Page 2 of Follow Me to Your Heart
In her usually chipper tone, she asked, “Are you almost here?”
It bothered me knowing I was about to kill her joy. The churning in my stomach made me stall for a few seconds.
Fuck. I hate disappointing her.
“KoKo. I’m not going to make it. I had some shit come up that I need to go handle.”
“Of course you did, Cage. Of course. You would have something come up the morning of one of the biggest days of my life. You know how important this is to me. You know I don’t have anyone else in this city but you. What am I supposed to do? Call someone through the Journey app?”
“This is out my hands. You know this day is just as important to me as it is to you. I’m proud of you, KoKo. Real shit, but you know what it is when business is calling.”
The line went silent. The churning in my stomach felt as if a knife was being slowly turned when I heard Korren sniffling. I had the right mind to turn around and go to her, but if I was being real, my life was on the line. It wasn’t my money that was missing, but I was solely responsible for it. I needed to do everything in my power to get it right before going to O’Shea about it. All options needed to be exhausted.
My grip tightened on the steering wheel. “Don’t do that to me. I’m sorry.”
“Whatever.”
Korren hung up on me. I tossed my phone to the passenger seat and turned my music up. There was no point in me calling her back. She wouldn’t answer, but I planned to pop up on her ass later.
When I turned on Twelfth, I opened my glovebox and put my piece in my lap. I bobbed my head to Kodak as I observed the chaos of the hood. There were rundown houses with wannabe dope boys, fiends, and bad ass kids. It was the environment I grew up in. The environment I wanted to change.
Red was standing outside waiting for me. He swaggered over to my car as I parked on the curb and got out. I dapped him up, and he quickly gave me another rundown on everything. With my gun tucked in my pants, I followed behind Red into our biggest money-making house.
“Where the fuck you going, Pain? Did I give you permission to leave?” Red yelled with his arms outstretched as we entered the house. He walked up on Pain who appeared to be slipping out the back door. Red sized him up, placing a blunt in his mouth and smirking. “Oh, you ain’t got shit to say?”
“Man, you’re tripping. I was going to the bathroom.” Pain didn’t back down. He looked Red up and down, then turned his attention to me. “What’s good, Cage?”
I leaned against the wall with my arms folded. “You tell me. What’s up with the money?”
“What you mean? Everything is good. I counted that shit by hand three times before Red got here.”
“Then why are there ten g’s missing?” Red interrogated, and the room fell silent.
I sat back and waited for one of the three men in question to answer. Pain frowned as he glared at Lee and Nigel. They side-eyed one another; a clear sign they knew what happened. I pulled my gun from my waist and held it in front of me.
Pain noticed and demanded, “One of you better speak. I’m not the last one who touched the money. I counted it, then passed it to Lee to count. There were forty g’s when I counted it. This shit ain’t on me, so I need one of y’all to explain before I lose my cool.”
“No need in doing that,” I informed Pain, lifting my body off the wall and thumbing my nose. In one long stride, I was at Lee’s side with my gun to his temple. His body shook as he kept glancing over at Nigel. “Let me ask y’all a question.”
“Ye-yeah?” Lee stammered.
“Is ten g’s worth your life?”
“N-nah, man.”
“Oh, for real? If it’s not worth your life, then why risk taking it?”
Nigel spoke up. “We ain’t take anything. Red needs to count it again.”
Red laughed obnoxiously, which meant he was about to turn up. He stormed over to Nigel and punched him in the nose. Lee acted as if he was about to defend Nigel, so I pressed my gun deeper into his temple.
“Pain?”
“Yeah, Cage?”
“The money is somewhere in this house. Find it for me.”
Pain smirked. “Bet.”
