“Okay,” she said, nodding. “Be careful.”
“I got you,” I replied. “I love you.”
**
“How do you want to move?” Pyrite asked as he checked his gun. Citrine drove his Lexus TX. “I have a few ideas, but I’m trying to see where your mind is right now.”
“What does it matter?” I looked at the front door of the house that Quincy was in. We knew he was here because Nine used the street cameras to watch the house. He’d come home a few hours ago and hadn’t left yet. Sometime during his time there, he ordered food, but we’d snatched the delivery person as soon as they pulled up. We had his pizza order.
“Because if you aren’t going to do this shit correctly, then you need to stay in the car,” he replied with a grunt. “Killing--”
“I’ve killed plenty of niggas,” I cut him off, shaking my head. “I’m not new to this.”
“You’re not, but this is different,” Xoey said from behind me.
I turned around to see her sitting there with a serious expression on her face. Her curly hair was pulled into a ponytail at the top of her head, and she wore jeans and a T-shirt. She looked like she was on her way to hang out with her girls and not sitting in the back of a car with three niggas who were about to show the fuck out.
“Where the fuck did you come from?” I said, grilling her.
“I’ve been here the entire time,” she said, rolling her eyes. “You were so focused on what’s in front of you that you didn’t look at what’s back here.”
“You’ve been back there the entire time?” I questioned her, and she nodded. “You sure?”
“Nigga, you act like she got superpowers or something,” Pyrite laughed. “She’s been back there lying down. She said she needed a nap before we handled this.”
“I knew I wasn’t fucking trippin,” I said, shaking my head, and Xoey shrugged. “I looked back there when I got in.”
“Still doesn’t negate what I said.” She climbed to the middle and sat down. “You need to pay attention to what’s behind you, what’s been said and done.”
“Well, aren’t you just full of advice?” I replied, and she glared at me. I put my hands up and laughed. “I’m just fucking with you.”
“Stop,” she said, then grabbed her bag from the back. “You are used to doing shit on a whim; this isn’t going to be one of those times. Pyrite asking you where your head is at is because once we do this, shit is going to slow down, but we aren’t out of the woods. Robert is going to come at us when we least expect it.”
“How do you know?”
“Because it’s what my daddy would do,” she answered as she went through her bag. “He’d wait; let you think that everything was good, then send me to fuck shit up.” She looked up from the bag with hard eyes. “He’s done it plenty of times.”
“Alright,” I nodded. I sat back, wiped my hand over my face, then licked my lips. “We move quietly, pop the locks in the back of the house, and move. He won’t expect it.”
“Or,” Xoey said, and I looked over at her and lifted my brow. “We use all our resources.”
“Which are?”
Xoey held up her finger, then took her phone from the bag and dialed a number. When it started ringing, she put it on speaker.
“Hello?”
“I need a favor,” she said.
“I thought you said you don’t ask for help.”
“I didn’t ask for help; I said I needed a favor. There is a difference,” Xoey replied, rolling her eyes. “My Gift. Are you going to do me a favor or not?”
“No.”
“Why?” The look of surprise on her face was comical. Xoey was not used to being told no.
“Because I don’t do favors,” Gift replied. “Now ask me for help, Xoey.”
