Push Comes to Shove (33 page)

Ding
!

Across the parking structure, Squeeze and Hector stepped inside an elevator. Miles opted for the stairs.

“Calm down, GP,” he said to himself as the locking mechanism to Squeeze’s lobby buzzed, giving Jewels and himself access to the building.

“Hold that elevator.” Jewels pointed at an Asian couple. She and GP hurried across the lobby.

“Thanks.” GP pressed the button that promised to take them to the penthouse, to his Kitchie.

“Where else could he have gone?” Crutchfield threw his hands up. “Think. If he would have went this way—” He pointed down the avenue. “—or that way, we would have seen him. There’s no possible way we couldn’t have. He has to be—”

“If it’ll stop you from crying, let’s go check it out.”

“I was gonna do that anyway, without your consent.”

“I’m willing to bet that Miles just got tired of waiting there and found himself somewhere else to post up.”

Crutchfield started the minivan and shifted it to Drive.

“Would you stop smacking on that goddamn gum?” Squeeze swallowed his second shot of brandy. “You sound like a pregnant cow.”

“How do you think GP came up with the money so fast? He couldn’t come up with a hundred stacks one day but has two the next. What’s wrong with that picture?” Hector stood in the entrance of the penthouse, watching the floor-indicator light of the climbing elevator.

“I don’t care if he robbed a bank. I want paid. Then, I want paid for making me look like a fool. Don’t nobody assassinate my street credibility.”

The indicator light finally held its position.

“The moment of truth.” Hector went into the hall to greet GP.

The elevator doors eased open effortlessly.

Jewels and Hector locked gazes.

“You were instructed to come alone.” Hector addressed GP but never took his eyes off Jewels.

“As far as I’m concerned, this is alone.” GP passed a hand between himself and Jewels. “It won’t make a difference as long as we all get what we want.”

Hector grunted. He waved them out of the elevator. “Turn around and put your hands on the wall. You know how this works.”

“Ain’t no need; I’m strapped.” Jewels showed him a .44 tucked in the front waistband of her jeans.

Hector’s face tightened. The gum chewing stopped. “Hand it over.”

“Y’all ain’t gonna be the only ones up here with guns.” Jewels moved forward, but Hector blocked her path.

GP brushed by Hector and pushed the front door open. “Kitchie!” He tossed the bag of money onto the sofa.

Squeeze turned away from the stunning view offered by the floor-to-ceiling window. “Slow down, Tiger.”

“There’s your money. Now where’s my wife? Kitchie! Where is she, Squeeze?”

There was a ruckus outside of the suite, followed by thumps and bumps. Squeeze and GP stared at the front door.

Jewels entered the penthouse pointing Hector’s gun. “Where’s Kitchie, homeboy?”

Squeeze took a step but hesitated at the sound of Jewels’s voice.

“Bitch, I’m dying to see if you can digest lead.”

“Where is Kitchie, Squeeze?”

Jewels cocked the hammer back. “That was the last time either of us is asking. You’ve been warned.”

“Something smells like shit.” Thomas knelt down beside the abandoned skateboard.

The wind whipped about. Crutchfield shielded his eyes with a hand as he stared at the 100-story building. He dashed for the lobby when he saw a body falling from the sky.

M
iles stepped over an unconscious Hector. He pulled the .380 from his pocket. His hand trembled as the point of the gun led him through the door of the penthouse.

Squeeze’s eyes widened with alarm.

“Jap didn’t have anything to do with it.” Miles clamped his eyes shut and pulled the trigger in one motion.

The floor-to-ceiling window shattered. An angry wind swept through the suite. Various pieces of mail were blown from the bar and were tumbled out into the public. Jewels flinched at the sound of the gun blast and turned her weapon on Miles; GP ducked.

Squeeze took two quick steps but stopped in his tracks as more bullets whizzed by him. He threw his hands up.

Miles looked at the dark hole at the tip of Jewels’s gun and laughed. Then, he started toward Squeeze. “You dragged my brother and mother into this. Why? What did they do?”

“Miles, relax, man. I don’t know nothing about your people.” Squeeze took a step backward as Miles came forward.

Jewels began wiping her fingerprints from her gun as well as Hector’s.

“Liar!” Miles clamped his eyes closed, then opened them. “Liar. They found Jap’s body and traced it to you.” He poked the gun in Squeeze’s direction and pulled the trigger.

Squeeze took another step back, bracing himself for a shot that was likely to hit him this time. His footing reached the window’s
ledge. He whirled his arms to catch his balance and bring himself forward. The wind proved to make that quite difficult.

Miles tugged on the trigger again and again, delivering nothing more than a clicking sound. “Bring the pain…I came to bring you pain.”

Squeeze reached a hand out as he fell backward. “Fuck you!” Death awaited him at the end of his skydive.

Miles looked into the open sky. “I told you that I’d make it right, Ma. I’m almost done… Then, everything will be right.”

“This Motherfucker is off the hinges.” Jewels tapped GP. “We got to get the fuck out of here. You check the rooms while I get rid of these burners.”

When Crutchfield reached the penthouse floor, he checked Hector for a pulse, slapped a pair of cuffs on him, then nodded at Thomas. They put their backs against the hall wall, moving closer to the door with their Glocks in hand.

“She’s not here.” GP returned from checking the bedrooms.

“We don’t need to be here, either.”

Miles held his arms out to either side. The breeze caressed his face. “It’s all better now, Ma. I promise.”

“Yeah, Jewels, let’s bounce. This cat is tripping on something.”

“Miles!” Crutchfield stuffed his gun in a holster. “Miles, don’t do it. It’s not worth it; talk to me about this.”

“This isn’t the answer to your problems, Miles,” Thomas said, taking small steps.

What the fuck have I gotten into?
Jewels thought.

Miles glanced at Crutchfield. “I have to make it right.” He turned back to the sky and jumped.

“Miles!” Crutchfield went as close to the ledge as safety would allow.

GP closed his eyes and prayed that Kitchie was safe.

Night had fallen on the city. Kitchie stared from the barred window at the stars. She was thinking about all the things that she and her family hadn’t done, the things that they would never get to do. Red and blue strobe lights all of a sudden began to bounce off the trees in her immediate view. Her pulse quickened. Then, she heard a two-way radio coming from somewhere inside the house. She banged and kicked the door. “Somebody, help me.” She backed away from the door when the knob spun in both directions. She had no idea of what to expect.

“Mrs. Kitchie Patterson.”

She thanked God in her mind. “Yes.”

“This is the police. Step away from the door. We’re going to break it down. Are you okay in there?”

“Yes, I’m fine.” She noticed an officer outside the window, beaming a flashlight into the room.

The door buckled and the doorframe split from the applied pressure. It opened and there GP was standing behind the police.