Page 25 of Welcome to the Heart Of A Maniac
“He’s in his office,” she said, already knowing why I’m here.
I tread down the hallway and stopped in Murda’s office door. His eyes shot in my direction, and he said, “It ain’t ready yet,” and turned his attention back to the computer.
“Where it’s at?”
“In the garage.” Getting up from his chair, he rounded his desk and exited the office with me right in his tracks.
I followed him out the door to the garage and he snatched the cover off of Wren’s truck. “This mufucka needed more work than I thought,” he said as I rounded to the driver’s side.
After I saw that Wren’s truck didn’t want to start, I paid a couple young niggas to go steal it for me and bring it to Murda. She ain’t willingly want my help, so I had to force it on her. I could’ve easily told her that I took her truck, but to watch her squirm was fun as hell. She’d been using Ubers and Lyfts to getaround. That girl so damn prideful that she ain’t want me to do nothing. I offered her my Maserati and parked it at the trailer, and it’s been sitting in the same spot where I left it with the keys in the cupholder.
This truck was just a piece of junk to me. Something that I thought she was holding onto because she couldn’t do better. Once I found out that it really belonged to Big John, I knew I had to do whatever it took to make sure the shit was running up to par. Her losing her father had to be devasting. It doesn’t matter how old she was when he died. I’d almost lost Pops a couple times and felt like I was gon’ go insane.
“How long before you think it’ll be back up and running?”
“Give me a couple days to make sure that everything’s good. I’ll hit you when it’s ready and deliver it wherever you want me to.”
“’Preciate it.” I dapped him up, and he covered the truck back up. “I gotta go meet up with Luxe right quick.”
“She’s back?”
“Just touched down.”
“A’ight.”
I exited the garage and hopped into my car. Pulling to the gate, it opened, and I whipped out onto the street.
To keep shit a secret, I was meeting Luxe at her penthouse. I ain’t want everyone all in my business. There’s a job I need for Luxe to do for me. It’s extremely rare that I’d come to her for something. What I needed, I wanted it to be one of its kind, so I had no other choice but to go to her. Luxe is one of the best black-market appraisers there is. She also handles legit shit, but if you wanted to get your hands on something that no one else has, she was your girl.
Pulling up to her building downtown, I stopped in front of the door and hopped out. Valet rushed in my direction. “Keep her close. I won’t be long,” I made known and entered thebuilding, passing two women on my way to the elevator. They both gazed in my direction, but I wasn’t here to entertain them.
Pressing the up button on the elevator, I waited for the shit to come down so I can get on. A couple stopped alongside me. The woman clung to the man for dear life. She glanced over at me just as the elevator beeped.
I stepped on first with them directly behind me. I pressed my keycard to the elevator and then pressed the top floor. The guy leaned over and did the same and then pressed the fifth floor. He took his attention back to the woman, craning his arms around her waist. His mouth buried hers and they fell back into the corner.
“Get a fucking room,” I told them.
“You hear that?” the guy removed his mouth from the woman long enough to ask.
“I don’t hear nothing,” she replied, cutting her eyes in my direction.
“That’s what I thought,” he responded, and the elevator beeped.
They stepped off and headed down the hallway. I got off behind them and strolled, keeping distance between us.
They made it to a door and he unlocked it. The door pushed up behind them and I caught it with my hand.
“Wha—” he started and shut up when he realized it was me standing there.
“What was that shit y’all was talking, nigga?” I asked him, roughly gripping him by the collar of his shirt and backing him up into the apartment. Clearly, he didn’t know who he was talking to. I backed his ass over toward the balcony doors.
“What are you doing!” the woman yelled, pulling at my arm. I yanked away from her.
“Y’all thought shit was sweet, huh?” I opened the balcony door and backed him up against the railing.
“I’m calling the police!” she screamed from behind me.
“Call ’em,” I tossed over my shoulder and lifted this lil nigga from his feet.
