Chapter 5 Whodie
The car I sat in smelled like old smoke and cheap ass cologne.
That’s exactly why I liked it. Nobody would ever connect the raggedy Buick back to me.
It belonged to one of the smokers who hung around my old crack house all day begging for change and loose cigarettes.
I had tossed him a few hundred earlier and told him to disappear for the night.
Now I was sitting ducked off inside the car about a half a block down from Adore’s old house in the hood.
The same house she grew up in. The house she was keeping for reasons she never really explained.
Most nights, the street was quiet once the kids went inside.
Just stray dogs, porch lights flickered, and the occasional car rolling through.
Probably a married nigga creeping with one of the hood chicks.
I was here for one reason. The fiend said someone was sniffing around Adore’s house.
I wanted to see who the fuck it was with my own eyes.
I leaned back lower in the seat and cracked the window just enough to let the blunt smoke slip outside.
Patience wasn’t something most street niggas had, but I learned that shit young.
Sometimes the smartest move was just sitting on a nigga and letting them show their hand.
Twenty minutes passed. Then thirty and still nothing.
I was starting to think maybe whoever it was had gotten spooked earlier.
Until headlights turned onto the block. The same halo lights came creeping up slowly.
I leaned forward slightly, watching through the cracked windshield.
My hand slid down to the Glock resting on my lap.
The car rolled halfway down the block before stopping.
The driver’s side door never opened. Neither did the passenger side.
They sat there just watching. That told me they weren’t normal people.
Then they pulled off, circled the block, and came back.
“Fuck going on?” one of them asked.
“We got a fuckin’ problem. Black sedan with Florida tags. I thought they was after Adore, but I was sitting on their ass, and they flicked a cigarette out the window with 239 written on it.”
“Shit, fuck we waitin’ on? Let’s go get dem niggas,” another member said.
“Sit, I still don’t know who the fuck it is. I wanted to put the bug in y’all ear. Protect your families. I’mma get up with y’all tomorrow.”
I was halfway out the door when my phone started ringing. I glanced down at the screen to see one of the store managers.
“What?” I answered.
“Whodie!” The man shouted, his voice shaky over the screams in the background.
“What the fuck is goin’ on?”
“The west side store is on fire!”
My whole body went stiff. That was our biggest store.
“Are you serious?”
“I’m standing right here and looking at it! Flames coming out of the damn windows.”
Behind him, I heard the horns from the fire trucks. I ended the call and slid my phone back in my pocket.
“Wassup?” One of the boys asked.
“Somebody just torched the west side store.”
“Let’s ride,” one of the OG’s said.
When we pulled up, flames ripped through the front of the store while the smoke filled the night sky. Neighbors stood around watching like it was fucking entertainment. I stepped out slowly and scanned the street. The store manager ran up to me.
“What happened?” I asked.
“I was locking up when somebody threw something through the window.”
“What kinda something?”
“A bottle of liquor. As soon as it hit the floor, the whole front of the store lit up. I had to run out the back.”
We stuck around until the fire department left.
We weren’t allowed inside until they deemed it clear.
Something caught my attention. A small matchbox with Tell Adore written on it.
I pulled my phone out and dialed her number.
I knew she was asleep, but unlike her, I wasn’t holding this shit from her.
“What’s wrong?” Is the first thing she said. I never called her this time of night.
“The West side store burned down,” I said, trying to stay calm.
The line was silent at first, then I heard her shifting.
“Anybody hurt?” She asked coldly.
“Nah.”
“What else?”
“A message with your name on it.”
“Whodie, I don’t know who the fuck this is, but we are at war. I’ll see you in a few.” She hung up the phone.
“Y’all good?” one of my boys asked.
“Let me go home and talk with my girl. I’mma hit y’all ‘cause we’re at war. We gonna meet and figure this shit out,” I told them.
We all did our handshake and went our separate ways.
I headed home. Laying under Adore was the only way she was going to go to sleep.
Especially since I poured out her liquor.
When I made it home, the alarm was going off.
I put the code in and took the stairs to our bedroom.
Adore was pacing the floors and talking to herself as I walked up behind her.
“Baby, I need you to get in the bed and sleep this off. Tomorrow, we will do whatever needs to be done.”
“I can’t sleep.”
“Let me shower, and I’ll rub your scalp until you go to sleep.”
I wanted her to sleep so I could think. If we were both up pacing and thinking of our next move, we would end up bumping heads. One of us needed a clear head. I would rather it be her. I thrived off chaos and could go days without sleeping or eating. It was how I was wired. She couldn’t do that.
After I showered, I climbed in bed behind Adore and pulled her into me.
I loved her hair. She usually wore it in a ponytail or a high bun.
We used to laugh because she was the only dark-skinned girl in the hood with hair down her back that was not locs.
Adore was naturally pretty. Kept her skin up just like she did her hair.
She could dress up or down and would shit on anyone.
It wasn’t long before she started snoring.
Her phone kept going off on the nightstand.
I didn’t want it to wake her ass up, so I reached over and was about to shut it off.
She had several messages on her screen. I didn’t want to pry because I trusted her, but it could be one of her workers telling her something else was wrong.
The number wasn’t saved in her phone. I checked her messages to see the same number had been texting her since yesterday.
I looked back at Adore before I placed her phone back. Before I could get comfortable, her phone started ringing again. This time, I snatched it up and answered.
“Speak!” I said, staring at Adore sleeping.
“Can I speak with Adore?”
I just knew she wasn’t cheating on me with a cornball ass nigga. This was the second one that had taken a liking to her.
“Nigga, she sleep. Who the fuck is this?”
Silence.
“Nigga, you don’t hear me talkin’ to you?”
The phone went dead. I placed her phone back down. Instead of laying back down, I woke her ass up. It was almost four in the morning, but I had to get to the bottom of this shit.
“Aye, get the fuck up!” I shook her.
“Whodie, what the fuck is wrong with you? You begged me to get some sleep, and now you’re waking me up.”
I reached over her and grabbed her phone.
“Give me my phone.” She tried to snatch it.
“Fuck is this nigga that keep blowin’ yo’ phone up? Especially at this time of night? What we on ‘cause you kno’ how the fuck I’ll start movin’,” I told her.
“Whodie, please! You’ve probably been moving funny.”
“I ain’t movin’ shit. Come to think of it, that’s why you argue ‘cause you kno’ that shit gon’ send me to my condo and you can lay yo’ ass up over here in our shit wit’ another nigga.”
Hearing her laugh set me off. I snatched her by her shirt and pushed her ass into the headboard.
“Whodie, let me the fuck go before shit gets violent in this muthafucka.”
“You fuckin’ that nigga, Adore?” I stared into her eyes.
“No! Now get the fuck off me!” she pushed me, but I didn’t budge.
“You a lyin’ muthafucka!” I said, letting her shirt go.
I went to grab my shit so I could get away from her. When we said it was official, I cut every hoe I had off. All I ever wanted was Adore. Obviously, she loved to live the street life but wanted her an ordinary ass nigga. I was about to get out of her way.
“Whodie, I am not fucking that man. Where are you going?” She jumped out of bed. “We got too much shit going on for you to walk out the door this time of the morning.” She tried to talk some sense into me.
“Move, yo lil’ ass outta the way.” She stood in the walk-in closet.
“Whodie,” she said softly. “I am not messing with the man. We went on a date.”
I tapped my chest a few times, trying to calm down. Adore really wanted me to take it there.
“We doin’ dates now?” I asked. “A nigga makin’ sho, ‘cause when I start doin’ it, I don’t wanna hear the cryin’ and shit.”
“It wasn’t like that. It was innocent, and he wouldn’t take no for an answer.”
I laughed, “Adore, you ain’t never had a problem hurtin’ a nigga feelins’. Get the fuck outta my way.” I pushed her out of the way.
“Whodie, what am I supposed to do without you? I don’t want that nigga.”
“I’m loyal! You ain’t gotta worry ‘bout this street shit when it comes to me. When it comes to me and you, I’m off you. Let’s stick to the business.”
Everything that I couldn’t grab, I would get later.
I had two cars over here and some other shit.
Rather she gave the nigga the pussy or not, we were exclusive, and the thought of her sitting her ass in someone else’s face smiling made me see red.
When I pulled away from the house, I called my homeboy.
“Aye, my bad for calling you this late. I need some information on a number.”
“Shoot it to me.”
I hung up and sent the text. Shit, if Adore wanted to play games, I was about to play them too.
Two days later, I found the best suit I could get and went to get the Buick again.
The old ass car didn’t have GPS and I didn’t have my phone with me.
I had to study the map on how to get to the house.
As this nigga walked around the house, showing me all the amenities, I smiled and kept it cordial.
When he saw my smile for the first time, he was a little nervous when the golds started blinging in the sun when we shook hands.
Adore really knew how to pick them. He owned a realty company, so I had my nerdy homeboy set up a showing, saying I was ready to buy.
“The asking price is a little steep, but I can put in an offer and see if they could come down.”
I bit my bottom lip as he continued to talk.
All my life, I was judged. He assumed that I didn’t have the money because of my hair and gold grill.
Then the vision of Adore sitting her fine ass across from him, probably drinking a five-hundred-dollar glass of wine, pissed me off.
I made sure the house had no surveillance.
There were no neighbors, but I still put a silencer on my gun anyway.
“No need,” I told him with the gun pointed at him.
“Whoa…What do you need? I can get it,” he pleaded.
“Nah, ion need nothin’, nigga.” I pulled the trigger.
When his body hit the ground, I stood over him and shot him in between his eyes. Then I was gone like I was never there.