Rah
Between wiping Solae’s crocodile tears all night, sneaking back to the hospital to stay the night with Aaliyah and the baby, and taking Solae to the clinic this morning, I never made it to divvy up the money from the bank robbery with Nell, Lavell, and Caine.
But we were heavy on text securing a spot to stash the cash from the robbery.
Now I was on my way to meet up with them after dropping Solae off at the crib.
I felt a hell of a lot better now that she wasn’t pregnant anymore. One more kid just wasn’t in the cards for a playa. Hell, it wasn’t in the cards for me nine months ago when Aaliyah got knocked up, but, after having two miscarriages, I couldn’t talk her into going to the clinic.
Solae needed to focus on the two kids that she had anyway.
Essence was in her teens, and she was maturing into her mother’s physique.
I’d caught her and guys on the block giving each other googly eyes and shit.
Elijah was clumsy as hell. Every other week he was bleeding from somewhere or breaking something. He stayed in the emergency room.
Solae didn’t need any more kids right now; she needed to keep an eye on the ones she already had.
“Damn, Pops, you need to wrap that thang up before one of your women finds out about the other and leaves you,” Caine told me with a laugh as I showed him pictures of Junior.
Me, Caine, and Nell were at Caine’s spot out in Lansing. It was actually his mom’s crib. Lavell couldn’t come through because he had to take care of some things with his baby’s mother.
I met Caine and Lavell a few months ago through some homeboys.
Eventually, they asked me to give them some work at the bar so they could make some bread.
Though we were the same age, they both looked up to me like little brothers.
They were those kinds of niggas that never really did anything for themselves.
I used them as security at The Black Room just so they could have a couple dollars in their pockets.
Nell was in the same predicament, except he was my cousin.
That’s why when I told them about hitting that lick at the bank, they were all for it, for little or nothing.
I promised them a cut in exchange for doing the dirt for me.
They were only able to get roughly one hundred thousand out of that bank, though.
So, after giving them their cut, I was left with about fifty thousand dollars.
That was only enough to pay off some bills and have a little left over to finance some studio time and videos for Moses.
At this point, the robbery seemed worthless.
Sure enough, I could eat off fifty thousand dollars for a minute.
The holidays would go over a hell of a lot smoother now.
The point wasn’t to eat though. It was to floss.
Not much flossing was possible with a measly fifty thousand dollars.
I was forced to put it to the side until I came up with another scheme to get more cash.
“My bitches aren’t going anywhere,” I said slyly as I slid my phone back in my pocket. “I ain’t gotta wrap shit up. They do need to get on some birth control, though.”
Caine simply shook his head at me.
“What I need to know is how in the hell y’all left out of there with only one-hundred thousand.”
Caine shook his head again, as if he was disappointed in that too. Nell walked out with a chuckle, since he didn’t have anything to do with that. He was outside waiting in the driver’s seat of the getaway car when it all went down.
“Them bitches was movin’ slow as fuck,” Caine told me.
“We didn’t have time to get to where the real money was.
We had to get out of there fast, man! And, luckily, we did, because one of the customers who had just left heard the commotion and doubled back.
We had a shootout with him while we tried to get to the car. ”
With frustration, I shook my head just as Nell walked back in with my cut of the cash secured in bundles wrapped in rubber bands.
“Put it in a bag or something, fam! You want me to walk around with this shit?!” I shook my head, in disbelief of his stupidity. “Dumbass!”
They were stupid. All of them. They were peons. They didn’t know how to do anything for themselves. That’s why they depended on me. And that’s how they ended up with a murder on their hands all for a measly couple grand a piece.
“Now, how y’all end up killing that old man?”
“Man, we were on our way outta there and he just started shooting! I had to pop back,” Caine said defensively.
Handing me a fake Gucci duffle with the cash in it, Nell nodded in agreement. “He’s right, fam. I was watching through the doorway. They were on their way out of there, and the old man pulled his piece. I couldn’t believe that shit. Buddy was on some super cop shit.”
The robbery had been all over the news. Luckily, the security cameras didn’t get a shot of their faces.
I told them to set the car on fire that they were riding in last night.
As far as we could tell from the news coverage, the police didn’t have any suspects.
But I would know more once Solae went back to work.
Either way, if they got caught, it was on them. I wasn’t there. That’s why I set the shit up like that. Regardless, they were so loyal to me, the man that fed them, that they would never snitch.
Either way, I was good.