Chapter 17
Proctor
One week later.
For the first time in my life, I had to actually search for the best flower shops in the city. Not just a corner spot that had the dusty roses sitting in water for a week, but somewhere with some premium shit.
I pulled up to one of those high-end flower shops, where fresh flowers lined the walls, sitting pretty in tall vases. The girl behind the counter smiled like she already knew I was about to spend a bag in here when she saw me.
“I’m here to get a couple of bouquets for my ladies. One big bouquet and one for a little girl.”
“Of course, what colors and flowers are you looking for?”
“Just something nice. They're special to me, so hook that shit up as much as you can. I don’t care what the cost is.”
I took my card out and slid it across the counter.
She nodded and disappeared into the back for a good minute while I wandered around the store seeing different types of flowers and shit that I didn’t even know existed.
After a while, she came out carrying a bouquet so big it looked like she was carrying a whole fuckin garden wrapped in black paper with gold trim.
She set that one on the counter and disappeared into the back once again, before coming out with a smaller, all-pink version of the flowers she’d just brought out.
“Okay, sir, and that’ll be seven hundred dollars,”
I didn’t flinch. Just tapped my card and watched the total clear.
“Thank you, ma’am, I appreciate it.”
I took both bouquets from the counter, feeling stupid and proud at the same time. I never thought I’d be the type of nigga to drop a half a stack on flowers, but here I was doing the shit.
Lately, I've been leaving the club around eight o’clock, once I've made sure everything is set for the night, and going home to my lady and our daughter because spending time away from them just didn’t feel right.
I wasn’t slacking on my job by a long shot, and I felt comfortable knowing that I had set up a solid system that could run without me when needed.
Ari and the baby hadn’t gone back to the east coast since they came a couple of weeks ago.
To be real, I wouldn’t let their asses leave.
Not that I’d force her to do anything she didn’t want to do, but I liked having her around.
I liked coming home to a woman like Ari who cooked and cleaned without me having to ask.
As I came down the strip, heading toward my penthouse, a message popped up on my screen that instantly got my attention.
It’s Nina. I need to talk to you about Hawk.
Just because she put my son’s name in the message, I felt the need to contact her immediately. Because I wasn’t much of a texter, I hit call on her number to go ahead and cut this small talk shit out if it’s really about my son.
The phone rang a few times before she finally answered.
“What’s up?” What do you need to talk about?”
“Can you meet me somewhere?” she replied.
“Meet you for what?”
“I don’t want to talk about it over the phone, Proctor. I want to meet you close to your penthouse.”
“You have to be crazy to think that I’m about to meet your ass somewhere,” I snapped. “Tell me what’s going on. Is the phone bugged or some shit?”
“It’s not bugged. I just thought we should talk in person, but whatever. Listen, I know this sounds crazy, and you might blame me, but I know someone who’s after Hawk, and he’s not playing around.”
“What the fuck did you just say? Who the fuck is after my son?”
“It’s this guy.”
“Did you pay somebody to kill my son?” I cut her off.
“No! I didn’t pay him. Look, I didn’t know who he was at first, but apparently, he’s Josiah’s foster brother and says that you guys killed his mom and brothers.
He is actively planning for get back. I’ve been trying to convince him not to touch Hawk, but he’s already putting plans into motion to take him out because it seems he was always jealous of him anyway.
He’s asking for my help in getting to Hawk, but. ”
“But what?”
“I’m not giving it to him. The only reason I’m even still around him is to keep track of what he’s trying to do.”
“You fucking with him, Nina and I’m sure that’s where your fuckin loyalty lies.” I barked.
“No! I don’t want him anymore, especially not now. No matter what y’all think, I love Hawk and I never want anything bad to happen to him.”
“Right,” I said. “So how the fuck do I know you're not in on this shit? That you didn’t want to meet me today so you could kill me. Was that the plan?”
“No! I would never hurt Hawk in any way. I love him; he just didn’t love me. Please listen to me, Proctor. Hawk is in trouble, and I really, really need your help.”
I didn’t want to believe her, but the desperation in her voice made me think there might be some truth to it. She’d loved my son’s dirty drawers for years and proved it time and time again.
“All right. I’m about to reach out to Hawk, then we’ll get back with you.”
“Okay,” she said quietly.
I hung up just as I pulled into the valet area of my building.
I shut the engine off, with plans to run upstairs, drop off the flowers, and call Hawk to tell him what Nina had said. It could’ve been bullshit, but I didn’t take threats to my son lightly. I’d hate for her to be telling the truth and end up losing both my son and my best friend.
I was looking down at the ignition, about to grab my keys when someone knocked on the window way too hard for my liking.
“I’m about to get out mutha fucka, don’t rush me!”
They knocked again.
I opened the door and shoved whoever was standing there, ready to tower over them, but it wasn’t one of the valet drivers who I expected to be standing there.
It was a police officer, with a gang of other cops behind him.
“Harrison?”
“What the fuck do y’all want now?”
“You’re under arrest.” He grabbed one of my arms.
“Under arrest for what?”
“For murder.”
“Murder, how? I already told you motherfuckers that I had an alibi.”
“You don’t have a solid alibi for the time the murders were committed. We’ll talk about it downtown.”
“Nigga I have two solid ass alibis!”
I replied as they tried to cuff me with those little-ass bracelets.
I thought long and hard about what my alibis were, and I knew that Tania's was solid because my girl had just talked to her this morning, and she didn’t sound shook or iffy about holding me down.
If anything, Tania was cool as a fan about the situation now, especially after getting paid on the low.
But that’s when it hit me. It was Dianne who had fallen through.
I hadn’t heard from her in over a week, even after I text her the next morning after our plans fell through and told her I couldn’t go through with it.
I even offered to send one of my guys to give her the dick she’d been begging for.
I’d been meaning to stop by and make sure everything was straight with her, but I’d been too wrapped up in playing family man to do so. I see that was the downfall in it all.
A bitter bitch who can’t get what she wanted turned her back on me.