Chapter 15 Adore
As soon as I got in the car with Love, I broke down crying. Whodie didn’t pull off until we did.
“It’s going to be okay, Adore. Hollow has the lawyer coming. Of course, he has to catch a flight, but he will be here.”
I couldn’t believe a night that started out so good was ending with me about to walk in jail and turn myself in. When we arrived, Love helped me clean my face and gave me something else to put on besides the skimpy dress I was wearing. There was no telling how long they were going to make me wait.
“Chin up,” Love said. “I know it’s in your blood. You’re going to be fine,” she reassured me.
The second those doors closed behind me, and Love was no longer there, the air around me changed. It was like the shit got thicker.
“Name?” A guy asked without looking at me.
As soon as I said my name, he looked at me and smirked. I had to look around to see if I was being punked. This shit felt off. Another officer came from the back.
“Turn around and put your hands behind your back,” the officer said.
He cuffed me and walked me through the doors and down the hall. They processed me so fast that it didn’t sit well with me. Instead of taking me to a holding cell, I went straight to an interrogation room.
“You can have a seat. They’ll be in here whenever,” the officer said.
I sat in there for what seemed like forever until the door popped open and two men walked in.
“You’ve been busy,” one of them said.
“I want my lawyer,” I said with a straight face.
They looked at each other.
“We can make this easier for you,” the second one said.
“I’m sure you can,” I replied. “When my lawyer gets here.”
“You’re looking at some serious time. Let’s see…trafficking, money laundering, conspiracy…you want me to go on?”
“You keep talking after I said I wanted my lawyer.”
They both sat in silence and stared at me as I stared back. There wasn’t shit to say. If they had all this evidence, why the fuck did they need me to talk? Without saying another word, they left me. The officer came back in and got me.
“You get a phone call. Make it quick,” he said.
I wanted to call Whodie, but I knew better. My better option was Hollow. Someone who was clean even though he wasn’t.
“Hey,” I said lowly when he answered.
“The lawyer should be there in the next hour. I just got off the phone with him.”
“Okay, can you check on…”
“Yeah, I got that,” he cut me off. “Once they tell me your bond, I’ll be there. In the meantime, fuck anything they sayin’.”
“They saying trafficking, money laundering, and some more shit.”
“Shit, that’s typical drug charges they throw at muthafucka’s. You’re good.”
“Time,” the officer said.
“I love you, sis,” Hollow was able to get out before the officer hung up.
I was taken to a holding cell and sat there for a little over an hour before they came back and got me. When a new officer came to get me, I was escorted back to the interrogation room, where a lawyer was waiting for me when the door opened.
“Uncuff her,” the lawyer told the officer. “She is not going to harm anyone here.”
I was uncuffed and took a seat across from the attorney.
“Straight shit, they have so much shit. My problem is, who is feeding it to them?”
I looked at him strange, “What do you mean?”
“Adore, they know your whole operation. And hear me when I say, the whole operation, I mean that from your connect down. How you get the product, where you bag everything up, and how your money moves.”
“How though?”
I had been moving product for years. My shit was smooth. Then I thought about Mazi and wondered if, before he died, he had given up any information.
“You have a mole, Adore. Now, one good thing, they don’t have you on any pictures or any surveillance. You don’t have anything on your record that would stop the judge from giving you a bond. It’s going to be expensive,” he told me.
I heard what he was saying, but I couldn’t get over them knowing my operation. My shit was air-tight. The only way to know it is to be in business with me.
“Okay, I’m going to see what I can do to get you out of here. Just sit tight and don’t say shit to anyone when they take you back to your cell.”
Again, I was taken back to the damn holding cell. I knew I wasn’t going to hear shit today being that it was early Sunday morning. I knew I was going to spend the whole day here and go before the judge on Monday. So, I got comfortable and prepared myself for whatever.
As soon as the doors opened, I ran out to my brother. Instead of letting me go on Monday, they held me until Friday. I hadn’t eaten or drunk shit since I was there. I was dehydrated like a muthafucka and needed some sleep.
“Ewww shit! You look a fuckin’ mess,” Hollow said as he hugged me.
“Nigga, them folks had me locked up and you worrying about what I look like,” I told you.
I looked around the truck, hoping that Whodie was here.
“I told him not to come. If they have all the information on you, then he’ll be the next person they want to pick up. They will pin y’all against each other. It’s best you both just chill and lay low,” my brother said.
He opened the door for me and then walked around to climb in.
“I’m takin’ you to my house. If you’re away from the city, they can’t track you. If I let you go home, then I kno’ yo’ ass goin’ straight to the streets. And if you think them muthafuckas ain’t gonna have someone on yo’ ass, you crazy.”
“I need clothes and shit, Hollow. I need to wash my ass.”
“I got all of that from yo’ house. There’s nothin’ you can say to make me take you to that house.”
I rolled my eyes and sat my ass back as he made the damn drive to Naples. When we pulled up to his house, he handed me a burner phone.
“Here, you can talk to Whodie on this. His new number is saved in there. As soon as they took yo’ phone, they plugged that bitch. Waitin’ on yo’ ass to make a call.”
“I’ll get rid of it when I get in the house.”
“Nah, keep it. Make sure that bitch stays charged. They need to see you ain’t doin’ shit. Knowin’ them, they’ll send a police from this jurisdiction to ride by.”
I showered, brushed my teeth, and went downstairs to Love fixing me a plate. She never knew how to turn the motherly duty off.
“You feeling better?” Love asked as she set my nephew’s plate down.
“I feel a lot better. Just need to get some sleep.”
“Well, you can sleep all you want to.”
“Don’t tell her that,” Hollow said, joining us for dinner. “She gotta do somethin’ ‘round here besides sleep.”
“Hollow, please shut the hell up,” I said.
“Adore, my son,” Love said.
“My bad, nephew.” I squeezed his cheek.
“Have you talked to Whodie yet? He’s been blowing my phone up,” Hollow said.
“No, I was going to as soon as I got done eating.”
“The man is about to lose his mind.”
“All I want is some food on my stomach, and I promise to call him.”
The good thing about being at my brother’s house was that I had my own space. The bedroom was on the other side of the house, so I had some privacy. The bed was so comfortable that I had to sit up before I fell asleep. I grabbed the burner phone and dialed Whodie’s number.
“Adore?” Whodie answered.
“I’m home,” I told him.
“Bet, I’m on the way.”
“No!” I told him.
“Fuck you mean no?”
“‘Cause I’m not at home. At Hollow’s house.”
“Well, shit, I’ll drive down there.”
“Whodie, you can’t. We gotta lay low for a minute. I really feel like they are coming for you next.”
“Nigga, you been gone for days and you think I’m not ‘bouta pull up on you.”
I closed my eyes for a minute and squeezed the bridge of my nose. I was hoping this was an eye-opener for him.
“Whodie, I need you to listen to me. I need you to lay low for a minute. No traps, stores, or clubs. Them muthafuckas know everything.”
“What you mean by everything?”
“The whole operation. How I move, when I move it, and who I move it with.”
“No wonder Hollow told me to get a new phone.”
“This wasn’t Mazi. He watched us, but not enough to know my whole operation. This shit is bigger than this.”
“You think it’s someone on the inside?” Whodie asked.
“The lawyer said it’s a mole somewhere.”
“Bet!”
“No, we’re not about to take it there. I just need to sleep and get my mind clear.”
“Adore–”
“Adore nothing. I need you to listen to me right now. We cannot be emotional right now. And no, I’m not calling you dumb, but I know how emotional you get when it comes to me.”
“You right,” he admitted.
“I miss you.” I tried to change the subject.
“I missed you too. I do have my boys lookin’ into this Mazi shit a lil’ deeper. I ain’t gonna be able to function until I get some answers.”
I really didn’t want to talk about it anymore. All I wanted was to joke with my man. He sensed it and changed the subject, talking to me until I started snoring on the phone.