6. Vice Blackwell #3
“They’re still pulling footage,” Mace explained. “Cameras went down for about forty minutes this morning.”
I stopped walking.
“All of them?”
“Two on this floor and one near the service entrance.”
My jaw tightened then I said, “That ain’t a coincidence.”
“I said the same shit,” Boog agreed, followed by Mace nodding his head.
Milan looked at each of us. “What does that mean?”
“It means whoever got into your apartment didn’t get lucky.” I looked her dead in the eyes. “They either knew exactly where those cameras were… or they know somebody with access to this building.”
Her arms folded across her chest, but it wasn’t because she was cold. She was trying to hold herself together.
I hated that look.
Mace glanced down at his phone then looked back up at me. “Building management is checking who had access to the system. I’m waiting on a list of employees too.”
“Get everything.”
“I got you.”
Milan looked at him. “You don’t have to investigate this. The police are already doing that.” Mace and I both looked at her when she said that. “What?”
“Nothing,” I said.
She frowned. “Why did both of you look at me like that?”
“Because you think I’m waiting on the police.”
Her expression told me exactly what she thought about that. Then she mumbled, “Of course you aren’t.”
“Now you learning.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good thing.”
“It is tonight.” With that, we walked outside.
Milan stopped when she saw that we were heading to my truck near the entrance.
“My car is in the garage.”
“Leave it.”
“I need my car.”
“Not tonight.”
She turned toward me slowly. “Vice... I’m not leaving my car here. How you know I don’t have to work tomorrow.”
I looked toward the parking garage before bringing my attention back to her. “Somebody got into your building, shut down cameras and walked into your apartment without anybody noticing. You think I’m letting you walk into that garage by yourself?”
“You could walk with me.”
“Yeah, I could...” She waited, expecting me to say something else, but I didn’t.
Her eyes then narrowed. “Fine. I’ll get it tomorrow…. You are really getting on my damn nerves, and don’t think I agreed because you told me to, either.”
“Don’t care why you agreed.”
She sucked her teeth and walked toward my truck.
For the first time since she’d called me, I felt some of the tension leave my body. She was still scared, and I knew that. She just hid it behind an attitude, and I could work with that. What I couldn’t work with was her staying somewhere these mothafuckas already knew how to find her.
Tonight, a hotel would have to do, but tomorrow, we were figuring out something better.
The drive to the hotel was quiet for the first few minutes. Milan sat in the passenger seat with her bag at her feet, staring out the window while I drove. She’d been running her mouth since I got to her apartment, so the silence caught my attention.
I glanced over at her. “You good?”
She kept her eyes on the window. “You already asked me that, and just like I told you before, I’m not.”
I nodded and kept driving. “My bad...”
She finally looked over at me, almost like she hadn’t expected me to leave it there.
I didn’t know what else she wanted me to say.
I couldn’t promise her everything was going to be okay when I didn’t know who the fuck we were dealing with.
I couldn’t tell her she was safe when somebody had just proved otherwise.
After another minute, she asked, “Do you think they were watching me?”
“Probably.”
Her head snapped in my direction. “Damn. You could’ve lied.”
“You want me to?”
“No, but you didn’t have to answer that fast.”
“You asked me a question.”
“I know what I asked.”
I looked over at her again. “You want the truth or something that’ll make you feel better?”
She was quiet for a second before looking back out the window. “The truth.”
“Then yeah. They probably watched you long enough to learn your routine.”
I saw her shift in her seat.
“How long?”
“Don’t know.”
“Days?” She then asked.
“Could’ve been.”
“Weeks?”
“Milan.”
“What?”
“I don’t know.”
She pressed her lips together and nodded. I could see her mind going back over every day since the shooting, trying to remember cars she’d seen or people she’d passed without paying attention to them.
“Don’t do that to yourself.”
“Do what?”
“Sit there trying to figure out every person who looked at you too long.”
“You don’t know what I’m thinking.”
“I got a pretty good idea.”
She turned toward me. “You always think you know everything?”
“No.”
“Could’ve fooled me,” she mumbled.
I let out a chuckle, shaking my head. “Getting your attitude back, I see.”
“I never lost it.”
I ain’t even say shit back. I just reached over and turned the radio up on her ass. Her ass was too gotdamn feisty for me.
A few seconds later, I caught a glimpse of her smiling out the corner of my eye. I wanted to pull this damn truck over the second I saw that shit.
She really thought this was funny.
Thought going back and forth with me about her own safety was cute.
Meanwhile, all I could think about was somebody breaking into her apartment while she was at work. Somebody had walked through her shit and left a bullet and a note behind.
Ain’t a damn thing about that was funny, and she had no idea how close she was to getting under my skin.
After a while, Milan reached over and turned my radio completely down, surprising me. She shifted in her seat and looked at me.
“Why did you come?” she asked.
I glanced over at her. “You called me.”
“I know that, but honestly, I wasn’t expecting you to drop whatever you were doing and come running. You didn’t have to do that, you know?”
I frowned. “You wanted me to take my time?”
“That’s not what I said.”
“Then what are you saying?”
She let out a frustrated breath and went, “Never mind.”
“Nah. You asked.”
“I was just wondering why you came yourself. You ended up calling the guys that showed up and had that one guy, um, Mace, questioning everybody like he was the police.” She paused, laughing to herself before continuing. “So, I guess my question is, why you just didn’t send them?”
I kept my attention on the road, thinking long and hard about what she said. She was right. I could’ve just sent them and I had done it before. That’s what they were hired for, to handle my light work, but this was different.
After a while, I told her, “Because you called me.”
She stared at me for another few seconds before turning back toward the window. “Well… thank you.”
“For what?”
“For coming…”
“You don’t have to thank me.”
“I know I don’t have to. I’m trying to be nice, though.”
“Don’t hurt yourself.”
She laughed. “See? This is why I don’t like you.”
This time, I laughed. “Shawty, you don’t even know me.”
“I know enough.”
I just shook my head and kept driving.
By the time we reached the hotel, Milan looked like she was fighting a losing battle with sleep. Every few seconds her eyes drifted shut before she’d force them back open.
I pulled into the private entrance near the side of the building and parked.
She looked around, squinting through the windshield.
“What hotel is this?”
“Blackwell.”
Her eyes found the name stretched across the front of the building before slowly coming back to me.
“Blackwell?”
“Yeah…”
“As in you?”
“As in me.”
Her eyebrows shot up. “You own this hotel?”
“Part of it.”
She blinked a couple of times like she was trying to process that. “You didn’t tell me that,” she said.
“And you didn’t ask.”
She let out a quiet breath and leaned her head back against the seat.
“I thought you were getting me a room somewhere.”
“I did…”
“At your hotel.”
“You got a problem with the room already, and you ain’t even seen it?”
“That’s not the point.”
“What’s the point then?”
Her mouth opened and then closed. After a few seconds, she gave a small shake of her head.
“Nothing.” She rubbed one of her eyes. “I’m too tired to argue with you.”
I chuckled and mumbled, “That’ll be a first.”
I climbed out and walked around the truck, and by the time I reached the passenger side, she’d already opened the door and was getting out.
She grabbed her bag and climbed down. I took the bag from her before she could protest.
We entered through the side doors, and the manager was already waiting near the elevators with a key card. He handed it to me without asking questions.
“Everything’s ready, Mr. Blackwell.”
“Security?”
“Already in place.”
Milan looked at me and frowned. “Security?”
I thanked the manager before heading toward the elevator.
“Vice… What does already in place mean?”
“It means somebody’s gonna be downstairs and somebody’s gonna be on your floor.”
Her eyebrows went up. “I don’t need somebody standing outside my door all night.”
“They won’t be standing outside your door.”
“Oh…”
“They’ll be down the hall.” She glared at me like I was crazy. “What?”
“You really think that makes it better?”
“Yeah.”
“How?”
“You won’t see them.”
The elevator doors opened before she could answer, and I stepped inside. Milan followed, shaking her head as the doors closed behind us.
She leaned against the wall and closed her eyes for a second.
Up close, I could see how tired she really was.
She’d worked all night, gone home expecting to sleep and walked into a threat instead.
I could understand why she didn’t want strangers following her around, but right now, what she wanted wasn’t at the top of my list.