Money Makin Manhattan

by Noire

  As a jewelry expert, Avi was a middleman and consultant for several legal and illegal diamond buyers and distributors, both here and abroad. He got paid handsomely for doing his type of business, and he could afford to give his little boys the type of childhood he’d never had.

  “So, are you little monsters hungry?” Avi asked as he looked through his rearview mirror and gazed at his sons sitting in the backseat.

  “Noooo, Daddy,” the boys called out in unison.

  “Do you boys want to go to the library today?” Avi asked.

  “Noooo, Daddy,” the boys called out again. The slightly taller Antoine spoke for them both. “We want to go to the park.”

  “Is that right?” Avi asked. His sons were two little bundles of energy. They weren’t heavily into video game systems, although they had plenty of them. No, Avi’s boys preferred to read books and play outside, which was a blessing in the technological age that they lived in. “Would you like to go to the park too, Andre?”

  “Yes, daddy,” Andre responded with a smile. “I love going to the park. We have so much fun there.”

  “Well, okay. If that’s what you boys want to do then let’s do it,” Avi said as he rolled the windows up in his Benz and turned on the air conditioner and made his way toward the Imagination Kingdom Park.

  Minutes later Avi pulled up at the park and let his boys out of the car. He kept a football in the trunk that he usually tossed around with them, but today they preferred to check out the attractions on the playground.

  “Look at me, Daddy! Look at me!” Antoine yelled as he slid down the sliding board on his stomach with his brother Andre right behind him.

  “Good job, boys,” Avi yelled as he sat on the benches where a few other parents were relaxing and watching their children play.

  As the kids found playmates and took off running and screaming their heads off in a lively game of tag, Avi pulled out a copy of the Wall Street Journal and began to read. Moments later, a well-dressed man with a friendly smile came over and sat down beside him.

  “Hello, how are you? Nice day out today,” Avi said in his foreign, courteous way.

  “Yes,” the man said evenly, keeping his cold blue eyes trained forward. “Yes, it’s a very nice day today, Avi. It’s a very nice day to die.”

  Avi gripped his newspaper in his fist and sat up straight. His inner alarm bells were ringing off the chart. “Excuse me sir? What did you say? How do you know my name?”

  “That’s not important,” the man said quietly as he watched Avi’s sons play. His eyes followed the little boys like an eagle on a rodent. Like he was a predator itching to pounce.

  “How’s your housekeeper?” the man asked with a smile.

  Avi’s whole body shook. “W-w-what?” he stammered. His housekeeper had recently been tortured and brutally murdered. He had sent a huge bouquet of flowers to her funeral service. “What do you mean?”

  “You’re a smart guy, Avi,” the man continued, “so I’m going to cut right to the chase. I have in my possession a very special diamond. Your friend Hymie Lovitz told me that you were the person I needed to see in order to turn my glistening stone into cold hard cash.”

  “I-I-I don’t know what you mean,” Avi stammered.

  The man nodded. “That’s the same bullshit line that old Hymie gave me. Until I promised to murder his daughter, that is.”

  Suddenly complete fear seized Avi. It gripped him right by his heart and all the color drained from his face. He knew what time it was and he couldn’t believe it was actually happening. He’d always known the old Jew Hymie was a coward, and now he’d put Avi and his family in danger.

  The strange man reached over and took the newspaper from Avi’s trembling hands and pretended to read it while he slipped the diamond from his overcoat and showed it to Avi discreetly.

  “I need to get rid of this and it has to be fast,” the man said. “And I want a good price for it too.”

  “I-I-I swear I don’t know what you’re talking about, my friend,” Avi tried again to play stupid, hoping and praying he wouldn’t pay for his act with his life.

  The man sighed as he slipped the diamond back inside his coat pocket. “Why must you dumb mothafuckers always do things the hard way?” he bitched quietly as he slid a pistol with a red beam and a silencer from his waist. He kept it concealed behind the newspaper.

  “Now Avi,” he said coldly but calmly. “Which one of your handsome little boys should I bury first? Or must I kill both of them to prove that I’m not fucking around? And after I blow their brains out, should I go to your parent’s fancy townhouse in Manhattan and scatter your mother’s thoughts all over her fucking breakfast table? Tell me, have you found a replacement for your cute redheaded housekeeper yet?”

  “Daddy!” Little Andre suddenly yelled out. “Can you come push us on the swings, Daddy?”

  Avi stiffened. “I’ll be there in a minute, son!” he cried out weakly. “Just stay over there and play with your brother!”

  “Avi,” the man said, aiming steadily as he lifted the newspaper slightly and placed the red beam on the back of little Andre’s head. “Fuck with me and I will slaughter every kid in this park and make you watch. Believe me, I’m seven steps ahead of whatever dumb-ass idea is running through your brain right now. You wanna see how fast I can take out little Andre and then tag little Antoine before anybody even notices his brother’s body has dropped?”

  “Okay, okay!” Avi whispered. “Just relax! Okay, I-I-I can sell the diamond for you!” Avi promised, panicking and sweating profusely. “But not right now. No matter what you threaten me with it’s just too hot of an item right now. The authorities have their radars all over that thing. You’re just going to have to sit on it and wait until the heat dies down. Trust me, if I try to smuggle it out of the country any time soon I’ll go to jail for a million years and you will never see a penny of the money.”

  The mysterious man sat in silence for a few moments while he contemplated what Avi had just told him.

  “Why do I get the feeling you’re trying to play me, Avi?” he asked quietly. Little Andre turned around laughing and the red dot appeared in the center of his pale forehead. “Must I fuck around and show you just how real shit can get?”

  “Noooo!” Avi yelled out, attracting the attention and curious stares of the other parents. “I mean, no sir!” he lowered his voice to a whisper. I swear to God I’m not lying! I can’t sell that diamond for you right now, but…I can get you involved with another diamond that’s worth much more than that one. If you promise to stay away from my sons I could cut you in on something I have brewing that could leave both of us well-off for the rest of our lives…

  “Something like what?” the stranger demanded, his gun-grip steady.

  With his eyes bucked open wide, Avi swallowed hard and asked in a whisper, “Have you ever heard of the Pink Lady?”

  CHAPTER 23

  Putting the Pieces Together

  Jewelz was tired as hell but she was also very excited as she stood in the mirror applying glue to her new wig so she could fasten it to her bald scalp.

  She’d gotten a real strange call earlier in the day from Handgun Goody saying that he wanted to see her. It had rained cats and dogs all day and she had been knocked out cold and slobbering on her pillow when her phone rang.

  Goody sounded tired. He told her he’d just gotten home from a meeting, and instead of attending a school play for his blind second-grader cousin like he was supposed to do that night, he wanted to take her out to dinner instead.

  “You mean you’d rather take me out for some shrimp and lobster than sit in an elementary school and watch your lil cousin pretend to be a stalk of celery?” Jewelz had joked as she stretched her body and rolled over in her designer sheets. “Now that’s real sweet, but I’m not sure I’m worth you missing out on something like that.”

  “Trust me, it’s all good,” Handgun Goody had told her. “Jasmine is my cuzzo Winky’s little girl, a
nd she’s my goddaughter too. Winky is a longtime Goode Brother himself, so he knows how I make shit happen. I’ll send Jazzy a nice big gift and catch them at the next event cause tonight a nigga just wanna be with you.”

  Jewelz’s mind raced as she came up with a quick plan. She hung up the phone knowing she only had a couple of hours to get her shit off and make it to the restaurant on time without him suspecting anything.

  The first thing she did was look up all the elementary schools in the district, and then she started calling around to see which one was holding a school play that evening.

  “Oh, it starts at five o’clock?” she asked, hitting the jackpot on her fourth call. “And it’s free to the public? Thanks for the info. Bye!”

  Jewel went to her medicine closet and took a good look around. She had researched a lot of toxins and poisons and had perfected delivering them shits in the most covert ways possible. She usually tried to drop something deadly in a target’s food or drink, but when that wasn’t possible she resorted to other measures. Like she planned on doing with Handgun Goody’s cousin Winky tonight.

  At five-thirty p.m. Jewel was sitting in her parked car near the entrance of P.S. 133 and scoping shit out with a small pair of binoculars.

  Her eyes scanned over every parent and every child who approached the doors to enter the school, hoping to pick out her target. She knew there was a possibility of zeroing in on the wrong kid but shit, how many blind second-grade actors could one damn school have?

  Her phone buzzed and Jewelz let it go to voicemail. A few seconds later she listened to the message. She frowned as she heard her doctor’s voice. Diamond, this is Dr. Ford. I just wanted to remind you that your condition is very grave, and if you continue to refuse your chemotherapy your life will be in danger.

  Jewelz disconnected the message and deleted that shit, then went back to scanning for her target.

  Before long, she spotted them. A man and his young daughter. Winky’s name rang bells around the club scene, and Jewelz knew he ran a territory and pushed packs for the Goode Brothers Gang.

  Even without the binoculars she could tell he had some Goode Brothers blood in him. He was tall and built real broad in the shoulders, and he had the same rugged mug, smooth chocolate skin, and wavy hair as his cousins.

  “That’s them,” Jewelz muttered under her breath as the man gripped the shoulder of a little girl who carried a telltale guide-stick for the blind in her hand. It was long and silver-gray and it had strips of reflective red tape wrapped around the bottom.

  Jewelz trained her binoculars on dude’s handsome face. She noted his every feature, and when she felt like she had gotten a perfect look and memorized his mug, she lowered her binoculars and watched as the pair walked slowly toward the entrance of the school. “Yeah, I’m sure as shit that’s them,” she said again. And then she smiled.

  $$$$$

  On the other side of the bridge, Honore sat in the back of the rented black stretch Navigator sipping Belaire Rose and waiting for her partner-in-crime to arrive. The limo was parked near Battery Park on the tip of Manhattan, and a torrent of rain was coming down heavily. She had instructed her hired driver to go wait across the street in a small bodega while she conducted a very important meeting.

  Honore had wanted to stay home and be nice and cozy this evening, but when Avi called and said it was urgent she knew better than to drag her feet. Avi was gonna be a major key to her success, and she had to jump to it when he called.

  As she whipped out her makeup kit from her beige and black Celine bag she couldn’t help but think about how far she had come in the game. She was young and beautiful, getting money, and basically doing whatever the fuck she wanted to do.

  But because of that missing diamond and those killer Jews, the fear of an early death stayed on her mind. With an entire organization of cut-throat criminals gunning for her ass, would it have just been better to stay poor and broke? She took a look in the little mirror and quickly dismissed that bullshit.

  I do the shit these average bitches only dream about doing. I live the life that most of these hoez would kill for. I’m a bad bitch in every sense of the word. I’m a boss in a world full of peasants who don’t have the guts to go out and take what the hell they want outta life. Fuck that. I’m doing exactly what I was born to do. I’m a Queen!

  Honore’s little mental pep talk was interrupted when a dark car pulled up along side her Navi. She unlocked the doors and Avi got in quickly.

  “Thanks for meeting me on such short notice,” Avi said as he wiped the rainwater off his face. “Although I think we could have picked someplace a little drier and a lot more pleasant.”

  Honore looked out the window. Even through the midst the Statue of Liberty rose up outta the waters of the upper bay like a woman on a mission. “The Lady” as she was called, stood watch over her Empire like the queen bitch of the city, which is exactly how Honore had been feeling ever since she’d decided to yank that precious pink diamond.

  “Manhattan is all the way live,” she said as she took another sip of her Rose. “It’s the money-making capitol of the world, so it’s only right that we should meet up right here. Now what was so important that you got me out here in this nasty-ass weather?”

  “Well, there are a few changes in our plans that I think you need to be updated on,” Avi said as he declined a glass of wine she offered from the minibar.

  “Oh yeah? What kind of changes?”

  “For one thing, I had to bring in a new partner. He’s someone I just met and he’ll need to be included in on our plans and get a cut of the pot too.”

  “What?” Honore stared at Avi like he was off his fucking meds. “What the hell do you mean you have a new partner?” she barked with much New York attitude.

  “Hell no.” Honore shook her head. “Nopety-fuckin no. We not bringing in nobody else! I shouldn’t have to explain the fucking magnitude of this operation to you, Avi! The less mothafuckas involved is the less mothafuckin chance we got of getting ratted on. What the hell was you thinking, stupid? Haven’t you ever heard the phrase, ‘no new friends’?”

  “Stupid? Do you really think I’m the one in this car who’s fucking stupid?” Avi glared at Honore with a dangerous look in his eyes. “This was an agreement that was not up for my debate! I was given an ultimatum, and since I love my children and I also love breathing, I didn’t have a choice in the matter. The Pink Lady is a forty-seven million dollar rock. There’s no need to be so damn greedy with the profit split anyway.”

  “Yo, hold up,” Honore barked back as she quickly put two and two together. “You mean to tell me you let some stray nigga muscle you down to get a piece of our goddamn deal? And now we gotta split the money with him and the investors too? Are you fuckin crazy???”

  “I’m far from crazy,” Avi said calmly. “I’m sane and I’m smart. Sometimes you have to take a step backward in order to take two steps forward. That’s something you might hope to learn one day.”

  Honore smirked and waved her hand. She wasn’t stupid enough to say it out loud, but she had just made up her mind. Avi wasn’t getting shit. Not one fuckin penny. He had helped her scheme on whacking Joel Samuelson, and now she was about to scheme on his ass too! And it was all his own fault because he was stupid and he was weak. He didn’t deserve shit! She was gonna find somebody else to do the black-market trading overseas, and then she’d cut Avi’s bitch-ass right outta the picture the same way her and Sly had done Joel!

  “Okay, whatever,” she said with a shrug. “Fuck you and your new friend. His cut is coming out of your pocket, I want you to know that. And he better not turn out to be no fucking federal agent or some shit, Avi! I don’t wanna meet this guy or even know his name. I’m keeping my shit on the low. The less people who know me, the better off I am. This is your problem and you gotta deal with it. I’m still trying to figure out the best way to go about getting up in the Sotheby and pulling this whole shit off.”

  Avi sparked up a Cu
ban cigar and closed his eyes as he thought about his twin sons and the white devil who had threatened to kill them. He had always been good at making decisions under pressure, but this type of up-close danger that threatened all he held dear had made his decision to cooperate that much easier. As a matter of fact, it had been a no-brainer.

  “I think you’re looking at this thing the wrong way, Honore,” Avi said after he exhaled some smoke. “Every eye in the world is going to be on the Sotheby. Security is going to be tighter than a prick in a virgin butt-hole. We need to get our hands on the Pink Lady before it even arrives at the museum. That’s what you should be focusing on. Forget hitting the auction at the Sotheby. Let those bastards sell the diamond. Me and you will just wait outside and rob whoever buys it.”

  CHAPTER 24

  Blood in the Wine

  It was a beautiful night, and Jewelz was looking truly lovely in her shimmery gold Chanel dress as Handgun Goody’s security chief escorted her out of the limo. Ruth’s Chris restaurant, located in Money Making Manhattan, was packed with patrons and the air was filled with the aroma of hot delicious steak.

  Goody had reserved a private window booth for them and he sat there waiting patiently for her arrival. He had been trying to get Jewelz out on a formal date for a minute now, but she knew his typical birds went bananas over lobster and steak so she had steadily declined him.

  A cock-sure man like Goody had to be handled a certain way, and Jewelz had that shit perfected to a tee. Unlike the bitches he was used to nipping and biting all on his jock, Jewelz constantly let it be known that she didn’t need his money, his food, or his dope, so the chase was always gonna be in a one-directional lane: him chasing her.