Page 98 of Omar

When we finished Stone shook Kadeem's hand, then mine. His grip was firm and his eyes were steady.

"This is the right call," he told us. "Your father would be proud of both of you."

He left. Kadeem and I stood over the map in the empty room.

"You ready?" Kadeem asked.

"Been ready."

"I mean for what comes after. Supreme goes down, that changes everything. The Associates are watching us. How we handle this determines what the Baptiste name means going forward."

"I understand."

"Good." Kadeem folded the map. "Go home. Be with Asha. Get some rest. We move in two days."

I drove back to Bed-Stuy. The streets were quiet, the city settling into the late hours. I parked outside the building, checked the block out of habit, went upstairs.

Asha was on the couch with Nene asleep beside her, the TV on low. She looked up when I came through the door.

"How'd it go?" she whispered.

"Unanimous. We move in two days."

She nodded slowly. Her hand was resting on Nene's shoulder. Nene didn't stir.

"It's almost over," I said.

"Almost." She looked at me. "You be careful out there."

"Always am."

I sat down in the chair across from them. Asha watched me for a moment, then turned back to the TV. Nene moved in her sleep, mumbled something, and went still again.

Two days. Two nights of operations. Then Supreme's empire comes down and the man himself with it.

I sat there in the dark apartment watching Asha watch the screen and I let myself think about what came after. A life without Supreme in it. A life where Asha didn't have to perform or pretend or run. A life where I could come home to her without checking the block first.

Two days.

We were ready.

Chapter 39

Omar

We moved at midnight.

Devon had the Flatbush location mapped down to the inch. A second-floor unit above a laundromat on Church Avenue, three rooms, two exits. The staircase from the street went up the side of the building to a landing with a metal door. One guard on the landing, one inside. The cash was in the back room in lockboxes that Supreme's people rotated every month. According to Asha, the new rotation had started the week before she left.

James took his team to East New York simultaneously. Devon ran comms from APEX, monitoring both operations on split screens, scanning Supreme's crew frequencies for any chatter that might indicate they knew we were coming.

I had three men with me. All Baptiste, all vetted, all quiet. We parked two blocks away on a residential street and walked to the location in pairs, keeping to the shadows on the south side like Stone had suggested. The camera coverage on the main road didn't extend past the bodega on the corner.

The guard on the landing had his back to the stairs, leaning against the railing scrolling his phone. He didn't hear us until we were on him. I put my arm around his neck from behind, locked it tight, and held him there until his legs buckled. He went down without a sound. One of my guys zip-tied his wrists while I took his weapon.

The door was locked. I stepped back and put my boot through it just below the handle. The frame gave on the second kick and the door swung inward.

The hallway was dark. A strip of light came from under a door at the far end. Music playing low from somewhere, R&B, a woman's voice singing about something I didn't care about. The inside guard came out of the first room on the left when he heard the door go. Young, maybe twenty-two, wide-eyed, a gun in his hand that he hadn't even taken the safety off.