Chapter 12
I rode in the car with Deuce, sitting in silence, and the driver was getting closer to my crib. Deuce had been quiet for most of the ride, which wasn’t unusual for him. Deuce wasn’t the type to talk just to speak without nothing to say. When he spoke, he always said some real shit.
“Real talk,” he said, eyes forward. “You might wanna sit at the safe house for a couple days. You don’t know who else Savage put onto your location.
Niggas know where you rest now. I don’t like that shit.
We finna have to beef up security. You wanna live like a regular nigga, and you ain’t.
I know you don’t like having drivers and shit like that, but when it comes to your kingdom, you gotta protect that muthafucka heavily.
You teach me so much, but at the same time want to be hard headed when it comes to your own shit.
” Deuce said, more concerned than anything.
I almost laughed. Almost.
“I hear you,” I said. “But I’m not about to let a nigga run me out my own house.
That’s not how I move. Yeah, more security is cool.
I’ll agree to that one. My brothers are a lot of things, but them niggas ain’t crazy enough to cross me like that and send people where I lay my head.
This shit that Sav pulled only happened because Grim’s life is on the line.
I know them. Savage wanted to scare me, not kill me.
Deuce glanced over at me but didn’t push it.
“Besides,” I added, “if that’s where Savage is about to be held, I might fuck around and kill that nigga prematurely. I’ll save everybody the trouble of dragging the shit out.”
Deuce let out a short laugh and shook his head. “Say less. I respect it. I’m not gone get in your business cause I don’t know the full dynamics, but I don’t want you to kill yo brother unless that shit absolutely necessary. And in that case, do what the fuck you have to do.”
Once the driver pulled up to my crib, I was zoned out, replaying this whole situation.
We sat there for a second, the kind of quiet that made you think.
Then he looked over at me with something that was almost a smirk.
This nigga hated my ass at first when he thought I was trying to replace Dank, now he was willing to go to war and play down his life behind me.
I knew what that smirk meant, and I appreciated my boy.
“I gotta get back before Malani kills me. Nigga, I been gone since we barely made it through the front door from being the baby home. She gone have my whole head.”
I laughed, for real this time. The first real laugh I’d had in two days. Deuce played hard but this nigga was really scared of Malani. “Go home to your wife, man. And tell her my apologies.”
“On everything.” He dapped me up, held it for a second. “We get up tomorrow. Handle this.”
“Without question.” I responded. And by handle this, he meant Cherish and Gremlin.
I got out and the driver pulled off quickly. Deuce didn’t want to be in any more trouble with Malani, and I completely understood that. The shit actually made me feel bad for dragging him away from his family on the first day home.
Inside, the house was exactly how I’d left it.
Everything neat, undisturbed. Savage’s people had grabbed me before I even made it inside, so at least they hadn’t been in here to ransack my shit.
Small mercy. I was also thankful that they snatched Savage ass before he could get inside of here and get to my damn safe.
On the ride back to Dallas, we got the call that Deuce people had my brother in their possession.
I didn’t turn on many lights. Just moved through the dark like I always did, room to room, checking corners out of habit before I let myself breathe all the way. When I was satisfied, I went upstairs, stripped everything off and stepped into the shower.
I stood under the water longer than I needed to.
Let it run hot until the tension in my shoulders started to loosen up.
My wrists were still raw where the rope had been.
I looked down at them under the water, the skin irritated and red, and I felt the anger move through me slow and quiet.
Not the explosive kind. The cold kind. The kind that settles in and stays.
My own brothers.
I turned the water off and stood there for a minute in the silence before I grabbed a towel. My life was crazy as hell and always had been. Even as a child, I had never gotten any peace.
I got out the bathroom and dressed slow.
Dark jeans, a clean black shirt, fresh pair of 4’s and my jean jacket just in case the bar was cool.
Kept it simple. I hit my neck with cologne, grabbed my piece off the nightstand, tucked it, and checked myself in the mirror for half a second before I headed back downstairs.
I needed a drink. A real one. In a real glass, somewhere with music and enough noise to drown out my own thoughts for a few hours.
Tomorrow was going to be heavy. Tonight I just needed to exist without having to think about Grim, Savage, Cherish, ransom money, or any of it.
The hate that was brewing was too heavy, I needed something to take the edge off.
I needed a few strong drinks. If I didn’t do something to calm myself, I was scared of what the fuck I might do.
When I went outside, my Mercedes was dead from my car door being open, that shit almost pissed me off.
Savage and his dumb ass flunkies. I had to pull my old school cutlass out.
This was my baby. She was for show, not to joyride in.
A real collectible that I’d searched high and low for, and spent a fortune on.
But, since I wasn’t the nigga to use drivers and car service unless it was absolutely necessary; I just decided to drive my baby tonight until I could get my other car a new battery.
There was a bar about ten minutes from me. Popular with steady traffic. Just a solid spot with good music and strong pours. I’d been a few times. They knew what I drank without asking, and the staff was always cool.
When I pulled up, the parking lot was nearly full.
I sat in the car for a minute and just looked at the door.
Music was leaking out even from here. It was packed, and the last thing I wanted was to be shoulder to shoulder with a bunch of loud drunk people who didn’t have a care in the world while I was already annoyed.
I almost pulled back off.
But I was too deep in my own head to go back to that quiet house. At least in there the noise would be someone else’s.
I got out and went inside.
It was wall to wall. People posted at the bar, spilling out onto the floor, the kind of crowd where you had to move sideways to get through.
The music was decent though. Something with bass that hit right, and for a second I just stood near the entrance and let it register.
Then I found a spot at the bar, sat down, and when the bartender came over I didn’t even look at the menu.
“Hennessy. Rocks.”
He nodded and moved without wasting a second of my time.
I sat there with my drink and didn’t bother looking around. I wasn’t here to socialize. I nursed it slow, let the warmth settle in my chest, and stared at nothing in particular. The noise around me started to blur into background after a while, which was exactly what I needed.
I was halfway through my second drink when the bartender came back and set a fresh glass in front of me.
“From the lady down there,” he said, nodding toward the other end of the bar.
I frowned and looked up. With all that I had going on right now, I was not about to trust a drink from a random bitch.
She was already watching me. Red hair, curly and wild, sitting on her shoulders like she hadn’t even tried to tame it and didn’t need to.
Her face stopped me before anything else did.
She had a face structure that didn’t make sense, skin smooth and brown, eyes that were doing something I couldn’t name from this distance.
Then she stood up to flag the bartender for something, and I felt my jaw tighten.
This girl was one of them ones. I mean beautiful was an understatement for her ass.
Her body was ridiculous. The dress she had on wasn’t doing anything to hide it, and I was pretty sure that was intentional. Thick in every place a woman was supposed to be, the kind of figure that made you forget what you were thinking about two seconds ago.
I picked up the drink she sent, held it up slightly in her direction. She looked harmless, so I wasn’t going to be an asshole and send the drink back. She smiled and yelled something across the bar.
“You really gonna sit there and act like you don’t remember me?”
I squinted. Something about her was familiar, but I couldn’t place it. The hair, the face, the way she stood with her weight shifted to one side like she already knew she had the room’s attention and didn’t care.
She started walking toward me and I watched her the whole way.
The closer she got, the more that feeling of familiarity pulled at something in the back of my mind.
Something old. The way her hips moved damn near had me drooling.
Did she know that she was bad as hell? And who did she think I was? How did she know me?
She sat down on the stool next to mine and turned her whole body to face me instead of the bar, one elbow up, looking at me like she was waiting for something to click.
“Grizzley Harrison.” She said my full name like it belonged to her. “You really don’t remember me?”
I looked at her. Really looked. And I almost said something slick, almost told her that tonight wasn’t the night for whatever game this was. My patience was already worn to nothing and my day had been too fucked up for me to be answering dumb ass questions. Hell no, I didn’t know her ass.
“Look, shorty—” I started.