Page 38 of Dope Boys: Most Wanted
The necessary money divided for bank deposits and laundering were wrapped and placed into his pockets. He exited the office ensuring it was locked behind him before scanning the buzzing storefront for the manager.
“Ay, Benji. You’re good,” he stated.
Benji slightly turned his body from the far end of the stations and nodded his response. “Your order is in the bag.”
“Good lookin’,” Markus muttered, grabbing it and starting toward the door.
“See you, Money,” the barista called.
“Do some damn work,” he shot back, grabbing his bag and heading out.
Twenty minutes through the city, he was pulling his truck up to the back door of the salon. When he opened the door with his boot-covered foot, the sound of motion and the lights coming from the supply closet caught his attention. The subtle noises and sniffling prompted him to silently place the things down and softly shut the door. Gun drawn, he inched toward the noise.
“I’ll put something hot through your ass,” he gritted.
Reign jumped, screamed, and dropped the tubes of color she was prepping for her first client. “WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU!”
“Ah fuck!” Markus hissed dropping his gun from her face and putting it in the back of his pants. “What the fuck you doin’ here so damn early?”
“What the fuck are you doing pointing guns at employees?” she spat back, trying to regulate her breathing. “Something is wrong with you!”
“Ain’t nothing wrong with me,” Markus shot back. “Other than your ass sneaking around in the shadows.”
“What happened to basic decency. Like hi, hello, it’s me, the dumbass,” Reign shot back, picking up the tubes of color off of the floor. “This is too much.”
She muttered the last part as she squatted down to wipe up the developer she’d previously mixed to color the three bundles needed later today.
Markus grabbed a couple of nearby towels, squatting down to assist. Reign snatched them from him while trying to catch her tears before the floodgates opened again.
“I don’t need your help,” she shot. “Just go do whatever you were here to do. And leave me alone.”
“I came to bring you more supplies. Even got your snappy ass some breakfast. From mute to biting my head off. Imagine that,” he grumbled, standing to his full height.
“I don’t want shit you got,” she huffed, swiping her cheek free of tears and subsequently wiping the poorly-made foundation off too. “And dropping shit off is a quiet mission. Drop it off and leave.”
“I would have but your little ass was sneaking in the shadows.” Markus noticed the blemish. Bright red even against the redness of her face from the apparent aggravation. It was new. He knew that because he committed the old ones to memory. He grabbed her chin with just enough force to make her slap his hand away.
“Don’t touch me,” Reign shot shooting to her feet. Running wasn’t a choice due to Markus’ frame blocking her exit. “Move.”
“Nah. What the fuck happened to your face?” he gritted, abandoning the banter to get to the root of this.
“I ran into a wall,” she stated avoiding his eyes. “Anything else?”
He moved closer to her. He grabbed another towel and took her chin back into his possession. Reign couldn’t fight him off nor did she have the strength. Not when he was peering down at her like he could see, feel and understand her pain.
The more he rid the make-up from her face the more his nose flared and his eyes narrowed. “Who did it?”
Reign looked away, pulling her face out of his tender hold. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does. Where the fuck this happen?”
“At the hotel,” she replied, leaving major details out of the comment.
He scoffed bitterly. “This shit didn’t happen at the Grand and no one told me about it. If some shit happened there, I would know.”
“Are you stalking me or something?”
“I got ears and eyes everywhere.”
