Spectrum

Chapter 10

A Brief Interlude

" We finna go on det run? " Ace asked as he outed his blunt, Azariah doing the same.

It was that time of day for them, lucky hour. At exactly midnight, they would do a few drops and maybe collect a little, this was when they earned the most off of their product and they wouldn't screw it up for anything.

Ace and Azariah were a team, at least that was how they functioned. They had basically grown up together, as Azariah had moved to the small community in the middle of grade school and they had been bopping it together since then, just as their fathers did.

Azariah's father was one of the biggest kingpins around, he was basically untouchable but that didn't mean she was. She had to scrape to build what she had now with Ace and she would be damned if she would allow any wannabe gangster to mess that up for her.

She wasn't only looking out for her, but for Ace also, that boy meant the world to her though she wouldn't admit it for s**t, she just didn't know that she was the epitome of his universe. Everything they did was for each other, whether they wanted to admit it or not, they loved each other but in their lifestyle, love was what got people killed.

To them, it was business over everything. They were working hard, hard to make it out of the hood, just like anyone else, they had dreams too and one day, they would come true, but for the moment, they had to work towards that, together, something they had always agreed upon, they were going to make it, together.

" Yeah, we hitting up Smith's. " Azariah replied brushing off her clothes as she stood up from the peach couch of their shared trap house which was at it's busiest, as mentioned before, it was their lucky hour and their errand boys were making their runs and more of their employees were bagging drugs left and right.

They both had soon got up to make their way to Ace's car which was on post outside, Azariah made her way to the driver's side catching Ace's attention.

" What you doing? " He asked, his slit brow arched.

She rolled her eyes before entering the car " What it look like I'm doing? "

She had previously snatched the keys off of him because she was of no interest to endure Ace's reckless driving, since she could remember, he had always been a bad driver and it was a wonder to her how he hadn't been caught, hell, it was a wonder to her how he even managed to acquire his driver's licence.

Ace soon gave in and let her drive after a few moments of standing outside in hopes of her getting out but all she did was start the car telling that he had lost this one.

On the way to Smith's, all Ace could find himself doing was peering at Azariah through the corner of his eye, her beauty was truly astonishing and he had always let her know that, from they were kids up until now and he just knew that he would never stop adoring her.

Azariah felt it, she felt the hot, flaming holes that Ace was boring into her but she refused to acknowledge it, no matter how much she wanted to pull over and show him how much she loved him, she would never, that was a dangerous game, one she wasn't willing to play, she was doing this for the both of them, more so him than her.

She turned to Ace playfully slapping him on the arm as she came up to a red light.

" So, any lucky girls lately? " She asked, the brightest smile coming to her face.

It was things like this that gave Ace them signal that they would be nothing more than platonic and it hurt like hell for him, he could almost feel his heart clench as the words tumbled out of her mouth.

" Nah, ion play with females in these streets, " He replied checking the time on his phone.

His answer was the same every time, he only wanted one female and he made that apparent to everyone around him.

" Well, you're not going to be young forever Jamal, you need to live life! " She said swishing the gum in her mouth around.

" I'm just twenty bruh, I have time. " He retorted hile giving her a crazy look.

She shook her head pulling off as the light switched to green and soon enough, they were pulling into the alleyway they called Smith's.

Azariah parked off to the side watching what was going on around the far too big alleyway, it was a miracle how the police hadn't figured out about this stop yet but that was more than likely because the alleyway was mostly forgotten by the state overall. The alley wasn't on any mapping or anything, it almost didn't exist in the eyes of the public and God help any civilian who ended up stumbling upon the alley.

The alley was more populated was the first thing that they had noticed, someone important was coming, that much they could infer but they didn't mind it much, really, how important could this person be? 

They were waiting for their night owls to roll in, which was not long after they arrived which was why they sat confused at nearly forty minutes past the hour, making it almost thirty minutes since they had arrived. Their usuals normally flocked to them before they could even properly park, it was a slow night, which rose a bit of anticipation in Azariah or a gut feeling it should rather be called.

" I think we should go, I have a bad feeling, " She expressed just as her hands started sweating.

Ace opened his mouth to agree with her statement but just before the words could leave his lips a large black Hummer turned into the alleyway almost completely blocking the entrance and only exit.

As the large vehicle came to a halt, the sound of a few cars doors around them being popped open made it's way to their ears.

Men piled out of the four other cars parked in the alley to which their dark colours had seemed to blend in on a dark night.

One of the men made their way over to the Hummer opening the back door, allowing another man to step out. He was different, everyone in the surrounding area could tell, the area around him was dark and thick and his seemingly expensive suit telling all, he was someone they told you not to piss off, he was a boss, a Don even.

He was Sicilian, that much they could tell, from the gelled back black hair to the almost silky smoothness of his skin. The both of them were caught up in a Mafia exchange and at that moment they both had no idea what to do but silently watch.

The man walked over to the other group of men standing in the centre of the alley, they too dressed in similar attire to the man but one man, who was standing a few metres away from the others made himself apparent to Azariah as the squinted her eyes him.

She knew him, but she couldn't pinpoint from where. They, Ace and Azariah were both subject to watch the exchange go down and it was apparent that they didn't want to be there.

The men stopped to talk for a bit before slowly shaking hands, the men around the both of them paying key exchange to the exchange. The other people who were in the alley before the Hummer had arrived seemed to be also apart of the exchange as they too were inching closer to the small circle and some others seemed to be watching out and it was almost a miracle that Ace and Azariah had not been seen.

They were in the d**g game but the Mafia or the Mob was top tier and something they had little to no idea about, sure, some of the gangs and errand boys who worked in the community were under the Mob but that was as far as they knowledge went, they were told to stay away from those people. The streets were wicked but the Mob was lethal and little to no one wanted to get caught up with a boss or don.

Everything had seemed to be coming to an end as a package was passed to the ' Boss ' and as he turned to check the product the moonlight from above came to shine on the other party's face and at that moment Azariah couldn't feel anything as she got a good look at the other person's face.

She could spot that olive skin and brown curly hair anywhere, after all, those were the features the other party shared with her newly found friend.

He lifted his head up turning it to the side locking gazes with Azariah causing his eyes to widen and a little later so did everyone else and before Ace and Azariah could even count, they car was being sprayed with bullets.