Page 17 of In Too Deep

“This FedEx delivery truck. He knows a guy who knows a guy who transports them, and they have to transfer the pallets before he pulls off with the freight for delivery,” I told her all I wanted her to know, which was more than enough.

Her eyes grew wide before she shifted her body on the couch. “That shit sounds worse than robbing a bank.”

“Not quite.”

“So, are you thinking about doing it? Where are the phone being delivered to originally?”

“He didn’t mention that part to me, but I’m sure to cellphone companies like AT&T, MetroPCS, Boost Mobile, T-Mobile, and Cricket.”

“And you don’t have to do anything else? Are they marked?”

I hunched my shoulders. “No and no.”

“How would you sell them?”

“Off Facebook Marketplace. I’ll remain faceless until it’s time for them to get the product. I can always resell to companies like Telo Wireless, Game Exchange, and other cell phone companies willing to make that investment.”

We sat in silence for a moment. I knew Mimi like the back of my hand. She was still; her thoughts wandered, deep in thought. She’d tell me her opinion and how it’d work and how it could backfire on me. Either way, she’d see it through.

“It could go good, I guess, but how long would you do it. You know when people see that type of money, they get greedy.”

“I already told myself, I’ll let it go once I catch up on my bills. The thing is, I have to meet Allen at the meeting point tonight.”

Her eyes, the color of rich mahogany, darted towards me in a look of shock. “Tonight,” she repeated.

“Hmm Hmm, tonight.”

“Damn, that’s soon as fuck. How’d you get there? I thought your car?—”

I interjected. “That’s another thing. I can’t catch a damn Uber, I was gonna ask you if I could borrow your car.” Biting down on the inner corners of my lip, I anticipated her answer.

“You know Oliver has to be at work by six in the morning.”

She didn’t say no, but she wasn’t saying yes either. Allen didn’t mention shit about picking me up. That’d be doing too much. Everything was on me.

“I’d be back before then.”

“Shit,” she shrieked. “The fucking tags.”

“Are legit,” I finished her sentence.

Mimi took a deep breath and placed her forehead in the palm of her hand. “I know that, but I don’t need them tracing that fucking car. The headlight is busted, the paint is chipped, I mean, I could take the tags off and put some drive outs on there, but if shit turned sour with this, they’d have a lot of shit to go off of. I told that nigga them ugly ass rims on the Crown Vic wasn’t a good look.”

Thinking quick on my feet, I muttered, “I can rent a car real quick.”

“You know how long that shit takes. It takes them up to three hours to process the paperwork.”

“Not Enterprise, I’ll be in and out. I already have the proper documents. The only thing I’ll need is insurance and my license.”

“Go ahead and look online for something cheap.”

Nodding my head, I fished around for my phone, placing my request for something cheap. All I needed was something durable to get from point A to point B.

“These mosquitos tearing my ass up,” Allen complained as he stood beside me outside.

The night air felt muggy and damp. If I stuck my index finger in the air, it’d be damp. I met Allen at the meeting point, FedEx Freight drop off, tucked in a corner, away from the diesel pumps. I kept grabbing my phone, clutching it tightly to check the time, fidgeting. They were late, and that threw me off. Regardless of the mission's emotional consistency duringunloading and restocking household items, his punctuality was notable; however, his employment was not with a billion-dollar corporation such as FedEx. Though I’m sure their routes are similar, anything could happen. I was looking for small signs from God, so I could back out, but I didn’t see any. Everything on the way here was smooth up until this point.

Allen hadn’t mentioned anything about punctuality. He was joking next to me, flirting here and there without seeming bothered by the driver’s tardiness. The first sign of him bullshitting me, I was gonna shoot his ass. I noticed his gun on his hip, but he had to know I wasn’t stupid enough to pull up unarmed.

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