The Girl Next Door

~49~

"Gotta earn my respect just to get to these niggas?"

Los Angeles, California

Robert Williams

There's a knock at my door, making me look up from the blunt I'm rolling.

I groan and get up from the couch, setting the blunt on the table. I get my cane and start to walk to the front door.

"It's Juice," a voice says from the other side of the door.

I look through the peephole and see one of my connects, Juice, standing and running a finger through his dreads while looking around.

I open the door and he rushes in," wassup, Meek?" He asks, referring to my code name.

"Wassup? You got something?"

He nods," yea bro. Check this out. You might wanna have a seat."

I take a seat on the couch as Juice moves my weed out of the way and takes some papers out of his pocket.

"So check this out. She ain't from Jamaica. She's from the Barbados. And she came around the same time the case went cold for a house that burned down with two bodies inside." He sets out a newspaper article and I skim over it, reading about the unsolved arson.

"The bodies were never identified and the neighbors say that the people in there were the only residents. But one witness said that there was a teenage girl there at the time and he described her to what she would've looked like back then. The detectives never looked for the girl, assuming that she is at some sort of orphanage or she burned in the basement and then never found the body. What they did find was bullet casings in a room and one in the supposed living room, right next to the bodies. But the gun was never found..." he looks up at me.

I open my mouth in realization and raise my brows," so she had to have something done with the murders. But no. They would've gotten her if she had the weapon at Customs. So she must've gotten someone to do it for her."

Juice snaps," that's what I've been thinking. So really, she's an accessory to a crime. And that's jail time right there. Enough time for you to get your baby mama and make things right."

I smile in euphoria," yea. What are you waiting for? We know where she lives."

"Well that's the thing... she moved. Her friend Zendaya said that she moved to like... Texas with Onika. Even her sister even confirmed it."

I frown,"and you trust them? Zen lies out of her fucking teeth."

"But not Romania... we know her well enough. I told her that I was bearing gifts for the baby and pretended I was a nigga from the school. She believed that. So she told me."

I sigh,"okay... first... check all of Santa Monica. Use the connects we got. See if she's in town. If not, we look in Texas."

Juice nods and folds the papers back up. He shoves them into his pocket and speaks,"got you. And what if they're lying?"

"Take the girl. Then leave an anonymous tip with the police. Scare her, dump her somewhere noticeable and give them her location. Simple. Make sure to use a burner phone."

Juice nods again and leaves just as quickly as he came. I continue rolling my blunt, going about the plan in my mind. This should work. And I'll tell Onika. Once she sees who's she's dealing with, she'll want to leave her. Then I just work my charm and slide back into her life. With my baby in her stomach...

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~Trina J.