The call finally came at eleven thirty Saturday night.
“Late show. Fifteen minutes. Wait outside.” Marcus hung up.
I called Kessler. “They’re picking me up in fifteen minutes. I’ve got the cell on me. You’re sure you can track it with the GPS?”
“We’re on it. And, Darren, if things go wrong, get out of there.”
“I hear you.”
Since I was already dressed, there was nothing to do but leave. And take the gun with me.
It wasn’t long before an old Chevy pulled up. When I got in, the guys were pumped up, and so was the radio. As I’d suspected, the Cuz were in the car. The driver was Ashtray, a member of Tony’s security entourage.
“How close are we?” I asked above the music.
“Seven minutes, maybe,” Tyrell shouted from the passenger seat. “You ready? I heard you ain’t popped nobody before.”
“One of those motherfuckers shot my girlfriend. My finger ain’t gonna shake on the trigger.”
“Amen to that!” Ashtray said.
The Cuz were high. I could tell from their wild eyes, the way they bounced in their seats. I wasn’t surprised. Diamond Dust made a man feel invincible and gave him permission to do vicious things.
As the night flashed by the window, I kept waiting for a police car to stop us. I wasn’t sure if it would be a marked or unmarked car.
With every second that passed, I got more nervous.
What if the cops didn’t come through? What would I do then?
“Two minutes, boys,” said Ashtray, pressing pedal to metal.
Two minutes. My internal panic button switched on. Where the fuck are the cops?
“Two minutes till showtime!” Tyrell pulled out a sleek silver gun. It was a nice piece, sophisticated like mine. Probably from Gallinger’s. Something clicked in my brain.
“Sweet semiauto,” I shouted over the front seat.
Tyrell threw a worried look over his shoulder. “Don’t go telling you-know-who about it, ’kay? I’m not supposed to still have it.”
“Yo, slow up a bit, Ash!” Remy shouted from next to me. “We don’t want to get stopped.”
“A’ight, a’ight. How about this?” Ashtray came to a full stop at the next stop sign. “Y’all ready? It’s that building half a block—”
A siren wailed as an unmarked cop car drove up behind us.
“What the fuck?” Tyrell called out.
“Oh shit.” Ashtray started up slow, like he was taking his driver’s test. “Do I pull over?”
“Go go go!” Tyrell barked. “They find these guns and we’re fucked!”
Ashtray slammed on the brakes, causing the cop cruiser to rear-end us. Then he floored the gas. The tires screeched as he plowed forward, taking a right and blasting down the street.
I grabbed on to the seat in front of me as we took another corner. We lost the cops quickly, but Ashtray drove around for another few minutes to make sure. Eventually, he pulled to a stop in the lot where Diamond Tony kept his extra cars.
I breathed a sigh of relief. The tracker on my cell had worked. The Blood bath had been stopped.
For now.