Shit.
“Rei,” Whispered Vellz from the room. “Is it the boys? Fuck you just standin’ there for?”
I looked over at him and sucked my teeth, waving him off. Turning back around, I approached the door and again looked out of the peephole. This time he was just standing there. Until he looked down at his phone and turned to walk off.
I quickly undid the locks and opened the door, tightening the strap to the robe around my waist. “Yeah?”
He looked over his shoulder at me, put his phone into his pocket and turned to walk back over to the door. He eyed me up and down. “This a bad time?”
I looked over at Vellz at my bedroom door, and then back at him. “No. Not really. Wassup?” I chewed on my bottom lip and asked, “You heard about them detectives? I ain’t said?—”
“What detectives?” He interrupted, thick brows furrowed.
Hesitating, I said, “I think their names are Givens and Shields. They been—never mind. What did you want?”
“Nah,” he walked closer to the door. “Back up.”
I took a deep breath. Should have just kept my fucking mouth closed. I wasn’t even thinking about them fucking detectives until Vellz brought them up. “They been coming around. Asking questions.”
“Questions about what?”
I shrugged my right shoulder. “About what happened. They want to know who the other two men are. I just told them I didn’t know. What my brother did when he left the house is what he did.”
He turned his mouth down and nodded, steady staring at me. “Mmh.”
“Yeah…”
He didn’t say anything for a couple of seconds before he dug into his pocket, retrieving a white envelope, handing it to me. With pinched brows, I looked down at it.
“What’s that?” I asked, hesitating to take it.
He pushed it forward and I took it from him. Tearing into the flap, my eyes grew as big as saucers caught off guard by the fat stack of money. What the hell?
CHAPTER 4
EXODUS
“What is this?”Repeated Sereia, glancing from the envelope of money I handed her, back up at me.
“Funeral expenses,” I told her, eyeing her up and down.
She smelled like a distillery. Like she’d been up, drinking all night. Her hair was a mess and she was wrapped in a robe. Took her a minute to answer the door too. Yeah, she got lit last night. Probably too lit.
She squinted. “Umm?—
“You can hold the service at the church,” I interrupted, pulling my phone from my pocket. “You got your phone? What’s your number? I’m going to send you Solo’s number. Get with him ASAP.”
She was stuck. Quiet. Eyes centered on the stack, running her fingers along it.
“Yo.”
She looked up at me. “I—I can’t?—
“You can. How else you gon’ fund it? Hold a fundraiser in the ‘jects? Where everybody strugglin’? I’m sure brodie didn’t have life insurance. Now ain’t the time to be proud.” I glanced downat my phone and handed it to her. “Here. Put your number in. I’ll have him hit you.”
I was at The Woods, handling something that had been weighing heavy on my spirit since late last night. Meech needed a proper burial. So, as soon as I got up, I got dressed and headed straight to the bank to pull a cool ten thousand out for it. Ten was generous, but ten was necessary. I threw in extra to take the stress of other shit off his sisters back. I was sure Meech handled a lot around the crib. Without him, she would be down on her knuckles. Struggling in the middle of grief would send the sanest muthafucka spiraling. I didn’t want that for her.
“I… Um… thank you. I don’t… um… I’ve never made arrangements before so…”
