Page 84 of Search My Soul
“You have Normandee and me to help you navigate through all of this. I know it’s scary, but you are not in this alone. Besides, I’m pretty sure Soul will want to be there for you and the baby, even if the two of you aren’t together.”
“I don’t know, but I guess I’ll have to face the music sooner rather than later.”
“Exactly. It’s best to know exactly what we’re dealing with so we can come up with the best solution.” My phone chimed as Puma talked, and it was from an unknown number. I already knew who it was because of the contents of the message. Something told me this wasn’t a message I should ignore, so I made up an excuse to leave and headed to my car.
I received another message from Majesty telling me that I needed to meet her and that it was urgent. As much as I wanted to ignore her, with the recent run-in with the man we robbed, I figured she was the best person to talk to about this. I could barely sleep at night because I was worried that my life was going to blow up in my face at any moment.
Puma assured me that it wouldn’t be as bad as I anticipated, but she didn’t know Soul the way I did. There were two things Soul hated more than anything: liars and thieves. The way things were looking, I had committed both sins.
I sent a text to Majesty letting her know that I would meet her and that I would need the address. She insisted that I come alone, and I agreed. I made two additional stops before I entered the address into my GPS.
It took me thirty minutes to get to the address, so I sent a message to Soul and told him I was visiting with my aunt at her new house. It was a lie, but since I knew he checked my location often, I needed to cover my tracks. Soul was a worrier, and if I sat at a location too long, he would often check in to make sure I was okay. There were a few times when he pulled up on me to see for himself, so I needed to make sure I stayed on top of things.
I broke down and decided to tell Puma where I was really going just in case some shit hit the fan. She begged me to let her come, but I couldn’t risk something happening to her so close to her due date. Murk would never forgive me if I put her in danger.
The moment I pulled up to the address, a sinking feeling settled in my stomach. I wanted to turn right back around and go home because I had a feeling whatever was between the walls of that house would only cause me more grief. Majesty had also sent a message that I had to leave my phone in the car, so I reluctantly placed my phone in my glove compartment. Since my people had my location, I wasn’t too worried. Puma made it clear that if too much time passed, she was coming with herbedazzled gun and Normandee as the getaway driver. I loved my best friends, and I appreciated the fact that they were ready to ride for me.
Against my better judgment, I stepped out of the car, took a deep breath, and walked through the door. It was now or never.
“It’s about time you made it. It shouldn’t have taken you two hours to get here.” Majesty fussed, mean-mugging me as she stepped to the side to allow me into the house.
“Well, I wasn’t expecting to hear from you, so I wasn’t going to put my errands on hold because you decided to reach out to me at the last minute,” I shot back.
“Did you come by yourself?” she asked as she stepped out to check the area.
“Yes. Do you think I would be going around telling people about this shit? I value my life way too much to incriminate myself.” I scoffed. The house appeared to be brand new. The smell of fresh paint was the first thing that caught my attention. The walls were bare, but I could tell someone lived here because of the small mat by the door with shoes sitting on it.
“Where’s your phone?”
“I left it in the car.” Majesty eyed me up and down as if she didn’t believe me. She stepped closer to me, and I squared my shoulders in case she tried some funny shit. I might not have a weapon, but I spent my younger years beating bitches asses for trying to bully me. These hands were lethal, and I would fight my way out of here if I needed to.
“Hold still.” Her voice was flat but serious. I stood there as she patted me down like the security guards did at the club. She got down to my pants legs and yanked them up. Once she was satisfied with what she saw, she told me to follow her. We passed the living and kitchen area, and I could tell there was more than one person occupying the space. There were multiple plates and cups everywhere.
She led me to some door in the kitchen, and I heard the sound of music and men talking. I didn’t want to go to the basement because there usually wasn’t an exit down there. I stalled at the top step, but she nudged me to continue. Once we got halfway down the stairs, the voices grew louder, and the smell of smoke permeated the air.
One of those voices stuck out to me, but it couldn’t have been possible, could it?
“Yeah, mothafucka. You thought you were gonna cheat me, but I got skills!” My eyes damn near bulged out of my head when I laid eyes on the man behind the voice. No fucking way. How could this be possible? A barrage of questions raced through my mind as I observed him. This couldn’t have been the same cousin who I’d recently seen in a wheelchair.
“Aye!” Majesty yelled out, gaining the attention of the men who were engrossed in their game of pool. When my eyes locked with Remi’s, it felt as if all the air had left my body. None of this made any sense given what I thought I knew about the situation.
“Oh, you finally got ol’ girl here. What’s up, baby girl?” He winked at me as if all was right in the world. Meanwhile, I could hardly believe my eyes. Now it made sense why she didn’t want me to bring my phone inside. Clearly, I was more out of the loop than I originally thought.
“Why are you looking like you’ve seen a ghost?” He smirked, turning back to resume his game.
“What the hell is going on here? Look, Majesty. I don’t appreciate you getting me wrapped up in this bullshit. The only reason why I came here was because I wanted to know what was going on with the man you shot, who seems to have miraculously healed from his injuries.” I cut my eyes over to Remi. Soul told me that Remi was paralyzed from the waist down and he may never walk again. Obviously, this had all been a scheme, and I was the last person to find out.
“There are a lot of things you don’t know. However, I think there’s a way for you to help us and in turn, we can look out for you,” Majesty declared. My head shook before she even got the chance to explain anything to me. There was no way I would help them. If anything, I wanted to pretend like none of this ever happened and move on with my life.
“Tell me the truth,” I demanded. They owed me an explanation, and I wasn’t leaving here without one.
“Well, it’s simple.” Majesty walked over to Remi and pulled his head down to meet hers. I stood there in disbelief as the two of them began to make out with one another. The kiss grew deeper, and I wanted to turn my head when I heard the sound of her moaning. When she broke away, she placed her hand on his chest. They looked into each other’s eyes as if they were a couple who was madly in love. None of this made any sense to me.
“My apologies. We do have manners around here. What my woman was trying to say was that this has been in the works for a long time. I’ve worked under Soul and his family for years, when I should have been leading my own organization. My father has just as many connections as they do, but he made the foolish decision to join forces with them.”
I listened intently as he paced around the room, looking up at the ceiling as he recalled the events of the past.
“You see, this was more about control than it was about the money. We needed to taint Soul’s image to make it seem like hewasn’t in control of his team so that the connect would think he was losing his touch.
