Free When It All Falls Down 3 - Somebody is Gonna Die: A Chicago Hood Drama (A Hustler's Lady) by Tamicka Higgins Page A

minute that we could get caught or something…another minute that Byron could decide to just say fuck it and put a bullet in both my stepmama and my daddy’s head. Naw, man. I can’t wait. If you goin’ wit me, coo. If you not, then that’s coo too. But I’m not waitin’. If I gotta risk it all and drive my car back down there, I’ll do the shit myself tonight.”
                  Tramar hopped out of Jackson’s car, slamming the door behind him. He began walking toward the back entrance of the hotel. He felt around in his pocket to make sure that he’d remembered to grab the second keycard. Jackson quickly caught up with him.
                  “Okay, nigga,” Jackson said. “Okay. Tonight. But we gotta make sure we play this shit coo. Go up to the door and see how we feel. If little old ladies or something answer the door, I say we don’t run up in there. I ain’t try’na massacre no little old ladies or nothin’.”
                  Tramar nodded and shook hands with Jackson. “Coo,” he said. “Let’s just go in here and talk to Ayana ‘cause I wanna make sure that she okay with watching Quan for the rest of the night.”
                  The two of them walked back into the hotel and made their way back up to the room. Before Tramar entered, he tapped on the door lightly. Considering how Ayana’s nerves were at this point, he didn’t want to scare her or to make her think that something bad was about to go down. When he entered the room, he found Ayana climbing out of the bed. Quan lay on the other bed, asleep on top of the sheets.
                  Ayana rushed over to Tramar and Jackson, wanting to hear the details on what had happened. “He passed out like a hour ago or so,” she explained. “So, what happened?”
                  Tramar went and pulled the comforter up over Quan, seeing that the kid was out cold. He whispered to Ayana and told her to slide on her shoes so that they could talk out in the back of the hotel. Ayana quickly slipped into some moccasins and grabbed her cell phone and hotel room key. She followed Tramar and Jackson out into the hallway and to the elevator.
                  “What, Tramar?” Ayana asked. “What is it?” She could see the look of seriousness they hadn’t had before they left. Going to see Sharli’s friend Damon must have changed everything.
                  “Just wait till we get into the parking lot,” Tramar said softly.
                  They rolled the elevator down to the ground floor and quickly rushed out into the back parking lot. Out by Tramar and Jackson’s cars, they talked.
                  “What happened, Tramar?” Ayana asked, tired of feeling as if she was being purposely left out. “What happened?”
                  “Calm down, Ayana,” Tramar said, rubbing her shoulders. “We went and hooked up with the Damon dude. And, well, we found out what I think we need to know.”
                  “What, Tramar? What?” Ayana asked. “Y’all ain’t go and cause no problem for Sharli, did y’all? Please tell me that y’all ain’t go and do nothin’ stupid.”
                  Tramar glanced at Jackson before he explained what had all happened. Once he saw the look on Ayana’s face, he knew he needed to start being a little more forceful. “Look,” he said, “I don’t know who the fuck side you supposed to be on or who the fuck you call yourself worrying about, but you really think that that nigga was just going to give us the information that we needed and shit just like that, huh? Ayana? You really think that? We ain’t have no choice but to go ahead and get what we needed out of him before we got to askin’ questions and the little nigga ran and told or something. That’s how we got led to the house. And, like I said with the photo and stuff, Ayana, I really feel like