Chapter 20
I’d been played, and I didn’t even know why I was surprised. I shouldn’t have expected anything more. I went over my uncle Atlas’s head to get put on this case, and it might cost me my job and my life. I was stuck in the middle of a war, and I had enemies on both sides.
I paced back and forth in my living room, trying to get my thoughts together. I had made it out of Maeve’s house, but not before Bishop made me sit through the rest of dinner. It was torture to sit across from Maeve knowing she didn’t want shit to do with me anymore.
Bishop told me I had to make up my mind about the type of man I wanted to be. I understood what he meant, but what I didn’t understand was why he let me go. I was an undercover agent who had infiltrated the Durty Boyz, and he saw me coming from a mile away.
I shook my head at the thought of how many times he could have taken my life, and I wouldn’t have been none the wiser.
I lived on his grace alone. I couldn’t help but want to know who had put me in this situation to begin with.
It was clear the play had been made long before I was assigned to the case.
I grabbed my cell phone off the kitchen counter and dialed Atlas’s number. If it was anybody that could give me advice, it was him. I knew he’d know which way I should go from here.
He told me not to come back in, and I did so against his wishes. I knew I had to see Maeve again, and now I had to make this right. My presence here was what started this war. I was just a pawn in someone else’s game, but that didn’t absolve me of the part I’d played.
“Yo, Unc.”
“Dima. So good to hear from you, son.”
I could hear the relief in my uncle’s voice. Relief that I was still alive and able to call his phone. Sadly, I couldn’t let him hold on to that peacefulness for long.
“It’s good to hear from you too, Unc.”
“How are things looking out there?”
“Not good. Bishop knows I’m a Fed. He knows we are on to him.”
“How do you know that?”
I could hear the panic in my uncle’s voice. He almost sounded defeated. This was exactly what he tried to protect me from, but it was too late.
“His daughter told him right in front of me. I fucked up, Uncle Atlas. I fell in love with her and couldn’t lie to her anymore. I couldn’t have her caught up in a war. I already hurt her enough.”
It was quiet on his end. I fully expected him to say I told you so, but I knew he wouldn’t. He would never be the person to kick me while I was already down.
“Damn,” was all he managed to get out. My uncle wasn’t one to be lost for words. He always had a plan, and the fact that he wasn’t giving me one right now further let me know that I had fucked up. This was something I was going to have to do on my own.
“Do you know what’s going on with this case?”
“I don’t, but I guarantee you I’m going to figure it out. Where were you when his daughter told him?”
“At his home. He had invited me over for dinner. After she told him, Bishop laughed right in our face. Said he knew from the moment I joined. How could he have known that?”
“This case has been tricky from the start, and now orders are coming from above. Even I can’t get control of Agent Fitz. The only person I can think of being behind this is Detrick, but I refused to believe my brother would put his own son in danger to close a case. That can't be it, D.”
Atlas was saying that because he didn’t know my pops like I did. I’d watched him bring Bishop’s case home with him every night for years. This was just the next step in his obsession.
I felt like the walls were closing in on me. My pops had done a lot of shit to hurt me, but this had to be the worst. This move told me he didn’t care if I lived or died, as long as he got his man.
“It is. This was all his doing. He set me up from the moment Fitz came to me with this assignment. He probably told him to recruit me in the first place. This was all his doing.”
“Dima, what you thinking? Don’t do anything crazy.”
“I’m not, but I need to see him. I need to hear it from his mouth.”
I parked my car in front of a place I hadn’t been to in a long time, my father’s house. The place I grew up way faster than I ever should have. The house I missed my mother’s constant presence in.
I hopped out and walked up the large brick steps that led to his front door. I still had a key to his place, although I never used it. Coming home never crossed my mind before today. I found the key on my ring and let myself in.
“Where the fuck you at?”
I yelled out because I knew he was here. I saw his car in the garage. My father was the kind of man who hardly ever had to leave the house. He was able to pull strings from his home office. Making me a pawn in his game was as simple as a phone call.
“I’m in here, Son.”
His raspy voice came from the living room, and I walked at a hurried pace to find him. I left this house as soon as I was old enough to do so and never asked his ass for shit. He could have at least offered me peace, but he refused to stop meddling in my life.
“Did you do this? Did you set me up?”
He stood at the large window that overlooked the backyard. The living room was still decorated just the way my mother had left it. Nothing about this house had changed in over twenty years. Not even how dead it made me feel inside.
My father turned around with his hands tucked in the front pockets of his tailored suit. Just like my uncle Atlas, he was an older version of me but shorter. Salt-and-pepper hair lined his tapered fade and beard. His bottom lip held a cigar in place.
“It wasn’t a setup. Calm down.”
He finally spoke, taking the cigar from his mouth for a brief second, then putting it right back. He always loved a cigar.
“Then what was it? You sent me into an operation where they already knew who I was. I could have lost my life.”
Detrick threw his hands up in mock surrender and walked over to the bar that stood in the far corner. He poured himself a drink before reaching one in my direction. I didn’t budge, because he had me fucked up. If I got close to my father, I knew I would knock his ass clean out.
“Dmitri, I didn’t set you up. Yes, I knew it was a possibility that Bishop may figure out you were my son, but I also knew you were too smart to get caught up in a situation that you couldn’t get out of. I taught you better than that.”
“You didn’t teach me shit. Everything I know about the world today is because of my uncle Atlas and my mom. All you ever did was put me in situations like you got me in right now, overplaying your hand.”
“I needed you, Son. I have been chasing Bishop my whole career, and I could not retire next year without bringing him to justice.”
“Let me get this straight. You put my life at risk so you can retire knowing you got your man?”
“I had Fitz bring you in on this because I knew you were the only man for the job. I’ve worked this my whole life and was never able to bring Bishop Moore down. Now, because of you, I have the opportunity to bring his organization to its knees.
“While you were on the inside, I had Fitz working to start a war between Bishop and his biggest rival. I now have the power to take out the Durty Boyz and the Jack-town JUs at the same time. This war is going to give me exactly what I need to wipe all of those thugs out of my city.”
“And you ain’t mind using your own son as bait to do it, huh? That’s fucked up. Even for you.”
“Son, we all do what we must, but trust me. I did this for our family. The Walker legacy will live forever in this city.”
“Nah, you did this for yourself, and I never been more ashamed to be a Walker than I am right now.”
I turned around and walked back out of the door. I didn’t care if I never saw that motherfucker again in my life. My father had done nothing but bring me hurt and pain all these years. If I hadn’t already cut his ass out of my life, it was definitely over with now.
When I brought this case to a close, it would be my name on it, not his. I wouldn’t even acknowledge him in any of it, but I had to do it the right way. I couldn’t let Bishop and Maeve be affected by something that my father had set in motion.
I didn’t know what the beef was that my father had with Bishop, but it honestly didn’t have shit to do with me.
The facts were clear to me. Bishop committed a lot of crimes in this city, and if I could build a case off that alone, I would.
However, I couldn’t in good conscience use any of the shit my father had pulled to take him down.
Bishop didn’t deserve that, and that wasn’t the kind of man I wanted to be.
I would do this the right way, or I wasn’t going to do it at all.