When I get to Pac's house, I can't believe my eyes honestly.

Its amazing.

But he'd rather be at my little apartment all the time?

I get out of my car, grabbing my bag from the backseat and locking my doors, before walking up the short stairs to the front door.

When I ring the door bell, I hear a dog barking.

As I wait, I look around the porch, I wonder who takes care of all his plants while he's not here. The cool air makes me rub my arms, I can definitely feel that fall is coming.

The door opens, revealing Tupac. He's smoking a blunt.

"Hey." I say, walking in as he closes the door behind me.

He just takes my bag from me and starts to walk up the staircase. I look around for the dog I heard but I don't see it. He probably put it away. I follow him up the stairs, taking in the view. There's no family pictures, or anything that would tell you anyone lives here.

Its nice but, not homeish.

When we get into his bedroom, I feel a little more comfortable. It kind of reminds me of his office at Black Cotton. There's posters, and a shelf with records on it.

He has four notebooks on his nightstand, including the one I see in his office all the time.

He must write more than I thought.

"How was work?" He asks.

"Boring without you there." I say, sitting on the bed, as Lesane puts his blunt out.

"Yea my bad. I just ain't feel like being on the scene tonight. Been real tired lately." He says, sitting my bag in a comfy looking chair in the corner of the room.

"That's the bathroom right there." He points to a door beside his closet, "But you can use the one down the hall if that's more comfortable for you." He adds.

"The one closest to you will be just fine." I smile.

I take off my shoes and walk around to the other side of the bed before sitting down. Tupac leaves the room, I hear him go downstairs. I want to ask how talking to his mom went, but obviously if it went good he would be talking about it.

The TV is on MTV raps, he must like this show.

I fumble around the bed until I find the remote and turn it up some.

After a few minutes of waiting for him to get back, I decide to do some exploring. I open the door across the hall from his room. The walls are sky blue, and the bedroom set and furniture are made of a beautiful mahogany wood.

The coral pink bed sheets and the picture on the nightstand tell me its his younger sister's room.

I close the door, not wanting to invade her privacy.

The next door is the bathroom he was talking about. It has a huge marble jacuzzi, with a shower next to it that has glass doors and a waterfall shower head.

Barking leads me to the last door before the staircase, I open it and a white pit bull is standing at the door. Tupac must've locked her in this guest bedroom.

"Hey sweet girl." I stoop down, petting her soft fur.

She wags her tail wildly before running down the stairs, probably to Lesane.

I hope he isn't mad that I let her out.

Once I get to the bottom of the stairs, I call his name. He just disappeared. I know he didn't call me over here so I could just sit around alone. The sound of talking makes me walk towards a room in a the back.

I get into a room that looks like an office, but it has a bed and a couch.

Tupac is sitting in a chair in front of a desk, petting and talking to his dog.

"You just forgot about me?" I say, making him look up and chuckle, I smile a little, walking over to him.

"Well you let Renny out so I had to give her some attention too." He says.

"Renny. That's a cute name." I say, as she runs over to me, jumping on my legs, I rub her head before she gets down and runs past me out of the room.

I sit down on Tupac's lap, looking at the stuff on the desk in front of him.

"What's this?" I ask, looking down at the notebook he was writing in.

"List of all my employees and how much I pay them weekly." He says, flipping through the pages until he sees my name.

"So there's no minimum wage at BC? Is that legal?" I ask, making him chuckle.

"Its my business so I don't give a damn if it ain't." He chuckles. "Everybody don't put in the same amount of work everyday so everybody gonna get paid what I say."

I flip through the pages some more until I see Kiada's name.

"Umm Lesane.. Why does Dada only get paid six dollars an hour?" I ask, making him suck his teeth.

"Cause she don't do shit."

"You're an ass hole." I laugh, before getting up, he chuckles. "Let's go upstairs, I missed you and I wanna cuddle." I say, pulling him by his arm out of the chair.

"Igh I'm coming. You want somethin to eat?" He asks, getting up from the chair.

"Of course."

Me and Tupac are up watching movies and eating rotel dip. He decided to cook because he hadn't ate since earlier today.

"So." I grab the remote and turn the TV down a little. "You never told me what happened with your mom." I say, Tupac sits up and reaches across me to put the bowl of dip on the nightstand next to me.

"It went igh." He says.

"And by alright, you mean?"

"We ain't on good terms so it ain't like nothing was gonna change." He shrugs, making me furrow my eyebrows.

"What happened between you two? I just don't get how a mother and son can get to a point where-"

"She downplays all my accomplishments, and she has since I was young." He says, I sit indian style and face him so I can give him my undivided attention.

"Give me an example." I say.

Tupac looks at me, as if he's surprised that I actually want to listen and help.

"When I was bout fourteen, my mama was real active in the black panther party-"

"Really? They're like.. Legends." I smile, making him chuckle.

"Yea.. But I remember one time, she said they were going rallying, and being a kid and all of course I just wanted to help in some way since I knew I couldn't go." He says, staring down at his hands, he has no rings on.

"So I made a protest sign for her, but the night of the rally she said it looked too childish and she left it." He says.

I bite my bottom lip, not having the words to comfort him.

"Its just no matter what I did I couldn't make her proud, it's still like that. I opened the club for her, she hasn't even seen it."

I grab his hand, caressing it with my thumb. "Well, if she chooses to miss out on your accomplishments then that's on her. I'm proud of you and I've only known you a few months." I say, making him smile a little.

"You prolly think I'm a pussy." He chuckles, waving me away playfully.

"Of course I don't. No matter how old we get, we'll still look to our parents for a little validation. Its normal." I say.

"Yea, I guess you right." He says, before looking around the room.

"Shit. Can you go get my rec book from out of my office? The one you was looking at?" He asks, I nod before getting up.

"Don't eat all the dip." I say.

He just sucks his teeth before grabbing the bowl and plunging his hand into the bag of chips.

I jog down the stairs and back into the room we were in, just as I grab the book off of his desk, something else catches my eye. Sheets of paper sticking out of one of the drawers. I open it and pull the sheets out.

My heart sinks into my stomach.

"Bank layouts?" I say aloud to myself.

I flip through the papers, they're floor plans of all the banks that have been robbed, including the most recent one, Bridge point.

I feel my breath getting caught in my chest. This means that Tupac is involved, and if he has the floor plans then that means he's more than likely the master mind behind all of it. It makes since, the mysterious disappearing, the stacks of money.

What Kiada said to me the night she was drunk:

She's been trying to tell me this entire time.

"Dri, you got it?" I hear Pac's voice.

"Yea I'm coming." I say, folding up the sheets and stuffing them back into the drawer they were in. I grab the rec book before heading back upstairs.

"Damn. Did you get lost?" Lesane chuckles.

I just clear my throat, before handing him the book.

What am I supposed to do right now? Maybe I'm reading this whole thing wrong, maybe he has these for a different reason.

He just stares at me, furrowing his eyebrows.

"You good?" He asks, getting up from the bed. He leans in to kiss my forehead but I flinch, making him back up.

Before he can ask what's wrong, I walk over to the chair in the corner and grab my bag.

"I'm gonna go get in the shower." I say, leaving his bedroom and going to the hall bathroom. I close the door and lock it, before turning the shower water on. A lump forms in my throat and my eyes start to burn.

Should I be afraid of him?

I should leave.

A knock on the door makes me jump.

"You need some company?" Tupac asks, his voice muffled by the door.

"Nope. I'm on my period." I lie, he chuckles.

"You need anything?"

"No. I'm okay." I say, when there's no response I let out a breath of relief.

Oh God, what am I gonna do?

How do I bring this up?

He lied to me.

He's... A criminal.

~ end of chapter

Hey, hope you guys enjoyed! I wanna thank my peeps that read my short story, I love you bunches. -Zayla💓