The Reason Why (27 page)

“I got to find this nigga, Infa,” Chino said softly. “I've got to find him.”

“Let it go, bro,” Infa told him. “You hold on to this, and it will eat you up inside.”

Chino knew that Infa was on point. He turned the Land Cruiser around and headed off campus. He had to let it go.

Chino, Chris J, and Infa rolled to City Center Mall to pick up some suits for Young Mike's funeral. They were going to hit Foley's and Dillard's and do some more shopping. Chino was even going to buy a suit for Young Mike to be buried in and take it to the funeral home for his grandmother.

The first store the crew hit up was Dillard's. It was there where Chino ran into Tracey.

“Hi, how are you doing?” Tracey asked.

“I'm good, ma,” Chino told her, returning her smile.
She cute,
Chino thought. She was a yellow bone, with long hair that she wore in a ponytail. She had full red lips and pretty light brown eyes. Her figure was on the slim side, but she had a nice curve on her backside and two nice little humps up top. The form-fitting knit overall suit that she was wearing accented her figure perfectly. It was black and white plaid, and she wore black shoes and sheer black stockings to complement her outfit. She also wore a white blouse and had a black tie holding her ponytail in place. She was dressed conservative
and cute. More than likely, she was a college girl from the university.

“Is there anything I can help you with today?” Tracey asked.

Chris answered, “Yeah, how about your phone number?”

“Don't you go with my friend Debra?” Tracey asked.

“I was asking for it for my man here!” Chris J said, putting his hands on Chino's shoulders.

“Uh-huh.” She nodded. “Sure you were.”

Chino and Infa laughed. She was sexy and sophisticated. Unlike anything he had met before, Chino thought. Most girls he could easily charm, but this one was different. You could tell that she was smart and a spoiled little rich girl. She was working in the department store and she had a gold name tag on, which meant she was a department manager. She looked young, too young to be a department head. Unless she had just graduated from college, or she had worked for the store all four years that she had been in college and had worked her way up the ladder. Either way, she was smart, and ambitious, and classy. At least that's what her clothes and perfume said about her. Chino recognized the Chanel No. 5 she was wearing. It was his favorite.

“I'm looking for a suit,” Chino told her.

Tracey turned and ran her hands across Chino's shoulders and chest. “I know just the right suit for your type of build. It's a Geoffrey Beene suit. It would fit you like a glove.”

“I'm following you,” Chino told her. He peered down at her firm, round behind. So did Infa and Chris. They gave each other dap.

“Like a muthafuckin onion!” Infa said. He, Chris J, and Chino laughed.

Tracey stopped, spun around, and faced them. “So, you like what you see, huh?” She spun back around and continued walking until she arrived at the men's suits section, where she led them to a mannequin dressed in a fine dark gray suit. “So, what do you think?”

Chino nodded. “I like it.”

Tracey pulled a suit from a nearby rack. “This is your size.”

“How do you know?” Chino asked. “Your boyfriend about the same size as me?”

“I don't have a boyfriend, and I'm a seamstress. I've been making my own clothes since I was fifteen. I can look at you and tell what size you wear.” She handed Chino the suit. “I can ring you up over here.”

Chino and the fellas followed Tracey to a nearby register, where she rang up his suit. Chino pulled out a wad of money and paid in cash.

“Are you getting married?” Tracey asked.

“Are you asking me?” Chino asked.

“Yeah,” Tracey told him.

“Well, we just met,” Chino smiled, “but I guess that I'll take a chance and marry you.”

Tracey laughed. “Oh, a sense of humor! Silly! You wouldn't want to marry me.”

“Why not?” Chino asked.

“Because I'm bossy. I don't think you could handle me.”

“Wheeeew!” Infa ran his eyes up and down her body, and he and Chris J gave each other dap again.

Chino looked her up and down and nodded. “I can handle you.”

“You think so?” Tracey smiled. “A few have tried, but none have managed to tame me yet.”

“Hey, I'm an expert tamer,” Chino said, biting his bottom lip.

“I'll bet you are,” she told him. “What have you tamed so far?” She looked at Chino and her brown eyes sparkled, awaiting an answer from him.

Chino shrugged. “Whatever has come my way that needed taming.”

“I have a really wild and mean cat named Pussy. You think you could tame my precious Pussy?”

“Hot damn!” Chris J shouted.

Infa bit his lip.

“I think that I could,” Chino told her.

She wrote her telephone number down on the back of his receipt. “Here's my number. Call me and we'll see if you can tame that wild cat of mine.”

Chino tucked her number away. “Bet.”

Chino, Infa, and Chris J headed out of Dillard's through the mall toward Foley's. They were halfway through the mall when they ran across a group of GI Boys.

“There them niggas go right there!” Infa said.

They spotted one another at the same time. The GI Boys went for their guns, and so did Infa, Chino, and Chris. Chris fired first, putting a bullet through the chest of one of the Gary Indiana Boys.

Gunfire erupted like fireworks on the Fourth of July. Mall shoppers dove for cover and others began to flee. Screaming,
shouting mall patrons ran from the scene, some getting caught in the crossfire. Infa tapped Chino on his shoulder and nodded toward Dillard's.

“Let's go back through the store and get the hell outta here!” Infa shouted.

Chino nodded. “Chris, we outta here!”

Chris took aim and popped another GI Boy in the back. “I'm Audi five thousand!”

The three of them fled through Dillard's, out the door, and into the parking lot. They passed the police on the way in but blended in with the other fleeing mallgoers.

“We served them hoes!” Infa shouted once they reached the Land Cruiser.

“Punk-ass hoes!” Chris J said, still hype. “They'll take their ass back to Gary now!”

“Showed 'em they fucking with the wrong niggas!” Infa added.

Chino climbed behind the wheel and thought about what had just taken place. The shootouts were coming too close now. He was supposed to have gotten out of the game and be long gone from Columbus by now, but all of a sudden, things in his life had taken a turn for the worse. Pam had went left with this nigga Erik. Young Mike killed himself. Things were way off from where he thought they would be. He had to get things right again. He had to. Maybe Tracey would bring him some good luck. Maybe that's what he needed, a complete change: a change of crew, a change of scenery, and a change in women. One thing was for certain, his life needed to change.

“H
ello?”

“Sissy, what's up?”

“Hey, Ty! What's my big bro up to?”

Ty Xavier was Pam's older brother. The two of them grew up real close and had remained so ever since. Ty resembled their mother on the outside but had his father's habits and mannerisms. He loved Pam and would forever think of her as his baby sister.

“I just got off the phone with Mom,” Ty told her.

“Oh, Lord!” Pam said, rolling her eyes and sighing.

“You already know what it is,” Ty told her.

“You know how dramatic Mom can be.”

Ty laughed. “I know. That's your mother, Sissy!”

Pam joined in the laughter. “Uh-uh, don't put her on me. That's your mother too!”

“Sissy, what's this I hear about you getting married?”

Again, Pam exhaled. “I have a fiancé.”

“What do you really know about this dude?”

“Chino?” Pam asked. “I know everything about him.”

“You know he's in the game?” Ty asked.

Pam was stunned into momentary silence. “Where . . . where did you hear that?”

“Mom gave me his name and I did some checking. I called some partners of mine in Columbus. He just got out of prison?”

“It was a bad charge.”

“You knew!” Ty exploded. “I can't believe this! You knew that he had been in prison before?”

“Ty, why are you tripping?”

“Tripping? You talking about marrying a nigga who just got out of the joint, and you say I'm tripping?”

“He's a good person.”

“A good person? So you know that he's a drug dealer too, huh?”

Pam exhaled and allowed her silence to speak for her.

“I can't believe this,” Ty told her. “You want to marry a dope dealer who's been to prison? What are you thinking, sis? What on earth has happened to you? You used to have more sense than this. I can't believe that this is the same Sissy that I grew up with.”

“I'm the same person, Ty, and that's the point. I know what I'm doing. I'm not going to make any irrational decisions. Trust me and believe in me like you always have.”

“You don't know this guy, Sissy. He's not like us, or like the people we grew up with. He's a real street cat.”

“I do know him. He's really sweet, and vulnerable, and he has a heart of gold. He makes me laugh, Ty, and we have so much fun together. He reminds me so much of you.”

Ty exhaled. “Be careful, Sissy. Please just promise me that you'll be careful.”

“I will.”

“I'm going to come into town and check on you.”

“You don't have to do that,” Pam told him.

“I'm going to come and check up on you. I'm also going to take you to a gun store and get you some protection.”

“Protection?”

“You never know when this guy's activities can come back on you. You're far away from home, so I want to make sure that you're protected. Don't tell Mom, either.”

“I won't,” Pam said softly. “Thanks, Ty.”

“For what?”

“For being a great lil brother.”

“I love you, Sissy.”

“I love you too, lil bro.”

C
hino had collected his paper from all those who owed him before he had gone in. He also made things right with Dragos, who gave him a massive ticket. He had more money than he knew what to do with. Everything in his life was going right, except for his shit at home. He was fucked up about Pam. She had him twisted. She had given herself to him first, and he was supposed to be her one and only. And now, that was gone. It was driving at him, that someone else might have tapped his Pooh. He needed a change, and so he decided to move. Moving to a new spot would give him a fresh start. Especially since that nigga might have been up in his crib while he was away. No nigga would be able to describe the inside of his crib to him. No, he was going to bust out a new spot. One he was certain that Pam hadn't screwed anyone else in.