch, grabbed the remote and turned on the TV. She then felt it, warm fluids wetting her thighs.

  “Oh, my God!” she whispered as she felt her thighs and crotch to be sure. “Oh, my God. My water broke!” She jumped up and ran over to the phone and called Trae. “Baby, it’s time,” she sang into his voice mail before hanging up and racing upstairs to change her pants and underwear. She was both excited and nervous. But before she could get inside her bedroom her first labor pain practically folded her. She grabbed ahold of the doorknob, squeezed it and began doing her breathing exercises.

  The pain was so sharp it brought tears to her eyes. “Oh, God,” she sighed a sigh of relief after it subsided. She grabbed the phone to call Trae again. When the voice mail came on she said, “Baby, where are you? I just had my first contraction and it was a big one. Hurry home.” She hung up and put some dry shorts and panties on. She then called her doctor and told her that she had had her first contraction and that her water had already broken. The doctor told her to get on over to the hospital. With twins and with Tasha being past her due date Dr. Cannon didn’t want to take any chances.

  Tasha hung up with her doctor and called Trae, again leaving a message, and then she called Marva.

  Taking care of Magnificent had eased a load off Trae’s shoulders. Trae was slowly coming down off of that high. The high he had gotten from taking Magnificent out. He was in Omar’s basement along with Bo, and of course Omar. They were sitting around drinking, passing blunts around and reminiscing about Shaheem’s crazy ass.

  Omar said, “Kaylin said since you don’t know how to answer your phone come over to the crib. He needs to holla at you before you leave. I told him you ain’t going nowhere until we get that tape back.”

  “Leave? Leave for where?” Then it dawned on Trae that he had a wife and soon-to-be family at home. “Shit!” Trae spat. He jumped up and began pacing back and forth. “I’ve been so caught up in finding that damn Magnificent cat, I haven’t even checked on my wife. I can’t believe this,” he mumbled. He searched all of his pockets for his phone and turned it on. He dialed his voice mail. “Shit!” he spat as he realized that Tasha had been blowing his phone up.

  Bo and Omar watched as his whole demeanor changed. He went from killer Trae to worried daddy.

  He could hear the panic in her voice but at the same time she was trying to be strong. He could also hear it in her voice that she was scared and disappointed. He snatched up his jacket.

  “Tasha is in labor. Y’all gotta get me to the airport on somebody’s plane and I mean right now. I can’t miss the delivery of my first babies.” He was already headed for the door, with Bo and Omar on his heels.

  Trae arrived in California and walked in the delivery room just as his first son was coming into the world.

  PART II

  CHAPTER NINE

  Fast-forward, Manhattan, New York City… Game

  Over Records

  Good morning, Game Over Records. Please hold. Good morning, Game Over Records, how may I direct your call?”

  Bobbi the receptionist was going crazy for the third morning in a row since the headlines read REGGAETON SUPERSTAR AND MOTHER FOUND SLAIN. The news was on every radio station, every news channel and just about every newspaper.

  When she looked up she saw Angel coming into the office. She had on a pair of dark shades that Bobbi knew matched her mood. She stood up and said, “Mrs. Santos, I’m glad you are back safely from your business trip and I am sorry about Papi Chulo. I still can’t believe it, but y’all don’t pay me to do public relations.” Bobbi rambled on all in one breath.

  “Bobbi, just take a message like any other normal secretary would do. We have a publicist. Several. Give them Courtney’s number. Is Kaylin in yet?” Angel snapped as she held The New York Times tightly under her arms.

  “He was here when I got here, Mrs. Santos. He’s been on the phone all morning.”

  Angel stormed off in search of Kaylin. His door was open, his back was turned and the phone was glued to his ear. Angel slammed the door, causing him to turn around. She tossed the article in front of him. “Hang up the phone, Kaylin.”

  His smile turned into a frown.

  “Now, Kaylin.” While she was in Colorado on a business trip, she had been calling Kaylin repeatedly since she heard about Papi Chulo’s and his mother’s deaths. Kaylin had refused to talk to her over the phone. He continued his conversation as he watched her pace back and forth. He knew she was pissed because he wouldn’t talk to her. He knew that all she wanted to do was grill him. He ended the call and stood up.

  “I’m glad to see you too. How was your trip?”

  “Kaylin, don’t even try it. If you would have answered your phone you would have known.” She picked up the newspaper and tossed the article on Papi and his mother at him. He caught it and placed the newspaper on his desk. Papi had taken his mother on a cruise and they had both been found murdered.

  “Red, I found out about this the other night. You know I wasn’t going to discuss this with you over the phone, so I don’t know why you trippin’.” Kaylin turned up the music
in his office because he knew what was coming next. He walked over to her and Angel started crying.

  “You know I liked him, Kaylin.”

  “So did I, Red. He was our number one moneymaker.”

  “Why did they do this? We should have never sent them on the cruise,” Angel bawled.

  “Baby, it’s not our fault,” Kaylin assured her.

  She looked into his eyes to see if it was true or not. What she saw made her stomach clench. She pushed him away and went into her office.

  * * *

  California here and now…

  Trae and Tasha were sitting in the family room. The twins were now almost three years old and Caliph was going on one. Caliph was in his playpen and the twins were playing with their toys. Trae was filling Tasha in on Stephon’s pitch for the nightclub. He could sense that Tasha wasn’t quite sold.

  “The bottom line,” he continued, “is that I can clean up a nice amount of this cash we sittin’ on. The longer we have it sittin’ around the more uncomfortable I’m getting. You understand what I’m saying?”

  “Of course I understand. But do you understand what I’m saying? Matter of fact, are you even listening to what I’m saying?”

  “What are you saying, Tasha?”

  “Why does it have to be a club? Nightclubs are very risky. There are so many other business ventures that you could use to clean up some money.”

  “Yes, but a business venture with your peoples that I can control, baby. This opportunity just fell into my lap. And to make it even sweeter, he has a board of directors that are made up of the most powerful people in California. I won’t have to explain to them where the money came from. It’s like I’m doing business with the connect’s connect. Plus, it’s our club. When we go out we will be going to our club.”