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  “Ms. Houston, I understand this is traumatic. But, the fact that the stores you and your sister work at both got hit at the same time, same time of day, same number of assailants in each store, same way . . . is gnawing at me,” he said, shoving his notebook back in his pocket as if to say he was going off the record. That seemed to anger Miley even more.

  “Listen. She told you what she knows and so did I. What you gonna do . . . arrest us because we both work at EZ Cash?” Miley snarled. Before the detective could get another word in . . . “If not, then we don’t have anything else to say about this. As you can see, my sister is a little under the weather right now. That would be your clue to leave this alone,” Miley snapped, almost coming toe-to-toe with Detective Castle. Her attitude was making me nervous, and the heart monitor was certainly telling the story. It was ringing off so loudly that the nurse came rushing into the room.

  “Is everything okay, Ms. Houston?” the nurse asked warily. Her eyes darted between all of us.

  “I’m just exhausted,” I whispered, turning my face away from where Miley and Detective Castle stood facing off.

  “Enough said. I’m going to have to ask all visitors to leave. With these types of head injuries, a patient can take a turn for the worse really quickly,” the nurse announced, pulling the door open and holding it open expectantly.

  “I’ll be speaking with you, Karlie. Sooner rather than later,” Detective Castle said, keeping his disapproving eye on Miley although he was speaking to me. Miley sucked her teeth as he strode for the door. He turned and smirked at us both before he ducked out of the door.

  Miley simply shot me a look. I got this, she mouthed to me. I shook my head slightly, letting her know I didn’t agree with the way she had carried on. My little sister was notorious for telegraphing her guilt in hot situations. She had been doing it since we were kids. I could hear Magda’s voice in my head. “A guilty dog always barks.” I just don’t know why Miley didn’t get that concept.

  CHAPTER 5

  HONOR AMONG THIEVES

  “You stupid muthafucka!” I hollered as soon as I stormed into the hollowed-out warehouse. My voice reverberated loudly off of the cement walls, grabbing everyone’s rapt attention. All eyes were on me, and I didn’t give a damn. I was still steaming mad at how everything had been carried out.

  “I said to make it look real . . . not fucking gun-butt me so hard that you put me in the goddamn hospital! This scar is going to be on my head for life! Ten damn stitches ain’t no fake-ass hit. You did that shit on purpose, right? You never fucking liked me!” I got right up in Walt’s face. He had definitely taken our little act too far. There was something about the way he had spoken to me during the robbery that had some truth to it. I’d known for a long time that Walt didn’t care for me. I had had some beef with one of his baby mothers back in the day, and I don’t think he got over it. I didn’t care if he was Sidney’s cousin. He had taken it too far. Walt stood there smirking at me. That made me even angrier.

  “What if you had done some real damage? You stupid bastard! Are you going to pay for me to see a fucking plastic surgeon to cover up this scar? Hell no! You broke-ass nigga!” I went on. I had been waiting for the moment I could get at his ass.

  “Yo, nigga, get ya bitch,” Walt said calmly.

  “A bitch? Who the fuck you calling a bitch . . . bitch!” I screamed.

  “Calm down, Karlie. Calm the hell down,” Sidney chastised, pulling me back out of his cousin Walt’s face. Walt laughed out loud this time like I wasn’t even standing there and like I was a joke. That just infuriated me even more.

  “Oh it’s funny to you, asshole?” I yelled, reaching out and taking a swipe at him with my left hand. Sidney pulled me away just in the nick of time. My bravado garnered a few snickers from the other dudes standing around. Either that or they were laughing at me like I was a big joke.

  Truth be told, Walt could’ve knocked my ass out again with his bare hands if he really wanted to. And I think if I wasn’t Sidney’s girl, he probably would have with the way I was embarrassing him. Walt was a big guy who stood about six foot, five inches and weighed about three hundred pounds. He had been the ringleader at the robbery at my store. He was also the one who’d sent me to the hospital and opened up a nasty gash on my beautiful face. He’d definitely taken our little ruse too damn far. When we had all sat around and planned the robberies, I had told the guys that a light assault on me and Miley would make it look real and throw the cops off from thinking we had anything to do with it. Walt had done his fair share of time in the feds. He had a reputation for being violent with women and men. Sidney told me that more than one of Walt’s babies’ mothers had filed domestic violence charges on him.

  “Look, you said make that shit look real so that’s what I did,” Walt finally said brusquely. “How was I supposed to know you was gonna fall like a little frail-ass bird? I ain’t even hit your ass that hard. So count yourself as lucky.”

  “Look real,” Miley chimed in before I could say anything else. “That’s the operative word . . . look real. Like make pretend, you asshole. You didn’t have to bust my sister’s head to the white meat to make them girls in that store believe it was a random robbery. And your boy could’ve definitely used much less force to punch me in the face too. Look at this shit. I’ll be wearing shades for a month. You niggas went way too far with it,” she lectured, turning her covered eyes toward Troy, the dude who had punched her.

  “Fuck all this complaining. What’s done is done. Let’s get down to the business at hand,” Sidney’s homeboy Craig interrupted. That was just like him—always no nonsense and about straight business. Craig was a marijuana head and a stick-up kid from the downtown section of Norfolk. He was that real down-ass nigga who would rob anybody he felt was a big enough score. Craig was the guy who young street dealers hated—or feared, I should say. After them little boys bust their asses all day selling crack rock, here comes Craig like a thief in the night, taking all of their profit and whatever drugs they have left too. I was still surprised that no one had taken Craig’s life yet behind his low-down dirty ways. Something about Craig had always scared me. There was a ruthlessness in his eyes that said he’d kill his own mother over a few hundred dollars. I shuddered just thinking about it. I had told Sidney when we were planning the robberies that I didn’t know if Craig could be trusted. I’d always felt like he’d kill all of us and take everyone’s share of the money if he could. He had a real nasty vibe, and my stomach didn’t take to him. Sidney had assured me that, although Craig was a grimy street dude, he was loyal to people who were loyal to him. I went along with it, thinking. . . if Sidney trusted him . . . I trusted him. I still didn’t like the feeling I got when I was around him though.

  “I agree. Shit is done already,” Sidney said. “We can’t change what happened. But we can count up this guap right now. Seems like we came up off this lick. This shit right here feels nice and heavy.” Sidney hefted one of the familiar black duffel bags up onto the table. Troy, their other boy, did the same with the duffel bag that was holding the proceeds from Miley’s store.

  Sidney unzipped his bag first. He opened the top wide so that the green stacks inside could be seen. A collective round of gasps filtered through the warehouse. It was as if niggas had never seen that much cash in their lives. They probably hadn’t. Shit, the only reason I had was because I worked at the EZ Cash. I smiled. The money made me feel euphoric, like I had just taken a long pull off a blunt.

  “Yo! We came the fuck off!” Walt cheered, walking into Craig to exchange a pound and chest bump. “There gotta be over a hun’ed stacks in this m’fucka.”

  “You think it’s that much paper there?” Sidney asked. “Nah. We probably ain’t that lucky. But, it might be damn close to that.”

  “Yes, there is over a hundred thousand dollars because I know what was in the store when I opened the safe,” I said with attitude, cutting my eyes at Walt. Walt sighed. He turned to Sidney and flashed a tel
ling glance.

  “Kill the attitude now, Karlie. Let’s get this done,” Sidney instructed with authority in his voice. “Let bygones be bygones. We came off. Period. Ain’t nothing to be acting negative about now.”

  I lowered my eyes and bit down on my bottom lip. I exhaled. I had to agree with Sidney. There was no need to act miserable with all of that money sitting there in front of us. I was a few days away from getting rid of my financial problems. We had pulled off what seemed like the perfect heist. All of the loose ends had been tied up at the stores. I was confident that I’d eventually get rid of that lurking-ass detective. Life was about to be good. Or so I thought.

  Sidney nodded at me and then to the first duffel bag. I directed a small smile at my man. I walked over and peeked inside the bag, and my smile grew wider. It felt damn good that I was the first one to dig in to the duffel bag, to touch the familiar, neatly bound stacks of cash. They were taped in bundles of five thousand dollars each. That was how we kept them at the store.

  “Five, ten . . .” I started counting as I lifted each stack one at a time and put it on the table. After a few minutes, I glanced up from the bag to notice all six of the guys practically salivating over the money. Miley was rubbing her hands together like a mad scientist too. I realized at that moment that money could turn anybody into a beast. I shook my head slightly. All I could do now was pray that the aftermath went as smooth as the actual robbery.

  “Soon as I get my shit, I’m about to get the hottest fits,” a dude named Mega announced cheerfully. He was a little young nigga who worked with Craig. Mega was six feet, six inches tall and as skinny as a rail. He had blown a basketball scholarship to college because he just couldn’t let the streets go. Mega still lived at home with his mother, and he wasn’t doing anything with his life. He was obviously very immature.

  “Shit, not me. I’m going straight to my weed dude. A nigga gon’ be high for life,” Ant, Sidney’s nephew, followed up with a big stupid smile on his face. Ant was a little spoiled brat. All he did was take handouts from Sidney and smoke weed all day and all night. Ant had gotten shot when he was fourteen years old. Sidney always blamed himself because he felt that whoever had shot Ant was trying to send a message to him. Sidney was fiercely protective of his nephew, sometimes to a fault. Listening to Ant and Mega talk about their plans for the money sped my heart rate up. Immediately, heat flashed through my chest and turned my face red. I pursed my lips and turned toward the two immature boys like I was their mother.

  “Shut up! Shut the fuck up with all that hood nigga talk!” I chastised, my pointer finger jutting out at them accusingly. “If you dummies go out there spending all crazy right away, y’all don’t think people gon’ take notice and start talking?” I asked and told at the same time. Everybody suddenly got quiet. “And then y’all not even talking about doing something with the money that will benefit you in the long run? Clothes and weed? Where the fuck is that going to get y’all? Ridiculous. It’s stupid shit like that keeping our people down now. I told Sidney to pick people that were mature enough to handle this shit. You two dummies obviously weren’t the right ones,” I ranted, shaking my head in disgust.

  Both Mega and Ant hung their heads. The other dude that Sidney had put down on the heist, Troy, started mumbling under his breath. He knew better than to say anything about whatever dumb plans he had for his share of the money. I kind of liked Troy. He was one of Sidney’s finer friends with his gorgeous hazel eyes and his LL Cool J physique. Troy had just had a baby, but he was constantly trying to holler at my sister. I liked Troy so I didn’t expect him to say anything ignorant about his money. I could only believe that he would take care of his new family with the money. It was all too much to think about. Worrying about these dudes spending crazy or running their mouths had been so far from my mind when I’d planned the robbery. I suddenly had an ill feeling in the pit of my stomach about all of this. I just knew that somebody out of this crew was going to be running their mouth in the streets. It was too late to go back on that now.

  “Karlie is right. We gotta lay low until they forget all about this shit. Now, let’s get to the business of it all. We got the surveillance tapes. Right?” Sidney asked, looking around at everyone’s faces. A collective murmur in the affirmative rose and fell around the room. I saw a look of relief come over Sidney’s face.

  “A’ight. We shot out the eye in the sky that was on those corners. Right?” Sidney confirmed. This time, heads went up and down. More relieved body language from Sidney.

  “So, we got few eyewitnesses, but Amy and Trina and that fat girl that was in Miley’s store are all too scared to say shit to the cops. They work for Karlie and they are pretty much convinced that she and Miley were victims just like they were. We should be golden. IF . . . I repeat, IF . . . y’all dumb niggas keep y’all mouths shut and be easy,” Sidney lectured on.

  I twisted my lips and shook my head in agreement. I moved my eyes from Ant to Mega and then over Troy, Craig, and Walt. Walt was still glaring at me like he wanted to kill me. And, Craig still had that grimy look in his eyes like he was going to rob us all at any minute. Another wave of uneasiness came over me. I shifted my weight from one foot to the other and averted my eyes back to the bags with the money. Maybe if I focused on everything I could accomplish with the money, I wouldn’t feel so bad. Nah. That didn’t work either.

  Stop being paranoid, Karlie. Shake it off. Everything is all good, I told myself. That sixth-sense feeling wasn’t letting up though. From the beginning, something about this heist made me leery.

  “We not splitting this money up right now either. I’m about to put it up some place safe, and when the DTs stop circling and shit stops being hot, everybody will get their fair share,” Sidney continued. My heart fluttered a little bit watching him take the lead. I loved a strong man. I despised weak-ass men.

  A collective rumble of displeasure rose and fell over the group. Everybody wanted their share right away. It was what we had promised them. Their displeasure at not getting the money right away was understandable, but Sidney and I both knew that some of these dudes would get us caught.

  “Y’all not even gon’ slide niggas a grip to get by for a few days? I mean like something for all our hard work,” Mega asked, his hands shoved down into the pockets of his jeans. I shot him a look. My hands curled into fists at my side and my eyes hooded over. This little nigga has to be kidding me. Ungrateful bastard!

  “Word. That’s crazy. I got a baby to feed. I took a chance doing this lick,” Troy followed up, shaking his head in disgust.

  With my breathing heavy and my nostrils flaring, I literally had to bite my tongue to keep from saying anything in response. Instead, I let out a long sigh to show my irritation. Miley sucked her teeth. Everybody was throwing dirty glares at one another. The tension in the room was palpable, to say the least. I was still watching Craig though. I just felt like he would pull out on us at any minute and take flight with all of the money. Through all of the arguing, Craig seemed unfazed by it all. Like he knew something none of us knew. I shook my head from left to right trying to shake away those thoughts. I was bugging out. Craig was still Sidney’s boy.

  “Nah. We all get our money at the same time. When shit dies down,” Sidney stood firm. “Let’s give it about five days to a week. That is not that long. By then, the cops will decide that the robbers got away. They will clear Karlie and Miley of any suspicions and we can all live happily ever after with our guap. Then you dudes can buy whatever the hell y’all want.”

  I could tell those dudes were not happy. I watched as their faces folded into frowns and they whispered their displeasure amongst one another. At the time, I didn’t care. All I was concerned with was all of the things that money could do for me. Knock out some bills. Maybe a new apartment for Miley and me. Maybe even separate apartments this time. A trip or two . . . the Caribbean always seemed like someplace I wanted to go, but could never afford. My hands started shaking just thinking about t
he possibilities.

  I zipped up the first bag and started counting the money in the second bag. I wanted everybody to know how much was there and how much each person was going to get. I was hoping and praying that would at least garner some honor amongst thieves and be motivation for everybody to keep their mouths shut once they left. A girl could hope. Right?

  CHAPTER 6

  MURPHY’S LAW

  “Where’s the money? Where’s the fucking money! I want it now!”

  “I . . . I . . . don’t have it. Please just don’t hurt me. Please!”

  “Bullshit! Where’s the money?”

  “Ahhh! Please don’t hit me again. I’m begging you!”

  “Naw. I’m not going to hit you, bitch. I’m just going to blow your fucking brains out!”

  “Noooo!”

  “Ahh!” I jumped out of my sleep with my arms flailing so wildly I hit myself in the head. My chest heaved up and down like I had been running an Olympic race. Sweat had my hair plastered to my forehead, and I had goose bumps all over my skin. I moved my head around frantically, making sure I had really been dreaming.

  “Shit. That was so real,” I said with a long sigh, closing my eyes and exhaling in relief. I touched my cheeks roughly to make sure I was awake and there wasn’t a gun in my face like in the dream. “You are paranoid, Karlie,” I whispered to myself, letting my tense muscles ease and relax again. “These dreams are going to send you to the crazy house.” I swiped my hands over my face.

  I had been having the same recurring nightmare that a man was threatening me about the money since the robbery. I could hear his voice, but I could never see his face . . . just the glare from the shiny silver gun he pointed in my face. It was always so real. My head was pounding from jumping out of my sleep like that.