First Round Lottery Pick (7 page)

“What we going to do,
L
?”

“I don't know, man. I mean, what can we do? Ain't nobody see nothing, and Kelly can't tell us anything.”

“If they took her out the car, that means they wanted to take her someplace. Let's go back to The Vil and find out if anybody heard anything.”

I wanted to go see my mother and Tori's people.

 

 

When I got home, my mother was on the couch. I didn't have to tell her anything. She already knew what was going on, and even though she was shaken, she was trying to make sure we were okay. She must have seen the anger in our eyes.

“Now you two ain't really been through nothing like this, so don't go out of here and get yourself into any trouble. The police is out there trying to find out where Tori is, and the more time you give them to look for her, instead of going out there and looking for somebody, like I know you want to do, it will give them a chance to find her.”

“Yeah, but people ain't goin' to talk to no police,” Jalen said. “Tori like family, and family need to take care of family, no matter who involved.”

“Ma, we gotta at least go out and ride around and see what we see. I mean, ain't no way we staying up in here trying to wait to hear something.”

“Well, what can I say? Y'all two are men now, but don't forget everything you got going for yourself,
L
.”

“I won't,” I told her.

“And I ain't going to let him,” Jalen assured.

“But we gotta find her, Ma, we got to.”

Our first stop was over Tori's to see her mom and sisters. I can't lie, I couldn't take it. I could hear the crying and the calling of Tori's name through the door before we even knocked. I stood on the step with Jalen and swear I was almost in tears, but I was trying to be strong before I knocked on that door.

Jalen wasn't able to keep the tears from flowing and was wiping his eyes every chance he got in case I got the strength to knock.

The courage wouldn't come to knock, so I backed away from the door.

As soon as we stepped away, the door opened. “Tori?”

It was her mom, and when she called out Tori's name, I could feel the pain she was going through.

We turned around.

“Oh, Langston, Jalen,” she figured out.

“Ah, hey, we were just going to stop by to see how everybody was doing but thought we should give you a little bit more time before we came in,” I told her.

“No, no, c'mon in,” she said.

Jalen wiped his eyes and stopped before we went inside. “No, we gotta go find her, Ms. Hicks,” he said. “That's what we should be doin' right about now, you know.”

She tried to smile, but tears rolled down her face instead. “I know. I want to go out there too, but I'm afraid if I do, I'll miss her call. The police told me to just stay by the phone.”

It was weird talking outside in the dark about Tori over all the nighttime action in The Vil that didn't stop for anything. The sirens were blaring, and people were on the hunt for whatever they were getting into.

I went over to Ms. Hicks and gave her a hug. I couldn't help but start to feel like Tori missing was my fault. As I had my arms around her while she cried, my mind went back to the day when were just freshmen and Tori's mom gave me the third degree about taking care of her and making sure she would always be safe when we were out. I wanted to tell her it was all my fault, that I would find Tori and bring her back home, but I wasn't so sure. We didn't have any kind of clues as to where she could be or what could have happened to her, and it was driving me crazy. So, as I held Ms. Hicks, I cried too.

It was hard to take, but three days had almost passed since Tori went missing. It was quiet all around The Vil, and I hadn't slept more than three hours straight since the night Tori was taken. The police didn't have any witnesses and didn't know anything. All they knew was that she was gone and that Kelly's car had been shot up. I heard they even questioned Katrina because of the beef she and Tori had right before Tori left. Katrina had all types of people speaking for her and stepping up to clear her name. I didn't think she had anything to do with it. Besides, her bark was always louder than her bite.

I was pissed because no one in the media was really saying anything about Tori missing like they do for those suburban girls when they get snatched up. I wasn't too young to know what it was about though. The media never cared about what went down in the hood and wasn't going to waste time on some young black girl, so I did what I could on that end. Out of the seven interviews I had concerning going pro, I told them what I was going through and made sure I talked about Tori because I wanted somebody to find my girl.

“C'mon, Langston, that shot's going to be your bread and butter when you come overseas,” I heard Barcelona's head scout voice echo through the gym. “I can see it now. You're going to be hell to defend. Do you know how hard it was to play against Scottie Pippen back in the day? When you're floating around the elbow looking straight at the bucket we're going to want you to take it. It's what you're going to be known for on our team,” the scout shouted.

I couldn't believe I kept shooting and missing it as the scout continued to run his mouth.

“Make it your signature, baby. Live it and love it!”

The traveling scout working me out was sitting in the bleachers next to Coach Pierce. It was my second workout in two days for Barcelona. I can't even front—I wasn't even impressing myself.

Coach showed up big though. He was my buffer between the scouts and the terrible workouts I was having. He pulled them aside to let them know my situation. He explained to them why my vertical had been forty-one inches instead of a consistent forty-six and the reasons my shooting touch was off. He knew Tori and understood what I was going through. There had been a few times when Coach didn't think he was reaching me during the season and he went to Tori to get into my head, and it worked every time. She was definitely in my head by this time, because I was worried to death about her.

I looked over toward the bleachers to Coach and the scout. “I'm sorry, but this just ain't going to work today. I need to find out what's going on with Tori. I shouldn't even be doing this right now.”

The scout looked over at Coach then back at me. “Look, son, it's this simple. In the pros there is no time for a break when things are tough. We work on our game, get our heads right, and try as best as we can to do what we're paid to do. Ask any of the players when you meet them. It's how you become a star.”

I couldn't tell if the scout knew, but Coach Pierce did, and he stiffened a bit.

He must have remembered the time when one of the assistants on our team tried the same take-one-for-the-team speech when my grandmother died and the entire team had to pull me off him. Coach put his hand up to silence me before I cussed the scout out.

“Look, Langston,” the scout said, “listen to me. Things will work out for the better. You have to believe that, son. Dig in and do what we've seen you do in the state championships and on tape in your all-star summer league games. I want you to have a good workout, so I can go back and tell my people that you'll be worth all the money you'll be paid.”

I stood there looking at Coach and the scout, along with the side exit to the streets, with the ball up under my arm. I had major thoughts running through my head. Should I tell this baldheaded Dick Vitale look-alike to kiss the bottom of my shoes and come back another day, or should I stay on the court like a piece of meat and let him evaluate my skills like he came to do in the first place? I don't know why, but I didn't like the way Coach and the scout were looking at me while I stood there. It made me feel like a slave on the block getting ready to get sold or something. I took a deep breath and gutted it out though. I just let their looks and stares motivate me and gave them what they wanted to see.

Afterward, the scout was all smiles. He shook my hand like a groupie then told me he would be in touch later that night.

Jalen walked in about five minutes later. “How'd it go?” he asked, his voice echoing throughout the gym.

“A'ight. Said he was gonna call me tonight.”

Jalen put three or four balls back on the rack, grabbed my towel then threw it to me.

I knew right away something wasn't right with him. It was written all over his face. “What? What's wrong? They find Tori?”

He dropped his head and took a deep breath.

“What is it, Jalen? What's wrong?” I walked over to him. “Talk,
J
.”

“Toy just stopped me in The Vil.”

“And?”

“He say he can get Tori back.”

“What you mean, get her back?”

“That's what he sayin'.”

“That means she ain't dead, right?”

“He just say he can get her back. Didn't say if she was dead or not.”

My mind just wanted to explode. “C'mon, Jalen, tell me what you're talking about!”

“Toy made it clear he didn't have anything to do with her getting snatched up, but he can get her back to us, if you sign with him.”

“Sign?”

Jalen nodded.

“He said that? Oh, hell no. That scandalous bastard.” With the quickness, I started to think about a way to hurt Toy and get Tori back.

“C'mon,
L
, don't even think about it. Toy said he knew you,
L
. Said you go to the police talking smack, and he'll deny saying a word. Then he say, if you get a gang of peeps to come after him, he's not going to say a word, and we may never see her again.”

“So what he want then?”

“You to sign. Make him your agent for three years and he has full control of your career.”

“He said that?”

“Every word.”

What could I do? If Toy knew where Tori was, I wanted to know too. It didn't matter to me if we found her dead or alive. Of course, I wanted little mama alive because that was my baby, but if we found her dead, at least we knew. It was a terrible-ass way to think, but I wanted to know. I needed to know.

“So when he wanna do this?”

“You're going to do it?”

“What else can I do? Man, forget Toy! I'll sign with him and get Tori back then fire him.”

“Said he wants to meet tonight, eleven thirty on the court in The Vil.”

Eleven thirty couldn't come fast enough for me. I wanted Tori back, and I didn't tell a soul what I was up to because those were Toy's instructions that came out of Jalen's mouth. All I wanted to do was get Tori back to her mother and take good care of her.

Jalen came by to pick me up. He was focused. We both were. We went out to The Vil about an hour before things were going to go down to talk about what we were going to do once we had Tori. Jalen wanted so bad to tell Tori's mom about what was happening, but we decided not to. If they even knew Toy could tell them something about Tori being missing, they would kill him before we ever got a chance to get her back. We were standing on the court waiting for Toy to show up. Jalen was facing one end; I was looking down at the other. All of a sudden the floodlights were snatched on, and I could see Toy walking toward us with a big-ass smile on his face. As usual he was wearing a silk shirt with dress pants and some Italian leather shoes. Three guys I had never seen before were walking behind him. They had snarls on their faces, but I didn't care if they wanted beef; they were going to get it.

Toy and his partners stopped, and Toy was looking me and Jalen over. “My brothers, let this be an example that your agent will never be late to a business meeting. “So how did your workout go today?”

“How'd you know about it?”

Toy snickered. “It's my job to know about it. I heard you had a bit of trouble starting off with your concentration, but then you got it going.”

“If you knew, why'd you ask? And get over it, 'cause I didn't come to talk about it.”

“Look, I know this is not how you wanted it to go down,
L
, but such is life. You goin' to see a lot of things happen in your life that you didn't plan.”

“Save all that, man,” I told him. “I'm doing this for one reason, and that's Tori.”

Toy reached over to one of his boys and held out his hands. “By the way, these are my new friends from Harlem. They going to be traveling with you during the season.”

“The hell they are,” Jalen said. “If you didn't know, that's my job to make those kind of decisions, and your fake-ass P. Diddy bodyguards need to fall back to Harlem.”

Toy laughed Jalen off. “Oh, is that how it's gonna be?

“It's already a done deal,” I told him, “so you can get your boys to follow someone else.”

Toy looked at his goons then at me and reached over and handed me the contract.

“Where do I sign?”

“Last page,” he said. “You're not even going to read it?”

“I want Tori back.”

“Well, let me give you a brief rundown. I get thirty percent. I get ten percent the first year, twenty the second, and thirty on the last.”

“Thirty?” Jalen questioned.

“You heard right. You getting more than an agent. You're getting your fiancée back.”

“I don't care. I just want her back.”

Toy tossed me a pen, and Jalen moved in front of me so I could use his back to sign.

“And don't think you gonna sign the contract, find your girl, then fire me. Look at page three. I cannot be fired until my three years expire.”

Jalen looked back at me. “I know the game,
L
. I told you that long ago.”

I threw the contract back at Toy, and it hit the ground. “Where is she, Toy?”

“At the park on the East side, off Livingston, in an abandoned car.”

“She alive?”

“Maybe, maybe not,” he said before he picked up the contract. “My deal was to tell you where you could find her.”

As we took off running for Jalen's car, I could hear Toy's voice in the background saying, “Call me later. We have some things we need to talk about—endorsements, the whole kit and caboodle, baby!”