“I got them.” Freeze held up the keys. “She didn’t want me to tell you, but she was too blasted to drive.”
“You drove?”
“Had to.”
“How’d you do?” I asked, since he’s never been behind the wheel before.
“We didn’t hit nothing.” The Kid laughed a little. “Came close a couple of times, but we made it.”
“Come on, let’s get this done.”
We were able to get Roscoe’s body out of the spot and into Vickie’s trunk without anybody seeing us, and then I went back inside to find Vickie. I found her at the bar. If she wasn’t fucked up when she got there, she was now.
“Can you walk?”
She nodded. “I’m okay, Mike,” she said, but she wasn’t.
I helped her get off the stool and walked her to the car. I drove her to my apartment and the ride seemed to do her some good, because she was able to walk in under her own power. When she got in my apartment, Vickie went in my room and started taking off her clothes.
“Mike,” she said, while she undressed. “Promise me, Mike, you gotta promise me that you’ll never make me do anything like that ever again.”
“I’m sorry, Vickie. You know I would have never asked you to do that if anybody else was there.”
“I know. You couldn’t trust anybody else, Mike. I get that. But I ain’t like you and Bobby or even Wanda.”
“I know. That’s why I try to keep all that shit away from you.”
“I feel so dirty. I’m going to take a shower,” she said while standing in front of me naked. “Will you stay with me until I get out of the shower?”
“Okay. I’ll be right here.”
I had a dead body in her trunk, but it was more important to make sure that she was going to be all right. Once she finished in the shower, I put her to bed and then I went to dispose of the body.
Chapter Thirteen
After Freeze and I took care of the body, we got rid of the clothes we had on, then I dropped him off and went home. Vickie was asleep when I got there, so I took a shower. I gave serious thought to letting her have the bed and sleeping on the couch. But since I knew for a fact that neither of us was going to take it there, I got in bed with her. As soon as I got under the covers, Vickie rolled over and snuggled up against me.
“Did you handle your business?”
“What business?”
“You know—” Vickie paused. “Oh … nevermind.”
“Go back to sleep, Vickie,” I said, and hoped that she would still be there when I woke up.
I really wanted to talk to her about what was going on with her. The last few times I saw her, she’s been blasted, and from what Wanda tells me, Vickie being fucked up on that Tanqueray Gin, cocaine and weed was an everyday thing. I know I drink more than my share of Rémy and blaze a gang of weed, but I don’t fuck with that cocaine at all. I’ve seen firsthand what that shit will do to you, and I wanted no parts of that. But I did keep some around sometimes because hoes will do all kinds of freaky shit for it.
Naturally, when I woke up around noon, Vickie was gone. I rolled over, took my tray out of the nightstand, twisted up a bob, blazed and went back to sleep.
Later that night, I went to The Late Night to catch up with Bobby. When I got there, Freeze was there and he said that Bobby was there and he said that he’d be back.
“What about Nick or Jamaica?”
“Hadn’t seen either of them,” Freeze told me.
I had sent them to see if they could run down Bodie Ringling. He had been going around telling everybody that he ain’t paying me shit. And I was good with that … for the time being anyway.
I really didn’t want to go to war with Bodie, but I was starting to think that it was inevitable. Problem wasn’t just the muscle he could throw at me; it was how many mutha fuckas would fall in behind him. I also had to consider what it would do to André’s business.