Chapter Two #2
We reached the front room, and Hunter tried to stick a key into the lock box, but it didn’t fit, so she tried another and another. There were over thirty on the large silver ring.
Suddenly, the sounds of sex ceased, and I felt my heart kick into gear as my ears picked up Charlotte and Luther moving around.
“Hunter, hurry!”
“Shit, shit, shit, shit.” She stuck two more keys into the lock, but none of them worked.
“Wait, those are all apartment keys,” I told her.
And then I plucked a square key with green rubber around the head from the loop.
“Try this one.” Hunter stuck it into the lock and turned it just as the bedroom door opened down the hall.
As soon as we heard the lock disengage, Hunter snatched open the box, and I grabbed the envelope full of cash on top with our apartment number on it.
As soon as my hand was clear, Hunter started to close the box, but I stopped her.
“Wait!” I whisper-yelled. “We can’t just take ours. Luther will know we did it.”
“I don’t give a fuck what he knows,” Hunter replied coldly. “I care about what he can prove.”
She closed the lock box just as we heard two sets of footsteps coming down the hall. “Go! Go! Go!” Hunter and I made a mad dash for the door, no longer caring if we were heard as long as we weren’t seen.
“Hey!” I heard Luther shout just as Hunter threw open the front door. “Who’s there?”
Hunter ran out of the apartment first with me on her heels, but I couldn’t help looking over my shoulder once we were free. Charlotte entered the front room, and our eyes met briefly before Hunter grabbed my hand and tugged me from my view.
Together, we flew up the stairs and didn’t stop until we reached the fourth floor. Once we were behind the safety of our locked apartment, we collapsed on the ground. For a minute, there was only the sound of our heavy breathing before Hunter started laughing, triggering my own.
Snatching off my ski mask, I wheezed out, “I can’t believe I let you talk me into that. Bitch, we’re going to jail.”
Hunter removed her ski mask, revealing dark brown skin, a round face, upturned eyes, and full lips.
She had a small scar along her jaw that her bitch-ass father gave her when she was younger, but other than that…
flawless. Hunter was stunning and at times, so much so that it hurt to look at her.
“Maybe. But at least we got bail money now.” Hunter held up the envelope with our rent money crumpled in her fist.
“Good,” I said as I sat up. “Let’s call JD and get our fucking heat fixed.”
“You call him,” Hunter said with a groan as she rose to her feet and stretched.
“I need to shower. I got a shift tonight.” Her shirt rose a little from the movement, and my gaze got stuck on her belly button before I forced myself to look away.
Hunter’s thick hourglass figure squeezed inside those leggings made me feel like I was no better than a man, especially when I was the opposite of her in almost every way.
I was short, skinny, and pale, but Hunter never hesitated to tell me how pretty I am.
Sometimes, I’d even catch her staring, but she’d brush it off by telling me something stupid like my eyelashes were crooked, or I had a booger in my nose.
I rose to my feet while Hunter finished her stretch, and then she looked at me hopefully. “Are you coming?”
Our codependence meant that whenever one of us was scheduled to work a separate shift, the other would tag along and hang around until it was over.
“Not tonight,” I answered. “If I miss another Pilates class, Sheema’s going to give my spot away, and you know no one else in the city is as cheap as her.”
“Fine.” Hunter feigned a wounded look. “You’d rather torture yourself than spend time with your bestie. I see how it is.”
Rolling my eyes at Hunter’s dramatics, I freed my phone from my pocket while Hunter went to her room to get ready. After arranging an appointment with the handyman, I retreated to my own room and lay down since I had a couple of hours before class started.
Our apartment was small and sparsely furnished with mostly second-hand items, but it was also the birthplace of some of my favorite memories.
Like Hunter and I buying our first Christmas tree and each claiming a side to decorate.
We had both chosen pink ornaments since we shared a favorite color, but Hunter had forgotten to use hooks and had simply shoved the thick branches through the tiny holes, making the ornaments appear lopsided and the branches stiff.
My side hadn’t come out much better because I’d forgotten to decorate higher than eye level, leaving the top and bottom of the tree barren.
And for our birthdays every year, we baked each other a cake and talked about all the places we’d visit once we had the money.
I was beginning to nod off when Hunter suddenly burst into my room.
My eyes flew open, and I lifted my head to see her storming in naked and dripping water.
I frowned despite feeling like I’d swallowed my tongue as I watched her storm into my tiny bathroom.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as I got out of bed and followed her into the en suite.
She was pumping some of my lotion into her hand when she met my gaze in the mirror. “Nothing. I forgot to go to the store.”
“Well, don’t forget to hit those elbows this time. You don’t want to look like you’ve been praying in flour again.”
“Bitch, fuck you,” Hunter retorted with a chuckle while I cackled. “What did JD say?”
“He said he can swing by in a couple of days to look at it, but if new parts are needed, it might take longer.”
Hunter only nodded as she massaged the lotion into her skin.
I stood there awkwardly for another moment, and feeling my presence, Hunter’s gaze flicked toward the mirror again, and I could see the question in her eyes.
At that same moment, there was a knock on the front door, so I used it as an excuse to flee the room.
It wasn’t until it was too late and I was already opening the door that I remembered it could be Luther coming to demand the money back, but instead, it was Charlotte.
She was standing there with a lit cigarette caught between two fingers and her other hand resting on her hip.
Her wig had slipped back another couple of inches, showing the cap and frizzy braids underneath.
“What are you doing here?” I asked.
“Hey, to you too,” she returned dryly. I didn’t respond and just waited for her to get to the reason she was standing at my damn door. Picking up on my silence, Charlotte rolled her eyes. “I just thought you should know that Luther is on to you. He’s already noticed the missing rent money.”
“What missing rent money?”
“The one you and Hunter took. Yours, I’m assuming.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Cut the bullshit, Coby. I saw you in Luther’s apartment. You know I did.”
I scratched my scalp like I was truly confused. “It sound like you be smoking more than tobacco because I don’t know what you’re talking about—like I fucking said.”
“Look,” Charlotte huffed before stabbing out her cigarette and then flicking it away. “I want half of whatever you took, or I’ll tell Luther what I know.”
“And I already told you—” It was all I got out before I was nudged aside and a shadow blew past me.
A fully dressed and furious Hunter stepped into the dimly lit hallway, and I didn’t see the Sig she was clutching until it was too late.
“Hoe, tell it to me since you want to talk so fucking bad.” Hunter was seething while Charlotte made a terrified sound as my hot-headed best friend pressed the muzzle of her gun against Charlotte’s cracked, cum-stained lips.
“What do you know?” Hunter nudged her when she didn’t speak.
“N-nothing.”
“You sure? But you were so fucking eager to yap a moment ago.”
“I don’t know nothing!” Charlotte screamed.
“I fucking thought so.” Hunter took a step back and waved her away with the gun. “Beat it, dummy.”
Charlotte fled down the stairs, but neither of us moved until the echo of her footsteps faded completely. Only then did Hunter storm back into the apartment, tossing her gun on the counter, which I frowned at before shutting the door behind us.
“You shouldn’t have done that,” I scolded while Hunter finished wrapping long dark hair in a neat top knot. “I had it under control.”
Hunter threw back her head and sighed because it’s an argument we’ve had many times before. She was as fiercely protective of me as I was of her. “I know you did.”
“What if she goes to the police and tells them you threatened her?”
Hunter snorted. “She won’t. Them Birch street three-o-fours stay away from the cops on principle.”
I shook my head and muttered, “If you say so.” Don’t get me wrong.
It’s not that I’m ungrateful that she had my back, but Hunter’s shoot-first, ask-questions-never approach to everything had me constantly afraid of losing her.
I wouldn’t survive being separated from her, and I don’t think Hunter would either, so I tried another tactic to get my best friend to see reason.
“Charlotte said Luther knows we took our rent money.”
Hunter shrugged like I knew she would. “So? We got our receipt proving we paid it. What happens to the money after that is his fucking problem.”
Luckily, our landlord was too cheap to install security cameras, and he’d be too embarrassed to call the police and have his business in the streets, so there was nothing he could do about it.
“Okay, fine.”
“Cool,” Hunter replied immediately before hugging me tight. “Stop worrying so much. We’ll be fine, okay?” For some reason, all I felt from her vow was the crushing weight of guilt. “I’ll see you later.”
I squeezed her back as if it would be the last time. We were dramatic like that whenever we were forced to part, even for a little while. “See you later.”