I pulled the socks out of my drawer, and I turned to look at her, trying to see if I should tell her my whereabouts tonight. I just didn’t want to tell her that I was going out with Dolo because she was going to make the shit bigger than what it was. The last time I brought him up to her, asking her about him, she accusedme of liking him, so I was trying to avoid that. At the same time, I knew that I had Ari, and other members of our family worried about me because I’ve been so secretive, and I haven’t been in the best of moods, keeping everything to myself, not letting them know what was bothering me.
I walked over to the bed, taking a seat, and I ran my hand down my face, going to tell her what’s been going on with me these past few days.
“When I was released from jail, I hit up Gold, trying to see when I could come back, and start working. He told me that he was out of town, and that he would hit me back when he was back in town. I could feel that he was trying to dodge me though. I was texting this nigga, and he wasn’t responding. Eventually, someone told me that he was back in town, so I pulled up on him. He basically fired me, told me that I was too much of a liability right now, and that he couldn’t take the risk with me. I feel like that was some bullshit because I know that I’m not the first one up under him to get arrested and had to serve some time. Let me would have been a man, I’m sure that I would have come home to my spot still secured,” I started, and she was still posted up on the wall, eyes on me, hanging onto my every word.
“That’s the reason I’ve been in a fucked up mood these past few days. I was worried about what I was going to do to get money. I went to the beach last night to clear my mind, and Dolo approached me. We talked for a little bit, and out of nowhere, he questioned me about what I had going on with Gold. You know how I am about people being in my business, and how paranoid I am, so I started looking at him sideways, and I even reached my hands out to touch him, just to see if he was wearing a wire,” I went on, and that part of the story made her laugh, while shaking her head.
“Oh bitch, I know he wanted to kill your ass. All the illegal shit him, and his friends out here doing. I think that’s the lastperson that you need to be worried about that’s wearing a wire,” she went on to say.
“Yeah, but at the end of the day, I don’t know that nigga. He coming up to me, questioning me about my shit with Gold, so it raised a red flag. Once he assured me that he didn’t have shit on him, I was comfortable enough to tell him what happened. He offered me a position with him, and his crew. I turned it down at first. You know how I am about taking favors from people. I feel like they’ll hang that shit over your head, and most times, it’s always a motive. He made it clear to me that he wasn’t looking for anything from me. He spoke highly of his organization, convinced me by telling me that everyone in his camp is eating good, so I gave in. I start working for him tonight. I’m happy that I’m about to start making money again, but there’s still this piece of me that’s hesitant, you know? I keep questioning what this nigga’s motive is. It gotta be something because I just know that a street nigga like him not doing this shit for me out of the kindness of his heart. He don’t even know me,” I clarified, and Ari stood there with this goofy smile on her face.
“That’s because he’s checking for you, Bean! I hate that when it comes to niggas, your ass is so green, and you can’t tell when a nigga is sniffing up behind you. I mean, look at how the two of you met. He didn’t know shit about you, but he still tackled your ass to the ground when those bullets were flying in the house, and all because he wanted to protect you, he wouldn’t let you get up and come in the house, so you could check on me, and our cousins. I forgot to tell you this because I got in super late from the club the other night, but I was working his section at the club. He was there with the whole MBM. He asked me about you. Don’t bring it up tonight when you see him because he told me not to say shit about it. Now, he trying to put you in a position to eat with him, and his crew. He likes your ass, Riot. A blind man can tell,” she went on to say.
I wasn’t going to even tell her what else happened at the beach because she would really get delusional and think that the two of us were going to run off and have a bunch of babies. After I agreed to the offer that he put on the table for me to work for his crew, he convinced me to go to one of the restaurants that were out there on the beach. He ordered a drink, wings, and pizza for us. I ate a little, and we talked a little. I didn’t fully engage because my guard was up. I was inexperienced as hell when it came to men, so for the first time in my life, I felt like I was being a little awkward.
“Well, I already told him not to expect any pussy from me in the end because it’s not happening. If I get out there today, and I don’t like the vibes, or the way that he’s running his shit, I’m leaving. I know I need the money, but I’m not desperate for the shit,” I voiced, lifting one foot onto the bed, so that I could slide my sock on.
“Dolo the kind of nigga that can get pussy from anywhere. I doubt he doing this shit for you, expecting you to drop your panties for him. Just from the little bit that I know about him, I know that he isn’t that kind of person. Please be safe tonight. You know that if I had it my way, I would want you to work a legal job that wasn’t so dangerous, but I’ve done my fair share of trying to convince you to live right. Just do what you gotta do to make it home safely. It’s going to be busy at the club tonight. It’s the owners birthday, so damn near the whole city is coming out. I probably won’t be back home until sometime tomorrow morning. I’ll check on you when I get back to see how it went,” she let me know, and I nodded my head, letting her know that that was cool.
She came over to me, hugged me, told me that she loved me, and then she was out of the room. About two minutes later, she hollered from the front that she was leaving, and that’s when I heard the front door open, and close.
I was dressed by this point, but I needed to figure out what I was going to do with my hair. I couldn’t do hair to save my life, but because my hair was back in its curly state, all I had to do was add water, and moose, comb through it, and I placed a middle part. It looked nice this way. I applied Vaseline cocoa butter to my lips, sprayed a few pumps of perfume, and as I was standing in front of the mirror, fluffing out my hair, I could hear my phone vibrating on the bed.
I walked over to the bed, and I saw that it was Dolo calling me. This was his first time calling me since he gave me his number. He only texted me this morning to let me know what time he needed me to come in. Never gave me a location or anything. He told me that he would give it to me later.
I went ahead, and answered the phone, putting it on speaker, as I walked back over to my dresser, that had a mirror attached to it, wanting to finish combing through my curls.
“Hello?” I answered for him.
“What’s up? You ready?” he asked.
“Yeah. I don’t have the address though,” I let him know.
“You don’t need it. I got somebody en route right now to pick you up and bring you where I’m at. He just texted me. He’ll be to you in five minutes,” he responded, and that shit sounded fishy as fuck, so I sucked my teeth.
“You can text him back and tell him that I don’t need him to come and pick me up. Just give me the address, and I’ll take an uber to the location. Why the fuck would you even give a random nigga my address in the first place?” I snapped on him. Just that fast, things was starting to go left already.
“Because you not about to get in an uber and have a random ass person pulling up to one of my traps. The nigga that I got coming your way, his face is good. It’s no funny shit on his end. He was already paid to do a job, which is to pick you up, and bring you over here. He do anything other than that, he goingto get his ass killed. You going to be ready in five minutes?” he asked, as if he just knew that I was still going to come.
“I don’t know this nigga though,” I had to repeat that because I think that that’s the part he wasn’t understanding.
“You don’t know me either, but you got in the car with me last night. Be ready in five minutes because he already on the way. I’ll see you when you get here,” he spat, and then hung the phone up on me.
In this moment, I was regretting getting in the car with Dolo after we left the beach because now the nigga knew where I lived and look how easy it was for him to give someone my address.
I hated being put in fucked up situations like this. There was one voice that was telling me to relax, and trust him, but I was one of those people where you had to earn my trust. It was too soon for me to trust this nigga right now. Just in case some funny shit went down with the dude that was picking me up, I went into my closet, and I pulled the box out that was sitting on top of the rack, and the Glock that was hiding in there, I stuffed it on my waist, pulled my sweater down so that it could hide it, and I left out of the closet.
I moved around the room, straightening up, and just as I was walking out of the bedroom, a text came in from Dolo, letting me know that the dude was outside.
I locked up the house, said a quick prayer that I was safe tonight, and the second I made it outside, there was a black Escalade parked right in front of the driveway. The windows on it were dark as hell, so you couldn’t get a glimpse of what the inside of the truck looked like. I went for the back, needing to be behind this nigga, so that I could watch his every move, and if he were to pull out his phone to text anyone, I wanted to be able to sit right behind him, and see what he was saying in his text messages.
The door was unlocked, so I pulled on the handle, opened the door, and the driver turned around, looking at me. He was a young dude. Older than me, but still young looking. If I had to guess, I would say that he was probably 23 or something like that. There was a face tat right above his eyebrow that said, ‘MBM’, so he was running with Dolo, and his crew. He was dressed in all black, with a black cap that was on his head.
I scanned the car, just wanting to check everything out, and it all looked legit. The truck had that new car smell, and in the back, there were two bottles of water that hadn’t been opened yet.
“What’s up? Riot, right? I’m Mitch,” he greeted me.
“Yeah. I got a gun on me. You try some funny shit, I’m killing your ass,” I let him know, and as if this shit was funny to him, he cracked a smile.
