by Roy Glenn
“You tell me, Nick? You’re the only one who can answer that question.”
I walked away from the window and sat down. Wanda followed behind me and reclaimed her spot on the couch.
“Regrets?” Wanda asked.
“No. Not really. I mean, the way things were. Every day was the same, more violence and more murder.”
“The only difference is; your life didn’t change. You did your violence and murder for the government.”
“Yeah, right.”
“Well, it’s true. The Army recognized your skills. Enforcer, soldier, killer, assassin. Call it what you want to, Nick. But they programmed you with their objectives and put you right back to work. But you see, things changed here after André. We were out of the drug business and we started moving into more legitimate businesses.”
“That’s the part I didn’t see coming. When Black said we were getting out of the drug business, I thought it would just be gambling and women and he’d just go right on high jacking trucks and robbing warehouses. Because let’s face it; Black was a thief.” I started laughing.
“Always was.” Wanda joined me; laughing so hard she almost spilled her coffee.
“Damn the nigga could steal.”
Although Black made most of his money on gambling, he was always on the lookout for something he could steal. His preference was hijacking trucks. He knew a woman who worked as a waitress at a truck stop. She would feed Black information. Using her feminine charms, she would find out from truckers what they were going to be carrying, and what route they were going to take.
This was the most important factor in his plan. With that information, Black would set it up so the truck would have to stop and then we’d have them. His favorite was a half-naked white woman in distress. You know, short shorts, titties hanging out, all over the place. What man could resist a white woman in distress? Once the driver was out of the cab, either me, Jamaica or Bobby would come up on the driver from behind and take it from him.
Once the driver was secure, Bobby would drive the truck away. Which didn’t go smoothly at first, but it got better as Bobby learned how to handle the big rigs. Now, once Bobby was gone in the truck, Black would always ask, “Is that your rig or the companies?” If it was the driver’s rig, Black would tell the driver where he could find it, if not; he would sell the truck for parts.
Even though he didn’t like doing it, Black would sometimes rob warehouses. But only if it presented a tempting enough prize and it definitely had to be minimal risk involved. Black was never one to take risks that would put himself or his organization at risk.
“Remember, no risk,” Black would say before we went on any job. “Bail ain’t cheap.”
The reason that he didn’t like robbing warehouses was because; “Time waiting to load the truck was time waiting to get caught,” he’d say. And getting caught was never on his list of things to do.
Black had gotten some information that there was a warehouse that offered just such an opportunity. His first thought was to wait and see if his informant could give us a target to hit, but when that didn’t happen, Black decided that it was too much money involved to pass on, so it was on.
The information came from a woman who worked as a routing supervisor at the warehouse. Black got his hooks into her because of her favorite pastime. Gambling. She owed Black five grand. So one Sunday afternoon, around dinnertime, Black and I paid her a visit.
After a very filling meal, Ayana was a great cook, she set it out for us. “Black, look, I know I owe you some money and to be honest with you, I just ain’t got it.” Which caused Black to put his gun on the table. Which wasn’t any big deal, ’cause Black would never shoot a woman? If that became necessary, he’d get me or Freeze to do it for him. “But I do have something that maybe worth something to you.”
“And what might that be, Ayana?” Black asked.
“You know I work at a warehouse in Jersey. Well there’s a shipment full of electronic equipment coming in. You know; flat screen televisions, DVDs, boom boxes and digital cameras, just come in from China. After the shipment passes through customs and all that shit, it’s taken to this warehouse and I schedule it to be shipped out to locations around the country. My position gives me the inside track on what’s in-house, and what’s worth taking.”
After making sure that he wasn’t playing in anybody else’s backyard, Black formed a plan. He got her to draw a map of the warehouse and to identify the good stuff from the junk by marking the target pallets with a piece of black tape. This saved us a lot of time. Black simply walked around and told me, ’cause I learned to drive the forklift, which one to pick up, while Bobby took over the security shack at the gate and Jamaica stood guard at the door.
By one o’clock, the truck was half-full, and everything was going smoothly until the forklift died on me. Black and I looked around for another forklift. “You find one?” Black asked.
“No,” I told him.
“Try to get this one working.” I tried everything I knew, which wasn’t much, to get it running.
“We’re wasting time, Nick, get down from there. Jamaica, come here,” Black said as he took one gun out of his pocket and took off his coat. “We’re gonna have to do this the hard way. I saw some hand jacks while I was looking for another forklift. We’ll each get one.” Black looked at his watch, “It’s a little after one. I want to be out of here by three. We got about two hours to get as much as we can and get out of here.”
We all got busy; we we’re done by two-thirty. Black and Bobby left in the truck while Jamaica and I followed in the car. We’d been driving for a half hour maybe when we passed through a small town. Once we got a little ways out of town, Bobby began to slow down and came to a complete stop. “What’s wrong now?” Jamaica asked.
After a while Black came to the car, “What’s going on, Black?” Jamaica asked.
“There’s a roadblock. We passed a bar a little while ago; they’re just out here harassing drunks. I don’t think they’ll bother us, but to be on the safe side, Nick, you wait ‘til I’m gone and make your way around through those trees just across from them. If Bobby opens his door, fire a couple of shots in the air over the truck. Then you get away from there in case they shoot back. But I’m betting that these locals will just take cover. That should give Bobby a chance to drive off.”
“What if they come after you?” I asked.
“Then we’ll bail,” Black said as he walked away.
Once Black was gone, I got out and headed for the trees. I took up a position across from the roadblock and waited for Bobby to get there. The cop talked to Bobby for less than a minute before letting him drive on without incident. Jamaica and I weren’t that lucky.
When it came our turn to go through the roadblock, they made us get out. The cops searched us and looked in the car, but not closely enough to find the guns under the back seat. Then they made Jamaica take the breath test and walk a straight line, even though neither of us had been drinking. After that twenty-minute ordeal, Jamaica took off and tried to catch up with Black and Bobby. What we found; we never saw coming. About twenty miles up the road, we saw Black and Bobby walking.
“What now?” Jamaica asked.
“Maybe the truck broke down,” I replied as Jamaica slowed down.
“What happened to the truck?” Jamaica asked as they got in the car.
“We got jacked, that’s what the fuck happened,” Bobby screamed.
He told us that they had to stop because a car was blocking the road. Two men were standing in the middle of the road arguing. Once they stopped, two more men, one on each side, opened the truck doors and ordered Black and Bobby out of the truck at gunpoint. They took their guns, jumped in the truck, and drove off. The other two returned to their cars in the road and then they drove away, too.
“They ran it like clockwork, just like we would have. The whole thing was over in less than a minute.”
Bobby cursed and complained the whole way
back to New York. Black on the other hand, never said a word. But we knew, in his mind, he was going over every minute of the robbery. And you knew he was pissed. He already had a buyer; they’d agreed on a price. Him and Bobby were supposed to meet with him in the morning and drop it off.
Once we got back to The Late Night, Black told me to drive him somewhere. I had a good idea where we were going, and sure as shit, I was right.
Black pounded on Ayana’s door and after a while, she opened it. “Black?” a half sleep Ayana said. “What you doing here? Did something go wrong?”
Black didn’t say a word. He just kept walking toward her, and Ayana kept backing up, until she backed her way into the bedroom. Black closed the door behind him.
I propped up some pillows and made myself comfortable on the couch. Every once in a while I would hear Ayana yell, “I didn’t tell nobody! I swear, Black. I didn’t tell nobody!”
I awoke to what smelled like meatloaf cooking, “Good morning, Ayana,” I said. “Where’s Black?”
“It’s afternoon and Black’s in the bedroom. If you want to take a shower or whatever, you can use the bathroom down the hall. Lunch should be ready soon,” Ayana said.
I took a good look at her; she didn’t look like Black beat her down. Ayana was in her late thirties-early forties, maybe. But she was still an attractive woman. She was probably a very pretty woman when she was younger.
I made my way to the bathroom and took a quick shower. When I got out, as promised, meatloaf, along with mashed potatoes, collard greens, fried okra and cornbread were on the table, but no sign of Ayana. Not wanting the food to get cold, I sat down to lunch. It wasn’t too long before Black and Ayana came out of the bedroom. She went in the kitchen and Black sat down and began eating.
“Well?”
“I don’t think she crossed us,” Black replied. “But we’ll talk about that later.”
After we finished eating, I took Black home. On the way there, I asked my question again, “Well?”
“I been thinking about this all night. I haven’t even been to sleep.”
“Well?” I asked a third time.
“You heard what Bobby said. They ran it like clockwork, just like we would have. The bandits were organized; other than ‘get out’; they never said a word. It happened so fast, I couldn’t really tell if they were black or white, but the one that took my guns sounded like he might be black, but I couldn’t say for sure.”
“You sure she didn’t tell anybody?”
“I just spent all night making sure she didn’t,” Black said like I had asked a stupid question. “Now if she didn’t tell anybody, somebody had to figure it out. He’s the one we’re looking for.” I drove a while longer; thinking that Black had simply stated the obvious. But I should have known better.
“I want my truck back, Nick. And I’ll have it,” Black said.
That night, when I got to The Late Night, the kid was there talking to Black. The kid, that’s what we used to call Freeze back in those days. Back then, all Freeze did was run little errands for Black and hang out at the club messing with the ladies. They were seated in the back of the club. Black was doing most, if not all of the talking. Freeze just did a lot of nodding.
When I walked up, they stopped talking and they both looked at me like I had no business there. I spoke and walked away and began doing my usual, which was hanging out, messing with the ladies. They sat there for most of the night, and then suddenly Freeze jumped up and rushed for the door.
It was quiet for the next couple of days; nobody even mentioned the robbery, especially around Black. Then Black called me and told me to meet him at The Late Night before it closes in the morning. We never closed before eight in the morning. I was with a girlfriend of mine and she wasn’t too happy when I rolled out of bed.
“It’s six-thirty, Nick. Where you going?”
“Out.”
“Out?” she pulled back the covers. “Only place you need to go is in, back in this bed. I want to feel you inside me.”
“I’ll be back,” I said and armed myself. “You’ll want to feel it even more when I get back.”
I left there and was up in there about seven that morning, wondering what was going on. I asked if Black was there and Sammy told me that he’d been there earlier and said that he’d be back. Right after I got there, Bobby arrived, and Jamaica wasn’t far behind. They had gotten the same call from Black and neither of them knew what was up. Which shocked the hell out of me. Bobby was in on everything.
We all took a seat, had a drink, and waited. When everyone was gone, Black came in. He went straight to the bar and poured himself a drink. He came over to where we were sitting and sat down.
“So you gonna tell us what is so important to get me off some pussy at six in the morning?”
“Mind if I finish my drink first?”
“No, by all means, finish your drink,” Bobby said. “This better be good, that’s all I’m saying.”
We talked while Black finished his drink and let Sammy out. Then he led us in the back to the storage room. Black knocked on the door twice and opened the door. There was the Kid, sitting in a chair by the door.
As we got in the clear, I saw four men kneeling down on a large piece of plastic. I recognized one of them right away. He dealt blackjack at Cynt’s. Which is Ayana’s game and where she likes to play it.
Bobby started smiling, “What we got here, Kid?”
“These the mutha fucka’s that robbed us,” Black answered.
“You caught them?” Jamaica asked and took out his gun. So did Bobby. Black already had both his guns out, so naturally I pulled mine.
“Freeze did,” Black said.
We all looked at Freeze. “By yourself? All at once?” Bobby asked sarcastically.
“By myself. One by one over the last couple of days,” Freeze said quietly but proudly.
After that, there was no more talk. No questions of how he found them. Me, Black, Bobby and Jamaica lined up across from them and opened fire.
I saw Freeze a few days later and I asked him how he found them. Freeze said, “Black figured it out. That night you walked up on us at The Late Night, he was laying it all out for me. Keep your enemies close; but watch your homies. See, Black knew if Ayana didn’t tell nobody, then it had to be somebody who knew she owed Black that money and knew the broke bitch had to have something else to deal with. That’s what led me to your boy at Cynt’s. He’s the one that gave Ayana the idea. They had them a little robbing crew, so once I had him, catching the rest of them were easy. Black told me that there ain’t too many mutha fucka’s that would want to touch a shipment of electronics like that. Black told me who the people were that could handle that type of merchandise. Then Black told me to start with the guy he had a deal with. He called me right after they called him. I got the last one when he rolled up in the truck.”
Wanda looked at me and shook her head. “I never heard that story,” she said. “That’s how things were then, but they changed.”
“But, you can see why I thought we were out of the dope game and nothing would change.”
“None of us saw it coming, Nick. But Mike had a plan. Don’t get me wrong, after the shooting stopped, he went right back to work, and robbing everything he could get his hands on. But we took that money and started buying property, opening businesses in the neighborhood. We tried to make things better.”
“Just like that? Clean and easy?”
“Of course not. We still had the women, still brokering loans, still into the numbers and running the gambling houses. We still had enemies and Mike still dealt with his enemies in the same old way. But as time went on, that got to be less of an issue,” Wanda continued. “Bobby met Pam, got married and opened Impressions. A few years later, Mike opened Cuisine, and they were both basically out. Freeze started running the day-to-day operations. And then Mike met Shy.”
“Tell me about Shy?”
“She’s alright,” Wanda said matter of
factly and looked away.
“What?”
“What do you mean what?”
“You know what I’m talking about, Wanda. I didn’t just meet you. Give it up.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Nick.”
“Your whole facial expression changed when I mentioned her name.” Wanda frowned up and looked away again. “You don’t like her, do you, Wanda?” I said and laughed.
“I didn’t say that. What I said was, she’s all right. Anything else you chose to read into my answer is pure speculation on your part.”
“Whatever you say, counselor.”
“It’s not that I don’t like her, Nick, really. She’s a nice person.”
“But you’re jealous of her.”
“No I’m not,” Wanda said, but her eyes told a different story. “Me and Mike had our time, remember. And we both agreed that we were better off as friends.”
“You must not remember that I was there. So forgive me if I remember it a little differently from that.”
“What do you remember?”
“I remember Black saying you two would be better off as friends. I also seem to remember you nodding your head on the verge of tears when he said it.”
“You noticed that?”
“Yes, Wanda, I noticed that. I noticed a lot of things about you.”
“I didn’t think you noticed. I know Mike didn’t.”
“I always thought you and Mike would make it back, the two of you are like two halves of the same mind.”
“I thought so too. But if you breathe a word of that to Mike or anybody else, I’ll kill you, Nick.”
“You wouldn’t hurt a fly, Wanda.”
“That’s what you think,” Wanda said and smiled. “But anyway, I’ve adjusted and gotten comfortable with the fact that he’s married now and that’s that.”
“Mike Black married and retired to the Bahamas. Hard to believe, that’s all, Wanda.”
“Make no mistake about it, Mike still runs things.”
“Freeze said he likes to keep his hand in. I kinda figured that’s what he meant. But you, Wanda.”
“What?”