And then I was set. Gino locked the front door as we left the apartment, and we went downstairs and got into the black Benz in silence.
“You okay?” he looked over at me and asked. Gino’s voice was soft and he reached out and touched my cold cheek with one hand. “You hungry? You wanna get something to eat first?”
I shook my head. “Rita’s,” I said. “I need to stop at Rita’s house.”
He swung me by there and didn’t even ask why I needed to see her at that time of night. Outside Rita’s apartment, I stood on the stoop and banged until she opened the door.
“I gotta make a run, Rita,” I said, passing her both of my bags. “Hold these someplace safe for me until I get back, okay?”
She took the bags without asking what was inside.
“What’s up, Juicy?” she said, shivering. “Where you goin?”
I shook my head. “Looking for Jimmy. Gino is taking me so I’ll be all right.”
Minutes later me and Gino were on the road. As we drove down the highway I thought about the last time I had taken a ride for G. As scared as I was then, I was even more afraid now because I didn’t know if I was gonna find my brother dead or alive at the end of the journey.
Still, it was cold outside so Gino had the heat blasting and the car was rocking me like a baby. Scared or not, I fell asleep about two exits after we got on the Garden State and when I woke up again I saw the bright lights of Atlantic City in front of us.
“You aaight? Feeling better?” Gino asked when he saw that I was up.
Hell no, I wanted to say. But instead I just shook my head and kept looking ahead so he couldn’t spot the tears trying to fall out my eyes.
G had given Gino a list of three places he wanted him to go to. The first place was a first-floor room in a small hotel off the main strip, and the second place was an Italian seafood restaurant that was so crowded I just knew the whole damn Mafia was up in there.
Jimmy wasn’t at either place, but people at both spots claimed they’d seen him a few days earlier when he came to make his pickup. I just couldn’t believe that my brother would sky up with G’s cheddar, but according to everybody we talked to, he damn sure had G’s dollars on him when he disappeared.
The snow was really coming down now, much harder in New Jersey than it had been in New York. Gino had the windshield wipers going at the max, and we could only drive about twenty-five miles an hour because the roads were so bad. Traffic was backed way up and it took us a whole hour to get to the third stop, even though it was less than twenty miles from the Italian restaurant. G had told Gino to check at this lady’s house who was the last person Jimmy was supposed to see before heading back home. She lived in an apartment complex that was small, and since the snow plows hadn’t even cleared the main roads I was scared we’d drive into the complex, get stuck, and not be able to drive back out.
It was late and I was gonna stay in the car while Gino got out to knock, but then I got scared of being left alone and jumped out and ran through the icy snow and up the stairs behind him.
“No, baby,” the little old woman said when she answered the door and Gino asked if Jimmy was there. I was surprised to hear the door unlock just seconds after we hit the porch, and thought maybe she should try looking out her peephole before she opened the door for strange people standing on her porch. “He was by here a couple of days ago, but I ain’t seen him since.”
She reminded me so much of my grandmother. Not because she looked like her-Grandmother had been real light and thick with big hips and a slamming shape for an older woman, and this woman was tall and skinny and almost bald-but it was something in her voice that was sweet and comfortable. I felt like I could go into her house and lay my head in her lap forever.
“Did he seem all right when he was here?” I asked her, stepping from behind Gino. “Jimmy is my brother and I’m worried about him because he should have been home two days ago and nobody’s seen him.”
She shook her head. “No, he seemed fine, with his sweet little self. That boy sure is mannerable! He been raised right. You kin tell!”
She stood out on the porch in the cold, waving as me and Gino pulled away through the snow. “She sure was nice,” I said waving back until I couldn’t see her no more. “She oughta be careful about opening up her door at night like that, but at least she was nice though.”
Gino gave me a crazy look. “Juicy, you can’t be that damn blind. That old lady is the connect! One of the biggest rollers in New Jersey. You must didn’t see that Glock sticking out under her housecoat, huh?”
“Boy, quit it!” I said, laughing and punching his arm. “Grandma wasn’t strapped!”
Gino nodded. “Oh yes she was. And so was all them niggahs hiding behind curtains and checking us from the windows.”
All I could do was shake my head. She seemed so sweet and grandmotherly I figured one of her kids was working for G. I woulda never guessed that Grandma was the drug queen, but then again, if Jimmy had come down here to do a pickup from her, what else could she have been?
Gino didn’t know what to do next and neither did I.
“I’ma call G,” he said, pulling over on the side of the road. The embankment was piled high with snow that passing cars had managed to clear as they cut a trail through the road. “Maybe Jimmy made it back by now.”
My stomach sank as I listened to Gino’s conversation with his father. The way he was talking I could tell that Jimmy wasn’t back, and G was mad as hell.
“It’s snowing pretty bad down here, G. The roads are so bad and cars are moving so slow it’ll take us five or six hours to get back to Harlem. By the time we roll up it’ll be daylight.”
Gino paused, listening. “Where? You sure? Aaight. Yeah. Nah, I’m cool with it. Aaight, later.”
“What?” I said as he turned toward me.
“Check this out. Jimmy’s not there. G thinks he dipped on his money and then cut out. Somebody said they heard he was hiding in Brooklyn. G is sending Moonie down there to look for him, but he said we should stay at the Taj Mahal for the night and then try to make it back to Harlem in the morning.”
I have to admit it. As scared as I was for my brother, the thought of staying all night in a phat hotel with Gino helped me feel a little better.
“You know we gotta get two rooms,” I said, grinning.
Gino grinned back. “Yeah, but we only have to sleep in one.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
The Taj Mahal was one of G’s favorite hotels. I’d come with him once or twice when he got the urge to do some big-time gambling with the high rollers of New Jersey. G would hit the casinos and stay at the tables for hours, leaving me on my own to get into whatever I wanted. He’d tear me off a huge chunk of cash and I would shop my ass off. For me and for Jimmy, and every now and then I’d even pick out something nice for G, too.
Walking into the lobby with Gino felt funny though. Good, but funny. G had connects at the Taj and he’d told Gino to charge our rooms to his account, and as much as his operation had infiltrated New Jersey, the management knew he was good for the money.
We decided not to go all out and get suites. Two regular rooms with king-sized beds would do. But even a regular room at the Taj Mahal was the shit, and I looked forward to loving my man down in a nice soft bed that came with the most expensive sheets and blankets.