More Money for Good

by Franklin White

Genres: African American Women's Fiction; Contemporary Romance; Fantasy Romance

Synopsis

West Owens has been able to move his life along very nicely over the years, repairing one car at a time in the auto repair shop that hes always dreamed of owning. When Mrs. Shirley Bullock calls and asks for a favor, he is more than happy to oblige - even though it means taking a chance and hiring her ex-con grandson, Tavious Bell, to work with him. As soon as Tavious gets accustomed to living outside of prison walls, he divulges to West a shocking secret. During his twenty-year stint behind bars, he has been sitting on something very near and dear to his heart: Two million dollars! The problem is that someone has it, and Tavious has no idea who that could be. Once again, and much sooner than expected after promising his live-in girlfriend Lauren that he is finished poking around in other peoples business, West finds himself in a dangerous situation. It takes him and his circle of friends into the darkness of the city of Atlanta - which they never knew existed - to help his new employee recover missing money that, if they find it, could benefit them all.

Release date: September 1, 2013

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 288

Sample

The last words Tavious Bell ever heard as a free man over twenty years ago came from the mouths of hard-boiled DEA agents screaming for him to freeze or they’d blow his freakin’ head off. In 1991 that was how it was done because back then nobody cared; at least, they didn’t act like they did, and, to make matters worse, cameras and phones didn’t saturate the streets to record the daily brutality being handed out to headstrong, money-hungry, fatherless seventeen-year-old dope-pushing black boys.

Now thirty-eight-year-old Tavious Bell was two hours fresh out of prison and stood in the exact spot where his freedom had been taken. He thought by going back to a familiar corner it would help him to get acclimated to the outside again. But consequently things were not going as planned, especially after the terrifying cab ride from prison with a cab driver who seemed to be going over a hundred miles an hour, swearing all the way he wasn’t going a tick over thirty-five.

Once the car finally stopped its high-speed, Indy-500 jaunt, Tavious finally had his feet back on the ground. He buckled over and spewed out decades of repulsive prison food that had been encrusted into his system. This had lasted at least thirty minutes.

Bell promised he wouldn’t let it happen but already being locked up twenty years had taken its toll. His entire symmetry was off in the streets that he would once roam at all hours of the night. Anyone could understand his confusion with his release into a world twenty years older. He had questions, just like those living on the outside who had been screaming at their politicians on a daily basis. Why were there so many homeless people? The streets and atmosphere had become darker, harder, ugly, in fact. The busy streets he once knew—with pretty young things walking and talking, strutting their stuff along with traffic—were bare. There were so many brothers standing around the same way they did back at the yard with the same exact lifeless expressions. He knew those faces all too well. Not faces of happy men. On the inside if guards noticed the same sort of solemn look of despair and tension, the entire prison would be locked down for at least two weeks to prevent a riot or rebellion. This reunion was nothing like the happening days when Tavious supplied the whole damn city with Mary Jane to smoke.

Damn. What happened to the city?

Tavious realized that he needed to battle through his memories of the streets and deal with the reality at hand. Fight through the fact that when the Feds got him with the dope . . . It was one hell of a celebrated case. Perp walk for the cameras. News conference with the drugs sprawled out on the table. Finally, they celebrated and cheered that their long hours of surveillance had paid off. They got everything they thought. Everything but the money.

That was why the twenty years in the pen was doable. His stashed money on the outside waiting for him kept him going in prison all the way to the point where he had the next twenty years of his life on a blueprint. And, now, he was free, without any of the worries most just-released ex-cons had to deal with. His main concern was fighting desperately to get his bearings and get back to a life as he never had known as a rich man.

The first order of business was to make a phone call. Tavious wanted to call Amara to let her know he was okay. While in prison he never could imagine as stories and tales from the streets filtered in with every new batch of convicts brought in. But it was true: all the phones on corners, the ones he called his connects for re-up supplies, were no more. He needed a TracFone: the same kind that were smuggled inside the prison.

With a portion of the $500 balance he was given from his account in prison, Tavious purchased a twenty-dollar phone with a hundred minutes of usage. A downtown corner sandwich shop played host for setting up his charge while he ordered up and down the menu of the undeniable specialty sandwiches for his depleted stomach. In the time that it took his phone to charge a few bars, and to the amazement of his waitress, he ordered three sandwiches. A double hamburger with fries, corn beef with fries, and an Italian sub with fries. Before he devoured each sandwich he studied them like pieces of art before enjoying their essence of smell and taste. Finally.

With his phone now charged enough to make his calls Tavious opened his black address book. It was the only item he kept from the inside. He scanned the numbers, closed it, and began to call Amara, not because he forgot the number but because he could and there was no one who could tell him that he couldn’t. Amara’s digits he would never forget. Everyone who knew Tavious when he ran the streets was aware that Amara had been his right hand back in the day when they were young bucks making a name for themselves. They had traveled to and from Miami together when he was busted. She had been the reason no money was found with the drugs the Feds confiscated. They didn’t ride the same bus on the way back and all the money was in her possession when he was hoisted off to prison. All on the word of a snitch who offered the info to the Feds because he wanted more product and Tavious didn’t think he was ready.

It was odd for Tavious using the phone as a free man. From habit he looked around a few times to see if anyone was trying to listen to what he was about to say. He looked at the phone and kind of chuckled. He was free. He dialed and placed it on his ear. He wanted to pull a cord. Subconsciously he waited for the operator to appear again to connect his call. There were no recording beeps like in prison. Immediately during the first ring the phone was picked up.

“Hello?” Amara was on the receiving end. She can’t even hide she’d been sitting by the phone waiting his call since they spoke the night before.

Tavious cleared his voice. “Amara? It’s Tavious.”

She shrieked. “It better be you . . . I can’t believe this,” she said.

“Believe it, baby. I’m back,” Tavious said, looking around the diner, getting energy from his freedom and stuffing another fry into his mouth just because he could again.

“So where are you?” Amara needed to know.

“Downtown.”

She could hear him smacking on his fries and she pushed like she really wanted to. “You want me to come for you?”

Tavious smiled at her eagerness. “No, no. I’m on my way over about an hour or so. I just needed to take a little more in. It’s different out here, Amara—so fast.”

“Baby steps, Tavious,” she encouraged.

“I’m good,” he let her know. “Hey, I see those pad things you were telling me about.”

“An iPad.” She giggled.

“Yeah, those. Seems like everybody up in here has one. I’m going to get one.”

Tavious looked into the phone at the sound of Amara laughing, getting close to hysterically. She finally stopped. “Hold on, man, we can do all that later. You need to get your butt over here. Let’s just sit down, talk, count this—”

Tavious interrupted. “No, Amara. Not on the phone . . . even though I’m out, never on the phone. We can catch up when I get there okay?”

“Well, I’ve made the reservations for our vacation. I’m just waiting on you to get here.”

“How’d you do that so fast? We just spoke about getting away.”

“The computer, Tavious . . . it’s so easy to do.”

Tavious was close to hitting the wall. It was becoming overwhelming. Poor people on the streets in overwhelming numbers and technology that made it seem like he was now on another planet.

“You okay, Tavious? Tavious?” Amara repeated.

“Oh yeah, I’m fine. I’ll see you soon.”

A little over an hour later Tavious thanked his cabby for rolling at a smooth, steady speed to his destination. He smashed twenty dollars into the cab driver’s hand, stepped out of the ride, and made his way up the driveway toward Amara’s residence. He scanned her place.

Good; not too flashy. She hasn’t been spending any of the money, just like she promised.

She lived on Beecher Street in southwest Atlanta. For Tavious, it barely looked like the same house as twenty years ago, the same neighborhood even. His mind wanders back to the time when he was younger. He can’t place what his eyes were seeing; back in the day he didn’t pay much attention to the aesthetics of his surroundings because he was always on the move, never stopping to smell the roses or enjoying anything longer than a moment. But he is sure what he was seeing had drastically changed and he didn’t want to focus on that fact because it was like a downer. He’d already had enough of those.

A rust-colored Camry that appeared to be well taken care of sat parked close to the walkway to the door with the front end pointing toward the street. He smiled, remembering they always used to park that way in case they needed a quick getaway.

Tavious looked over his shoulders a few times before he reached the door, then once again before he knocked. Close to fifteen seconds elapsed before he tapped on it again and then he waited another fifteen to knock so as not to appear too anxious. Still waiting at the door after knocking, then ringing the bell, he looked around at the homes on each side next door to make sure he was at the right house. There was absolutely no movement inside. Tavious smashed his face on the windowed doorframe to look inside, even opened his little black book to make sure he was at the right address. He could barely see inside the curtained window on the frame of the door. He called out for Amara before knocking again. He pulled out his phone and called her. He could hear the phone ringing from inside. Tavious put his phone in his pocket, then put his hand on the doorknob, then pushed, and it opened.

He stood still for a moment, looking around and calling out for Amara. She doesn’t answer and he stepped into the small foyer of the house, shutting the door behind him. With widened eyes, Tavious scanned the inside while he wondered where Amara was. Memories of being in the three-bedroom house were becoming surreal. With a smile he called out for her, remembering all too well how she liked to surprise him back in the day. This is probably one of those times.

After searching the downstairs of the house, through the kitchen, and taking a look-see into the family room and even the garage, Tavious was hesitant about going upstairs. He didn’t think long about going up but his survival skills of being inside kicked in. He felt like he had to make a vital decision of venturing to the unguarded stalls out on the yard to urinate or holding himself until back inside his cell. Despite his wavering he ventured upstairs cautiously, noticing the squeaky third and fourth steps. When he reached the top of the staircase he could see Amara wearing blue jeans, a fitted black T-shirt without any shoes, lying on her back completely still in a pool of blood that was inches from running down the steps.

Tavious can’t get to her fast enough. After calling her name over and over he reached down to see if she was alive. She looked exactly the same as he remembered. He cried out her name this time and could feel his heart begin to beat faster at a panic pace. At the touch of his hand Amara’s body doesn’t move or react. Tavious never learned any medical procedures on the inside other than to see if someone was breathing, and he put his ear close to her mouth.

She was dead. Her body was still warm and eyes wide open as though she wanted to tell someone what had happened. Tavious only wished she could. But there was one word that blasted over and over in his head: leave!

He dare not stay any longer to try to figure out what happened; he couldn’t, he was fresh out of prison. But he knew she had been murdered. There was no denying that. The pool of blood came from the hole in the back of her head. Tavious closed Amara’s eyes and finally his own tears began to roll down his face. He hadn’t planned to see her this way. Panic was soon to control his every move and he didn’t like that feeling. In a hurry, he scanned the hallway while leaning over Amara’s body to see if his money was anywhere around, but the hallway was clear.

Tavious can’t take the shock and panic that was beginning to take over his body but still he knew that he needed to find his money. All the years inside Amara never told him where she hid it other than hinting in the house with her. His distress barely let him stand, his legs were heavy, but when he did, he ran through every room looking for the two million. After a few minutes he realized and reached the reality of the moment. Amara was dead and his money gone.

That morning my watch read nine thirty-two. I was expecting Mrs. Shirley Bullock any minute for our meeting. Actually I’d been waiting since nine but there was no way I would ever put a time limit on the woman responsible for helping me get out of the catastrophe of a jam I’d found myself in during jury duty back in 2004. I was at my wit’s end: no money, repairing cars on the street in front of where I lived, and on jury duty. Then I made the mistake and put my nose where it didn’t belong in a case sent to the jury. The Atlanta Police Department and district attorney were hot on my ass. I had become connected with my now good friend, Pete Rossi—someone they wanted very much to put in jail—and of course there was the money.

My cup of coffee was exactly what I’d expected from my favorite diner on Moreland Avenue. The day I had planned required that I be full of caffeine to help me get through it. Payroll, check repair sheets, then more payroll. I’d brought along my books that Lauren had prepared for me for final review before I paid the guys at the shop. Right along with it were the receipts for the past two weeks. I was praying it would be enough to cover the payroll and send everyone home to feed their families.

There was no hiding that the economy was biting everyone hard, even my repair shop; it seemed as though people were driving their cars longer with problems they knew they had and not caring one damn bit that it would cost them more in the long run. Even worse was all the chatter customers would bombard me with into giving them a deal, discount, or the all-time-favorite “hookup” on repairs.

Mrs. Bullock. . .