by Roy Glenn
“What you gonna do now, Mike?”
“Why; what you got up?”
“I was thinking about rolling by Cuisine for lunch and then going by Cynt’s.”
“You go ahead, Bob. I got something I need to do.”
“Does that something have anything to do with Meka Brazil?”
“No. Just some loose ends I need to tie up.”
I didn’t like keeping things from Bobby, but like Angelo, he thought leaving Vinnelli alone was the best thing for all of us. I didn’t need him knowing that killing Vinnelli was back on top of my list of things to do. So him riding with me where I was going wasn’t about to happen.
My next stop was the apartment of Monika Wynn. She used to work with Nick while they were in the army and for a while after they got out and were playing private detective. She helped Jackie uncover what Mylo and Masters were up to.
“You want me to go in with you, boss?” Kevon asked me when we arrived at her apartment.
“You relax, Kevon. I got this one.”
Kevon got out of the car and stood by the door while I went inside and rang the bell. It didn’t take Monika long to answer. “Well hello, Mr. Black. This really is a surprise.”
“Hello Monika. I need to talk to you about something,” I said and wondered if I was interrupting her or if maybe, she was expecting somebody else. She was wearing a Knicks throwback jersey, and as far as I could tell nothing else. Nick said his old partner Jett Bronson used to call her lips, tits, and hips.
She was definitely all those things.
Monika had a patch over her right eye. While they were investigating Chilly and that whole synthetic crack nonsense, she got shot five times; two shots in the chest, and two to the head. One hit her above the left ear. She caught the other one in her eye and they weren’t able to save it. The other one was in her hand.
“Mind if I come in?”
“Sure.” Monika stepped aside and let me in. “This must be important if you’re here yourself.”
“It is. I want you to do something for me.”
“What you need, Black?”
“Information and discretion.”
“Two things I’m good at.” Monika came and sat down across from me. It gave me a chance to admire the way her nipples pressed against her throwback. “What’s up?”
“Pete Vinnelli. I need to know everything there is to know about him. Everything. I wanna know where he lives, who his friends are, where they live and what they do. Who and where he hangs out.”
“You still thinking about killing him?”
“That’s where that word discretion comes in.”
“I understand. But I’m way ahead of you,” Monika said and got up. I watched her walk.
“You are?”
When she sat back down, she had her laptop and a disk with her. “When all this came down, Nick asked me to start digging into Vinnelli. You know, looking for the best way to take him out.”
“Really.” I had to remember to thank Nick. It confirmed for me that I had made the right choice in putting him in charge of the house.
“I haven’t had much luck following the money. After DeFrancisco went to jail, he got careful and tried to clean up his shit. He left enough of a trail for me to follow, but so far, every time I think I’m on to something it hasn’t led anywhere.”
“Stay on that for me. I need to know where the money is and how much there is.”
“I put my observation about his patterns, both business and personal in this file. There’s pictures and a little bit of detail on his two girlfriends.” Monika handed me the pictures she had. “An Amanda White, divorced, mother of two, age: thirty-nine. And that one is Pamela Connote, she’s twenty-seven.”
“They kinda look alike.”
“To me, Pamela is just a younger version of Amanda. Both got blonde hair, blue eyes, big tits.”
“Man knows what he likes.” I couldn’t say shit since I was with Maria because she looked like Cassandra.
“Anyway, my report includes what I thought was the best way to kill him.” I looked on as Monika copied the file to a disk and handed it to me. “You look that over and let me know what else you need from me.”
“I need you to stay on finding that money,” I said and got up thinking about what I could do with a woman like her. She was a munitions expert, trained in weapons and commando tactics.
The perfect assassin.
“Drop by Cuisine later tonight and I’ll have something for you.” I started to leave, but then I stopped. “By the way, Nick doesn’t need to know anything about you giving me this.”
“That’s where that word discretion comes in.”
“I knew I could count on you.”
“I’ll see you tonight,” Monika said and walked me to the door.
“Thanks again for this,” I said and held up the disk she had given me.
“Not a problem,” Monika said as I walked toward the door. “Drop by anytime,” she added in a voice that made me a little curious.
“Is that an invitation?”
“Yes. You can come by and see me anytime.”
“What about you and Nick?”
“There is no me and Nick, Mr. Black. Me and Nick served together in the army. We were partners. Nick is like a brother to me.”
“He’s like a brother to me too. I guess that makes us like brother and sister?”
“No, I don’t think so,” Monika shook her head and said.
“Why is that?”
“I tell you what, Mr. Black. If you really wanna know, you’ll come back when you got some time and I’ll explain to you exactly why you and I can’t be like brother and sister.”
Monika opened the door and kissed me on the cheek.
“I just might have to come back to hear that.”
“See that you do.”
Chapter 21
My next stop was to see Bruce Stark, who was once the head of a group of drug dealers that called themselves The Commission. It was formed as a buying co-op. When Kirk first told me about them I thought it was funny.
“What are they; a rap group or something?”
He had confirmed from his sources that Cash Money Blake, K Murder Murdock, Billy BB Banner and Bruce Stark, were all lieutenants of a player named Birdie. Thinking that Birdie and his partner Albert Web were involved in Cassandra’s murder, Nick and Freeze eliminated them while I was in jail. But Kirk told me that the sole purpose of the group was formed to protect themselves against me. The ability to buy at a cheaper price was nothing more than a byproduct.
After I found out the truth about Mylo, me and Stark made peace, and he was the one who told me where I could find Mylo after he shot Freeze. Since then, Stark and I have developed a kind of respect for one another.
Kevon drove me to Stark’s apartment, which always amuses him. You see, Stark was a very security-conscious man ever since two members of his Commission, Cash Money and K Murder, had been murdered by Mylo and Masters’ hit team. Maybe he thinks they’re still out there, I don’t know.
“Here we go, boss,” Kevon said as we turned down Stark’s block.
First, there’s a girl taking pictures of every car that comes down the street. When we parked the car and got out, four guys approached me.
“Here comes the welcoming committee,” Kevon said. “All of them are pussies, yah know.”
I laughed. “Be nice. They’re just doing their job.”
“I know that, boss. But it take four of them?”
“Strength in numbers, maybe.”
“Pussies,” Kevon repeated and spit at the feet of the first one that got to us. “Mr. Black is here to see Mr. Stark.”
They stopped asking us to give up our guns since it wasn’t gonna happen and they escorted us inside the building. There are two men in the lobby and another four in the hallway, two more at the elevator and one at each of the stairwells. The man takes his security seriously.
“What’s up, Black?” Stark asked an
d shook my hand. He led me in the back so we could talk privately.
“There’s something I need your help with.”
“Me?” he actually seemed excited about the fact that I was coming to him for help. “What can I do to help you? Fuck that, as much shit as I come to you with, whatever it is, you just say it and it’s done.”
“Nothing for you to do. I just need some information about Cash Money and Mylo.”
“What about them?”
“You know Mylo’s real name was Clint Harris and he was DEA?”
“Yeah, it was on the news when they found his body.”
“Did you know that Cash knew him by his real name?”
Stark sat up straight. “No, I didn’t know that.” It took a second or two before the implications of that revelation hit him. “That means that Cash knew he was DEA.”
“That’s what I wanted to ask you about. First off, did you know?”
“No,” Stark said quickly and looked around the room. “I swear ’fore God, I didn’t know nothing about that.”
“I didn’t think you did, but I had to ask and see your face when you answered.”
“Where did you hear that Cash knew who Mylo really was?”
“I have my sources.”
“Can’t be nobody but CeCe.” Stark looked at me for a second. “Mind if I ask you a personal question?”
“You want to know if I trust her.”
“Do you?”
“I haven’t decided yet. Any reason you know of that I shouldn’t?”
“No. Not really. I guess I’m just not a trusting mutha fucka, that’s all. I’ll say one thing for her, when Cash got smoked, she was smart enough to get his stash out of that apartment before the cops got there.”
“I heard that too. You know who she sold it to?”
“Me.”
I already knew that, I just wanted to see if he would tell me. “That’s what I thought.” I stood up, walked to the window, and looked out. “No, I haven’t decided whether I trust CeCe or not, but whether I do or not, I still need to know what the deal was with that and how it ties into some other shit I got going.”
“What’s that?”
I didn’t answer him because my business with Vinnelli was none of his fuckin’ business.
“You know, now that I’m thinking about it, the first time Birdie introduced us to Mylo, Cash did say that he thought he knew him from somewhere.”
“Yeah, Cash knew he was DEA.”
“What you gonna do now?”
“I don’t know,” I said because I didn’t. “But if I need you to do something for me, I need to know if I can count on you.”
“Whatever you need, Black.”
I shook Stark’s hand and left the building with Kevon. Cash definitely knew who Mylo really was. That’s why Mylo hit Cash first. The logical thing would have been to takeout Stark first. That would have sent The Commission in disarray. As we drove away from there I thought about what I was gonna do next. I needed to talk to somebody who could tell me more about Vinnelli, and I knew exactly who that was.
Chapter 22
Nick Simmons
I woke up the next morning to the sound of my cell phone ringing. I didn’t know what time it was, but whatever it was, it was too damn early. When the phone stopped, the doorbell started, and then my cell started ringing again.
“Okay, I get it; you’re at the door,” I said loud and to nobody. I rolled out of bed and grabbed the phone. “What?”
“Come open the door.”
It was Black. I looked at the clock. It was ten ’til ten. What the fuck was he doing up, first of all; and here so early? I opened the door for Black and Kevon.
Black came inside wearing a suit and a tie. He hates ties. Kevon nodded his head, turned around, and folded his arms. I closed the door.
When I got in the living room, Black was at the bar making a drink. Kind of early … but what the fuck.
“Pour me one too.”
I sat down and Black brought me my drink. He sat down and smiled. “Did I wake you up?”
“Yeah, yeah you did,” I said and laughed a little.
“I know it’s early, but shit, I’m up. You might as well be up too.”
“Thanks.” I raised my glass and drained it.
“I’m gonna be busy the rest of the day and I wanted to talk to you. See how things are going.”
“Last night I talked to Howard.”
“You get that thing straight for him?”
“I sent Jap and Kenny to get his fifty back from the construction guy, Charles Watson, but he ducked out on them. Now he’s got another problem.”
“What now?”
“He said a couple of nights ago his brother was forced into the limo at gunpoint by three men. They beat him pretty bad and dumped him out of the car.”
“He all right?”
“Howard says he’s in the hospital, but he’ll be all right. But last night somebody took a shot at him. Howard walked into the lobby of his building and somebody was waiting there pointing a .38. Howard ducked and the bullet grazed his right shoulder. Since he went down from the impact, the shooter thought he was dead. But Howard saw the guy get into a black Lexus. He recognized the car. Thinks it belongs to a guy that works for Watson. His name is Clay Barksdale.”
“This nigga wanna play gangster?” Black laughed.
“Looks that way.”
“What’d you tell him?”
“Don’t worry about it. That he should go on with his business like this wasn’t happening.”
“Good.” Black finished his drink and put the glass down. “Anything else I need to know about?”
“No, everything else is smooth. What do you want me to do about Charles Watson?”
“It’s your house to run, handle it however you think you should. But if you’re asking for my advice, I think you should handle it personally and as violently as possible.”
“Establish myself.”
“Make sure people know who you are and things ain’t no different. But do it in a way that leaves us an opportunity to cut into his construction company.”
“I’ll take care of it, but I got a question. What exactly am I establishing myself as? What I’m asking is, are we staying in or am I overseeing us getting out?”
“That’s entirely up to you. We’re moving to be more legitimate, but as long as we’re making money, I see absolutely no reason to give up that money. So what I’m telling you is this, it’s your house to run as long as you want to and as long as you make us money.”
Black looked at me for what seemed like a long time. Then he stood up and went to the bar. I thought that he was thinking about the best way for me to do what he wanted done.
“Do you remember when you used to run that crap game?” he asked while he poured.
I had no idea where he was going with this. “What were we, sixteen, seventeen then?”
“Something like that.”
“Made a lot of money running that game.”
“You damn sure did. You remember Big Willie; used to always wanna fight everybody?” Black said and laughed.
“Yeah, that mutha fucka was crazy,” I laughed. “Talking about killin’ niggas when he lost.”
“Like that night he lost all that money and said you was using loaded dice.”
We both stopped laughing.
I hadn’t thought about that night in years, but now it was like it had just happened the day before. Everybody was betting Big Money, and this kid named Ricky Wells was on a roll. Big Willie starts screaming about how much money he lost and how the dice must be loaded.
I told him to shut the fuck up and take his broke-ass home. Then I handed the dice back to Ricky and I took my eyes off Big Willie. Before I knew it, I was on my back, and he was standing over me, pointing a gun.
“Nobody talks to me like that!” Big Willie yelled and cocked the hammer. Just then, Black comes out of nowhere and hits Big Willie so hard that it broke his jaw
.
Willie dropped the gun and grabbed his face.
Black pulled out a gun and held it to Willie’s head. I didn’t even know Black had a gun.
“You ain’t killin’ nobody tonight; especially him. Get the fuck outta here and don’t ever let me catch you around here.” Black told him that night.
I sat there nodding my head, remembering that night.
“Glad you were there because I was sure he was gonna kill me.”
“You’re like a brother to me, Nick. Just like Bobby. I wouldn’t let him kill you.”
“I know that.”
I never knew that Black looked at me that way. I moved to the block when I was eleven. It was always him and Bobby who were like brothers. They’d been tight since the second grade. I always felt like an outsider around them. I guess I was wrong, but it felt good to know.
“Then why would you think I’d let Bobby kill you?”
Now why he wanna go there with this?
I dropped my head and buried it in the palms of my hands. I hadn’t thought about that night with Big Willie, and I try not to think about that night.
Her name was Camille Augustus. She was Bobby’s woman, but I was in love with her. Bobby found out and lost his mind.
I remembered it all.
“Bobby, put the gun down,” Black yelled.
I felt Bobby's hand tighten around my throat.
“I’ll kill you!” Bobby screamed.
Black put his gun to Bobby’s head. “Bobby, please,” he said quietly. “Take the gun out of his mouth and put it down.”
Black moved his gun away from Bobby’s head. Bobby let go of my throat and slowly eased his gun out of my mouth. I reached for my throat and took a step away from Bobby.
“Don’t think this is over.”
I remember walking away, trying to catch my breath; hearing Bobby screaming, “I’ma kill you. And that bitch!”
I lifted my head and Black was still looking at me. I guess he was waiting for an answer. When I had none to offer, Black continued. “Why didn’t you come to me?”
“The way it turned out; I should have.”