Page 54 of Wings of Ebony
“If I hear anything, I’m coming inside.Period.” He folds his arms. He isn’t going to back down, so I don’t even try.
“What’s your plan?”
“Sneak in, snag some intel, and get out. Making sure no one I love gets killed.” I step out and the entrance to Dezignz tattoo shop—Litto territory—hangs above me.
Julius shouts at my back. “I hope that plan includesyou!”
Me too.
I slip past the entrance and down the side alley of Dezignz. Two side doors and a lot of shiny cars hide back here. I check the first door with a gentle pull. Locked. The second door opens.
I listen through the crack. Nothing. Pulling it open wider, cool air brushes against my face. The dark room is a storage closet, by the looks of it. Rows of racks line the walls. In the center, pallet wood crates are stacked with packages covered with plastic wrap. Drugs.
Still no sound or sight of anyone as I slip inside. The strip of outside light shrinks and disappears. The storage closet is bigger than I thought, and dark. More like a small warehouse. A ceiling towers overhead and the hum of an air conditioner muffles my steps. A beacon of red flickering overhead readsEXIT.There’s another exit sign in the corner to my far right. And another door without an exit sign on my far left. That one must lead to the inside of the shop.
I get closer, pressing against the wood door. Its knob is warm. Someone was just here. I listen.
Arguing voices.
Something’s wrong.
Footsteps. Lots of footsteps.
There’s several of them.
A door closes and the muffled shouts continue, escalating, when something metal bangs into the wall. In the hallway I catch a glimpse of the front entrance waiting area. Black walls dotted with glow-in-the-dark everything make it look like the middle of the night. Cameras peek at me from either corner behind the desk and I jump backward.
Shit.I pull my hood tighter over my head.
I slip past the entry to the shop and move closer to the door where the voices are coming from. The closer I get, the harder my heart thumps. Men’s voices shout back and forth so loud I expect the door to rattle. I press my ear to it.
If they open this door, I’m dead.
“What you mean hedidn’tshow?”
“The hell you think I mean? Blow didn’t show his face.”
Blow? Is that someone’s name?
“So when D says do a thing, Blow thinks that shit’s optional?”
“I guess so. You know how niggas act when they get a little cash flow.”
Ah, so Blow is like an errand boy? But who is D?
“I told you ’bout trusting these boys. Keep yo shit tight. You the boss, D.”
Boss? Shit.
D is Litto.
I-I didn’t expect Litto himself to be here.
“How we moving to the West Side and you got Blow getting sloppy with shit over here? That ain’t gon’ work.”
The guy at the coffee shop? Could that be Blow? Or the guy at the bus stop? I need to get a look at faces.
“Litto?”
