“Yes. Can you help us?”
Goddamnit, this is probably a bad idea. “Okay. Do you know who I am?” Michelle asked.
“Da. You are woman pimp. The dead woman outside. She tell me we come here to make you go; to push you out.”
“What’s your name?”
“Jelena.”
“Okay, Jelena, if you want out, I can take you, but I can’t wait, you go now, this second, or not at all.”
“We all want out. We can go with you right now?”
“Yeah.”
Jelena said something in Russian and the three women still in the kitchen pushed past Michelle running toward what had to be a bedroom.
“Come with me,” Michelle said.
She and Jelena went into the kitchen. Jelena said something in Russian to the woman on the floor. The woman’s eyes shifted between Jelena, Michelle and T-Dog, then back to Jelena. Without saying anything she nodded and held her free hand out to T-Dog.
Michelle stepped out the back door. Lights were on at the houses on both sides, but not at the house behind them. They were either exceptionally sound sleepers to have slept through the shots across their fence, or they were not home. She guessed they were not home. The Russian woman followed her to the back porch.
Michelle pointed to the seven-foot tall cinder-block wall. “You go over the wall, now, before the police come, or you stay here. Nobody brings anything they can’t take over the wall.”
“We all go. Everyone go now.” The woman turned back into the house shouting in Russian. Michelle didn’t understand the hurried conversation, but did hear “INS” a couple times.
Immediately everyone jumped into action. They put one or two small items in purses and headed toward the back fence.
“We’ll pick you up over there. Two minutes max. Anybody doesn’t make it in that time is left behind.”
The woman nodded and shouted more Russian. She must have been giving orders because four women ran to a broken-down swing set and started dragging it next to the fence.
Michelle and T-Dog ran to their cars and drove to the front of the back neighbor’s house. The women waited in the street to meet them.
Eleven Russian women stuffed themselves into Michelle’s Crossfire and T-Dogs Explorer.
Twenty four hours later, Michelle followed Nikky’s directions and pulled into the parking lot of the two story, L-shaped, nondescript motel.
Nikky waved from the second floor balcony close to the corner stairs. “Up here.”
Michelle checked out the older motel room. It was clean and still quite serviceable Two double beds fit comfortably on the back wall. A matching blond wood desk, low chest of drawers and TV stand filled up much of the other wall. A dark-haired woman with a surprisingly fair complexion dressed in jeans, a Dallas Cowboys sweatshirt, and bare feet sat leaning against the headboard on one of the beds. Michelle heard the shower through the bathroom door so she didn’t look inside. “Any trouble getting here?”
“No troubles at all,” Nikky replied. “No sign of anyone behind us on the way over, or at the center. It’s all quiet here. They piled into some taxis like it was nothing when I told them we had to move.”
“What’s the setup?”
“I rented three rooms. The other two are like this one with two double beds,” Nikky said. “They can sort themselves out as to who is where. Jelena, the one who speaks pretty good English, made a list of things they need for the night. It wasn’t much. They asked for basic toiletries, you know toothbrush and combs . . . A couple boxes of tampons and some cigarettes. It’s like they have been through this before.”
“I know a little about that. A while back, I bumped into the Russian mafia shipping women into Mexico. They sent them over crammed into a container on a ship, I’m sure moving around like this is no big deal. But, I bet their pimp shooting two of them has got to be pretty fucked even for them. How are they?”
“They’re quiet, considering they ran out of a house with nothing but their clothes and purses. PJ said that big all-night Seven-Eleven over by the four-oh-five has some underwear, tee shirts and shorts. She’s buying some panties and whatever she thinks they’ll need. Jelena is waiting to talk to you.”
“Is that her in the shower?”
“No. This is her room, but she’s next door right now. I’ll go get her.”
Michelle sat on the side of the empty bed facing the woman. “Do you speak English?”
“No. No English.”
Jeeze, what’ve I got myself into?
Clearly she had a long night in front of her, probably an even longer week. The night might be long, but the time would be too short. There was a lot to talk about and a lot to do. Michelle needed to find out quickly whether the woman was telling the truth about her language skills and move on to the many other things she needed to find out.
“If I said I would walk over and slap the ever-loving snot out of you? What would you do?”
“No. No English.” The woman smiled and shrugged.
“How about if I said I would pull a gun and shoot off your toes one at a time?”
“Da, gun. Gangster gun.” Smiling much bigger, the woman made a gun with her finger. “Phew, Phew.”
“Yes,” Michelle said. “Gangster gun.” She made a gun with her finger the same as the woman had. “Phew, Phew.”
Nikky came back into the room. Jelena followed her in.
Michelle reached over and patted the bed across from her. “Sit here.”
Jelena sat on the bed opposite Michelle. Nikky took the desk chair.
Michelle looked at the woman sitting at the head of the bed. “Who’s this?”
“She is Alinka. She will not understand what we say. She does not speak English.”
“I know.” Michelle smiled at the woman and made a gun with her finger pointing to the ceiling. “Phew, Phew.”
The woman smiled. “Da, gangster.”
Michelle turned back to Jelena, “Are you and the other women alright?”
“Yes, we do fine here. It is good to be away from asshole Jack-Move. How are the two womans he shoot?”
“They’ll be okay. The doc said she wants both of them to stay in the clinic a few days. The good news is, neither of them need to go to a hospital, so we don’t have a problem with INS.”
“That is good. They are good women and would not talk, but is better they are not arrested by INS.”
“I know you are all hos from Russia. You worked for Jack-Move and this Fast Eddie. I also know you can’t go back home. What do you know about me?”
“I do not like that word; ho. But, we are as you say, working womans. Da, we all know who you are. You are hope angel for us.”
Michelle looked at Nikky, who shrugged. “What do you mean hope angel?”
“You are the woman pimp they call Michelle Angelique. Yes?” Jelena asked.
Nikky snorted. “Talk about word choices.”
“That’s right. But I prefer the name madam,” Michelle replied.
“Then you are hope angel to us. You are angel that brings hope. We all want to stay and work for you.”
“Are there any I could send home to Russia?”
“No. We all have nothing in Russia. There is only trouble for us there. We all want to stay and work for you. As you can see we are all pretty womans. We like American men almost as much as we hate Jack-Move.”
“If you want to stay and work for us. We can make that happen. But I have to deal with Jack-Move. He killed one of my girls who was also a friend. He has to die.”
“Svetlana told us about the dead woman. Jack-Move said he would do that to us if we crossed him,” Jelena said.
“Even if I wasn’t already going to kill him, he’d have to be dealt with because of y’all. He’ll be back. I know his type. Like he said, he’ll kill a couple of you to make the rest come back. So, I need to know everything I can about him. Why come here? Anglewatts is a long way from Houston.”
“Svetlana would talk to
me about things she heard. Fast Eddie is connected with the police here.”
“Do you know any names?”
“Not really, Captain somebody.”
“Captain Baxter?”
“Yes, Captain Baxter. That is the name Svetlana said, and also the name I hear Jack-Move say on the phone.”
“Why now? Why come to Anglewatts now?”
“We were supposed to come here six months ago. We heard the man here who worked with the policeman got killed.”
“What was his name?”
“I remember it was Jackson because it is like Jack-Move so it was easy for me to remember.”
“You’re telling me Jackson from Anglewatts worked for Fast Eddie?”
“Yes, maybe, that is what I think is right. I am only sure Jack-Move worked for Fast Eddie. I know this because Fast Eddie talked bad to Jack-Move and he didn’t do anything. Later he would be mean to us for no reason.”
“And six months ago Jack-Move was supposed to come out here and set up shop with you girls?” Michelle asked.
“Yes.”
“Let me get this straight. Jack-Move would work for Jackson?”
“I don’t know,” Jelena said. “I don’t think so. I think Jack-Move would still work for Fast Eddie. I think Jackson would help set things up.”
“What about Captain Baxter?”
“The policeman, I don’t know.”
“It doesn’t matter, I understand enough.”
Twelve: Exhale
“HELLO, LADIES. is this your first time at Gladstone’s?” the receptionist asked in greeting them.
“We’ve been here before,” Michelle replied.
“We’re glad to have you back for lunch today. You’re in luck, a table by the window overlooking the ocean is available, right this way please.”
The friends followed the woman past several tables full of well-dressed people. Michelle noted about half the men and a good percentage of the women wore business suits. Most of them shared tables with men and women in flamboyant, even gaudy attention-getting styles. She didn’t recognize any faces.
Lawyers, accountants, producers and directors. No big-time actors.
“How cool,” Deja said. “It’s the same table we had last time. It’s like our good luck table.”
“Good, we can use some good luck about now,” Nikky said.
“I love it. Definitely déjà vu, all over again,” Michelle said.
After they were seated and drinks were on the way Deja turned to Michelle and batted her eyes. “Who is Deja Voo?
“Yeah, I wondered about that too,” Nikky added, grinning.
Michelle laughed. It was an old inside joke from when they were little girls and Deja had been excited wanting to meet the new girl at school, Deja Voo, that shared her name.
With her trademark cheesing grin, Deja said, “You’re right, it is déjà vu all over again. Remember last time we were here? It was the first time we wore our new tailor-made dresses and I said how tailor-made clothes made me feel special. Well, we’re here in our new cars. It’s the same thing — all over again. So hella yes, keep it coming, déjà vu all over again, and again, and fucking again.”
They all laughed as Deja mugged.
“You’re so right, we’re in the middle of some serious problems, but we do need to be grateful for all of this wonderful life we’ve been building. Even if my name does mean re-run. Speaking of our problems,” looking at Michelle, Deja asked, “Do you have any ideas on what to do with all of this?”
“It’s been three days since the shit came down at Jack-Move’s place. If he was still here, he would’ve grabbed one of our girls or done something for leverage to force us into giving him the women. We’d be scrambling trying to deal with the next shit storm. We certainly wouldn’t be out here for lunch. I believe he left town. My guess is he probably headed back to Texas.”
“Do you think he’s gone for good?” Deja asked.
“No, there’s way too much at stake for him to leave it. He’ll be back. When he does, it’ll be with muscle, probably a shooter,” Michelle replied. “He underestimated us because we’re women. He won’t do that again.”
“Back to the question. Any ideas about what to do about his ass?” Nikky asked.
“He got hit pretty hard. Whatever the costs were on setting up everything, it was a lot and probably set him back a great deal. Even if he has some back up, it’ll still take some time to put a team together to come at us. We should have some time before he can turn around,” Michelle said. “I think the best thing to do is take the fight to him. If we can find this Fast Eddie asshole, we’ll find Jack-Move. That means, we go to Texas and cap his ass.”
“Whoop! There it is!” Deja exclaimed. At the loud comment, a well-dressed, gray haired woman at the next table looked up and gave Deja a nod and a smile. Deja grinned and mouthed “Sorry.”
“When do we leave?” Nikky asked.
“Not right away. They’ll be on the watch out for us now. Give it a few days and they’ll think we’ve decided to stay home. They know the fight isn’t over, but will think that we want to keep the home court advantage. That works well for us because I have a job to do that’ll take a little time.”
“A job job?” Deja asked.
“Yeah. A job, job. It should take a couple days. I only accepted it because it’ll help us with our business,” Michelle said.
Nikky looked at Deja and shrugged. “Enough said.”
“I know I’m not supposed to ask specifics, so I won’t,” Deja said. “But, should we know any more about it?”
“Nope. All you need to know is I’ll be gone a few days.”
“Is there anything we can do?” Nikky asked.
They were interrupted by the waitress coming to their table and asking for their orders.
“Calamari salad,” Michelle said.
“Fried shrimp plate,” Nikky said.
“Sea Bass lunch special,” Deja said.
“You know they have excellent burgers here if you want your favorite lunch,” Nikky said.
“Well, the name of the place is Gladstone’s For Fish. We’re here with our new cars and our new clothes from Marie’s. I think I can try some new food. Make it a grand slam,” Deja said.
“Let me repeat those orders,” the waitress said. “A calamari salad, fried shrimp plate, and a grand slam sea bass lunch special.”
“Oooo, you just got a bigger tip!” Deja said.
The waitress grinned and left.
Deja turned to Michelle, “Back to your job. Is there anything we can do?”
Before Michelle could answer, a gray-haired woman stopped by their table. In a heavy British accent she said, “Pardon me dears. I am rarely so forward, but as you Americans seem so open, I felt it was acceptable to approach.” Turning to Deja she said, “I wanted to tell you how wonderful it is to hear you and your friends having such an obviously joyous time with each other’s company.” Then she winked and said, “Whoop, there it ’tis!” With that, she turned to Michelle and Nikky, tilted her head, “Ladies,” and strolled out.
Nikky looked at Michelle who had returned her big eyed grin. “Oh no she didn’t!”
Deja chimed in, “’Ol Ma has got it going on with some style and taste!”
The three friends broke out laughing.
“Don’t get me wrong,” Deja faced Michelle. “What happened to Little-T and that shit with Bunny it’s some serious fucked up shit. But right now, here, this is something. I love my new life. I can guaranfuckingtee you nothing like that — she nodded toward the woman—would’ve happened before you came home. Does that make me sick to be both sad and happy when our friend is dead?”
“No. It means you’re human. Being human is a complicated mess sometimes.” Michelle reached out, taking Deja’s hand and Nikky’s hand in hers, looking from one to the other. “You guys are my home. You’re my heart. Nothing will ever change that. Men and money will come and go, but you two, you’re for life. All three
of us. We ride or die.”
Deja and Nikky clasped each other’s free hand, closing the circle. “We ride or die.”
“Now about your question, yes there is a bit of set-up you can help me with.” Michelle nodded to the waitress and her helper carrying several plates. “I think that is our lunch on the way. We’ll talk about how you can help after we eat.”
Thirteen: Payday For A Dirty Cop
THE EMPTY WINE BOTTLE sat next to two empty glasses on the dresser. The blankets, pillows and top sheet all lay in a bunch on the floor. Marvin Gaye’s Sexual Healing played through the Bose speakers. Daryl, still in the shower, began singing along with Marvin.
Michelle smiled at Daryl’s singing. She left the bedroom, closed the door behind her and called Trevon.
“Sup?” Trevon answered his cell.
“You with someone?” Michelle asked.
“Yeah.”
“Business or woman?” she asked.
“Woman.”
“Where are you?”
“My place.”
“Is she credible?”
“Yes.”
“Good. Take her out in public. Be noticed and stay late. Make sure she spends the night. Take her out for breakfast tomorrow and talk to the staff.”
It’s nothing, him being with some woman. So why am I pissed? Shut up girl, you don’t have time for this shit.
“Got it. And Michelle . . . thanks.”
Michelle tapped her cell and went back into the bedroom. Daryl wrapped up his song.
“You sound pretty good in there,” Michelle yelled through the open door.
Daryl stuck his head out of the shower. “Yeah, I love all of that old school soul. You ought to hear me do Brook Benton’s Rainy Night in Georgia.”
“I’ll hold you to that. Maybe next time?” Michelle mugged a big frown. “Sadly, I have to go. Deja is expecting me. We have a ton of work to do this evening. You’re still dropping me off at her place, right?”
“As you wish, my princess bride.” He ducked back into the shower.
Less than an hour later they pulled up to Deja’s apartment building. Daryl left the engine running and leaned across the seat to kiss Michelle before she got out.
Hard Win (Michelle Angelique Avenging Angel Series 3) Page 8