by Roy Glenn
“Why’d Julio kill him?”
“Julio said he was DEA.”
“Is that why Julio shot at him, ’cause he was DEA too,” Mike asked pointing in Nick’s direction.
Sal glanced at Nick, he turned back to Mike. “He’s not the one Julio was shooting at, but yeah, he was with them. I mean, it was just him and your wife shooting at us.”
“So Julio recognized another agent and that’s who he shot at?” Mike asked.
“Yeah. After they started shooting at us we grabbed her to get outta there. I swear to God, Black, that’s what happened.”
When they arrived at 151st street, Sal told them that he took Shy to an apartment on the fourth floor. Bobby parked the car down the block from the building, while Freeze and Nick went to check things out. They went inside and took the back staircase to the fourth floor. Once Nick confirmed that there was nobody in the hallway, he called Mike.
Mike and Bobby led Sal into the building at gunpoint. They took the elevator up to the fourth floor where Nick and Freeze were waiting. Mike told Nick to watch Sal as he and Bobby approached the door. Mike kicked in the door and Bobby and Freeze rushed inside the apartment, but it was empty. While Bobby and Freeze searched the apartment, Mike called for Nick.
“Bring Sal in,” he told Nick and put a silencer on his gun.
“Black, take a look at this,” Freeze said and led Mike in to one of the rooms. There was a bed in the room with ropes tied to the four posts.
“She was here,” Mike said. “Bring him in here, Nick.”
Nick pushed Sal in the room. “This is where I brought her, Black, I swear.”
“Where did they take her?” Mike yelled and pointed his gun at Sal.
“I don’t know!”
Mike lowered his weapon, and looked at Sal. “As soon as she told you she was my wife, you should have let her out of the car and apologized for taking her,” Mike said and raised his weapon. He shot Sal twice in the head.
Chapter Thirty-three
The next afternoon Mike asked everybody to meet him at Cuisine. Freeze arrived first. “What’s up, Black?” he asked and sat down at the table with Mike.
“What’s up?”
“Chillin’,” Freeze said.
“What about that thing for Paulleen; what’s up with that?”
“I got that. I am gonna take care of it today,” Freeze said.
“I don’t want you going alone, so wait for me or take Bobby with you.”
“If I can find him,” Freeze commented.
“What’s up with him and this chick anyway?”
“Black, the shit is out of control. I know I should have told you about it sooner, but I gave Bobby my word. But that bitch is crazy! I’m sorry I introduced him to her. She’s a bad bitch, but I didn’t think Bobby was gonna lose his fuckin’ mind over her. It has gotten to the point that Pam knows about it.”
“How you know that?”
“’Cause Pam be callin’ me lookin’ for that nigga,” Freeze said excitedly. “Pam be calling me talking ‘bout, where’s Bobby? Is Bobby with you at the club? He said he was at Cynt’s, but I just talked to Cynt and she ain’t seen him. I’m getting fuckin’ tired of that shit. You need to talk to him, but I don’t know if that shit will do any good, as far gone as that nigga is, Black.”
“I’ll talk to him,” Mike said as Bobby walked in. “You handle what you gotta handle, but watch your back, you know what I’m sayin’.”
“You know what a careful guy I am,” Freeze said and thought about Paulleen. If he had been more careful that day … maybe.
“How’s Nick’s partner? What’s her name again?”
“Monika. She’s doing a’ight for somebody who took five shots. She coulda walked out of the hospital, but they made her use the wheelchair.”
“She with our friend in Mount Vernon?”
That was Mike’s way of asking if Monika was with Perry. He was a part of the crew until Bobby paid for him to go to medical school. Now he ran a small practice in Mount Vernon with his wife, Glenda.
“He’ll take good care of her.”
“You talk to her?”
“A little,” Freeze said.
“What you think of her?”
“She’s Wanda with guns.”
“Who y’all talking about?” Bobby asked.
“Nick’s partner, Monika,” Freeze told him.
At that moment, Wanda and Nick got there and sat down.
“The big question is why the DEA is setting up meetings in my club?”
“I’ll tell you what I think,” Wanda said. “I think it was to make it look like you and more importantly, Shy, a known drug dealer with a warrant for conspiracy to distribute, was involved in the meeting.”
“Exactly,” Mike said. “Julio was shooting at another DEA agent. They had an operation up and running.”
“That’s why the DEA never sent an investigator to the club,” Wanda said.
“Because they were there. That agent wouldn’t be in there without backup,” Mike said.
“But if that’s true Mike and there were other agents there when the shooting started, why wouldn’t they get involved?” Wanda asked. “Especially after their agent was killed.”
“Because Sal Terrico and his friends weren’t the objective. If Black was the objective, an undercover operative getting killed wasn’t a reason to blow the operation,” Nick said. “If Black were there, maybe then they would have waited until the shooting stopped and arrested him.”
“See, I knew you were smart enough to follow me,” Mike said. “Wanda, I need to know for sure if the DEA is on us. And find out exactly why they’re on us.”
“I’ll make some calls first thing in the morning.”
“Nick, you stay on this thing with Marshall. See if you can find out the real deal with those damn papers. And if he is responsible for that reporter’s death, I wanna know about it.”
“What about Kirk?” Nick asked.
“Stay away from Kirk, but I think Kirk is working the same thing from a different angle.”
Bobby turned to Mike. “We need to think about where we wanna go from here. They’re coming at us from all sides now. D-Train trying to take us one-way, DEA might be at us and who knows what Diego’s sneaky-ass is up to. Maybe it’s time for us to get out.”
Mike looked at Bobby. He was thinking the same thing.
“Maybe it is,” Mike said quietly.
“And if that’s what’s gotta happen, then that’s what’s gotta happen,” Bobby said.
“Or we could kill them all,” Mike said. “And then get out. But somehow, Bobby, I don’t think just killing Diego is gonna satisfy me.”
Wanda rolled her eyes. “I’m just gonna throw this out there. I know we need to find Shy, but after that we don’t need to do this. We’re making almost as much money in our legitimate businesses as we do with everything else that we have going on.” Wanda looked around the table. “Everyone at this table is a millionaire. I think Bobby is right, it’s time for us to get out.”
“I just don’t like the idea of getting pushed out like this,” Bobby said.
“I’m not saying that either of you are wrong, in fact, I agree with you. We don’t need to live like this, but we can’t just walk away. Not from this. Sure, we can let D-Train have the houses and Diego can do whatever he’s up to. But we can’t just walk away from the DEA. If we do nothing they’ll still come.”
“But if we’re not involved in anything what will they have?” Wanda asked.
“We’re not involved in anything now and here they are. No, Wanda, we got to get the DEA off us.”
Chapter Thirty-four
Nick banged on the door to Freeze’s apartment for a good while before he opened the door. “Knew it was you, Nick,” he said.
“I thought you were asleep,” Nick said and walked in the apartment.
“Nope. But I’m glad you’re here. Now you can ride with me.”
“Where we going?”
“We gonna knock on a few doors, ask a few questions, maybe kill a mutha fucka or two.
“What’s up?”
“Black wanted me to wait for him or Bobby before I go ride on the mutha fucka that killed Paulleen, but he’s still looking for Shy and Bobby’s ass is nowhere to be found.”
“Fuck that,” Nick said. “This is the way it should be. Me and you, like old times. Ride or die, right,” Nick said and held out his hand.
Freeze grabbed his hand hard and shook it. “Glad to have you back, Nick,” he said as the two walked out to the car. Once they were on their way, Nick’s cell phone rang. “Hello,” he answered.
“Hello, Nick, this is Wanda. How are you?”
“I’m fine, Wanda. What about you? Are you having a good day?” Nick asked.
“So far, so good. What are you doing?”
Nick glanced over at Freeze as he drove, nodding his head to the beat. “I’m riding with Freeze.”
“Oh,” Wanda said. “Well, I’m not going to keep you. I have two things to tell you.”
“What’s that?”
“I was able to confirm that there is an ongoing operation, but I wasn’t able to get a feel for the scope of it.”
“Did you tell Black?”
“Yes.”
“What did he say?”
“He said, that’s nice, Wanda, I’ll talk to you later.”
Nick laughed a little. “Okay, what’s the second?”
“Our friend Martin Marshall is having a black-tie affair at his house tomorrow night. Glynnis says she can get us invitations. You interested?”
“Of course,” Nick said and then he thought about it. He started to ask if this was a date, but he looked at Freeze and decided against it. “See if you can get another invite.”
“Who are you talking about bringing? Not Freeze I hope.”
“No. if she’s up to it, I’d like Monika to come with us,” Nick said and thought he heard Wanda sucking her teeth, but he chose not to mention it.
“I’ll see what I can do,” Wanda said and was about to hang up the phone.
“Make that happen, Wanda. Her being there is important to what I need to do.”
“I’ll get it done, Nick. No problem.”
Nick hung up the phone. Freeze looked at Nick. “I don’t mean to get in your business, Nick, but what’s up with you and Wanda?”
“What do you mean?”
Freeze laughed. “Okay, that’s how you wanna carry me after all that ride or die shit.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about. There’s nothing going on between me and Wanda.”
“You forget who you talking to, nigga? You may be able to run some of that weak shit past Bobby or whatever, but I know better. I know you.”
“You know better, huh?”
“Yeah, I know. So, you can tell Black and them whatever you want to, but you and I know what’s going on,” Freeze said smiling as he drove.
“Why don’t you tell me what’s going on with me and Wanda?”
“You fuckin’ her. And if you ain’t, you gonna.”
“How you know all this?”
“I was watching the two of you last night.”
“What were we doing?”
“Nick, where were we last night?”
“Cityscape.”
“And what is Cityscape?”
“It’s a tittie bar.”
“Exactly. You sitting in a room full of naked woman, I mean titties everywhere, and what you doing, huh?”
“What was I doing?”
“You were all up in Wanda’s face, and she’s all up in yours. Giggling. Fuckin’ Wanda was all up in your grill, giggling her ass off. I ain’t never seen Wanda all bouncy and giggling the whole time I’ve known her.”
“That don’t mean nothing. I was watching the dancers too,” Nick offered meekly.
“Yeah, whatever kid, sure you were. But I ain’t mad at you at all. Wanda’s a fine mutha fucka, somebody need to bust that body. It might even chill her ass out if she start getting some dick on the regular.”
“You think so?”
“Yeah. So, I ain’t mad at you at all, Nick.”
“Then why you fuckin’ with me?” Nick asked and looked out of the window.
If he wanted to be honest with himself, he was really starting to feel Wanda. And for maybe the first time in his life, he was intimidated by a woman. Wanda was a strong-willed woman, and powerful. That’s what turned him on. He’d been tempted to ask her out and probably would have at Cityscape, but Sal Terrico came into the club.
Nick’s plan for the day was to drop by and invite Wanda to join him at this little Mediterranean joint he’d been eyeing. He’d been looking forward to it all day, but for some reason he decided to check on Freeze first.
You know, be there for a brother who just lost his woman. But when you really sit and think about it, that’s exactly what I’m doing. Freeze ain’t the type of guy that was gonna be sitting around depressed and feeling sorry for himself.
Paulleen’s funeral would be in a day or two and her killer had to be dead before she could rest in peace.
Freeze had just turned down Willett Avenue when he saw it. “There it is, Nick. Beat to shit 73 Chevy Nova.”
Freeze got out of his truck and put his hand on the hood of the car.
“It’s still warm.”
One of his snitches told Freeze that the man that killed Paulleen name was Paul Clay and where he lived.
While Nick approached the house cautiously, Freeze walked boldly to the front door and beat on it like he was the police.
The door swung open. “What is it now?” the man said angrily. “Who the fuck are you?” he asked when he realized that it wasn’t the police.
“You Paul Clay?”
“Who the fuck are you?”
Freeze looked at Nick and shoved the man inside the house and he fell to the floor. Both Freeze and Nick had their guns drawn and pointed at the man.
“You Paul Clay?” Freeze asked again.
“No. I’m his brother,” he said and tried to inch away from Freeze and Nick.
“Where is he?”
“He’s dead.”
“Who killed him?” Freeze demanded to know.
“I don’t know. The last time I saw him he told me some shit about how he may die for love, next day he was dead.”
Freeze dropped his head and turned away.
“What did he mean by that?” Nick asked.
“He was fuckin’ around with somebody’s woman. I guess the guy got Paul first.”
Nick watched Freeze walk out of the house. “Sorry to bother you,” he said and followed Freeze to his truck.
Once they were in the truck and had driven away, Nick turned to Freeze.
“You already knew about Paulleen, didn’t you?”
Freeze nodded his head.
“It wasn’t the first time either, was it?”
Freeze shook his head.
“So, if you didn’t kill him, who did?”
“I don’t know, Nick,” Freeze said quietly.
“What were you expecting to find here?”
“What you mean?”
“I mean, we know that the guy was trying to shoot you and shot Paulleen. Do you think this guy was trying to kill you over her or was he a soldier for your boy Curl?”
Freeze banged the steering wheel. “I don’t know, Nick. Just shut the fuck up and let me think for a minute, okay!”
“Lighten up, man. This me and you, and that’s where this stays, me and you. Nobody has to know.”
For the next few blocks they drove in silence. “You ever know something, but it’s still hard to hear.”
“Yeah.” Was all Nick could say. “Yeah, I know what you mean.”
“But you know what Nick? I ain’t got time for that shit now. We got work to do.”
“That’s what I’m saying. So, you think this nigga was one of your boy’s soldiers?”
�
�Not that it matters, because I was fuckin’ everybody too, but she was fuckin’ everybody. I really needed to be done with her ass a long time ago.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“I ain’t even gonna front. Pussy was all that, Nick. She just liked to fuck all the damn time. Her ass get mad, damn near ignorant when she don’t get no dick.”
“I know what that’s like,” Nick said and thought about Camille.
Freeze started to laugh as he thought about Camille too. “Yeah, I guess you do.”
Nick laughed.
“But you see Nick, that’s how things turn around. Now it’s Bobby that’s losing his mind over some little trick.”
“Yeah, what’s up with that?”
“Bobby ran up on a little dancer who got him pussy whipped, that’s all. Why you wanna meet her?”
“Oh hell no. I don’t need to get nowhere near anybody Bobby’s fuckin’ with no more in life.”
“I’m just fuckin’ wit’ you Nick. That bitch crazy anyway. I hate I introduced him to her.”
“Anyway,” Nick said trying to end the discussion. “What you gonna do now?”
“I know you got a date with Wanda and shit.”
“It’s not a date,” Nick interrupted quickly.
“Whatever, Nick. So, I’m gonna roll you back to your car.”
“What you gonna do?”
“I’m gonna find out if that nigga worked for Curl.”
“And if he did?”
“I’m gonna wait for you or Black or Bobby before I go kill him.”
Chapter Thirty-five
Bobby parked his car across the street from Angelo’s and he and Mike when inside. Diego finally called and was ready to meet. As always, they were met by Jimmy who escorted them to a private room just off the bar area. Inside the room was a table and five chairs.
Once they had made themselves comfortable Angelo came into the room with a bottle and three glasses. “Mike, Bobby, how’s everybody doing?” he said and took a seat at the head of the table. “As you can see, Diego is even later than you are.”
“Diego had Shy all along. That shit with Nick was just a cover,” Mike told Angelo.
“You’re fuckin’ kidding’ me,” Angelo said and poured himself a drink.
“We caught up with Sal Terrico last night. Diego told him to bring her here.”