“But…but how?” I held her face, seeing her about to have a damn panic attack, and kissed her softly.
“I don’t know, but I’m going to get her back, don’t even worry. Just go get ready to leave.”
Nodding, she rushed off to her closet while I resumed what I was doing and tried to call Aw’sum’s ass. My call immediately went to voicemail, so I knew he was on a job or in the air, which was the only time he didn’t fucking answer his phone. Cursing, I called Cruz next, knowing that I need some type of back up, and surprisingly, he answered on the third ring.
“Nigga, what the fuck you want already?” he snapped, voice groggy like I’d just woken him up.
“Jamo got Maagic.”
“What! How?”
“I don’t know. He must’ve been hiding there all this time, ’cause it didn’t seem like some planned shit. It seemed like he just ran across her or something.” My jaw tightened as I told him what happened and continued packing money in the bag. “You know he talkin’ about some money, he just ain’t told me how much. I’m emptying my safe and?—”
“You know I got you, bro. I got a couple hundred thousand.” Cruz was already up and moving around as he spoke.
“Bet, I’ma hit you back,” I told him, hanging up. Once I had the safe completely empty, I carried the bag back out to the room, sitting it on the floor so I could quickly handle my hygiene.
“Baby, I’m ready.” Avery appeared at the door dressed and with her own bag in hand. “And I want to go to Cruz’s.”
I nodded even though I barely heard her as my fingers moved across my screen, trying to get some niggas together along witha flight out tonight. There was no way me and Cruz could go out there without some type of back up. Even though I was sure Jamo didn’t have a team, it was still better to be safe than sorry.
“Maasai?” Avery stopped me as I came out from brushing my teeth with a hand on my chest. “Do you want me to get some money from Armand? I could?—”
“Bae, I got this. I just need you somewhere safe while I handle this. I’m gonna get her back,” I said, brushing tears off her cheeks. My baby was already sensitive, but this pregnancy had her crying and stressing a lot more than usual. After the shit with the police, I had to make sure she stayed calm, but that shit was starting to be easier said than done with everything we had going on.
“Okay, just make sure you get her,” she said with a nod.
“I will. Now where your bag at?” She pointed to where it was on the chaise, and I went to get it and grabbed mine too as we headed for the door. With the bags tucked in one hand and my phone in the other, I continued making preparations. The whole time, I was also calculating how much liquid money I had available. Jamo hadn’t set a number yet, but I knew it was going to be ridiculous, and I wanted to make sure I had it so my sister wasn’t in his presence no longer than she had to be.
Chapter 20
Cruz
By the time we landed in New York, we’d racked up at least 1.5 million and had a team with us of ten of our best shooters, along with a techy named Mari. We were holed up in some run-down ass motel that allowed us to move freely without people asking too many questions about two vans full of niggas with duffle bags. I barely wanted to sit on the bed in that muthafucka because I already knew the type of shit that went down at places like this, but I’d be burning everything I had on anyway, just had to make sure it didn’t touch my skin.
Jamo still had yet to call and give Maasai a number, which had me thinking he was working with somebody else. It had only taken us three hours to get shit together and fly out, though, so we were already moving faster than he could think, maybe. I pulled a blunt out of my pocket and started rolling up while we waited.
“Aye, flame up,” I told Maasai, tossing him the rolled blunt and a lighter. My nigga had been pacing since we’d touched down and snapping on anybody who asked him even the simplest question. I knew exactly how he felt because Maagic was just as much my sister as she was his, and knowing she waswith a nigga who didn’t value life was scary, but we needed to stay cool.
“Yeeeeah, pass me that too!” some nigga named Ace said from across the room with a wide grin.
“Hell naw, I ain’t smokin’ after all you niggas. One in eight niggas got herpes, so out of everybody in this muthafucka, at least one of y’all niggas bumped up. Roll yo’ own fuckin’ weed.” I frowned, dead ass serious as I threw him a blunt and the bag of exotic I had on me. I wasn’t fucking around.
“Man, I ain’t got shit!” he grumbled along with a few others, but that shit was going right in one ear and out the other.
“I guess I’ll never know ’cause y’all gone smoke your own shit.” I hit his complaining ass with a deadpan stare until he looked away and started rolling up like I’d told him.
“Yo’ ass crazy,” Maasai said with a mouth full of smoke. I just shrugged though and accepted the blunt back from him.
“Better crazy than sorry, muthafucka?—”
His phone ringing cut me off, and his expression once again became serious as he answered with it on speaker. “Nigga, what took you so long?”
“Aye, I told you I’m the one making the rules, little McCarter! I had to crunch some numbers, but now that I have, I need 1 mil. You think you can?—”
“Done. Where we meeting at so I can get my sister?” Maasai rushed.
“Whooowhooohooo! Look at you, big baller, maybe I should ask for more since that was so easy,” Jamo’s simple ass said, and I shook my head. Greed would be the downfall of many a nigga. I mean, he was going to die, but he could’ve at least been happy about what he thought he was going to get before he met his maker.
