by Mercy B
“Yo, we good?” I questioned the second he picked up.
There was silence on the other end with my question going unanswered. Perplexed, I removed the phone from my ear to make sure Cayman had answered. He had. Without further thought, I slammed the top of the phone down and tossed it onto the floor. Barefooted, I smashed it until the pieces were no longer recognizable. Something simply wasn’t right with that call and Cayman’s absence, and I felt that shit in my core.
Seated across from the bed, I stared through the dark as Gauge slept peacefully. Her hair was flawless, covering the pillows with a few strands flowing down her back, essentially a goddess calming the storm that was brewing within me.
My cell rang on the nightstand next to my side of the bed, jarring me from less complex thoughts of her. Slowly, I stalked over and retrieved it. The caller was unknown, but it had never stopped me from answering, so I proceeded.
“Yeah.”
Seconds elapsed before the operator began speaking. “You have a call from…” There was a brief pause before his voice came over the speaker. “Cayman.”
The line went dead after hearing all that I needed to hear. I immediately shut the phone down and started for my office. “Fuck.”
My adrenaline was pumping, mind wandering, and feet moving a mile a minute it seemed. The lights glowed, welcoming me into my private office. On the desk was a small hammer I used more often than I’d like to. Each time I picked it up, a phone had to be replaced. The iPhone was no match as I hammered it before scooting the crumbs into the trash.
I snatched my top drawer open and removed one of the twelve iPhone boxes that were left. Every ninety days, I rotated cells. I still had a few weeks of life on the one I’d just crumbled, but I’d be damned if I got myself in a jam by trying to hold on to it.
As I powered up a new phone, my thoughts kept leading me back to the call I’d received. I couldn’t understand why the hell Cayman would take the risk of calling the line that was absolutely legit. Worry was heavy, but the insurance we both had for one another kept me at bay. At lightning speed, I made a call to my lawyer and put him on. I needed Cayman to be released immediately, and didn’t give a damn what he had to do to make that shit happen.
“Sos,” I heard Gauge’s voice.
The distress in her voice was apparent. Within seconds, I was at her side. “G, you good?”
“I need to puke.” She began pushing the cover from her body.
“Hold up, hold up. I got you.”
Rushing to her aid, I helped her from bed and into the master bathroom. Thankful that I’d never cleaned her shit out of my house or brought it to her, I grabbed one of the little black bands she used when it was time to suck my dick.
“Sosa, I love you,” she confessed while on her knees and hugging the toilet. Gagging, she continued confessing. “I do. Do you believe me? I just want you to trust me.”
“Yes, baby.” I softened, being exactly who she needed me to be when she needed me to be.
“Do you trust me?” The words spewed from her mouth, followed by the day’s meal. “Oh my God.”
For the next five minutes, the only sounds present were those of her gagging and emptying the contents of her stomach. Once I felt like she’d gotten that shit out of her system, I carried her to the bed. She was still singing in my ear, but I’d partially tuned her out upon hearing her phone ring. The way that I was feeling, I prayed it was a nigga she’d given her digits too. It would be nothing to forward a number to my mans and have an address within seconds.
I grabbed it from the pillow beside her and noticed an unknown number was trying to reach her as well. Not thinking twice, I answered to see who it was. The same operator I’d heard minutes ago came blaring through the line.
“You have a collect call from…” Silence. “Brielle Jones.”
Click.
My thoughts ran rapidly, forcing me onto the bed to process them. There was no coincidence that both Brielle and Cayman were both calling from jail on the same night. If my suspicions were correct—and I was certain that they were—then shit had gone south, and they’d both gotten popped.
The question was, why the fuck did Cayman feel comfortable with involving her in our operation? Drops were done alone. Period. No one was to know about them, and no one was to tag along. There was a small voice of reasoning in the back of my mind, telling me that he’d made the drop and got up with her later. Yet that logic didn’t explain the fact that his burner had been answered and not by him. With him in custody, there was no way that he’d picked up.
“G.” I shook her leg as the phone rang a second time.
“Hmmm.” She stirred before falling back asleep.
“I need you to get up. Answer this phone. Someone is calling you.”
“They can wait. It’s probably just Brielle checking to see if I made it home.”
“Was Brielle with you before you came here?”
“No. Unlike my man, hers picked her up from the airport. I rode home with Sauni.”
“Her man?”
“Yes. Cayman. Baby, you should really take some notes from him.”
“G, focus. What time did y’all flight land?”
“I don’t know. About nine-thirty. We were delayed an hour in New York, but he waited on her.”
“At the airport?”
“Yeah. I don’t know. He was there when we got there because she’d already let him know when we’d land. We were just late.”
“G, it’s Brielle. She’s gotten locked up.” I had to do it. They were the only leads I had at the moment, and I needed to know all of the information they had.
“What?” Of course, she was all ears now. “When? How?”
If Cayman had been with her since nine, then she’d definitely made the drop with him. In fact, she’d even picked up the work with him. That shit made my blood boil. I answered the line and pressed the necessary digits for her to get through and put it on the loudspeaker.
“Mili.” Brielle’s voice came through muffled and strained. Certainly, she’d been crying.
“Brielle. What’s going on? Why… Why are you in jail?” G raised from the bed.
“I… I don’t know. We were on our way to the club. Neither of us knew that one of the bulbs were out in the taillight. Cayman got a call and said he needed to make two quick stops…”
Knowing that her calls were being recorded, I pressed the red button to disconnect the call. “Sosa. She was talking.”
Too fucking much, I thought to myself. “It doesn’t matter. She’s coming home. Get dressed because you’re going to get her. Have you sobered up?”
“I feel better now that I have thrown up.”
“Good. We need to see what’s going on and how we can get her home.”
“Are you driving me?”
“I’m not going anywhere near a cell, love. I will be sending you to a special friend of mine. A bondsman. We’re going to get this all settled.”
Gauge
No bond.
I couldn’t believe that my best friend was sitting behind bars and could be for up to the next forty-eight hours. The list of charges that were tacked on to her jacket were appalling. After speaking with the bondsman that Sosa had sent me to, I learned that if convicted, Brielle would never see the light of day.
“I don’t understand. What type of shit is Cayman into, Sosa?”
“You’re asking the wrong questions. Your friend ain’t no fool, G. Just like you know what type of nigga you’re fucking with, she knows what type of nigga she’s dealing with. This the type of shit that keeps reminding me of why you need to be as far away from me as possible.”
“If something ever goes down, I’d put a bullet in a motherfucker’s head before I let them haul you off to some fucking cell. Brielle ass don’t belong there, but that’s the price you pay for fucking with niggas like me. You still have a pass, G. Get out of this shit while you can.”
“Quiet, Sos. I’m not going anywhere, and n
othing is going to happen. Let’s just focus on getting Brielle and Cayman home, and we can worry about the rest later.”
“They both coming home.” I watched as Sosa walked out of the living room, fuming from the inside out. The smoke trailed behind him as he continued until he was no longer visible.
An incoming call from Sauni brought me back to life, but I quickly ignored the call. I was in no shape to talk, still feeling the effects of my hangover and not wanting to explain why our friend was behind bars.
With the way that I was feeling, nothing would calm my nerves like a hot shower and a nap. The sun was setting, and it felt as if the day had just faded before my eyes. I’d been a mess since getting the call from Brielle, hell even before then as well. My head was throbbing, and my eyes burned from the tears I cried due to frustration.
Not to mention that upon my return to Sosa’s home, he was keeping up ruckus by yelling at the construction crew, demanding that they make more progress and faster. I had seen them each day since the second time I’d come over, yet I still didn’t know what they hell they were building.
Sometimes, they would venture off into the house and be gone for hours. It wasn’t always that everyone returned, which was even more confusing. But Sosa was making sure that I minded my business. According to him, I was such a freak that I’d invite one into his bed if he weren’t on his job.
“Hey.” I reached out to Sosa, who was staring blankly at the television in the bedroom.
It was watching him, because he surely wasn’t watching it. The incarceration of his friend was really getting to him. I’d never seen him so anxious. He was the calmest person I’d ever encountered, so to see him rattled was complicated for me.
“Hey. Come shower with me.”
“G, I really don’t give a fuck about a shower right now.”
“Well, too bad. Maybe it will calm you down.” I pulled him up by the arms. “Plus, I’ve got a little surprise for you.”
“I hate surprises. Tell me now.”
“I was thinking that maybe I could use the bathroom mat to protect my knees from bruising on the tiles in the shower.”
“Oh yeah?” His mood shifted, immediately.
“Mhmm. You still don’t give a fuck about a shower?”
“Na, I don’t, but I want to see what that mouth do though.”
Chapter 9
Sosa
“She’s willing to cooperate.”
Those words were like bombs sounding off in my head. They were the exact words that I didn’t want to hear. Brielle would be released in a matter of hours along with Cayman. Gauge was on call to pick her up while the bondsman would be scooping Cayman. They’d been interrogated for the last seventy-two hours. While I knew that Cayman was tight-lipped, I had my suspicions about Brielle, and they had just been confirmed by Detective Lancer.
“What has she said so far?”
“She doesn’t know much yet So, she only mentioned the basics. Where she’s seen you. The fact that you’re a friend of a friend. She was only with Mr. Uphill because she’d been out of town with friends, and they’d made plans to see one another that night.”
“Did she give her friend’s name?”
“No. Whoever her friend is, she’s not giving us any name.”
“Good. What are they offering her?”
“Immunity if she helps them take down both you and Cayman.”
“And how do they suppose she do that?”
“Wiring. Audio. Video. Whatever evidence she can provide that will be helpful to our case. But they are going to be very specific and give her clues on what to ask, what to pay attention to, and what to be aware of. Half the damn informants don’t have what it takes, but their involvement in suspects’ lives gives them leverage that no one else has. With that, we can get damn near anything we want from them. Mention jail, and the shit goes downhill from there.”
“Good looking out. I’ll be in touch.”
“I’ll let you know if anything new arises.”
“But as of right now, do you think they have enough to build a case against me?”
“Not unless Cayman gives a statement.”
“Cool.” That shit wasn’t happening.
On the way to Gauge’s house, I considered all of the possibilities to rectify this situation that Cayman had gotten us into, but each outcome was less than pleasurable. Either way, something would need to be done about the problem that had arisen, and it had to be done soon. The same dream had been replaying in my head for the last forty-eight hours, surely a forewarning.
Instead of utilizing her driveway, I parked two blocks over and walked to her crib on foot. I wasn’t taking any chances. Knowing that she was inside, I texted Gauge to let her know to unlock the back door for me. She stood by until I reached the threshold and pulled me into her arms the minute I was inside. Gauge had to be the mushiest motherfucker I knew, but I was down with whatever when it came to her. She knew that shit and used it against me every chance she got.
“I called you.”
Since the incident, we hadn’t separated, so Gauge had no clue that I had a new phone number. I figured now was the time to tell her. “I got a new phone.”
“Oh, okay. Is it the number you texted me on?”
“Yeah. That’s it. Have you talked to Brielle?” We moved through the house.
“Yes. She is being released. In a bit, I’ll be heading down to get her. Are you picking up Cayman?”
“He’s been released. I just got word on the way over here. He’ll be through in a few if you don’t mind.”
“No, of course not. Maybe we can all get to the bottom of this.”
We don’t have to get to the bottom of shit. I know what went down. Instead of responding, I took my seat on the sectional and grabbed the remote control. It was time to play the waiting game.
“I’ll be back in a bit. You going to be fine?”
“Yeah.” She didn’t have to worry about me. Her concerns were misplaced. Brielle was the bigger issue. I watched as Gauge gathered her things before walking out of the door. She’d assured me that she’d lock up, so I stayed put.
Gauge
Tears flooded my eyes as I watched Brielle saunter over to my car. “Sauni! Here she comes.”
In an instant, Sauni was out of the car and had run around to where I stood. Brielle looked nothing like herself; she seemed to have lost a few pounds, there were dark circles around her eyes, and her clothing seemed to be falling off of her.
“Brielle,” I sang, expanding my arms and depleting the space between us two.
I couldn’t stand the thought of being away from her a second longer. The anxiety was killing me. As soon as we touched, she broke down in tears.
“It is okay, love.” Sauni rubbed her heaving back.
“I should’ve never left from with y’all,” she wept. “I can’t believe I’ve spent the last seventy-two hours in that hellhole. They treated me like shit.”
“We’re here now,” Sauni assured her.
After not hearing from Brielle for two whole days, Sauni grew extremely worried. She’d gone by her house and called her phone a million times. It wasn’t until her husband suggested checking the public records online did she find out that Brielle was incarcerated. When she called, screaming, I felt like shit for keeping the secret. However, I felt like Brielle would be out sooner and wanted to give her the chance to tell Sauni herself.
“Come on. Let’s get you out of here.”
We all crowded in Brielle’s one-bedroom apartment and helped her wind down. When she emerged from the bathroom after a shower and clothing change, she resembled the woman that I had known all my life.
“I’m done fucking with thugs. If he ain’t a square, then he can’t rock with me. I can’t be no one’s trap queen… ride or die… down ass bitch, none of that. Fuck that. A bitch is facing big boy charges, and all I wanted was to see some strippers shake their ass and slide down the dick that they made hard. Now they trying to
have a bitch sucking pussy for the rest of her life.”
I couldn’t contain my laughter, and neither could Sauni. Brielle was too much for anyone to handle. “Mili. I need to get home to my babies. Sorry to break up the party.”
“It’s all good. The last thing I want to do is be cooped up in the house, dealing with my thoughts. Mili, you mind taking me to the liquor store?”
“Not at all if you don’t mind swinging by my house with me once we drop Sauni off.”
“I don’t. Let me get on some shoes.”
Brielle had dressed herself in some cotton shorts and an oversized tee. When she returned from getting her shoes, they happened to be some fuzzy slides that brought life to her simple fit. Because her face was clear of makeup, she chose a pair of dark shades to cover her swollen eyes. It seemed as if she’d cried the entire three days she’d been away. I didn’t blame her. Hell, I would’ve cried for at least two.
We piled in the car before making the journey across town to Sauni’s spot. It was closest to my house with a liquor store just two blocks away. Once we were alone—Brielle and me—my concerns began stirring in the pit of my stomach, encouraging me to speak up.
“Are you okay?” I asked, lowering the volume to the music.
“I don’t… I don’t know, Mili.” Brielle’s voice splintered, displaying a full range of emotions. “I just… I should’ve followed my gut. Something kept telling me that something wasn’t right. All day. I’d thought it was the early flight we took days before we were to depart, but when we made it safe and sound, I figured everything was good. I thought the feeling would eventually go away, but it didn’t. When I sat my ass in that car with Cayman, it was even more intense. I should’ve known something wasn’t right when we switched cars. I don’t understand what he was thinking.”
“He wasn’t. He just missed you. That’s all.”
“Missed me? We’re in the same fucking city, Mili. He could’ve handled his business and got up with me. I would’ve waited on him. I slept on that long ass plane ride. I would’ve been up. Now, I’m facing real fucking charges. I’m not giving up my freedom for a nigga that ain’t even mine.”
