Smugglers 4 - South Beach Heat

by Gerald McCallum

  “Bad,” she admitted.

  “Okay, I’ve got to think for a minute, I’ll be back.”

  He left with his groceries and Nikki could hear his footsteps on the stairs.

  She flopped back in her chair and started to cry again. Twenty minutes later, Glenn returned and instructed her to take the phone off the hook and lock the office door.

  “I have something I want to talk to you about in private. Dry your face and sit down.” He motioned to the chair in front of the table.

  She dried her face and sat down, noticing a brief case in Glenn’s hand. He set it on the table between them and said “Now, you only need two hundred fifty thousand to catch up.”

  With that said, he opened the briefcase and spun it around so Nikki could see the contents. She gasped. She had never seen so much money— cash money, that is.

  After a few moments, she asked, “How much is here?”

  “Just what you need,” Glenn replied. “There’s two hundred fifty thousand.” He paused, then continued on in a stern voice. “There are strings attached. First, your husband must go.”

  “You want to kill Bill?” she exclaimed.

  “No, no,” he said, “he just has to go. Second, you must give this money to your attorney to settle with the bank. Third, no one—that is no one must know about me and our deal. Fourth, never— and I mean never bring this up in a conversation again. Fifth, I want no paper work. If you can live this way we’re okay. If not, no hard feelings. Oh, and sixth— I get half ownership of the marina.” Glenn shoved his chair back and stood up. “Think about it overnight, he said, looking down at her with dark eyes. “I’ll leave the briefcase here. Another thing, Nikki—so far you have only seen my shining side. You don’t want to see the other.” Glenn went to the door, unlocked it and left without a backward glance.

  Nikki sat and stared at the two hundred fifty thousand dollars in the briefcase.

  Chapter 3

  In the morning, Nikki saw Glenn come downstairs, and she called out to him, “Glenn, can you come into my office? I want to talk to you about last night.”

  “You want fifty percent ownership…” Nikki said after he entered and closed the door behind him.

  “Stop! Stop!” He held up a firm hand. “First, do I look like this is some kind of a negotiation or deal? It isn’t, and second, I told you to never bring it up again. Nikki, you have until 4 o’clock today to give me back the briefcase either full or empty, but don’t ever—that’s ever, mention it again at your own peril.”

  He left as quickly as he’d arrived. She’d never seen this side of Glenn, at least not before yesterday when he’d shoved a suitcase full of money in front of her. She’d stashed it inside the credenza beneath a stack of papers she intended to file someday.

  Feeling antsy, she decided to take a walk and collect some more rent while she tried to clear her head. Her thoughts kept going back to the briefcase in her closet, and her strange conversation with Glenn.

  Is he for real? she wondered as she stepped onto the dock. Is the money clean and good? Don’t be stupid, she told herself. It can’t be clean. But knowing how thorough Glenn was with everything in his life, it’s probably good money, and one thing was for sure, the foreclosure was for real and looming on the horizon like a burning Florida Keys sunset.

  The “Major” appeared on the dock in front of Nikki, cutting off her thoughts of impending doom. This time he was in civvies, and he didn’t remember being out earlier or talking to Nikki or anything else. He walked around aimlessly, drinking coffee from a large foam cup and looking sharp. His clothes were custom made. In fact, he reminded Nikki of the guy in “Scent of a Woman”, but he wasn’t blind. On the contrary, sometimes he saw things that others couldn’t.

  She had forgotten to call the diver for Mark, so after helping the Major back to his boat, she returned to her office and placed the call. He couldn’t make it until Saturday, so Mark would have to keep the house boat pumped out until then. She left to find him, and after she gave Mark the scoop, she strode back to her office to call the attorney for an appointment about her ex-husband and the two hundred fifty thousand. She decided in a rush that she would keep the money in the briefcase and deal with Glenn’s rules later.

  On Wednesday morning Nikki headed out for the appointment at her attorney’s office scheduled for nine o’clock, and she was late as usual, this time because she’d forgotten the briefcase and had to go back to get it. He made her wait in the outer room twice as long because she was tardy. She finally got in and started the conversation with “Will my divorce be final in two weeks?”

  “You betcha.” he said.

  “Will Bill release all rights, title, and interest in all my stuff including the marina?” Nikki asked.

  “He already has, that is, pending the divorce being final.”

  “How about the house boats?” she asked.

  “He’s already signed off on those,” he replied.

  “I have another issued I want to discuss with you.” She took a seat in the chair in front of his desk and set the briefcase on the floor next to her feet. “I’ve been served a foreclosure notice on the marina for about one-quarter of a million dollars. Just supposing a friend of mine had that kind of money, but in cash, could you deal with that?” Nikki voice was low.

  The attorney got up and closed the door, even though there was no one in the outer office. “What do you mean, some friend of yours, Nikki? Who is it?”

  “You have no need to know, and you’ll never meet this friend. Ever!” She met his stare with a stare of her own. “Can you deal with the cash and the foreclosure?”.

  “First, I want the money here so I know it’s not smoke being blown up my ass,” he said. “And we can’t do anything until your divorce is final, so that Bill can’t find out, or he will jump back in. Second, there is no paperwork between you and me.”

  “Never mind when and what,” Nikki said. She picked up the briefcase and moved it onto his desk. “Open it,” she ordered. “There’s two hundred thirty five thousand in there. You can count it.”. The attorney opened the case and stared at the money, then fingered a crisp stack of bills.

  “I guess your friend ain’t smoking. Is this money cool?” he asked.

  “It’s cool.”

  Nikki drove back to the marina. As she was opening her office, she noticed Mercedes and a man stepping out of Mercedes’ apartment. The man gave her a lingering kiss goodbye. Mercedes was tall and thin and wearing a silk night gown, looking pretty even though her red hair was messed up. Nikki recognized the man. He owned a landscaping business and was married with two kids.

  Watching him leave, Nikki wondered how he’d been able to stay out all night?

  “Good morning,” Nikki called out to Mercedes who lit a cigarette, then pulled out a wad of money from her robe pocked.

  “Rent for the month,” she said, handing Nikki cash in small bills. “Careful honey, it may still be sticky and hot.”

  They laughed together, and Nikki felt normal for the first time in a long while.

  “What a beautiful day,” Mercedes said, “sun’s out, water’s blue and the sky is clear, so I’m going to bed until five or six when all that is gone. I’ll get the receipt later tonight.”

  On the way back to her office, Nikki saw Glenn. “I’ve got something for you,” she called out. “Wait a minute.” She got the brief case which was now empty. This was her signal that she did the deal, so nothing further had to be discussed. Glenn didn’t say anything either.

  “I’ll be down on my boat working,” he told her.

  Glenn got on his boat, a forty-two foot Scarab with three 225 saltwater Mercs hung on the back. It was a one hundred mile per hour boat when fully loaded. It also had two fifty-mile radars and two color GPS units, two stainless steel twelve-gauge pumps with deer slugs and Triple OTT buck every other shot provided fire power and deadly force if necessary. The dopers called it “Shake and Bake.” It would pop holes in any boat or kill
people if need be. It had two 9mm big clips and six clips and one bushmaster 223 fully automatic with six thirty-round clips. It had two six-foot magnetic signs on the sides, white with blue letters that read “Top Dog.”

  Glenn thought back about how he’d, started this deal with twenty friends from high school in the Keys. Back then it was for shits and giggles, and of course, the money. It was only grass, no violence, and very little chance of going to jail.

  Now, all but three or four friends were dead or in jail for thirty to forty years. Ever since cocaine took over, the drug business had become very violent. You had to have lots of guns and a partner you could trust, and both needed to speak Spanish to stay alive.

  It was a cash business. Let’s say you go out to sea to meet the mother ship fifty miles from the Florida coast with one million dollars in cash. The men on the mother ship were all armed, and you had to give them the cash before they would offload to you.

  And then the fun started with the Coast Guard and the DEA. You had to make your mate a partner for half. The men on the mother ship wanted to kill both of you and take the cash. The Coast Guard wanted to kill you or put you in jail for life. The DEA wanted to kill you or put you in jail for life, and the rip-off people wanted to kill you and take the cash. When you got home to unload, you had the DEA, the Sheriff’s department, the local cops, the rip-off people, and maybe a snitch with the DEA, all who had you under surveillance for months. They wanted to kill you and take the money or put you in jail for life.

  Putting that aside, it was easy. You had enough money to live on until you were two hundred. You knew you should have quit ten years ago, but now it was the “Jazz” and not the money.’

  Glenn worked on is boat until he saw Nikki come out of her office. She was headed down the dock and Old Auschultz was heading straight for her.

  Auschultz was a six foot-three inch thin seventy-five-year-old German who had lived on the dock since before Nikki and Bill had bought the marina. Everyone on the dock called him Colonel Klink. His home was a sixty-one foot Tollycraft, a two million dollar boat that maybe went out once or twice a year. No one knew what he did, but everyone know that money was no problem.

  Auschultz had a full time captain and cleaning lady. Once when he got sick and everybody thought he was going to die in the hospital, Bill went on his boat and into his storage garage to try to find the names of his nearest relatives. The boat was like new inside and out, but the garage was full of stuff and double locked. Inside was a 1944 Rolls Royce convertible with forty eight hundred miles on it. On the dash was a picture of him from the forties wearing an SS uniform.

  When Auschultz came back from the hospital a week later, he was visibly shaken when he discovered Bill had gone into the storage garage and had seen the contents. He never spoke much or had people down for drinks but always paid his rent on time and never caused any trouble. The marina was home to a lot of secrets.

  Nikki had locked her office up and decided to freshen up with a shower. Then she poured herself vodka to relax. While she was taking out a pork chop to thaw for dinner, someone knocked on the door.

  “Oh shit! What’s wrong now?” she said, but it was Glenn from upstairs.

  “Where’s mine,” he asked, eyeballing her drink.

  Still in a terry robe with wet hair, Nikki said, “Come on in and I’ll make you one. Vodka on ice, okay?”

  “You bet,” Glenn said as he followed Nikki into the kitchen where she made a drink for him.

  She turned around and handed it to him. They stood very, very close to each other. He took a sip then brought his face close to hers.

  He paused, looked her in the eyes and said, “Here’s to us.” Instead of taking a sip of the vodka, he kissed her lips, pulling the lower lip inside his mouth as if to drink in her sweetness. Her robe fell open, and Nikki did not bother to close it. Instead she let it fall off one shoulder. The movement inflamed Glenn, and when Nikki returned his kiss with a willing and open mouth, he touched her tongue with his and started a slow dance toward passion.

  They kissed and drank and worked their way to her room where she let her robe fall to the floor. She was naked and sweet smelling from her bath.

  Glenn allowed Nikki to take his drink, which she set aside and then proceeded to skillfully undress him. His body was hard and firm and tan and she liked what she saw and touched. Nikki fell back onto the bed, pulling Glenn with her.

  “Take me, Glenn, make love to me.”

  He didn’t have to be asked twice. Leaning over her, he started kissing her along the delicate curve of her face, down her neck and onward to her breasts which were full and ready for his mouth. He sucked hard and deep, and Nikki felt the throb of desire between her legs, which she opened wide. Suddenly she wanted hot wet sex. “Now, Glenn, now!”

  He entered her hard and fast, holding her hips down as she bucked beneath him. They made love like sex starved people do, crashing into one another until both screamed out in fulfillment.

  “Am I worth a quarter million dollars?” Nikki asked later as Glenn cradled her in his arms. They didn’t bother covering themselves, instead they reveled in their bodies, both glowing with a fine sheen of perspiration.

  “Every penny,” he said, his hand finding its way between her legs. He began a circular caress of her most private part. She growled and took his erection in her hand to mimic his motion inside her. Soon they were crying out for satisfaction, riding the wave of pure ecstasy, then crashing together in dizzying splendor.

  Much later, Nikki said, “I need a smoke.”

  “No,” Glenn said. “I don’t want to spoil the taste of your lips, your tongue. You have the most incredible mouth, and I want more of you.”

  “You can have all of me, Glenn. I’m yours to do with as you please.”

  And he did please her with his mouth until she cried out with sheer delight. Then she returned the favor. Spent, they fell into a short slumber until Glenn nudged her awake with his mouth on her breasts, his tongue teasing the nipples until she rolled over on top of him to give him easier access to her fullness.

  “I don’t ever want to get out of this bed, Glenn,” she whispered as she rocked into him.

  “We’ll have to. I’ll be gone a few days starting Thursday. Would you watch my place for me?” he asked.

  “Of course, but I’ll miss you,” Nikki said and kissed him again and again until they surged into another turbulent storm of lust.

  Glenn spent the night and in the morning they showered together, which led to a quick coupling against the tile with Glenn lifting Nikki up and onto him. She wrapped her legs around his waist and pressed her mouth into his shoulder, biting him with the intensity of a woman starved for love. They concluded by washing one another with soap, getting to know one another’s bodies in the light of day.

  After Glenn returned to his apartment to get some sleep, Nikki was too keyed up to sit still. She dressed and went on the dock where a warm breeze swayed through the palm trees. The scent of seawater reminded her of the smell of sex, incredible sex. She smiled to herself.

  Then she saw Mark, who was coming out of the hatch in the four-plex house boat.

  “The diver was here,” Mark called out, “and patched the hole so I’m getting the water out and setting up the fans. I’ll move them in two or three days. That should get it dry.”

  “Is that the only leak?” she asked.

  “I think so,” he replied, giving her a quizzical look.

  Nikki continued her walk down the dock to see if everything was okay, and to collect rent if anyone offered. She couldn’t stop smiling and thinking how wonderful it was to love and be loved again.

  CHAPTER 4

  The alarm went off at midnight; Friday had arrived. Glenn got up, took a shower, and went down the dock to untie the boat. He started the center engine only because it was the quietest. He went out to the canal before he started the two outside engines. Once this was accomplished, he placed the two signs that said “Top Dog.�
� For just five or ten minutes he was alone on his boat in the dark.

  He arrived at his partner Jim’s dock to pick him up. Jim boarded the boat and put up the fishing poles, which they used for cover. Then he positioned himself next to Glenn, who was navigating down the cut and out to sea. Glenn punched in the GPS destination reading, headed out at about one-third throttle on the two outside Mercs and turned off the center engine. Jim got the guns, checked the weapons and clips, and then stood by Glenn as they slipped out to sea under the cloak of total darkness. For obvious reasons, they only did trips when there was no moonlight.

  They got to the mother ship in an hour or so and had to wait about fifteen minutes while the crew loaded the boats lined up in front of them. Glenn didn’t recognize the four men who stood guard on the mother ship, but he pulled into his spot and gave them the cash. They started to load his boat with cocaine kilos, which weighed forty-eight pounds per bale. They were just finishing up the load when they saw blue and red lights coming from the northeast. They cut loose, sped off to the south, and out to sea.

  Jim was having trouble walking while the boat was going one hundred and twenty miles per hour. They could hear a helicopter hovering over the mother ship which was under way out to sea. The Coast Guard ship was also at the mother ship. Glenn kept going with the lights off, maintaining the speed of one hundred and twenty mph. Jim had the fully automatic Bushmaster in his grip. He knew if he got caught it meant twenty to thirty years.

  Glenn turned southwest toward the peninsula and had to slow down to sixty some mph because he was going with the wind, and the seas were very rough.

  “Should I deep six the yeyo?” Jim asked.

  “No, not yet.” Glenn replied.

  They could now see the helicopter looking for the runners. Jim took a bead on the chopper with the Bushmaster, but the chopper had a door gunner with a thirty-caliber Gatling gun. Jim didn’t have a chance.

  As he shut off the engines, Glenn said, “Get the blankets and bucket and throw sea water on top of the Mercs.”