Time is Money (5 page)

POW!

POW!

Stone quickly hopped back up to his feet and ran down the tunnel in search of the suspect, but stopped when he reached a fork in the tunnel. “Fuck!” he cursed loudly. He had no idea which way the suspect went and no longer having a flashlight would only make matters worse. After doing eeny, meeny, miny, moe in his head, Stone decided to take the tunnel on the left. He jogged about a half a mile through the tunnel before finally giving up. He was so close to catching one of the violent bank robbers, but he let it slip through his fingers and to make matters worse, his clothes were ruined and smelled like a bowl of shit.

* * *

Stone hopped back up onto the platform from the train tracks with a defeated look on his face. He knew he was so close to bringing down one of the violent bank robbers, but now he would have to start from scratch. He had fired several shots at the gunman and silently wondered if any of his bullets had found a home in the target.

“Detective, are you alright?” a uniform officer asked.

“I’m good,” Stone said, as he walked pass the uniform officer and headed straight towards Captain Fisher.

“Stone please tell me that you got that bastard?” Captain Fisher asked and then frowned when he smelled Stone.

“Nah… Sorry captain, he got away,” Stone answered. “What about the
Camaro
? Did y’all catch the driver?”

Captain Fisher shook his head no. “When they found the
Camaro
it was empty. I have a few of my men dusting it for prints now.”

“I give you my word that I’m going to catch these animals,” Stone promised. On the inside, he felt bad about letting the gunman get away, but something inside of him told him that he would definitely be running into the violent bank robber again.

“Stone you’re one of my best men,” Captain Fisher said seriously. “I know you did your best back there and that’s all that matters.” He patted Stone on the back.       “Now go home, get cleaned up and try to enjoy the rest of your night.”

Stone climbed behind the wheel of his car and headed home to his apartment. Pictures of the gunman in the Bill Clinton mask kept replaying repeatedly in his head. In his mind, Stone saw all the mistakes he had made and vowed that the next time him and one of the gunmen crossed paths, the outcome would be different.

When Stone made it inside his apartment, the first thing he did was remove his stinking clothes and head straight to the kitchen, where he poured himself a drink. Stone downed the liquid fire in one gulp and then quickly refilled his glass. He looked over on the counter at his 9mm and a part of him felt like he had let everyone down by letting the gunman escape. The more Stone sipped his drink, the more his mind began to wonder and the more his mind wondered, the more he began to think about Dana. Right now, he could really use her company. Stone reached down in his pants pocket and found out that his phone was ruined. He finished his drink, jumped in the shower, and then headed out the door to get a new phone.
 

Chapter 11

Regroup

D
ana paced back and forth in the dining room of the house where everyone was supposed to meet up. She looked around and saw Randy and Dougie sitting at the table with long worried looks on their faces. Everyone had made it back safely, everyone except Ghost. Dana had been at the house for over two hours waiting for Ghost to arrive. She didn’t want to think the worst, but the more she paced the more she worried. Ghost was her big brother and just the thought of something bad happening to him had her ready to go crazy. “Ghost should have been here by now.”

“Calm down,” Randy said in a calm tone. “The rules are we wait six hours after a job before we do anything.”

“You shouldn’t have left him,” Dana said staring at Randy. “The rules are we always stick together and work as a unit, not split up,” she said with a cold edge in her voice.

“It was Ghost’s idea that we split up in the first place,” Randy matched Dana’s tone. “We all knew the risk beforehand so let’s not start to point fingers.”

“Y’all two chill out,” Dougie said speaking for the first time.

“Where did you leave Ghost?” Dana asked.

“I didn’t,
“leave”
Ghost anywhere,” Randy said defensively. “He,
“asked”
me to drop him off at the subway.”

“Why the fuck would he say some shit like that? That don’t even make no sense!” Dana fumed.

“It was this detective on our ass and this motherfucker came out of nowhere,” Randy explained. “And Ghost thought it would be best if we split up. The shit happened so fast that the next thing I know, I saw Ghost hop out the car and disappear down the subway steps.”

Just as Dana was about to respond, everyone at the table stopped when they heard the front door open and in walked Ghost.

“Oh my God! I was so worried!” Dana said, as she ran, jumped in her brother’s arms, and tried to squeeze the life out of him. “Are you alright?” she asked as she began checking him for wounds.

“I’m good,” Ghost smiled as he sat his bag of money down on the table. “That fucking detective almost had me,” he admitted. “But I had to put the moves on his ass,” he laughed.

“Celebration time!” Dougie announced walking from the kitchen with a bottle of champagne in each hand.

Ghost removed his soiled clothes and stood in his boxers. “I’d like to make a toast,” he said getting everyone’s attention. “At last we are finally free,” he began. “We have successfully taken down enough banks to finally retire and ride off into the sunset. I want to thank every one of you because without each of you, none of this would have been possible. To happiness, power, and family,” he said raising his glass and clanking it against all the other glasses. Ghost had been planning and preparing for this day for the last three years. His biggest fear was going broke, so he made sure he planned for anything and everything that could go wrong. Deep down inside, Ghost was happy to call it quits. Tonight, he came close to losing his life or spending the rest of it in a cage. Ghost loved money, but he also knew when it got too hot in the kitchen it was time to step out.

“I’m just happy you made it back in one piece,” Dana smiled. Just the thought of losing Ghost made her stomach feel like she was on a roller coaster. Sure, they had their ups and downs like any other family, but at the end of the day, they loved each other and would always be there for one another. Now that she knew Ghost was good, Dana’s train of thought shifted over to Stone. He had been heavily on her mind ever since the last time the two were in each other’s presence. Dana’s thoughts were interrupted when Ghost began to divide the money. As usual, he sat each member’s share of money in front of him or her.

“Job well done,” Ghost smiled. “In the next three weeks I’m out of here,” he announced. “I’ll be throwing a big going away party before I leave though.”

“Out? What you mean you out? Where are you going?” Dana nosily asked.

Ghost sipped his drink slowly. “I’m moving to Hawaii.”

“What’s in Hawaii?” Dougie asked.

“A peace of mind,” Ghost countered. New York had been good to him, but he wanted to go somewhere, where he could just kick his feet up and relax for once in his life.

“So you just going to leave us up here like this?” Randy asked with a bit of frustration in his voice.

Ghost looked at Randy as if he had lost his mind. “Leave y’all up here like what? We’ve all made well over two million dollars so nobody is stuck here. If you decide to remain here that’s because you choose to be here.”

“I didn’t mean it like that,” Randy said trying to downplay his frustration. “We like a family and if you leave, it’s kind of like you breaking up the family.”

“You all are more than welcome to come with me to Hawaii,” Ghost offered. “Now if y’all will excuse me, I have to take a shower and get this stench off of me.”

Once Ghost was gone, Randy spoke. “So the rest of you all are leaving too?”

Dougie shrugged and finished sipping on his drink. Randy then turned to Dana. “What about you Dana? You leaving too?”

“I’m not sure yet,” she said honestly. Now that she had met Stone, she wasn’t in a hurry to go anywhere, but in the back of her mind, Dana knew that Ghost would more than likely try to persuade her to go to Hawaii with him.

“You have been acting a little strange lately,” Randy smiled. “You been getting some dick. I know that look anywhere. Who is he?”

“None of your business,” Dana sucked her teeth.

Randy laughed loudly. “You already know Ghost don’t approve of any of the men you choose to date. Didn’t he beat up your last two boyfriends?”

Dana was about to reply when her cell phone buzzed,
the perfect distraction,
she thought. She received a text message from a number she didn’t recognize.

Unknown:
hey this is Stone I lost my phone earlier so this is my new number...would you like to join me for dinner tonight?

Dana:
I would love to

Dana got up and looked at Randy. “Who my new boyfriend is, is neither you nor Ghost’s concern,” and just like that she was gone.

Chapter 12

Bad Timing

A
fter finishing two and a half bottles of champagne, Randy decided that it was time for him to call it a night. He got up, exited the house, and got in his car. He pulled out at a normal pace and cruised down the road. His car swerved a little, but for the most part, he felt that he was doing fine on the road. Randy’s strong point was driving so he didn’t having a problem while under the influence. As Randy drove, he began to think about his future. It wasn’t until tonight when he heard Ghost’s plan about moving to Hawaii that he began thinking about his own future. The truth was that Randy had never been outside of New York unless he and the team were on a job, but that didn’t count.
“Fuck am I supposed to do when Ghost leaves?”
Randy said to himself.
“This nigga Ghost only ever cared about himself. He didn’t even have the decency to check and see if the rest of the crew was good on money or how anyone else felt about him leaving.”

Randy had always been jealous of Ghost and felt that he always showed favoritism towards Dana because she was his sister. He felt that in Ghost’s eyes, all he was, was a driver. Several times Randy begged Ghost to let him prove himself on a job, but every time Ghost dismissed the idea. “Fuck Ghost!” Randy blurted out. The sudden vibration of his cell phone vibrating on his hip caused him to take his eyes off the road for a second. Randy began reading the text message he received when his car began to sway over to the right onto the shoulder of the road. He quickly jerked the steering wheel to left and steadied the car. Twenty seconds later Randy noticed flashing lights in his rearview mirror.

“Fuck!” he cursed out loud. He looked over at the big bag of money that rested in the passenger seat along with the George Bush mask.
“Fuck that! I’m not going to jail,”
Randy said to himself as he grabbed the .38 that rested on his lap and pulled over to the side of the road. He quickly reached over, grabbed the George Bush mask, and tossed it into the backseat.

Randy watched nervously as the white officer stepped out of his car and hurried towards his car.

“Good evening!” the officer said in a stern, not-fucking-around tone. “License and registration, please!”

Randy reached over in the glove compartment and handed the officer his license and registration card.

The officer looked over the license for a second and then said, “In a bit of a rush tonight?”

“Just a little tired, ready to get home,” Randy flashed a phony smile.

“I noticed you ran off the road back there,” the officer returned the phony smile. “You been drinking tonight?”

“No sir,” Randy answered quickly.

“Be back in a second,” the officer said and then headed back to his car.

Randy sat behind the wheel of his car as panic took over. He didn’t like how the officer had looked at him and he was sure that he would look for any reason to arrest him.
“I wonder if he noticed the George Bush mask in the backseat or the bag full of money sitting over on the passenger seat?”
he thought out loud.
 

Seconds later Randy noticed a second police car pull up to the scene. He watched closely through his side view mirror as the two cops spoke amongst each other and then slowly made their way towards his car.

“Sir, would you mind stepping out of the car for a second?” the original officer asked in his usual stern tone.

“Why? Is there a problem officer?” Randy asked nervously. His nervousness was beginning to make the officers suspicious.

“Sir, step out of the vehicle please!” the original officer shouted with his hand positioned on his hip.

“Yes sir,” Randy opened the door, faked like he was about to step out of the vehicle then quickly raised his gun, and shot the original officer in the face. He then turned and opened fire on the second officer. The second officer dived out of the line of fire just as the bullets whizzed pass his head.

Randy threw the gear in drive and gunned the engine. There was no way he was going to jail tonight. He kept his head ducked low as the sound of gunfire sounded off loudly behind him.