"Party's in the back," Kevin informed Malik and Shabazz as they entered the front door of the bar. "Let's keep it moving." His tone inflected that they had just walked into an uncomfortable situation, the small camera on his coat capturing people gawking at them as they passed through the row of tables in the narrow bar.

"Got eyes on Atwater." Antonio's voice crackled over as he and Adam sat at the counter.."He's headed towards the back room." Jay was already in the back with his guys, while the two of them were seated near the middle of the bar just in case backup was needed. The people Jay and Kevin were running with had serious rap sheets and they would have to play this right to make the exchange and get these guns off the street, once and for all. "He's headed towards the back room."

"Copy. You and Adam stay at the bar unless something goes south with this meeting." Voight instructed from his end. He and Al were waiting in the car nearby, while Kim and I hung back at the precinct for moral support and to check things on our end.

"About earlier, I hope I didn't overstep when I made plans.I totally understand if you're not ready." Kim turned towards me in her chair, a worried glance on her expression as I worked at my desk. It's just I miss having another woman to hang out with, besides Trudy, of course."

"I miss going out with you and the team, but I am definitely not ready to get out there right now. There's too much happening right now my head is practically spinning."

"Not ready. Got it."

"Copy that," Antonio stated quietly back into his watch again, the background chatter of the bar silenced as he muted his side. A few seconds later they heard the sound of knuckles rapping on a door, signaling the meeting was about to go down.

"How we doin'?" Kevin greeted the guy who had opened the door by a rather tall but heavy-set man with a buzz cut. "What up Ryan?" He then addressed Jay who was standing near the pool table, their hands colliding in greeting.

"You're late." Jay nodded subtly over to Malik and Shabazz as they entered, but it was more him asking Kevin if everything was alright with the people he had brought with him to the deal.

"I don't know my way around Canaryville like that, you know that, bro." Kevin hinted back to him things were fine and to keep the deal going as they had planned.

"More like crackerville." Malik scoffed arrogantly, turning towards his cousin Shabazz in hopes he would agree with him.

"Yeah, right." Shabazz went along with it, although he didn't seem to be as convinced as Malik was as they approached the pool table.

"What did you say?" Nate was standing near the corner of the room. He was slightly hot-tempered, clearly in no mood for any games.

"Nah, man, Malik just be playin', bro." Kevin covered while trying his best to signal for Malik to shut up and let him do the talking from now on. "You're a funny dude."

"Just playin'" Malik scoffed again, almost brashly as he looked the two men up and down like they weren't hiding a stash of guns that could kill them at any point.

"Something tells me this guy runs his mouth a lot," Kim stated out loud, mostly to herself as she looked up from her computer screen. "We can only hope he isn't the one who makes or breaks this deal."

"Yeah, bro, and that's his brother, Shabazz." Kevin formally introduced the two brothers."He's my dude I told you about."

"Alright, cool," Jay told him calmly as he went on with his introductions. "This is Dexter." He pointed to the right to a guy sitting with his head leaning against the wall with a pool stick in his right hand like he could throw it like a dart at any point of the meeting. "That's his cousin, Nate."

"What's up gentlemen?" Kevin greeted them civilly as they were acquainted with one another.

"All right. So where are the M-4's at?" Shabazz asked without hesitation and was met with dry chuckling from Dexter as he approached the pool table.

"Why don't we get a drink, you know? Play a little nine-ball. Get to know each other a little better." Dexter smirked ever so slightly at him as if he knew something they didn't. That or he was just trying to get a rise because he knew that somebody would lose it and they could call the whole deal off.

"We just came to do business." All arrogance from before had melted away as Malik looked over at Kevin for guidance on what to do next. "Not have a tea party."

"I like to know who I work with." Dexter challenged back which seemed to cause confusion as both Malik and Kevin exchanged glances with each other again.

"That's not good," I said softly as Kim and I both paused from what we were doing to listen on our end. You could feel the air visibly tense around the men with every word. Something wasn't right with this meeting, kind of like they were being played for the deal they were trying to make.

"What's this?" Malik whispered to Kevin, trying to get some clarity of the situation. We already knew the guy was a ticking time bomb, all they needed was a fuse for him to blow the whole meeting. "Yo, what's up, man, trying to play us like a bunch of punks."

"Watch yourself." Nate finally spoke up from the corner, the shadows casting over his sunken eyes showing that he had no patience for people who tested his words.

"Watch myself?"

"All right, chill, man," Kevin spoke for the benefit of Malik and Nate, but also for everyone in the room. However, that didn't seem to be enough for the fuse had already been lit with the fire in Malik's eyes.