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Prologue

ESPN played on the 32-inch flat-screen in the bedroom, and Stephen A Sht’s basketball ga the Atlanta Hawks at the Barclays Center in don Brooklyn Boththeir outlook on tonight’s ga The Nets were potential playoff contenders, but the Haere a powerful tea the best season of his career Skip Bayless mentioned Nets player Jason Miller, a talented saa scorer on the Nets Bayless compared Miller to Ray Allen, another fierce three-point shooter S his lack of defense They also mentioned the four-year ned with the Nets,him one of the wealthiest players in the NBA

The noise from the television woke up Kip Kane Kip stretched and yawned and lifted himself from his bed He was shirtless, his chiseled physique covered with tattoos and battle scars He stared at ESPN and listened to Smith and Bayless talk about Jason Miller’s multi-million-dollar contract with the Nets It was a lot of uaranteed, and he was expected to earn ninety-five million dollars

“Ninety-five a fro that muchprofession

He stood up and went to the bedroo another sunny spring day He pulled back the blinds and gazed at his city Harle with people, cars, and his beloved projects—Manhattanville Houses in West Harlem, between Broadway and Amsterdam From his eleventh-floor , he had a picturesque view of the city that stretched froe

Kip wiped the cold from his eyes He’d heard what he needed to hear, so he turned off the television He lit a Black & Mild, picked up his cell phone, and sat at the foot of his bed It was eleven aet that money

He puffed on the Black as he dialed a nu three tias at?” he asked

“We on the block,” Devon said

“A’ight, coa by noon”

“A’ight”

Kip tossed his cell phone on the bed and stood up He walked toward the closet e, but he was handsome He enty-two years old with a low-cut Caesar, his waves were always spinning, and he had a growing mustache He had dark skin with an athletic build, and his eyes were cold—it was like he had a blizzard in his spirit He had seen a lot and been through a lot in life

Kip Kane saw hiround, and he was a warrior—a thoroughbred fro shoulders, but he refused to be weighed down by poverty and lack of finances Kip was the moneymaker in his family—if he could call it a family He only had two people he truly cared for in his life: his younger brother Kid, who sometimes went by “The Kid,” and Rhonda, his Nana, as sixty-five years old and living comfortably in a retirement community upstate Her apartht to her door three times a week, and staff that came to clean her aparter Everything had been taken care of for her, thanks to Kip

Kip felt that he owed her a lot She had taken him and his little brother in from abusive foster homes to a real hole, childless woman in her early fifties at the time She took care of the boys, fed theht the world of her, but Kid thought differently He wasn’t as loving toward Nana as Kip was and always believed she was a fraud, despite what she had done for them

Kip walked out of his bedroom, moved down the hallway, and knocked on the bedroom door, the master bedroom He didn’t wait for a response He opened the door andin bed and absorbed in a ga the computer

Kip sonna stay in here and play video games or enjoy the day?”

“Play a game with me”

“You know I don’t play like you”

“I can teach you”

“Nah, chess is your thing, little brother, not mine I ” Kip beat his chest “You goin’ down to the park?”