The Grind Don't Stop (14 page)

Sparkle nodded. He should've known that his dog was on the case. All he had to worry about now was dodging Beverly's roving eyes. But damn, the girl had eyes and ears everywhere. Maybe after he'd gotten through this situation, he'd be able to concentrate on getting with her seriously. But, then what about his crew? “Hmmmph, what about them.” He pondered as he sat and admired the scheming wickedness.

H
ey, baby, how ya doing? Why you looking like that, you got into a spat with one of the cashiers at the supermarket or something?” Al asked Mona as he sat down on the bed and finished drying himself off.

Mona smiled meekly at his attempt at teasing her. Only moments before she had been sweating bullets, but now she was grateful he hadn't shown any sign of discovering her exploration into his private sanctuary. She could hardly believe that she had actually pulled it off with him already in the house. Therefore, it was a no-brainer that she roll right along with his mood.

“How'd you know that? Damn, you've got eyes everywhere, don'tcha?”

“Naw, sweetie, you were just looking a little frayed when I came out, that's all.” He started scratching the back of his ear, a clear sign that she'd noticed him do when he had difficulty wording what he wanted to say.

She sighed when he took a deep breath and walked over to put his hand on her shoulder. His tone became serious. “There's some- thing I need for you to do for me.” She frowned. “Hey, before you start to looking all giddy and stuff, let me finish.”

Mona nodded and studied his face intently, not knowing quite what to expect. Up until then all he had ever asked her to do was menial girly stuff. Her heart thumped when he said, “Ooookayeee,
I've got a job I need you to do for me. It ain't anything dangerous—well, at least your part of it isn't—but there is a possibility for something to go wrong. So you've really got to have your wits with you.” He swallowed nothing and continued, “Okay, check this out. CeeDee will be here shortly.”

He paused to take a quick peek at his watch. “In about ten minutes, I need for you to take a ride with him out to Henry County.” He paused again, put his hand over his mouth and looked her up and down, studying her intently for any signs of rebellion. He saw none, good girl. “Put on some dark clothing, like that dark leather jumpsuit I got you the other week. Just in case.”

She blinked innocently a couple of times, sighed deeply and ran her finger across her opened mouth. “Is it okay if I ask you what it is you want me to do?”

Al gave her his most convincing smile, sat down beside her, put his arm across her shoulder and started out in a low voice that rose as he explained. “Sweetie, I'm gonna be straight up with ya. There's a furniture warehouse out there in Henry County and CeeDee is going to steal one of the trailers. Ain't anything in it but really expensive stuff. What I need you to do is drive him down there and be his extra pair of eyes. Once he gets the trailer on the road, I want you to drive at least a mile or two in front of him to let him know about any police activity he may run into. Say like a roadblock or something.” There were a lot of tension wrinkles creasing his forehead.

She sat there momentarily stunned, however, not for the reason he thought; the expression on his face read fear. But it was far from that because this was exactly what RJ had braced her for in the supermarket. Now it had dropped in her lap like a godsend. Hell yeah, she was stunned because she couldn't believe how lucky she was. Not only would she not have to push him to get what RJ wanted, she was about to be a part of the whole operation.

When she looked at Al, she sensed that he felt her fear or anxiousness or whatever it was he wanted to see and feel. She chose to let him think how he wished. It was right on point because his arrogant ass would feel more than obligated to offer something if he thought that she needed to be assured that everything would be okay.

He shifted around uncomfortably and pyramided his elbows on his knees with his fingers entwined and ran his tongue across his lips studying her. He squinted in concentration, trying to feel how she was taking the assignment because he didn't need her acting all scary. He had too much riding on this.

Damn, it's probably gonna take a little more than I thought.
He considered other options. He had none. And with the pressure that RJ was putting on him, he had to come up with whatever the fuck it took, point blank. He knew that he had to give her only the basic information. The less she knew, the less she could tell if things did go wrong. Since he was limited on what he could tell her, thus curtailing his assurance, he decided to throw her a little better incentive. “Tell you what, sweetheart, you'll get ten percent of the total haul, the same as CeeDee is getting. Whatcha say about that there?”

He expected her to get more excited, but she didn't show any kind of reaction. Not good. And since he knew that his overall cut in the project would be in the six-figure range, he'd have to cement her interest; put her in a position where she had to commit.

“Tell you what, honey, since I believe that God blesses the child that has their own.” He slapped his knees with enthusiasm, stood up and walked briskly over to the closet. With no hesitation whatsoever, Al pulled back a rack of clothes to reveal a wall safe, one bigger than the one downstairs.

Mona's heart jumped several beats, she had just found the golden goose. Now she and her sister would definitely have enough to
disappear and go wherever they wanted to. Her eyes nearly jumped out of their sockets when he unlocked it, reached inside and pushed what had to be kilos of dope to the side and revealed stacks of dollars. She knew that the nigga had dough, but godayum.

After regaining her breath, she placed her hand across her chest, quickly checking herself and remembering that the entire house was being monitored. She sat on the bed and forced herself not to show how excited she really was. Suddenly, a tingling ran down her neck and all the way down her spine when she thought of what was already on the tapes downstairs under the game room. She had to force back the bile that started to stir in her stomach.

Damn, I almost forgot that I've got to get my ass out of here before he sees that shit.
Her thoughts were tortured as he turned to her with two stacks of bills clutched in his hands. Her brows cocked with curiosity when he didn't even bother to close the safe, though he did push the clothes back into place.

The smile was creased deeply in his face as he casually walked back over to her and tossed both stacks into her lap. Stunned beyond belief, she forced herself to look down only once, not wanting to show she was overwhelmed. She willed herself to stay cool and gradually looked up at him.

Al's next words were stern. “When you and CeeDee get into Henry County, give him one of them stacks; they're ten grand apiece. Y'all will get the rest of it when the truck is delivered. He already knows where to go.”

She still sat there without saying a word.
Damn, what more can this bitch want, fuck?
he thought angrily. Time was running out. With the way that cracker was putting all this pressure on him, this had to be done tonight or his ass was in deep shit. He sat down beside her and put his arm across her shoulder. “Hey, you're scared, aren't you?”

The tone in his voice was too kind and she knew he was hiding his true emotions. She had heard too much now, way too much and was quickly becoming a liability; hell, had already become a liability. She looked over at him and even though he was smiling, she could feel a cold undercurrent of danger. Along with that video she knew she was as good as dead if she didn't go along. What choice did she really have? None.

Mona swallowed nervously and nodded several times. “But, daddy, if I ride ahead of him, how could I be able to let him know if there's any trouble and how will I know where to go anyway?”

Al wanted to jump for joy.
Fucking mission accomplished, well,
almost anyway.
He smiled. “Walkie-talkies, baby, I'll have one here as well, monitoring the both of you. And for security reasons I can't tell you where the drop-off is until y'all are on the way.”

She nodded. Good enough as far as he was concerned. He slapped his thighs loudly, rubbed his knees a few times, anxious to get the show on the road. Sighing heavily, he got up and picked up the phone smiling brightly. Ten minutes later, CeeDee was ringing the doorbell.

Unbeknownst to any them, they had a very unwanted guest, Lt. Woo, parked several houses down the street watching as CeeDee entered the house. She had followed him out of curiosity when she had seen him leaving the Holiday Inn off of Wesley Chapel. She had been sitting in the Dairy Queen across the street to observe the in-and-out traffic because of the robberies she'd heard about recently.

Lt. Woo remembered CeeDee from the pool shakedown at the Red Roof Inn. He had been smart enough to dump his dope and other stuff into the pool when she had given him the chance. Smart of him then, dumb of him now. Not even checking to see if he was being followed. And since she had a few hours before she hooked up with her crew, she thought that she'd see what he was up to.

He was in the house for only a short time before emerging in the company of a pretty young woman. The woman seemed to be familiar but she couldn't put her finger on why. She let them drive a few blocks ahead before she pulled out to follow.

When she felt comfortable they hadn't noticed her, Lt. Woo picked up her mike from the middle console to call one of her boys to join her. “Whaddafuck,” she shouted to herself when they turned on I-20 in the opposite direction of Decatur. She hung up the mike. This was something she hadn't expected. Her crooked cop vibes had kicked in and calling anyone now was out of the question. She was on her own; exactly how she preferred it.

With her curiosity growing more and more by the minute, she unconsciously slid her hand to her crotch. Her intuition told her that something exciting was about to happen.

Some twenty minutes later in the car up ahead, Mona's mind was running a thousand miles a minute when CeeDee told her to turn onto a dirt road and cut off the lights. She had no idea whatsoever where she was or where they were headed.

How in the hell this fool expect me to see where I'm driving without no lights? Shit, I can't even see my own hand,
she thought as she took her foot off of the gas pedal. She rolled down the window and leaned forward. All she could see was the shadowy outline of the trees against the jet-black sky. No matter how much she strained her eyes, she still couldn't see a damn thing. Thank the Lord she hadn't lit up that blunt that Al had slipped her on the way out of the door. This shit here was spooky enough all by itself. God forbade if she was geeking, too.

“Ain't that much further, girly, riiiiggght here, CeeDee whispered in his country drawl as if somebody else was around to hear him if he had said it any louder. As far she was concerned they were in a no-man's land. He reached over to clasp her wrist
on the steering wheel as she felt the branches scraping against her side of the car.

How the fuck could he tell I was going off the road in this pitch-black shit?
She looked in his direction. She couldn't even see his big country ass. She sighed. “Damn, man, it's about time; jeez, talk about the fucking boondocks.” she growled with disgust. Luckily, she couldn't see the expression on his face in the dark. If she had she would've probably jumped through the window.

He reached into the glove compartment and removed a small flashlight. “Let's make sure that we are on the same frequency,” he muttered, then took two walkie-talkies from under the seat and synchronized them.

He handed her one and pressed the send button on the other one. “Breaker break 23, breaker break 23.” He put it to his ear. For several moments all they heard was static and then Al's voice started coming through, loud and staticky in the still night.

“Well, shawtie, I guess it's on,” CeeDee said with a smile as he slipped out of the car and disappeared among the trees.

No way she was gonna sit in that dark car all by herself. She counted to a hundred and got out to follow him. To her surprise she had only taken a few steps of being snagged and slapped by twigs and branches before she was able to see the long line of trucks in the back of a long warehouse dock. She lifted the binoculars hanging across her neck and hunted for CeeDee. Shortly afterward, she was frowning because she couldn't see him anywhere.
Damn, I wish he would've told me which truck. But hell, he probably didn't know where it would be himself. S
he didn't even get the chance to finish that thought when the back lights of one of the trucks came on and it started backing up. “Oh shit, let me get my ass back to the car.” She started backing into the bush.

“Goddamnit.” She nearly screamed when she felt some upturned
roots snag her foot. She lost her balance and fell into a briar patch. When she turned over to push herself up, she was assaulted by the sickening stench exuding from the ground. She gasped and put her hand over her mouth.

“Ugh.” She grimaced when the rotten foliage and mud spread on her mouth and tongue. Her stomach heaved a couple of times but nothing came up. She unzipped her jumpsuit and took the tail of her T-shirt to wipe the mess from her mouth, having to spit several times to get the taste out.

Grimacing and grunting, she was finally able to get to her feet—but not without getting caught up several times by thorns and other stuff, where she had to snatch herself free. Mona realized that she had dropped her walkie-talkie. Cursing under her breath, she dreaded the idea of having to muddle in that mess to get it. Sighing heavily, she reluctantly got on her hands and knees to start groping in the icky mess.

After several disgusting moments of frantically feeling around, in what she could only wildly guess, she reached into her pocket to get her cigarette lighter. As soon as she flicked it on, she heard a faint crackling sound that sent shivers through her whole body. She froze in fear. All her attention was now focused on the sound and what could've possibly caused it.