5. Pearce
PEARCE
I walked into my mother’s home and was greeted by the smell of the food being cooked in the kitchen.
The house that my father bought my mother when I was younger had been sold when I was nineteen.
My mother wanted her forever home. She took the money she got from the house and gave it all to me.
She then used her own money to put a nice downpayment on another home.
One that she could proudly say she got on her own.
It was just her living in the house, but she purchased a four-bedroom home.
It was a good thing she did because my grandmother moved in with her two years ago.
Once my grandfather passed, she didn’t want to live alone.
I knew they were both in the kitchen throwing down.
My mother didn’t work on Sunday or Monday.
I walked to the kitchen and found my mother, grandmother, and aunt Jackie talking, laughing, and cooking.
Three glasses of wine rested on the kitchen counter.
My grandma was whipping up cornbread mix, my mother was stirring macaroni noodles, and my aunt was icing a cake.
I knew Jackie’s three sons and my aunt Tanya would be coming over at any moment.
We got together for family dinners once a month.
“Hey, baby,” my mother smiled at me. “This is the second time in a row you haven’t brought Tasha. Where is she at?” the month before, Tasha didn’t join me at my mother’s house because she had the flu.
It had been four days since she left. Four days since I spoke to her or saw her face.
I wasn’t any closer to having answers, and I was trying to convince myself that I didn’t give a fuck.
I didn’t really want to talk about it, but maybe she wasn’t coming back.
And my mother was going to keep asking me about her every time she saw me without Tasha.
“She was sick last time. This time, I don’t know where she is.” Walking over to the refrigerator, I pulled the door open and removed a can of Sprite.
“Well, if you had told her about dinner beforehand, she might have stopped by.”
“I’m not saying she’s simply out, and I don’t know where she is. I’m saying she left almost a week ago. I haven’t seen her or talked to her since then. She stopped sharing her location with me, and she didn’t take any of her things from the house.”
My mother’s jaw slacked as my grandmother lifted her head and peered at me. “What did you do?”
The question made me chuckle. “I didn’t do anything.
We were good that morning, and she told me she’d see me when she got off.
She never came home. I tracked her location, and she was at the airport.
Went to her mom’s house, and the neighbor said she saw her leaving with suitcases the same night that Tasha’s location showed she was at the airport. ”
“That’s strange,” my mother murmured. “Why would she just up and leave with no warning?”
“I don’t know, but I’m not going to keep dwelling on it. I went by her job, and her cousin said that she asked for a few days off. Her behavior is suspect, but I have very good reasons to believe she’s alive and well. An explanation would be nice, but I guess she doesn’t owe me one.”
My aunt tossed a sympathetic look my way. “That’s very suspicious nephew. I don’t know. Maybe she’s in some kind of trouble. I went to school with her mother. Maria was out there even when she wasn’t on drugs.”
“There’s nothing in this world that I wouldn’t have helped her with.
All she had to do was talk to me. But she didn’t, so it is what it is,” I shrugged.
And I meant it. I missed Tasha. Every day I woke up wondering how she could just leave me like that, but being lovesick over a woman wasn’t in my DNA.
She wasn’t dead, in jail, or being held against her will meaning she could call me if she wanted to.
Obviously, she didn’t want to. What was I going to do? Cry about it?
My aunt was good at reading the room. When she knew I didn’t want to talk about it anymore, she switched the subject. While she was discussing something that had gone on in church, two of her sons walked through the door. I gave Byron dap first then bumped fists with Derrick.
They both had red rimmed eyes, so I knew they had smoked. I had done the same and was ready to dig in. As soon as the food was ready, that was exactly what I did.
“Y’all hear about Dominick Episito? They found him in his house dead from an overdose. Everyone is saying that Pauly was ashamed of him and that was why he hardly ever talked about him.”
“That is so sad,” my grandmother shook her head. “They better not find the person that sold it to him. If he was black, they’re going to put his ass under the prison for selling drugs to a white man that killed him.”
I wasn’t worried about that at all. The burner phone had been destroyed for one.
For two, I didn’t give Dominick or the women I gave free samples to my real name.
Those chicks hung out almost every night getting drunk and high.
I doubted they’d remember me after only a few interactions and if they did so what, it would be my word against there’s.
“That’s how it usually goes,” Derrick nodded his head in agreeance.
“Speaking of drugs,” he continued. “I saw Maria’s crazy ass at the store last night.
She’s still off the chain. She was arguing with Hassan because she was trying to steal beer, and he caught her.
You have a wild ass mother-n-law,” he looked at me and laughed.
“It was obvious she had beer in her purse, but she was ready to fight the man talking about he was lying.”
My eyes narrowed. “You saw Maria? Her neighbor said she was out of town a few days ago.” He always referred to her as my mother-n-law even though Tasha and I weren’t married.
Derrick’s shoulders hiked into a passive shrug. “She obviously came back because I know her, and she knows me. As soon as she saw me, she asked me for twenty dollars.”
The last thing I wanted was to appear bothered.
If Maria was back where the hell was Tasha?
Why hadn’t she at least stopped by to get her clothes?
Shorty really ghosted me like we didn’t live together.
I wanted to play tough and do nothing with the information that Derrick gave me, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen.
I was going by Maria’s apartment. I didn’t care if I had to bribe her.
She’d talk if I dangled money in front of her face.
My mother glanced at me. I was sure she was wondering just as much as I was about what was going on.
I didn’t ask any more questions about Maria, and the conversation shifted.
I truly enjoyed spending time with my family, but it would be a lie if I said I wasn’t antsy and ready to leave.
Despite that, I stayed almost two hours after dinner was over.
In the car, I smoked a blunt as I drove to Terror Terrace.
By the time I arrived, the blunt was only half gone.
Putting my gear in park, I sat and smoked the rest of it.
By the time I was done, it felt like I was floating, and that was where I needed to be.
Calm and relaxed I got out of the car and ambled up to Maria’s door.
I knocked and waited. After what had to be a full minute, I knocked again.
Another minute passed before I knocked again.
Either she wasn’t home, she was ignoring me, or she was inside nodding off.
Either way, my people said he saw her, so that meant she was back. I’d catch her sooner or later.
The next day, I sat outside of my father’s construction company staring at the building.
I wasn’t sure why my father wanted to see me, but I wasn’t in the mood for bullshit.
If he uttered one wrong word, I was leaving.
I wasn’t sitting around crying about the fact that Tasha left me, but I wasn’t in the best mood.
Finally, I got out of the car and made my way inside the building.
I gave a slight head nod to Shantell and kept walking.
I didn’t need her permission to go into my father’s office.
When I reached his door, I tapped on it with my knuckle.
Once I heard his voice telling me that I could come in, I twisted the knob and pushed the door open.
My father was sitting behind his desk with his cell phone to his ear.
I made my way inside and sat down while he listened intently to what the person on the other end of the phone was saying.
I’d been sitting about two minutes when my father’s phone call ended. He cleared his throat as he placed his phone on the desk. “Thanks for stopping by. I have a problem, and I need you to solve it. You’ll be paid of course.”
My brows hiked. “What kind of problem?”
“The kind that was supposed to die, but she didn’t. I shot her three times. She’s in the hospital. Knows my name, saw my face. In fact, she works at the club. She has to go. What’s your going rate?”
Aside from the people that used my services, only two people knew about my job doing hits, and my father was one of them. Tasha didn’t even know.
“And you ended up shooting her, why?”
“I killed a thorn in my fucking side, and someone else was in the house. I don’t think she’ll talk, but you can never be too sure. Her name is Vanya. She went by the name Adore at the club, and I have her address.” I knew exactly who he was talking about.
“My starting rate is $100,000.” I didn’t do family discounts.
“I’ll transfer the deposit into your account before the night is over. As soon as she’s discharged from the hospital, I want her taken care of. Here’s all the info I was able to get on her.”