I stopped moving.
“Talking?” I repeated.
“Yeah,” he said with confidence creeping into his voice now. “I can make a call really quickly and let the people at MB’s Auto know exactly who hit their spot. You think they’re just gonna let that slide?”
And there it was. The threat. I closed my eyes for a second while exhaling through my nose.
“You wouldn’t do that,” I said quietly.
“Try me.”
The line went silent again, but this time I could feel his satisfaction seeping through the phone. Right now, he had the upper hand, and we both knew it. This wasn’t the same jit from back in the day. This wasn’t the same boy who was eager to prove himself and desperate to be seen. Nah. Now he was a man with leverage. And leverage in the wrong hands could get people hurt. The thing with it is, I don’t think that he feared me. Not anymore, at least. That is something that I had to change. I stared straight into the parking lot beneath me. I was so damn mad that I could throw one of those fucking cars or pull a tree out of the ground.
“Aight,” I said with a shifted tone. I had to calm down, just enough to ease the tension, “Relax. You are doing too much.”
He didn’t respond, but I could hear him listening.
“We can figure something out,” I continued. “But not over the phone.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean, when I get back on that side, I’m going to pull up on you. Let’s talk face-to-face like men. I’ll make sure you’re straight.”
He hesitated. I could hear the wheels turning in his head, trying to decide if this was a win or a setup. Greed made the decision for him.
“Pull up on me?” he asked.
“I know where to find you,” I said with an even tone.
I didn’t even give Bashar time to respond. I ended the line. For a second, I just stood outside the room, thinking. We had a loose end threatening to bring everything crashing down before it even really started. I needed him so damn afraid that hewouldn’t say a word. The way I saw things was I didn’t need him to hit another MB’s Auto, I was going to pick the next remote one and have at it. If there were no bricks, then so be it. Auto parts and everything else would be up for grabs. Ryan’s ass was getting placed on the back burner because he didn’t know shit about me either. Who told his ass to give me extra money for a plan that wasn’t even put into motion? I didn’t even want to share this bit of information with Trigga because I knew how he worried. I was about to go back in this room, wake his ass up, tell him that we got another location, and then drive our ass home. I had to take care of Bashar’s ass before hitting another spot, though.
Trigga didn’t even ask any questions when I dropped him off at the crib. The whole ride back, he was smiling on his phone, and I knew that he had to be texting Maliah. I wasn’t a hating ass nigga, but his being in love was annoying as hell. He second-guessed everything, and it made me damn cringe. It was like that itch under the bottom of your foot, discomfort. I pulled onto Bashar’s block and then parked right outside his house. I reached into my armrest and grabbed my .38 special. A small gift to myself with the cash we had gotten from the lick at MBs. After leaning up in my chair and tucking it into my waistband, I exited the car.
I pulled open the gate door and was banging on Bashar’s mom’s door like I was MPD.
“Who the fuck is it?” I could hear him on the other side.
“It’s Ghost, open the door nigga.”
He pulled the door open, and when he did, I didn’t waste any time. I pulled the gun from my waistband and forced my way inside, shoving him back before he could even react properly.I knew that his mother wasn’t home because I didn’t see her raggedy ass, rusted Honda Accord in the driveway. The door shut behind us, and the energy shifted immediately.
“Yo, what the hell?” he started, stumbling back.
“Don’t,” I cut him off while raising the gun just enough to stop him where he stood. “Don’t act confused. You were talking really crazy earlier on the phone.”
His eyes flickered to the gun and then back to me. I could tell that he was trying to decide how to play it.
“Man, you ain’t have to come in here like that,” he said, holding his hands up halfway. “We could’ve talked.”
“We did talk,” I snapped while stepping closer. “What did you say? Oh…you said you were gonna run your mouth if you ain’t get paid.”
His jaw tightened, but he didn’t back down the way he should’ve. The way I wanted him to.
“I meant that,” he said. “I ain’t playing. I put you on that move. That’s my play too.”
I stared at him for a second. This nigga had a gun pointed at his chest, and he was still playing tough.
“You think that’s how this works?” I asked in a low voice. My voice was dangerous in a way that didn’t need to be loud. “You drop a location, and now you a nigga partner?”
