Page 6 of Hush Money & Hits
“He said you might be stopping by. One moment.” She flashed another smile before walking away and heading toward the back of the restaurant.
I found myself wondering if Pauly was somewhere with his family playing the role of a grieving father. I didn’t even know why I cared. The restaurant was busy per usual. I had only eaten there once, but I remembered the food being pretty good. Ole girl came back to the front followed by one of Pauly’s henchmen. I was sure that anyone with good sense knew that Pauly was a mob affiliate. Why would a regular restaurant owner need to have secret service type security with him at all times, in his restaurant, and his home? The expression on homie’s face remained blank as he handed me a large paper bag with the restaurant name and logo etched on the front.
It looked like he was handing me a to go order, but the bread inside the bag wasn’t edible. I tipped my head at him and exited the establishment as smoothly as I’d entered. After checking my watch, I concluded that I didn’t have time to run the money back home. My pops didn’t play about his time being wasted. If I was late, I might have to curse his ass out. He had a habit of sometimes talking to me like I was one of his minions, or a child, and not a grown ass man.
When I arrived at my father’s office, I saw his Rolls Royce parked out front. After tucking the paper bag in the trunk, Ilocked my vehicle. I knew the money was safe, but I still refused to be careless. Inside, I found my way into my father’s spacious office. I walked in without knocking and found him conversing with his receptionist. Shantell was 5’7 with dark skin and a short pixie cut that gave her a mature look. She was sexy as fuck, and I would have been willing to bet my last dollar that my father had hit that.
My father glanced over at me, but he continued to listen to whatever Shantell was saying. I made myself comfortable. When she was done, Shantell pivoted, gave me a polite smile, and left the office closing the door behind her.
“Pearce.” My father pulled a cigar from his desk drawer. “How have you been son? It’s been a minute.”
The exaggeration made me chuckle. “A minute? I saw you last week at Grams’ house.”
“That doesn’t count because you were there to see her. Not me.”
“I was there to seefamily,” I corrected.
“Since you refuse to come to Sunday dinner at my crib, I’ll go ahead and tell you what I have planned. I want you to meet Adrienne. She’s my homie’s daughter. He’s an attorney, and she comes from a good family. Reputable and well-known in Diamond Cove. I think you two would be a good match. It’s about time for you to stop playing and settle down. Give me some grandkids.” My father cuffed a lighter and placed the cigar between his lips while I stared at him in astonishment.
“I know you know that I’m with Tasha because you met her. You’ve actually met her more than once.”
The way my father scoffed threw me for a loop. “Tasha’s mother is a drug addict. She probably groomed her daughter to go after a wealthy man, so they could reap the benefits. Aside from pussy, she doesn’t bring shit to the table. She’s a grown ass woman that works at a beauty supply store. Her mother livesin the projects, and she probably doesn’t even know her father. Fuck no. She’s not good enough to be my daughter-in-law. As hard as I’ve worked, I’m building a legacy to leave behind. When I’m gone you and the family you create will be one of Diamond Cove’s elite. You can’t marry just anybody.”
“The fuck?” I frowned. “Did you really just sit there and run down all the reasons why you don’t think my shorty is good enough for you?” I knew my father could be on bullshit, but that took the cake.
“Son, you’re old enough to understand that life isn’t a fairytale. All that falling in love and living happily ever after is folk lore. Marriage is a business arrangement. There isn’t any room for love in the equation. Adrienne comes from good stock. She has a career, she’s connected, gorgeous, and she was raised to know the ins and outs of being with a powerful man. She’s not project trash.”
“Yooo,” I drawled while chuckling. “I’m out. This is crazy.” As I stood, I continued to chuckle. I knew my pops could be a mother fucker, but he had me speechless.
“Will you ever grow out of that rebellious stage? I think you get off on challenging me, and it’s annoying as fuck. You can still fuck Tasha. Have her as a sneaky link, side chick, baby mama, what the fuck ever, but you need a reputable woman on your arm donning your last name, and she isn’t it.”
That was my cue to leave. I refused to argue with my father. This wasn’t a gangster movie, and he wasn’t telling me who the fuck I could and couldn’t be with. I didn’t need the key to his empire or his validation. With all the money, power, and respect he had, it still wasn’t enough. He had to try and dictate my life, and I wasn’t going. I loved my father, but he had me fucked up. He could get mad, and I couldn’t care less. The great thing about having my own money was that I didn’t have to live by his terms. He could cut me off, disown me, whatever made him feel better,and I’d still be living and thriving. We didn’t even share the same last name, so it was comical that he cared about who ended up having mine.
I kept waiting for the day my father would treat me like a grown man, but it seemed that wouldn’t occur anytime soon. When and if I got married, it was going to be because I wanted to. Not for business, money, connections, or any of the things my father cared about. Just when I started to feel like my father couldn’t get any more ridiculous, he proved me wrong. I was grown, however. He didn’t have to approve of Tasha because I didn’t need his permission to be with her.
It was six in the morning, the next day to be exact, and I was at Maria’s apartment. Tasha never came home from work the day before. I didn’t start to worry until about eleven. I called her, and the phone went straight to voicemail. I checked her location, and she was at the airport, which had me stumped like a muhfucka. The airport? The only thing that made sense to me was that someone else had her phone or maybe she was there dropping someone off. After staring at the phone screen for a few minutes, I tried calling her again. Again, the call went straight to voicemail. When I attempted to check her location a few minutes later, she had stopped sharing it with me. I looked for her on social media, and I couldn’t find her accounts, so either they were gone, or I was blocked. Once again, I was stumped because what the fuck had happened? Why would Tasha just up and leave without taking any of her belongings or saying anything to me?
The situation had me so baffled that I couldn’t sleep. Was she considered missing? I assumed that would only hold true if noone else knew where she was either. For ten minutes, I knocked on Maria’s door. Eventually, her neighbor came out on her way to walk her son to the bus stop. “Maria isn’t home. She left last night. Had a few suitcases with her.” The woman who always eyed me inappropriately stated.
“Appreciate it,” I nodded before walking away.
If Maria had bags, then Tasha being at the airport made sense. But why didn’t she tell me they were going somewhere? That was the part that didn’t make any sense. And unless it was a short flight, I couldn’t imagine Maria traveling anywhere because she’d get dope sick unless she was bold enough to smuggle heroin through the airport. Dropping by Maria’s home had left me more confused than I had already been, but at least I got my answer. Tasha wasn’t missing. She was with her mother. But where the fuck were they at? Out of every scenario that I could think of, none of them made sense to me.
I’d never been on the type of time that a lot of other men were on. I had a mother, two grandmothers, three aunts, and no uncles on my mother’s side. Women played a huge part of raising me. I didn’t cheat nor was I disrespectful or abusive. Tasha never had to ask me for much because I was a real nigga and if I saw she needed something or if I even thought she wanted something, I was getting it with no hesitation. And she just up and left me?
Anytime I got close to becoming angry somehow the emotion would never fully surface because just leaving me with no rhyme or reason wasn’t even in her character. There had to be more to the story. My pride was telling me to just let it go, but I had to go by Tasha’s job. When I walked in, I recognized her cousin behind the counter. She recognized me immediately, and she smiled.
“Hey, Pearce. What you doing in here?”
“I’m looking for Tasha. I haven’t seen or talked to her since yesterday morning.”
Kenya’s mouth opened slightly but no words came out. Her demeanor had changed to an ‘oh shit’ vibe.
“Was she supposed to work today?” I probed.
I could tell by the way Kenya’s eyes were darting around the room and looking at everything but my face, she didn’t know what was going on, and she didn’t want to say the wrong thing.
“She was. Yesterday, about two hours after she got off, she called my dad and said she needed a few days off. She didn’t really go into detail or sound like anything was wrong.”
