Down Chick

Chapter Twenty-Three: On the Rise (Part III)

Angel:

I had received the call that Keish was going somewhere with Rome, not even five minutes ago. I couldn't help but feel jealous about it. Yet, I knew she wouldn't fuck with him. Rome, on the other hand, I wasn't sure about. That nigga swore he was the shit. He was always claiming that he wasn't scared of me, but I found it vastly amusing to see that he was always doing crazy stunts to try and get my attention. Rome wasn't a bad person.

He just had a bad habit of longing for everything that I went after that was female. Admittedly, it might have had something to do with the fact that a bitch of his in the past had stepped to me and not knowing she was taken I had slept with her. That was over five years ago. I hadn't apologized for it, but when I heard he was in trouble I got him out of it.

To be honest, I couldn't even remember what the girl looked like. She was before Keish. Examining my surroundings, I inhaled deeply on the blunt that I was smoking. I was on the clock with Diablo, Pierre, and Quinn. These were the closest ring of people that I hung out with. I didn't do too many people because that was the downfall of many people in the game. They thought that because they were balling out of control suddenly that they'd be able to do whatever they wanted, when they wanted. It wasn't true. The game came with a huge price tag. If you weren't watching your back, then you were as good as dead.

The game made a man paranoid, but it was better to be paranoid then dead.

"Angel," Diablo called, his hands moving swiftly as he pressed money into a counter.

The sound of the machine filled the room. We all had and we were counting the last amount of money that we had received from a drop. See, I wasn't crazy enough to think that I could put this money into a bank account or even in any my places of business or residency. Who the fuck did that? When the Feds and those others law officials caught onto you there were three places they looked first: businesses, houses, and safety deposit boxes/storage units.

My money didn't make it to any of those. I drove my money far out and somewhere safe that I knew no nigga was getting to unless Diablo opened his mouth and started spilling.

The day that happened would be the day that Diablo keeled over and died because my pistol would give him one straight to the head. That was something that I didn't even want to do. He was my homeboy, but I still kept one eye open around him. I had to have at least one person, I trusted and for now it was him. An operation couldn't be run alone. You needed soldiers and faithful people. That didn't seem to exist in today's world.

"What?" I asked removing the blunt from between my lips.

I let out a cloud of smoke and stared at him with an arched eyebrow. I needed something stronger than this, but it wasn't going to come to me easy and I knew it. I couldn't get tipsy or high on the clock. I needed to keep a clear mind. Counting money wasn't a task that you could just let go of and then think that it was accurate. I was supposed to have a certain amount coming and if it wasn't there, then someone was going to pay the penalty.

Unlike, other niggas I didn't give second chances. If you didn't have my money when it was due, then you were as good as dead. Second chances didn't exist in my world because niggas with second chances were scared niggas, and scared niggas would do anything to save their life. This sometimes could mean snitching to the cops, betraying the bond and getting outside niggas to try and set people up. I didn't have time for that.

"Nigga, you've recounted that stack half a dozen times now," Pierre inserted, a chuckle escaping his lips.

I shook my head realizing that they were correct. I glanced at them sheepishly. I had a lot of things on my mind. The main thing being the fact that I was going to be a father. There wasn't anything taking me down from that. I had wanted Keish for so long and now I had her. Everything was going the way I had always wanted. The only thing that I noted that was when everything was going good then something always came and ruined it.