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Hey everyone! I hope you've been washing your hands and self-quarantining if you can! Aside from that, this chapter picks up shortly after the previous one, but honestly, I don't remember the little bit that happened between then. Most likely it was nothing of importance. This chapter goes back on one of the scarier parts of my journey. A VERY close call. Someone or something was definitely watching after me when this happened. This may be a shorter chapter than normal because with everything going on, I am mentally and physically drained, but I'm here and I'm doing my best!
Anywho, let's get to it!
🔴 TRIGGER WARNING - DRUG USE 🔴
It was a busy day at Troy's house. We had traffic in and out all day and a few others had decided to stay. So far, it was Gio, Troy, Danielle, some new guys named Dustin and Jacob, and myself. We had about twelve others come through, but none of them stayed. The great thing was that everyone who came by would share with me if they smoked. To my surprise, there were quite a few people who came by who wasn't interested in shooting up like everyone else.
As the day went on, Troy ran out of his supply and had to call around to see who had enough dope to keep people coming in. After spending almost an hour on the phone, he finally found someone who came through.
"Emily, give me your keys, I've got to pick up some dope."
"Can I not go too?"
"Not here. This guy only deals with certain people and if he sees you with me, I won't be able to buy from him again. But I'm bringing Dustin along with me. He knows him. We've both been in the game long enough that he knows us. Hell, I can't even bring Danni with me."
"Oh, damn. Yeah sure, here." I handed him the keys from my pocket and followed the two men outside just to double-check that no one else decided to slash a tire or anything.
As Troy started the car and backed up, he came to an abrupt stop and jumped out.
"My wallet! I don't have my damn wallet. I left it on the bed."
"Can't get much done without that."
I waited by the front door for him to come back out, but he never showed. Suddenly, there was a crash and yelling from his room. I cautiously walked back and saw him lifting up the mattress and throwing pillows around.
"Where is my god damn wallet!" he yelled at Gio who was sitting in the corner of the room on his phone.
"Man, I don't know. Check your cameras, 'cause it wasn't me."
"I can't leave without my wallet. What the fuck am I supposed to do?"
"Do you want me to help you look for it?" I asked, stepping inside their doorway.
"No! Just get out!"
I quickly walked out and sat down in the living room trying to figure out what might have happened. Danielle came to sit next to me and let out a sigh of exhaustion.
"This has happened before. It's probably in his other jeans or something. He always finds it. If not, were on lockdown until we do. I have had to hold people here at gunpoint and do strip searches because someone took three grams of dope and thought we wouldn't notice."
"Oh... oh shit... D-did you find it?"
"Oh yeah, and he got the hell beat out of him too. He hasn't been back here in years."
"Oh damn. I promise I didn't take it. You can search my purse, my car, my pockets--"
"It's fine," she said, cutting me off, " I trust you. I know you wouldn't take it, but there have been people in and out all day. There's no telling where it is. It's more than likely here though, so I'm not going to worry about it too much."
"Everyone get your asses in here NOW!" yelled Troy from the bedroom.
"Danni! Come here!"
"Well shit," she whispered as she quickly ran to the bedroom.
I followed behind and took my spot on the edge of the bed. Everyone else was lined up against the wall, looking both equally pissed off and scared. I was thinking he found his wallet, but the money was gone? Whatever happened, I wasn't happy to be a part of it.
"Ya'll must think I'm stupid or something. You come into my house, use my drugs, and take my wallet! No one is leaving this house until it's found. I mean searching every single inch of this place. Or, you can come clean and just fucking give it to me. I'll even close my eyes and you can just throw it on the bed. But I need my wallet back NOW!"
He turned to Danni to say something, but his phone started ringing. The loud sounds of Billy Crystal played through the room while he scrambled to answer the phone.
"What's up, man... What?... Where?... Just now?... Oh my God. Where are you?... Well god damn, RUN! Drive away, but DON't come here!... They will follow you and you know what that means?... Yeah... Man, I was on my way there not even five minutes ago... That would have brought us all down... Okay, thanks. Bye."
He lowered his phone and looked across the room with a blank stare. We all stood in tense silence, trying to figure out what just happened.
"The raid. The Black Ice Raid. It's happening. SWAT just busted DeVon's house. I was heading there... I would have been there when they showed up. They just started though. They'll come for us too, so we need to lay low. Maybe I lost it for a reason, hell I don't know. I do know that I still need my god damn wallet. Keep searching."
Everyone looked wide-eyed and scared as they started searching the room for the missing wallet. As I searched the nightstands and dressers, I couldn't help but think that I was moments away from going to prison for the rest of my life. I wouldn't have gone with him, but he would have taken my car. They would have found me and I would have been associated with it and maybe never see my kids or family again. I was saved by a miracle. Literally, had he not lost his wallet, I'd have ruined my life forever.
With all that, part of me wanted to go home and escape all of this, but part of me felt like being on the front lines and protecting my people the best way I could. I don't think I could stop the SWAT team with a baseball bat, but I'd do something.
Hours passed and the sun finally set as we continued to search for the wallet. It felt hopeless. The house was so full of things, it could take a year to go through it all. Not to mention the back room that was filled with junk and clothes that covered the floor, the bed, and almost reached the ceiling. Their room was so covered in clothes and used needles that you couldn't even see the floor.
I was exhausted, but I kept searching long after everyone else quit and went home. I felt like I couldn't give up on them. No matter how exhausting it was, I couldn't stop.
Troy walked into the bathroom, where I was trying to sort through clothes that had filled their garden tub.
"Come with me. We're just going down the road, but I gotta pick someone up. Poor kid locked himself out of the house and can't get in."
"Oh..okay, sure. But like, an actual kid though??"
"No, he's about your age I think. I've known him since he was a kid. He'll always be a kid to me."
I got up from the pile of clothes that surrounded me and walked through the room, still keeping an eye out for his wallet. We got in the car and drove about half a mile down the road when we came across a tall, slender dark-haired man wandering the streets.
"Cory!" yelled Troy. "Get in the car."
He looked up, straight into the headlights. His pale, sunken face made him look like a ghost. He slowly walked around the car and got into the back seat.
"Thanks," he said in a tired voice. "If my mom knew I stayed out this late, or even knew I was using, she'd kill me."
"Son, it's been eight years. I'm sure she knows that you're getting high. You're also 30 years old. You don't need to worry about your mom so much."
"Yeah... you're probably right."
"Well if you're going to come over, you're going to help me look for my wallet. Someone stole it or I lost it. It's gotta be in the house somewhere. I checked every person before they left. No one had it."
"Who would be stupid enough to take your wallet?"
"Man, I don't know. I just don't know."
We got back to the house and I headed straight back to my spot on the bathroom floor where I was digging through clothes. Cory took a seat in the desk chair, right next to the bathroom, and pulled out a filled syringe from his pocket. He uncapped it and tried to get it in his arm. I looked away, but I could see out of the corner of my eye that he was having trouble. He went from one arm to the next, to his legs, his chest, and eventually his feet. I felt bad because I could tell he was getting frustrated; letting out groans and sighs of desperation.
"Troy, please help me,'" he pleaded.
"You know you ruined every vein you've got? That's why you can't stick yourself anymore. Give it to me."
He handed him the syringe and held his boney arm out to Troy. Out of curiosity, I stopped to watch. Troy did it like magic and handed the empty syringe back to him. Cory let out a sigh of relief and then came to join me on the bathroom floor, searching piles of clothes, shoes, and trash.
We searched and searched until we eventually made it through everything in the bathroom. It was close to 3:00 in the morning when Troy came to us and said to call it quits. Cory went into the living room and laid on the couch. I laid on the pile of clothes where I was and closed my eyes. I was exhausted.
"No, no, get up. Come lay in bed with us."
"What? I don't think I'll fit..."
I looked up at Danni curled up and sleeping on her side of the bed and Troy getting into his.
"There's plenty of room at the end. It's a king-size bed, you can lay down there. Get some rest."
He laid down and quickly fell asleep. I grabbed his jacket from the floor and wrapped myself up in it and laid down at the foot of their bed. As I closed my eyes, all I could think about was how my life was just moments away from being ruined forever. Never seeing my children again. Never having a normal life. I wasn't sure what happened, but I was grateful.
That ends Chapter 34. Spoiler alert, we found his wallet. What was crazy is that it was one of the places we had looked at time and time again. It was in between the mattress and box spring. I'm not sure who took it or put it back, but it was a miracle.
I mean, literally a miracle. The people they arrested are doing life in prison, and they've been there since 2014. It's still hard to understand how close I was to that though. How close I came to having a completely different life. There's a lot more to cover with the raids, and I will touch base on that as I get there, but it was a scary time. I'm forever grateful that I never got arrested or taken in for what I was involved in. The universe had bigger plans for me.
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