Page 117 of Omar

"I think somebody called TK at five in the morning and told him to run. I think that same somebody might have known about the Canarsie location where Kadeem got shot." I paused. "I think we've got a problem that goes deeper than TK."

James didn't respond. He didn't need to. The implications were sitting in the room with us, heavy as furniture, impossible to ignore.

I took one more look around the apartment. The dented couch cushions, the warm cup, the burner phone left behind as a decoy. Everything about this scene said the same thing: TK had been warned by someone who knew our plans, someone who had access to the operational brief, someone sitting close enough to the Baptiste family to know our movements in real time.

I'd deal with that later. Right now TK was in the wind and every minute he had on us was a minute he was using to disappear.

"Let's go," I told James. "Devon, expand the search. Every transport hub, every known associate, every property connected to TK outside of Brooklyn. He's running and he's got a head start. We need to close the gap before he goes underground."

We left the apartment the way we'd come in, down the narrow stairs, through the broken door, into the alley. The sky was lighter now, the morning settling in over Queens, the bodega still shuttered, the street still quiet.

James drove us back toward Brooklyn. I sat in the passenger seat with TK's phone in my jacket pocket, the warm coffee cup still in my mind.

Who the fuck made that call at five-fifteen in the morning?

Chapter 47

Omar

The call came through while I was at APEX going over the warehouse inventory with Devon. James's number on the screen, which was wrong because James was supposed to be with Kadeem running a follow-up operation on one of Supreme's remaining assets in Canarsie. A storage facility Asha had identified during the debrief. Small operation, light security, should have been a routine hit.

I answered. James's voice was tight.

"Kadeem's been hit."

Everything in the room stopped. Devon looked up from his laptop.

"How bad?" I asked.

"Vest caught two rounds to the chest. Third grazed his arm, took a chunk but it ain't deep. He's conscious, he's talking, he's furious. But Omar, it was an ambush. Three shooters set up inside behind cover, positioned to take out whoever walked through that door first. Kadeem was point. If he hadn't been wearing the vest he'd be gone."

My hand tightened on the phone. "How'd they know you were coming?"

"That's what I'm saying. They were ready. Somebody called ahead."

"Where is he now?"

"Ma's house. Shanay's with him. I got him out clean but we lost the location."

"I'm on my way."

I drove to Ma's house running every light between APEX and Bed-Stuy. Parked crooked on the street and took the front steps two at a time. Shanay opened the door before I knocked. Her face was composed but her eyes were red and her hand was gripping the door frame.

"He's in the kitchen," she said. "He won't go to the hospital."

"That sounds like him."

Kadeem was sitting at the table with his shirt off. Ma was wrapping a bandage around his left arm where the round had grazed him, her hands steady, her face set in the expression she wore when she was scared but refusing to show it. The vest was on the floor next to his chair, two impact marks visible in the front panel, the fabric shredded around the entry points. He looked up when I came in and his face was pure fury.

"Somebody set us up," he said before I could speak.

I pulled out a chair and sat down. Ma finished the bandage, pressed her hand against Kadeem's shoulder for a second, then left the kitchen without a word. Shanay stayed in the doorway.

"Walk me through it," I said.

"We pulled up to the Canarsie location at the time Devon scheduled. Front entrance, the approach we planned. Two minutes in, we took fire from inside. They were already positioned. Three shooters, set up behind cover, waiting." He touched the vest on the floor with his foot. "If I hadn't been wearing this I'd be dead."

"Who tipped them off?"