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able to go to sleep until I knew what had happened at the Polo Grounds.
    While I was snuggled in my bed, I grabbed my Blackberry from my nightstand and called Reggie’s phone. It rung five times before it went to voicemail. The fact he didn’t answer sent me into a state of panic. I tried his number again but got the same results, so I hung up and immediately called Damian’s phone. I let out a long sigh of relief when he answered.
    “ What’s up?” he asked. Before I could answer him, I was interrupted by all of the commotion in the background.
    “ Nigga, you think I’m playing wit’ your motherfucking ass? I will kill you right now. I ain’t got no love for niggas who ain’t got love for me!” I heard my brother yelling.
    His rage was bursting through the roof. I wasn’t in the same room with him but there was no doubt in my mind that he had a gun in his hand while he was on this rampage.
    “ Naomi, you still up here?” Damian asked.
    “ Yeah, I’m still here,” I finally replied. “I just tried to call Reggie’s phone twice but he didn’t answer it.”
    “ Oh . . . that was you? Yeah, I heard it ring. He picked it up and looked at it but you knew he wasn’t going to answer it while he’s trying to handle this situation.”
    “ I kind of figured that. Was everything cleaned up when y’all got there?”
    “ Yeah, it was. But you could still tell something happened.”
    “ Did they seal off the elevator?” I asked.
    “ Yeah, we heard they ain’t letting nobody use it for the next couple of days,” Damian spoke low, but audible.
    “ Did y’all find out who those guys were?”
    “ Nah, not yet.”
    “ Did your people have any answers for y’all when you guys saw him?”
    “ He had a few. But it wasn’t good enough for your brother,” he continued in a low tone.
    But you could still hear Reggie laying down the law in the background. “I will not allow a nigga to fuck up my operation. I don’t give a fuck who it is. I have taken a lot of risks to let some grimy ass low-level niggas destroy what I built. So if I ever find out one of y’all niggas was behind this shit that happened today, it ain’t gon’ be pretty for you, your babymamas, your kids and the rest of your motherfucking families. Y’all catch my drift?”
    I heard everyone say yeah in unison. And then it got quiet but it didn’t stay quiet for long. A second later, I heard Reggie say, “Who the fuck you on the phone with?” Then there was a long pause, but I knew he was talking to Damian.
    “ It’s your sister. She said she just tried to call you.”
    “ Nigga, you were supposed to be watching my back and now you on the motherfucking phone!” I heard Reggie spat. “Shit, if you wanna know the truth, I believe that if you would not have brought this nigga into my operation, then this shit probably wouldn’t have happened. So I might have just cause to blame you for this shit, huh?”
    “ What the fuck are you talking about Reggie? So you think I was behind this shit?” I heard Damian say.
    While I waited for my brother to respond, my heart raced at sixty miles per second. I wished like hell I was there to shut this discussion down. Reggie knew he had a right to have his suspicion, but this wasn’t the right time to address that suspicion. The other cats that worked for us didn’t need to see that there may be some disagreement or dissension within the ranks. They needed to see that we were still strong and one team. That Reggie and Damian still had a bond and solid connection and no one could break that bond or come between them. I so wanted to scream through the phone and tell Damian to hand Reggie the damn phone. Unfortunately, he had pulled the phone away from his ear, so he couldn’t hear me.
    “ Whatcha’ trying to say Reggie?” I heard Damian ask. It sounded as if he had a lot of aggression in his voice and he was appalled at Reggie’s allegation.
    “ Nigga, I said what I had to say loud and clear,”