Here Comes Trouble (Nothing Special #3)(14)
“Alright. Calm down, J. Tell us where the meeting took place.”
“A warehouse the Canadians own in East Point off Headland.”
“Is that where they are going to bring in the shipment too?” Green said, already Googling the address.
“Yeah. Chainz thought it’d be brilliant to bring all that shit to one of the houses on Cleveland and put it underneath the house and flip it from out of there, just like always. No one would think we could stash that much. But word is already getting around. Someone is talking. Not just me. We gonna be defending ourselves more than getting the product out. Do you know how many different sets would roll up and try to hit that house, trying to rob us, man?” JJ tugged at his knit cap in frustration.
“You’re not the only one that doesn’t want to deal with these guys, huh?” Ruxs asked, suddenly feeling sorry for JJ. He really looked like his world was about to come to an end.
“Hell no. I can name five g’s off the top of my head that’s not feeling this deal. Them foreigners don’t want to work with a bunch of ghetto thugs from the slums of A.T.L. Some of us think when the time comes, those trucks are going to be empty and they’re going to jack the rest of the money and fuckin’ let loose on us. We suggested trying to put together our own army but Chainz doesn’t want to bring in more guys because he doesn’t trust anyone.” JJ’s eyes shifted back and forth before he spoke again. “It wasn’t a mistake that Tommy’s crack-smoking girl found out about the deal. I knew she was listening. I also knew Tommy was an informant for God. I figured he’d get word to y’all.”
“Pretty smart.” Green nodded.
“Do you have contact information on these guys? Names? Numbers? Addresses?”
JJ turned to face Ruxs. “Naw, man. That’s for you guys to figure out. Chainz keeps that information locked tight.”
“I’ll make sure God knows where this information came from. You been a lot of help JJ.” Green gave him a handshake.
“That’s what you think. I gotta figure out how to get the fuck out of this shit. There’s no leaving the crew. Only way out is in a body bag, G.” JJ dropped Green’s hand and began to pace back and forth. His walkie-talkie beeped again and this time a voice was announcing that he was needed in the front. “Fuck. I gotta go back to work.”
“Hey, J. Does your mom still live in San Francisco?” Ruxs asked out of the blue.
JJ cracked a small smile. “Yeah. She just turned ninety-two, man. She ain’t doing half bad. How’d you know tha — pfft. Nevermind.”
“What do you think about relocating? I’m sure she could use her son’s help way out there by herself.” Ruxs cocked an eyebrow and he could see Green’s eyes on him.
JJ eyed him for a few seconds and nodded his head once. A small grin was on his face and his eyes seemed to lighten with the idea. Ruxs had given him his way out. “Yeah. I think she could man.”
“I’ll be in touch.” Ruxs watched JJ walk away before climbing back in the truck.
Green started the engine and headed back to the interstate so they can start the work-up on this bust. They had a lot to find out and not a lot of time to do it. They’d need to start surveillance immediately on that warehouse, too.
My Damn Mom
Green didn’t press Ruxs to say anything else on the ride back to the office. He could see there was still something heavy weighing on his mind, but he couldn’t figure out what. Ruxs was usually an open book with him. Maybe it was the fact that he had to see his mom today. Fuck that woman was a piece of work. Green had been a narc long enough to know that sometimes it was the drug addiction that fueled a lot of the hateful things that addicts said, but that woman could make Donald Trump walk away with a deflated ego.
Green felt he would’ve given up on her if it was his mom. But that was easier said than done. She was the only family Ruxs had. She was too mean to find a man to get her pregnant twice. So Ruxs had no siblings, no cousins, just nothing. Well, he had him. And he was going to be there for him, whether he wanted him to or not.
As soon as they walked back into the office, Green’s face lit up. “Hey, buddy. What’s going on?”
Curtis ran up and gave Green a one-armed hug. “I waited for you guys to get back to see if you wanted me to pick up your groceries too.”
Green walked over to his desk and sat down. Curtis hopped up on his desk like he always did. The street-smart seventeen-year-old boy was busted by God and Day a few years ago when he was trying to stick up a mom and pop grocery store to get enough money to pay his electric bill. His mom was sick with kidney disease, and he was the man of the house. At only fifteen. He showed God a fake ID that said he was seventeen because he always feared that someone would call social services since he held down a job and had to care for his mom instead of the other way around. Day and God were so smitten with the kid and his story they never took him to juvie. Instead they drove him home and Day had actually paid his bill for him so his mom would have electricity to use her dialysis machine.
Now two and half years later, he was working for them. Under the table of course. He ran errands for all of them, since they had such hellish hours. He grocery shopped for them, handled most of their dry cleaning, took their cars for maintenance and washing, he handled whatever menial jobs they didn’t have time to do. Now he’d begun helping Vikki with filing and copying. The kid was sharp. He wanted more office responsibilities and basically he had all of them wrapped around his pinky, so they did whatever he asked. He easily made five to six hundred a week between all of them.