Page 74 of Arris, Jayme & Dyani
I hung up and hopped out of bed. I threw on a T-shirt, hoodie, sweatpants, and slides, then pocketed my phone. I leaned over the bed and planted a soft kiss on Jayme’s lips. She stirred slowly and it took her a moment to wake up. Her eyes bounced around my face while she came to.
“Where are you going?” she asked after a moment.
“There was an issue at the shop. I need to go take a look. I’ll be back.”
“What kind of issue?”
“The kind you don’t need to be worried about.” I gave her a small smile. “I’ll give you more info when I get it though, alright?”
“Yeah. Do you need anything?”
“Nah. Just get some more sleep.”
“You sure?”
“Positive.”
“Okay.”
I watched Jayme shift and roll onto her stomach. Then I jerked my hood on and headed out.
I made the drive out to the shop in a fraction of the time it usually took. When I got there word had already spread like fucking wildfire. The cops were on the scene as well as several DP members.
Alex wasn’t gang, but he knew a lot of us, which was how I’d even linked up with him in the first place. It made sense that he’d told his boys who also told their boys. I dapped up the dudes I knew as I walked to the front door. The glass had been shattered and I kicked the rest out before I pushed my way inside.
Alex and a few of the other artists were already inside, standing around talking to a cop.
“This is a closed?—”
Alex cut the cop off. “He was invited. He works here. That’s his room.” He pointed back to my door.
“Alright.” The cop exhaled. “Come on in.”
I walked over and joined the little circle.
“So, maybe you know why the cameras were offline?” The cop looked over at me.
“Nah. I don’t,” I deadpanned.
“Look, Arris works here and I’ve never had an issue with him. I don’t know why the fucking cameras didn’t work but there are a handful of businesses around this one. Maybe one of them got something, alright? It’s not like I’m going to get some kind of payout for this stupid shit. What would I gain from setting up my own business to fail?”
“Look, I just have to ask all the questions, alright?”
“Yeah, alright.”
The cop asked each of us a series of questions and jotted different things down. He kept us for at least an hour before letting us go.
Alex looked more annoyed than he’d ever been by the time he walked off and he lit a cigarette as soon as he got a chance.
I took that opportunity to walk over to my room and check it out. The door had been damn near kicked off the hinges, even though I never locked it to begin with. Somebody had cut up the table I tattooed on and the stuffing littered the floor. There was tattoo ink and needles all over and random drawers thrown open. I carefully walked inside and pulled each drawer open. Even though I didn’t keep anything at the shop that I wasn’t okay with other people fucking with, I still felt the need to take a quick mental inventory.
It looked like whoever had forced their way in was looking for something. I didn’t know why or what they thought they’d find.
I exhaled and took a deep breath to stop myself from crashing the fuck out.
I did my best to keep shit nice and calm because when I started flashing on mothafuckas it was hard for me to reel myself back in.
I left my room and grabbed a broom. Everyone was still out talking and throwing out theories about what had happened. I didn’t bother joining in. No matter what we all thought. Even knowing for certain who’d fucked everything up wouldn’t fix it.
