“One pump shotgun, two nine millers, check,” Jackie said.
“One AK-47, two nine millimeters checked and ready,” Ronnie said.
“Acknowledged. Equipment check,” Travis said.
At that point, Jackie turned on the C-Guard. “C-Guard engaged,” she said.
Ronnie took out a cell phone and checked the screen for a signal. “Signal at one hundred percent.” He tried to make a call. “Call cannot be completed.”
“Acknowledged. Maintain operational silence,” Travis said and they waited.
At 8:45, the armored truck turned into the lot and parked in front of the store in perfect position. The bagman exited the vehicle and went into the store. Once again, Jackie engaged the jamming device. “C-Guard engaged,” Jackie said.
“Acknowledged,” Travis shot back. From that point, they waited. Minutes seemed to pass like hours as they sat patiently waiting for the bagman to reemerge from the store. Then, all at once, Travis’s heart began to pound as he watched a red Honda Civic pull into the lot and park two cars down from Jackie. He looked on in horror as Me’shelle got out of the car and limped gingerly pasted Jackie’s car.
“Damn she’s fine,” Jackie said.
“Maintain operational silence,” Travis said nervously.
“Acknowledged.”
Travis became excited at the sight of Me’shelle in spandex and black leather, but his excitement turned once again to horror at the thought of what could happen. What if something went wrong or she came out of the store while they were taking the objective? Travis couldn’t take the risk of anything happening that would place Me’shelle in danger.
“Abort!” Travis said frantically.
“What?” Ronnie turned to Travis. “What you mean abort?”
“Repeat your traffic, Mr. Blue,” Jackie said.
“Abort! Abort!”
“Acknowledged, Mr. Blue. I’ll meet you at the drop-off point,” Jackie said as she started up the Toyota and exited the lot.
“What’s wrong, Travis?” Ronnie asked as he started up the car.
“I got a bad feeling about this. We need to abort,” Travis said to Ronnie.
“What kind of feeling? You see a cop or something?”
“It just doesn’t feel right, Ronnie, okay?” Travis screamed.
“Okay, okay, chill the fuck out, Travis. We out of here.”
As Ronnie left the parking lot, Travis looked back at the store and saw Me’shelle come out, talking to the bagman. This confirmed his greatest fear and provided justification for his actions. Ronnie and Travis drove in silence to the drop-off point where Jackie was waiting in the Q45. Once they abandoned the Ford, Jackie drove to Murray’s house to drop the car and pick up some money. Jackie and Ronnie remained outside while Travis went in to make the transaction.
“What was up with that?” Jackie asked Ronnie.
“I don’t know. One minute he was cool, and the next thing he’s hollerin’ ‘abort!’ like he lost his damn mind. Then he got all quiet. I don’t know what’s up with Travis,” Ronnie said.
“Maybe he saw something,” Jackie said.
“Maybe he’s losing his nerve.”
“Maybe, but whatever it is, we gonna have to watch Travis,” Jackie said. “’Cause I never seen him act like that.”
“I have. Saturday night at the party. You didn’t notice how he really wasn’t into it?”
“Yeah, but I didn’t think nothing of it, ’cause when I came out of the room, he was fuckin’ the shit out Mystique,” Jackie said and laughed as Travis came out of the house.
“Yo, look, I’m sorry about what happened. I just got a really bad feeling, that’s all. It won’t happen again,” Travis said, but in the back of his mind he knew different.
It’s time to find a way to make it out the game.
Chapter Ten
At 9:30 p.m., Bruce Lawrence parked his car across the street from The Spot and turned off the engine. The Spot was a private club run by a guy named Rocky, who also dealt for Chilly. It was the kind of place where ballers, wanna-be ballers, thugs, low-rent gangsters and those hangers-on who just wanted to be down hung out. Chilly had told Bruce to meet him there at 10:00, but when Bruce arrived, he saw Chilly’s car already parked down the street.
Bruce had known Chilly for years, and Chilly liked or at best felt sorry for Bruce. This gave Bruce the advantage of being able to go directly to Chilly for product instead of having to deal with his more ruthless underlings.
He sat there for a while wondering what he was going to do. As usual, he didn’t have all of Chilly’s money.
After he gathered his courage, Bruce got out of his car and went inside. The place was jammed, and the music was loud. Bruce made his way through the crowd, looking for Chilly without success. Finally, he decided to ask somebody where Chilly was. “He’s in the back. In Rocky’s office, waitin’ for you.”
That was the worst.
Bruce felt like he had a better chance of leaving alive if he talked to Chilly with a lot of people around. He’d seen people go in the office and not come out. Bruce began to think that maybe Me’shelle was right. Maybe he should go home, get Natalie and Brandy and leave the city until things cooled out. He could take the money he had and go down south to Columbia, flip that money and come back when he had all that he owed Chilly.
He turned around, headed for the door and walked right into Derrick Washington, Chilly’s top lieutenant.
“Bruce, my man!” Derrick hollered over the music. “You’re goin’ the wrong way. Chilly’s in the back. Come on.”
Bruce followed Derrick as they made their way through the crowd, cursing all the way. Derrick opened the door to the office and stepped aside to let Bruce go in. This is not good, Bruce thought as he looked around the room filled with everybody he didn’t want to see and one other man he had never seen before. Rocky was seated behind the desk and Chilly was sitting in one of the two chairs in front of the desk, with a young lady standing behind him.
Chilly was talking to the stranger, who sat quietly listening and nodding his head. The man looked like he didn’t belong there nor did he want to be there, and Bruce could tell that he was scared. Suddenly, the man got up and started for the door. Just before he reached Bruce, Chilly called out to him. “Jake!”
The man stopped and turned to face Chilly.
“It’s been six months, Jake. I need to start seeing some results. You understand me, Jake?”
The scared man nodded his head.
“I didn’t hear you, Jake. Do you understand what I’m sayin’, Jake?”
“Yes, Chilly, I understand you perfectly,” the scared man answered and rushed quickly past Bruce and out the door.
All eyes were now on Bruce and Derrick. “Look what I found tryin’ to make it out the door,” Derrick said.
Chilly looked up and smiled when he saw Bruce standing there. He whispered something to the young lady and she left the room. When she closed the door behind her, Chilly motioned for Bruce to come forward. “What’s up, Bruce? Come here and have a seat.”
“What’s up, Chilly?” Bruce said slowly.
“I know you got something for me,” Chilly told him. “And I’m really not in the mood for your usual list of bullshit excuses.”
Bruce reached into his pocket and handed Chilly the money he had for him. “It’s only fifteen hundred. I know I owe you four, but I just need a couple of days to get rest.” Bruce had another $1,500 in his pockets, which he would give up if it became absolutely necessary.
Chilly dropped his head. “You know what, Bruce? I knew this was a bad idea when I first started it. I should have passed you off to one of these muthafuckas years ago, but I felt some type of loyalty to you because you looked out for me with Gee when you was still working at the bank. You had a good thing goin’ there, but you fucked that up because you couldn’t keep your hands out that drawer. You’re a fuck-up, Bruce, but I ain’t tellin’ you anything that you don’t already know.”
“I’m sorry, Chilly.”
“Sorry for what? For being a fuck-up or for not havin’ my money? Probably both,” Chilly said and stood up. “You wanna know something, Bruce? It ain’t even about the money. Shit, this little four grand we talkin’ about ain’t gonna make me one bit of difference. It’s the fact that I trusted you, showed you respect, and this is how you’ve chosen to repay that, with more of your usual lyin’-ass bullshit.”