Chapter 33
Carlos
“Ay, why the fuck you just sitting here? You need to be leaving to deliver all this.” I glanced around my spot and noticed my guys all in limbo. Our van should have been on the road already.
“Los, something ain’t right. That’s why I called you.” Thomas looked at me nervously before his eyes moved around the room.
Thomas was in charge for a reason. He was a lot like me. In fact, when I decided to be totally done, I would hand things over to him. There wasn’t much that fazed him, so if he was nervous, something major had to be up.
“Fuck you mean something ain’t right? The product came in today like it was supposed to, didn’t it?”
“Yeah, it did, but it isn’t pure, Los. I swear I checked it over and over again and it ain’t pure. I think they switched up on us.”
I felt the muscles in my jaw tighten before I stepped toward him. He didn’t flinch or break eye contact, but I wasn’t coming for him like that. Thomas was honest and loyal. I trusted him. I stepped around him and made my way to the table where everything waited.
After I inspected the powder on the table, I knew right away something was off. It was thick as hell and clumpy.
“This is what Chavez sent? It came like this?” I asked with my eyes on the table and the product.
Thomas answered, “Yeah, just like that.”
“Package it back up and take it to my car,” I said, then left them there to go to my office.
Chavez had somthing going on and I was in the process of finding a new connect. His family was beefing internally, which meant they dropped the ball with business. If this muthafucker thought he was about to cheat me, he had a bullet coming.
I paid good money for pure shit. I wasn’t about to fuck my name up by putting out a half ass product.
As soon as I made it to my office, Trooper was on my line.
I almost didn’t answer because I had business to handle, but this muthafucker was really going through somthing.
After Sophie told him she was pregnant, he lost his damn mind.
He hadn’t talked to her or dealt with the situation and it was going on two weeks.
Maddie was in my ear about it, but I couldn’t make him accept something if he didn’t want to. From what she said, Sophie was devastated and back and forth about whether she would keep that baby. She was hurt, for good reason.
I knew why Trooper was tripping, but that didn’t make it right. I felt for both of them. Trooper wasn’t the emotional type, which was why the entire situation with Sophie and him surprised me.
Trooper’s head was all fucked up from his past. He grew up alone and raised himself. Until he crossed paths with Story, he never had anyone who gave a fuck about whether he lived or died.
As messed up as it was, Trooper was haunted by parents he’d never laid eyes on. I honestly didn’t think he didn’t want a baby with Sophie, but he was afraid of fucking up that kid’s or Sophie’s life if he couldn’t handle it.
His answer to that situation was to not deal with it at all, but he was miserable in the process.
He missed Sophie and was just too stubborn to admit it.
He was my people, though, so I had to ride with him for whatever he needed.
It didn’t mean I wasn’t in his shit about how he handled it, but at the end of the day, he was a grown ass man who had to make and live with his own choices.
“Ay, we chilling or what?” Troop said as soon as I answered.
“Maybe later. I need to handle somthing first. Chavez is fucking with my money.”
“Chavez, the fuck he do?”
“He sent me some weak ass product like I wouldn’t know. I’m about to go handle that muthafucker.”
“Where you at? I’m rolling with you,” Trooper said in a way that wasn’t a question but a statement.
“Nah, I’m good. You ain’t with this life anymore,” I said with a smirk.
“Yo, don’t fucking play me, Los. I make legal money, but that life is my life until the day I die. It’s in my blood and you know it.”
I chuckled at how pissed he sounded. “Yeah, I know, but I got this. I’ll catch up with you when I’m done.”
“Chavez ain’t shit, but his ass is crazy. He’ll pop without thinking. I know you got it, but it don’t hurt to have support. Now where the fuck you at so I can meet you?”
“I’m picking up the product. Meet me here in twenty minutes.”
“Aight, bet. I’m on my way.”
He hung up and I laughed. Trooper just needed something to keep his mind off his own shit.
Chavez wasn’t a threat. Crazy or not, I’d shoot his ass before he could even process the thought of shooting me.
“Carlos, I’m surprised to see you. I figured you would be busy today. And Trooper, I thought you gave this up years ago. You reconsidering?” Chavez said with a smirk after Trooper and I entered his office with three duffel bags of his product in my hands, which I dropped on his desk.
“Nah, I’m good. I can’t fuck with muthafuckers like you anymore. My patience is short these days,” Trooper said, looking right at him.
Chavez chuckled and pushed back before he stood. My eyes stayed on his hands to make sure they remained empty.
“You brought presents?” he asked before he glanced at the bags then me.
“If you want to call it that. More like returning some bullshit ass product though.”
“Product? Now you know how I operate, Carlos. All sales are final.”
“Not if the shit you sold me ain’t what I paid for.” I pulled my gun and aimed it at him.
Trooper did the same and Chavez held his hands up.
“I don’t know what you mean, but is that necessary?”
“Very,” I said, not breaking eye contact. If this muthafucker breathed wrong, I was gonna shoot his ass.
“My friend, I would never cheat you. That’s bad for business. Please explain.”
“Look at that shit, then explain.”
Chavez nodded and I watched as he unzipped one bag and examined the product inside. He frowned and looked at me before he examined the product again.
“This isn’t my product. I would have never sent this to you.”
“This is your shit, or at least what was delivered. I don’t know what you have going on, but you need to give me my money. Right now!”
Chavez nodded and looked around his office.
“Let me make a call.”
“Nah, handle that on your own time. All I want right now is my four hundred and fifty thousand.”
“Four fifty. You only paid four.”
I smirked. “The extra is a restocking fee. This bullshit is an inconvenience, so I need compensation for that.”
He would pay. My business was important to him, but right now, his didn’t mean shit to me.
Chavez gritted his teeth but stepped away from his desk. He walked over to the corner of the room and opened the safe, then pulled out a duffle bag and returned to us.
“This is half a million. It should be more than enough to compensate for your inconvenience. I sincerely apologize and will find out what the problem is. Your next shipment will be right. I give you my word.”
I took the bag, unzipped it, and glanced inside, doing a quick scan to make sure the money was right.
“I don’t think there will be another shipment. You fuck me once and that will be your last time.”
“Had I known…”
“That’s the problem. As a businessman, you should always know.”
I glanced at Trooper and we turned to leave. Chavez wasn’t gonna do shit. At this point he was losing money. I meant more to him alive. He would be in touch, begging for my business again. No one he dealt with moved as much product as me.
“You know he’s about to be blowing you up as soon as he gets his ass off his shoulders,” Trooper said with a smirk.
“Yeah, but I ain’t fucking with him like that. I meant what I said. No second chances.”
“Shit, who you telling? I already know.”
I tossed the cash in my trunk and Trooper and I both got in.
“So what’s up with you? You good?” I questioned as I pulled off.
“I’m straight. Shit, you know me.”
“Yeah, muthafucker, I do, which is why I know your ass ain’t straight. You still haven’t talked to her?”
Trooper chuckled then fired up. “Nah, not yet. I been watching her, though. She got me on some creep shit. I be parked outside her spot waiting to see her come and go. Fuck type of shit is that?”
“You need to talk to her, Troop.”
“And say what? Yo, I’m sorry I let you walk out when you needed me the most.”
“Hell yeah. That’s a start. Shit, you fucked up and need to own up to it.
I’m tired of talking about your dumb ass every day.
It gets to the point where I feel the conversation coming so I bend Maddie over something and fuck the shit outta her so she won’t bring it up.
Maddie is fucking pissed with you and Sophie is hurt, bruh. ”
“At least you getting pussy out the deal.”
I laughed and he let his head fall back.
“I’m a grown ass man running from my responsibilities, Los. That’s weak as fuck.”
“Yeah, it is, and if you know that, fix it.”
“I can’t change who I am,” Trooper said honestly.
“And you can’t change what you’ve done. That baby ain’t got shit to do with the demons you’re fighting, Troop.
Just talk to her, explain it to her. She might not like it, but she’ll have to respect it.
I know you don’t think you got it in you, but look at how much you’ve changed already.
Sophie had your ass blocking numbers and cussing hoes out just for looking at you the wrong way. ”
Trooper laughed and so did I.
“The thing is, I don’t know if I even want that. Things with Sophie were cool. Shit was nice, I wouldn’t even lie, but a kid? I don’t even know if I want that type of life. Never mind that I don’t know if I can do it.”
“You care about her, right? I’m not even talking about love, just care about her.”
“Hell yeah, I do. Why the fuck you think I be sitting outside her spot just to see her face.”
“Aight then, if this baby makes her happy and that’s what she wants, why the fuck not?
You do shit you’re uncertain of when you care about people, Troop.
That’s how things works. I hate to take it there, but that’s Story’s grandchild.
How the fuck you think he’d feel if he knew you walked out on his daughter like that? ”
“Damn, that was low as fuck, Los.”
I nodded to agree. “True, but it’s real shit. Just think about it, aight. That’s all I’m saying.”
We rode the rest of the way in silence. I decided to let Trooper process. It was a lot and fucking with him, but he needed to man the fuck up. I had faith in my people so I knew he would do the right thing.