Page 23 of Search My Soul (Taylor Family Saga #3)

“Girl, how many times do I have to tell you that you have nothing to worry about? This is gonna be a clean in and out situation. We’ll get the money and then you can leave.

” The final part of her plan differed from what we had previously discussed, which made me wonder if she was trying to set me up.

“Wait. I thought we were leaving together. Why would you stay at his house after you steal his money? Isn’t that dangerous?”

“Oh, please. I thought about letting him go afterwards, but I doubt if he’ll even put two and two together.

He doesn’t know your name or where you live.

Which means that, even if he does think that you stole the money, he won’t have any way to trace you down.

I think it will be better this way. I’ll be able to pretend that I knew nothing about it, and he’ll never know what hit him.

” She assured me as if her plan was foolproof.

My anxiety spiked at the idea of things going wrong.

He may not know my name, but he’d seen my face, so if we were to run into each other again, he would know who I was.

This blonde wig and these contacts could only do so much.

While I may have never seen him before tonight, that didn’t mean it was impossible for us to cross paths one day.

“Don’t give me that. I promise you everything is gonna work out just fine.

” She must’ve read my thoughts, or maybe it was the look on my face.

It didn’t matter how many times she assured me that things would be okay; I wouldn’t feel comfortable until I was out of this place.

Hell, the only reason why I lasted this long was because I didn’t wanna lose my daddy and sister.

I swear, a vacation was calling my name.

I needed to lie low anyway to gather my thoughts.

“I’ve got you, girl. I promise you have nothing to worry about.

” As much as I wanted to believe it, my nerves refused to settle.

We waited around for ten minutes to give the drugs a chance to settle in.

As we stepped back into the room, I cursed under my breath.

The windows were closed, so the pungent odor from earlier was still in there.

“All right, I’m gonna check to make sure that he is still out of it, and then I’ll check the closet to make sure the money is still there.

The last couple of weeks that I’ve been over here, he’s kept the money in the same place.

Now, I noticed the color of the bags change every once in a while, but the money remains the same.

” Majesty whispered the plan to me. I simply nodded to let her know that I heard what she said.

I didn’t wanna make too much noise just in case he wasn’t as out of it as we thought he was.

Majesty tiptoed up to his side of the bed, waving her hand in front of his face.

Once she was sure that he was still knocked out, she padded over to the closet.

I stood in the middle of the room, anxiously waiting for further instructions.

After a moment, Majesty returned with a huge grin on her face.

Instead of speaking, she gestured with her finger for me to come into the closet with her.

Wasting no time, I followed her into the closet.

My eyes widened as I noticed all of the clothes hanging from wall to wall in the walk-in closet.

She wasn’t lying when she said this man was paid.

Whatever he did for a living afforded him all the nicest brands and expensive fits.

His closet was set up like the ones I saw celebrities have.

There was a clear case that held his watches and chains on the left side of the closet.

And on the right, several racks held designer sneakers and dress shoes.

“Bitch, this is more money than I even thought it would be,” Majesty whispered excitedly as she unzipped the first duffel bag.

My eyes bulged out of my head as I saw the number of big bills sitting in one bag.

As a dancer, you get accustomed to bills and being able to eyeball how much you’ve made per night.

Just by looking at one bag, I could tell there was at least $250,000 in it.

Seeing eight of those bags made me realize just how much money he had.

What the fuck is this man into? Even the average hustlers in the neighborhood weren’t making this kind of money.

He must’ve been a very important person, or he worked for one.

“I’m gonna need your help carrying all these bags to the car.” I replayed her words over in my head to make sure that I heard her correctly.

“Bags as in more than one?” Don’t get me wrong, I desperately needed this money to help my father out, but there was no way taking this amount of money wouldn’t lead to our demise.

A person with this kind of money might be okay with a $50,000 loss but there was at least two million, if not more in these bags.

Taking all of it would be like signing our own death certificates.

“Yes, girl. If we’re gonna do it, we might as well do it right.”

I stared at Majesty as if she had two heads on her shoulders instead of just one. There was no way she thought this would turn out well.

“Majesty, I don’t think this is a good idea. Whoever he is must be very important, and I’m sure that they will not take too kindly to all of their money being taken. Shit like that leads to all types of street wars, and I’m not trying to lose my life.” I rebutted, taking a few steps back.

“Don’t tell me you’re a scary hoe. Come on, Caramel. You and I both could use this money, and it’s not like he’ll be able to trace it back to us. Niggas get robbed every day. What makes this situation any different?”

“The difference is that we’re not in the streets, and we don’t have any way to protect ourselves if this man comes looking for us. I can’t speak for you, but I don’t have the type of manpower that someone like him probably has behind him. There’s no amount of money worth dying over.”

“Well, if you’re too afraid, then you’re more than welcome to leave. Just know that I’ll be taking a full cut if I’m doing all of the work.” I wanted to smack that goofy ass smirk right off her fucking face. It’s my fault though. I should’ve never agreed to this in the first place.

“I’m gonna take the money that I need and that’s it.

Either you underestimated how powerful this man really is, or he has been lying to you about what he actually does for a living.

There’s no way that he could be a regular street nigga, which means that he must be something more.

I’ve seen the way people handle those street beefs, and I would never want the people I love to get caught up in my bad decisions.

Let’s just do what we agreed to do and get out of here.

” One of those duffel bags was more than enough to take care of both of us and so much more.

He may not even notice one bag, but eight bags?

That was asking for trouble, and I didn’t care if she didn’t agree.

“You do what you gotta do, and I’ll do the rest on my own.

” Instead of arguing back and forth with her, I decided to do exactly that.

After peeking into the room one more time to make sure that he was still out, I lifted the duffel bag over my shoulder.

The weight of the bag exceeded my expectations, but I kept steady.

I damn near held my breath from the moment I walked out of the closet until I descended the steps.

Majesty followed me out with two bags of her own, and I prayed that she would be ready to go after this.

If not, I would have no choice but to leave her.

I was glad I drove my own car here because I would have been ready to beat her ass had we been in the same car together.

I made a silent vow that I would never do anything so reckless again in my life.

Something about this whole thing felt fishy to me, and I wanted to get out as soon as possible.

“Majesty, don’t you think that this is dangerous?

What’s wrong with the amount of money we have now?

It’s more than enough for us to take care of all our financial issues and put some aside for a business or whatever else we want to do.

The worst thing you can do in this situation is to be greedy, because greed can only lead to destruction.

I’m not in the position to preach to anyone, but I don’t think taking all that money is a smart idea. ”

“Girl, if I wanted to hear a sermon, I would take my ass to church,” Majesty spat.

“Well, I’ll be sure to remember that when it’s time to pick out a pastor for your funeral.

What do you think is gonna happen when he wakes up and sees all of those duffel bags missing?

Nobody is dumb enough to believe that one person walked in, took all the bags, and then walked back out.

You’ll be dead before you even get a chance to roll over.

” I wasn’t trying to scare her, but I needed her to understand the severity of the situation.

If she thought for one second that man would not be on the hunt to recover his money, she was out of her mind.

“Oh my gosh. You’re making me wish that I had chosen somebody else to come with me. All of this scary shit is putting a damper on my good mood and killing my buzz. At this point, you can leave with the money you have. I got it from here.”

“Whatever you say.” I was done arguing with her.

It was clear that she had no intention of listening to what I had to say anyway.

I guess we would have to see how it played out.

I walked away so I could head home when I remembered that I left my purse in the bathroom.

A part of me wanted to say fuck it, but I had no choice but to go back.

The moment I stepped inside, I knew something was wrong.