Chapter 12
Crue
Iwas still sitting in the office parking lot when my phone rang. Looking down at it, I saw it was my brother, Dez. I’d called him the moment Kadeem showed me the email and hoped he was calling back with some information for me. Dez was the one to call for technical situations such as this one.
“What up doe? Tell me you got something.”
“I’m still tracing the encryption route,” he answered. “Whoever sent this knew what they were doing.”
“Can you track it?”
“Yeah, at some point. But this is going to take some time.”
I shook my head because that was not what I wanted to hear at all.
I needed to find out who was behind this as quick as possible so that Kadeem and I could handle this shit.
The fact that Saniyah was possibly in danger was not something that I was going to take lightly.
These muthafuckas had gotten too close, and the fact that neither Kadeem or I had noticed didn’t sit right with me.
“This shit is time sensitive, bro. I need you to put a rush on it.”
I could hear him typing on the keyboard over the phone and knew that he was working hard. I started my car, turning the air on, before backing out of my parking space.
“They bounced the email through six different international servers. Whoever this is either got money behind them or some good ass training,” Dez voiced. For a beat, it was silent on both ends, then Dez spoke again. “Do you have any idea who it might be?”
“I think it’s Derrick Lawson, but we need to be sure before we make a move.”
“What y’all got going on with Derrick Lawson? Yo, wasn’t he killed in that explosion downtown?”
“That’s what the news is reportin’, but I’m not so sure. That’s a conversation for another day though. Right now, I just need to figure out who sent that email.”
“I got you. I’ll call you back when I got something.”
I pulled down the street, ready to take on the world for Saniyah if I had to.
I wanted the heads of the muthafucka or muthafuckas that had been watching her.
She was off limits for any bullshit, and they would soon find that out.
He said that he could trace it. He just didn’t know how long it would take him.
Hell, I wasn’t even sure how much time we had, but I knew we didn’t have any to waste.
I drove down the street, letting the music play, trying to relax my mind at least until Dez called back.
I pulled into the parking lot of a small Indian restaurant that I’d come to love.
I knew I needed to kill some time, so I went in and placed a to go order.
Sitting inside the restaurant as I waited, I checked my phone every three minutes, waiting on Dez to call.
Once my order was ready, I grabbed it and made my way back to my car.
I’d just pulled out the parking lot when my phone vibrated through the Bluetooth system inside the car.
I answered immediately, seeing that it was Dez.
“Tell me you found something,” I spoke as I pulled up to a red light.
“They bounced the encryption through multiple proxy servers overseas. It’s military-grade rerouting too.”
“What the fuck?’ I murmured.
“Hold up, I got another ping. It’s from the same encryption signature.”
My jaw instantly tightened. I turned the corner and pulled into a McDonald’s parking lot. “Open it,” I confirmed.
“What the hell?” he whispered. I heard him punch a few keys before he spoke again. “It’s a live camera feed of some apartments.”
I clenched the wheel tightly when I heard that, already knowing the answer before I asked him for the location of the apartments. Just as I suspected, it was the apartments Saniyah lived in. I grabbed the wheel so tightly that my knuckles became white.
“Just give me a second. I’m going to attempt to trace the source,” Dez informed.
Somebody was watching my girl in real time, and I wasn’t going for that shit. Pulling out my burner phone, I placed a call to Kadeem. This shit was getting worse and worse by the second, and I had to let him know what was going on. He answered on the second ring.
“What up doe? You talked to Dez yet?” Kadeem asked the moment he answered.
“Yeah, and he found a live camera feed of Saniyah’s fuckin’ apartment building. Them bitch ass niggas been watchin’ her. Dez knows for sure that it’s the same person that sent the email.”
“Oh, these niggas don’t like life.”
“Exactly my thoughts, Kadeem. It’s over for this muthafucka.”
“I’m here with her now, so she’s safe.”
“I’m coming up with a plan. Let Saniyah know that she taking some time off starting tomorrow, and I’ll be there in the morning.”
“Fasho, I’ma hold it down.”
I ended the call and turned my attention back to Dez.
I could still hear him punching keys, and I hoped that when he spoke again, he was going to have an answer for me.
However, when he did speak, he told me that he was going to have to dig a little deeper and would call me back by the end of the night.
By the time I got home, I already knew what I was going to do.
She needed to disappear, and if Kadeem and I went with her, they would never see the shit coming, even if they were watching.
I walked through the house as I called my travel agent, Ciara, letting her know that I needed three commercial flights to Turks and Caicos for tomorrow afternoon.
Normally, I would just fly out on the company jet.
However, for what I was planning, I was going to need a paper trail.
Once the flights were confirmed, I told Ciara that I needed an all-inclusive resort to stay in for a week.
In minutes, she emailed three for me to choose from.
Within the hour, everything was set and ready for us tomorrow.
Once I was done, I took a shower and ate my food.
My phone rang, and I saw it was April. Shaking my head, I declined the call, knowing that there was nothing else for us to talk about.
However, when she called back, I decided to answer so that I could tell her just that out my own mouth.
“What’s up, April?” I answered dryly.
“Damn, you acting like you don’t want to talk to me. What the fuck I do to you? I ain’t do shit but give you and yo’ homeboy good head and pussy. But you threw me out y’all party like nothing.”
I just shook my head, even though April couldn’t see me. I knew she was going to say something about being kicked out the barbecue, but I didn’t give a fuck. Her presence made Saniyah feel a way, and that was all that mattered to me.
“Look, April, I apologize for that. The truth is I never should have brought you, so that’s on me.”
“You never should have brought me? Oh, you serious? It’s like that?
I was calling you to see if you and yo’ boy wanted to get down tonight, but I can see you feelin’ yoself.
You know what? Fuck you, Crue. You ain’t never got to worry about me at all.
Don’t call when you realize yo’ new bitch ain’t a freak like me. ”
Before I could say anything else, April hung up, and I was glad she did. I had way too much on my mind, and her ass was the last thing I was going to worry about. Talking ‘bout Saniyah wasn’t a freak. Shit, if that bitch really knew what was going on, she would really be mad.
The next morning, I was up before the sun came up and got in the shower.
After getting dressed, I went into the kitchen and made myself a smoothie before placing a call to Kadeem, letting him know I was on my way.
Our flights were at one this afternoon; however, with us flying commercial, I knew we would have to be there three hours before.
By the time I pulled up to Saniyah’s apartment building, it was already nine.
I parked my car and went right to the door.
Kadeem answered, opening the door for me to walk inside.
“What up doe?” he greeted me with a dap before I walked farther into the living room.
“Shit, we gotta get going. We gotta be at the airport in an hour, and I know traffic is going to be crazy on 94.”
“Airport? Where y’all going?” Saniyah asked as she walked into the room.
“We,” I spoke, pointing between the three of us, “are going on a lil vacation today.”
“Is that why I took the day off? Where are we going?” Saniyah asked with wide eyes.
“We going to Turks and Caicos for a week,” Kadeem answered.
“Yeah, right. Stop playin’. Where we going for real?”
“It’s not a joke, and we only got an hour to get to the airport, so you need to get dressed,” I confirmed.
“Wait, y’all serious?”
“Very serious so get dressed,” Kadeem ordered.
“What?” Saniyah exclaimed, running her fingers through her hair. “I’m not prepared to go on vacation for an entire week. My hair is not done, and my nails need a fill in. Plus I don’t have anything packed.”
“You don’t need none of that shit. We can get your hair and nails done when we get there. And we can go shoppin’. I just need you to be dressed, baby,” I spoke, this time in a softer tone.
She looked at me for several moments, as if she were waiting for me to tell her this was all a joke.
Then, she nodded her head and turned around, heading to the bathroom.
She returned about thirty minutes later, dressed in a black Adidas tracksuit with her hair pulled back into a neat ponytail.
She grabbed her purse, and we all walked out the door, heading to the airport.