“He damn sure right about that, Jackie,” Ronnie agreed.
“Rule one: Get your cash on, M.O.B. That’s money over bitches ’cause they bleed envy,” Travis stated with passion. “Ain’t no truer shit than that.”
Both Travis and Ronnie turned to Jackie.
“As long as we can all agree the term ‘bitches’ don’t necessarily apply to women only,” Jackie said. “’Cause you know sometimes you niggas can be bitches too.”
“Agreed,” both Travis and Ronnie said.
“What about rule two, Tee?” Jackie asked, referring to Tupac’s second rule in “Blasphemy”. “You tryin’ to say you need to watch us? Like you don’t trust us?”
“No, that’s not what I’m sayin’. You two are like blood to me. I know none of us will ever betray the other. What I’m sayin’ is that you gotta watch your homies, because everybody you roll with that you may think is your friend, ain’t.”
“True that,” Ronnie said as he poured himself another glass of Henny. “Everybody you think is cool, ain’t.” He passed the bottle to Travis. “But we still eight rules short.”
Travis poured himself a drink and filled Jackie’s glass. “So, we’ll make up our own rules.” He got up and walked over to Ronnie’s desk to get a piece of paper. He returned to his spot and began to write. “All right, we got rules one and two. What else? Remember, these are our rules. Shit that applies to us and what we’re tryin’ to do. It ain’t gotta be that outlaw immortal, thugged-out shit.”
With Tupac’s lyrics as their inspiration, they created a list to fit the bright futures they believed they would have.
“Get off your ass if you plan to be rich definitely needs to be on the list,” Jackie said, and they all agreed. Travis wrote it down.
“I got one,” Ronnie said as he got up and changed the CD. He put in Thug Life. “Bury Me a G” jumped off.
“Stay smart,” Ronnie suggested, “’cause it’s all about survival.”
“That got to be one. And definitely keep your mind on your money,” Travis said.
“So, what we got?” He began to read from the list he was writing. “Rule one: Get your cash on, M.O.B. Rule two: Keep your enemies close. Rule three: Get off your ass if you plan to be rich. Rule four: Stay smart. And rule five is keep your mind on your money,” Travis said, reading from the list.
“Come on now, we need five more,” Jackie said.
“What about give back what you earn?” Travis offered.
“No doubt,” Ronnie agreed. “We had this chance to raise ourselves up. It’s only fair that we give somebody else a chance.”
“So, what you talkin about doin’, Travis?” Jackie asked. “You talkin’ about startin’ a foundation or something like that?”
“I don’t know. There’s a lot of things we can do to give something back. You know we can do volunteer work or give to United Negro College Fund or whatever. But I think it’s important that we give something back, you know what I’m sayin’?”
“Chill out, Travis. We know what you sayin’.” Jackie laughed.
“I got one,” Ronnie announced, once again inspired by the music.
“What’s that?” Jackie asked.
“Don’t fuck with trick niggas.”
“That’s good,” Travis said.
“I got one,” Jackie offered. “Snitches get dealt with.”
“Right. ’Cause y’all know we gonna meet up with some of them, even if we are headed for corporate America,” Travis said as he continued to write.
Jackie stood and walked over to the window. “I don’t want y’all to take this the wrong way, but I love you two. I mean, I love y’all like y’all were my blood. Shit, I love y’all more than I do them two lazy muthafuckas that call themselves my brothers. They only know me when they think I got money. I love you two. Y’all my family. So I got another one.” Jackie turned around and raised her glass. “Let no one come between us.”
Travis and Ronnie both stood up and joined Jackie at the window. Ronnie poured everybody another glass full of Hennessey. They all raised their glasses and repeated the words together. “Let no one come between us.” They turned up their glasses and they came down empty.
Ronnie poured himself another, “That’s word, for real. I would die for you niggas,” he said and passed the bottle to Jackie.
“That’s how it is for me, too,” Jackie said as she drained her glass. She passed the bottle to Travis.
Travis poured and quickly emptied his glass. “Shit, y’all can die if you want to. I plan on livin’ forever.” They all laughed.
“So, that’s only nine. Come on now, we need one more rule to make ten,” Jackie said.
“I know what number ten should be,” Travis said.
“What’s that?” Ronnie asked as he filled each of their glasses again.
“Even though it isn’t exactly a rule, number ten should be ‘Bless me please, Father.’ ”
Chapter Three
Ronnie paced back and forth, trying to contain his thoughts. He took a deep breath and continued to pace until he could no longer hold it. “Travis, look man, I’m sorry. I fucked up. I let myself get distracted and tripped the alarm. I got careless.”
“Don’t sweat it, Ronnie. We got everything we came for. We didn’t get caught and we didn’t have to kill anybody. Besides, it’s not your fault; it’s mine. I should have known that the store manager would have a gun somewhere. I should have anticipated that contingency and planned for it.”
“Come on, Travis, you’re good, but there is no way you could have know that he had a gun and would be stupid enough to go for it.”
“Maybe, but I should have. It was logical for him to have one. Maybe we’re running on too tight a timeline. I don’t know. It would have only taken what, another thirty seconds to check and make sure he wasn’t armed?”
“Now you’re second-guessing yourself. You had the job planned down to the second, Travis. Another thirty seconds could have meant the difference between us standing here kickin’ it with that briefcase full of jewels in your hand or some cop telling you to relax your hand so he can get a good fingerprint.”
“I know, but still-”
“But still my ass, Travis. You said it yourself; timelines are tight for a reason. If we don’t have tight timelines, we get relaxed. Get sloppy, get careless and get caught.”
“Did I say that?”
“Yes, you did. You said it when I complained about the timelines being too tight. Now I can really see why they’re like that. You had the whole thing planned out to the very last detail. When they’d get there, how many cameras. You knew what kind of security and what devices we’d run up on and how to disable them. You knew what to take and how long it would take to get it all,” Ronnie said as Jackie pulled up in the car. “It wasn’t your planning. It was my execution that got us fucked up today.”
Travis was listening but he wasn’t hearing what Ronnie was trying to say. As far as he was concerned, it was his fault. He should have known that the manager would have a gun somewhere in the store. It was his job to know that. That mistake could have gotten them killed or caught. He knew the timelines were too tight. He planned it that way. Tight timelines equal tight execution.
“Sorry I’m late, y’all. I got caught up in lunchtime traffic. And you did say to drive safely,” Jackie said as Travis and Ronnie got in the car.
“See, Travis. You even knew Jackie was caught in traffic. Ain’t nothing wrong with your planning skills, Spock. I just fucked up, that’s all.”
“What’s he talking about?” Jackie asked.
“I told him it was my fault that things went down the way they did. I should have known that the manager had a gun somewhere. We should have taken the time to make sure that he didn’t. He thinks it’s his fault.”
“No, Travis, you’re wrong about this one. It is most definitely his fault. What the fuck were you thinkin’, Ronnie?” Jackie asked angrily.
“I’m sorry, Jackie. Damn,” Ronnie pleaded.
“Sorry don’t get it done. Not this time. It wasn’t the fuckin’ timeline. That shit was tight and on time. It was them extra fifteen seconds I had to spend gettin’ you off that man’s ass that fucked shit up. Kick the fuckin’ gun out of his hand and get the fuck back to work. But no, mister fuckin’ adrenaline has to have a kick fit,” Jackie argued. “It was those fifteen seconds that allowed rental cops to get there and in position and then allowed the cops to get close enough to actually chase us.”