Array Ashley - Murderville

POP! POP! POP!

Nico’s body crumpled instantly to the concrete and Liberty immediately pulled up beside A’shai. He hopped into the car and she pulled off smoothly, disappearing from sight before anyone even came out the door to witness their departure.

LIBERTY AND A’SHAI DISCREETLY RUSHED INTO THEIR hotel room, and A’shai tossed the duffel bag full of money on the bed. “Look in there,” he stated.

Liberty unzipped the bag, and her mouth fell open as she looked at all of the street money that it contained. “How much is this?” she asked.

“I don’t know… start counting,” he said with a smile.

Liberty dumped the money out on the bed and then tossed two handfuls into the air. It floated down around her and she laughed giddily in disbelief. “I didn’t know you were getting it like this,” she said.

“There’s a lot about me you don’t know,” A’shai replied as he joined her on the bed. “But I’mma teach you. I’mma share everything with you… 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… not now. I’m almost done. I’m doing this for you, ma…” he mumbled as he checked her body, trying to find the bullet hole that had ended her life. He pulled her into his arms and put his fingers to her neck. The racing pulse that he felt startled him slightly and his hands shook as he realized that she was alive.

“Liberty! Lib… wake up,” he said as he patted her face urgently and lifted her up from the floor. He burst out of the bathroom door into the room, knocking over the nightstand as he frantically carried her over to the bed. “Wake up… Liberty,” he whispered in her ear as he rubbed her hair. It was as if she was waking up from a deep sleep, and her eyes began to flutter wildly as she came to.

“What happened? Who did this to you?” he asked as he hugged her tightly, bringing her to his chest as relief flooded over him.

“Shai?” she whispered, confused as her brow creased and she reached out to touch his chest.

“Don’t do that to me, ma. I thought I lost you,” he whispered. He held her as if he would never see her again. His worst fear felt as if it were so close to coming true. “Who hurt you? What happened?”

“I was dizzy… I’ve been exhausted all day. I was lying in bed and I couldn’t get up… my body… it was just so tired. I couldn’t even force myself out of bed to order room service. The last thing I remember is stumbling to the bathroom. I must have fainted or something,” she explained.

A’shai exhaled and kissed her lips. “I’m sorry, ma. I had you here all day by yourself. I’ve got to take better care of you,” he said guiltily.

“You do take care of me, Shai. I know that you’re in the streets for me. You’re doing all of this so we can be together. I’m a big girl. I can handle it. I guess I was just hungry and tired,” she dismissed.

“Then let’s get you something to eat,” he said as he retrieved the food and brought it to her.

As Liberty dug into the food, A’shai walked over to the hotel closet and counted the remaining bricks he still had to move. He was running through product quickly and as he took the duffel bag of money he had recouped that night he added it to his stash. It had only been a month and already he had earned Baron’s money back. The remaining bricks he was sitting on were his to flip as he pleased. All of that profit was coming straight to him. Once his paper was proper he already had plans to move to one of Detroit’s low-key, affluent, suburbs and establish a quiet, comfortable life for the two of them. He was leaving the streets alone for good.

As A’shai bumped his hustle up a couple notches Liberty seemed to withdraw into her own world. She lay around all day and slept all night. A’shai thought that she was falling into a deep depression but no matter what he said she couldn’t shake the sudden lethargy that was taking over her. He did not have time to babysit, however. Moving as quickly as he was doing was reckless and he had to concentrate on not getting caught. It took two months for him to move the entire product and afterwards he was $2,000,000 richer. With Baron paid back and his future in the form of rubber banded $5K stacks, A’shai felt like a new man. He wasn’t equipped to go to war with Samad, but with his newfound and hard-earned wealth he was more than capable of escaping him. He was about to put on a magic act and disappear. He had already reached out to a realtor who had found him a beautiful and massive estate in a quiet neighborhood outside of the city. If he moved smart, Samad would never catch up to them.