“Man, it’s just us, bro. Them niggas backed out with their scary asses.”
All I could do was shake my damn head because, over the years, I never liked the company that Ghost decided to keep. Those niggas were not cut from the same cloth that he and I were. We were going to get to it by any means necessary, while niggas he decided to keep around were scary as hell. I’d prefer just us anyway, because then that meant we didn’t have to cut anything with anybody.
“Alright, let’s run it again,” I said as I traced my finger over the main entrance, side entrance, and the garage. “Did that nigga give you the code to the alarm system, or are we working on a timer once we’re in?”
“He did, but he doesn’t know if they changed it or not.”
“Mmm,” I grumbled, “aight bet, we gonna figure it out.”
He glanced at me, and I could tell that his eyebrow was raised by the way his mask lifted a bit around the brows.
“You ready for this? Ain’t no turning back once we step in.”
This was by far the biggest lick we had done. I was more than ready. I laughed slowly while shaking my head.
“I’m ready. Just remember, we have to be smooth in and smooth out with no mistakes. And Ghost?”
“Yeah?”
“No talking once we get in there. We have to move efficiently.”
He grinned before pulling his hood tighter over his face.
“Let’s make it count,” he said eagerly.
I slung my bag over my shoulder and checked my watch. My mind kept flicking back to Maliah. That damn smile of hers was stuck in my brain. I shoved the thought down. I had to focus. I had to push her to the back of my mind. It was time to lock in, and honestly, I was making moves like this for her. I wanted to get my shit together just for her, and I needed money for that. And a lot of it.
BLEEK
The sun peeked through the blinds, causing soft streaks of light to cut across the room. Eternity was still asleep beside me with her arm draped across my chest. She was snoring lightly. If you let her tell it, she wasn’t even a snorer, but I knew better. My baby sounded like a little grizzly bear in hibernation when she slept. I looked down and admired her beauty. She didn’t even tie her hair up last night, so it was all over the place and stuck to her face. Her button-shaped nose was pressed against my chest as she lay on her side. I looked in her face, and I mean really looked. She must have gotten her brows threaded recently because they were perfectly arched. But she had a few spaces in her lashes, so I knew that she must have had an appointment to get them done coming up. There wasn’t much that I didn’t notice aboutmy wife. Gently, I kissed her forehead as I breathed her in. The faint scent of vanilla hit my nostrils. It was her signature and had been since the very first day I met her.
The warmth of her body was pressed closely against mine. We were skin to skin because once dinner was done, the guest was gone, and those kids were in their rightful places. I tore her ass up in this bed. For a moment, I felt at peace. Dinner had gone well enough. I still had to have that one-on-one talk with Tahari, but for right now, he seemed respectful. He knew how to work the room, and he even got a smile out of MJ. Little me was acting tough, but still, I saw the corners of his mouth turn up a bit before the night was over. Even with him impressing everyone under my roof, I still couldn’t shake the nitpicking unease in my gut. I’m sure that by getting to know him more, the feeling would fade. I just had to etch out time in my schedule to do so.
My phone buzzed on the nightstand. Which was odd because, besides Sha and Ty ringing me occasionally, the only other people who hit my line were the residents of this house. My brow rose when it started vibrating insistently. The way I laid dick the night before, I knew that Eternity wouldn’t wake when I moved, so I rolled onto my side and squinted at the screen. Five missed calls. All from Reggie, the manager at one of my auto shops. Before I could even think, a text notification popped up:
“We’ve been robbed.”
Time froze for a second. I dropped the phone onto the bed as my heart started pounding. A cold rush shot through my veins. Robbed? I have been in business for over twenty years, and this has never happened to me. I jumped out of bed and tossed my robe over my naked frame, all while trying to stay calm. The last thing I wanted to do was wake Eternity. My hands were steady, but my pulse was racing. Whoever did this didn’t know what they were stepping into. No one steals from me. Only one personin my life was successful with that shit, and she was dealt with accordingly. Once I was locked behind the door of the bathroom, I called Reggie immediately.
“Tell me everything,” I spat out once he answered.
As I listened to him tell me how the place was trashed when he walked in, and some things were missing, my mind was calculating and planning like it always did in situations like this. I had to protect my assets, protect my family, and find out who thought they could take from me. After getting some brief information out of Reggie, I told him that I would be on the way. If, for whatever reason, I was being targeted, then I needed to do something that I hadn’t done in years. I needed to awaken the side of me that had been lying dormant for a very long time. All without waking Eternity, I brushed my teeth, put on a sweatsuit, jotted down on a sticky note that I would be back, and then jetted out the door.
My Durango’s tires crunched against the gravel driveway leading to the shop. My pulse was already high, my nerves were tense, and every muscle was coiled and ready. I was on edge, and I hated the shit. Funny thing was, Tahari and I were just talking about this shit last night. A man isn’t going to let anyone take something from him, so whoever did this shit was going to be dealt with for sure. This feeling was one that I hadn’t felt in a while, but it was too damn familiar to me. A nigga was retired, and out of the way, so this sensation wasn’t something that I should be feeling at all. But here I was. I stepped out of the truck, and naturally, my eyes scanned the lot. The front doors were ajar with the hinges bent. Windows were shattered, causing glass to litter the ground. I pulled the broken door open, and when I got inside, I just shook my head. Tools and parts were scattered everywhere like a hurricane had ripped through my establishment. My chest tightened as my hands naturallyfell into fists. When Reggie saw me, he started talking a mile a minute.
“Boss, it’s stuff everywhere. Because the cameras are broken and have been for a while, they didn’t help. I’m trying to make a record of everything that was taken. I have the list down. I just don’t know what was in this locked supply closet.”
I looked at the lock that was broken on the door to the room he was talking about.
“What do you usually keep in here?”
I walked into the supply closet and then turned around to see if I could spot anything that was left behind.
“Oh, me? Nothing, boss. Sha has the key to that closet there. And he was here the other day messing around back there, but I didn’t pay it any mi?—”
“Wait outside for me,” I ordered, cutting him off.
He followed my instructions, and once he was out of the door, I moved back into the lobby. I stepped over broken shards. The smell of gasoline and burnt rubber fell heavy in my nose. I pulled out my phone and called Sha immediately. My voice was low but tense. I didn’t even wait for him to say hello because as soon as he answered, I spoke.
