Page 10 of In Too Deep

Mimi took a deep breath and placed her forehead in the palm of her hand.

“I know that, but I don’t need them tracing that fucking car.

The headlight is busted, the paint is chipped, I mean, I could take the tags off and put some drive outs on there, but if shit turned sour with this, they’d have a lot of shit to go off of.

I told that nigga them ugly ass rims on the Crown Vic wasn’t a good look. ”

Thinking quick on my feet, I muttered, “I can rent a car real quick.”

“You know how long that shit takes. It takes them up to three hours to process the paperwork.”

“Not Enterprise, I’ll be in and out. I already have the proper documents. The only thing I’ll need is insurance and my license.”

“Go ahead and look online for something cheap.”

Nodding my head, I fished around for my phone, placing my request for something cheap. All I needed was something durable to get from point A to point B.

“These mosquitos tearing my ass up,” Allen complained as he stood beside me outside.

The night air felt muggy and damp. If I stuck my index finger in the air, it’d be damp.

I met Allen at the meeting point, FedEx Freight drop off, tucked in a corner, away from the diesel pumps.

I kept grabbing my phone, clutching it tightly to check the time, fidgeting.

They were late, and that threw me off. Regardless of the mission's emotional consistency during unloading and restocking household items, his punctuality was notable; however, his employment was not with a billion-dollar corporation such as FedEx. Though I’m sure their routes are similar, anything could happen.

I was looking for small signs from God, so I could back out, but I didn’t see any.

Everything on the way here was smooth up until this point.

Allen hadn’t mentioned anything about punctuality.

He was joking next to me, flirting here and there without seeming bothered by the driver’s tardiness.

The first sign of him bullshitting me, I was gonna shoot his ass.

I noticed his gun on his hip, but he had to know I wasn’t stupid enough to pull up unarmed.

“These mothafucka’s ain’t eatin’ you up,” he frowned, slapping his caramel colored arm.

“You probably have some sweet blood,” I responded. It’s a Southern thing to say if mosquitoes constantly bite you. No one is ever allergic to mosquitoes, so it’s common to say if it happens often.

He chuckled, his hand balled up into a fist over his mouth as he went into a laughing fit.

“You sound like my granny.”

“How long do you think he’ll be?” I inquired, wanting him to pause the comedic shit.

He gave me a sadistic side eye. “Freight ain’t never on time, but he’s on the way. I ain’t gone steer you wrong. His ETA is ten minutes away.”

For assurance, he pulled out an Android and went to Telegram, showing me the message that confirmed what he had already told me.

“You look stiff as hell. You need to hit this blunt and relax.”

The pre-rolled vanilla Dutch reeked. He put the blunt to his mouth and inhaled before passing it over to me for me to take it. I placed my hand on his wrist and moved it away from me, frowning in disgust like I was allergic.

“No thank you.”

“Mean ass,” he muttered.

We leaned against the trunk of a Toyota Camry, the car I had rented from Enterprise.

“Can I ask you a question?”

Glancing over at me, he nodded his head while squinting his eyes, taking another pull from his blunt.

“You just did.”

“Are you always this childish?”

“Are you always this stuck up?” He mocked me in a girly tone, followed by a snicker.

Noticing that I wasn’t laughing, he motioned with his hand for me to ask the question.

“You sell guns and do other shit, why’d you put me on to this?”

Exhaling, he blew clouds of smoke in the opposite direction. “Why not?”

“There has to be a reason.”

“No other reason besides, I know you like to get money and you ain’t no chicken shit ass bitch. Plus, it’s enough money for everybody else to get some. I can’t keep it all to myself.”

“You ever thought doing anything else besides this?” I asked something more seriously.

I had these questions with myself a lot, when sleep wouldn’t come over me.

I’d be facing darkness, with the sheets sprawled across my naked body.

The light from my flat screen television would be illuminating throughout the room, and I’d be forced to think deeply about what lay ahead for me.

People do it a lot—scammers too. Surely, I am not the only individual striving towards aspirations while facing adversity, without considering short-term gains and jotting down long term goals in a notepad.

Allen is smart as hell. It takes a person with brains to scam. Street sense is one thing, and common sense is another.

“Naw.”

He side eyed me again. The ashes from the tip of the blunt fell on a small puddle of water between us.

“I don’t think that far ahead. I think for the moment.

I don’t like to cloud my mind with setting goals.

Scamming is more than a hustle. It’s a lifestyle.

When I hit my first lick, I never went into it trying to escape from something.

The goal is to never go broke. Working at Kroger is a fuckin’ decoy.

I don’t have to do it, but it keep the Feds off my back, and I move stealth enough not to ever get caught.

You don’t ever ask a nigga like me what their plans are because they don’t matter.

I was born on this earth to get money, fuck bitches, and die. ”

“That’s a fucked up way of thinking, Allen.”

“It don’t matter. If I died today, I’d be ten million dollars richer than I was last week. What about you?”

“I got goals,” I muttered with a boost of confidence.

Reaching his hand out, he swiped his finger under my chin. “Pretty girls always have goals.

I stared at him for a second. The sound of a truck blaring behind us jarred my attention away from his coffee bean-colored brown eyes.

Allen cocked his head to the side and glanced down at his dimly lit phone screen.

Naturally, he reached for the gun on his hip until the message he saw provided him with a sense of ease.

“That’s him. Go ahead and pop the trunk. I’ll give him his cut, just stay put and don’t move until I tell you to.”

Being obedient, I gave him a quick head nod and did as I was told.

The small car swayed from side to side as he loaded everything in my trunk.

Gripping the steering wheel, the palms of my hands felt sweaty.

It wasn’t from the misty air. My nerves were wrecked, making me want to back pedal on puffing on the blunt when Allen offered it to me.

I took a few deep breaths, and my nerves seemed to subside as I closed my eyes, waiting for Allen to give me the green light.

My eyes darted open and I clutched the lanyard holding the FedEx badge at the sound of someone tapping on the driver side window. I swallowed my spit, noticing Allen, and felt sort of relief, but was mindful enough to grip the gun that was tucked in my back.

He mouthed for me to roll the window down.

“You good?”

“Y-yeah,” I stammered.

“You want me to trail you home?”

“No, you don’t have to.”

“I ain’t gone try shit, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

“Could it be that I just don’t want you to know where I lay my head at?”

“Fair enough,” he tittered. “But aye, don’t keep that shit stored at yo spot.

Get you a storage unit and drop that shit off there.

To make shit make sense, it’s where I keep my guns.

The only difference is that it ain’t in my name, so it won’t be a paper trail.

You know anybody that could put it in their name off the strength of fucking with you, without keeping questions minimal? ”

“Yeah,” I responded before thinking who I could use.

“Good, and you don’t need big shit a lil’ five by five would perfect. Nothing bigger than that. Where ‘bout you stay?”

“South Memphis, off Lamar and Semmes.”

“Aw so you know where that U-haul storage unit at then, huh?”

“ Yeah,” I confirmed with a quick head, envisioning the exact location .

“I got a cousin who work there. Just give her my name, and she’ll fuck with you and whoever you get to sign off on it for you.

Shouldn’t be charging you an arm and leg no way, but when you do that, holla at me and I’ll send you the Facebook page profile to upload the shit, so you can make your first sale. ”

“Do I have to do it through the Facebook Marketplace? What about other options? The same way I do with the household items?”

“Do it however you feel comfortable, but the only reason I’m telling you this is because that Facebook page already has traction and trusted transactions. Just be smart on the way you move.”

“Okay.”

“If you need me for anything, just hit me up.”

His eyes, crinkling at the corners, held a warm, reassuring gaze.

A silent promise hung in the air, felt as much as seen.

I felt compelled enough to stay above my nerves and not further damage them by feeling worried.

Allen spoke with a cool confidence, but not that I had any reason to doubt his skill.

Most of that stemmed from thinking hard about what could go wrong, rather than focusing on what could go right.

SUNDAY, THE DAY AFTER THE HEIST

Pretty girls always have goals.

Allen’s voice resonated deep in my back of my mind like an implant.