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had on his payroll, there was no way he should have been taken by surprise. “I’m going to have your job for this,” he said calmly.

“Oh yeah, Mr. Mafioso?” the white detective shot back sarcastically. “You are gonna get me fired? You’re connected, huh?”

“Like the interstate,” Baron spat.

“Well, we have a warrant to search the premises.” The detective shoved the papers directly in Baron’s face, but Baron was not intimidated. He had nothing to hide. He never kept any work inside his home. That was the number one rule. Never shit where you eat. A smug smile crossed his exhausted face as he stood toe-to-toe with the detective.

“Be my guest,” Baron said. He was so confident that the police wouldn’t find anything that it wasn’t even a worry in the back of his mind. His home was clean, and he felt slighted as he thought of how Detroit’s finest were intruding and disrespecting Willow’s memory.

Baron followed the police into his family room and watched as they went straight for the flower arrangements that had just been delivered. They cracked the black vases and Baron’s heart collapsed when he saw them begin to pull kilos of cocaine from the inside. There were twenty vases in all and each one contained a separate key, wrapped in clear plastic. Samad had set him up and as Baron held up his hands in surrender, the detective forced him to his knees.

In disbelief Baron shook his head as the entire thing seemed to play out before him in slow motion. His guests looked at him with sympathy and shock as they watched him be handcuffed and read his rights. Fuck. How did I let him catch me like this? Baron asked himself. He knew that his head hadn’t been in the right place. Willow’s murder had him distracted and after all of his years of flawless hustling, this is what it had come to. Because he was caught red-handed with twenty bricks inside his home, he was done. They were about to cook him and Baron couldn’t do anything but chuckle slightly to himself at the irony of it all. Samad had set him up good, and Baron knew that with the raw uncut cocaine Samad had access to that he was in for the fight of his life. Years of flying under the radar had just gone straight out the window. Baron felt the cut of the handcuffs as they dug into his wrists and he realized that he could be going away for a very long time. As he took the walk of shame to the police car, he held his head high. He looked at each one of his workers in the eye as he was led out. He had never bowed down to anyone and had enjoyed the fruits of his street labor. He had lived high off the fast life and had risked it all for the sake of the American dream. Now because of Samad he had taken the plunge from grace, but he would take his fall like a man. Just as he had ridden the wave to the top, he would ride it to the bottom because it was all a part of the game. He had hoped to be one of the lucky ones and come out unscathed, but the loss of a loved one had been the tragic event that started the downward cycle. Now he was facing the loss of his freedom, an inevitable opponent that every kingpin must contend with.

SEVENTEEN

AS SOON AS A’SHAI WALKED INTO THE hotel room, Liberty could read the defeat all over his face.

“Are you okay?” Liberty asked as she sat up in the bed and got on her knees. A’shai sighed, not in the mood to talk about what happened. Seeing her waiting anxiously for him was like a band-aid to his ego. He was bleeding on the inside, and Liberty was what he needed to forget about the day’s events. Her long hair cascaded over one shoulder as the white plush hotel robe hung off the other shoulder. Her golden skin glistened.

A’shai had entertained his share of women, but none of them could hold a candle to Liberty. He remembered how he had been enthralled by her when his father had kidnapped her from her village. At first sight Liberty had effortlessly stolen his heart.

“Come here,” she summoned as she beckoned him with her finger. Since reuniting, A’shai hadn’t touched Liberty . . . not in the way