It had been a week since the club incident and a week since Ade and I connected with each other for the first time. Thankfully, nothing had changed but our efficiency. Working against X was the most demanding thing we had ever done. Even before we doubled down we had dedicated at least six hours a day to planning. We were working every moment Ximenes wasn't around, which was most of the time since he realized I wasn't putting out any time soon (sadly enough for him). So far we had pinpointed the date of his first "shipment" in Nigeria and exactly where, stopped three New York shipments, and sadly, taken out my box braids. At this point our main concern was suspicion about all the thwarted shipments. Ade attacked his first warehouse just a couple weeks before I arrived. Now that it was the two of us instead of just Ade, the blocked shipments had doubled. There had to be a way to throw them off our trail. I doubted they suspected Ade and I specifically, no one had seen us stop a shipment and lived to tale the tale, and even if they did, we were never recognizable. Still, we didn't want them to even detect anything was out of place. Thwarted shipments were with human trafficking since humans are unpredictable, but the amount of thwarted shipments as of late could draw suspicion. They could never find you unless they started looking, and the fact that all stopped shipments were in the same tri-state-area was a reason to look. So, we needed a distraction.
Which is why I was trying not to throw up in my mouth as I flirted with a wannabe kingpin in yet another club. I was really starting to irritate Ade at this point because he had to see a teenager basically hoeing herself out to someone different every other night. I understood his concern, but in my eyes all those children I had seen, as young as three, had been forced to do so much worse. I thought if they could do all that of course I could fake my feelings for a couple nights to make sure it didn't keep happening. Yet when I explained this all I received was a lecture on how there were "other ways".
There were other ways to do everything, it didn't mean they were better or faster. So there I was, giggling like an idiot while some fucking moron told me he could buy me diamonds as if he wasn't living on borrowed time. Very soon he'd be either imprisoned,broke, or dead, probably the latter. I can't emphasize enough how sick I was of this man. This was my third 'date' with him and I still hadn't gotten any information of significance.
"...So baby girl? Watchu say, lemme take you back to my crib and you can see for yoself?"
"How I know you ain't like the rest of these lying ass men and ain't about to ditch me after you get what you want? "
"Girl you got to know I'm on a whole different level than them niggas. I've been watching you all night and I got this feeling that you and me could really be something, you know? I been alone for a while now and its time for me to settle down. You bad as hell and you know your place. What's not to like?"
"Thank you...alright fine. I hope you don't mind if I go freshen up real quick?"
"Just don't take too long"
As I left he slapped my ass and I actually rolled my eyes so hard it gave me a headache. Some people are so damn annoying, just shut the fuck up already, Jesus. Speaking of annoying people, right before I reached the bathroom, I was tugged not-so-gently by the most annoying person of all. When I faced him he was chuckling and I raised my eyebrows.
"Sorry, sorry. I'm laughing cuz my mind must be playing tricks on me.."
"Ade.."
"Because I know there's no way I just heard what I thought I heard."
"Ade-"
"There's no way in hell your barely legal ass is actually thinking you're bout to go to a kingpin's house alone."
"What do you suggest I do?"
"I suggested we just break in and take the shit like normal people but you always wanna seduce somebody."
"You're letting personal feelings make you messy. We aren't normal people, we handle things with finesse. Break-ins trigger suspicion and put both of us in immediate danger. Keep the same energy you had when you left me in a room with Ximenes"
"You know damn well that was different, I was right outside and I had armed the room for you. You're putting yourself in danger now."
"But you're not, better one of us than both. I have no doubt if something goes wrong you can figure out a way to help me."
"Fuck you."
"Sure, fuck me for making sense. I'll see you in a bit. Did you enable my tracker?"
"Why wouldn't I ?"
"Bye then."
And just like that, I was in the front seat of a white Lamborghini with man pushing thirty who told me to call him 'King' as if I didn't know his birth name was Reginald. Tuh.
"You like the ride?"
"Oh my god yes! I never seen nothing like it before! I ain't know you was rich, rich!"
"That's why I told you babygirl, stick with me and you gon be living the lush life from here on out. All you gotta do is keep it one hunnit between us there won't be no problems for you. I really fucks with you."
"I mean you wanna do all this for me and all I gotta do for you is treat you how a man should be treated. What's not to like?" I smiled as he picked up my hand a kissed it. Internally my stomach churned because I knew he was the same man recruiting desperate black boys who could have futures into his spiral of drugs, violence, and chaos knowing fully well he had the means to help them. I also knew that shares of his profits for some reason funneled to X's foreign accounts. The most laughable fact about this whole thing was how messy X's trails seemed to me, he was so busy focusing on hiding his worst crime from me that he exposed the other ones, not knowing I knew everything already. Booboo the damn fool. One good search of his office exposed so much to me. Not only was his drug activity almost laughably obvious, he also had a list of contacts that was a great help in tracking down who was involved in the trafficking. We finally pulled up to the house and I felt my heart speed up. At that moment I realized, shit was going down. I fucked up. Ade was going to kill me. As I started calculating what the fastest way to kill Reginald would be, he walked around to my side of the car and escorted me inside with his hand on the square of my back annoyingly, as if I didn't fucking know how to walk. As we entered the home I started to calm down, maybe my senses were wrong somehow. But of course I had to be right. The second I stepped in, Reginald tried to start pulling off my dress. I shoved his hand away and his response clarified just how much I'd fucked up.
"You broads always make shit difficult, and that's sad because I actually thought I could take you by myself. You was practically sucking my dick in the car when I was feeding you allat bullshit. Just a gold digging hoe like everyone else. You ain't getting shit! Stupid ass. I'll give you one thing, you're definitely the baddest bitch I've ever met cuz usually I would've given up when your prudish ass didn't put out on the first date. Now it's been three and you still being dramatic? I know your ass probably been passed all around this town like every other hoe anyways. Now we can make this easy or make this hard." he reached for me and I stepped back, giving him the most disgusted face I could muster. " Alright I aint gon fuck no bitch that's thrashing and shit. Anybody in the mood to help me out right now? I promise this one is bad." He yelled the last part into the air, and I was both happy and annoyed. I realized this was a trap house. My happiness came from the fact that someone here has to have or know something. Annoyance because these dumb motherfuckers really thought they were bout to gang rape me. Morons. Before anyone came down I realized what had to be done. I turned and smiled at Reginald.
"Baby? You know I was just playing, right?" I spoke softly as he turned towards me and pushed my dress up to my waist. I laughed as I saw his eyes widen with realization, but before he could do so much as yelp, I pulled out the gun strapped to my thigh and put a bullet between his eyes. I pulled out my phone from my bra to try and call Ade before his crew rushed down, but then I heard shots going off like rapid fire on the other side of the house. I became as still as a statue until I saw Ade run down the stairs and hand me a machine gun. But not before holding my entire big ass head with his big ass hands and stating the obvious.
" I told your lil ass this was a bad idea!"
"And I told you you would come through, and didn't you?"
"I can't stand you."
"Sit down then."
"Start shooting random holes into the windows. You know what we're doing right?"
"Obviously, making this look like a feuding gang shot them out. Police never look into that shit in depth. Scatter drugs and money around for dramatic effect and break some windows or shoot some from the outside."
"This isn't a movie."
"I don't remember asking for input."
"Fine."
"Fine then."
By the time Ade and I were finished, the house looked like a Narcos set. Ade wiped our prints from the guns as I emptied a few guns into windows and walls from the outside before placing one in each hand. We wiped off anything I could have touched before Ade came and put gloves on me. Finally, Ade checked the house for bugs and security systems, of which there were none, and got what we really came for. Receipts of Ximenes' involvements. The "accountant" for the ring kept very detailed accounts of deposits. And one of those oh-so-interesting deposits was a 7 million dollar deposit to Ximenes' account every year for the past five years. Reason listed as "discounted shipments/assorted favors". He was smart to keep descriptions undetailed, in fact we wouldn't have even been able to pinpoint which payment was to Ximenes if Ade didn't know all his code names. However, their cleverness didn't extend much further than that. It was clear shipments meant shipping drugs which I assumed the second I found out about his involvement. Ximenes bought out a shipping and distribution company ages ago so he wouldn't have to pay for distribution of his products, achieving vertical integration. To be honest, compared to the other things he did, I wasn't concerned much about X's drug empire. However, this was a necessary distraction to pull him and his associates' attention towards something useless. So, to complete the distraction I dipped my glove covered fingers in the nearest pool of blood and drew the first rivaling Philly gang sign that came to mind on the walls. Ade was about too look at me like I was crazy, then he nodded.
"I appreciate your creativity, but I have decided there's a more fool proof way to clean our tracks on this."
"Negro please don't tell me you watched me do all this shit for nothing." I snapped.
"I hadn't made up my mind yet." He shrugged.
"Let me guess, we're burning down the house with the bodies in it." I sighed.
"If you had already thought of it why didn't you do it.?"
"How many shootouts end in fires Ade? It might ensure our tracks are wiped but it'll make them use more time to investigate cause of fire and all that bullshit, then they'll have to verify cause of death, when they realize it was not lung or burn related the fact that it's a cover up will become clear. That was actually my whole thought process before I decided to just paint a gang sign and be done with it. Burning could also summon police faster in case neighbors haven't called yet. These grounds are like a mile in each direction, it's possible the closest people couldn't hear."
"You're good." He replied.
"I know."
"Although I did realize the second after I said it -"
"Boy give credit where credit is due." I cut him off.
"Excuse me if my mental exhaustion caused delay because I killed like twenty people because of you." He whined
"Don't be a baby, it was more like fifteen." I responded before Ade gave me a look and I decided to quit while I'm ahead.
"I still think we should burn it down though. All the investigating they'll have to do will buy us time. "
"Okay we don't have time to disagree. I'm gonna swipe a match once as we leave and drop it. If it lights then the house will burn, if it doesn't, it won't."
"Bet. Those nosy ass neighbors have probably already called the police, lets go."
"How they nosy for calling after gunshots Ade?"
"I mean clearly the shots stopped, so somebody's already dead, what you still calling for?"
"Boy wha- ... You're aggravating"
"No you."
"Just for that waste of time, I'm driving."
"You can't, I brought the motorcycle."
"And?"
"I know your ass can't drive a motorcycle."
"Actually, one guy whose feelings I used to play with had a motorcycle. I'm a natural."
"Nki, No."
"Bobo, Yes."
"NO."
"How you gon stop me? I already got the keys."