I’d barely gotten my shaky, wobbly legs to hold my weight when I noticed the red stain on the front of my sweater. Blood was dripping from a big open gash in my chin. I pulled out my cell and dialed 9-1-1.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?” the operator asked in calm, mechanical voice.
“Yes, ma’am. I, um, I need some help. I’m bleeding really bad.”
The throbbing in my chin fell in sync with my heart. Every throb sent blood dripping and pain shooting through my face.
“Ma’am, where are you and what happened?” the operator asked.
My voice was shaky and breathy. “I just . . . um.”
My mind went blank. Maybe the fall knocked something loose. I probably had a concussion. I stared at the thin white clouds that my breath made in the air. Each one disappeared like the thoughts in my head.
“I got in a fight with my roommate.” The words spilled out before I could stop them. Once they hit the air, I knew it was too late to take them back.
“She hit me. I fell, cut my chin.” My voice was shaky from the cold and from the pain in my chin, but it made me sound scared and desperate.
“What’s the address, ma’am? I have officers and an ambulance on the way.”
I gave the operator my address and moved to sit on the stoop in front of our unit. Back home, I might have bled to death before help showed up. Shit, I’d just started arguing with myself over whether the red and blue lights flashing in front of me were real because they got to me so fast. An EMT rushed toward me with three police officers trailing not far behind. I was moved into the back of the ambulance, where I told them the same thing I told the operator. The officers gave each other a look before going toward the apartment.
The third officer stood just outside the ambulance. “Ma’am, one of your neighbors had called in a noise complaint not more than ten minutes ago. They heard some yelling and whatnot. One of you is gonna have to leave here tonight. Just say the word, and we can press charges, file a protective order, do whatever we need so you’re safe.”
On the outside I was dazed and frazzled, but inside, I smiled.
I nodded to the officer. “Yes, I want to press charges. She’ll probably try to kill me since I called you. I don’t feel safe.”
The officer hoisted his pants up, giving me a stern nod. I could hear Shandy’s voice as they dragged her outside toward a car. She sounded furious. The EMTs gave me a shot of something to dull the pain. The world moved in slow motion after that, and I tuned everything out and drifted to sleep.
NOVIE
27
When Love Is a Hustle
After the night I had it’s a wonder I woke up at all. I was in the emergency room, two hours late for work. The cut in my chin wasn’t as bad as it looked. I didn’t even need stitches. It was just a meaty spot, and according to the EMT, I was a gusher.
Genesis left me the longest, most drawn out voice mail.
Sorry for getting you drunk and being the bearer of sour news. They won’t be checking for you in the office today. I know what the deal is, so you’ve got the next two weeks off with pay if your answer is yes. Just make sure you call before your forty-eight hours is up; there’s a lot of work to get done. A lot to fill you in on. I’ll be in a consultation all morning, so don’t call me unless it’s an emergency. Talk to you later.
I skipped over a message from Officer Whoever who took my statement last night and called myself a cab. I’d deal with the police and last night’s drama later. Right now, I just needed to figure out how I’d get a new car and work my way into a new place.
* * *
I smirked to myself as I inched down an empty alley off of H Street, making sure to go slow past the overflowing green Dumpsters. I needed to make sure there weren’t any crazy bums hiding up, in, or around those things. Not that I was scared or anything like that. But I put a lot of planning and work into the moves I made, and I ain’t do surprises.
It was almost ninety degrees out, and the sky looked like we were about to get a good thunderstorm. Both of those issues worked in my favor. The Prius’s engine rumbled and puttered in complete disagreement with the temperature outside. I gave the shiny leather dashboard an understanding pat. “I know, baby. You too wacked for this shit. And that’s exactly why Momma has to retire you so she can get a new baby,” I cooed to the car.
The breeze whipped through the alley kicking me in the face, tossing around my shoulder-length spiral curls as I climbed out of the car. The ground was covered in dirty puddles and potholes. The first few drops of rain fell down from the sky. They clung to my feathered lashes. This was not the day for me to have my hips cinched into a pencil skirt and five-inch heels. But in the words of my momma, “It was a woman’s job to look and smell amazing at all times, and a man’s job to make sure she got whatever’s necessary to keep that shit up.”
The thought made my shimmer-glossed lips curve into a small, devilish smile. I took a deep breath, leaned down, and counted. VS2, VS1, VVS2. Yes, I used diamond clar-ities to amp myself up. Going from very small inclusions to very, very small inclusions built up my courage. When I got to FL, flawless with no imperfections, I rammed my pocketknife into the driver-side tire wall, twisting the blade until there was a huge open gash. After doing the same to the back tire I hopped back inside, cranking the heat up as high as it’d go.
Semiwarm exhaust-scented air gusted back at me. I didn’t even bother with turning the AC up any higher. This Prius acted finicky as hell if it was set colder than seventy when it was hotter than eighty degrees outside. It even had a little digital thermometer in the display panel so it literally knew when to act a fool and say, “Bitch, we shouldn’t be out here.”
I fumbled through my purse for my phone. Ugh, I hate purses. Digging and hunting for my own shit annoyed the hell out of me. I hated having all my stuff clumped together, and I hated carrying it to clubs or parties because everybody and they momma without a purse always wanted to throw their shit in mine. I paused to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth. That bag was a hair away from getting dumped out of the damn window. It was one of the more recent gifts Javion had given me, with a fancy name I’d never even heard of.
In all of his logic, he thought that hardly ever seeing me with a purse meant I didn’t have any nice purses. To the contrary, if you could find any nigga with even a teeny bit of paper to his name, you’d find every purse you’ve ever wanted. Or didn’t want, as was my case. There was a box in my trunk full of nothing but purses and clutches. But at least I knew who made those.
Slamming the purse down on the seat, I made a mini eye-roll. My phone hadn’t gotten lost in my tote-along black hole. As soon I could do away with it without Genesis noticing, that pink python, “stuff-trap” would go right in the bag box, or I’d sell it online.
I was having a silent auction in my head over how much it’d go for as I pressed the word “Gen” on my phone. I’d planned out just about everything except for what I’d do if he didn’t answer. But, Genesis could be so predictably logical that him not answering might have made this a little more fun.
He answered just as I predicted, placing me on hold in place of saying hello.
“Novie,” Genesis sighed into the phone, “you didn’t check your voice mail? I told you not to call unless it’s an emergency. This better be important. I’m in a consultation with a client,” he whispered in a rushed voice.
“I know. I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to do. The car started driving funky so I turned down this street and bam. . . two flats. So now I’m stuck in this alley behind some old abandoned hotel. I’m scared it might have been some kind of bum trap or something. Maybe they strand tourists so they can break into their cars. I’m scared one might run out of nowhere and—”
“I’ll send out a driver and tow truck. It has insurance, and I think we even got you the roadside assistance.”
His tone was a lot softer, even though he still sounded a little short to me.
I turned on my damsel-in-distress charm to kick things up a notch.
“Can’t you just leave real quick and come get me? I’ve got this thing when it comes to riding with men I don’t know. What if I get one of the crazies?” I spoke slowly, choosing my words carefully since I wanted something.
Every word had to be deliberate and precise. I was a chameleon, changing and adapting to whatever he wanted.
I could hear low voices and papers shuffling on the other end before the line went completely silent. I checked to make sure the call hadn’t dropped. His name was still there, and the call counter was still going. See, that kind of rude buffoonery right there is what had made me exercise my most extreme levels of patience. Genesis was always good for randomly muting the phone at any point during our convo. It was always to uphold his lawyer-client confidentiality, or so he’d say. As far as I know, he could be laid up, trying to make a quick escape to carry on the call so I or whoever else wouldn’t hear anything. Even if it was business, he was still rude and inconsiderate by the way he went about doing it, and that habit was one he’d need to break out of.
He unmuted the phone, making a sound that was somewhere between a groan and a conceding sigh.
“All right, I’m on my way. Send me the address of whatever’s nearby.”
I did as I was told with a knowing smirk on my face. Just like I thought, he would answer, and he would come get me. Don’t call unless blah blah blah, my ass. He might run it in the courtroom, but I ran my relationships, no matter who I was with.
No more than thirty minutes had gone by before my stomach was growling. It was a little after eleven, and the bagel I’d had for breakfast was long gone. Genesis and the tow truck driver both showed up before I could make up my mind about whether or not Slim Jims get old. I’d found one crammed in the back of my glove compartment, but Lord knows how long it had been in there.
Genesis came over to open my car door, sending all my doubts and love requirements swirling away. Seeing him felt like a mixture of waking up on Christmas morning and opening a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates. His dark brown blazer was open, showing off his gold, tan, and yellow vest. It tapered at the waist, flaring over his broad shoulders, and all I could think about was unwrapping and nibbling at all the chocolate that I knew was underneath.
He glanced into the backseat. “Why does it look like you’re moving your—”
“Oh, it’s nothing. A pipe burst in the apartment above mine and flooded me out.” I didn’t want to sound like a charity case or make him think I was trying to beg my way into his life. A lie just seemed to sit better with me than telling him Swiss’s sister put me out on my ass.
“I see. Well, I had to reschedule the Morelli consultation. I’m billing seven seventy-five an hour for that one. I think somebody owes me a little face time.” Genesis winked down at me with a slick grin.
The mention of “face time” would’ve normally made me melt on the spot. But I was under more stress than any normal person should have to handle.
Genesis checked to make sure the tow truck driver was out of hearing distance. “I think you should stay at my loft. Let me take your mind off of things. Get you wet while your apartment dries out.”
“Really, Genesis, why do you always have to be so nasty?” I gave him a sour look for being so inconsiderate to my emotional state. I wasn’t made for or used to this type of shit.
“You’ll get used to this business, and when you do, you’ll realize that there are casualties. There will always be casualties in our line of work, and you have to know when to let go and get on with shit.”
At the end of the day, I needed to live and make a living. Who would it really matter to if what I did was legal or not? Swiss said he was sitting on top of millions, and if I was the girl that they’d wanted from the beginning, then maybe it was all worth a shot.
“Okay,” I gave Genesis a tight nod. “I’ll do it. I’ll take Swiss’s place. And for starters, no one works under me who I don’t personally choose and approve of.”
Genesis started to question my request. This wasn’t something that could be argued over; it wasn’t a bargaining unit. If my ass was gonna be on the line, I didn’t want any weak links or weak niggas on my team. Javion never would’ve made the cut, and Swiss never would’ve been in charge of any unit I was overseeing. I needed loyal and reliable people in my corner who would take a fall for me, rather than let me fall.
NOVIE
28
Road Runner
I tossed and turned all night. The penthouse didn’t feel the same as my apartment with Shandy. I didn’t have the sounds of city traffic to put me to sleep at night; the walls were supersoundproofed to the point where I couldn’t even hear the neighbors.
Genesis had gone home to make sure his niece was okay. His absence gave me time to busy myself organizing my things and putting my stuff away. In less than forty-eight hours, I’d gone from a woman torn between two lovers to a murderer set free, and now I was a boss.
I was trying to figure out what to eat when Gen called.
“You have work to do for Farrah. Meet her at M Street and Fifty-eighth. Don’t be late.”
My work was never done, and the days always felt crammed with stuff to do or someone to follow up with. I did as I was instructed, meeting Farrah at one p.m. on the nose. She handed me a small box with specific instructions.
“They’re a bunch of Swedish filmmakers. Weird fuckers, if you ask me, but they buy a fuck ton of coke whenever they’re in town. Cosimo, Constantinus, and Eckhardt are going to pick you up. Get into the backseat on the passenger’s side and hand the passenger this box. He’ll hand you $50,000. Take ten off of that and bring me back forty.”
I sat in my car listening to the radio, watching the space where the Swedes were supposed to pull into. Not even a full hour had passed before a black-on-black Jeep pulled in with blacked out windows. The license plate read “Direct4You.” If that wasn’t the film producers, I didn’t know who else it could be. The driver-side window rolled down, letting dense weed smoke filter through the gap.
“You Farrah’s girrrrl?” he asked with a hard roll on his r’s. If I had to imagine what Swedish men would sound like, that was definitely it.
“I am.” I smiled holding up the small white box. It was about the size of a shoe box, but it felt like an eight-pound bag of sugar.
“Climb in, will you? We can’t have you out there in the broad daylight and such.”
I did as Farrah had instructed, making sure to get in on the back passenger side. No sooner had the door closed before one of the guys snatched the box out of my hand. I was thrown back against the seat as we took off with the tires squealing. The guy beside me smelled like two-day-old beer and blue cheese. He smiled, flashing me with a wide gap between his front teeth.
“Farrah didn’t say this was part of the exchange,” I told him.
“Eh, we’re going to get your dollops. I don’t keep thousands on me for carrying-around money. It’s right up this way, not far,” the driver called back.
He stared at me through the rearview. I was momentarily taken aback by his eyes. They crinkled at the corners like he was always laughing at a funny story or a joke. Farrah was going to be missing twenty thousand if I survived this joyride. Boss or no boss, she wasn’t going to be sending me on shit without a proper heads-up.
The Jeep bumped and bustled through the streets as the guys passed around the box of cocaine. They’d snorted so much I’d started worrying that maybe this was a setup. A few more twists and turns and we veered off a side street into a wooded area. This wasn’t part of the tour. I inched my hand up to the door handle and pulled. Either the child lock was on, or it was rigged to only open from the outside because it didn’t budge.
The guy beside me who I’d figured out was Cosimo leaned toward me with a creepy leer on his face. I screamed as he grabbed both my wrists. This was it. This was my time. I was going to die in a car in the middle of no
where, and nobody would know where to find my body. Constantinus leaned over the passenger seat throwing a dark hood over my head. It smelled like rotten potatoes and mildew.
I squirmed and fought until something sharp pricked my leg and my world went black.
My nose was itching, but I couldn’t scratch it. I moaned. There was the worst throbbing pain in my head. It felt like I’d been out drinking all night. I opened my eyes, trying to remember what the hell had happened. Straw, real live straw, was strewn across the ground all around me. To my horror my clothes were gone. I was shivering on the ground, suddenly realizing how cold it was, and my arms were tied behind my back and my feet were tied at the ankles.
Either Cosimo or Eckhardt started talking to me from somewhere in the dark.
“Hello, my little mermaid.”
“You mean Sleeping Beauty, idiot. My little mermaid was half fish,” Constantinus answered.
“And she looks like a half fish with her legs tied like that. Hose her down again.”
I snapped my eyes shut against the feeling of the water spraying over me. It was so cold I’d started to scream, but the water went into my nose and mouth, making me regret that decision. The ground underneath me was turning into a muddy pool. Long dark earthworms began to slide up from the dirt. They thought it was raining and time to come out. I tried squirming away from them, but they were everywhere. As I struggled to sit up, I was yanked into a sitting position. Cosimo pulled me by my shoulders, forcing me to stand.
He whipped a knife out of his back pocket and cut my hands free.
“Now we will hunt you. Whichever one of us catches you gets to fuck you first.” He winked before whispering, “Let Daddy Cosimo catch you. I’m hung like a stallion. You won’t feel nothing else after I get through ripping you apart.”
The other two men called to him from outside. The sun was setting, casting an orange glow cross the sky. The trees all around us were shadowed and dark. Nobody was going to catch me. I’d chew out his jugular if I could get it.
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