5. Pearce #2
My father picked a manila folder up off his desk and extended it toward me.
I took it and gave a brief head nod before standing to leave.
I hadn’t planned on taking another job so soon, but it wasn’t like I could tell my father no.
He was paying, so I was working. It was rare that he left loose ends that needed to be tied up.
I wasn’t sure of all the details, but I didn’t need them.
He was willing to pay, and that was all that mattered.
“How’s your mother?”
I couldn’t remember the last time my father had asked me about my mother. I wasn’t sure if he was simply trying to make conversation or if he actually cared. “She’s good.” My answer was vague. “I’ll go ahead and get started on this.”
Inside the car, I flipped the folder open and took a look at what was inside.
My father had managed to get a copy of Vanya’s driver’s license.
I already knew she was bad, but seeing her photo on the paper reminded me.
When I chose the career that I did, I had the intentions of never taking a job that involved women and children.
I had never killed a woman, and I for damn sure would never harm a child.
I had already agreed to do the job, but I found myself sitting there knowing the worst thing in the world to do was leave witnesses behind, but killing a woman and one that looked like that had me rethinking my decision.
Did shorty really deserve to die because she was in the wrong place at the wrong time?
I’d been staring at the photo of her for way too long when I realized what I was doing.
The same thing I’d done with Dominick. I was starting to care too much about the specifics of my kills.
Maybe it was time to retire. Finally, I tossed the folder onto the passenger seat and pushed the button to start my vehicle.
There was never a doubt in my mind that my mother and aunts could handle running my business, so I rarely ever checked on it.
If I decided to actually stop taking murder for hire jobs, I’d definitely need something to occupy my time with.
If my pops went ahead and sat his ass down, I could start the process of taking over the construction company.
Hell, I might even be down to take over the strip club.
I did most of my brainstorming while I was driving.
Before Tasha up and left, I felt like I knew the direction my life was headed in.
In the next six months to a year, the thought of proposing to her weighed heavily on my mind.
After we were married, kids would enter the picture.
She could start any kind of business she wanted or be a stay at home wife and mother.
Tasha could have gotten anything that she wanted out of me and to know that she could leave me so easily was like a huge fuck you.
It was damn near the equivalent of her spitting on me.
My inner thoughts didn’t stop bouncing all over the place until I pulled up at the corner store near Terror Terrace. Easing out of the car, I pushed the door closed and hit the lock button on my key fob. Of course, when I wasn’t looking for her, she floated right by me.
“Yo!” I called out to Maria getting her attention.
When she noticed who had called out to her, it was as if she’d seen a ghost. Her eyes widened, and I could tell she was contemplating making a run for it.
“Don’t do it,” I warned walking in her direction. “Where is Tasha?” I barked.
Nervously, Maria shifted her weight from one side of her body to the other. “I don’t know where she is.” She didn’t sound convincing.
Stepping closer, I peered down at her 5’4 frame.
“After every fuckin’ thing I’ve done for you and her, she just up and leaves, and I can’t even know why?
Swear to God, I’m not in the business of trying to keep people that don’t want to be kept.
She wants out, she has it. I just need to know why.
” Maria stared at me blankly, and it was pissing me off.
“I got $300 for your junkie ass. Start talking.”
Maria was so down bad that she didn’t give a damn about the disrespect. She just heard me say I had $300 for her, and she started singing like a canary.
“Your father. He went up to her job on some intimidation type shit. He offered her $500,000 to leave you alone, but it wasn’t just the offer of money.
Lowkey, he was threatening her. He said it would be a shame if someone sold me some bad dope and I died.
He was saying stuff like she didn’t want her uncle’s beauty supply store to go out of business.
All kinds of bullshit. He even said taking the money would be a win because you were going to marry someone else more suitable and if she didn’t take the money, you were going to put her out on her ass, and she’d have nothing.
He told her he strongly advised her to take the money, leave town, and send me to rehab. ”
Stumped, I stared at Maria. There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that she was telling the truth, but I was thrown for a loop. I knew better than anyone that my father was an arrogant, self-centered, piece of shit, but even he shocked me with that one.
“Five hundred thousand?” I questioned with a frown. “That was enough for her to say fuck me and leave town?”
Maria drew back. “You can’t be that out of touch with reality. That’s a half a million dollars that he dangled in front of her face. Was she supposed to turn it down and then wake up one day with you married to someone else, and she didn’t get shit?”
“Tasha knows I wouldn’t have done that shit,” I barked.
“All she knew was what your father was telling her. Your father! Not some stranger off the street. He looked her in the eyes and told her she’d never be good enough for you and if you continued to date her, you’d be cut off financially.
He then went on to say once you married the woman he had for you, you’d inherit millions.
Tasha didn’t think you’d risk it all for her.
That on top of him threatening her was enough to persuade her, but she cried all the way to the airport. She didn’t want to leave you.”
“Nah,” I chuckled angrily. “Nah,” I repeated and flicked the tip of my nose. “Why the fuck would I care about being cut off by my father when I have my own bread? Tasha couldn’t have believed that bullshit. She knows better than anybody that I don’t even fuck with my pops like that.”
“You don’t have to fuck with him like that to acknowledge how powerful he is. He threatened everyone that she cares about. Tasha loves you but not at the expense of harm coming to her family.”
“Why aren’t you with her?” Pissed was an understatement. I wasn’t sure who I wanted to curse out first. My father or Tasha. She had to know I wouldn’t have let anything happen to her.
“She was talking about taking her money and putting me in rehab, and I didn’t want that.
There wasn’t even a need for her to waste her money.
Even if I had managed to stay clean for a few months eventually, I would have relapsed.
I told her I’d go. I boarded the plane then told her I was going to the bathroom. I got off the plane, and she stayed.”
“Where is she?”
“I can’t tell you. Please just let her go, Pearce.” Her mother’s eyes were pleading with me. I could have offered her more money to tell me where Tasha was, but it really didn’t even fucking matter.
Tasha knew me. She knew my character, and she had to know that I wouldn’t have let my father tell me who to marry.
If she didn’t know that I’d go to war with my own father to save her, then she didn’t know me at all.
So, where she was didn’t matter. Fuck her.
I was going to let her take her half a mill and be at peace.