by Roy Glenn
Since Travis’s house was occupied by Me’shelle, Jackie drove to Ronnie’s house so they could count up and divide the money.
“Ninety-six thousand four hundred and eighty-two dollars,” Travis announced.
“That’s all?” Ronnie asked. “After all that shit, all we gonna come away with is less than thirty grand a piece?”
“I knew that last job would spoil us,” Jackie said.
“The grocery store job was much bigger than I expected. But every job ain’t been like that,” Travis explained.
“Well, they should be. We takin’ a lot of risk for a little bit of money. Maybe we should only do grocery stores on Mondays,” Ronnie said.
“Yeah right,” Jackie said. “And be in jail by Tuesday. Cops may be stupid, but I think they could figure out that pattern.”
“You know, on our first job we each came away with sixteen grand. We made almost double that today and you bitchin’ about it,” Travis said.
“All I’m sayin’ is we should be lookin’ at higher value targets to hit.”
“This was a good hit today. It’s the kind of money we always been making when we go out. Now the shit ain’t enough for you? Well, if you can find a higher value target to hit, you let us know,” Jackie said.
“Well, I heard rumors about this house in Westchester that has noting but safes full of diamonds all through the house.”
“I heard those same rumors. I also heard that place is so mobbed up that it would be suicide for anyone who tried to rob it. Put that shit out of your mind, ’cause it ain’t happenin’.”
“I’m just sayin’ if we ain’t gonna come away with a certain amount of money, then maybe we shouldn’t go out.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.” Travis stood up. “You know, it was you who said that we had to run a job soon because you needed the dough. Now I gotta hear this shit. That’s it for me, man. I’m out!” Travis said.
“What the fuck you mean, you out?”
“From here on out, if you wanna do this, fine. Do it by your damn self.”
“You just gonna up and quit on us like that?”
“I told you before, when we got into this thing, I never planned on us still being at it two years later. I had a plan. A plan for what I was gonna do to set myself up so I could live comfortable for the rest of my life. It ain’t my fault that you spent all your money.”
“This is fucked up, Travis, that’s all I know. You gonna roll out on us after making this little bit of money. Come on, Travis. Let’s hit one more big money target, and after that we can go our separate ways.”
“No, Ronnie, I’m done. No more. Do you hear me? No more! No more robbin’, no more shootin’, no more getting’ shot at. It’s over! You can do what you want.”
“That’s what it is; you’re scared. I was right about you, Travis. You lost your nerve,” Ronnie said.
“You’re right, Ronnie. Absolutely right. I have lost my nerve. I don’t want to do this anymore. We’ve been lucky so far; we haven’t killed anybody and none of us have gotten hurt. But that’s it. We’ve been lucky, that’s all. I’m not gonna wait around for our luck to run out.”
“It’s about that bitch, ain’t it?”
“What you say?”
“You heard what I said. It’s about that bitch.”
“Ronnie, you and me go a long way back, and I know that you’re mad, so I’m gonna let that go. But you can think whatever you want to about why, and if you want to put it all on Me’shelle, be my guest. But it doesn’t change the facts one way or the other. I’m out.”
“You’re a fuckin’ coward, Travis! That’s what the fuck you are, a fuckin’ coward. Let that woman run you. You gonna run out on your partners, your friends, Travis? You ain’t shit. Whatever happened to our rules? We supposed to be choosin’ money over bitches. M.O.B. my ass! Get the fuck out my house, you fuckin’ coward!”
“Whatever, Ronnie. Take me home, Jackie.”
Travis walked out of the house without another word. Jackie looked at Ronnie and shook her head.
“What?” Ronnie asked.
“Nothing, Ronnie. If you don’t know, I can’t make you see it,” Jackie said and left the house.
Chapter Thirty-four
Jackie dropped Travis off at his house before she went home. “Aren’t you going to see Freeze?” she asked.
“No. I’ll call him tomorrow,” Travis answered.
“Call me if you need anything,”
“Thanks, Jackie.”
“Call me tomorrow, okay?”
“I will,” Travis said and went inside. Me’shelle was asleep on the couch, so he entered quietly to avoid waking her. He sat in the chair across from her and watched her while she slept. Me’shelle looked so peaceful, so beautiful.
While he sat there, he replayed the argument he’d just had with Ronnie. His desire to get out and get out now had everything to do with Me’shelle. When he looked at her, Travis saw the future. It was a future that didn’t involve planning robberies, timetables, guns, the police, or people like Freeze making thinly veiled threats with a nine in his lap.
When Travis was with Me’shelle, everything just seemed so right. But that happy life was built on a lie. It was a simple lie, but still it was the foundation of their relationship. Travis presented himself as an honest, hard-working man. Although what he did was work, it definitely wasn’t honest. He understood Me’shelle’s reaction to the revelation that he robbed for a living, but he had hope. The fact that she was lying on his couch sleeping so peacefully meant that maybe he still had a chance at a future with her.
Travis thought back to the night that he and Ronnie and Jackie made their rules. They were the rules they had lived by. Rule one, M.O.B. Rule nine, Let no one come between us. By choosing to get out now and trying to make a future with Me’shelle, Travis had done just that. He tried to justify it within himself by saying that Ronnie had made the choice to break up what they’d built, but he knew in his heart that this was his choice. It was one that he hoped wouldn’t cost their friendship.
When Me’shelle finally woke up, she found Travis seated in front of her. Over the last few days, she’d had a lot to think about. Her brother and sister-in-law were dead, and although she blamed herself for not doing more to help, Me’shelle had slowly come to terms with it. She concluded that even if she had given him the money, it would only be a loan against time. What he was doing was bound to end the way it did unless Bruce himself chose another path. Now she had to choose.
It was like the last few days had changed her somehow. Like she had grown up. She was a woman who led a pretty normal, uneventful life. Now that life seemed so far away.
Me’shelle thought about her reaction to Travis’s news that he was a robber. She got angry and kicked him out. I never want to see you again. But there she was now, on his couch. She refused to support her brother’s drug habit, yet here she was on the couch of a man who admitted he robbed a grocery store. When the police questioned her about Travis, she had no problem protecting him.
Part of her wanted to blame it all on love, but she knew that wasn’t enough. Was she in love with Travis? Sure, but Me’shelle knew why she was there, and it had nothing to do with love. Love could wait. Travis knew people. He knew the kind of people who would know who did this to her brother. Now she was thinking about revenge.
“Hello,” he said.
“Hello yourself,” she said, wiping the sleep from her eyes. “How long have you been here?”
“About an hour.”
“And you’ve just been sitting there?”
“Watching you. You’re very pretty when you’re sleeping.”
Me’shelle smiled and sat up. “We need to talk.”
“I know. How’s Brandy?”
“She’s doing better. Thank you for asking. She’s talking again. Not much, but she talks to me. She’s scared, Travis. Scared that the men who raped her and killed my brother will come after her.”
“Did she talk to the police?�
��
“Yes, and she gave them a description of the men who did it, but you know as well as I do that a drug-related rape and murder isn’t going to be real high on their list of things to do. Maybe if they stumble over them.” Me’shelle gave a disgusted laugh.
“I don’t know. I hear that Kirk is a good cop, so you never know,” Travis said, trying to sound optimistic.
“But somebody has to do something,” Me’shelle countered. She looked directly at Travis. “Anyway, I don’t wanna talk about that now. I came here because I think we need to talk about us.”
“I know.”
“Where do we start?” Me’shelle asked.
“What do you want to know?”
“I guess you could start from the beginning. How did you go from a programmer to a grocery store robber?”
Travis looked into Me’shelle’s eyes and briefly considered some very important facts. A few days ago, Me’shelle had thrown him out of her apartment and said that she never wanted to see him again. She had been to the police and could very well have told them that he was responsible for the grocery store robbery and who knows what else. Now she was sitting in front of him asking for his story. “What did you tell the police about me?”
“I didn’t tell them anything about you. I wouldn’t even say your name. They tried to say that you were involved with Bruce, or that maybe it was something that you were involved in that got them killed. But I knew better. I couldn’t tell them anything about you, Travis. I know this was all Bruce’s doing and you had nothing to do with it.”
“But I had to ask.”
“I’ve been wondering these last few days how I feel about what you do for money.”
“Used to do for money. Before you go any further, Me’shelle, I want you to know that I’m finished with that life. Today I ran my last job.”
“What brought this on? And don’t say it’s because of me.”
“Well, I’d be lying if I said it was all because of you, but I’d be lying if I said that you had nothing to do with it. Does that make sense?”
“In a way.”
“I mean, it has everything and nothing to do with you. I’d been planning to get out long before I met you, but I didn’t think I’d have enough money to retire on.”
Me’shelle just looked at him.
“It’s like this: when I got into this, it was because me, Ronnie and Jackie had all lost our jobs and we didn’t see any other way.”
“I remember, you said ‘Sometimes real life leads you to make real hard choices that you normally wouldn’t.’ But why that, Travis? You’re a smart man. There’s a lot of thing that you could have done.
“But I guess it’s not fair for me to judge you for that. That job belongs to a higher power than me. I don’t know what you were going through at the time to force you to make that choice.
“What I need to know from you now is what you plan to do in the future. I can’t live like that; I won’t live like that, wondering every time you go off with your friends to handle your business if you’re coming home. I won’t live in fear that every time the doorbell rings it could be the police coming to take you away. That someday you may decide that you don’t have enough money and you have to do one more job. ’Cause that one job will always lead to the next.”
“You want to know the truth, Me’shelle?”
“Yes.”
“The truth is that I’m scared. Scared of the same things you just mentioned. Whether me or Jackie and Ronnie will get shot or killed, or when I’ll make a mistake on a job and the police will come after me. I don’t want to live like that.”
“So, what do you want?”
“I want to live a normal life, and I’d like the chance to live that life with you. When I think about the life that we’ve had these last few months, I know that’s where I wanna be. Worrying only about what restaurant we’re going to eat at and whether you’ll be on time.”
Me’shelle laughed. “You make it sound like I’m always late.”
“Well-”
Me’shelle took a playful swing at Travis. “Okay, let’s say I believe you when you say that you’re done. Have you told your friends yet?”
“Yes. I told them tonight that I was done.”
“How did they take it?”
“Ronnie called me a fuckin’ coward and told me to get the fuck out of his house.”
“What about Jackie? What did she say?”
“She’s scared that there’s nothing else that she can do.”
“What does she do?”
“She’s a chemist.”
“That’s right. You did mention that. She’ll be all right. They both will, I’m sure.”
“Yeah, I just hope it doesn’t cost our friendship.”
“Have you ever killed anybody?”
“I’m not sure I should be answering all these questions.”
“Why not? You think I’m wearing a wire or something?” Me’shelle asked and smiled.
“I don’t know. You could be,” Travis said playfully.
Me’shelle looked at Travis and wondered about the kind of person you had to be to both plan and execute robberies. She was disturbed by it, but at the same time, and for reasons she couldn’t really explain to herself, it excited her. Travis Burns was the kind of man who went after what he wanted. Just like he went after me. She looked into his eyes. He wanted me, and he got me.
“Maybe this will ease your fears about that,” Me'shelle said and stood up. “This will prove to you that I'm not wearing a wire.” Me'shelle began to undress, throwing Travis every piece of clothing as she took it off. He happily felt each piece to be sure it contained no electronic devices. Once she was naked, Me'shelle made several turns in front of him. Once Travis was satisfied the she wasn't wired, he carried her off to the bedroom.
The following morning, Travis woke up early. He left Me’shelle asleep in bed and left the house to call Freeze. “Meet me at Cynt’s,” Freeze told him. “No, on second thought, since I know you don’t want to run up on Mystique, meet me at Doc’s spot this afternoon around four.”
Travis laughed, but he appreciated the gesture. “I’ll be there.” He had only been to Doc’s once and wasn’t really all that impressed. The dancers were ugly, and Jackie said that the dealers stacked the deck.
That afternoon, he told Me’shelle he had to go handle some business with Freeze. She was reluctant to let him go until he promised it had nothing to do with any more robberies.
When Travis arrived at Doc’s, he was pleasantly surprised to see that Doc had upgraded the quality of women he had dancing there. Gone were the women with stab wounds and bullet holes, replaced by a variety of Nubian princesses to satisfy any taste. He took a seat a table in the back of the room and waited for Freeze to arrive. Since he was not a regular there like he was at Cynt’s, dancers didn’t flock to his table. It didn’t matter to him. He was there to take care of his business with Freeze and get back to Me’shelle.
As he usually did, Freeze kept Travis waiting. He had been there for over an hour when a fairly large man approached the table. “Can I help you?” the man asked.
“No.”
“I said can I help you?” the man repeated.
“No. I’m waiting for somebody.”
“Who?”
“What?”
“Who you waitin’ for?”
“Who I’m waitin’ for don’t concern you,” Travis stated as the people around them began to move out of the way.
“Everything that goes on in here is my concern. Now, who you here waitin’ for?” The man opened his jacket to be sure that Travis saw his gun.
“Okay. Unless you gonna shoot me now, you need to back the fuck up off me,” Travis warned and stood up. “I told you I got business here. Important business.”
“Is there a problem here, gentlemen?” Freeze asked as he walked up.
“No,” Travis said and reclaimed his seat.
“This guy says he got business in here. S
aid he’s waitin’ on somebody. You want me to put him out?”
“No,” Freeze said. “I got him.”
“You don’t want me to-”
“What are you, deaf? I said I got him!” Freeze yelled. The man left angry.
Once he was gone, Freeze sat down and Travis discreetly handed him the envelope. “Sorry about that. I should have told you that they’re on edge here ’cause they got robbed a couple of weeks ago,” Freeze apologized.
“Maybe you should have. I wasn’t gonna say your name, so it was about to get ugly.”
“You could handle him. He’s a bitch,” Freeze said. “So, how did it go?”
“Everything went smooth. Cops came, but we handled them.”
“Any problems I need to know about?”
“No problems. Like I said, cops came on the scene, but we handled them.”
“Cool,” Freeze said and started to get up.
“There’s something I need to ask you.”
“What?”
“You ever heard of somebody that calls himself Chilly?”
“Yeah.”
“You know where I can find him?”
“He hangs out at a place called Rocky’s. Why?”
“Me’shelle told me that her brother used to do business with somebody named Chilly.”
“What’s her brother’s name?”
“Bruce Lawrence.”
“Yeah, I know him. And yeah, he was down with Chilly. I heard about what happened. Her brother owed Chilly money. Chilly sent some people around to collect, and things got out of hand. But I know Chilly didn’t send them over there to rape women and little girls. That ain’t his style, but Chilly will kill a muthafucka about his money.”
“Then he knows who did it.”
“Maybe you should stay out that man’s business. Whether he had something to do with it or not, it ain’t none of your business.”
Travis looked at Freeze and thought about Me’shelle. “I understand.”
Chapter Thirty-five
Later that evening, Travis parked his car across the street from The Spot and turned off the engine. In spite of Freeze’s warning to stay out of Chilly’s business, there he was. As he sat in his car, he wondered what he was going to say, wondered if he should take the advice that Freeze had given him, and wondered what the hell he was doing there. He thought about Me’shelle, and what he was doing there became clear.