Nothing Special 03 - Here Comes Trouble (5 page)

Ruxs and Green both had to check their first reaction. That was a lot of fuckin’ drugs to hit the streets if they let it. No damn way. That shit would not be acceptable. “Are you sure they are definitely coming?”

JJ pinched the bridge of his nose, like he was beyond stressed out. “Fuck yes. The deal is made. I was there. He’s already paid half and the other half is gonna be paid when they arrive.”

“You look nervous. What aren’t you telling us?” Ruxs stepped closer, reading JJ’s body language. The man’s hands shook as he adjusted his walkie-talkie volume.

“Fuck, man. Those Canadian dudes are on a whole different level, Ruxsberg. We were outnumbered five-to-one when we went to meet them. They had machine guns, men on the rooftops and shit.”

“How many men do you think there are?” Green asked.

“Hell if I know. Those are just the ones that were at the meeting to exchange the dough.” JJ huffed. The guy looked ready to snap, he was wound so tight. They needed to get everything because they might not get another chance if JJ was this scared.

“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.

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.

But he held a very special place in Green’s heart. The kid was smart as a whip, a straight A student, and he had a good heart. It was touching the way he cared for his mom. Green and especially Ruxs could admire a young man like that all day long. Even though he thought he needed to resort to crime to get out of a horrible situation, he quickly saw the error of his ways. Now he wanted to be a lawyer and work with youth offenders. This was the perfect place for him to spend his free hours.

Curtis’ huge key chain hung from his messenger bag. It had over thirty keys on it. Each one labeled with one of their names on it. He had a key to each of their houses, he even had a few car keys on his ring.

“Yeah, buddy. I do need a couple things from that Fresh Market a few blocks from my place.” Green smiled when Curtis eagerly pulled out his notepad. “I need a bag of pecans, jar of nutmeg, and almond milk.”

Curtis looked up and grinned, his bright blue eyes sparkling with the understanding of what Green was sending him to get. It was Curtis’ favorite. “Do you want me to pick up some vanilla ice cream, too?”

“Yep.” Green nodded his head and Curtis hopped off the desk and did some weird dance and Ruxs busted out laughing as Curtis sang, “Cinnamon rolls, cinnamon rolls, cinnamon rolls and baseball.”

While Curtis did his little jig out the door Green turned and saw Ruxs reclined back in his chair watching him closely. He wasn’t laughing anymore and his eyes narrowed as he asked in his deep timbre, “Am I invited, too?”

Green’s smile faded at the look in his partner’s eyes. He responded in his own hushed tone. “Aren’t you always?”

After hours of strategizing and planning in the office, all of them were revved up with excitement. With their inside information, this bust should go smoothly. Chainz’s own crew was turning against him. JJ probably wasn’t the only one they could get some information from. They were sure there were others that wanted Chainz’s deal to fall through. But God didn’t want to poke around too much and have word get back to Chainz that they were on to him.

Green was already exhausted, but he tried not to show it. Ruxs was finally in a better mood since Day confirmed that they wouldn’t go after JJ since he’d cooperated in aiding their investigation, and Ruxs had permission to get him out of town with their department’s witness relocation funds.

Ruxs didn’t try to dissuade Green from accompanying him to his mom’s place. It would be futile. His knee bounced rapidly as he sat staring at his mom’s small duplex. He heard Green kill the engine but he made no attempt to move.

God, please. Let her act somewhat decent today. It’s only six o’clock. Please, don’t let her be high already. Don’t let her say she hates me over and over. I don’t think I could handle that right now.

Ruxs jumped when he felt Green’s firm hand land on his knee, stilling the nervous movement. “Hey. I’m right here with you. You’re fine.”

Ruxs shook his head and climbed down from the cab. He opened the back door and pulled out two of the grocery bags and Green grabbed the other two. They made their way up the cracked sidewalk, and Ruxs made a mental note to come back and clean up all the trash in the tiny yard and cut the overgrown grass. He was sure the landlord would complain about it soon, and Ruxs didn’t have the time to find his mom a new place. He hoped the inside wasn’t as bad. He wasn’t in the mood to clean up either.

Ruxs took a deep breath and opened the front door, since his mom never locked it, regardless of how many times he’d told her to stop that. “Hey momma.” Ruxs smiled. She actually didn’t look half-bad today. She was dressed in some black stretch pants and a too-tight tank top. She had her feet curled under her on her small loveseat. She cut her eyes at him and turned her lip up.

“I thought I told you to knock on my door, Armin.”

Ouch. Blow number one.

“Momma, you know I go by Mark, and if you locked your door, I’d knock on it.” Green was setting the bags down on the small dinette table and Ruxs did the same. He quickly began taking out the groceries so he could put them away. He didn’t want Green in here too long.

“How you doing, Ms. Ruxsberg? Did you have a good day today?” Green asked, sitting in the recliner across from his mom. Ruxs held his breath, waiting on his mom’s reply.

He heard her exhale the smoke from her Virginia Slim before answering. “It was the same shit, just a different day, Christian.”

“Um, my name’s Chris, Ms. Ruxsberg.” Green corrected her.

Oh no.

“I’ll call you whatever the fuck I want to call you in my house,” his mom snapped.

Fuck. Here we go
. Ruxs hoped she’d leave at that.

Green cleared his throat. “Of course. Christian’s fine. I’ve always liked that name anyway.”

“Did you and my wonderful narc son get all the drug-selling-crack-using scum off the streets today? Is that how y’alls’ day went? Ridding the world of us heathens. You here to search my house, Officer Christian?” His mom’s voice was elevating with each sentence.

Ruxs was moving like a crazy person throwing the groceries in the cabinets. “Um Momma, I didn’t know you were out of eggs too. I’ll bring some by in a couple days when I come back to cut the grass, okay?” he said loudly, trying desperately to change the conversation.

He heard his mom’s raggedy house shoes sliding across the dirty linoleum in the kitchen. He stood up from loading the yogurt in the refrigerator. She was looking in the one bag he’d yet to put away. “Did you get me a carton of cigarettes?”

“No, Momma.” Ruxs turned back and kept loading the cold stuff.

“I texted you and told you to bring it,” she yelled. Her screeching voice was ten times louder in the small kitchen.

“I didn’t get it,” Ruxs mumbled. He turned to the side to ease past his mom. He barely looked in her eyes. He always wished that one day he’d look and see the mom he used to have, the one that used to love him, staring back at him. But her eyes were glassy and so red it was hard to tell what her natural eye color was anymore. She was high. That’s why she was being extra mean.
Damnit
.

She shooed him out the way. “Move, boy. I’m trying to get me a glass of wine.”

“I brought you some apple juice. I’ll fix you a glass,” Ruxs said, pulling a small plastic cup from the overflowing sink to rinse it out.

“I don’t want no fuckin’ juice. What am I five years old?” She got her an already dirty wine glass and refilled it from the box of wine that sat on the top shelf in the fridge. “Why did you put all this nasty yogurt in my fridge, Armin? You know I don’t like it. Gosh. Stop buying this crap.”

Ruxs watched as she took the four containers of strawberry yogurt and threw them in the trashcan. He chose not to argue it this time. It would just escalate and he didn’t need Green seeing more than he already had. Fuck, he was humiliated beyond anything in the world. The house was a mess and the smell of smoke was so heavy in the air from her chain-smoking, you practically needed an oxygen tank to survive more than ten minutes in the small space. Ruxs’ eyes were watering so he knew Green was struggling too.

Ruxs began to run some soapy water to do the dishes and then he was getting the fuck out of there. But, he didn’t want her getting sick from eating off of dirty dishes, or rats coming in to eat on the old and molded food. He could feel her angry eyes on his back, but he remained quiet and concentrated on his job. He poured some more bleach in the water. She came over and stood beside him with her back against the counter, looking up into his face. He darted his eyes over to hers, not sure if eye contact was a great idea, but he did it anyway.

She was just staring at him. He watched her closely, thought for just a second, maybe she was going to ask him how he was, or what he’d been up to – the past twelve years.

“Hey, momma,” he whispered, a smile curving his mouth. “How are you feeling?”

Ruxs’ smile fell the moment he saw her eyes narrow and her mouth turn down into a disgusted sneer. She flicked the long ash hanging from her cigarette in his direction. “Don’t ‘hey momma’ me. I’d be great if you’d brought my damn carton of cigs like I’d asked you to.” She pushed off the counter and walked out of the kitchen, but not before he heard her mutter. “Useless bastard.”

Ruxs could not, for the life of him, figure out why he came here month after month and took this shit from her. His mom was long gone. The drugs had completely taken over her mind, her body, and her once sweet, motherly spirit. It’d been so many years. Why didn’t he just give up? Countless trips to rehab. Countless relapses.

Ruxs opened his eyes and shoved his hands back into the water, making bleach splash up onto his favorite, black AC/DC shirt. The chemical instantly ruining the shirt. “Fuck!” he yelled.

Green came into the kitchen. His steps were quiet and measured. He felt his strong hands land on his shoulders, his lips right next to his ear. “It’s okay. I’m right here with you.”

Ruxs’ body trembled slightly from Green’s touch, but more so from his anger.

“Hey. Look at me,” Green whispered. He was pulling on his body, but Ruxs didn’t want to face his friend. Didn’t want to see the “poor little Ruxs” look in those smoldering eyes. He needed Green out of there now. He couldn’t handle his mom’s bullshit and have Green in his face at the same time. Especially while he was still battling with his mixed feelings for him.