Payback

'What is that, Black?'

'I overheard your boys saying that they were going to kill us after I talked to you. I don’t think anybody needs to die tonight. I hope you agree.'

Hector looked at Mike and then to his men. 'Yes, I agree. Nobody needs to die tonight.'

Mike stood up and extended his hand. 'Thank you for taking the time to see me.' He started to ask how Nina was doing just to fuck with Hector, but he decided against it.

Hector accepted Black’s hand and stood up. 'I am honored that you would come to me.'

Once they were out of the club and in the car, Bobby asked, 'Was all that really necessary? I’m about to throw up with all that touchy-feely, thank-you-for-seeing-me, honored-that-you-would-come-to-me shit.'

'You never know when we might need an ally down here. Let’s get back to New York. And besides,' Mike paused as Bobby drove off, 'I really came here to see Nina.'

Chapter Seven

Freeze met them at JFK airport in New York at 10:30 that morning and drove them straight to Cuisine, a supper club that Mike owned. Their flight left Miami at 5:30, but they had an hour layover in Atlanta. During the flight, Nick and Bobby slept, while Mike looked out the window at the early morning sun above the clouds. As hard as he tried, he couldn’t sleep.

The only thing on his mind was Shy. Was she all right? Who had her? Where were they taking her? If they were holding her for ransom, why no demand? Hundreds of possibilities and countless questions rolled around in his mind. When they arrived at Cuisine, they stopped at the bar before heading to what was now Freeze’s office.

'Freeze,' Mike said.

'Yo.'

'Tell me what’s up with Bitch-ass D-Train?' Mike asked, more to take his mind off Shy than anything else.

'Last couple of nights his people been postin’ up in our spots. I thought he was smarter than that, to just roll up in our spots and set up shop. What they think I was gonna do? Nothin’ they could do to avoid the consequences.'

'He sees this as an opportunity. Me gone, Bobby layin’ back, makes it look like your strength is exhausted. We need to deal with this now or other muthafuckas will raise up outta nowhere to try some shit like this.'

'You knew sooner or later this was gonna happen. We had a long run. Peaceful,' Bobby said, 'everybody respectin’ everybody’s position and everybody making money. Muthafuckas ain’t got no respect for shit.'

'Don’t be so hard on them, Bobby. That was us ten years ago. Young, not afraid of shit, we took power. We saw Andre slippin’, layin’ back, lettin’ us run the show. Like we doin’ now, me kickin’ it in the Bahamas, you playin’ the role. This was bound to happen sooner or later.'

'See what you started when you killed Chilly, Nick?' Bobby asked, and Nick simply nodded his head. Before Nick killed him, Chilly ran most of the drugs uptown. He used to deal for Andre back in the day. It was Chilly who made peace with Mike, and they set up the dead zone where nobody would deal. Now D-Train was trying to step up to Chilly’s position by moving on the dead zone.

'What do we do now? Freeze asked. Whether Mike intended to or not, he made Freeze feel like this was happening because somebody, maybe everybody saw him as weak; somebody they could roll over. He knew that whatever happened from this point forward, he would have to take the lead, step up and crush this nigga quick.

'The thing to do now is figure out what your enemies are plannin’ and stop them. The next thing to do, and hopefully you have, is prevent any more of his people from tryin’ to set up in our houses.'

'We need to start takin’ the shit to them, Black. He set up in Rocky’s old spot,' Freeze recommended.

'Just fall up in there and start blastin’?' Bobby asked.

'We used to,' Mike said. The timing of this wasn’t lost on him. This couldn’t be happening at a worse time. What he should have been doing was concentrating his attention, his efforts, and his power on fighting off the takeover bid, but he couldn’t. All his resources were tied up in finding Shy. His enemy would know that and exploit it. A smart enemy would make it happen.

As Nick and Freeze went to the office, Mike and Bobby continued the conversation. 'I remembered reading once that it is only one who is thoroughly acquainted with the evils of war that can understand the profitable way of conducting it.'

'And the best thing is to take over our operation intact. Destroying it isn’t the smart move,' Bobby said.

'Exactly my point, Bobby. That ain’t Curl. On his best day he wouldn’t have the brains to try this. He wouldn’t see the profit in it. You want somebody to kick in some doors, do some killin’ and be brutal about it, Curl’s your man, but not like this.' Mike paused. 'Somebody is pullin’ his strings. That’s who our enemy is.'

When Mike and Bobby came in the office, they found Freeze on the phone, nodding his head, and Nick seated comfortably on the couch. Freeze looked at Mike and then to Nick.

'Who was on the phone?'

'Angelo. He says he needs to see you as soon as you can. Says it important.'

'He say what it was about?'

'Nick.'

Chapter Eight

'Tony no!' Shy shouted.

Seeing the police open fire on Tony and watching as he fell to the ground, Shy took a deep breath. She tossed and turned. 'Tony’s dead.' She was having a nightmare. 'This way, Shy!' She saw Orlando die.

'Freeze!'

The cop fired.

Shy tried to sit up, but she couldn’t. It had been a long time since she had nightmares about the night Tony died and she became a fugitive. Now she lay blindfolded and spread-eagle on a bed, with her hands and legs tied. Shy had no idea where she was or how she got there. The last thing she remembered was being on the boat with Sal and Julio when the doctor came. Then Sal held her while the doctor gave her a sedative.

Shy moved her eyebrows up and down, trying to move her blindfold enough so she could see. All she could tell was that she was in a small room and that the sun was shining. Nothing more.

All Shy could do now was wait. Wait to see what was going to happen next. Am I being held for ransom? Are they gonna kill me? Or rape me and then kill me? Shy tried to think of something a bit more pleasant. She thought about the trip she and Mike took to Rio. Not only about the wonderful time they had there, but about how, in Rio de Janeiro, Shy first started talking about facing her charges.

It began one night after the club closed. Shy began talking about the Bahamian celebration of Carnival.

'But do you know what I’ve always wanted to do?' Shy asked as she sat down at one of the tables.

'What’s that?'

'I wanna go to Carnival in Rio.'

'You’ve never been to Carnival in Rio de Janeiro, Cassandra?' Mike said, trying to sound as bougie and superior as he could.

Shy rolled her eyes at him and said in the same tone. 'No, Michael, I’ve never been to carnival in Rio de Janeiro.'

'Neither have I. And I always wanted to go there, too,' Mike said and sat next to her. 'Only reason I haven’t gone is I don’t wanna be bothered with the crowds.'

'I know what you mean.' Shy paused and thought for a second. 'Well, why don’t we go for a few days and leave before the crowds come?'