Chapter 4
VEGA
“What the fuck happened?” I asked, looking around at my employees and the useless niggas I’d hired for security.
Everybody’s face was long as hell, but none of them were opening their mouths to explain shit.
I paced the floor, taking in the damage to my spot, and could hardly contain my rage.
I’d been deep in a post nut slumber when Santana’s constant calling had woken me up.
Not only had our casino been hit, but Quick had gotten shot in the process and was laid up in the hospital.
He’d barely finished telling me, and I was already half dressed and on my way to the door, opting not to waste time waking Essence.
When we touched down, our first stop was the hospital.
Quick was out of surgery by the time we got there and was raising hell as expected.
He wanted to hit the streets to find out who’d been bold enough to try him, and while I didn’t blame him, he would have to sit this shit out.
At least for the time being. I had to promise to save him a piece of the action, just so he’d take it easy on the staff and stop threatening to check himself out.
That shit had my mama hysterical, and my pops even more pissed off because he didn’t like her getting upset.
He was acting like the whole reason this shit happened was that we didn’t leave Dubai when we were supposed to, and since Santana mentioned it was because of a woman, he really went off.
Now, I was taking my frustration out on my staff.
Somebody was gon’ have to tell me something!
“Y’all muthafuckas can’t speak?” I snapped, eyes landing on the head of security who was ducked off in the back. “Arnez? You should be the first one talking, nigga! You’re head of security ain’t you?”
His eyebrows shot up as everybody looked his way. “Yeah.”
I chuckled bitterly at the uncertainty in his voice, ready to shoot his ass just off the strength of that.
“You sure? ’Cause you sound like you don’t know, muthafucka.”
“Yeah, I’m sure, Vega.”
“Okay, so what the fuck happened? Aside from my cousin who’s shot the fuck up in the hospital, you’re the one who’s supposed to know what’s going on in this bitch.
So, tell me how the fuck I’m outta my money!
” I was spitting mad! A quarter mil wasn’t nothing to scoff at, but I’d have been just as pissed off about any amount of money that was taken from me.
Hell, I’d traveled all the way to Dubai over a $50,000 loan, so I was ready to burn the city down over this shit.
I leaned against a craps table as I waited for his lips to start moving while Santana stood at my side, engrossed in his phone.
“I was in the surveillance room, tryna figure out why the cameras went out when they hit the door. By the time I realized what was going on, Quick was already shot, and they had everybody else hemmed up.” Arnez huffed petulantly.
“Who was on the door?”
The question caught him off guard, and he sputtered, “Uh, um-.”
“Spit it the fuck out!” I pushed up from the table, making him flinch with his scary ass.
“It was supposed to be Bear, but he called off today, so Arnez had his brother Royce up there,” a quiet but annoyed voice spoke up from the side of me.
It was one of the card girls, Norielle, looking just as fed up as I felt but probably only because they’d been held up in here for hours, and she was ready to go.
I didn’t care how I got the information, though, as long as it was accurate, and my head swung back toward Arnez for confirmation. He was already on his feet, eyes wide, as he tried to explain.
“Vega, let me explain….” He swallowed hard, trying to figure out what he could say that would allow him and his brother to walk out of there.
Even though I felt anything but generous at the moment, I waited with my neck bent lazily.
“Bear been on bullshit the last couple weeks, so I had Royce on standby. This was his first day. He’s really a good kid, man.
He just graduated and shit. I’m just tryna keep him outta trouble for my mama.
” He spoke fast, not realizing that he was just digging him and that little nigga a deeper hole.
“You put a fuckin’ teenager at the door to guard my money, nigga?
How the fuck that even made sense to you?
I know damn well Quick ain’t approve no goofy ass shit like that.
” I couldn’t help scratching my head at the fuck shit that had went on in my absence.
A nigga couldn’t be out of town for twenty-four hours without somebody fucking up, but this was straight up amateur, and I had half a mind to go fuck Quick’s ass up right along with Arnez.
“Quick didn’t know. He was setting up the poker room―” Norielle started, but I quickly cut her off.
“Ain’t that your job?” Embarrassed, her eyes shifted, and she mumbled some shit I couldn’t quite make out. “Man, what?”
“I said, he was helping me,” she said louder this time, making my face ball up.
“Tuh! More like helping himself to your throat!” this other girl Kya interjected.
“Bitch, fuck you! You’re just mad ’cause he don’t want your funny looking ass!” Norielle’s unemployed ass shot back, and they started arguing like this shit was Jerry Springer. Sosa chose that moment to tune the fuck in, only making it worse by egging them on every time one said some wild shit.
“Daaaaamn, you just gon’ let her get down on you like that, Kya?”
I groaned lowly and pinched the bridge of my nose in an attempt to relieve the sudden throbbing in my head.
“Shut the fuck up!” I barked, fed the fuck up, and the room fell silent.
“So, you mean to tell me, you and Quick was fuckin’ around while my shit was being robbed?
” I directed my heated glare at Norielle.
Her chest was heaving, still riled up from the argument, but fear flashed across her face as she hesitated to answer.
“Don’t even worry about it. Consider yourself fired, shorty. ”
Sosa’s childish ass tsked, way too invested in the bullshit going on and not in the fact that somebody had robbed us and shot our cousin.
“Damn, not you getting robbed and fired on the same day, shorty,” he co-signed in fake pity.
I knew some even crazier shit was about to come out his mouth, but Norielle gasping loudly stopped whatever he was about to say.
“But―”
“Ain’t no buts! You lucky I ain’t shot your simple ass! For all I know, you’re involved in this shit and was back there distracting my cousin so niggas could run up in my shit!”
“Shiiiit, the verdict still out on that,” Sosa hissed, suddenly just as concerned with the possibility of her ass being a snake as me, but Arnez still wasn’t off the hook.
“I’m not on no shit like that, Vega. I like Quick. We been messing around for like two weeks.” That did little to help her case and only had me making a mental note to get on Quick’s ass about fucking around with our damn employees.
“This nigga out here tryna make a girlfriend out a damn card girl.”
I ignored shorty and my brother’s side commentary, turning my attention to Arnez.
“Where that lil’ nigga at now?” Already, I had three possible leads, and I planned to follow them until I found out who’d been bold enough to think they could rob me and touch my family.
Bear was on the suspect list as well. I didn’t give a fuck if he called out.
He looked just as suspicious as everybody else.
Put back on the spot, Arnez tensed, and I nodded for Sosa, who instantly upped his Beretta.
I couldn’t believe a big ass sumo wrestler looking muthafucka like him was bitching up so quickly, but then again, he knew better than anybody not to play with my family.
Throwing his hands up, he took a couple of steps back and ran into the wall.
“That ain’t even necessary, Sosa. Man, I’ll take y’all to him, but you gotta promise not to hurt him or my mama. ”
“Nigga, this ain’t no negotiation! If I gotta find out on my own, though, I’m gon’ make sure I let this muthafucka do his worst, and you know he ain’t screwed too tight.
” I smirked for the first time in damn near twenty-four hours, and his eyes darted over to Sosa.
For as immature as my brother was, everybody was well aware of how dangerous he could be.
That was the reason I’d had his crazy ass come with me to hem up De’Angelo.
Out of the three of us, he was the nicest with any weapon he got his hands on, and he never hesitated to make use of his skills.
“Okay, okay!” Arnez huffed, looking disgruntled as fuck.
“Let’s go then, goofy ass nigga!” Sosa brusquely motioned him forward with his gun, and Arnez made the mistake of dragging his feet.
As soon as he made it to where we stood waiting, Sosa slammed the butt of the gun against his head, making his big ass stumble.
“Stop wasting time and bring yo’ ass on!
” He shoved him toward the exit, almost daring the man to act like he wanted an issue.
Arnez smartly did what he was told, and I wasn’t too far behind.
It wasn’t until I noticed the others following us that I stopped.
“Fuck y’all think y’all going?”
They all froze, looking stupid as hell, but, of course, Norielle didn’t care about looking stupid, which was crazy when she was one of the main people I was side eyeing.
“Uh, home. Don’t you think Arnez’s brother is the one who did this?
” She looked around for back up but everyone else remained silent, leaving her on her own.
“Bitch, we think you might be in on this shit, too. The fuck wrong with yo’ ass?” Sosa snorted before I could. Although I probably would’ve said the same thing in a much nicer way, it got the point across.
“I told y’all I wasn’t! Call Quick, he’ll vouch for me!
” She said that shit with way too much confidence, not even knowing that if Quick was fucking her in the casino of all places, he didn’t fuck with her the way she thought.
I decided not to call her clown ass out, though, because at that point, I just wanted her the fuck away from me.
“You know what? Yeah, y’all can go ahead and go. I’m gon’ follow up with y’all soon,” I assured, getting irritated by the way they all hesitated before making their way out the door.
I watched them until they disappeared and sent out the word for a couple of niggas to follow Norielle and track down Bear.
It wasn’t going to take some ignorant muthafuckas long to run through that money, and if they were splitting it between five of them, then it would take even less time.
Truthfully, even if I didn’t get my money back, I’d be satisfied with their fucking heads just for the blatant disrespect.
They probably didn’t know it, but running up in my shit was the biggest mistake they ever made, and I was going to make sure I made an example out of them, starting with Arnez’s brother.
We threw Arnez in the backseat of Sosa’s truck, took his phone, and put the child lock on the doors and windows to keep his ass from running while he sat in the back, looking like Deebo after the way Sosa had smacked him with the gun.
“Where we going, man?” I demanded since he hadn’t said shit, and he finally rattled off her address.
If it wasn’t such a serious situation, I probably would’ve laughed at the lengths he was going through, but this shit was far from funny, and I was on the verge of putting his ass out his misery.
Sosa’s GPS said it would take half an hour to get there, but since he wanted to play speed demon, we made it in less than twenty.
We pulled up to a small, ranch style brick home with an attached garage.
Upon seeing the Hellcat in the driveway, I knew that little nigga was definitely home.
“Come on,” I ordered, already stepping out at the same time as Sosa and opening the back door for Arnez.
We’d barely made it up the walkway when the door came swinging open, and a younger, taller, and goofier looking version of Arnez stepped out the door, stuttering.
“Vega, I-I swear on my mama’s head we didn’t have nothing to do with that!
I’m not into street shit! Mama caught me smoking and hassled Arnez to get me a job!
This was my first day, and I literally shit on myself seeing them guns!
I’ll show you my phone, and you can search inside!
Whatever you want, just please don’t kill us!
” The little brother had tears streaming down his face, and I shared a look with Sosa.
Without even having to talk it over we could both tell his ass was telling the truth.
I didn’t know one kid who was trying to be a thug that would tell anybody he shitted on himself for any reason.
He did seem like the perfect type to be a fall guy, but I was sure he’d have told us that with the way he was running his mouth already.
“Yeah, it definitely ain’t this lil nigga.” Sosa’s voice was full of pity as he shook his head.
“Y’all check out for now, but make sure you come in tomorrow because we still got work to do,” I directed at Arnez, who’d made his way over to console his brother.
That was the closest he was going to get to an apology, and he knew that shit too.
His face was twisted up in a mug, but he nodded anyway, and I tapped Sosa’s shoulder so we could get out of there.
We got back to the truck, but he stopped before ducking inside and looked at the two of them over the door since they were still standing out there looking goofy as hell.
“Aye, bro, don’t tell nobody else you shitted on yourself.
That shit is not playa. I would flame yo’ lil’ ass, but I’m gon’ let you make it since yo’ night already going bad enough.
” Sosa climbed in the truck like he’d really given the little nigga some real advice, and when he noticed the expression on my face, he shrugged. “Back to square one, my boy.”
He was right. We were right back at square one, but we did still have two other leads to follow up on, and I knew one of them was going to be the right one. Either way, I wasn’t resting until I had my money and those niggas’ heads.