Page 10 of Vega

“Yes.”

He hesitated. “Do you want me to come over?”

“No. I have to finish getting ready for work.”

“Sonnet.”

“I’ll call you later.”

I ended the call before he could argue.

On the television, the reporter repeated the number for the police tip line.

I turned off the screen.

Calling the police would have been the responsible choice. It also required believing they could protect me from a man they had investigated for years without ever managing to convict.

I picked up my glasses and slid them onto my face.

Donovan’s final words returned to me. “Everything comes to light eventually.”

Maybe it would. It just would not come to light through me.

3

VEGARRO “VEGA” MORETTI

Music flowed through the private room of the cigar bar at a level that allowed conversation, while smoke floated beneath the dim lights. Bottles covered the tables between leather chairs. Nobody was discussing business. For once, we were simply kicking it on a Friday night.

Wise and Prodigy occupied the couch across from me. Lux and Lowe argued over whether Lowe had cheated during the last hand of spades. Legend, Saint, and Icon watched the spades game closely because they had placed heavy bets on it.

Knox sat beside me with a cigar between his fingers. He was Prodigy’s best friend since high school. They met after Prodigy broke a nigga’s nose for stealing Knox’s phone from his locker. They had been locked in ever since. We had also been Knox’s supplier for years.

Knox made money, stayed out of the way, and never created the kind of problems that made friendship and business impossible to mix. We trusted him, which was not something we said lightly about anybody.

Across from us, Prodigy stared into his glass like Arielle might climb out of it and come back to him.

Since Big A linked us with the Cartiers, the Street Kings and Cartiers had formed a bond beyond business. We had mad respect for them. Our organization had been eating differently since they agreed to be our connect. The prices were better, the product was purer, and the money stretched further than it ever had when we were buying from smaller distributors who cut everything twice and still wanted top dollar. The Street Kings had been working our way up since we were teenagers. Now our name meant something. Niggas knew us and respected us. We weren’t on the Cartiers’ level yet, not with estates, private gates, and millions in the bank, but we were more than comfortable. We invested in legal businesses, buildings, clubs, trucking, properties, and anything else that could wash street profit into clean money. The streets had made us money, but the legitimate shit was about to make us rich niggas.

“Bro, are you really pouting?” I taunted Prodigy.

He cut his eyes at me. “Fottiti. (Fuck you.)”

I laughed and lifted my glass. “You knew Arielle was ready for something real. How long you thought she was going to wait?”

“I knew she caught feelings,” Prodigy corrected. “I didn’t know she was going to disappear.”

“You told her you weren’t looking for anything serious,” Knox reminded him.

“Exactly.”

“And then kept treating her like your woman.”

Prodigy frowned. “I treated her like a real nigga is supposed to treat a woman he’s fucking.”

“That was the problem,” Wise added. “You took her places, bought her shit, spent nights at her house, and acted territorial whenever another man looked at her. Then you kept reminding her y’all weren’t together.”

“I never lied to her.”