“Li’l man is still sleeping. I just checked in on him,” Nahvid said.
“Thank you. Why are you so good to me? I don’t even deserve you,” she whispered.
“You and baby Micah are all I have right now. I see you in my future. I want you and your son to be a part of my life for a long time,” he said.
“Me too,” she said. “But if something ever happens to make you feel otherwise ... know that I always loved you and that I would never do anything intentionally to hurt you.”
He pulled her close and inhaled her scent.
“Are you hungry? You have to take care of yourself,” she said, sincerely concerned. Raegan had never seen him so bothered. He always seemed to carry the weight of the world on his shoulders without falter, but the death of his mother had him thrown.
He nodded and placed his forehead against hers.
“I’m going to go grab a few things from the grocer. It’ll give you some space to think. We’ll be back,” she said as she went to get her son dressed.
“Leave li’l man here. I don’t want him to get sick,” Nahvid stated.
Raegan nodded reluctantly knowing that if she had taken her son she would have never returned. Raegan dressed slowly as she tried to think of a way to get her son out of the house with her.
“Go ahead, baby girl. Micah is straight here with me. Take your time,” Nahvid said as he walked into the bedroom. He could sense her hesitance. “Is everything okay?”
She continued to slip into her things and nodded distractedly. “Yeah, it was just a long night. Everything is fine. I just want to make sure you are okay ... we’re okay ... right?” she asked.
Nahvid kissed the tip of her nose and said, “You’re the only thing in my life that’s okay right now. Now hurry back to us. You’re only going to the store ... you don’t got to get all fancy, ma, just slip into something and come back home to me.”
Raegan left, but as she walked out of the house an eerie feeling overcame her. She looked over her shoulder, feeling as if she would never come home again. Shaking off the bad vibes she got into her car and sped to see Chanel and Gucci.
When she arrived the front door was wide open and the house was in shambles.
“Guch! Lisa! Chanel!” she called out. She made her way upstairs and ran from room to room looking for her girls. When she saw Lisa bound to her bed, tongue lying on the pillow beside her, eyes gouged out of their sockets she hurled on sight. She rushed to the closet to retrieve the cash and when she saw the empty safe open on the ground her entire body went numb. She rushed out of the house, so frantic that she could barely dial the numbers on her phone.
“Hello?” Gucci finally answered.
“Where are you? Where’s Chanel?”
“We went to breakfast. What’s wrong? Where are you?” Gucci asked.
“I’m at your house staring at Lisa’s dead body. The stash house we took was Nahvid’s!”
“What?” Gucci slipped. Raegan got their location and raced to meet them. She was pissed. She could tell by the way that Gucci had reacted that she hadn’t known they were hitting Nahvid’s spot, but it was a little too coincidental for Raegan. Her girls were waiting in the parking lot of the restaurant and when Raegan pulled up, she got out of her car and ran up on Chanel. Her fist connected with Chanel’s lip, bursting it on impact.
“You bitch! You knew that was his spot. Why would you target him?” she asked.
Chanel knew that Raegan would be in her feelings when she finally found out so she held her composure as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. She spit blood onto the pavement and replied, “Because the nigga is loaded and I knew you would never agree to it if you knew. Robbing him was the only way we would hit it big! Ain’t nobody getting money in this city but Nahvid and you know it! Nobody was supposed to get hurt.”
“Yeah, well somebody did. His mama! She was in the house, Chanel! She died and now Lisa’s dead too. The money’s gone!”
“What?” she asked. “We just saw Lisa two hours ago. Fuck you mean the money’s gone?”
“Yeah, well she’s dead and Reason killed her. There is no telling what she told him before she died. They tortured her. Cut out her tongue. I know she talked,” Raegan said. “He knows it was me ... He knows.” She frantically paced back and forth.
“We have to skip town,” Gucci said. “We have to get out of here.”
“And go where? Huh? We don’t have any money. Besides Nahvid has my son! Micah is there with him. I left him there!” she shouted as tears welled in her eyes. Raegan remembered the feeling that had passed over her before she had left Nahvid’s house and she shook her head, wishing that she had made a different decision. “He has my baby.”
“He’s not going to hurt Micah. You know that,” Chanel said.
“I’m going back,” Raegan stated.
“You can’t, Raegan. You have to leave him there, at least for now,” Chanel said. “Whoever murdered Lisa the jokes on them. The security system tapes the property around the clock. I can upload the tape online and we can use that as leverage to get Micah back. But right now we need to let things cool down. We have to skip town.”
“And go where?” Gucci asked.
“I know someone who can help us. A friend of mine owns a boat in Florida. If we can make it there, he’ll take us wherever we want to go. He’s powerful and prestigious. He can get us passports ... whatever we need. I know that he will help,” Chanel said. “I stopped talking to him awhile back, but I know he won’t turn me away. If we can make it down there, we’ll be okay.”
“I can’t believe this,” Raegan cried. “I don’t even have any money on me right now. We can’t make it too far on broke and this fucking credit card is going to give Nahvid a damn GPS to come find my ass.”
“We’ve got to take a bank,” Chanel whispered.
“What?” both Gucci and Raegan exclaimed, looking at her as if she had lost it.
“Stop talking stupid,” Raegan shouted. “I should slap the shit out of you for even saying some airhead shit like that.”
“What! You got a better idea? What’s the other option, Raegan?” Chanel countered. “Go back to Nahvid and hope he doesn’t dead you on sight? We need money and this is the only way.”
“A stash house,” Gucci spoke up and said. “We could hit another one.”
“Every hood nigga in the city is on to us now. A bank is our only other option ... We have to hit a bank ...”
Chapter Sixteen
“I don’t know a damn thing about banks. There is too much that can go wrong,” Raegan said skeptically as she sat on the bed of the seedy motel room.
“You didn’t know anything about robbing stash houses either but we pulled that off. At this point, Rae, we really don’t have a choice,” Chanel replied.
“And you’re comfortable with this?” Raegan snapped, looking for Gucci to back her up.
“If this is what I have to do to stay alive then yeah ... I’m in,” Gucci replied.
Raegan had a feeling in her gut ... a warning sign that was trying to stop her from escalating matters. Everything in her wanted to call Nahvid and run back to him. Common sense was screaming at her.
“No! Stop! Don’t do it! Nahvid will understand once you explain! Put on your grown-woman panties, bitch, and go back for your child!”
But she didn’t listen. Her cowardice wouldn’t let her do the right thing. She wished that she could turn back time and take back the role she played in robbing Nahvid. She cared deeply for him and in his world she felt safe, secure, and kept. With him all she had to be was a girl in love ... she didn’t need to struggle for survival because he took care of her effortlessly. How did I fuck that up? she wondered as she shook her head in utter shame. Now here she was separated from her son once again and on the run for her life. Shit was real, nothing about her life was a fairy tale ... even her love story with Nahvid had a tragic ending. She didn’t know what Lisa had told Reason but she knew that no human bei
ng could handle the torture that she had endured. Raegan was sure that Lisa had talked and she could only imagine what was said. Lisa’s words would forever be secrets of a ghost ... Reason had made sure of it. Raegan could not fathom the betrayal that Nahvid felt and the measures he would take to get revenge. There was nothing about Raegan that was naive. She had only known Nahvid for a short time. His feelings for her would not get in the way of his business and they especially didn’t trump the love he had for his mother. When Nahvid found her he would kill her and it broke Raegan’s heart that her son was still in his possession.
“We’ll take Security One Credit Union first. It’s a small company so their security won’t be as advanced as a national chain bank. They will never see us coming,” Chanel schooled.
“And if we get caught?” Raegan countered.
Chanel sighed and looked back and forth between her friends. She was scared shitless just like them. There was nothing brave about her, but she had never been one to roll over and die without a fight. The way she saw it, they had no other options. It was either go up against the streets or hit a bank and blow town ... In her mind the bank was where the odds lay in her favor.
“Look. I fucked up. I never thought that Nahvid would ever find out that we hit his spot and I certainly didn’t think that we would walk out with blood on our hands. I’m scared. I know what type of reach that man has and I’m not trying to end up like Lisa. I just want to get as far away from D.C. as possible,” Chanel said sincerely. “We have to stick together ... no matter what.”
Raegan wanted to slap the shit out of Chanel for messing everything up. If she hadn’t gotten out of pocket none of this would have even happened, Raegan thought. At this point shifting the blame was redundant. It was too late for finger pointing. She simply had to play the hand that she had been dealt.
“Let’s just get some sleep,” Gucci spoke up, trying to be the buffer between the two natural elements that were threatening to erupt. Among the three young women she was the most timid of the group. She thought that it was sometimes best to listen rather than shout to be heard. “We’re going to need to be alert to pull this off. There’s no point in continuing to debate it. We all know what we have to do.”
Raegan and Chanel both nodded in agreement. Chanel and Gucci took the double beds and Raegan pulled out the sofa as they prepared for a restless night’s sleep. Raegan wanted to desert her friends and go begging for Nahvid’s forgiveness, but she could never be that selfish. Chanel had been there for her when her bum-ass baby’s father had repeatedly dogged her. She was a good friend and Raegan knew that no matter what they were in it together until the end. Loyalty was all they had.
Raegan thought of baby Micah and a lone tear crept from her eyes and rolled down her face. She wiped it away as she turned her back to her friends, but both Chanel and Gucci noticed her distress. Raegan had the least to gain and the most to lose in the situation. Not only was she thinking of herself, but she was accountable for her child and neither Gucci or Chanel could understand that.
“Raegan,” Gucci called out.
Raegan didn’t respond. She was too choked up and overwhelmed to even speak.
Gucci and Chanel gave each other a knowing glance, both feeling regret that their overzealous antics had led them down this path. They walked over to Raegan and sat down beside her.
Wrapping their arms around their friend they formed a cocoon of support. “I’m sorry, Rae. Micah is going to be fine,” Chanel said.
“And so are we,” Gucci added.
“Why the hell do I have to sit in the car?” Chanel asked. “This was my setup and now I’m stuck being the getaway driver?”
“Because you’re reckless and we are doing this my way or no way,” Raegan said as she handed Gucci a gun.
Gucci cocked it back. Adrenaline mixed with fear caused her heart to beat irregularly. “In and out,” Gucci whispered.
Chanel smacked her lips and rolled her eyes. “So you’re going to have Gucci scary behind watching your back? If something goes wrong we all know that she’s not popping off.”
“Nothing is going to go wrong if we keep a cool head and you clearly cannot do that. I’m not beat for the bullshit today. Gucci and I got this part ... you just be ready to get us the fuck out of here,” Raegan replied bossily.
The girls didn’t have many options for disguises. All of their pockets were on E and the only thing they had to conceal their identities were the very same getups that they had worn when hitting the stash houses. Louboutin red-bottom heels and trench coats. Gucci had shoplifted three wigs and sunglasses to hide their faces so it was what it was. That was as good as it got. There was no point in prolonging it. They were either in or out and if they chose the latter, they would be sitting ducks.
“Let’s just get it over with,” Gucci said as she inhaled anxiously. Raegan nodded her head and Gucci walked into the bank first, her long red wig flowing behind her as she went inside. Her nerves were so bad that she tapped her foot against the tile floor, causing her heel to echo with every click clack as she stood in line. Her bowels flip-flopped uncontrollably as the possibility of getting caught sent her stomach into a frenzy. It felt as if she would throw up at any second. She looked nervous and it felt as if everyone in the bank knew her intentions before she ever made a move.
She looked around and noticed that the bank was crowded. It was Friday ... payday, which meant that the bank had a large amount of cash on site. In her mind, she already had her cut spent. She would send her mother’s adult care home enough so that her mother would be straight for a while and then Gucci would give D.C. her ass to kiss. As she turned her head she saw Raegan walk into the bank. From appearances alone, Gucci would have never thought that Raegan was out of her element. She was calm, collected, coordinated. She didn’t stumble or falter ... she simply walked into the place as if she owned it and stood in the next line over. There were only two tellers on duty in the small credit union and Raegan and Gucci would both handle a teller to make sure that no silent alarms were tripped. Gucci felt as if she had a thoroughbred racing in her chest from the rapid beating of her heart. She took deep breaths to calm herself. She didn’t want to be the one to fuck this up. She knew what was on the line. Her eyes scanned the entire room. She had only been in the building for forty-five seconds but it felt as if she had been standing there for hours. Sweat shone lightly on her brow and her stomach turned. It was one thing going up against a bunch of hood niggas but to be putting her freedom on the line was intimidating. Gucci was confident in her girls’ abilities to outthink a dope boy, but to outwit an entire institution was a completely different ball game. The stakes had been raised the moment they had decided to take a bank. She looked at the clock ...
Fifty-five seconds.
At the one-minute mark it would be time to put in work.
Each tick of the long hand taunted her ... dared her to put the plan in motion.
Fifty-six seconds.
The lady in front of her stepped out of the way and Gucci stepped up to the counter.
Fifty-seven seconds.
“Hello, what can I do for you today?” the teller asked with a genuine smile. Gucci hated to be the one to fuck up the woman’s day.
Fifty-nine seconds.
But that’s exactly what she was about to do.
As the hand hit the number twelve Gucci’s eyes went from the clock to the teller. Time seemed to slow dramatically as Gucci leaned over the granite slightly and whispered, “I’ve got sixteen bullets in my pistol and if you don’t want one of them to land in your head I suggest you open the drawer and empty it now.”
Gucci smiled the entire time she was speaking to make the transaction appear to be as normal as possible, but the look of alarm was clearly transparent in the teller’s eyes.
Her mouth fell open and Gucci shook her head slightly. “Unh uhh. I wouldn’t do that. Just calm down and you will walk out of here with your life,” Gucci said. The woman’s nodded frantical
ly as tears filled her eyes, but at Gucci’s orders the woman held them at bay ... not allowing one single drop to fall onto her face. Her hands trembled so badly that she could barely get the money out of her drawer. Gucci quickly gazed to her left and saw that Raegan was handling her own and that no one else in the bank noticed that anything was out of the ordinary.
Gucci found her rhythm and her nervousness gave way to pure adrenaline as she gripped her gun that was concealed in her oversized handbag. Safety off, bullet locked and loaded, she was ready for anything but so far she didn’t even see a reason to use it. She held the steel so tightly that her hand tingled and her fingertips turned white.
“That’s it... That’s everything,” the teller whispered as she slid the stacks of banded denominations over to Gucci. Gucci quickly put the money in her bag and while she was distracted she noticed the teller’s hand inching to the right.
Gucci reached over and grabbed her wrist tightly. The woman withdrew quickly.
“Please, please, please don’t kill me... .” she whispered pleadingly. “I’m just—”
“Go to the bathroom and count to sixty before coming out. If you alert anyone on your way I will make sure that I kill you before the police ever arrive,” Gucci threatened.
The woman nodded and stepped back from her station as Gucci took her handbag and backpedaled for the door. Raegan wasn’t far behind her. She could hear her heels on the tile floor. When they finally exited, they took off for the car, sprinting full speed.
“Pull off, pull off, pull off!” Raegan shouted as soon as they hopped in.
Chanel put her foot to the gas and sped out of the parking lot.
“We did it!” Gucci exclaimed in disbelief.
“We did it?” Chanel asked as she kept looking back at Gucci as she stared inside of her handbag.
“We did it!” Gucci said again, this time in excitement.
“We did it?” Chanel asked again as she searched for answers while looking over at Raegan who rode shotgun.
Guilty Gucci Page 13
