Murderville Page 0,87

. always. Before you get too excited, that’s not ours.”

Liberty stopped flipping through the bills and looked up at A’shai in confusion.

“I’ve got to give some paper to my father’s lawyer. I’ll put the rest of the money in the streets. I need to re-up and flip this so that we can be straight. Baron will never know. In the end he’ll be paid back, and we’ll have enough money to be straight for awhile.”

A’shai dropped the money off to Baron’s lawyer and picked up on the details of his father’s case. Things weren’t looking well for Baron, but Clarkston assured him that money could buy any judge in the state if the price was right.

A’shai left Clarkston with a quarter million dollars, more than enough to handle Baron’s case, and he kept the rest so that he could hit the streets with it.

“Please let Baron know that the rest of his money will be waiting for him in an off-shore account. I would like to visit him . . . let him know to be expecting me sometime in the near future,” A’shai stated before leaving the office.

A’shai hit the streets as a one man army going hard to ensure that he could provide for Liberty. They had to keep low to avoid Samad so Liberty was confined to a different hotel room night after night. She was trapped there because it was unsafe to leave, but being trapped with A’shai was like heaven to her. Although he kept long hours in the street, the few hours they were together they used to become reacquainted. They fell in love all over again, and although they were in hiding, for the first time Liberty felt content. Cramped inside old hotel rooms, she had never been so free.

A’shai quickly found a new connect out of Miami and purchased so many kilos that he had to hire two drivers to bring them up to Detroit in separate U-haul trucks. He wasn’t fucking around. Nothing about his situation was a game. He was hustling for the love of a woman . . . the love of his life. He refused to lose Liberty, and he was determined to provide a better life for her, the life that she deserved, the life that GOD had designed her to lead. MURDERVILLE had never been her destiny. A’shai had personally misguided her down that ruthless path, and it was the one regret that he had in life. She didn’t deserve the suffering that she had been through, and he would turn cold in his grave before he allowed her to return to Samad. A’shai spent a lot of time in the streets, hustling from the bottom up in order to move the bricks that he had purchased. He barely slept because he was working so hard. He had invested Baron’s money without his knowledge, and he wanted to put every dime back before Baron ever realized it was missing.

Some people know how to cook, some people are good at math, and others are experts at science or English . . . A’shai was good at hustling. He hit the pavement hard and took no prisoners as he continued to reign over Baron’s empire, making sure to put up interest for his father so that there would be no ill feelings. He was grinding so hard that it felt as if he had a nine-to-five, but in his mind it was all worth it because when he went to lay his body down each night it was always beside Liberty. What he was doing couldn’t be explained using reason. A usually logical A’shai was acting strictly off emotion, and it felt right.

A’shai entered the hotel room that had become their hideout and temporary home. He had Chinese food in his hands and expected his girl to greet him with open arms as she did every night, but she was nowhere in sight.

“Lib, I’m back baby girl. Where you at?” he asked. “I got your favorite from the Chinese spot.”

He sat the food down on the small round table and began to remove the dishes from the bag.

“Hey Liberty!” he called as he went to knock on the bathroom door. He knocked lightly. “Yo, ma!” he said. He frowned at her silence and entered the room. When he saw her lying on her side in the middle of the floor, A’shai’s heart sank. Samad, he thought as he rushed to her. “No, baby girl no . . .