Chapter 16 #2
“That’s only one of us. I don’t dance with the devil,” she shot back, darting her eyes at him and then looking away again.
“They found me. When you dropped me off. I got a call that they found me. They were in my room waiting. So I ran. I figured they wouldn’t find me there but I guess KC put out some money.
I don’t know I just know I’m not safe anywhere.
So I’ve been getting here early every day so I can wash and sleep and go to work and be undetected. ”
Markus closed his eyes for a second to regulate his own emotions. He could keep pressing her about it or he could do something about it. When he opened his eyes, Reign was wiping her face with the sleeves of his oversized hoodie.
“So it was some hustlers?” he asked.
She shrugged again. “I guess, they were dirty. Looked more like junkies than hustlers.”
The Sunset Inn was controlled by Luciano’s people. No one under Markus’ authority met that trifling criteria. There was a silent truce that was about to come to an end because Markus only saw one way to resolve this.
“Point ‘em out,” Markus stated.
Reign’s face, forming new bruises, frowned. Watching the redness become deeper in pigment further pissed him off. She refused. “What? So I can get slammed in a dirty ass wall again? No.”
“Aight,” Markus resolved. “I’ll handle it. Let’s go.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I have clients,” Reign protested.
“You got slammed into a dirty ass wall.” He studied her face.
“And it’s swollen. You’re getting looked at.
If the doctor says you’re good, you got clients.
If she doesn’t then you don’t. Shit simple.
Come on.” Markus turned around and walked toward the back door.
He opened the door and waited for her to appear. “Reign.”
She rounded the corner. “I’m coming. Stop calling my name.”
“It’s either that or Speechless.”
She cut her eyes at him. Earning her a brow raise in return.
Markus studied her as she walked past him. His hoodie and leggings from the hair shop. He palmed his face knowing that she’d single handily thrown a wrench in his plans. Once he was swatted away from helping her in his truck, he jumped in and headed toward a doctor he kept on payroll.
“Is this lady like a mandatory reporter or something? Reign questioned, looking at the building and back at him. “The last time I went to a doctor, she urged me to go and I…”
She stopped talking and sighed. “What bus do I take to get back to the salon? I have three back-to-back appointments.”
“I’ll be here when you get done.”
Reign looked at him a long while. “What bus do I take?”
“I will be right here and don’t worry about payment it’s handled,” he stated, getting out to open her door.
Reign slid out, fear dancing in her eyes but she wouldn’t put words to it and Markus groaned, remembering what Nia told him. “She’s got to trust you.”
“I’ll be right here. That’s my word,” he assured.
She bobbed her head, sucked in a deep breath and walked inside the building. He watched intently like a protector. Her protector. Once the women at the front desk had her checked in, she was taken to the back shortly after, the nurse spotting him and shooing him off.
Back in his truck and headed toward Sunset Inn, he called Svyn.
“What up, nigga?” Svyn answered, sounding relaxed more than usual.
“You done bullshittin’?” Markus asked.
“What’s the plan?” Svyn said, skipping over the comment; detecting the deadly cool in Markus’ voice.
“Them hustlers at Sunset.”
“For what?” Svyn asked. “What the fuck they do?”
“Violated. Niggas don’t sell work, they play hustlers. I’ll pay Jaheed not to hear or see shit.”
“You know Luciano ain’t gon’ like this,” Svyn shared as if Markus didn’t know what he was getting ready to do.
“Luciano should tell his hustlers the rules,” Markus said before hanging up.
From the doctor’s office to grabbing an unmarked car from the warehouse.
Markus rode over to the Sunset Inn. This side of town really irritated him.
The drug game was the drug game, it was dirty, grimy, and treacherous but your city didn’t have to look like that.
Markus took pride in his businesses looking like something.
Hiding in plain sight, people spent their money with him, being a drug dealer didn’t phase them because before it all, he was a businessman.
Luciano was a terrorist with a soft spot for his people but that didn’t show through what these blocks looked like.
Outside of the Sunset Inn, Markus stepped out onto the filthy sidewalk and took in the scenery.
Luciano’s girls coming back in from their nightly stroll.
The hustlers, dirty and congregating in the lobby as if they’d done work all night.
There was no way Luciano was making money on the lower end like he was uptown.
He walked into the building, found Jaheed and motioned him to take a break.
“Oh shit, that’s Money,” one of the hustlers said, nudging the other. Even Luciano’s girls perked up, ready for another round as if Markus would spit in their direction.
“You, you, and you, get out,” Markus grumbled to the women, pointing at them with his gun.
They wasted no time scurrying up the dirty stairs toward their pay by night rooms.
“Which one of you niggas got a habit of putting your hands on women?” Markus asked cooly.
The coolness, despite the pills in his system numbing the pain in his shoulder, was menacing.
They looked at each other before fumbling over one another to say a bunch of nothing.
“Uh uh, muhfucka. What was the price?” Markus asked, silencing the two.
“Three bands,” one answered.
“Some nigga named KC told us to deliver the bitch untouched. We’d been watching her come and go for three days,” the other added.
Markus curled his lip at their stupidity. “Where this nigga KC?”
“He some down south nigga in a suit. Came in the club looking for his shorty. He wants her back, guess she a money maker or something. Money, that’s it we swear. We out of three bands and you know Luciano don’t play about us coming up short.”
“Neither do I,” Markus said firing a shot into one’s skull and looking at the other. “Run.”
The man took off, earning a bullet in the back of his head. Markus walked out, finding Jaheed smoking a cigarette on the sidewalk. Markus stood next to him and handed him a knot of cash.
“You know what to do,” Markus muttered.
Jaheed took the money, slipped it into his pocket and lowly spoke, “didn’t see you. Don’t even know you. It was a deal gone bad.”
“Good. Find something else to do than manage this bullshit,” Markus stated. “I got a feeling it’ll be shut down by tomorrow.”
He left the man there, got back in his car and headed back over to his side of town. The vehicles were switched and he was back at the doctor’s office waiting on Reign to walk out. When the door opened and Reign appeared with some papers in hand, he got out to open her door.
“You don’t have to keep doing that,” Reign grumbled when she got closer. “I can open my own door.”
“You could but you aren’t,” he stated, watching her get in.
Back inside and pulling away, he pointed to the bag by her feet. “There’s a breakfast burrito in there. Might not be hot anymore but it’s something. Unless you want something else?”
Reign shook her head no, reached in the bag without rebuttal and pulled out a burrito. “You want yours?”
Markus nodded. “Yeah.”
Reign pulled it out and handed it over. “Thank you.”
“Don’t mention it. You good?”
“Lots of soft tissue bruising other than that, I’m blessed to be alive and fully healthy,” Reign muttered, opening the burrito and then looking at him. “I can work. Which I really need to do because I need some place to lay my head.”
“Yeah, that’s handled.”