Mind (the) Game

by Kelly Shade

  “Blake, you look like a pimp! What’s with that?” Skinner ignored Gray and turned to see Jane through the window behind him.

  Jane laughed. She was looking like this, indeed. Blake’s role was the reason she had to dress with a leather pants, leopard-printed shirt, a white long jacket and to wear many golden neckless, earrings, bracelets and rings. She had to put heavy makeup which changed her appearance a lot. Skinner had lent her the jewelry, since Jane didn’t have and didn’t like yellow gold.

  The rest of the ride went quietly, only Ryan’s heavy nervous breathing was disturbing the silence.

  When they were in front of the one story, heavy lightened building with small sign ‘Mad Mouth private club’, in the middle of nowhere, Jane ordered Garry to stop as close as possible to one of the windows. Skinner did it and Gray went around to open the door for Jane. She walked out gracefully and started walking slowly towards the entrance. The high heels, she was wearing, were thrusting in the dirt road. The fact, that it was passing ten pm and Blake was with sunglasses also didn’t help her. But she had to maintain the image at any cost.

  Ryan walked in front of her, wearing a black suit, an earpiece and a firm expression on his face.

  They were feets before the entrance door when a short tattooed man with ginger hair, wearing a leather vest with the ‘Wind Riders’ logo, showed up. He hurried to close the door after him before he shouted at Jane and Ryan.

  “This is a private property, leave!”

  “We are here to do business. Call your boss!” said Jane loud enough to be heard, the volume of the rock music from the inside was far too high.

  The man stepped forward towards Jane, and Ryan as a good bodyguard, moved in front of the biker.

  “I said move!” roared the man.

  “Go and call your boss. I have a very nice offer for him.” Jane said slowly gazing at her long fake nails. “But if you don’t want to bother him, I will do everything in my power to let your boss know, that because of you he missed the deal of a lifetime.” Jane removed her sunglasses slowly and looked at his red-brown drunken eyes. Jane added with a half-smile “And as a bonus I will work with your competition, the ‘Bulgers’. How about this?”

  The biker blinked several times as if he was processing the information. Ryan, staring at him with the scariest expression he could manage, moved a step forward and the biker staggered backwards. For a few moments they looked at each other, then the red-headed man turned, ran towards the club and hid behind the door.

  “What now?” Ryan asked, now showing the horror he felt during the act.

  “He’ll be back in a minute.” Jane said calmly and lit up a cigarette.

  “I thought you quit!” Ryan exclaimed.

  “I did. It is part of the act.” Jane answered, inhaled deeply and exhaled a cloud of smoke in Ryan’s face with obvious satisfaction.

  “Not cool!” he coughed. “Why are you so sure he will come back?”

  “I could see it written on his face.” Jane smiled.

  “What’s with you? Now I can see why Ian said you were different when you are in a con.” Ryan had noticed Blake’s behavior, the way she walked and talked, even the smile was quite different than her usual self. He remembered Ian’s comments about it when Jane had to pretend she was robbing the casino Valdez was trapped in to save him and the other hostages.

  Jane was about to answer but the biker showed up at the door and waved them to go in the club. Blake glanced at Ryan and whispered.

  “Get your head in the game!”

  Gray walked in front of her with his hand on the gun in his pocket. Jane also had prepared weapons, one in her purse and one attached to her thigh.

  They went in the smoky club with wooden tables and chairs, a lot of posters of naked women riding motorbikes on the walls, all kinds of parts of track motorcycles were hanging above and behind the bar. There must have been over thirty men, all of them staring at Jane and Ryan. Some were making inappropriate comments, some were whistling but everything they said and did was out voiced by the loud rock music.

  Blake and Gray were invited in a back room where a huge red velvet couch, a small glass table and a minibar were surrounded by a nice satin black curtain. The biker who welcomed them told them to sit down and wait.

  Blake gestured Ryan to stay up next to her while she helped herself with a glass of whiskey from the minibar, sat down, crossed her legs gracefully and lit up another cigarette.

  Soon enough, the same man Alice described walked in with the same two bodyguards. He ignored Ryan but shook hands with Jane, who didn’t move from her seat, and sat opposite her. His bodyguards stood up, behind him.

  “Well, Rocky tells me you got a deal of a lifetime for me.” Said the boss with a low deep voice. “But before that let’s start with your name.”

  “Amanda Fernandez, nice to finally meet you in person…” Jane said and waited for his name.

  “Donald Strut,” said he ordering the guard to bring him a glass of whiskey only by snapping his fingers. He took a sip and continued speaking. “Fernandez, tell me why you are here?”

  “I’m looking for a new supplier for my business. Someone told me you have the needed quantity and quality.” Jane said gazing at him with a nasty smile.

  “Who told you that?” asked Strut, also keeping the eye contact.

  “It doesn’t matter.” Jane said and leaned forward, speaking slowly “What matters is if the information I have about you is correct?”

  “Huh, I like you Fernandez, you have fire.” Said Strut with an ugly smile. Ryan was struggling to keep calm. He couldn’t believe what he was witnessing and he definitely couldn’t accept the way Strut was looking at Jane.

  “How much are we talking?” Strut said on a serious note.

  “A hundred pounds combined for the beginning.” Jane said firmly leaning back.

  Strut kept his poker face but Jane glanced a micro expression of a surprise which appeared for a millisecond.

  “Do you have a market?” he asked.

  “I think it would be enough for a week.” Jane answered.

  “Where is your market again?” He asked suspiciously.

  “Mostly Miami, but half of Florida is mine. Why?” Jane said with a giggle.

  “When?” he simply asked ignoring the question.

  “In two days.”

  “I can arrange sixty pounds of meth and forty of coke for starters.” Strut said thoughtfully.

  “Price?” asked Jane and slipped a piece of paper and a pen on the table.

  Strut wrote the number, gave it back, then Jane wrote another one and moved the note towards him. He was thinking for a minute and the same thing repeated. When Jane returned the note for the third time he said.

  “You have barging skills, Fernandez.”

  “Do we have a deal?” Jane lifted her eyebrow.

  “Yes, but fifty percent upfront.” Said he.

  “Thirty tomorrow, twenty on the day we do the transfer and the rest on arrival.” Jane said firmly.

  “So you are going to keep an eye on me, huh?” Strut smiled.

  “I always do.” Jane confirmed.

  “Okay, Fernandez, I think we could work together.” Strut stood up and stretched his hand for Jane’s. She didn’t move but said with a wide smile.

  “I need samples first.”

  “Of course.” He snapped his fingers again, one of the guards went into another room next to this one and came back with two baggies.

  Jane tested the products and confirmed their quality. Ryan was on the edge of a nervous crises when he saw her taking the drugs.

  At the end of the deal, Strut stood up again, kissed Jane’s hand and walked them to the exit. Blake arranged another visits in the next two days- the next day she had to pay the thirty percent and the day after she had to supervise the loading for the transfer.

  In the moment Jane and Ryan went in the limo, Ryan started complaining.

  “I don’t know how you do it but th
is was killing me!” he looked at Jane, whose usual gestures were back. She dropped the act as soon as she was behind the tinted windows of the car.

  “I know it wasn’t easy for you but you did well!” Jane said when they drove off and smiled warmly.

  “You are drugged!” Ryan exclaimed. “How could you take it!?!”

  “I didn’t, calm down!” Jane laughed.

  “I saw your eyes; your pupils became super small! I’m not dumb, you know!” Gray started yelling.

  “You are not dumb but you don’t observe!” Jane got irritated. “Did you see the bright lamp over us?”

  “Yes, what about it?”

  “If you were looking you would see that I looked up at the moment I ‘took’ the coke. My pupils reacted to the bright light, not to the drug.” Jane explained angrily “It’s a trick! Have some faith in me!”

  “Oh!” said Ryan and looked down of the embarrassment “Sorry!”

  “Hey, Blake, congrats!” Garry shouted from the driver’s seat.

  “For what?” Jane was confused.

  “You finally got a boyfriend!” Skinner teased.

  “Shut up and drive to the Playa del Mar Hotel!” Jane ordered.

  “Why are we going there?” asked Ryan.

  “Because Strut put a tail on us.” Jane pointed at the bike which was following them “I made a reservation there on Amanda Fernandez’s name in case he decides to check.”

  “So the part when you said you don’t want to involve Erik was untrue?” Ryan suggested when he heard the name of the hotel Erik was working at.

  “Well, I didn’t tell him we are on another case. I just told him that we are going to be undercover there in order he needs help. Hunt and Barrett offered that plan and it fit perfectly with our con. And you are under the name Henry Rogerson.” Jane said irritably.

  Ryan was speechless. He wasn’t happy that she kept these details from him but it was best not to keep arguing.

  The rest of the ride was in silence, and when they arrived at the hotel their biker tail turned back on his way.

  Jane went into the presidential suite, Ryan after her.

  “You’ll sleep here.” Jane said and pointed the couch. Then she went to the bedroom, got back with a pillow and a blanket, tossed them in Ryan’s arms and added “Good night!”

  “Night!” Ryan murmured, put the pillow on the couch and spread the blanket. He was so amazed, annoyed, worried and exhausted by the whole experience with Strut that he laid down and fell asleep almost immediately. This was his way of coping.

  Jane on the other hand, was spinning in her bed until six in the morning. The king size soft bed was amazingly comfortable and still she hardly managed to fell asleep.

  Chapter 13

  The man behind the scenes

  The morning in the Playa Del Mar Hotel was as difficult as the previous night for Jane. She had an uneasy two-hour sleep and was awaken by Ryan, who had heard her phone’s ringtone from the next room. Gray had to pad her on the shoulder several times with the phone in his hand for her to wake up. Blake picked up immediately when she saw Erik was the one calling. Apparently, he had news about Fred Macalister.

  Soon after Jane hung up the phone, she dressed up and went to the living room. There she saw two mugs of hot coffee, muffins, strawberries and two glasses of orange juice and a vase with flowers on the table. It looked delicious and it smelled even more so.

  Ryan was at the window gazing at the pool. Jane took a sip of the coffee and said.

  “Thanks for the breakfast!”

  “Don’t thank me.” Ryan sighted “Erik made a reservation with all meals included and a room service. It came while you were talking with him on the phone.”

  “Anyways, it looks nice.” Jane chirped “Wanna muffin?”

  “Nope.” Ryan said “Why’s the good mood?”

  “Well, Ricky will come any second with info about Macalister and,” she took a sip of the juice “I got a text from Strut with a dinner invitation. Tonight at eight at the ‘Francesco’s’ restaurant.”

  Ryan only nodded. It was obvious he wasn’t looking forward to meet Erik and he was less excited about the dinner with the drug dealer.

  By the time Erik came to Jane’s apartment, Blake had had her breakfast in silence and Ryan’s mood was getting worse with every second.

  Erik got in with his own key and when he saw Ryan’s back, he was still at the window, and Jane laying on the couch with bored expression, he asked.

  “What’s up, guys? I’m bringing kind of good news, cheer up.”

  “Hey, Ricky!” Jane stood up to make space for him to sit. “Well?”

  “Fred Macalister is acting very suspiciously.” Started Erik, Ryan joined them at the coffee table.

  “What is suspicious for you?” Gray teased, Jane gazed at him sharply.

  “Well, first of all, Macalister doubled his bodyguards and got a new, way more expensive security system for his office.” Erik explained “I saw him shredding a bunch of documents and giving them to one of his guards. I tailed the guard and I saw him burning the shredded paper in the BBQ. Also, Macalister spends a lot of time locked in his office, which he didn’t do before.”

  “Do you think he suspects you?” asked Jane worryingly.

  “No, but he knows that someone is watching him. At least he acts like it.” Erik said.

  “What about the bugs in his office? Did you manage to put them?” asked Ryan.

  “Yeah, I put the listening devices in his office, car and in his apartment here at the hotel.” Erik looked at Ryan showing he was offended. “But nothing. Tylor called me yesterday and said that I should remove all of them because Macalister knows he is under surveillance and if he finds the devices it would be bad for us.”

  “Yeah, you better do that.” Sighted Jane.

  “This is my job for the morning,” said Erik “and I better get going.”

  “We will inform Barrett and Hunt about the intel you gathered.” Said Jane while walking Erik to the door.

  “Which is basically nothing!” Ryan murmured to himself but Blake heard him. She locked the door behind Erik and said icily.

  “The information he got is enough for us to be sure Macalister has dirty secrets.”

  Gray looked at her but didn’t find words to answer so he gazed at the pool again, this time with the coffee mug in his hand.

  Jane called Barrett and Hunt and told them everything Erik found about Macalister. Barrett agreed to leave LAPD to make the arrest and the first interrogation, so Hunt ordered Ian, Nick and Victoria to go to the hotel. Ryan was in charge of checking Fred Macalister’s finances and Jane had to help Erik to remove all the listening devices.

  Everyone from the team plus Erik gathered in Jane’s, more like Amanda’s, presidential suite and soon enough they got to work. First Blake and Erik had to remove the bugs, and when they did, Ian, Nick and Victoria went to make the arrest. Meanwhile, Ryan was digging into every bank account Macalister had but with no luck.

  When Valdez, Lee and Evans took Macalister in the interrogation room, Jane and Ian went to do the questioning.

  Blake and Valdez walked in the room where Fred Macalister was staying as calm as ever. A plump man with greyish hair, bold on top, and wearing a black Versace suit was staying there with cuffs on his wrists which were hardly visible because of all the golden bracelets and rings on his hands. At the beginning, Macalister didn’t even look at them but at the moment he laid eyes on Jane, he froze.

  Blake saw the reaction and was pleased, that he was scared of her. Valdez sat down and after asking the protocol questions, he passed the ball to Jane.

  “You are going to play it innocent, seriously?” Blake started but didn’t wait for an answer “We know everything you did, Fred! We know about the prostitution business you and Morse were running. Human trafficking is something you will rot in jail for a long time!” Jane smiled deviously. “Also, we know about the weapons and the drugs. You and Michael Morse were a good t
eam, huh?” Jane finished. Even though they didn’t have any evidence, except Adams’s word against Macalister’s, Jane had to play it like they did.

  Fred looked like he was considering to speak but obviously he needed to be pushed more.

  “And we both know your ex-wife is my mother and Morse is my grandfather.” Jane added, Ian glanced at her disapprovingly.

  Macalister swallowed as if he had a too big of a bite for his mouth but still didn’t say a word.

  Blake decided to give him some time to think and leaned back in her chair waiting for him to start talking. Ian did the same and both, Blake and Valdez, were starting at Macalister.

  “I want a deal.” Said he after a while.

  “What kind of a deal?” Jane asked before Ian could refuse.

  “I want to stay away from the Federal prison and the FBI. You can charge me, I know the law, but not the feds.” He spoke with a low, hoarse voice.

  “We can arrange that,” lied Jane and kicked Ian under the table to be quiet. “but what is in it for us?”

  “I will make a full confession and I will cooperate.” Answered the lawyer.

  “All right, I will listen to you for five minutes, then if I like what I hear, we will have the deal.” Jane said thoughtfully “This is the best I can give you for now!”

  “Fair enough.” Sighted the lawyer, took a deep breath and continued “I admit I was in business with Michael Morse for a long time. He helped me pay the student taxes for the law school long time ago, I owed him. I had nothing at the beginning, my parents didn’t have the money for my education so I had to work and study which was difficult. I met Morse at a café, I was a waiter at the time, and we talked for a bit. Since that day, he came every day to visit me and he offered me a job. He said that he was looking for a decent lawyer and he could pay my student credit at once. It was like a dream came true to me.” Macalister spoke calmly and truthfully.

  “And…?” Jane was bored.

  “And, I started and year after year Morse’s plans got bigger and more illegal.” He shook his head “At the beginning he was just a drug dealer, a small fish. But then he got in business with the big sharks and started with the girls, weapons and what not. I wanted out but he said I’m too deep.” Macalister made a sad face as if he was regretting his life “Then I met Melissa, his daughter, right after she gave birth to you.” Fred looked at Jane. “I asked him to keep you, I was okay to pretend I was your father but he said no. I helped with the documents and after you were gone, me and Melissa started our relationship.”