“Oh shit,” I whispered. “It’s gotta be that affirmation note I left in his messenger bag.”
Embarrassment washed over me so hard I wanted to cry. I shouldn’t have done that shit, and now I felt even worse for taking a picture of his driver’s license. I snatched my water bottle off the bench and hurried back inside the hotel. For the rest of the day, I stayed locked away in my office, trying to distract myself by working on preparations for an upcoming conference I had to attend in Philadelphia. However, my mind drifted right back to Legacy like always. My office phone rang just as I finished responding to an email about the conference. I rubbed my temples before reaching over and pressing the button.
“This is Ms. More.”
“Hey, Ms. More, it’s Eric from VIP guest services.”
“Hey, Eric. What’s up?”
“Mr. Porter checked out about ten minutes ago.” The moment he said Legacy’s last name, my stomach did flips.
“Oh… okay,” I replied, trying to sound unaffected by what he said.
“He left something at the front desk.”
“He left something?” I repeated.
“Yes, an envelope. He specifically said it was for the housekeeper that’s been cleaning his penthouse.” Every nerve in my body was activated, and my skin felt like it was crawling.
“What?” I asked before I could stop myself.
“He told me to make sure housekeeping management received it personally,” Eric continued. “Since you’re over the department, I figured I’d call you to come grab it.” For a second, I couldn’t even respond. My mind immediately started racing.
Did he know? Was this about the damn note? Did he somehow figure out I was the one cleaning his suite? I had so many questions running through my mind.
“Ms. More, are you there?” Eric called out after a few seconds of silence.
“Uhhh…yes. I’m coming over now.” I quickly hung up the phone and stared off into space. “What the hell did you get yourself into?” I whispered.
I finally pushed away from my desk and made my way downstairs toward the VIP Registration. Once I walked inside, Eric noticed me approaching and smiled before reaching beneath the counter.
“He said to make sure this got to the right person,” Eric said, handing me a thick cream-colored envelope.
“Okay, thanks. Did he say anything else?” I questioned.
“No. He just thanked us and checked out.”
I smiled, taking the envelope and walking away. When I made it back to my office, I wasted no time opening the envelope since it was for me. There was no note, just cash and lots of it. I pulled it out and started counting all of the hundred-dollar bills. Five thousand! That man really left a five-thousand-dollar tip! Even though the money excited me because I could use it, I decided to keep a thousand for myself and put the other four thousand in Tahanii’s savings account. Saving was very important for me, and the money would help secure her future. Glancing at the time on my computer, I figured I’d leave early since I wasn’t feeling well. Today was one of my rough days; I had them from time to time, and the best thing for me to do was rest.
6 /LEGACY
One Month Later
I racedthrough the city streets in my black 2026 Aston Martin Vantage Coupe with the top down and the engine roaring through traffic like a beast off its leash. Pop Smoke blasted through the speakers as Zelly sat on the passenger side, with her strap in her lap. This girl was nothing nice when it came to this street shit. She was beautiful, and everything about her read “girls’ girl.” Don’t get it fucked up though—she’d kill you before you could blink good and wouldn’t give a damn about anything else until you took your last breath.
Once Zelly was on one, it was hard to bring her down. We always teased that she got off on watching these niggas die. The look on her face was composed, but I knew better. She was pissed, shorty was on a hundred right now just like me. Normally, it was her that handled shit out in these streets, but these niggas decided they wanted to get bold just because she was a female.
They knew when I showed up, there were no questions, bodies were going to drop. The engine roared louder and the wind whipped through the car as I pushed harder on the gas,weaving through traffic with zero patience. Knowing that these niggas was out here making side deals and thinking that shit was gonna slide was crazy as fuck. Like, what type of stupid do you gotta be to play with money and loyalty at the same damn time? In this life, both of those mistakes get people buried. Then what really had me on fire was hearing about the plan to line Zelly the fuck up. That shit ripped through me because she wasn’t just some chick that worked for me. That was my best friend since middle school. We didn’t have to be blood for her to be my family. She spent holidays with my family and took trips with us. Not to mention, she held me down in the streets. Zelly was a true blue, and if there was a threat to her, then that was also a threat to me.
We pulled up to our distribution warehouse and hopped out the car. The building was outside of the city, in a secluded part of the county. There was enough armed security to start our own army and take over the city if we wanted to. Rome was already outside waiting on us, pacing back and forth near the entrance smoking a cigarette. When he saw us, he threw out his cigarette and held the door open for us. Rome was Zelly’s right hand, but truthfully, he was family to both of us. One of my closest friends. The type of nigga who moved smart, stayed solid, and his loyalty was never questioned. If he said we had a problem, then that’s what it was. In our city, nothing moved without us knowing about it. When Rome heard about three of our lieutenants trying to cut a side deal behind our backs and them plotting to off Zelly, he immediately called us.
Loyalty was everything to me, and when you crossed that shit, you crossed the point of no return. I may have seemed soft and put together on the surface for these cameras, my artistry, and this political shit my family was into. On some real shit though, I was HIM and would lay your ass in the dirt.
“What you got?” I asked the second we made it inside.
“These niggas been meeting up with the Zardo boys behind closed doors for months. Moving our product before it’s processed in and cutting side deals. Rich Zardo wanted Zelly dead because he wanted control of the city. He can’t do that with us in the way.
“He don’t have to wait to come see me, because I’ma go see his ass just as soon as I’m done with these bitch boys. There ain’t never been a bitch in me, and I’ma show these niggas tonight,” Zelly said, as she swayed her hips from side to side with her red bottoms clacking against the concrete floor and her twin 357’s in each hand.
