Page 83 of Omar

Nene's voice. Low, careful, steady in a way that told me she was being watched.

"Hey, Ash. I'm okay. I'm not hurt. I need you to stay where you are and don't do nothing stupid. I'm fine. Just stay put."

The message was eleven seconds long. I played it again. Then again. Then a third time, standing in the kitchen with the coffee forgotten, my hands wrapped around the phone so tightly the case creaked.

Nene's voice was steady but the edges were wrong. She was speaking slowly, choosing her words, the way you speak when someone is standing over you telling you what to say. She said she was okay. She said she wasn't hurt. She told me to stay put.

Nene would never tell me to stay put. Nene would say get your ass over here or call Omar or burn this whole city down. Nene telling me to stay where I was and do nothing stupid was Nene reading from a script someone else had written.

Supreme had her.

I put the phone down on the counter. Picked it up again. Put it down. My hands were steady. My face wasn't.

Omar was at APEX. He'd left two hours ago to meet Devon about the operation planning. I called him and he picked up on the first ring.

"What's wrong?" he asked immediately.

"They got Nene."

Silence on the line. Then: "When?"

"I just got a voice note from her. She says she's fine, she's not hurt, told me to stay put. But it's Supreme, Omar. He took her because of me."

"Don't move. I'm coming to you."

He was at the apartment in twenty minutes. He came through the door already in work mode, his face closed, his body tight. He listened to the voice note twice, then called Devon and put him on speaker.

"Devon, you know that contact you got at the phone company who owes us," Omar told him. "Run Nene's number through him. Last known cell tower ping, anything in the last few hours. And check with your street contacts in Crown Heights. Supreme's people would've used a location they already control."

"On it," Devon replied. "Give me an hour."

Omar hung up and looked at me. "Devon's on it. We'll have a location soon."

"I'm going to her."

"No you're not."

"Omar."

"Asha, listen to me."

"Don't tell me to listen." My voice was louder than I meant it to be. "That's my best friend. That's the only person who's been there for me through all of this. She moved to Brooklyn because of me. She helped me get out. She helped me sneak out, she covered for me with Cee, she did all of that because I asked her to. And now Supreme has her because of me."

"Going back is exactly what he wants." Omar's voice was level but firm. "He took Nene to draw you out. If you show up, he's got both of you. Then I can't help either one of you."

"So what, I just sit here?" I was shaking now, my hands trembling, my voice cracking. "I just sit in your apartment drinking coffee while Nene is somewhere with Supreme's people and it's my fault she's there?"

"It's not your fault."

"The hell it isn't!" I was shouting now. "She's there because she helped me leave. Because she distracted Cee so I could get out, because she covered for me every time I snuck out to see you, because she's my person and she put herself on the line for me and now she's paying for it."

Omar stood there taking it. He didn't flinch, didn't raise his voice, didn't try to hold me. He let me yell because he understood that what was coming out of me was fear dressed up as anger.

"You done?" he asked when I stopped.

"Don't patronize me."

"I'm not. I'm asking if you're done so I can tell you what we're gonna do."