“He just said keep my eyes open. And like I just told you, niggas asking questions.”
“That’s it?”
“Whodie, why the fuck do you think I’m hiding something from you? Nigga, are you hiding something because that’s what it’s giving?”
I pulled her in close to me and kissed her. Until I met Adore, I thought I would never know what love was. It was nothing to run through bitches because I had money. Adore made me soft, and for the first time in my life, I felt like it was cool to be a little soft when I was around her.
“You worry too much.” She straightened my chains around my neck.
“No, I pay attention,” I replied. “Been doin’ this shit since a jit. Not much gonna get by me, and if it does, I kno’ how to get the information I need to handle the problem.”
“As long as we’ve got each other, nobody can fuck with us. I’ll stand next to you in every lifetime because I know I’m safe with you.”
“You know I’ll go to the end for you. Until I take my last breath, it’s my job to make sure you are safe. That’s what I’ve been doing since I met you, and it ain’t gonna stop ‘cause a pussy nigga wanna get some balls. We need to meet with the crew so everyone is on alert.”
“Whodie, it’s too soon. How will we know if we have a weak link in the fence if we let them know we know someone lurking?”
“A snake nigga gonna be a snake. Don’t matter if we give them a heads up or not.”
Adore nodded in agreement. “Aight, I’ll send them a text.”
CHAPTER 4: ADORE
The warehouse smelled like weed and motor oil. It was the same spot we came to when something needed to be said without outsiders hearing or seeing us. We took up phones and all, so nothing could be recorded. About twenty-five niggas stood around the room while Whodie leaned against one of the metal tables rolling a blunt like nothing in the world bothered him. But I knew his ass was ready to go to war; he just needed to know with who. His eyes were watching every nigga standing in the room. I stepped forward so everyone could see me clearly.
“I’m gonna make this quick so we can get back out there,” I started as Whodie came and stood next to me. “When y’all step out this door, I want you watching everything. If somebody you don’t know starts asking questions about our movement, our stores, or our stash houses, you do not answer.”
The majority of them nodded.
“And if somebody keeps pressin’ you, let me muthafuckin’ kno’. I wanna kno’ what that nigga or bitch was wearin’. If they had a fuckin’ mole on their face. I want all the details,” Whodie added.
“Don’t try to play tough and impress nobody. Call one of us,” I told them. “We don’t know if it’s the police or another crew.”
“You think somebody’s watching, Adore?” One of the younger runners asked.
“I think people get curious when they see money moving.”
A couple of the older niggas laughed.
“But curiosity gets niggas killed in this business,” Whodie said calmly. That shut the room back down.
“So, until further notice, everybody moves smart. Don’t be talking to no random hoes. Don’t be doing all that fucking bragging about what we’re doing. And if anybody new pops up around the stores…”
“We find out who the fuck they are,” Whodie added.
Everyone nodded slowly.
“Good! Now let’s get back to work, I said.
They all dapped Whodie up and filed out. Today, I was hanging out with my man. He suggested that we stay separate just in case a nigga was really coming for him instead of me. It had been a minute since we hung together in the trap and I wasn’t taking no for an answer. He folded just like I thought he would. Since I was with him, he pulled out the Hellcat. Let him tell it, he’ll burn a bitch out in the hellcat if we had to get away.
“Since you wanna be wit’ a real nigga today, you ready to make our first stop?” Whodie asked as he chained up the warehouse.
“You see what I got on? I ain’t come to be cute. Let’s go.”
Anytime I went to the trap houses, I made sure to have on tennis shoes and loose-fitting clothes so I could hold my gun. Whodie knew how we used to run this shit before I let him become my man. Our first stop was my old hood. I missed the fuck out of my house. Sitting on my porch, watching my product being moved.
“Ain’t no need to be smilin’. You miss this shit ova here, huh?” Whodie asked as he pulled over to the first house.
