Chapter 20
Third Quarter
Ispent four days on the road, four fuckin days on the road with niggas would have anybody thinking different.
Some might think about slowing down, others might think about turning around. I was thinking about how close I was to what I had been chasing.
Me, Carlos, Spy, Kev, Joe, and Frog had been in and out of the cars, cheap rooms, gas stations, and rest stops the whole way to Atlanta.
No real sleep. Just naps, closing our eyes for a few minutes and opening them right back up cause we didn’t have time to be tired. We needed to make it to the city.
When we finally made it to the city, it was laid. We pulled into a room on the low side of town, nothing too fancy, just somewhere to lay our heads without drawing attention.
The second everybody got in, they started to settle in like it was over for the night.
I let them, but I stayed up. Phone in my hand, scrolling and searching. As I typed names I already knew, they weren’t coming up.
Islah—nothing.
Her girls—nothing.
No pages.
No recent activity.
No damn trail to follow.
That shit made me sit back in the chair and stare at the screen longer than I should’ve.
That was the first time in a minute I felt that pressure in my chest. Not fear, no doubt, ANNOYANCE.
That bitch was trying to run for me—making me work to find her.
I stood up and looked around the room. Everybody was knocked out or halfway there. I grabbed the remote and turned the TV off.
Then I started kicking feet.
“Get up,” I yelled out.
Nobody moved at first. I yelled again. “I said Get up!”
Carlos rolled over first, looking at me crazy.
“Nigga, what time is it?”
“I don’t give a fuck what time it is!”
Spy sat up next, rubbing his face. Kev and Joe followed after. Frog got up last, still half asleep.
They all looked at me, confused.
Carlos leaned back on his elbow.
“Nigga I thought we were lying low tonight.”
“Facts,” Frog added. “We gonna hit a lick already?”
I stopped pacing and looked at them, then shook my head.
“Nah, change of plans.”
That made all of them wake all the way up, staring at me.
Them nigga was on the floor, the bed, took up the whole suit that we were in. I walked back to the kitchen area and took a seat in a chair. Them niggas ran in like kids following me.
“What the fuck you mean?” Spy asked.
“We are here for bodies.”
Silence followed me.
“What you mean, bodies?” Joe asked.
“My ex, and her nigga.”
Kev, Joe, and Spy all looked at each other.
Frog rubbed his jaw like he was trying to make sure he heard right.
Carlos laughed like that shit was funny.
“Nigga are you serious?” he asked.
I didn’t blink. “I’m dead serious.”
They stared at me while I tried to pull the Facebook pages up again.
“This shit ain’t no money run. The money is still on the table. That shit don’t care. What changed is that we hittin’ bodies instead of a lick.”
I could feel the room shifting. Not fear exactly, more like understanding what kind of trip this shit really was.
Carlos walked to the door like he was thinking.
“So all that shit before on the porch, that wasn’t about no lick moves?” Kev asked.
I nodded.
“That was me being polite since I did play with them to get them down here.”
“So what we doin then?” Joe asked.
I looked at them.
Frog looked at his niggas. “We can find them.”
That was all I needed to hear.
After that, everybody started mobbing different. No jokes, no sleepy shit. Them niggas had energy. We all got changed and grabbed what we needed. The truck was already filled with the guns that we needed.
The sun was starting to come up when we left back out. We hopped in the car, and I drove to Love’s store. I parked to the side where I could see the door, and we waited.
Them niggas talked to each other while I sat quiet, eyes glued to the door, watching his staff come and unlock the door. Some other people went in after that, but I never saw him. His car never pulled up.
That shit was getting under my skin.
“Where the fuck did that nigga live?” I said to myself.
I knew it was a penthouse, but I couldn’t remember where it was at.
“I need to get to that nigga tonight!” I said, irritated. “I forgot where the fuckin house was!”
The car went silent. All you heard was their phones ding. I sat there feeling a lil’ defeated. I felt that nigga neck in my hands, already saw myself shooting him in my head, but I couldn’t get to him.
The Spy blurted out. “I think I got something.”
I turned around and looked at him.
“What?”
He turned his phone and showed me a post from some bitch online saying that’s where he lived.
Carlos leaned in, looking at the screen.
“That looks like something that nigga would live in,” Carlos added.
“That is, it,” I said as I started the car and pulled off.
It took a lil’ bit of time to get across town. But when we pulled up to the building, we walked through the parking lot as if we belonged there.
That’s how you gotta move in places like that.
Lobby security didn’t even stop us.
We hopped in the elevator and rode it to the top floor. When the doors opened, we stepped out and walked down the hall slow.
We all stopped in front of the door and looked at me.
“Kick it in,” I said low.
Carlos looked at me. “Are you sure?”
I sucked my teeth. “Nigga don’t ask me no shit like that again! Kick the fuckin door in!”
Carlos shook his head and did what I said, and with one hit, the door was open.
We all pulled out our guns and walked in slowly. But when we got around the corner, the place was cleaned out.
I put my gun down and walked up the hall. Both rooms were empty.
That’s when I felt it.
Heat, anger.
Them niggas found me in one of the bedrooms.
“Them niggas gone,” Frog added to my silence.
This was the second time I was chasing that girl, and her ass was gone before I could catch her.
“Come on,” I said as I turned around, walking out of the room, down the hall, and out of the penthouse.
“This is what we came here for? To find nobody?” Kev asked.
I shook my head. “Hell no, these mothafuckas want to keep playin’ with me. I am not leaving this city until we find both of them and put them both in the ground.”