Thirty of it was Street’s debt that Tavarus had just unknowingly paid back to himself.
The rest was mine for the trouble.
I was going to give Street his thirty back without telling him where it came from. Tell him it was money I had been holding from a separate situation. He was going to argue and I was going to tell him to shut up and take it and eventually he was going to take it because that’s how we worked.
I zipped the bag and drove home.
—
Sandra was ready when I came in. I could tell by the way she was sitting. She say straight, composed, shoes on even though I had left them untied at the foot of the bed. She had been waiting and feeling bad for her hoe ass husband.
I undid the zip ties and she stood up and rolled her wrist then looked at me.
We didn’t say much walking out. I took her down the back stairs and out the rear exit and we walked two blocks in the direction of the Main Street. I called the car service from a prepaid number told them we’d pay in cash and also have a hefty tip. I gave them a pickup location half a block from where we were standing. Then I gave her the money to give the driver.
When the car pulled up she turned around and looked at me.
Then she hugged me.
Not a fake ass hug either. A real hug. Arms around me, her face against my shoulder, holding on for a second longer than a woman who had been held against her will for four days had any logical reason to hold on.
She pulled back and kissed my cheek and looked at me straight.
“I’ll never forget you, sweet hood nigga who kidnapped me.” she said. And then she smiled and it changed her whole face.
“Young niggas really are everything they’re hyped up to be.”
I laughed. Actually laughed. “Go home Sandra.”
“You know my name. What’s yours?” She asked.
“You know I can’t tell you that. Let’s just say, I’m your dream nigga. Now go!”
She walked down the street, got in the car and I stood there until it pulled off, turned the corner and was gone.
I stood on that sidewalk alone for a second and then I squeezed my hand around the bag strap on my shoulder and started walking back toward my building.
A hundred thousand dollars.
Street’s debt handled.
Tavarus’s wife headed home safe and unharmed.
And a message delivered in the only language that men like Tavarus actually heard.
I walked back into my building smiling and took the stairs up, unlocked my apartment and dropped the bag on the couch and sat down and looked at the ceiling.
Niggas really thought they had it figured out. Thought that by building walls around their home life meant that life couldn’t reach them from outside. Thought that because they had somebody to go home to they were operating from a position of strength that nobody could touch.
Tavarus had found out tonight that wasn’t true.
You played with my family, then I would play with everything you had.
That was the only rule I had ever operated by and it had never once failed me.
I pulled out my phone and called Street.
“Come through tomorrow. I got something for you.”
