Page 23 of Omar

Kadeem listened without interrupting. When I finished he was quiet for a moment.

"Why?"

"That limp nigga put his hands on her."

"You don't step into Crown Heights business over someone putting hands on a woman you don't know."

I didn't answer.

"Wait, so you do know her?"

I kept my mouth shut.

"Omar."

I waited another second. Then I said it.

"It was Asha."

Kadeem went still. His eyes stayed on me but something changed behind them, working through it. Asha had come in fast at the warehouse, kept her eyes off me, walked back out. He'd known something was off but he hadn't placed her face. Now he placed it.

"Asha Cole?"

"Yeah."

"Asha Cole is Supreme's woman?"

"Yeah."

He ran a hand down his face and said, "Fuck," then said it again quieter, sat with it for a moment while he went through the same math I'd been going through since the warehouse. Asha Cole, fourteen years gone, sitting at Supreme's table as his woman, me putting my career on the line over her in a way Supreme was going to feel.

"You been seeing her?"

"Only that time at the warehouse and then I just came from seeing her now."

"Fuck, Omar." Kadeem ran a hand over his face. I knew I'd fucked up. Man, it was worse than that.

"I know, I know."

"Do you? Because what just happened with Holt is what happens when you don't know."

I didn't have an answer for that.

Kadeem looked at me for a long moment. "You know what she is to Supreme?"

"I know."

"Then you know what this costs if it gets complicated."

"It won't."

He gave me the look. The one that said he didn't believe that and I'd hear about it later if I was wrong. Then he let it go.

"Don't make me regret that," he said.

I stood up. "You won't."

He went back to the file on his desk. I left him there and walked out.