“Did you talk to Trey?”
I heard whispers on the other line. “Yeah, he came through.”
You could tell in his tone how scared he was. I never thought I’d see the day where Valentine got spooked.
“Love, I don’t know what the fuck I’mma do in here,” he admitted.
“You gone keep your head down and stay put. We gone get you out.” I was probably giving him empty promises but, right now, he couldn’t do nothing else besides hope.
“How? Trey said the camera ain’t pick up shit. The man next door saw both of us running out, he doesn’t know what went down inside. The owner still alive?”
Trey was looking into that for me to, from what I understood, the man was still in a coma.
“Yeah, for now,” I said truthfully.
He exhaled. “So, I’mma get a murder charge too? Tank set me up to take the fall for this shit.”
“The police out looking for him. Calm yo’ ass down,” I urged him.
“You got to get me out of here. We both know I ain’t got it in me to take somebody out like that,” he said, panicking.
The phone beeped, signaling that time was running out. Shit!
“Aye, Valentine. I hate I got to tell you this right now, but mama had to be rushed to the hospital yesterday.”
“She good?” His voice was filled with worry.
I shook my head. “Nah, she almost went into a coma. Her blood sugar was real low.”
“When she started having them problems?” he questioned, asking the same thing I did.
“I don’t know, but I’mma make sure she straight though. You just chill out. Don’t do nothing stupid either.” Just as I said that, the call disconnected.
I sat there minutes after the phone hung up, wondering if that was the right thing to do. He was already losing his mind, now I done opened my mouth and told him about mama.
A text message came through the phone, interrupting my train of thought. It came in ten minutes ago, from Baby.
Hey, Love. I’m on my way to work, your girl was about to get beat the fuck up. But I sent you a gift, and I’ll call you soon.
I chuckled, licking my lips. That girl gone be a damn handful. Finally getting up, I went to take a shower. Mama was making progress when I left her, so I was gong run a few errands and go back up there. Auntie Delia ain’t wanna leave her side, so I literally had to drag her ass to my car earlier.
Standing under the shower head, I rinsed off. I made sure to get all the soap from my body before I stepped out and grabbed a towel from the rack.
When it came to clothes, I didn’t do too much. I grabbed a pair of black jeans, all black Nike Air Max, and a Nike T-shirt. I took my time to smooth lotion onto my skin, sprayed Ralph Lauren cologne on my wrist, and rubbed deodorant under my arms. Picking up my phone from the bed, I headed out to take care of business.
The first thing I wanted to do was holla at Lauren. I needed a few days to get myself together before I confronted her. Because I ain’t want Baby caught in the middle, we had to come up with a plan that wouldn’t fall back on her. I was cruising down the street, vibing to YG’sJealouson my Bluetooth when my phone went off.
I hit the screen to pick up. “Sup nigga.”
“Love, what’s up?” Messiah shouted. His ass was hyper early in the morning. I leaned to turn the volume down.
“You heard something?” I checked my rearview mirror, sitting my elbow on the console. He was supposed to be keeping his ear to the streets for me.
“Nah man, not yet.”
I figured Tank was gone be hiding out somewhere. He wasn’t no amateur, he knew how the game went. Finding him now would be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
On top of all that, this would be his third strike. If he got caught, he wouldn’t be getting out no time soon.
