“Good,” Eka chimed in. “Her time is spoken for, for the rest of the evening. She’s dining with Kapango Nassor-her intended in case you’re unaware of her engagement, Tesano.”
Imani was frowning. “I hadn’t planned to go out tonight, Eka. I’ve already told everyone their nights are their own.”
“That’s good, Sister. I’ll be serving as your escort tonight,” Eka said, sounding heavily gracious. “Kap wants to make up for cutting short your lunch the other day. We’ve already cleared the date with Papa.”
Imani resisted arguing and forbid her facial muscles to contort into a grimace. It would only make her look petty. Besides, she thought, Eka seemed to have taken over the petty department that day. Her brother reclaimed his seat with no further acknowledgement of his sister’s escort, clearly dismissing him.
Roman didn’t seem to notice. “Thank you again, Chief,” he was saying, “Goodbye Imani.”
Faraji, seated closest to Imani, leaned over to nudge her shoulder with his when Roman left. “You okay?” he asked.
Imani steeled herself from looking back the way Roman had gone. “I’m okay,” she said.
~27~
“I appreciate everybody showing up, I won’t keep you long.” Stone was saying as he looked out over the room at his brothers.
“Wait. Where’s Humphrey?” Vale studied the sea of faces and then glared at Stone.
“I don’t think anyone’s seen him,” Stone shrugged. “I called all the factories and the main office. Uncle Tori and Uncle Mica haven’t heard from him either.”
“So we’re just gonna have a meeting without him here?” Vale asked.
“This won’t keep any longer, Vay. I’ve already kept quiet about it longer than I should have,” Stone’s jade gaze reflected an unsettling resolve. “I wanted as many details as possible before I said anything-”
“Then shouldn’t we wait for Humphrey, if it’s that important?”
“Drop it, Vay,” Roman sighed. “Just report what’s said back to Hump. You’re used to doing that, right?”
Vale sneered. “I know you don’t care for rules, Rome, so this may’ve slipped your mind. Pop did put Humphrey in charge, you know?”
“He put Aaron in charge too,” Pitch spoke up. “How ‘bout it Ari? Can we get this thing started or what?”
Aaron’s gaze hadn’t drifted from Stone since he’d started to speak. “What’s this about?” He asked.
Stone accepted his cue. “You guys know what I’m interested in as far as the company goes.”
“Shipping,” Gabriel supplied, drawing nods from the others, including Stone.
“I’ve been working on an improved method for conducting product inventory as part of my proposal assignment. Right now, our inventory is cursory at best. I’m hoping to convince Pop to let us do something more extensive. With what I’ve learned, my proposal may have just approved itself.”
“And what’s that?” Gabriel asked.
Stone moved a few papers around on the high table behind the living room sofa. “I got a call from New York. There was a robbery at the wharf earlier this week. We weren’t hit,” Stone called out when a swarm of curses hit the air.
“During the investigation,” he continued, “the cops found boxes of rifle shells near our docks. According to some of our guards, Uncle Em...took care of it so we wouldn’t be suspected of the ammo belonging to us.”
Roman snorted. “Em wouldn’t commit to a pay off unless it did belong to us and our manifests said otherwise.”
“Exactly,” Stone retorted.
“What else?” Aaron probed, his rich browns still fixed on his brother.
“I had my partner at the docks do some quiet checking. He uncovered a sizable shipment of rifles, ammunition and a shitload of other stuff we don’t deal in.”
The curses resumed. They mingled with conversation until it all became a deafening mishmash.
“Did you call Pop?” Aaron asked when the room quieted a bit.
“No,” Stone winced. “I wanted to see what you guys thought we should do first.”
“Emilio’s got to go,” Roman growled.
“Amen to that,” Gabriel seconded.
“If we make any sudden moves and he gets spooked, he’ll wipe out everything that links him to this.”
“Pitch’s right,” Roman rested his elbows to his knees and considered. “This is touchy. Dad’s crazy loyal to Uncle Em. It’ll take all the hard evidence we can find to get him to buy this.”
“The guards who told you about Emilio?” Pitch probed.
Stone grinned. “Thompson and Frost. They said they know what you’re trying to do for them, so they decided to trust me and my partner-gave us a lot to go on.”
Pitch nodded. “They’re good ones.” Settling back in his chair, he gave his younger brother a sideways look. “Later,” he said to Roman who watched him with hard realization.
“What should we do, Ari?” Stone asked.
“Looks like our time in Chicago is done,” Aaron decided.
