“So that’s it, Mac?”
“Get out of my face, Ado,” I say.
He lowers his gaze and walks out of the room.
I slam the door behind me.
I watch Ado walk away.
He’s becoming more of a problem with each passing day.
There’s a fence that’s partially open.
The factory is some kind of stone factory. It’s still open for business, but it’s on a one week shutdown. That means nobody is there. Security is supposed to be there but that’s been taken care of.
How?
I don’t know and I don’t care.
Everyone has a job to do. If you look at someone else’s job, you’ll fuck up your own.
I drive the shit box of a car through the open part of the fence.
I’m wearing black gloves.
So is Les.
We have to make sure there’s nothing that ties us to the car.
I check my mirror and watch Taz as he continues to follow.
I tape the brakes three times and that’s Taz’s signal to stop following.
The SUV crawls to a stop and I keep going.
I drive the car around the building.
“Where’s the SUV?” Les asks.
“It’ll be here, bro,” I say. “We might be early.”
“Early?” he asks. “These deals don’t work on early or late. They work on time and nothing else.”
“I fucking know that,” I snap. “Maybe Mama gave the wrong time.”
Les looks at me.
I bite my tongue.
Mama would never give the wrong time.
She has everything down to the second more than I do.
Unless…
I see a vehicle appear straight ahead.
The SUV is coming from the south entrance.
That’s where the big trucks come and go from the factory.
“Told you,” I whisper to Les. “It’s fine.”
“Let’s get out and get out of here,” he says.
“Just hold up,” I say. “We have to make sure…”
The SUV slowly turns.
“Fuck, Mac,” Les says. “That doesn’t look green, does it?”
I swallow hard. I blink my eyes.
I blink my eyes four times.
Begging to see green.
Because the SUV sitting there is blue.
The driver’s side door opens.
“We’re fucked,” Les yells. “Fuck this…”
He opens his door and gets out.
“Les!” I yell.
I have no choice but to get out of the car too.
I ran around the front of the car as Les takes out his gun and begins to lift it.
I know what he’s going to do.
Anything to survive…
Even if a deal goes bad and you know your ass is toast, you’re going to fight back. Any sliver of survival you’re going to grab. And if you’re going to go down, then you do it with a fight so you grab a little pride to take with you to the other side.
I look back as I keep running toward Les.
The man that steps out of the SUV looks our way and he shows his hands.
I grab Les’s arm and pull it down.
I throw my shoulder into his shoulder.
“That’s the guy,” I say to him. “Fuck, that’s the guy…” I gasp for a breath. “We’re good here, Les.”
“What?” Les asks.
I look over my shoulder again just to make sure.
I’m sure.
The guy standing outside the SUV is the guy who’s here for the car.
We’re good.
We’re solid.
Nothing bad is going to happen.
At long as Les doesn’t do anything stupid like shoot his gun…
I push at Les. “Go, bro. Go. Turn around go to the SUV.”
“You said it was going to be green,” Les says.
“I know what I fucking said,” I say.
We both start to move away from the car.
We pick up speed and run toward the SUV.
When Taz sees us running, I give him a thumbs up.
I get into the front passenger seat.
Les gets into the back passenger seat.
“Good?” Taz asks.
“Yeah,” I say.
“Why doesn’t it feel that way right now?” he asks.
“Just get us the fuck out of here,” I say. “Right now.”
Taz hits the gas pedal and the SUV flies backwards. He cuts the wheel and puts it into drive. The tires throw up dust and rocks and we’re out of there.
But we’re far from being in the clear.
The crew breaks up back at the warehouse.
Ado takes off without saying a word.
Fuck him.
Trust me, I’m sorry about his mother. I really am. She’s going to die. He can’t stop it. But it’s not my job to feed him cash whenever he wants some.
Aric and Raf leave to go collect on a few nighttime payments that are due.
That leaves me standing there with Les and Taz.
“You need to tell him,” Les says to me.
“Tell me what?” Taz asks.
I sigh. “The drop was a little tense. The SUV was a different color.”
“What the fuck?” Taz asks. “I thought that meant…”
“It was blue instead of green,” I say. “The guy that got out was the guy though. The deal went down fine. Everything’s good.”
“It’s not good,” Les says.
I turn and step toward him. “What are you getting at here, Les?”
“Whoa, whoa,” Taz says. He steps between us. “Everyone chill out.”
“I’m not going to chill out,” Les says. “Something went wrong today. I want to know what and why. So I can fix it for next time. Someone fucked up.”
“Nobody fucked up,” I say.
“The SUV was late and a different color,” Les says.
“Late?” I ask. “Come on, bro. It was thirty seconds.”
“Late,” Les says.
I throw a fist at his shoulder. “Watch where you’re going with this.”
Les tries to swing at me.
Taz turns and hugs Les to keep him away from me.
Taz walks and I follow.
“What are you thinking, Les? That Jolie’s got my mind fucked up? Huh?”
“Stop it,” Taz says.
“Yeah, that’s what I think,” Les calls out. “Maybe she’s fucking everything up for good now.”
“I’ll fucking kill you,” I say.
Taz throws his left hand behind him and hits my chest.
I knock his arm away.
“There’s no room for mistakes,” Les says.
I stop walking.
“Then it was Mama,” I say. “Okay? Then it was her. She fucked up.”
Taz let Les go and looks at me. “What?”
“I don’t know,” I say. “It wasn’t me. I know what she said. Maybe something got fucked up. It wasn’t on my end. And we survived.”
“Why would Mama not know the information?” Taz asks.
“I don’t know,” I say. “Just let it go. Let it go right now.”
“Mac, we have to talk about this,” Les says.
I point to Les. “No. We don’t. I’m out of here. I have somewhere to be.”