Little Layer's Arc

Chapter 4 of 7

Layer woke in his brother's apartment block to a phone buzzing on the nightstand. He answered. A soldier spoke fast and scared. Robbing Rob had learned the truth. Layer now rode with Jason, and Rob had taken it as a betrayal. Rob was marching his forty men to burn the corners the Knee brothers held. The purple-clad soldiers were already moving to block him. Layer found Jason on the ground floor, loading a pistol. "Rob's coming," Layer said. "He built your enemies once. He's building against us now." Jason did not flinch. "Then we meet him outside. You know the man. You brought him in." He pressed a gun into Layer's hand. "Fix your own mistake, little brother." They went out front. Rob stood across the open lot, huge and bald, arms sleeved in dark ink, beard down his chest. Behind him waited a loose line of men Layer had once called his own. Layer knew every face. He had paid for them with Big L's cash. Now they pointed guns at him. "Rob," Layer called. He walked out ahead of Jason's men, empty hand raised. "Put it down. This ends nobody's night." Rob spat. "You sold us to the man who killed your boss. I built crews my whole life. I don't march them under a traitor." He lifted his pistol. "Debt's due, Layer." Layer kept walking. "Big L killed our mother. Mine and Jason's. That's why he died. You followed the wrong man. So did I." Rob's gun stayed up, but his eyes moved to the soldiers behind him. They had heard. A few lowered their weapons an inch. The line wavered. These men had scattered once already. None of them wanted to die for a grudge between bosses. "He's lying," Rob said. But his voice had lost its edge. A shot cracked from Jason's side. One of Rob's men dropped, clutching his leg. The lot exploded. Layer dove behind a parked car. Guns barked from both lines. Glass burst above him. He raised his pistol and fired at the ground near Rob's feet, not at Rob himself. "Hold!" Jason roared. His voice carried over the noise. "Any man who drops iron walks tonight. Any man who don't, dies here." Rob's line broke. Soldiers threw down their guns and stepped back, hands open. They had no reason left to fight. Rob stood alone, chest heaving, still gripping his pistol. Layer rose from behind the car. He aimed at his old partner. For one breath he thought of Big L, of scraps, of the debt he swore to collect. He fired once. Rob fell. The lot went quiet. Jason clapped a hand on Layer's shoulder. The forty men now stood empty-handed, waiting on new orders. They were Jason's now, and Layer's. The debt was closed. But Layer stared at Rob's body and felt no peace. Big L's killer still stood beside him, alive, and called him family.