seat with his hands reached up to the ceiling.
“Y’all see this?” he asked as he pushed up one of the drop ceiling boards. There was a large enough hole in the floor upstairs for a hand to fit through.
“Wink, you’ll be upstairs with all the work. You and whoever else you pick. It’ll be two of y’all down here. When a custo comes through, bring the money back here and send it upstairs. In exchange, Wink gon’ pass down the order. Make sure y’all close the door, though. We don’t want nobody knowing where we keeping everything at,” said J-Bo. He closed the ceiling and jumped down from the toilet.
They all walked back into the living room, where J-Bo continued to run down the operation. “It’s real easy. Everybody stick to the script, and in seven days, we’ll be back home breaking bread,” he said. This, of course, brought smiles to all their faces.
Willie’s funny-lookin’ ass was rubbing his fat, greedy fingers together. “How much we gon’ get?” he asked, his beady little black eyes peering over at J-Bo.
“Ten grand, minus what was lost the other day,” said J-Bo. He could see dollar signs light up in Willie’s and Krazy’s eyes.
Trey wasn’t impressed. He was only doing it because Wink kept pressing the issue. Soon as they had enough of their own money, he was cutting J-Bo off. Trey wasn’t even sure if he really like J-Bo neither. Something just wasn’t right about him.
“Have you decided who you want upstairs with you, Wink?” asked J-Bo.
Wink looked at his crew. His first thought was to pick Trey because that was his best friend, but he looked at Willie and Krazy and knew it’d be a disaster if he left them two together.
“Yeah, I’ma take Willie. Trey, you and Krazy post up down here,” said Wink.
J-Bo nodded his approval. He put his arm around Wink’s neck and they excused themselves from the room.
“Help me carry this stuff up,” J-Bo said as he grabbed up one of the grocery bags full of rocks. “I’ma clean up on this residue before I leave.”
“Leave? Where you gon’ be at?” Wink asked as he followed behind J-Bo with both hands full of grocery bags.
“I’ma be in the city. As long as y’all stick to the script, everything is gon’ be straight.”
The thought of J-Bo leaving them out of town had Wink a little nervous, but he wouldn’t show it. He had to show J-Bo that he could handle it and that the last fuckup was a fluke.
The room upstairs was identical to the one below. In the living room sat a small table, sofa, two stiff wooden chairs, twenty-inch Zenith television, and a queen-size bed. Wink made mental notes of all this as J-Bo led him through the room back into the bathroom.
“Com’ere, I want to show you something.” J-Bo pushed open the bathroom door and walked over to the window. Tied around the base of the toilet was a rope.
“You see that rope?” J-Bo nodded.
“Yeah.”
“Well, just in case the police hit the downstairs room, I want you to pack everything up and use that rope to climb down. Look, there’s an alley right through there.” J-Bo moved to the side so Wink could see. “There’s a Denny’s about a square mile down. If something happens, just call me from the Denny’s and I’ll have you scooped up.”
“A’ight.” Wink’s lips said one thing, but his mind was filled with all kinds of scary questions. He hadn’t planned on no raid popping off. He’d seen them in action almost every week growing up, watching niggas on his block book down the street with police on their heels. It was funny to watch, but the thought of it being him made his stomach turn.
“One more thing.” J-Bo stopped in the living room and dug in his pocket. He handed Wink a business card with some woman’s name and address on it.
“There’s a MoneyGram inside the motel lobby. Every three thousand that you make, I want you to wire the money to that name A.S.A.P. And don’t worry. The little redhead working at the desk knows the business.
Wink stared down at the card. “I got it.” He tucked the card into the pimp pocket of his Guess jeans, and then followed J-Bo to the front door.
“One week and you’ll be home countin’ ten grand,” said J-Bo as he stopped on the balcony just outside the room.
Wink pulled back a smile, and for a second, the butterflies disappeared. He couldn’t believe that he was actually out of town on a mission with J-Bo, not to mention J-Bo leaving him in charge.
“One week,” J-Bo said again, then walked down the two flights of stairs.
Wink watched as Gator backed away from the motel with J-Bo riding in the back seat. The van turned into a speck on the dirt road, then disappeared into the horizon. He stepped back inside the room and closed the door, leaning against it.
Suddenly, the butterflies were back as Wink looked at all the crack sitting out on the bed. “One week,” he told himself, then pushed off the door and over to the phone. He flopped down on the bed and called downstairs. Trey answered the phone.
“Y’all ready to get this money?” asked Wink.
Chapter Seven
Five minutes after Gator and J-Bo left, Jason pulled up in his beat-up Ford pickup. He climbed out the truck exactly how J-Bo pegged him—dingy-ass mothafucka with a long, white dirty beard. Jason tapped on the door with his keys a few times. Trey and Krazy both looked at each other like, It’s on, but still, neither really wanted to budge from their spots on the sofa. They were kicked back, watching a special on the Greek mafia.
“Why don’t you get it, my nigga? I’ll get the next one,” said Trey.
Krazy reluctantly popped up and walked over to the door. “Who is it?” he yelled.
“Um, Jason.”
Krazy undid the chain, then the locks. He cracked the door, peeking out at the old white man.
“J-Bo sent me.”
“A’ight,” Krazy said as he backed away, allowing Jason to enter the room.
“How’s it going?” Jason asked, sounding country and friendly as hell. He rocked back on his heels while fiddling with a roll of money in his hands.
“We chillin’. What can we do for you?” asked Trey.
“Whatever you can for five hundred.” Jason unfolded the dirty bills and handed them to Trey.
Trey’s eyes bucked at the sight of all that money—and off of just one sale! “I’ll be right back,” he said, then shot to the bathroom. He climbed up on the toilet and pushed the ceiling aside.
“What he want?” asked Wink. He was already on point.
“Five hundred. Here.” Trey passed Wink the bills and waited for the order.
A few seconds later, Wink passed the
