7. Lennox
Lennox
Ihad been back in my hotel room for a little over an hour when my work phone started ringing from the nightstand.
I was looking over the information I had collected earlier, trying to figure out what move I wanted to make next.
Reaching over, I grabbed the phone and looked at the screen. It was Cyrus.
“Wassup?” I answered as I sat up against the headboard.
“I wanted to check in and see where you were with Pierce,” Cyrus stated from the other end.
“I got eyes on him,” I responded as I tossed the folder beside me. “I’m still watching his movements and figuring out his routine. Why?” He was about to piss me off questioning me about some shit he paid me to do.
“Take your time with this one,” Cyrus instructed. “You’on have to rush to close it out.”
My eyebrows bunched together because that wasn’t what niggas usually called me to say. When somebody put money on another nigga’s head, nine times out of ten, they wanted him gone yesterday.
“What changed?” I questioned as I stood from the bed.
“Nothing with the contract,” Cyrus clarified.
“Pierce still needs to be handled. I got somebody tracing where that money went, though. We think he moved part of it through one of his real estate deals, and there’s still product unaccounted for.
If he drops too soon, there’s a chance I never see either one again. ”
Makes sense. Dorian stole damn near two million dollars and forty bricks from this nigga, so I understood him wanting to recover whatever he could before I put Pierce in the dirt. That still wasn’t my problem, though.
“So what you want me to do, follow this nigga around until your people figure their shit out?” I asked as I walked toward the window.
“I’m asking you to give me a little time,” Cyrus replied. “My people are close.”
I wasn’t against sitting on a target when the job required it. Half of what I did required patience, anyway. You couldn’t just run up on every muthafucka and start shooting. That was how sloppy niggas got caught.
“I’ll give you some time, but I’m not prolonging this shit forever,” I warned as I turned away from the window. “I got a fucking life to live and a fucking family at home. I’on get paid to babysit grown-ass muthafuckas.”
“I hear you,” Cyrus responded.
“And while your people are doing whatever the fuck they’re doing, I’m still moving how I move,” I added as I grabbed the folder from the bed. “If an opportunity comes up that’s too clean for me to pass on, I’m not promising you I’m letting that shit go.”
I wasn’t about to compromise the job just because Cyrus wanted to find his money. He hired me to kill Pierce. Anything outside of that was between him and the niggas he on his team.
“I understand,” Cyrus assured me. “I’m not asking you to change how you operate.”
“Bet,” I replied as I glanced at the time on my other phone.
“Give me a week, Steele,” Cyrus requested. “After that, Pierce is all yours.”
I ended the call without another word and tossed the phone onto the bed.
I sat there for a few minutes thinking about the shit he said.
His reasoning made sense, but that didn’t mean I trusted it.
Niggas like Cyrus didn’t get where they were by telling everybody the whole truth, and I didn’t get where I was by taking a muthafucka’s word as law.
I grabbed my other phone and called Rook.
“Yo,” Rook answered on the second ring.
“Wassup? Everything straight back home?” I asked as walked over to the small desk in the corner.
“Yeah, shit’s good,” Rook confirmed as I heard him moving around on the other end.
“Legit side’s been quiet for the most part.
Nia got the schedules straight for the week, and Camille finished the routes for those two executive transport details.
One of the residential clients wanted to add overnight coverage, but I told Nia to send the revised contract before we put anybody else on the property. ”
“Bet,” I responded as I sat in the chair and powered on my laptop. “Make sure she adjusts the price before they add the hours. I’on need nobody thinking they’re getting extra shit for free.”
“I already told her that shit,” Rook assured me.
That was why I could leave and not worry too much about my business. I had people in place who knew what the fuck they were doing, and Rook made sure nobody got too comfortable just because I wasn’t there.
“What about everything else?” I questioned.
“That’s straight too,” Rook replied. “Chris got his shit with no problems,” he added.
“That’s wassup,” I countered.
“Other than that, ain’t shit going on. Everybody’s doing what the fuck they’re supposed to do.”
“Keep it that way,” I instructed as I rubbed my hand down my face. “I might be here a little longer than I originally planned.”
“What the fuck happened out there?” Rook questioned.
“The nigga that hired me wants me to slow down on Pierce.”
“For fucking what?” Rook asked immediately.
“He claims he got people tracing the money and the rest of the work Pierce stole from him,” I explained as I pushed the laptop away from me. “Said they think some of the money got washed through one of Pierce’s real estate deals, and he wants to see what he can recover before I close the contract.”
“That shit make sense… I guess,” Rook admitted, but I could hear the doubt in his voice. “How much time he asking for?”
“A week,” I answered as I stretched my legs out in front of me. “I told him I’d give him some time, but I’m not sitting around this muthafucka forever. I got a fucking life to live and a fucking family back home. He paid me to handle Pierce, not babysit the nigga.”
“Real shit,” Rook agreed before going quiet for a few seconds. “You trust that nigga?”
“Fuck no,” I answered without hesitation.
I didn’t trust anybody I did business with enough to let my guard down. Cyrus was no different. He came through the right channels and his money checked out, but that only meant he knew how to conduct business. It didn’t mean shit about what type of nigga he was.
“I already knew you was gone say that shit.” Rook chuckled.
“I’on need to trust him to do the job,” I stated as I looked out the hotel window. “All I need him to do is keep the agreement we already made and stay the fuck out my way.”
“And if he don’t?” Rook asked.
“Then I’ll do one job for free if I need to,” I answered calmly.
“That’s exactly how it needs to be,” Rook agreed. “Handle your shit out there… I got everything here under control.”
“Bet,” was all I said before ending the call.
After I got off the phone with Rook, I sat around for another twenty minutes before I got tired of looking at the same four walls.
Cyrus wanted a week, and I told the nigga I’d give him that, but that didn’t mean I was about to sit on my ass and wait for his people to figure their shit out.
If anything, the extra time gave me a chance to learn more about Pierce and get a better feel for his routine.
I grabbed my laptop from the desk and pulled up the program connected to the tracker I placed underneath one of Pierce’s vehicles earlier.
The small blinking dot was stationary, and when I zoomed in on the location, I recognized the area immediately.
He was at a lounge called The Blue Room.
I had seen the lounge while I was scoping out the area.
It’ll definitely be a spot I’d try out when I wasn’t on a mission.
Closing the laptop, I grabbed both of my phones, my keys, binoculars, and the small bag I kept the rest of my shit in.
I wasn’t going out there to make a move tonight, but I never went anywhere unprepared.
Shit could change in a matter of seconds in my line of work, and I wasn’t about to get caught slipping.
***
I killed my headlights but left the truck running while I settled into the seat.
The lounge had a steady flow of people coming and going, and I watched every single person who walked in and out of the door.
Surveillance was boring as fuck, but patience was part of the job.
A lot of niggas got sloppy because they were too anxious to make a move.
They wanted everything done fast, and that usually meant they missed something or left something behind.
I didn’t operate like that. I could sit on a nigga for hours if that was what the job called for, because I’d rather be bored than careless.
Almost an hour passed before I finally saw Pierce emerge from the building, but he wasn’t alone.
A woman walked out beside him, and Pierce immediately placed his hand against the lower part of her back as they headed toward his truck.
Watching them together told me enough. Whoever she was, she wasn’t some random bitch Pierce had picked up inside.
They moved too comfortably around each other for that.
She was his woman. I reached for the binoculars sitting on the passenger seat just as Pierce opened the passenger door for her.
The woman turned slightly before getting inside, giving me a better look at the side of her face.
My entire body went still before I lowered the binoculars and stared across the street with my own eyes, trying to convince myself I hadn’t seen what the fuck I thought I saw.
Bringing the binoculars back up, I focused on her again just as she turned toward Pierce.
This time I got a better look at her face that there was no mistaking it.
“What the fuck?” I muttered as I leaned forward in my seat and tightened my grip around the steering wheel.
It’s been eight years, but Reiana still looked the same. Her hair was longer, and her body was no longer that of a twenty-two-year young woman. This was grown woman, Reina, and she still looked good as fuck.
For eight years, I hadn’t seen her anywhere except in my own fucking head.
I never looked her up, never asked anybody where she went, and never tried to figure out what she had been doing with her life.
As far as I was concerned, she made her choice when she cheated on a nigga then disappeared, and I had made myself live with that shit.
I buried every question I had about her right along with every feeling I didn’t want anymore and kept moving.
Now she was out here looking comfortable with the same nigga I came to Arbor Point to kill.
All of a sudden, I remembered the way she smelled and how she would climb into my lap whenever she wanted my attention, knowing I was going to give it to her every fucking time.
I remembered how easy it was to love her because back then I didn’t have to think about it.
Loving Reiana was just something I did until she gave me a reason to stop.
As much as I hated to admit it, just the thought of Reiana made my dick swell.
Even after all these years and the deception, my body still reacted to her in a way it never did for any other woman.
My eyes stayed on Pierce as he climbed into the driver’s seat.
I already knew I didn’t like the nigga because he was my target, but seeing him put his hands on Reiana added a different level of irritation that had nothing to do with Cyrus’s money or the contract.
I didn’t like how comfortable she looked beside him.
I didn’t like that she smiled at the nigga, and I damn sure didn’t like the way he touched her.
That shit pissed me off more than it should’ve.
Pierce pulled away from the curb, but I stayed where I was instead of following immediately.
For the first time since I got to Arbor Point, the job wasn’t the first thing on my mind.
I stared at the empty space where his truck had been while eight years of shit I thought I had dealt with came crawling right back to the surface.
I was pissed and hurt all over again, and that alone pissed me off because I didn’t think Reiana still had the ability to make me feel either one.
I had spent too many years convincing myself that whatever we had was dead, and I had built an entire life without her being part of it.
I had a daughter I loved more than anything, businesses to run, family that depended on me, and enough shit going on that Reiana Scott should’ve been nothing but an old memory.
The worst part wasn’t even the anger or the questions running through my head.
It was the fact that after eight fucking years, one look at that woman was enough to remind me that the piece of myself I thought I buried when she left had never really gone anywhere.
And somehow, out of every muthafucka she could’ve ended up with, Reiana was with the same nigga I was eventually going to put in the ground.