T.H.U.G.L.I.F.E.

Chapter 11

Malik

"What's up nephew?" I asked, giving him a high five as him and Jermaine we watching some movie. Amara was on the phone, most likely talking to Nia since that's the only person she talk to besides us.

"Fuck, I'm hungry as shit." I mumbled, walking over to the fridge.

I smacked my lips when I noticed that we ain't had time to stock the fridge up yet. As I went to close the door, I noticed a long, black cord laying on the floor.

I followed the cord, seeing that it led to some small, black box sitting behind our microwave.

"Aye y'all wanna take a walk?" I said as I also mouthed the words "code black" to them.

They looked at each other before standing up.

"Fuck yeah, I need a stretch anyways." Jermaine said as he put Damien on his back.

"Nah, ya fat ass need to work out." Amara scoffed as she walked out the door.

Once we got away from the house, I stopped us.

"Okay-"

"Wait." Jermaine pulled out a small MP3 player and turned on some music, putting headphones on Damien.

We left our phones at the house just to make sure nobody can listen through on them.

"Aye start doing jumping jacks." I said, causing us all to start at the same time.

"Why tho?"

"Just so it looks like we doing something." I said as we switched to a different exercise. "We being watched."

"What happened?" Jermaine said as he made sure to keep Damien in the middle of us.

"I found a tape recorder in the house."

"How the fuck?" Jermaine mumbled.

"How long has it been there?" Amara asked.

"I don't know. It could've been there for the longest. Which means-"

"Which means someone could've possibly heard our plans from the other day." Amara said, smacking her teeth.

"Fuck man."

"Yo we gotta catch these fools and quick. These motherfuckers smart as hell and are obviously closer than we think."

"Amara, I'm telling you, it's Nia foo." Jermaine said.

"No it is not, bruh. Y'all been working with her and I know yo high tech ass tapped into her phone, pulling up everything. Did you find anything?"

"Well no bu-"

"Exactly! Now stop putting the blame on her because we all know that it's Vinchi and King."

"You've been working with Vinchi and King tho." I said, furrowing my eyes at her as I did squats.

"Right. Have you found anything out yet?"

"No. All I know is that Vinchi and King are very loyal to each other. I know that they're very big on loyalty."

"Exactly fool! That right there shows that it ain't them." Jermaine said, as I nodded my head in agreement. Surprised I ain't got tired yet.

"Okay? They are loyal to each other. That doesn't mean they'll be loyal to us."

"Jermaine, what about Angel?" I questioned.

"I haven't had time to check into her because I literally can't stand the bitch and the only reason we communicate is because of him." He said, nudging his head towards Damien.

"Man, we running into a dead end." I said, taking a breather.

"Ight Ight, I got an idea." Amara said, as her and Jermaine stopped.

"You can't get anything done without taking risk right?" My face grew with confusion as she said that.

"What is this leading to, Se?" Jermaine said, taking the words out of my mouth.

"We get Nia, Vinchi, and King together and tell them what's going on." I looked at her with my face scrunched up.

"Amara what? Fuck no." I said, shaking my head.

"Right ain't no way in hell we doing that." Jermaine said, shaking his head.

"Just hear me out. If it really is one of them, they'll know that we are on to them, which will make them have to act fast. In our luck, either they will slip up or we'll get them before they get us." Amara finished as me and Jermaine stood in silence.

"Say we do go with this idea, we still forgetting about one person. Angel." I said, crossing my arms.

"That's where Jermaine comes in. Jermaine you gonna have to act vulnerable for a second and spend time with her."

"Huh? Hell no, I'd be done killed that hoe." Jermaine said, shaking his head.

"Dub, you gonna have to. The only way we can get information out of her is through you cause you're her child's father."

"I don't know about this plan, Se." I said, rubbing my face.

"Come on man, y'all trust me?" She said, stale facing us.

"Yes." We said together.

"Well let's try it. We can never go wrong if we work together." Me and Dub looked at each other.

"Ight." I said as my phone's timer started going off, signaling that I had a drop to do. "Imma head out, I got a drop today."

"We coming too. Just drop Damien at Angel's house." I shrugged as we all walked back to the house.
~
"So glad these fools don't play with our money." Jermaine mumbled as he put the duffel bag in the back seat with Amara.

"I feel ya on that one. I can't stand when folks try to fuck up our money like we owe them something." I responded as I paid attention to the road since I was the one driving.

"They must don't like their life then." Amara mumbled as she sat back.

Right when I was finna say something else, I was cut off as the window shattered because a bullet came through, going in my arm.

"Ayo, what the fuck?" Jermaine said, cocking his gun back.

"Le, are you okay?" Amara asked from the back seat.

I tried to get control of the steering wheel because they shot the tires too. Before I knew it, I crashed into a tree.

Fücking great.