by Roy Glenn
“That the lovely Mrs. Black here was involved in a meeting with known drug dealers.”
“I was?” Shy said, no longer able to hold her tongue. “Was that before or after they kidnapped me?”
Mike touched her hand. “Go on, detective.”
“We checked with the Bahamian police and they confirmed Simmons story.”
“We? Who is we?”
“The New York City Police Department.”
“Why is the NYPD helping me?”
Kirk put down his fork. “Understand this Black. We weren’t helping you. The DEA came to us to help them get you. Their shit was incorrect. Excuse my French, Mrs. Black. Black, you’re a lot of things, you’re a gambler, you’re a pimp, you’re a thief, and a killer, but the one thing that you aren’t is a drug dealer. Everybody knows that. So, we started looking at agent DeFrancisco and his finances. Nice house in Annapolis, Maryland. More house than he could afford on his salary. He also had a beachfront house in Nags Head, North Carolina and a boat. Thirty-footer.”
“Sounds like somebody’s on the take.”
“You think?”
Mike and Shy laughed. “We took what we found to the DEA and they found that the intelligence DeFrancisco used to get authorization for the operation was fake. Now were trying to find out what’s Martin Marshall got to do with any of this.”
“Marshall? What does he have to do with this?” Mike asked.
“When DeFrancisco came to us for help, Marshall came with him.”
“It’s funny that you should mention Senator Marshall,” Mike said.
“Why’s that, Black?”
“How would you like to not only link Marshall to DeFrancisco, but tag him for murder?”
“I’m listening.”
Shy reached in her purse and put a CD on the table in front of Kirk.
“What’s that?”
“It’s a recording of the Senator discussing his involvement in a murder of a woman with the killer.” Shy told him.
“Where did you get that,” Kirk asked.
“Does it matter?”
“No, it doesn’t cause nothing on that disk would be admissible in court.”
“But you would know all the right questions to ask cause you already know the answers,” Shy said. “You interested?”
“I’m interested.” Kirk reached for the disk.
Shy put her hand on it. “In exchange for,” she paused. “In exchange for your assistance in getting those false charges against me dropped.”
Kirk took his hand off the disk, and he ate another piece of his steak. The detective sat back in the booth and put down his knife and fork. He looked at Shy and thought about her offer and then to Black who had remained silent. Kirk reached in his pocket and took out his cell phone. He dialed a number. “Detective Sanchez.”
“Gene, this is Kirk. Listen, you speak to the ADA about dropping the charges against Cassandra Sims yet?”
“Not yet, Kirk, why?”
“Go ahead and call her. We got bigger fish to fry.”
“Done,” Sanchez said. “Who’s the fish?”
“I’ll tell you when I see you,” Kirk promised and hung up his phone.
“Just like that?” Shy asked, letting go of the disk. “One word from you and the charges are dropped?”
“Did I mention what a good job your lawyer, Wanda Moore was doing?” Kirk got up and threw a couple of dollars on the table for a tip. “Yeah, just the other day detective Sanchez said that he was going to have to drop the charges against you. He was getting a lot of pressure from the ADA, who was getting pressure from your lawyer. He was gonna drop the charges against you anyway.” Kirk held up the disk. “But thanks for this, I never liked Marshall anyway.”
Mike and Shy watched Kirk walk out. “I’m free, baby,” she said and kissed him. “Now I can stay in New York.”
“We can go anywhere you want,” Mike said and got up from the table. “Just one more thing left to do,” he said and paid the check.
Epilogue
One year later on an island off the west coast of Mexico
Diego Estabon sat alone in his bungalow waiting for his new partners to arrive with his share of their last job, and they were late, very late.
It had been a good year for Diego, and he planned for next year to be even better. The phone rang. “It’s about time you called. Where are you?”
“I’m right outside Diego,” Mike said into the phone.
Diego rushed to the window and could see Mike standing off in the distance.
“What do you want Black?” Diego said and quickly armed himself.
“As soon as Sal told you that he had kidnapped my wife, you should have told Sal to let her out the car and had him apologize for taking her,” Mike said and hung up the phone.
Diego watched as Mike turned to walk away and wondered what that was all about. Then he thought it would probably be a good idea if he got outta there. But before Diego could make it to the door, the bungalow blew up.
As he walked away, Mike felt the heat of the explosion on the back of his neck.
Now it’s over.
THE END OF PAYBACK
THE MIKE BLACK SAGA CONTINUES IN
OUTLAW
OUTLAW
Outlaw
By Roy Glenn
Escapism Entertainment
Atlantic Beach, FL 32246
© Copyright 2006 Roy Glenn
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.
This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locals are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.
Chapter One
Mike Black
I ran out of a bar on White Plains road with two armed men right on my ass. I took out my guns, stopped, and turned around quickly. I fired a couple of shots at them as they came through the door. The shots ricocheted off the door and the men tried to return fire, but it was too late. It gave me enough time to make it to my car. I emptied the clip in one gun and got in.
I cursed André and started up the car. Back in those days, I worked for André. He controlled most of the drug activity uptown. I was his collector, enforcer, personal bodyguard. I cursed André because he was the one who sent me into this mess. He sent me to see a man name Dudley Roberts, but everybody called him D.R.
He was a dealer of some note, but his downfall was that he was a shooter and liked to get high on his own supply. D.R. owed André fifty grand and he sent me to collect. A simple pick up, is what André told me it would be. No trouble, no resistance, and definitely no shooting!
As I drove off, I looked in the rearview mirror and I saw those mutha fucka’s make it to their car. The question was, who the fuck were they and why the fuck did they just open up on me as soon as they came through the door?
I would have to take the time to consider all that later, right now the only thing I had to concern myself with was getting the fuck away from there. I reloaded my gun; I only had one clip left. It didn’t take long for them to catch up with me as I weaved my way through traffic on the avenue. Once they got close enough to me, they started shooting.
One of their shots took out my back window; I tried to stay low as I kept on driving. I fired a few shots blindly at them and they continued blasting at me. My car went into a spin when a shot hit my back tire. I gripped the steering wheel tight and cut the wheel into the spin. I slammed into a parked car and hit my head hard against the steering wheel.
My head hurt like hell and I felt the blood begin to trickle down my face. I tried to shake it off and start the car, but that wasn’t happening. I got out of the car just as they rolled up on me. As soon as they got out of the car, I let go with both guns. When they both dropped to the ground and I took off running. They got up and ran aft
er me, bustin’ shots all the way.
I wheeled and fired.
They took cover behind a car and shot back, but I was gone. I ran down the street trying, but I couldn’t remember the last time that I had to run away like a little bitch. When I reached the next corner, I dropped down behind a car. I knew that I didn’t have a lot of bullets left. I stayed still and quiet, waiting for them to come tearing around that corner, and then I’d have them.
Damn they were good.
I watched through the car window as they stopped at the corner. They stood and talked for a second or two before they seemed to look dead at me and split up. They knew where I was hiding and were gonna try and surround me. I stood up, spread my arms, and fired at both of them.
I didn’t wait around to see if I hit either one of them and ran down the street. The sound of shots being fired from behind me answered that question.
I ran up the steps of an apartment building, took aim, and fired one of my guns until it was empty before running inside. As I ran up the steps, I saw that there was only one man following me now. Maybe I had gotten lucky and hit one of them. What was more likely was that they had split up again and the other would be waiting for me when I came out.
I would worry about him later. Right now I had his partner on my ass. He came bustin’ through the door and fired a few shots at me as I ran up the steps. When I reached the top of the stairs, I shot back. Now, I was out of bullets. I ran down the hall hoping that there was a window to a fire escape, or back staircase, but there wasn’t. Just more apartments.
I was trapped.
With nowhere else to go, I picked a door and kicked it. I closed the door behind me and made my way into the apartment. There was an old lady watching TV, she screamed when she saw me.
“I’m not going to hurt you,” I said and lowered my empty weapon. “Where’s the fire escape?”
“In the bedroom,” she said quietly and pointed.
I apologized for disturbing her and ran in the direction she pointed, through her bedroom and out the window. I made my way down the fire escape as quickly as I could. Once I reached the ground I looked around, I tried to decide which way to go. I looked up and saw my relentless pursuer. He fired at me and I started running down the alley. I could hear his footsteps coming up behind me as I ran toward the sound of traffic.
That’s when I saw the other one standing there. “Hold it!” he yelled as his partner caught up with me.
They had me. I put my gun on the ground, why not, it was empty anyway, and put up my hands. I was about to die, and I had no idea who these guys were or why they were about to kill me.
“Black.”
“Huh.”
“Black,” Nick said and shook my arm. “Wake up, Black.”
“What?” I said and opened my eyes.
“Were getting ready to land. You gotta fasten your seat belt.”
Chapter Two
As requested, Mike returned his seat to its upright and locked position and fastened his seatbelt, as the captain told him about weather conditions at New York’s John F. Kennedy Airport.
“How long was I asleep?” Mike asked, looking at Nick.
“Not long, half hour, maybe.” Nick shrugged.
Mike and Nick had just flown in from Miami, after traveling to Todos Santos. An island located at the Tropic of Cancer in the southern portion of the Baja Peninsula, off the coast of Mexico. While they were on the island Mike closed the door on some unfinished business.
He had gone to Todos Santos to kill Diego Estabon. A year before, Diego had been the mastermind behind the kidnapping of Mike’s wife, Shy.
For that he had to die.
After an attempt on her life, Mike had moved Shy to the islands to get her out of the game and insure that nothing would ever happen that would put her life in jeopardy. He thought that she would be safe in their quiet island paradise, but that wasn’t the case.
Mike found out that Diego maintained a bungalow on that island. So he waited; waited for just the right opportunity to kill Diego.
Mike had Nick, who had served in the Army special forces unit, wire the bungalow with C-4, and a remote detonator. Once it was set, Mike called Diego on the phone and Diego, who had been waiting on his associates to call, answered; “It’s about time you called. Where are you?”
“I’m right outside Diego,” Mike said.
Diego rushed to the window and saw Mike standing off in the distance.
“What do you want, Black?” Diego asked and quickly armed himself.
“As soon as Sal told you that he had kidnapped my wife, you should have told Sal to let her out the car and apologize for taking her,” Mike had said and hung up the phone.
Diego watched as Mike turned to walk away. He wondered what that was all about. Then he thought it would probably be a good idea if he got outta there. But before Diego could make it to the door, the bungalow exploded.
However, there was more to it than just a simple kidnapping. Diego was attempting to set Mike up to take the fall for conspiracy to distribute charges. Diego had set things in motion with the help a corrupt DEA agent named DeFrancisco. That plan failed too. Now that Diego was dead, and DeFrancisco was in jail as a result of the investigation of him running an unauthorized operation. That exposed all of DeFrancisco’s illegal activities. Now, Mike could relax and enjoy the new joy in his life.
It had been a good year for Mike. Shy never really liked living in the Bahamas so Mike decided in order to make her happy they would stay in New York. Naturally Wanda thought that the two of them staying in New York was a bad idea. “There are just too many things that could happen,” she said to Mike when he told her his plan.
Wanda was the lawyer for the operation. At her best, Wanda was smart, careful, just a bit ruthless and over the years, she managed the money and made a small fortune for her partners. She had played around in the game for a while, but Wanda always wanted to be a lawyer. So Mike paid for her to go to law school. After briefly working for the District Attorney as a prosecutor, Wanda went into private practice, with one major client.
One of the first things that Wanda did was insist that they start a business to run their money through. The name of their company was Invulnerable Security, specializing in private security and personal bodyguards. Mike chose a security company because it would afford them a license to carry guns.
Since Mike insisted on staying, Wanda made a simple request. On the heels of the DEA investigation, Wanda suggested that he begin to insulate himself from the day to day operation of their illegal enterprises. Wanda suggested and Mike agreed that he would only give orders to one person. “You need a buffer, Mike. It’s just that simple,” Wanda advised.
Normally that responsibility would have fallen to Bobby. However, Bobby had been out of the city. After finding out that Bobby was having an affair, Pam moved to eliminate her competition. The stress of that traumatic experience caused Pam to suffer a nervous breakdown. Bobby had spent the last year trying to nurse his wife back to good health. He had checked her into a hospital upstate, and then Bobby bought a house in the area. Bobby moved out of the city, along with their four children so they could be close to her.
With Bobby unavailable the next logical choice would have been Freeze, however; Wanda had something else in mind. She recommended that Mike only talk to Shy. At first, Mike absolutely refused. His entire reason for moving her to the Bahamas was to get her out of the game and keep her safe. But as always, Wanda’s impeccable logic wore him down and he reluctantly agreed.
Naturally Freeze wasn’t happy about this new arrangement, but when Mike explained to him that he would still run the day to day operations, being the good soldier that he was, Freeze agreed. There had been a great deal of tension between Shy and Freeze though. Freeze simply didn’t like taking orders from a woman.
The bigger challenge for Shy was her dealings with Birdie. After D-Train Washington met his untimely demise, Birdie along with his partner Albert had con
solidated power and were trying to get things back to the way Chilly had it. Since it was established, Chilly had respected the so-called dead zone, where Black wouldn’t allow anybody to sell drugs for years. He understood that respecting the dead zone had the advantage of allowing everybody to do business. That’s how Birdie wanted it, because to him it was all about business. But Shy couldn’t stand him. To her, Birdie was arrogant and conceited and it annoyed Shy just to be in his presence. When he got to the city, Mike had made up his mind to intervene and see to it that Birdie and Shy worked out their differences, no matter what Wanda said about him getting involved.
As the plane prepared to land, Mike looked over at Nick. In Bobby’s absence, Nick had taken over as general manager of Impressions; at Bobby’s request. However, unknown to Nick, or anybody else for that matter, Mike had asked Bobby to put Nick in that spot.
“’Cause I want Nick to feel like he’s a part of this family again,” Mike told Bobby. “And besides, it will show Nick and everybody else that Camille shit is behind y’all.”
Nick and Bobby fell out over a woman named Camille Augustus. At the time, Camille was with Bobby, until she saw Nick. From that moment on, Camille had Nick under her spell. It all came to a head the night Bobby found out about it and tried to kill Nick. After that, Nick joined the Army and stayed away for ten years.
As for Nick and Wanda, they continue to sniff around each other and deny that there is anything going on between them.
If you ask Wanda about it, she’ll say, “Nick? Please, we are just two old friends that like to hang out.”
If you ask Nick about him and Wanda, he’ll tell you. “Wanda? Come on. Be for real,” he once told Freeze, who insisted that something is going on. “Ain’t nothing up with that. Hanging out with her is like old times, you know, when we all used to hang together.”