“Bet.”
Quest showed up next, took one look, and shook his head. “Man, I knew you was gonna get us caught up in some crazy shit. I just ain’t think it’d be over pussy.”
“Watch your mouth,” I said, my voice sharp.
Quest held up his hands. “My bad, my bad. Damn.” But he was grinning. “So it’s like that? Prime Banks ready to catch a body over a female?”
“We ain’t catching nothing. We cleaning up.”
“Same difference.”
Pharaoh pulled up last, backing his van to the door. Came in, looked at Larry, nodded.
“Aight. We wrapping him, putting him in the van, and I know a spot. Way out in the woods. Ain’t nobody ever finding him.” He looked at me. “You sure about this? You willing to risk everything for her?”
“Yeah.”
“Damn.” He shook his head. “Never thought I’d see Prime simpin’.”
“It ain’t simpin’”
“Nah?” Justice was laughing now. “Then what you call dropping everything in the middle of the night to clean up a murder scene for a bitch you?—”
I had him by the throat before he finished the sentence. Slammed him against the wall. “Call her a bitch again and see what happens.”
“Yo, what the fuck?” Justice barked.
“Aye chill… we ain’t doin’ all that, lil bro. Justice just messin’ with you.”
“Get yo’ hands off of me,” Justice growled.
I let him go, stepped back. My brothers had never seen me into a woman before. Shit, I had never been into a woman like this before. The Goddess had a nigga wrapped up.
“He’s sensitive,” Quest said to Pharaoh. “The pussy must be fire.”
“Has to be,” Pharaoh agreed. “Got this nigga ready to go back to prison.”
“Y’all done?” I glared at all three of them. “Or we gonna keep talking shit while this body decomposes?”
“We done,” Quest said, but he was still smiling. “For now.”
We got to work. Quest and I wrapped Larry in plastic while Justice cleaned everything. Pharaoh helped us load the body into the van.
“You know you in love, right?” Quest said as we worked. “This ain’t normal behavior.”
“Man, shut up.”
“Nah, for real. Most niggas just buy flowers and shit. You out here disposing bodies like you Tony Soprano.”
“Facts,” Justice added. “Got you acting crazy. I was about to lay you out.”
“You wasn’t gon’ lay shit out,” I replied.
“Nigga, let’s get to work before we all end up in prison,” Quest interrupted.
We spent two more hours scrubbing that kitchen, using the peroxide to clean the floors. I’d learned that it was better to use that than bleach. Blood can still be detected even when a surface has been bleached but peroxide breaks down the compounds in blood.
By 4 AM, it looked brand new.
