Nahvid sat in the plush rocking chair staring through the bars of the crib, watching baby Micah’s chest slowly rise then fall. His heart was in distress as he watched the golden rays of the sun slowly peek through the horizontal blinds that covered the windows, inevitably turning dark to light. The long sigh that escaped his lips gave him no relief. He had been waiting for hours ... hoping ... wishing ... wondering when Raegan would come home. It was at that moment that he remembered why he had never allowed himself to love a woman. He hadn’t known Raegan for that long and already she was turning his world upside down. There were no feelings of bliss or fulfillment as far as he was concerned. Love had always been like a thorn in his side ... it hurt. Now he was left with so many split ends, ends that he needed to clip.
The small cry of an infant interrupted his reverie and he arose to comfort baby Micah. There was a monster inside of him that lay dormant when it came to Raegan. From the trespasses she had committed against him she should be lying face down in a ditch with her dead baby by her side, but he couldn’t bring himself to make that call. He felt a unique connection to this woman and as he thought of her he brought her child to his shoulder. Nahvid sat down in the rocking chair and slowly glided back and forth.
“Shhh ... it’s okay. Everything is going to be okay, li’l homie. I’m going to find her and I’m going to bring her home.”
Nahvid had no idea that the events that had transpired tonight had been the straw to break their relationship apart forever.
Chapter Nineteen
The girls stayed up all night as paranoia kept them alert. They each knew the type of clout and hood prestige that Nahvid carried. The entire city was loyal to one man so if they were caught slipping by anyone it was curtains. Everyone was on his payroll and therefore they knew that they weren’t wanted by one ... they were wanted by all. A thousand unknown faces knew their faces and at any moment they could be attacked.
“We just have to get out of here. We keep moving south and when we finally get to Florida we’ll figure everything out,” Chanel said.
“How do you know this friend of yours will even help us?” Gucci asked.
“Because a long time ago he used to love me,” Chanel whispered, her voice distant as if she was strolling down memory lane.
Raegan kept her eyes low as she thought of Nahvid. “That doesn’t mean anything now does it?” she said. Her statement wasn’t meant to be malicious, but she was devastated. “I was naive to think that he would forgive me after what I did.”
Gucci nor Chanel had no words that would comfort Raegan so they said nothing at all concerning Nahvid.
“What if she’s right?” Gucci asked. “I don’t want to get all the way down there and then be left on stuck. We have to have a backup plan. We need money and enough of it to buy our way out of the country just in case this friend of yours doesn’t come through.”
Chanel looked around the deserted parking lot and then turned around in her seat. “Y’all know what we have to do. There’s only one way we’re getting that type of money.”
“At this point we have to do what we have to do. I’m all in. I have nothing left to lose,” Raegan replied.
Raegan pulled up to Nahvid’s storage unit and took the key off of her ring. “Everything we need is inside. He’ll never know that it’s missing,” she said as she hopped out of the car. The other girls followed suit and their heads were on a constant swivel as they looked around to make sure that no one was watching. Raegan unlocked the padlock and slid the heavy door up, revealing the goodies that were hidden inside.
The storage unit was huge. It was like a mini warehouse, and everything from guns, cars, and cocaine was concealed inside. The unit could never be traced back to Nahvid, however. It had been rented ten years ago by an old woman on her deathbed so technically it was owned by a ghost. If it was ever discovered nothing would lead back to Nahvid’s doorstep. In fact Raegan was the only other person beside himself who knew where it was located.
“Damn,” Gucci exclaimed as she looked around the massive space and at the hood riches that filled it. “I need to be whipping this!” she shouted as she touched the hood of a luxury car.
“You will be,” Raegan stated. “The keys are under the mat. We all will be driving something nice. If we’re going to do this again ... this time we do it right. You take the BMW, Guch, I’ll take the Benz, and Chanel you take the Cadillac. We drive separate cars all the way down to Florida. We’ll use the one outside to do the bank job and these three will be waiting for us to switch into. There are sets of plates registered to dummy names in each of the trunks so whenever we get hot we can always switch the plates.” Raegan walked over to a large box and ripped the tape from the top. She reached inside and pulled out an automatic assault rifle. “We have everything we need to pull this off.”
Gucci and Chanel looked at each other in shock. Raegan was going all in and they knew that it was because of her scorned heart. She would have never shown them one of Nahvid’s spots under normal circumstances, but she was feeling crossed so now nothing was off limits. He had her son and she was going to do what she needed to do to get him back. “When we get out of the country we upload that tape and we use that as leverage to get my son back. If Nahvid doesn’t send him to me, I mail the tape to the police.”
“Do you think he will hurt your baby before then?” Gucci asked, sincerely worried.
“I don’t know. If you had asked me yesterday I would have said no. Today I can only pray,” Raegan said sadly. She was truly scarred by Nahvid. She didn’t know how he could look her in the eyes and promise forgiveness one moment and then send goons for her head the next. “I can’t focus on that right now. I need my head right if we are going to pull this off. We’re not hitting the tellers this time ... this time we hit the bank’s safe.”
“What bank?” Chanel asked.
“First National ... downtown,” Raegan replied.
“Are you crazy? Every cop in the city will be on us. It’s right in the middle of every government building in D.C.,” Gucci protested.
“It also has the most money and we don’t have time to play. I don’t want to go on another robbing spree. We need to take one bank, one time. This time we need to do it right. Everything is riding on this.”
Reason pulled up directly behind Nahvid and hopped out of his car. He joined Nahvid, hopping into his passenger side.
“What’s good, fam?” he asked as they slapped hands. He immediately noticed Raegan’s son sleeping soundly in the car seat behind him and he hid his disapproval.
“I need you to find her, Reason. It’s not something that I feel obligated to explain. Just find her and bring her to me, unharmed. I don’t want a hair on her head out of place,” Nahvid said seriously.
Reason’s temperature rose, but he kept his composure. “Yeah, whatever you need, baby. I got it.”
“She’s into some shit. Some shit that she’s not even built for. You find her for me. Put your ear to the streets until you locate her. I need her back before things get so out of hand that they can no longer be worked out,” he admitted.
Reason did not understand the connection between Nahvid and Raegan. It was baffling him and mind-boggling to see Nahvid so hung up on one chick. “What is it about this broad, Nah? You really going to let the shit with the stash and your mom dukes just ride? I can’t understand this shit ... shit’s crazy. You moving different.”
“It’s not for you to understand,” Nahvid replied.
Reason sniffed and gritted his teeth as he got out of the car. “This soft-ass nigga got the game fucked up ... I’ma find the bitch a’ight,” Reason mumbled as he sauntered back to his car and pulled out into traffic recklessly. In all honesty the more weakness Nahvid showed, the more Reason wanted to make a move. It was time for new leadership and Reason was slowly becoming comfortable with the idea of wearing the new crown. All he had to do was take it.
“Everybody on the floor! Don’t try to be a hero and I wo
n’t make you a memory! On your stomachs flat on the floor! Do it!” Raegan yelled as Gucci and Chanel followed suit. Raegan went to the tellers and immediately tied all of their hands up with plastic zip cuffs, as Gucci commanded the customers to the ground, and Raegan kept her guns fixed on the security guards. The plan was to be out in three minutes flat and as adrenaline raced through their bodies they left all inhibitions behind as they strong-armed the bank. Time was moving so quickly that none of them were actually thinking of what they were doing. The first bank job had been peaceful, but this time they were going for broke. Heels, wigs, sunglasses, and trench coats they came through the bank like they were official. They were scared shitless, but no one would have ever detected that they were amateurs.
“If you fucking move, I will blow your top off!” Gucci shouted as she walked back and forth, gun moving from customer to customer as her eyes traced over each person swiftly.
“Get to the safe! I’ve got it up here,” Chanel yelled.
Raegan grabbed one of the tellers off the floor, roughly snatching the heavyset woman up. The woman trembled so badly that she could barely keep her composure. “Who has the power to get in the safe?” she asked.
“Oh ... Lord ... I ... I ...” The woman was nervous and Raegan’s stomach knotted when she saw the stream of urine darken her pants leg.
“Listen ... I’m not going to hurt you. We just came for the money. You don’t even have to speak. Just point. Who can get inside the safe?” she asked, lowering her voice this time to make the woman feel more at ease. “Just point,” Raegan coached.
The woman pointed to a young white man. “Nobody likes a snitch, Judy!” he sneered as he stood to his feet while holding his hands up.
“The safe ... now!” Raegan instructed sternly. He guided her to the back of the bank where a large vault stood closed with a steel dial keeping it secure. “Open it.”
“Okay ... okay,” he complied as he inserted his key. He began to turn the dial and Raegan slapped fire from his ass, using the handle of her AK to bust his mouth and nose open. Blood gushed everywhere.
“Don’t play with me. If you don’t enter the code after the key the alarm is triggered. You must not like your life,” she threatened.
“Please ... I ...”
“Open the vault,” she ordered, this time with no patience left for his attempt at heroism. She had no time for his antics. It wasn’t his money that she was taking. Hitting banks was a victimless crime. The system took a loss, not an individual and because of that she felt no guilt. The bank had the sign posted directly on its doors: FDIC INSURED.
“Hurry uuupp!” Chanel shouted.
“Two minutes!” Gucci added.
The man opened the vault and Raegan was momentarily in awe at the amount of money that filled the steel walls. Raegan ordered the bank manager back to the ground and zip cuffed him to the inside of the vault so that his hands were connected to his ankles. She then opened the two large duffel bags she carried and began to stuff the neatly packaged bundles inside. The money was so new that it looked fake and the smell of the fresh paper was intoxicating. They had hit the jackpot and she was high off the lick. She stuffed money into the bags until they were dumb full. The zipper would barely close by the time she was done. Sweat dripped into her eyes as her body temperature rose from the stress of it all and she struggled to carry both bags back into the main lobby.
“Let’s go!” she shouted.
They were headed for the exit when Gucci remembered the tapes. She ran back over to the same woman that Raegan had questioned and pulled her to her feet once again.
“Oh Lord. Please you have the money ... just leave me be,” she sang out as her eyes shot toward the sky.
“Where’s the tape? The system that records the bank, where is it?” Gucci asked.
The lady led her to a closed wooden door and opened it to reveal an array of TV monitors and recording devices. This system was too complex. There was no physical tape. It was all digital set up to DVRs. She had no time to figure it out. She looked around the room and saw a coffee maker with a full pot of coffee sitting on a stand. She quickly took the liquid and poured it all over the expensive technology. Static immediately erupted and the monitors turned grey. The entire system was completely ruined.
“Let’s get out of here!” she heard Raegan shout.
“Sit down,” Gucci told the woman, aiming the gun to make her comply. Cuffing the woman’s hands to the door, Gucci knew that they were in the clear. No alarms had been triggered and everyone in the bank was tied up so it would be awhile before the police even realized that anything had gone down. What she didn’t know was that there was a backup system that was still recording their every move.
Gucci ran back toward the lobby and out the front door. They hopped into the getaway car.
“Oh my God! I thought I would piss on myself in there!” Chanel screamed. “How much did we get?”
Raegan shook her head and replied, “I don’t know ... I just kept stuffing the bags until they were full. Just drive, Chanel ... Worry about the money when we are out of this area.”
She kept waiting for sirens to blare in her ears, but she heard nothing. When they finally pulled up to the parking garage where they had parked the cars they had stolen from Nahvid, she breathed a sigh of relief.
They parked and Gucci began to wipe down the car, removing any possible fingerprints that they could have left behind as the other girls each took a duffel bag and headed toward their cars.
“Be careful and be smart. I’ll see you bitches in two hours,” Chanel said. They were all Southern bound but decided to take three different routes.
“Whoa! Wait! What about my cut?” Gucci asked before she stepped into her car.
“We’ll divvy up the money when we get to the spot,” Raegan said.
Gucci’s face fell in insecurity. She wanted to trust her friends, but in all honesty they hadn’t been friends for too long. She knew people who would snake their own mothers for the type of paper that they were dealing with. So to leave empty-handed without any assurance was hard to do. Both Chanel and Raegan saw the look of doubt in her eyes.
“You’re our sister, Gucci. We would never get you,” Chanel said.
Raegan held up her duffel bag. “We don’t have time to split it into three right now, but here,” she said as she handed her bag over to Gucci. “Take this one. I trust you, Gucci, and I hope by now that you would trust me. I’ll get my cut when I see you in VA.”
Gucci hugged Raegan and held her tightly for a brief moment. Raegan had just proven without a doubt that they were family. This thing ran deeper than a shallow friendship. Their backs were against the wall and the security of their friendship was all they had to keep them sane.
“See you soon,” Raegan said. “Be careful, Gucci.”
Gucci nodded her head and all three girls hopped into their cars and headed their separate ways.
Chapter Twenty
“Fuck is your mama doing?” Nahvid exclaimed as he sat with baby Micah cradled in the crease of his arm, while watching the scene of the bank robbery unfold before his eyes. Images of the three girls were all over every major news station. They had gotten caught slipping because they didn’t realize the bank had a backup video system set up in case of a robbery and now their heist was playing on every major network. He rushed to the phone and dialed her number only to be sent directly to voice mail. “Damn it, Raegan!” His temper flared at the thought of her reckless actions. Why had she chosen this path? He had given her a clear and safe way out, but she had left his offer on the table, abandoning not only their relationship, but her son as well. What the fuck is she thinking? he asked himself. “She’s moving all wrong,” he whispered. Although the police didn’t know the identities of the girls yet, Nahvid knew that it was only a matter of time before they were discovered. This wasn’t some local mom-and-pop, one-chain institution they had robbed. This was the city’s largest bank. There was no way the media or t
he Feds would let this one go unsolved. On top of that the bills that were stolen were marked so if Raegan spent even a dime of it anywhere in the United States, she would be caught. Even if the girls moved smart, the $100,000 cash reward for information leading to their capture was all the insurance the Feds needed to convince someone to come forward. Nahvid felt an overwhelming sense of fear for Raegan because if she was caught and tried to resist, court would be held in the streets. There was a strong possibility that he could lose her for good behind this and he shook his head solemnly knowing that he and baby Micah would be no good without her in their lives. The ringing of the phone blared in his ear and he answered it with urgency.
“Yeah?”
“Yo, are you watching this shit?” Reason asked. He was astonished at the measures that Raegan was taking. He had to admit that she was truly one of a kind. He had never seen anything like it. Her gangster was unrivaled by any female he had ever met. “Them bitches bolder than a lot of niggas I know.”
“Look, I need you on top of this, fam. You moving too slow and every second you can’t find her she’s digging a hole for herself that keeps getting deeper and deeper,” Nahvid said. “I need you to do me this favor, Reason.”
“Yeah, yeah, I hear you, Nah. I’m all over it,” Reason returned unenthusiastically.
In his mind, Reason had already made up his mind. He was tired of watching the throne. He was about to take the muthafucka, but he couldn’t get rid of Nahvid until he knew exactly where he kept his work. Nahvid had never shared that information with Reason and until Reason secured his own coke connect, he would need the bricks that Nahvid had on deck. He knew that Nah was sitting on one hundred easy and he was too lazy to build his own shit up from the ground floor. He needed weight. So before he put his play down with Nahvid he needed to find Raegan. If anyone knows where it’s at she do, Reason thought.
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