Private Deceptions

by Glenn, Roy

  "Oh by the way," Freeze said. "Wanda came here looking for you."

  "Did she really?"

  "Yeah, she did. She said if I saw you, I should tell you not to do anything stupid."

  "Okay, you told me. And I’m not goin’ to do anything stupid. I’m goin’ to kill somebody. And you’re goin’ to make sure that I don’t do anything stupid."

  "You startin’ to sound like the Nick I used to know."

  "I’m startin’ to feel like him too."

  "It’s good to have you back, Nick. I don’t want to sound soft or nothin’ like that, but I missed you man."

  "I missed all of you."

  We stopped at Cynt’s; one of the gambling houses we’ve run for years. "We." I felt a part of all this again. Maybe this is what Wanda meant when she said I needed to recognize.

  "Hey, Freeze. And who is this fine ass man you got with you?" Cynt said as she twisted her hips in our direction.

  "How’s it goin’ Cynt?" She threw her arms around my neck and gave me a kiss that raised an eyebrow on Freeze. Like there was some past thing between us that I never knew about.

  "How are you, Nick? I heard you were back in the city. I was wondering, like everybody else, why you hadn’t come around. But I see you picked back up with your old thug buddy here."

  "Let’s go to your office Cynt. I need to get something out of your safe." Freeze said.

  "You two, rollin’ together, just like old times." Cynt said and turned toward the steps to her office.

  I looked at Freeze. He looked at me. We both watched Cynt walk her big pretty ass up the steps. We both smiled. "Just like old times."

  Once we were in her office, Cynt opened the safe and stepped aside. She had a small arsenal in that safe. "Help yourself. They’re all clean, acid on the serial numbers. Damn near impossible to trace."

  I stepped up and picked out three 45’s and two silencers. Freeze grabbed one too and an AK47, "Just in case things get thick out there."

  "That should thin things out nicely." Cynt threw in.

  "Got any gloves, Cynt?" I asked.

  "What do I look like, Macy’s?"

  "Come on Nick, I got some for you in the truck. Lets go."

  "Good to see you again Cynt," I said as I followed Freeze out the office.

  Cynt grabbed me by the arm.

  "You make sure you come back and see me soon, Nick," she said and kissed me on the cheek.

  "I’ll do that."

  As soon as we got in the truck, Freeze turned to me and shook his head. "What’s up with you and Cynt?"

  "I swear man, I don’t know what was up with that."

  "Nigga, when you gonna get enough of fuckin’ with Bobby’s women," Freeze laughed. "I’m just fuckin’ with you kid."

  "Bobby still fuckin’ Cynt?"

  "Naa, Pam got that nigga pussy whipped and on lock down since the day she met him."

  "Pam, that his wife?"

  "Yeah, she’s a good girl. Real solid, you know. She’s been good for Bobby. Mellowed him the fuck out."

  "Maybe after this is over with we can roll by there."

  "Time you and Bobby made peace and put that Camille shit behind y’all. Bitch been dead for ten fuckin’ years and shit."

  "I feel you."

  "Where the fuck we goin’, anyway?"

  "Greenwich."

  "Connecticut?"

  "Yeah. Wake me up when we get there."

  When we got to the house, there was gated entry and a guard posted. I told Freeze to roll by so we could get a look at the place. I sure missed Jett, he would have tapped into some satellite and had a birdseye view of the set up. But that wasn’t the only reason I missed him. He was a good friend. I thought about Monika lying in that hospital bed, fighting for her life. I was here for them.

  I didn’t see any camera surveillance, but I knew there had to be some. Once I had satisfied myself with the layout of the grounds, I told Freeze to give me five minutes and then drive to the gate and I would join him there. I made my way around to the gate. I put the silencers on the guns and waited in the brush for Freeze to pull up. As he approached the gate, the guard came out and stopped him.

  "Good evening, sir. Can I help you?"

  "No, but he can." Freeze pointed at me.

  "What?"

  He turned around and I put two shots in his head. I dragged him into the guard shack and opened the gate. Freeze drove through the gate, I got back in the truck, and we headed for the house. He stopped the truck around the side of the house. "Well what’s the plan?"

  "Give me five minutes, then come in after me."

  "You got it."

  I moved toward the house, staying in the shadows. The lock was no problem. I moved quickly through the house, guns drawn, looking for my objective. Checking each room, before moving on to the next. The thought did occur to me that the bastard might not be there. If he wasn’t, I’d burn the bitch down.

  "Monika would like that," I said to myself.

  I heard footsteps coming toward me. I got out of sight. Once he passed me, I put two in the back of his head. I dragged his body into the first room I came to. I recognized him. He was Lieutenant Commander Snow. He was in command of a different Special Ops unit, but he was a part of our little community. At that point, I knew I was in the right place. I had been through all the downstairs rooms and was making my way up the steps, when I heard more footsteps coming. I put my guns in their holsters and went over the rail. I would hold on until they passed.

  I watched as they stopped at the top of the steps and talked. I hoped it wouldn’t be a long conversation. My arms were starting to hurt. They started down the steps. I was in a bad spot if they saw my hands. I gave some thought to letting go if they did. I looked down. "Bad idea."

  Fortunately, they passed me by. Once they were out of sight, I came back over the rail and continued up the stairs. I could have shot them too, but I figured it would give Freeze something to do. He always did like to compare body counts.

  I walked down a long hallway until I saw a light coming from an open door. As I got closer, I heard voices. I heard his voice. My heart began racing, I moved faster. I came through the door and there he was, Uncle Felix, seated behind a marble desk. I should have blasted him on sight. But first I had to know why.

  "Come on in Nick, we’ve been expecting you," Felix said smiling. "Have a seat."

  I took a step closer.

  "Why don’t you just put those guns down, nice and slow while you at it, Nick." I recognized that southern accent. I turned to see General Peterson seated on the couch with an M-16 pointed at me. He was my commanding office for our last tour of duty. It was all starting to come together. I took a deep breath and complied with his orders.

  "That’s a good soldier, Nick, but you always were," The general said, laughing. "Shit, I got half a dozen men in this house and one at the gate. But you walked right by them like it wasn’t shit, didn’t you, Nick?"

  "Sit down, Nick. Take a load off." Felix said.

  "I told you he was the best soldier I ever commanded Felix. Made you a damn good operative, didn’t he?"

  "Yeah, he was good."

  "Tell me about it Felix, why’d you do it?"

  "Do what Nick? Oh, you mean Jett and Monika, don’t you?"

  "Yeah, Monika was too good to be taken by any of Chilly’s boyz without gettin’ off a shot. It had to be you."

  "No, Nick, it was me," the general said. "Monika let me in, no problem. Perkins, that was the boy that Bronson cut up, well she made him while she was out on her little date with Chilly. Once he was compromised, it wouldn’t take her long to put it all together just like you did. So we had to kill her. Then Bronson showed up. Perkins covered while I left. His orders were to kill Bronson. But you see how that turned out."

  "Then you brought in a cleaner to clean up after Jett. Who killed Jett?"

  "Lieutenant Commander Snow had that honor," the General said. "Bronson saw us when we were coming out of the house where he
killed Perkins. So we let him follow us to Chilly’s house. Your boy was careless, Nick. He let Snow walk right up on him and shoot him with a .22 in the ear. Very effective."

  "I just want to know why?"

  "Well, for that I got to take you back a ways," Felix said as he got up and poured himself a drink. "You see, Nick, the whole time you were in South America, you may have been under the General here’s command, but you were working for me."

  "Just what were we doin’ down there Felix?"

  "You were conducting the war on drugs as a agent of the United States Government, sort of." Felix said and he the General both laughed, but I wasn’t amused. Maybe they would let me in on the joke.

  "Well, not exactly," the General said.

  "You and your unit were there, not to stop the flow of drugs into this country, but to stream line it. You see, Nick, I have a friend down there. He came to me and asked for my help in eliminating some of his competition. In return we would be partners in his rather lucrative enterprise."

  "Cocaine."

  "Right. So I went to my friend the General here, and he was kind enough to donate the services of your unit. But he said to me that instead of just eliminating some of his competition, hell, let’s get rid of all the bastards or at least do damage to their operations."

  "So you sent us down there to assassinate key people and destroy drug labs. The whole time we’re thinking it’s for good old Uncle Sam, we were doin’ it all for good old Uncle Felix. Good plan. What went wrong?"

  "Who said anything went wrong. You and your unit were doing an excellent job," Felix said smugly. "Especially your team, Nick. The entire campaign was a success."

  "That’s right. Your team was especially destructive. That Monika sure can blow some shit up." The general added. "How is she doin’ anyway, Nick? I understand it doesn’t look good for her."

  "She’s a fighter. She’s gonna make it."

  "No, she’s not, Nick. If she makes it out of intensive care, she’ll be dead before she gets to her room." Felix said.

  "We’ll see about that. But we’ll pass that for now. So you brought us all back together to eliminate the eliminators, but we fucked it up when Monika broke her ankle. We were all supposed to die that day."

  "I knew you were smart enough to figure that much out," the general said. "I was just gonna just line you all up and shoot you. But Felix said that he could use your team for some other jobs he had goin’. Said you three had a skill set that he would make excellent use of. So I got y’all out from down there. Handled the debriefing myself and turned you over to Felix."

  "I figured that part out too. As long as Felix had his hand around our throats and we didn’t know what was really goin’ on down there anyway, we were non-threatening. What happened to change that?"

  "My friend wasn’t the only one with influential friends. There were stories in some circles of American service men participating in a drug eradication effort. If those stories ever made their way to Capital Hill there would be hell to pay," Felix said. "And all that hell would fall on me, Nick."

  "You three were the only one’s who lived, and like I said you were smart enough to figure it out," the general said.

  "And I wasn’t gonna take the chance of you bein’ subpoenaed to testify before some fuckin’ Senate sub-committee," Felix said.

  "So you killed Jett and you tried to kill Monika."

  "I didn’t want to, Nick, but you can surely see where I didn’t have a choice in the matter. You three were the best operatives I had. It’s gonna be hard to replace you," Felix said.

  "What about me? Why didn’t you try to kill me?"

  "You’re a killer, Nick. You would be hard to kill. I thought about asking you to join us, but, as your presence here proves you’re too damn loyal to your friends. Even if you said you would go along with it, there would always exist the possibility that you would flip and try to kill us all. Anyway, since you were making a fool of yourself playing private detective, I just figured that either that animal Chilly would kill you, or the cops would have you for murder. But if neither one of those options panned out, don’t think I wouldn’t send a team to kill you. And they would have to be good to get the job done."

  "Thanks for the compliment."

  "No problem."

  "Well gentlemen, I’ve heard enough." I started to reach for my third weapon.

  "Good, so have I."

  I turned around as Freeze came through the door and fired two shots to the general’s head. Then he turned to Felix and fired two shots at him.

  "What’d you do that for?" I screamed.

  "What are you talkin’ about? You said you had heard enough. I figured that meant it was time for them to die."

  "Yeah, but I wanted to kill Felix."

  "I tell you what, I’ll let you kill the next one."

  "It’s not the same. Fuck it, nevermind. Let’s just get the fuck outta here."

  Freeze walked over and looked at Felix. "Why didn’t you tell me he was the one you were lookin’ for?"

  "You know him?’

  "Shit yeah. Didn’t you hear him? He’s partners with Estabon, who supplies Chilly."

  "Why didn’t you tell me?"

  "You didn’t ask me about him or Estabon. You just asked me about Chilly."

  "Damn."

  "Sorry, Nick, how was I supposed to know."

  "Forget it, man. Thanks for havin’ my back."

  "Anyway, what were you gonna do with your guns on the floor?"

  "I had three guns, remember."

  "That’s right. Yo, I was listening to them talk about you. You that bad a mutha fucka?"

  "Yeah."

  "Well, come on Shaft and I’ll buy you a drink."

  "Okay, but just a quick one. I got one more body to account for."

  "You ain’t thinking bout goin’ to Peru to kill Estabon, are you?"

  "No. Something a little closer to home."

  * * *

  Chapter Twenty-six

  "Who is it?"

  "Its, Nick."

  Felicia opened the door and let me in. She threw her arms around my neck and kissed me. "I’m so glad to see you." Felicia kissed me again and again. I was glad to see her too.

  "Surprised to see me?"

  "Yes. I heard about Chilly. I thought you were in jail."

  "Wanda got me out."

  "Who is Wanda? Should I be jealous?"

  "No. Wanda is not only family to me, but she’s my lawyer."

  "All right now. I just want to know who the players are in this game before I get in."

  "Baby, this ain’t no game."

  "Oh, so you the real thing, huh?"

  "Is there anything to drink?"

  "Sure, I have a bottle of Zinfandel. You want some?"

  "Is that a trick question?"

  "What do you —" she looked confused. "Oooohh! You want some?" Felicia got up to get the wine. "Nick, you can have all you want of this. As much as you want of this."

  She returned with two glasses and sat down next to me. "Here you go baby. You look tired."

  "I really haven’t slept in a couple of days." Felicia looked sad. "Smile, Felicia. I ain’t ever that tired." She smiled and sipped her wine.

  "What happened with the police?"

  "I’m out on bond. But Wanda thinks they’ll be willing to accept that my killin’ Chilly was self defense."

  "That’s good. What about the rest of them?"

  "I think they’ll probably drop the whole thing on Chilly and call it day. He was responsible for all of it anyway." I finished my wine. "Felicia, do you mind if I take a shower?"

  "Not at all." She popped up from the couch and held out her hand. "Come with me. Let me get you some towels,"

  "Thank you. A nice hot shower is what I need," I said as Felicia turned on the light in the bathroom. "It will help me relax."

  She turned on the shower and started to undress me. "Not too relaxed that you pass out on me."

  I shook my head no.
>
  "I could use a shower too. You want some company in there?" She asked as she removed the last of my clothes.

  "Is that a trick question?" And I got in the shower.

  Felicia bathed me, then we made love in the shower, and again once we made our way to the bed. I enjoyed making love to her. In spite of her tough cop exterior, Felicia was an extremely sensual and highly sexual woman. While we made love, I had to ask myself the question. Was I in love with her? And would it make things any different?

  As advertised, I waited until after we made love to pass out. When I woke up, Felicia was gone. "Felicia!"

  "I’m in the kitchen. Don’t get up, I’m fixing you breakfast." She stuck her head in the room. "How does breakfast in bed sound to you?"

  "Great. You’re all right, you know that?"

  "I’m more than all right, but I’m breakin’ it on you slowly. I wouldn’t want you to feel overwhelmed. I know how you men are."

  Felicia went back to the kitchen while I got up and went to the bathroom. I took care of matters in the bathroom, got back in the bed, and waited for Felicia. She came in carrying a tray with a flower in a vase. She made Spanish omelets, hash browns with link sausages. "Toast, coffee, and a Mamosa."

  "All this for me?" I said, trying my best to look surprised and honored all at once. "Will you be joining me?"

  "Of course. I’ll be right back." She came back with her food and got in bed next to me. She was a good breakfast cook. I’d be interested to see if that translated to being a good cook period. We ate and talked; sausages inspired sexual innuendo, mostly. I told her about Monika and Jett, she cried a few tears for me.

  Man I was diggin’ her.

  When we finished eating, Felicia took the trays back to the kitchen. She came in the room and got back in bed and snuggled up close to me. Felicia told me she had an appointment with her professor the next day to talk about her getting back into law school. "Now that it’s over, I want to try to get my life back."

  "That’s good that you’re gettin’ your life back. But there’s something that always has bothered me."

  "What’s that?"

  "Why did you leave?"

  "I told you, I was afraid."