Chapter 7 Mekhi
I kept my face blank as the fat ass detective, Chris Royce, climbed out of one of the unmarked cars, hitching up his pants.
His partner, Lawrence Turner, emerged from the driver’s seat a second later, chewing on a toothpick and smirking at me and Seth.
Yeah, we knew these muhfuckas. They probably had jumped on the call as soon as it went out and they recognized the address.
Turner straightened his tie and strolled toward us while Royce walked to the crime scene investigators’ SUV that had just pulled up.
“Venzant, Carter,” Turner called out to me and Seth. “I just knew this would be the occasion for some chalk and yellow tape. Too bad they sent such bad shooters, huh?”
He laughed like the shit was funny. I wanted to catch this nigga off duty in the dark one day. All I needed was a couple of minutes. But none of that showed on my face. Instead, I gave him half a smile.
“You must be disappointed,” I said.
“Incredibly.”
“Asshole,” Aunt Janine hissed.
Seth shook his head at her. “You and Kera go in the house, Auntie. We got this.”
“I don’t know if—” she started to argue.
“Aww, don’t worry, Auntie. We’re not going to hurt your baby,” Turner taunted.
I looked at Seth, who managed to keep his expression cool. It was funny how these niggas tried to get to us. Bitches would have to do a lot more to fuck with my head. Seth spoke to his aunt again.
“Go ‘head, Aunt Janine.”
“Yeah, I’ll send someone in to talk to you,” Turner called. “You’re potential witnesses and we plan to investigate this case thoroughly.”
Janine flipped him off before marching in front of Kera back to the house. Turner whistled as they walked off.
“Lil Sis is fine. Auntie ain’t bad either,” he said.
Seth just smiled. I knew my nigga probably wanted to fuck his bitch ass up. One day, I thought.
“You have some questions for us?” I asked as Royce approached with two patrolmen.
“Why don’t you tell us what happened here?”
“Why don’t you tell us what you heard?” Seth cut in.
Turner’s eyes narrowed. “We’re not here for your smart mouth, Carter.”
“Somebody pulled up and started shooting. We got down. That’s all we know,” I said, shrugging.
“You didn’t get a look at the car?” Royce asked.
“Nah,” I lied.
We were going to handle this shit on our own and I didn’t need the police over my damn shoulder. I watched as the other cops fanned out to talk to people who had gathered.
“No color? Make? Model?” Turner pressed.
Seth shook his head. “Happened too fast. The car was dark. That’s all I know.”
“The caller reported there were two other people in the yard with you. Possibly two African American females,” one of the patrolmen spoke up.
“The caller was wrong,” I said.
Turner scowled at me before turning to Seth. “You sure your aunt and your sister weren’t out here when shit popped off?”
“They ran out after the shots stopped.”
For an hour and a half, we played this game with them, revealing nothing, listening to everything. Finally, Royce held up a hand.
“I think we have enough,” he said.
“We don’t have shit,” muttered Turner.
Despite the fact that they’d questioned multiple people, they had no leads. No one had seen shit, of course. Aunt Janine and Kera confirmed Seth’s story. I overheard Royce tell Turner they couldn’t even find the caller. Whoever it was must’ve used a burner.
“You know, without your cooperation, our chances of solving this thing are next to nil,” Royce pointed out.
“That’s too bad,” I said, smiling.
Turner shook his head. “Let’s get outta here.”
I waited until they were out of sight before turning back to Seth, Luca, and Steel, who had made it back. The rest of our crew knew to slide through town, blend with the shadows, see who was talking. I didn’t need a bunch of people in on this conversation.
“Y’all need to be paying attention. Either somebody close to here let niggas know we were standing out, somebody’s been watching this house, or somebody followed me. I need to know which one it is.”
Nods all around. Seth ran down the description of the car to them.
It had probably already been ditched, but just in case.
Once I was sure we were all on the same page, Luca took off.
Steel was about to do the same but, for some reason, I told him to wait up.
Quiet as usual, he looked at me expectantly.
“Where you take her?” I asked.
He pulled out his phone to check his GPS. “8171 Spring Woods.”
I nodded once. “I’ll get up with you later.”
He dapped me up and strolled off. Seth waited until we were alone again to speak.
“Who you think it was?”
“I really don’t know. I can think of a couple of assholes who’d like to take us out.”
He nodded. “Yeah, me, too.”
“When we find these niggas—”
“Say less. I’m already knowing.”
I chopped it up with Seth a little longer before making my way to my car to take off.
Before I let myself think on it too hard, I typed Farrah’s address into my phone and headed in that direction.
I would just drive by, make sure shit looked okay.
I didn’t need her bougie ass caught up in anything behind me.
Thirty minutes later, I was pulling onto the quiet street of her suburb.
This was the beautiful Emancipation, the parts of the town that showed off the legacy of the oil money that had funded its growth.
Emancipation was considered a North Louisiana gem, but like most gems, it had its flaws.
This neighborhood, though… this neighborhood fit her stuck-up ass with all these damn trees, big front yards, and neat brick houses.
We definitely came from different places.
My plan to ride by and keep going went out the window when I saw her standing out in front of the garage.
She was talking to some nigga, but he could wait while I made sure she was good.
I parked across the street and walked toward her house.
She laughed at something his corny ass said but stopped when she saw me.
The smile disappeared from her face, and she crossed her arms over her chest as I waited at the end of the driveway.
“What are you doing here?” she asked, trying to sound tough.
I wasn’t about to talk about what happened in front of someone I didn’t know.
“Ay, I need to talk to you by yourself for a minute.”
She scoffed. “What was it you said? ‘I was talking to somebody else. Wait your turn, shorty.’”
Turning her back to me, she started talking to the weak ass nigga in front of her again.
“Excuse the interruption, Ron. You were saying—”
Farrah had me all the way fucked up. “I meant now,” I told her.
I didn’t raise my voice. I didn’t have to. They both looked at me. Ron pushed his glasses up on his nose and scowled.
“Is everything okay here, Farrah?” he asked.
I smirked at him. Like his scrawny ass was going to do something if shit wasn’t okay. I could slide this nigga in my sleep. Farrah looked at him, looked at me, then sighed. Yeah. Her ass knew.
“Ron, give me a minute. I’ll come knock on your parents’ door when I’m done,” she said, rolling her eyes.
“You sure—”
“Yeah, she’s sure,” I cut in, starting to get annoyed.
He mugged me one last time before walking toward the house next door. Farrah didn’t speak until he’d walked inside.
“Why are you here?” she snapped, storming down the driveway toward me.
I just looked at her, checking her out. She’d changed into a t-shirt and yoga pants and pulled her hair up into a lopsided ponytail. She was still cute, even if she wasn’t my type. The scent of warm cocoa wafted from her skin, and it smelled good, even though we were nowhere close to winter.
She sucked her teeth. “So, you just came to stare at me?”
I shrugged. She looked okay to me, so I had no need to waste any words or more of my time. Suddenly, my phone buzzed. I pulled it out quickly, in case it was one of my guys with some info. When I saw Samaria’s number, I silenced the call. Farrah sighed loudly, and I shot her a glance.
“Go ahead. I know your little hoes are waiting.”
I didn’t bother to deny it. “Yeah. And they’ll keep waiting til I’m done.”
She shook her head. “You’re unbelievable.”
I chuckled. “Nah, shorty. You should always believe me.”
“Mekhi, why—” she began, her beautiful face twisted into a scowl.
It was time for me to go. I didn’t do the explaining myself thing.
“Stay out the hood, Farrah. You don’t belong there,” I told her, turning to walk off.
“You don’t tell me what to do, Mekhi.”
I chuckled. “That’s a lie.”
I jogged to my car and pulled off.