A Girl From Flint (18 page)

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Authors: Treasure Hernandez

BOOK: A Girl From Flint
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Tasha walked out of the bathroom with Amra, and guided her through the crowded club. The air outside felt good against her skin. “You feel better?” she asked Amra.
Amra shook her head no, and Tasha sat her down against the building. She went to the curb of the street and hailed a cab. She opened the door and said, “Can you help me put my friend in the cab?”
The driver got out and put Amra into the back seat. Just as Tasha was getting ready to get in, a man got out of a car that was sitting across the street from the club and yelled, “Excuse me!”
Tasha turned and saw that it was the man she had met earlier at the bar.
“Hey!” he called out to her again.
Tasha turned around. “I don't really have time to talk right now.”
Troy replied, “You better make time, shorty.”
Tasha turned around and smacked her lips. “Excuse me?”
Troy pulled out his police badge and walked close up on her and put his face by her right ear. “I'm a detective for the Flint Police Department. I know about what you did to Keys.”
Tasha's heart dropped, and her breath became shallow. Lightheaded, she thought she would choke on her words if she said anything. She closed her eyes, trying to stop the tears from coming. “I don't know what you're talking about.” Tasha got into the cab, and Troy put his hand on the door to stop her from closing it.
“I think you do. I was there. I saw everything.”
Tasha tapped the driver. “Let's go.”
The driver waited for Troy to close the back door. Troy touched Tasha's face and made her look him in the eye. “Meet me here tomorrow at two o'clock. Don't be late.” He handed her a card with his number on it, and closed the cab door.
When the driver pulled off, Tasha began to cry. She looked over at Amra, who was passed out in the seat.
What am I going to do? He knows. He saw us.
Tasha knew she was going down for Keys' murder. “Fuck!
Fuck!
” she yelled, hitting the seat of the cab. Her heart was pumping and her mind was racing. She was scared, and her head was aching from thinking so hard.
When the cab arrived at Tammy's house, she woke Amra up and helped her into the house. They walked into their room, and Tasha laid Amra in her bed. Tasha didn't want to tell Amra about Troy Smith. She'd seen how Amra reacted after she had killed Keys, so she decided to only tell Honey. She tucked Amra into her bed and noticed that she looked pale. Her eyes were dark around the lids. She knew Amra was sick.
I'm going to let her sleep it off.
Tasha picked up her cell phone and called Honey. She knew she wouldn't hear her phone ring because the club played loud music and was very noisy, but she left a message. “Honey, it's me,” she said, her voice shaking. She couldn't seem to calm herself down. “You need to come home quick. Somebody knows. Call me as soon as you get this message.”
I knew this was coming. I knew something wasn't right.
Troy looked at the picture of the woman he had confronted that night. “Tasha,” he said to himself. He admired the picture. She was beautiful. He couldn't believe she had gotten caught up in a murder. He went into the kitchen and pulled out a pint of Rémy and drank it straight from the bottle. He could have easily arrested Tasha on the evidence that he already had, but he was after the big fish. He wanted Jamaica, and he knew that if Tasha had gotten Keys to trust her, then she could do the same with Jamaica.
She's either going to help me get him, or I'm going to get her. Twenty-five years to life . . . she'll see things my way.
Honey walked into the house alone at three in the morning. Mimi had left the club with some dude. She made her way to her room, where Tasha was pacing back and forth, waiting for her. Honey could tell that she'd been crying. “Tasha, what's up? What's wrong?”
Tasha stopped pacing. “He knows, Honey, he knows. He told me.”
Tasha was shaking, and Honey didn't know what she was talking about. “Who is
he
? And what does
he
know?”
“The guy from the bar. He was a cop, Honey. He knows we killed Keys. I told you. You told me to stop tripping, but I told you that somebody was going to find out. We should have gone back to New York.”
Honey's eyes shot open. “A cop?” she asked, almost yelling. “What did he say to you? Did you tell him anything?”
Tasha yelled back, “Do you think I'm stupid? I didn't tell him shit. He just knows. He told me to meet him in front of the club tomorrow.”
Honey sat down on her bed. She shook her head. “He doesn't know shit!”
“He said he saw us, Honey.”
Honey walked over to Tasha and grabbed her shoulders. “Tasha, think! If he knew something, he would have arrested you right then and there. He's bluffing. He doesn't know shit. He wants something.”
Tasha tried to calm herself down, but she couldn't.
She's so calm, but she ain't the one he came up to.
“What do we do?”
“The only thing we can do. Give him what he wants. You have to meet him tomorrow.”
Tasha shook her head. “No, I'm not doing it. Why can't you go? Why can't Mimi go? Hell! Amra can even go.”
“He told
you
.
You
have to go.”
Tasha knew that Honey was right. She had to find out what the detective wanted.
It's all going to fall back on me. I have to fix this. If I don't, I'm going to go down for all this shit.
Honey knew what Tasha was thinking just from the look in her eyes. She walked over to her friend and hugged her tight. “Tasha, we are in this together, okay? I'm not going to let anything happen to you.”
“Don't tell Amra about this,” Tasha said. “I don't want her worrying about this right now.”
“Mimi doesn't need to know either.”
Tasha then got into her bed and fell into a restless sleep.
When Tasha woke up the next morning, she felt exhausted. She had tossed and turned all night, and the thought of her getting caught for Keys' murder made it impossible to go to sleep. She looked at the clock. It was ten o'clock. She thought about the money that she had saved underneath her bed, and she instantly wanted to go home. She knew she couldn't though.
I need to handle this.
Amra came in and saw her deep in thought.
“Are you feeling better?” Tasha asked.
“No, I feel like shit. I don't know what happened. One minute I was fine, and the next I felt like I was going to die.”
Tasha laughed. “I thought you were drunk.”
Amra plopped down on the bed. “Nah, I didn't even drink last night. I think it was just way too hot in there. I fucked my leg up last night, though.” She lifted up her pajama pants and showed Tasha the sore on her leg.
Tasha frowned. “Damn! You fucked your shit up. It probably happened when you fell on the floor in the bathroom at the club. That's why it's all bruised up around it. You need to put something on that.”
While Amra went to get a bandage, Tasha thought about telling her about Troy Smith, but she knew her friend would panic.
I don't have time to be worried about her right now. I just need to get us out of this.
Tasha stayed in bed just thinking. She desperately wanted to be with Joe, but the way her life was going, it didn't seem like she would ever make it back to him.
She got out of bed and threw on some Enyce jeans and a red-and-white Enyce shirt. She pulled her hair back in a neat ponytail. She looked into the mirror and could tell that she hadn't gotten any sleep the night before.
Honey walked into the room and said, “Don't worry, he doesn't know anything.”
Tasha was hoping Troy wouldn't show up. She was shaking nervously, tapping her foot during the cab ride. She got out and walked toward the club, her heart beating like a drum as she got closer and closer to her destination. She saw a black Lexus sitting in the empty parking lot of the club. She heard the car horn and saw him roll down the window. She recognized his face and started walking toward him.
He hit the unlock button, and Tasha got into the car. “I'm glad you made it,” he said.
Tasha rolled her eyes. “Stop with the bullshit. What do you know?”
Troy smiled at her smart mouth. He tossed a folder into her lap. “That's what I know.”
Tasha quickly opened the folder and flipped through the pictures inside. She saw pictures of her with Keys, and more importantly, pictures of her and her friends entering and exiting Keys' house, and of her with the pillowcase in her hand that they'd used to carry the money in the night of his murder. Tasha's heart stopped, and she tried not to show she was scared.
If he wanted to, he could arrest me off of this, so what does he want?
“Why are you showing me this? What do you want?”
Troy heard the quiver in her voice and knew she was scared. He looked at the beautiful young woman who sat next to him. “I want you to work for me. You see, I could easily put you and your little friends away for a long time, but that's not what I'm here for. As far as I'm concerned, that's one less scum off the street. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours.”
“What do you mean?”
“I can make this disappear, but only if you help me.”
“What do I have to do?”
“There's a new face in town. In the streets he's known as Jamaica, and he's moving heavy weight. I want you to do the same thing you did to Keys. I want you to get in close and get me the information I need to put his ass behind bars. After that, you're free. I'll keep my end of the bargain . . . if you keep yours.”
Tasha was in no position to refuse the offer. “How do I know this is going to be a one-time thing?”
Troy laughed. “My word is bond. Give me a number where I can reach you at.”
Tasha took a deep breath and reluctantly gave him her cell phone number.
Troy smiled. “Be expecting my call, shorty.”
Tasha shook her head and quickly got out of the car.
I hate this shit. I didn't do this by myself, but I have to fix it by myself. I'm tired of niggas holding shit over my head. I don't even know if I can trust him. I don't know shit about him.
Tasha knew it wouldn't be hard for her to charm the man Troy was going to put her on. She just hated that she didn't have a choice. Troy had quickly taken the place of Manolo in her life, but in his hustle, the stakes were higher.
As soon as Tasha walked in the door, Honey was waiting for her. “What happened?” she whispered, trying to make sure Mimi and Amra didn't hear.
“You were wrong. He does know. He has the pictures to prove it too.”
Honey's heart dropped when she heard the news. She looked at Tasha in despair. “What now? What happens next?”
Tasha lowered her head. “I have to help him arrest some drug dealer that's been taking over since Keys died. He says if I help him, he will make Keys' murder disappear.”
“And if you don't?”
“We'll all go down for the murder.”
“How does he expect you to do that?”
“How else? He wants me to do the same thing I did with Keys.”
“That shouldn't be that hard. You had that nigga whipped after the first date.”
“This is different. It's not a game.”
Jamaica and his right-hand man, Tariq, sat in his hotel room, counting the money they'd just made. Jamaica stopped counting and looked over at Tariq. “We could never make this money this fast back home. Flint is where it's at, duke.”
Tariq smiled and continued to count the piles of money on the bed. Without taking his eyes off the money, he replied, “We did it, son. We're big time now. That new shit you brought back got the streets in a frenzy. I told you when you came here we were going to make major moves.”

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