Asante (Barron Family Saga #3)

Chapter 2 Bishop Barron

BISHOP BARRON

Iadjusted my gun, my eyes drifting from my twin brother Rook to our older brothers Knight and King.

Knight and Rook were standing together side by side and behind our eldest brother King, who was dressed in a full suit and talking to the six men in front of him with an air about him that made it clear he felt like he was above everything including doing business with them.

I was sprawled out on the roof of a neighboring building, gun in hand and ready to red dot everyone across from him if it came down to it. That was what I did. It was how I contributed to our family and my trigger finger twitched as King adjusted his stance, his hands in his pockets.

I tilted my head slightly to the side to get a little bit more sound in my earpiece. Rook was wearing a wire, a plain simple thing that was tucked into the chain he wore specifically to shit like this.

I couldn’t hear the customers all that well but I could hear King.

His voice was still even. His body language was still relaxed.

He hadn’t adjusted his gun or changed how he was standing so he could draw quicker.

Rook’s hand was on his piece but that hothead was always ready for the dumb shit so I didn’t gauge anything based on him.

I went based off of Knight who had his hands clasped in front of his body and his head drifting side to side to make sure he was aware of their surroundings.

I had three other guards placed on the ground beside them who were all focused and holding large guns of their own.

Our entire family’s wealth revolved around the fact that we crafted fake passports that were good enough to get anyone where they needed to be.

The new head of our family and my oldest brother, King, was in charge of selecting what deals he thought were most beneficial.

Knight, the second oldest of our family, was the best crafter of those passports.

Whatever he made passed our family’s tests every time and somehow he still managed to be the fastest of all of us.

As the third oldest, I took care of all things having to do with security which meant that not only did I vet the people King thought we should work with but I headed our security team and made sure our surveillance technology was up to date.

My twin and the technical youngest Barron son, Rook, did a little bit of everything.

He helped Knight with crafting passports.

He helped me get what I needed done to keep our security up to date.

He ran whatever errands King needed him to run.

He just kind of went wherever we needed him and tonight that was on the ground beside our brothers.

I paused and saw it, the slight movement from the guard at the far right corner. I turned my gun on him and watched him through my scope. I saw when he moved slightly.

“You saw that?” I swapped my earpiece for the one connected to my co-head of security, Quazi.

“Far right corner is moving weird,” I said simply. “Lock in and be prepared because if he moves I’m going to blow his head off his shoulders. Clear your throat if you can hear and understand me.”

Quazi cleared his throat and I double checked the chamber of my gun. I swapped back over to Rook’s frequency.

“Far right.” I said simply.

Rook’s head turned without shame.

“Aye. Stop all that fucking moving. You making my trigger finger itchy, nigga,” he barked.

I shook my head. King kept his gaze forward, completely uninterrupted by the outburst.

“You heard him,” Knight stood up straight and his hands dropped to his sides.

I cocked my gun.

“We hear you.” The man in front of King smiled. “Just give us a second to get your money.”

“Alright. Do that.” King nudged his head toward the car they’d come out of.

There were three black trucks lined up, each with their windows rolled down at the request of King to make sure there wouldn’t be any surprises coming out the back.

The man snapped and two of his men started to walk to the middle of the trucks.

“You can come collect.”

King looked back and nudged his head toward the truck and one of our guards, Wes, nodded once and followed him. I watched the trunk open slowly. The second they were out of my line of sight I looked back at my guy in the far right.

I saw the second he pulled his gun, but mine was already out and I sent a bullet through his head and started to fire off quick, efficient shots.

“Secure King.” I said simply.

The ground was breaking into chaos with the dropping of the first body but I’d already sent my second shot by the time he hit the ground.

My brothers were quick on the draw themselves and King had the man in front of him on the ground almost immediately, sending a bullet into the back of his head before Quazi could even get to and shield him.

Rook shot the man closest to him and circled around one of the trucks, to get out of the open.

Knight sent off one shot of his own while he ushered King into one of their own vehicles. I scanned the area around them.

My eyes immediately went to the truck that was speeding toward them.

“Wes, get King and Knight out now. Quazi and Rook stay back. If I miss this shot, I need that vehicle stabilized one way or another.”

“Got it.” Rook quickly reloaded his gun and I watched as the truck’s windows rolled down and Rook shot up the windshield.

I aimed through the open window as the man aimed his gun out of it and sent off my first shot.

It missed but the second one sent his head back and the truck veered thanks to Rook.

I watched it slowly come to a stop and Rook and Quazi jogged toward it.

I made sure they were good while they ran through it.

“We’re good,” Quazi announced.

I didn’t respond. I just lowered my gun and started to pull it apart.

I tossed it in my carrying case, threw it over my shoulder and headed out, taking the steps on the side of the building and hopping in my whip with the bag still on me. I shoved it to the back and pulled off, one hand on the wheel the other dialing King.

He answered on the first ring.

“Yeah?”

“You good?”

“Better.” He chuckled. “We’ve got the money and our work.”

“Good. Me and Quazi will make sure the clean up is good and meet y’all back at home.”

“See you there.” King ended the call and I hit a sharp right.

When I rolled up to where Quazi and Rook were, they both had their guns drawn and were checking bodies, making sure there weren’t pulses and running pockets along the way.

“Rook, you’re good to go.” I nudged my head to the side.

He chuckled.

“I’m good. Thanks.”

“Yeah, alright.”

I didn’t argue with him.

Even though I was the head of our family’s security and had been for years now, Rook didn’t just listen to my recommendations or instructions the way that Knight and King did.

They were my older brothers, sure, but they also knew that I was good at my job and that when I said some shit there was a good reason for it even if I didn’t have time to explain what that reason was.

Rook, on the other hand, did whatever the fuck he wanted, and when I’d first taken over it had been a liability but now I planned for it. We were twins, two halves of the same soul. He went where I went and I trusted nobody to have my back more than him.

Us and Quazi took care of clean up, calling in some friends we knew that owned a farm where they disposed of bodies.

Donovan, Renier and Brix had been getting rid of bodies as long as I’d been creating them and we’d never had problems, so we went through the basics of taking care of vehicles while we waited for them then helped load the bodies up into their trucks.

I paid them all in cash, dapped them up and sent them on their way.

Then, the three of us headed to the family house, the Barron Estate. When we walked inside laughing was already coming from the living room so we headed straight there.

The entire family was in attendance and even though we’d had a great night and come out on top, a small ping of anxiety pierced through me when I saw my brothers with my sister-in-laws.

I loved them. For real. The women were amazing women, and they loved my brothers as much as my brothers loved them, but their presence was nothing but a reminder that I’d be getting married sooner rather than later and to a woman my parents picked out for me.

Our entire family traditionally went through the process of an arranged marriage. We all got married on our twenty-fifth birthdays and honestly our parents had been pretty successful, but that shit didn’t really make me feel all that better.

King and Xavia had grown into a perfect match.

King had always been ambitious and headstrong, and Xavia was the kind of woman who not only understood that but supported and nurtured it.

She was his ride or die and she put the family above everything else, including her own morals.

She was selfless when it came to the advancement of the family in a way that King appreciated and respected and made her the perfect match for him.

They were consistent in their views of sacrifice and democracy to keep things running smoothly and neither complained about the power that had been given to them even when it was a heavy load to carry.

Knight, on the other hand, had only gotten married a year ago.

His arranged marriage had been to Novalie, who was anything but a trophy wife.

Her father was Quazi, and it was apparent from the way she was always on offense and defense at the same time.

She’d been a little culture shock to me.

Knight was nothing if not the man worthy of his namesake.

He was a gentleman and I’d been sure that he’d need a wife who could thrive beside someone who coddled them and treated them like the softest most breakable person in the world.

That wasn’t Nova. She was a strong woman and Knight’s marriage to her had forced him to loosen his grip on control which was a welcomed change. I was glad to be wrong.

His second wife, Casmi had just somehow stumbled into their lives. They’d all met the same day. She’d been in a loveless and abusive marriage and Knight and Nova had both wanted to save her and set her free.

They’d saved her.

Set her free? Not exactly.

They’d all fallen in love throughout the process and our family had given her a blessing to join our family. She was a Barron just like Nova or Xavia and it worked for Knight and the women.

Our parents knew what they were doing when they created matches. I could admit that, but I also knew that the chances they made four successful marriages come from an arranged marriage system were low.

I was happy for King and Knight but I wasn’t hopeful for myself, especially while being surrounded by the gangsters and mobsters around us and being bisexual, even if it wasn’t exactly outwardly.

I mean, my family knew that I liked men.

Most of society did. We didn’t talk about it though.

It was the worst kept family secret that everyone liked to pretend didn’t exist and I let them.

I appreciated it even, but when it came time for families to throw their daughters out to be married to a Barron, I was sure Rook would get the better of the offers and out of what remained it would be up to my parents to choose a woman who didn’t care about my sexuality and could grow into a successful marriage with me anyway instead of a woman that cared where I stuck my dick before we got together but would lie and pretend just to get our last name attached to theirs and raise their family’s stock.

It was going to be complicated. I knew that already.

I forced a smile on my face and Rook hit me on my back before offering me a beer.

“You going dressed in that?” He gestured up and down my body.

“What?” I blinked at him and his smile vanished.

I knew that he could tell that I’d been lost inside my own head, but he didn’t call me out on it, especially here in front of our entire family.

“We’re going out tonight to celebrate,” he reiterated.

“Alright.” I nodded and he hit me on the back of my shoulder before gripping it.

We stayed that way talking to our family, laughing and joking as we spoke about the night like we hadn’t just killed over half a dozen people and would all be sleeping well tonight.

“Alright. Let’s get ready to go out and blow some of this profit.” Rook announced.

Novalie chuckled.

“Let me do a debriefing with the guys then I’ll be ready,” I offered.

“Alright. Just let us know when.” Knight crossed his feet at the ankles while leaned back on the couch, his arms thrown behind it.

“Alright.”

I pivoted around and Rook discretely took a step in front of me. He leaned down and into me.

“You good?”

“Yeah.” I feigned shock at his question. “I’m cool.”

He looked over at me and I met his gaze. I was a professional liar. You didn’t get to lead a security team if you were easy to read and had obvious tells. My brothers knew that. I didn’t like lying to them, but it wasn’t hard either.

Rook was the best at reading me. Maybe it was because we had the same face. Maybe it was because we were closer to each other than anyone else in the family. Either way it was sometimes a toss up when it came to hiding shit from him.

I waited patiently and my smile turned into a real one when he grinned, happy with the answer I’d given… at least for now.

“Yeah, alright.” Rook stood back to his full height. “You need me to sit in?”

“Nah. I’ve got it.”

I looked at where Quazi was, and he nodded once.

I repeated the gesture with Wes then let myself out of the room with both of them following behind me.

I did a quick call for the rest of the team then made my way downstairs to talk about everything that went wrong and right with the night, my own form of decompression before the shit show that was going out with my brothers.