“And we are good to go for the night?”
“Indeed.”
“Okay.”
“Great! Who recruited y’all to leave the Jaguars and join the Cobras?”
Lewis shifted uneasily in his chair as he looked back over at Ron. I squinted my eyes as I stared at him. He knew something, but he obviously was afraid to say anything because of Ron. Even though I was the boss, Lewis reported to Ronfor years and he hardly had to interact with me. I could respect that, but I wasn’t Ron, and he didn’t run shit - I did. I pulled my gun out and scratched the side of my head. My patience was thinning, and I was getting hungry. It was well after midnight and the taco spot; I liked was only going to be open for another hour and a half. I’d be damned if I missed out on some tacos because nobody wanted to talk.
“Either answer my damn question, or I leave y’all here while I go eat and get some sleep. It’s going to be a cold one tonight – probably the low 40s with a bit of rain. Ehh, y’all not afraid of getting a little bit of pneumonia, right? Then tomorrow evening, I’ll come back and chop y’all up one by one.”
When Lewis chewed on his bottom lip instead of talking, I turned around and grabbed my keys off the table. I began walking towards the exit to talk to Raheim and Jay when Lewis called me to stop. I slowly halted in my steps before looking over my shoulder.
“A man named Z approached us at the group home off Langley Ave. We thought he was just another customer. I mean, he had all of his documentation and passed all the tests to get in. We assumed one of the girls invited him because it was like he already knew what the procedures were. After he spent time with Cinnamon, he came to us. He started telling us about how his job is similar to ours, but he just got paid more.”
I rubbed the stubble on my chin. “Z, huh? He didn’t have a last name?”
Lewis shook his head. “I’m sure he does, but I don’t remember what it was.”
I arched my eyebrow when I noticed Ron was glaring at Lewis. Probably because he was running his mouth and nobody liked a rat, but could you really blame the man? I mean, me personally, I wouldn’t be snitching, but their handswere tied. Especially since he thought his only chance of living was to give up information.
“Any information you want to add, Ron?” I asked. “I bet you know more and the faster you tell me, the faster we can call it a night.”
Ron’s eyebrows scrunched up as the muffled cries of the two other men and Lewis’s pleas filled the room. As I watched Ron’s face go through a wave of emotions, I couldn’t help but place my hand on my chest and wipe away an invisible tear. These men were begging for their boss to talk so they could be let go. To these men, it was a life or death situation, and he knew it. Ron finally sighed heavily before nodding his head towards me.
I walked towards him and removed the tape from his mouth.
He huffed out a breath before licking his lips. “He never gave his last name. The agreement was, he could see Cinnamon if he got us in with the Cobras. We were guaranteed a position at his house.”
“And who does Z work for?”
Ron shook his head. “Nobody knew. Hell, not even Z knew. He reported to a man named Manny and that’s all I know.”
I nodded my head. “So, all fifty of you decided to jump ship because they were offering more money?”
Ron shifted uneasily in his seat. “I can’t speak on everyone else, but that’s not why I left.” He exhaled and briefly looked down. “The day after I met Z, I received an anonymous text from somebody who threatened to hurt my family if I didn’t betray you.”
My back stiffened as I glared down at him. “Why didn’t you just come to me?”
“They knew where my daughter laid her head every night! Hell, they even knew what school she was attending. If you thought I was going to stay loyalto you just for her to be killed, then you never knew me. You know how much I loved her. In the end, it was all for nothing.”
I cocked my head to the side. “What do you mean?”
Ron let out a humorless chuckle. “My baby mother took our daughter and ran. The last time I spoke to her; she said she didn’t want anything to do with me because she knew that I had betrayed you. She didn’t want our daughter’s life in danger when your wrath came knocking on our door. A month after she left, I found out they were dead – hit by a damn drunk driver.”
“Damn, my condolences.” I turned to look at Lewis. “What about you? I don’t remember you having any children, so what was your excuse?”
Lewis stared down at his feet. “I- no offense, Seojun, but the women were beautiful, and we were allowed to have them. If you would have just let us pick a girl that we liked and paid us decently, a lot of us wouldn’t have been so eager to leave.”
“Money and pussy were all it took?” I glanced at the other two men who stared guilty at the ground.
“Damn, that’s fucked up.” Jay said, leaning against the door frame, putting on a new pair of gloves.
“Agreed!” Raheim said, his dark brown eyes raging with anger. “I would put a bullet in my own damn head if I fucked over the one person who put me on game and gave me a steady income, so I didn’t have to work in corporate America. You fucked up a good thing and for what? Some damn pussy and the fact that you got greedy.”
Shaking my head, I walked over to the two men and removed the tape from their mouths. I didn’t want to hear all of their crying and begging for forgiveness, but I needed one more question answered.
“I got all of the information I needed so let’s call it a night and y’all can go.”
