Page 3 of For the Love of City

We’d been taught not to flinch. Not to think twice about a kill because where we lived the shit was eat or be eaten.

Trav and I never got into unnecessary beef but we’d end some shit quick.

As the bullets entered King’s body I watched the limbs jerk from impact.

The bright white kitchen cabinets getting splattered with blood droplets.

Neither of our guns had been used before.

I was more than willing to just spray this nigga up but when I heard about everything he’d been trying to put on us; I needed to get up close and personal.

Without him to corroborate anything, they didn’t have a case against us but we would have to be extra careful.

Shit had been moved around, houses closed up and cars switched out.

Trav and I had been smart enough to still work odd jobs when we first came up so that our income was legal.

It was now being funneled through a few places around the hood like the check cashing store nobody knew we owned.

We’d thought that we’d have to step back and let the heat die down, but Xavier assured us that we’d already done enough and could get back to business as usual.

His body slumped over the kitchen island before falling back and hitting the floor with a wet thud.

The silencers had done the job of keeping anyone from hearing us and alerting the police.

The only sounds in the kitchen besides him falling were the bullets hitting the cabinets and the granite countertops.

“That shit didn’t make me as happy as I thought it would.” Trav was looking at King bleeding out with a look of disappointment on his normally happy face. Trav didn’t give a shit how hot the barrel was and screwed the silencer off the tip as soon as he stopped shooting.

“Facts, but ain’t shit else we can do now. We can’t reanimate his ass to kill him again.” That disappointment was a mutual feeling because nothing had to end like this but he forced our hand. “Maybe not.”

Trav went over pulling a glove on his hand before he checked on the body ensuring that King wasn’t breathing. When he gave me a nod, I finally relaxed and went to the duffle bag.

“You know what we got to do now.” I pulled out one of the empty bags before tossing it to him.

“Yeah, run this shit.” Travis was grinning as he looked back at our handiwork.

“Besides that.”

“I ain’t cleaning this shit up, City.” His grin fell as he looked around at all the shit that would’ve needed to be done to get everything right.

“Nah, Xavier said they got people for that. His ass gone look like he skipped town or sumn’.”

Travis was nodding while still looking around at the mess. “We got to play this shit smooth. They gone look to us to keep shit running and that’s what we’re going to do.”

“We got a couple weeks before Xavier said he’d link back up with us. Do I think he’ll do it? Probably. But the shit he’s talking about seems too good to be true. Bruh really said that we need to just walk out with what we need and he has everything else.”

“I know you trust his ass, though. And to be real, old head don’t know us to give a fuck about us. He could’ve just as easily have killed King himself and let us still catch a case. They seem solid.”

Travis being this eager to trust after we just got burned was the confidence I needed to go with my gut.

I felt like the Millers were solid, but I’d put that same faith in King.

I focused on the tasks at hand so we could get out of here.

I’d worry about my fucking feelings while I was counting this severance we were about to find.

“We got forty-seven minutes. Let’s get this bread so we can get the fuck outta here.”

“How much you think he got stashed?”

I pulled out the other duffle bag and I already knew these wouldn’t be enough.

“Knowing him? A good bit of everything he holding. His ass was never smart enough to invest in shit and putting it in a bank would raise too many red flags. Should be half a mill especially since the reup money Should be stored around here. It’s probably double that, if not more, unless he spent it all on bullshit. ”

Trav tossed the bag down on the counter angrily. “Oh, so we finna walk out this bitch with ten dollars.”

I laughed because it was easy for his ass to switch up the temperature of a situation real quick.

“We’d have done this shit for free. Stop playing.

Besides, I’m sure they were gonna have his ass stop all his illegal activities, which is why he had us bring so much to him and not leave it in the safe.

He wouldn’t be able to put it in a bank because it would’ve just alerted more people to what was going on.

His bread is here. We find it, get it and get the fuck outta here. ”

Travis snatched up the bag with a new determination to find the stash. “Then it’s back to business as usual. Only now, we the ones reaping the benefits of our hard work.”

“Facts. Let’s split up, we got forty-six minutes to be outta here.”

“Aye, City.”

My head snapped up from the phone I held in my hand, ignoring the text from this chick I was kinda dealing with.

I was about to leave the block and she’d messaged me right on time, wanting to know what I was up to.

Stacey had been on me heavy since we’d started kicking it a few years ago.

Some women would always overlook a corner boy but as soon as that promotion came in and the money matched the work, suddenly it was a phone full of hey big head texts and grainy pussy pics.

Count was done and money was secure so me lingering around was unnecessary.

Part of me just loved being in the trap's environment.

The energy was better than a Red Bull, the adrenaline rush second to none.

It was business as usual since folks were still thinking that King’s ass was on vacation.

That shit was permanent but few people knew to even question shit because they rarely saw his ass, anyway.

He was the type to drop out of sight and then brag about where he’d been.

First clue that he was gone fold and he’d gotten too lax with the street shit.

“What’s good?”

A young nigga named Poke was walking through the door like he was on a mission.

He got his name because he enjoyed stabbing muthafuckas so I stared his ass down to make sure he wasn’t on no shit.

We had good people, but I’m sure King’s ass thought the same shit and now look at him: dead, robbed, and about to enter the circle of life to feed the microbes in the soil.

“Some bitch out here looking for you. Saying she’s got something you want.

” His face was frowned up like whoever was outside was on his damn nerves.

The money was locked up until I got ready to go and nobody could get in that room unless it was me or Trav.

King had other people on his payroll, but this was one house we controlled so they had no say and no access.

Poke was looking at me like he was waiting on my word to toss her ass in the dumpster around the corner, which wasn’t a bad idea. But this shit with King had me spooked so I at least needed to put eyes on who it was in case I needed to have her touched.

My brow quirked at whatever bitch was outside looking for me. Nobody should be around this place asking for me especially not by fucking name.

“We know her?”

He sucked his teeth and rolled his eyes, reminding me he was still young as hell. Poke wasn’t even old enough to drink yet and was already jaded. “Yeah, it’s Reina.”

I frowned up automatically because there was no reason she needed to be around me.

Reina was an older woman who thought she was too good for where we lived.

Her old man died a while back and had been half in the game with King and half out.

They had a kid or two, but Dae had distanced himself from street shit a while before he died.

The hood still sent him off like a hero, but like all things life moved on.

Reina was always out in somebody’s face and I hadn’t seen or heard shit about her or her kid in a minute.

I hopped up from the couch needing to see what was going on.

It was just a reminder that I didn’t need to hang out at the spot and chasing pussy would always get me caught up.

Especially if a woman like Reina knew where to find my Black ass.

My Ones squeaked slightly against the old linoleum on the floors.

I didn’t care if this was a trap house; it was still a part of a neighborhood and we weren’t going to be any more of a nuisance than we already were.

We ain’t let fiends hang out around here and nobody got their shit out of this house.

It was the street or you had to beat your feet from around us.

I be damned if I sat up in a spot that was filthy.

Mostly, them niggas kept their shit together, which we appreciated.

I pushed opened the screen door and ducked beneath the doorway to get outside. My ass was too tall and lanky for these damn houses. At almost six foot eight, I was oversized for just about everything so I was used to it.