Chapter 17 #2
He cocked his head to the side. “So you knew?”
“I know everything worth knowing.”
Marv started pacing in front of me, with his Timberlands scraping against the concrete as he talked faster than normal. “They saying he back on the north side already. Nigga walking around like ain’t shit happened. Like he forgot what he did.”
“He ain’t forget.”
“Nah…” Marv shook his head, his jaw shifting from side to side as he stared off toward the open bay doors. “He just think niggas forgot.” He looked back at me. “I’ma kill him.”
The words came out flat with no emotion.
I studied him instead of answering. His eyes were too fucking wide.
His jaw hadn’t stopped moving since I arrived like he was grinding his teeth without realizing it.
Every few seconds he’d lick his lips or wipe beneath his nose, and he couldn’t stay planted in one spot for more than a few seconds before turning around and pacing again.
“When the last time you slept?” I asked him.
He frowned. “What?”
“I asked you a fucking question.”
“The fuck sleep got to do with Paper?”
I ignored him and asked again. “When the last time you slept?”
Marv let out a dry laugh and shook his head. “Man, I don’t know, last night.”
“You sure?” I glared into his eyes studying them.
“The fuck is this, twenty questions?” He tried to laugh it off, but I kept looking at him.
“So you back on that shit huh?”
His smile disappeared. “I ain’t back on nothing.”
“Then why won’t your jaw sit still? I ain’t no fucking fool. I been around the game long enough. If you getting high off your own supply that’s even more fucked up.”
His tongue instinctively pushed against the inside of his cheek before he caught himself. “Man, you trippin’.”
“Nah.” I folded my arms across my chest. “I know you.”
For a second, neither one of us said anything. The only sounds were the forklift backing up somewhere behind us and a radio playing low from one of the work trucks.
Marv finally looked away. “I just been stressed.”
“You always stressed.”
“It ain’t the same.”
“No?”
He rubbed his nose again. “I keep thinking about that damn money too. I replay that night every day,” he admitted.
“I know I had it. I know exactly where I put it. Then I wake up in that hospital, and fifty bands just vanish.” He looked back at me, frustration written all over his face.
“That shit don’t even make sense. That shit might not be a lot for you, but it’s a lot for me.
” He sighed and dragged both hands over his face before letting them fall back to his sides. “I just hate loose ends.”
“So do I.”
He looked out toward the parking lot again. “And Paper?”
I reached into my pocket for my keys. “If Paper really home…” I paused just long enough for him to look back at me. “He ain’t gone stay comfortable for long.”
A slow grin spread across Marv’s face. “I knew you wasn’t gone let that slide.”
“I don’t let nothing slide.” I started toward my truck before stopping long enough to glance back over my shoulder. “And stay off that shit.”
His grin faded. “I told you, I ain’t—”
I cut him off. “Shut the fuck up, you rubbed your nose six times since I got here. You ain’t stood still for more than ten seconds, and your mouth been moving the whole conversation.
If you don’t learn from your mistakes, you’re condemned to keep repeating those muhfuckas.
” I warned him. Marv looked down at the concrete but didn’t answer.
I shook my head. “Don’t make me worry about burying you before they get to burying Paper. ”
I climbed into my truck and shut the door, leaving him standing there alone with that sentence hanging in the air.
The engine roared, and as I pulled away from the warehouse, I caught one last glimpse of him in the rearview mirror.
He was still standing in the exact same spot.
Still rubbing his fucking nose. I shook my head because anything he did, BJ always made me responsible for him.
we weren’t kids no more and I couldn’t police no grown ass man.
I scrolled my phone until I found Navy’s name and pressed call. She answered after the second ring. “Hello?”
“Where you at?” I questioned in a stern voice.
There was a brief pause before she answered as if she had to catch the voice, but when she did, she answered. “Home.”
Silence lingered for a few seconds before I spoke again. “I’m coming to pick up that package.”
“Okay.” She said. She didn’t sound too timid and wasn’t no need to ask how I knew where she lived either.
“I’ll call you when I’m outside.”
Without waiting on another question, I ended the call and pulled out of the lot.
About twenty-five minutes later, I turned into the apartment complex and eased the truck to the curb directly in front of her building.
Kids were riding bicycles through the parking, and it looked like every other apartment complex in Miami. Ordinary.
I grabbed my phone and hit her number again. “I’m here.”
“Okay…give me one second.” I heard a door shut on her end before she spoke again. “Actually…can you come around to the side of the building?”
I frowned. “The side?”
“Yeah.”
I looked toward the front entrance, then over at the narrow drive that wrapped around the building. “Aight.”
I shifted the truck into drive and rolled slowly around the side, curious about what the difference was.
The front entrance was just as easy, so why have me come back here?
The answer came about a minute later. The rear exit opened, and Navy stepped outside carrying a small black backpack over one shoulder.
I understood immediately that she didn’t want the whole complex watching her climb into a truck, or maybe she was hiding from somebody.
She walked toward me, adjusting the strap of the backpack before stopping beside the driver’s window.
This was the first time I’d seen her looking like herself.
Meaning, no hospital scrubs, no glitter, and no six-inch heels.
She just had on a pair of black leggings, a fitted white crop top, Gucci slides.
Her hair was wrapped into a loose ponytail that fell over one shoulder, and her face was completely bare without makeup, lashes, or none of that shit. She didn’t need any of it.
There was something different about a woman who could wash everything off and still look better than most people did dressed up. I caught myself holding the thought longer than I should have because this was business, that’s all this was.