Jimmy's Game (Ruthless)

by Karen Clow

  Throughout the entire day she kept trying to find out what the surprise was, but he was giving nothing away.

  Since their talk that morning, he could sense that she was feeling better; especially, when she said, “You could go the club with Mickey for a couple of hours tonight if you wanted to?” “Nice try babe, but I’m not telling you.” “No honestly I didn’t suggest it so you would tell me what my surprise is.” “You little liar, anyway I’m quite happy to stay home with you.” “Now who’s a little liar,” she said jokingly. “No honest babe, although if Shaun could come over and keep you company, I wouldn’t mind popping out for a couple of hours.” “You’d best give Shaun a ring then.” “Thanks babe, now can I have a kiss?” She smiled, walked over to him and kissed him passionately. Jimmy knew with that kiss his Maria was back, whatever trauma she’d felt from her attack by the Jamaicans was over.

  A short time later he called Mickey, “Alright Mick, can you pick me up later, my good lady has said I can go out.” “Great, actually I’m just on my way round to your place; you won’t believe what a fucking day I’ve had! I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.” “Ok mate I’ll see you soon.” Ten minutes later he arrived at their apartment. Maria was the first to greet him as she said, “Hi Mickey, how’s Monica?” “She’s much better babe thanks, she sends her love and asked me to tell you that she’s looking forward to seeing you when you feel up to it.” “I’m feeling much better, so hopefully I’ll get over to see her within the next couple of days.” “Yeah you do look better babe.” It was five minutes later when they were sat drinking coffee. Mickey said, “Samuels has been round to the club and our plan worked like a dream.” “Fuck me what happened,” asked Jimmy. “Samuels called into the club on his own. Tony and Shane were there with me. Samuels asked if any of us had heard anything concerning some Jamaicans, apparently he’d heard a rumour that a local restaurant had some bother with them, and he just wondered if it may have been one of our restaurants. I could tell he was pissed off, especially when I said all our places were fine. He did ask where you two were though.” “Cheeky bastard,” said Jimmy. “Anyway, I decided against the flu theory, just in case he said he would call round. I told him that Maria had roped you into going shopping for the wedding and chances where you would turn up at the club any minute.” “Good thinking, the last thing we want is him turning up here, the slimy bastard!” “There was one thing I thought was strange though, he asked after Maria several times.” Jimmy looked angry as he replied, “How do you mean asked after her.” “You know, is she looking forward to marrying you, he didn’t think you’d be her type, that sort of thing.” “He wants to watch I don’t punch his fucking lights out!” “Just ignore him Jimmy; he’s just trying to wind you up.” “Yeah and he’ll fucking know all about it if he does!” “Well we won’t give him the chance, so do you want to know what happened at the club or not?” “Course I do, go on.” “Samuels asked if we had a phone he could use to make a private call; he wouldn’t use the public phone in the club, so I asked Tony to take him to the office. I told Samuels he wouldn’t be disturbed there. He’d only been gone about ten minutes, when he came out, thanked us and promptly left. Soon as he’d gone we watched the tape. I’ve brought it round for you to see, just wait ‘til you see the slimy bastard in action.”

  Jimmy played the tape. They watched as Samuels took a large bag of cocaine and a roll of tape from his pocket; then he pulled out the metal filing cabinet and stuck the package to the back of it. Jimmy said, “That mother fucker is definitely getting what he deserves now!” “With luck the tape alone will be enough to send him away for at least ten years. With Samuels out of the way our only problem will be the remaining Jamaicans.” “We can take care of them. What’s happening about the drugs?” “I gave them to Tony, he thinks they could be worth about a hundred and twenty five grand to one of his buyers, he’s setting up a meeting for tonight.” Taking in what his friend had just said Jimmy replied, “It won’t be long before the Old Bill are tipped off by Samuels, then they’ll be round to search the club. It would be best if we could stop it before it happens and another thing, we’ll need to cover our tracks if the tape can be used against us. The first thing the drug squad will want to know is where the drugs are now.” “Already thought about that, I’ve come up with a plan; but we need to get Samuels back to the club. Once he’s there we’ll get one of the lads to call the office phone on his mobile. Whoever answers it, can tell Samuels the call is for him; that way we get him on tape entering the office. Then, unfortunately for Samuels the tape will malfunction, so nobody will actually be able to see him presumably take the drugs back, or leave the office. Monica thinks we’ll probably get a visit from the drug squad within the next twenty four hours. Samuels won’t leave it too long in case someone else finds the drugs, shame we already have! She also thinks that calling his bluff would be a good way of stalling him; I think she may be right, if he thought we were interested in selling the club, it will bring the Jamaicans to us. We have to assume Samuels doesn’t know that we know he’s the man behind them; so if we put the word out via him, he will have no choice but to send the Jamaicans round to talk business.” Nodding his head Jimmy said, “I can see the logic in the plan; but how do we tell Samuels that we want to sell the club?” Grinning he replied, “Monica could get him to the hospital on the pretext that she’s remembered something. I would just happen to be there at the same time, so I could just mention that we thinking of selling.” “Fuck me Mickey it just might work.” Happy that Jimmy agreed, he said he would call Monica and get her to set it up. Twenty minutes later she had rung him back to tell him that Samuels was going to visit her around seven that evening.

  Maria asked Mickey if he would like to stay for dinner, readily he replied, “I’d love to but only on the condition that I buy it. You should rest and not have to worry about cooking, so I’ll send out for something.” “Ok, but I don’t mind cooking.” “I know, but I insist.” “Thanks then.” “No worries, I’ll call back round once I’ve spoken to Samuels at the hospital.” As he was leaving, Jimmy jokingly said, “Good luck with the dodgy detective.”

  After Mickey left, Maria was still trying to guess what the surprise was that Jimmy had said about, but he was adamant that she would have to wait.

  It was turned eight o’clock, when Mickey returned from the hospital. They were keen to hear what had happened. Grinning he said, “Monica fed Samuels a line about some threatening anonymous calls she’d had prior to the shooting, Samuels asked her why she hadn’t said anything sooner; she acted very blasé and said at the time she had simply put it down to some hoaxer.” “Nice one,” said Jimmy. “It was after she had talked to him about that, I chatted to him about us. I told him it was your idea about selling the club, reason being you wanted to spend more time with Maria after you were married. I dropped the fact that you want to try for a family straight away as one of the principle reasons. I led him to believe we knew a couple of people who might be interested in buying Sweet Cheeks. I even added that Tony would at the very least deserve first refusal. Samuels seemed more than interested, he even asked me what sort of figure we would be looking at, he didn’t flinch when I said, five hundred grand or there abouts. Cheeky bastard even mentioned the Jamaicans, said something like, ‘rumour has it some Jamaicans are interested in your club.’ When I questioned him about it; saying that we hadn’t spoken to any Jamaicans, the cheeky bastard sneered and said, ‘come now Mickey, do you really think I don’t know what’s been going on? I know you’ve had trouble with them; there’s not much that happens that I don’t hear about, despite the fact that you and your friend Jimmy keep trying to cover it up, I know all about it.’” “How did you reply to that Mick?” “I simply bluffed my way out of it by saying; we didn’t want an issue made of it, because it could be bad for business, plus the fact; we don’t think the Jamaicans would be back.” “What did the slimy bastard say then?” “Funnily enough he disagreed with me, stating that in his
opinion they would be back. I have a strange feeling about Slimy fucking Samuels; it won’t be long before we hear from him via our Jamaican friends, especially as I let him know that there were other potential buyers interested. So now we just sit tight and wait.”

  It was almost nine when the takeaway arrived. The two men were hungry, Maria just picked at hers. Offering to make the coffee while the two men finished of the meal, she disappeared into the kitchen. Once out of earshot Mickey said to him, “Maria seems a bit brighter.” Jimmy grinned and replied, “Yeah she’ll be fine mate.” They were discussing Samuels when the intercom buzzed. Jimmy anticipated that it would be Shaun as he had arranged for him to come round about ten to stay with Maria. Answering the intercom, he immediately recognised the Irishman’s voice.

  Before they left for the club, they filled Shaun in on Samuels. Then Jimmy looked at Maria and said, “I’ll only be gone a few hours babe, you can contact me anytime if you need to, ok.” Smiling she replied, “Ok, but I’ll be fine with Shaun. Thanks for dinner Mickey.” “My pleasure babe, I’ll see you later.” She kissed him on the cheek, before kissing Jimmy and telling them to be careful as she said goodbye.

  CHAPTER 36

  In the car Mickey said, “How should we handle the Jamaicans if they turn up?” After thinking about it for a moment, Jimmy replied, “Let’s just get rid of the fuckers, they’ve caused us enough fucking grief!” “I agree but they don’t know the truth about Maurice’s death, they only had Samuels version of what happened, maybe if we explained that to them we could avoid any unnecessary bloodshed.” “I agree, but what if they don’t believe us, they will run straight back to Samuels and tell him. There’s also what they did to Monica and Maria. Let’s just do the fuckers, we don’t need them; we’ve got the tape and Max, I reckon she would turn on Samuels given the opportunity.” “I agree, what you’ve said makes sense; but my main concern is how to deal with them? However we do it, we don’t want anything coming back to us.” “How about offering to take them to a strip joint; then we get Reggie and Terry to meet us on route. I’m sure we could arrange a diversion so they could ambush their car then take the bastards down the docks and off them?” “Fuck me Jimmy; it’s so simple it might just work!” Then he grinned and added, “It’s quite worrying really, my best friend has the mind of a serial killer!” They both laughed.

  Pulling up at Sweet Cheeks they could see Kevin and Jacky Boy working the doors. Walking over to them after talking for a few minutes about the club, Mickey explained to them about the Jamaicans.

  Inside Billy was keeping an eye on the dancers. Shane was standing at the bar talking to Sue. They filled both men in on their plan, before asking Shane about Max. They were a bit surprised when he replied, “I haven’t heard from her, I’ll give her a call in the morning.”

  They had only been at the club for about an hour, when the three Jamaicans walked in. Two of them sat at a table; while Damon went to the bar. Mickey approached him and said, “Is your boss still interested in buying the club?” Damon replied, “Dat dapends man.” “Depends on what?” asked Mickey sarcastically. “If ya tell ma what happen ta ma friends.” “I’ve no fucking idea what you’re talking about. If you’re not interested in the club fine, we’ll take our business elsewhere.” Turning to walk away, he stopped momentarily when Damon said, “I dan’t say I wasn’t interested, but ya make a big mistake if ya fuck with me. Ya see I knows ya did something ta ma friends and I wanta know what.” Mickey continued walking away, turning briefly to reply “Fuck you! I haven’t got time for all your bullshit; I’ll take my business somewhere else!” Walking back along the bar towards Jimmy, he turned when Damon called out, “Wait.” Then making his way towards him said, “I dan’t say I weren’t interested, ya know ma boss wants dis club.” “Good then let’s go into the office.” Damon nodded at the two Jamaicans sitting at the table, immediately they got up and stood behind him. They followed Mickey and Jimmy into the office. On entering Mickey said, “Take a seat.” Once they sat down, Mickey said, “So you think your boss is still interested in the club?” Damon shocked him when he replied, “I only da business with Jimmy.” It was clear that Mickey was put out by his attitude and he quickly told him so. Damon obviously wasn’t intimidated, because he immediately replied, “I dan’t like ya Mickey and I dan’t trust ya and if I find out yah hurt my friends I cut ya heart out.” Jimmy intervened before things got out of hand, looking menacing he said, “Listen to me Damon, if you’re not going to respect Mickey there won’t be any business to talk about. I think you should be aware you’re not the only interested party.” “If ya have others interested, why would ya come ta us?” Jimmy remained cool and calculating as he replied, “We didn’t come to you; we never invited you here tonight, but now you’re here we’re prepared to give you the benefit of the doubt, because we’re good business men Damon that’s why; truth is you’re right we know there is no mutual respect and to tell you the truth that pisses me off, but the fact is, if we try to sell the club to someone else and you fucking lot give us grief, everyone will want to know why we’re allowing you to live. You could make us look bad, so you see it would be in everyone’s best interests to get on with business and stop fucking around!” “I like ya man, dares no messing with ya Jimmy, so we talk business.”

  Mickey poured them all a drink, before going over the figures concerning the price and looking Damon right in the eyes said, “It’s not negotiable, that’s the deal either take it or leave it! We want an answer within twenty four hours.” “I have ta speak to ma boss.” “Phone him now.” “I can’t he’s busy, I’ll ask him tamorrow.” “Fair enough, we can give you that.” They talked business for another hour. The atmosphere was less tense by the time they’d had a few drinks. Jimmy was trying to think of a way to get the Jamaicans to leave with them. Acting friendly towards them he said, “Damon I’m glad this meeting happened, I think we got off on the wrong foot, which is a shame. We’re all businessmen; I know Mickey can be difficult, but in view of the fact that his girlfriend was shot; surely you can understand why?” The Jamaican nodded. Jimmy continued, “If you lot are going to set up businesses in London it would be in your best interests to try and treat him with a little more respect. Mickey has many contacts that could prove very useful to you in the future.” Damon looked over at Mickey and said, “Perhaps we did get off ta a bad start, maybe Jimmy is right, maybe ya do deserve a little more respect.” Mickey simply nodded. Jimmy interrupted and said, “Right then, now that’s settled might I suggest we either stay here to watch the dancers, or go on to a strip joint, I can recommend a good one.” Damon thought about it for a moment before replying, “A strip club sounds good.” Still lulling them into a false sense of security Mickey piped in and said, “Let’s have a couple more drinks here first before we head off to another club.”

  It was as they sat talking, Damon introduced the other Jamaicans they were cousins of Maurice’s, Jonah and Ric which was short for Ricardo.

  Considering they were talking Jimmy saw the time as a good opportunity to let them know that they got on with Maurice; despite the fact he was going to kill them the first chance he got. When he spoke about Maurice, he could sense that they did not believe him, which in a strange way made him realise that killing them, was in his opinion, the right and only thing to do.

  Mickey went up to the bar and ordered another round of drinks. Damon watched him as he chatted to Sue. While they waited Damon looked at Jimmy and said, “What’s her name, the one Mickey’s talking to?” “Sue, she’s ok, been with us a long time.” I’d like to fuck her.” Jimmy laughed and said, “Yeah, you and all the other blokes who drink here; but you’d be wasting your time mate.” What he really wanted to say was, ‘fuck off you black mother fucker she wouldn’t look twice at you.’

  Shane walked over to the bar to speak to Mickey. They stood with their backs to the Jamaicans. Mickey quietly said to him, “Let Reggie and Terry know we’re taking them to G SPOT; tell them to wait until w
e leave there then jump them.” “Ok, can I come along for the ride?” Mickey grinned, because he knew Shane wanted to take a pop at Damon because of how he’d treated Max. Shane looked well chuffed when he said, “Ok.” Damon kept looking over at them, trying to see what they were saying. As Mickey walked back over with their drinks, he called to Shane and said, “We’ll be going to another club soon; any problems just bell us.” Damon seemed content with the fact that Shane wouldn’t be going with them. Once Mickey sat down Damon said, “Ma boss dan’t like Shane; he says he’s a sperm donor with psychotic tendencies.” They laughed before Jimmy said, “Shane’s actually a decent bloke, he’s only downfall is pussy. One thing’s for certain though, we’d rather have him as a friend than an enemy.” Mickey interrupted them and said, “Shane’s a lot like Jimmy in his younger day.” Jonah said something a bit sarcastic about him soon being an old married man. Managing to keep his cool, Jimmy responded by replying, “I can’t fucking wait.” Damon said, “We heard ya Maria is quite a looker?” Mickey could see the aggression on Jimmy face so he quickly interrupted and said, “You heard right, she’s a real beauty.” Sarcastically Damon laughed and said, “What does she see in Jimmy then?” Feeling a bit of tension, Jimmy quickly said, “Yeah, I can’t work that one out either,” before sarcastically adding, “Not only does she bring out the best in me, but also the worst.” Damon looked a bit baffled, as to what he was really trying to say. The Jamaican finally replied, “Na woman is worth everything.” “I thought that until I met Maria, but like I said; she brings out the worse in me, rest assured I wouldn’t hesitate to kill any man that touched her.” At that moment Damon knew that he was referring to the attempted rape, he also knew that he had killed his friends, but he couldn’t say or do anything about it. Mickey suggested going to the strip club. Damon agreed after replying, “We’ll follow ya in our car.” “Fair enough.”