“The first spot had bricks in it thanks to the foolishness of your Uncle Sha.”
I stood there in shock. I mean, I knew what my father did, but they had a whole warehouse for that. The second robbery in two weeks didn’t sit well with me.
“Are we being targeted?”
I was always outside somewhere. And I was always observant, but I needed to know if I had to be extra cautious. I needed to know if I had to have my head on a swivel when I was outside.
“I honestly don’t know.”
My father always had the answers to everything. And I mean everything. His being unsure was unsettling to me, but I knew that he would get to the bottom of this.
“Was there anything here for them to get?”
He shook his head before responding.
“Na, I think they just tried another spot because of how they lucked up at the first spot.”
“Anything on the cameras?”
He looked at me as if I were asking a silly question.
“The ones at the shop on 25thare broken and ain’t none here. The main warehouse has a full security system, but not little spots like this.”
I just shook my head in understanding. I was observing my dad, and he looked to be in deep thought. This explained why I haven’t seen much of him lately. He was out here trying to figure out who was dumb enough to even do something like this. I started thinking about school. Maybe I should push attending college back a bit. Pops had this problem going on, and Maliah had brought a nigga around that was sketchy to me.
“Any possible suspects?”
I wondered if Pops had made any headway in his little investigation.
“Nothing solid yet. I looked over the employee list for the first shop, and one person was fired a couple of days before the first robbery.”
“Fired for what?”
Every shop I ever went to, for the most part, the mechanics were cool as hell, and they were older. Most of them gave unc vibes for sure.
“Stealing…”
I looked at Pops with this look that screamednigga.The corners of his mouth turned upward with a smile.
“I’m already on it.”
I shook my head because all fingers pointed at his last employee. You fire a thief, and then you’re robbed? Shit, that was like on the list of crimes for dummies.
“Do you need my help with anything?”
My father never had me in the streets, but he would keep me in the loop with things like this.
“Of course I don’t.”
He walked over in my direction and then cupped the back of my head before pecking my forehead with a kiss. It didn’t matterhow old I was. My dad would always show love. I watched as he made his exit. I’m sure to go off and try to make sense of the shit he was going through. When he left, I was left alone in the privacy of his office. My father had us all displayed on his wall. I laughed a bit at this picture from the Christmas that I first shared with him. It was right after my mother had died.
I rubbed my forearm like the ink on it had burned my skin. I looked down at my mother’s name and then sighed. The nameParislooked back at me. I sniffled a bit and then pushed my mom to the back of my mind. Every day, she was missed dearly by me, but after sitting in with a child therapist for most of my adolescent years, I learned how to manage my emotions when it came to losing her. I was grateful for my dad and my bonus mom for being there for me when I needed them most.
BLEEK
I looked down at the address on my phone and then squinted to see the numbers on the house I was parked outside of. People were coming in and out of the house dressed in black. I opened the armrest in my car and then grabbed my .45. I was dead smack in the middle of Little Haiti, the hood, and I’ll be damned if anything happened to me out here. When a large crowd made their exit, I got out of my car and started walking across the cracked pieces of concrete that led to the old, worn house. Once I went through the employee files at the MB’s on 25thTerrace, I saw all the information we had on Bashar Wright, the former employee that Reggie fired for stealing some stereo systems.
The gated door to the main door of the house was already propped open. Although people were coming in and out, I didn’twant to walk into somebody’s house. I was here for Bashar and Bashar only. An older woman noticed me standing at the front door, and she walked over carrying a toddler on her hip. The little girl was holding onto the cheese doodle in her hand for dear life as they made their way over.
