I looked over at him. “What kind of issue?”
“Some crabs in the bucket from across town thought they was gone post up over there.”
“And?”
He grinned all proud and shit. “They ain’t there no more.”
I nodded. “Good.”
The smell of barbecue suddenly filled my nostrils from across the street making my stomach rumble and remember the steak I still needed to finish from lunch. One of the little kids riding his bike yelled, “What up, Rome?” before popping a wheelie down the middle of the street. I lifted my chin at him, then looked back at my people.
“Every dumb decision cost money and every unnecessary body bring police, then the police bring attention, then attention slows money down. I don’t like shit slowing my money down.”
They all agreed in unison. Bill spoke up. “You right, but between you being out of town and whatever else you got going on, it be hard to get you on the phone lately Rome, so as the LT I been handling shit.”
“I know I’m right, but that don’t mean you ain’t right either.” I told him without explaining further because he was right. I had shit going on with my wife and other females too.
I reached into my pocket, pulled out a fresh stack of hundreds wrapped in a bank band, and peeled fifteen thousand from it without bothering to count twice. Money only made people nervous when they didn’t have enough of it. I folded the stack in half and held it out toward Bill to match the other fifteen.
“Get Paper a lawyer.”
He looked at the money, then back at me. “You still gone cover it?”
I frowned. “He my people, ain’t he?”
“Yeah.”
“Then why we still talking?”
He quickly took the money and slid it into the backpack. “I’ll handle it.”
“I know you will.”
Just then my phone ring and I glanced down at the screen. For a second I just stared at it before I swiped my thumb across the screen without taking my eyes off Bill.
“What?” I asked her.
Her voice came through the speaker loud enough to make me pull the phone away from my ear for a second. “So now you answer?!”
I turned and started walking away from them, stopping near the front of my truck where nobody else could hear the conversation. I leaned one forearm across the hood, rolling the unlit joint between my fingers while looking down the block ignoring the hot ass sun.
“I told you I was handling business.” I replied unbothered by her urgency.
“And I told you I needed to see you.”
I closed my eyes for a brief second, already knowing this conversation wasn’t about to be simple. “What happened now? You know what, never mind, I’m coming.”
Before she could drag the conversation any longer, I ended the call and tossed the phone into the passenger seat. Whatever she wanted could wait until I got there. Fifteen minutes later, I turned into her neighborhood and turned the engine off without getting out right away. When I finally did climb out, I straightened my shirt and walked up the cracked sidewalk. Before I could knock, the front door swung open and Tasha stood there wearing a pair of black biker shorts and an oversized University of Miami T-shirt that hung off one shoulder. Her hair was twisted into a messy bun, but she was still fine as hell. She looked at me for a second, stepped back from the doorway, and left the door open.
“Took you long enough.” She hissed rolling her eyes.
I walked past her without saying nothing, shutting the door behind me. The house was just as quiet as it always was. The television played low in the back, but it smelled like bleach mixed with a scent of vanilla and she still had pots on the stover from whatever she was cooking that smelled good as hell. Tasha had family pictures covered the walls from one end of the hallway to the other held up in fancy iced out frames and every other frame had her mama smiling in it, looking healthier than the woman lying down the hall now.
She kept her little place up nice and cozy too and it wasn’t a time that I ever came over and it wasn’t spotless and girly looking. Yeah, she stripped and hustled in the club, but she did what she could with the money.
“Your mama sleep?” I asked, loosening the collar of my shirt while making myself comfortable on her black leather sectional with the fluffy white throw pillows.
Tasha nodded toward the hallway and shook her head while sipping on whatever she was drinking. “That damn treatment wore her out.”
