Experience the Authentic Pulse of City Life.

From Trap House Baby's street-level survival to Shepherd's Shadow's church corruption to Blood on the Block's twenty-year reckoning, Author TARU examines how power hides behind good intentions. Not every book is street lit. All of them are true.

The code is broken. The streets are running red. And in the game of Hampton Roads, there are no innocent bystanders.

Po built his empire on two pillars: family and the code. But when his rival, Jo-Jo, firebombs his mother's diner, Po’s rage ignites a war that threatens to burn his kingdom to the ground. The conflict is no longer business; it’s an ice-cold declaration of personal vendetta that demands total annihilation.

Po is driven by a singular, brutal truth: an eye for an eye.

His retaliation is surgical and devastating. In a silent, terrifying late-night raid, he and his day-one, Doo-Doo, snatch the one thing Jo-Jo holds dear: his niece, Keisha. She is more than a hostage; she is a pawn in a psychological war, a breathing, pregnant bargaining chip.

But Keisha is carrying a secret that shatters the code: Doo-Doo’s child.

Suddenly, the simple choice between loyalty and survival fractures into a moral abyss. Doo-Doo, the soldier, finds himself standing silently by as the mother of his unborn child is turned into collateral damage by the man he calls brother. His shame and her betrayal cut deeper than any knife, threatening to tear the crew apart from the inside out.

Po’s Demand: Financial restitution for his mother’s business and a public, humiliating apology from Jo-Jo.

Jo-Jo’s Response: A scorched-earth declaration of total war. He puts a bounty on Po’s head and vows to hunt him and his crew down, making the streets of Virginia a slaughterhouse.

The escalating chaos draws the attention of Mr. Hitch, the unseen grandmaster who truly controls the city. The old king, weary of the instability, sees an opportunity to eliminate the erratic Jo-Jo and crown a new, more loyal successor.

Hitch’s message is delivered by the calculated Stax: The Kingdom is Po’s for the taking. All Po has to do is bend the knee, accept the deal with the devil, and trade his soul for the throne.

The silence in the safe house is thick with the fumes of fear, guilt, and betrayal. Keisha, the unwilling queen, demands to know where Doo-Doo’s loyalty truly lies—with the brother who armed him, or the woman who carries his blood. Po, the general, is confronted with the ultimate choice: win the war on his own terms and lose his soul, or accept the ultimate power and become a puppet king.

The rules have been broken. The lines have been drawn. Two street kings, an innocent woman, and a child caught in the crossfire. The price of the crown has never been higher, and the path to redemption has been annihilated.

The game is afoot. The board is about to be reset.

Po is coming for the crown. Jo-Jo is coming for blood. And the reckoning will spare no one.

Read TRAP HOUSE BABY II: THE RECKONING and find out who pays the ultimate price.