Page 78

“How?”

“Because she lost the money. So, we gone need some more bread soon.”

“Are you willing to wear a wire?”

“Yeah, long as you know whatever I say is to get her to say what yall need. Don’t be trying to put another case on me.” The nigga was smart enough to say that, but too dumb to know what he could be charged with. At the beginning of the video, Peanut looked nervous. By the end, his ass looked comfortable and felt he was in charge of the situation. He was making promises he wouldn’t be alive to keep.

“So, he’s a dead rat. Problem solved. Bubbles ain’t hitting licks no more, so what you pissed about?” Him showing me the tape didn’t explain his earlier statement.

“They got thirty days to find an apartment with nothing lined up. He convinced her they need money to find a new place.” Key let that land, and it hit exactly where it was supposed to. He didn’t say another word, and he didn’t have to. Bubbles had legitimate reasons to make her and Peanut’s situation work. I needed them to stop working, so I intervened. It’s not that the plan wasn’t successful, I just didn’t account for this girl doing everything but asking me for help. I had given her fifty thousand dollars. How the fuck was she broke? Let’s start there. But even if she ran through that money, it’s crazy that she would rather rob somebody than ask me. I wasn’t sorry about what I did. Hell, I’ll buy her building again tomorrow, but I wasn’t about to let my plan end with Bubbles in jail either. I grabbed my phone and called Bubbles. She didn’t answer, so I called her about five more times. Nothing.

“When is this supposed to happen?”

“Today.”

“Then why the fuck are we still sitting here? Take me to that nigga.” Key pointed at the building across the street.

“He in there. He’s finishing up with them now. Supposed to go straight to Bubbles after he leaves.” Now I understood why we were here. Key didn’t need to ask me what I wanted to do. He knew me, so he took me straight to the problem.

“I guess we can’t let him make it to her then.” I settled back in the seat. This was the moment I had been waiting on. Bubbles lived by a code. Once she heard this, there was no way she could be upset about me taking him out. Peanut was always dead in my book. There were people who thought death started the moment before someone pulled a trigger. Sometimes, it started with a thought or a decision. A person could be walking around happy and making plans. Never knowing it was their last day living.

I made my mind up the moment I saw him in the gas station with her. I don’t know what she saw in him, but none of that mattered now. He was somewhere in that building believing he decided what happened next. Peanut thought Bubbles belonged to him. That was his first mistake. Him thinking he could decide her fate was his second. There wouldn’t be a third. I allowed him to live longer than I should’ve. He just gave me a reason to stop allowing it.

“There he go right there.” I looked at the entrance, and Peanut walked out as if he didn’t have a care in the world. Glancing at his phone as he climbed in his car. Key threw his car in drive, about to leave the lot when I stopped him.

“Hold on. Let’s make sure they not following him first.” When Peanut drove off and nobody else came out or followed, I gave Key the signal to go ahead.

I bet that nigga was in his car rehearsing how he was about to set Bubbles up. That only pissed me off more. Knowing Key kept a pair of gloves, I reached in his glove box, grabbed them, and slid them on. Once Key saw me do that, he typed in some buttons on his monitor, and a secret compartment opened. He pulled out the silencer and handed it to me. It was broad daylight, and I left the house not knowing I was gone have to handle business.

The last thing we needed was to draw attention to ourselves. Normally, when we had Tax business, we would be in my Cybertruck, but Key knew we didn’t have time for that and brought me straight to the problem. Reaching back in the glove box, I grabbed an envelope and ripped the back side off. Searching around, I found a pen. Good enough. Usually, I had my receipts prepared before I left for a kill, but not today. Peanut was getting whatever I had available. I began writing.

DEBT 0.00

PAID IN FULL

“Where are they meeting?” I asked, trying to gauge how much time we had.

“Gas station on Kostner.” Peanut continued driving like he didn’t know death was coming for him. If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought he was just going to meet his girl like any normal day. This nigga didn’t feel an ounce of guilt for what he was about to do to Bubbles. We were getting close. Key started pecking away on his keyboard fast as hell. I glanced over, and this nigga was focused on his laptop like he wasn’t driving.

“Hey nigga, pay attention to the road.”

“I got this.”

“You better. I’m not trying to die while I’m going to kill another mufucka.”

“Then stop distracting me.” We were a few blocks away. Peanut had turned up a residential block, and this was the perfect time.

“Take care of the cameras.”

“Already handled. I scrambled the whole signal. No connection getting through right now.” I screwed the silencer on my Glock. Key continued to click away as I kept my eyes on Peanut. If he made it through this next light, we would be too late. I would still kill him, but Bubbles would witness it, and I didn’t want that.

“Key.”

“Already on it.” The light abruptly turned red. Peanut slammed on brakes. “Got emmm!” Since Key changed the light, it was now or never. He eased the car up beside him, and I slowly let the window down. Bubbles didn’t know, but I knew what he’d been willing to do to her.

This mufucka had taken the one person that stood beside him through all his bullshit and offered her up to save himself. He turned his head, and our eyes connected. I smirked at him and raised my gun. I sent five straight to his head. Balling the receipt up, I tossed it through his window, and Key pulled off.

“Everybody pays tax,” we both said once we made it through the light. Knowing that nigga was wearing a wire, I refused to say a word. However, I’ve never done a kill without my tagline, and I wasn’t about to start now.