Bug and Toomey sat parked outside a small apartment complex just outside the Beverly area.
The buildings looked clean, the grounds kept neat, and no one hung around outside the front doors looking like they were ready to mug the first person that walked in or out. There were a couple of little white kids in the park across from the building that Jahlil had just walked out of. This spot was nothing like anything Bug or Toomey had ever seen.
“What are we doing over here?” Toomey said.
“I don’t know,” Bug said. “Maybe he got some little shorty who live there.”
“Why doesn’t he just tell us?”
“Don’t know that either,” Bug said.
Before they came here to the apartment complex, the three boys had stood across the street from a house they had been watching for the last few days. It was across the street from Bug’s apartment. Bug told Jahlil that he had seen the man who lived there move in a brand-new sixty-inch LCDTV the other night. Bug knew the guy had other nice things in there too. He didn’t know what the man did for a living, but he knew he lived alone and was often gone for hours during the night. Jahlil made it known he wanted to rob that house tonight.
Now Bug watched as Jahlil approached the car with some pamphlets in his hand. Bug turned to Toomey. “You gonna tell him you want out of the crew?”
“Don’t know.”
“You gotta tell him.”
“I know,” Toomey said.
Jahlil pulled on the door handle and jumped into the back seat. He was smiling, damn near jubilant.
“You got a shorty in there, don’t you?” Bug said, grinning up at Jahlil through the rearview. “You just got you some?”
“Nope.”
“Then what?” Toomey snapped.
“Damn,” Jahlil said. “Somebody funky today.” He passed up the pamphlets he was holding. They were informational brochures from the complex. Inside were floor plans, prices, and a list of amenities the community offered.
“What’s this?” Bug said.
“You see that two-bedroom floor plan? I’m gonna be living in that in like a month.”
“What are you talking about?” Toomey said.
“You see that park? You see? There are little kids out there playing, not like where we live. My kid gonna be playing out there.”
“It says it’s like nine hundred dollars a month,” Bug said, reading the pamphlet. “You can’t afford that.”
“Why you think I got us doing all this work?” Jahlil said. “I’m gonna give them a crazy down payment and have my old man sign the lease, and then—”
“Thought you said your old man has bad credit,” Toomey said.
“He does. That’s why I’m saving up the big down payment.”
“And what if you don’t have enough?” Toomey asked.
Jahlil looked at Toomey with attitude. “Like I said, that’s why we putting in all this work.”
“I can’t do it no more,” Toomey said.
Jahlil looked at Toomey like he had no idea what his friend was talking about.
“It’s not worth it, Jahlil, and you know it. For a few hundred bucks here, and a few hundred there, it’s not worth the risk.”
“What risk?” Jahlil said. “You see how easy we took that five hundred off that dude last night? We do this in our sleep.”
“He right, Toomey,” Bug said.
Toomey shot Bug an evil look. “That’s the attitude I’m worried about. What if we think we’re so good that one night we slip, and something happens? It just isn’t worth it.”
Jahlil fell silent. “Toomey, don’t do this to me, man. I need this money. I really need this money to get that place.”
“Is it so important that you’re willing to risk your life?”
“Ain’t nobody dying, Toomey. Damn!”
“What if we get caught?” Toomey said. “You want to be locked up? Is it worth that?”
“Yes!” Jahlil said, without even having to think about it. “My girl is having our baby. She depending on me. Yes, it’s worth it!”
Toomey shook his head. “I would do anything for you, Jahlil. You and Bug my best friends. I’ve known you for more than half my life, but—”
“Then this last one,” Jahlil said. “This one, tonight. Bug said the dude got some expensive stuff in there, and he never home. It’ll be easy. We get in, get out, sell the stuff, make the money, and you can be done.”
Toomey shook his head silently.
“You said you’d do anything for us, Toomey,” Bug said.
“Shut up, Bug,” Toomey said.
“You did say that,” Jahlil said. “This last time, and I promise. No more.”
Toomey looked up seriously at Jahlil. “You will never ask me to do any of this stuff with you again?”
“Never. I promise.”
“Okay,” Toomey said. “Then tonight will be the last time.”