Payback

killed him, Felix said that there were stories in Washington about a drug eradication effort, and if those stories ever made their way to Capital Hill, there would be hell to pay. Sally Fitz said those papers are still in the open and the buyer is still looking for them, so I thought it was a good idea that I move Monika to a safer location.'

'Who’s the buyer?' Mike asked.

'I think its Diego, ’cause it was the General who was brokering the deal.'

'Fuckin’ Diego. You think that’s what this shit is all about, these fuckin’ papers?'

'I think so. If those papers surface and I get subpoenaed to testify, it could blow up a lot of people’s shit. He killed Jett over that information and tried to kill me and Monika.'

'But I hear you’re hard to kill, Nick.'

Chapter Fifteen

Even though she knew she had business in the morning, it had been another sleepless night for Jackie Washington. Not that sleepless nights were anything new to her. She had stayed up many a night playing poker, but this was something else entirely. She had been in bed for hours, but she couldn’t make her mind shut down to allow her to rest. So, she thought about it.

She had killed somebody.

Looked him in the eye, and killed him.

Jackie had never even fired her guns before that night, much less killed anybody, and it bothered her. Truth was, it was eating her alive from the inside out.

Jackie could see the whole thing happening. It plays like a movie, Jackie thought. She could see herself walking through it each time she closed her eyes.

I need you to watch my back, she could hear Freeze say, You armed? Jackie could see herself unbuttoning her jacket and opening both sides to reveal a 9-millimeter in each holster. Always armed and extremely dangerous. She could see herself walking behind Freeze until he saw Cynt coming toward him. Jackie couldn’t hear what they said, but she could see Cynt pointing and Freeze moving quickly in that direction. It wasn’t until she saw Freeze take his gun out that Jackie realized what was going on. That’s where it all began to happen so fast. She didn’t remember pulling her gun or Freeze grabbing the bottle, Hey, muthafucka!and Freeze smashing the bottle into the guy’s face. She remembered thinking, Damn, that shit musta hurt. Then, Freeze! Look out!she could hear herself yelling and firing two shots. She couldn’t remember anything after that except Travis taking the gun out of her hand and saying, Don’t worry, Jackie. You did what you had to do.

It was so easy when she, Travis and Ronnie started out and hit their first spot. It was a jewelry store. Travis and Ronnie came through the door with guns drawn. Everybody down, Ronnie jumped the counter, grabbed the loot, and they were out. All Jackie did was drive the car. Easy.

After Freeze took his taste, they came away with $48,000. When Travis handed her $16,000 she was hooked. Sixteen thousand dollars just to drive a car, something she loved doing anyway, Shit! This is it! Who knew that money would lead her here? She had killed somebody, and Ronnie was dead.

Ronnie, Jackie thought. It was only now that she understood where Ronnie’s head was after he shot that armored truck driver. But what else could I do?

That was the question she continued to ask herself. If she hadn’t shot the man, Freeze would be dead. Then either she or Travis would’ve killed him anyway or been killed in the gunfight that would follow. She did the right thing, the only thing that she could do in those circumstances. But it was still the wrong thing. She never was overly religious, but she believed in God. She’d been taught the Ten Commandments in Sunday school. Thou shall not kill- or was it thou shall not murder? She wasn’t sure, so she spent hours at her computer, researching the Commandments.

She found two versions of the Ten Commandments given in the Bible, the first in Exodus 20, and the second in Deuteronomy 5. It appeared that the preferred use was the version in Exodus. It was in Wikipedia, a free encyclopedia she found online that Jackie found the actual translation: 'You shall not murder.' It was there that she found that the Hebrew Bible makes a distinction between murdering and killing, and explicitly notes that murder is always a heinous sin, while killing is sometimes necessary, and in some cases, just in the eyes of God. Jackie thought that somehow she had found absolution for her crime at this Web site, and tried to get some much-needed sleep.

Jackie rolled over in bed, closer to Travis. They had been sleeping together since the night Ronnie was killed. Neither one of them wanted to be alone, and each needed the other’s support. Eventually, they began having sex, and eventually, Jackie began to invite her old playmates home to play.

She looked over at the woman lying on the other side of Travis. Her name was Vonda, and she had become their playmate of choice. She was drop dead gorgeous, had a body that was to die for and her sexual skills were extraordinary. Jackie first met her at Cynt’s. Vonda was there with a guy who was boring her to tears. He had brought her there as a showpiece, a good luck charm, if you will, while he played poker. While she stood behind him looking distracted and ready to go, Jackie couldn’t take her eyes off this red-bone brick house. She was just that damn fine.

Vonda was five feet eleven inches tall and weighed 150 pounds, with pretty brown eyes and curly hair that hung down the middle of her back. When the guy sent her to the bar to get him a drink, Jackie cashed herself out of the game and went after her. Jackie gave Vonda her cell number, and eventually they hooked up for drinks. Jackie seduced her that same night.

It wasn’t too long after that, that Jackie introduced Vonda to Travis. He didn’t seem to mind. In fact, he was enjoying it. He commented once that they should have been doing this all along. At first, it was a way to keep his mind off Me’shelle, the woman he loved. Travis missed Me’shelle. Even though he felt that she had used him to get what she wanted and let him go, he still believed that on some level Me’shelle still loved him too.

As for Jackie, she was willing to go along with part of that-the part about Me’shelle using Travis and dumping him. 'But, Travis, if she really loved you, she wouldn’t do you the way she did,' Jackie told him. 'The bitch just foul, and that’s all there is to it.'

She had considered having Me’shelle killed. Even went as far as to ask Freeze to do it, but he told her that she needed to get over it. After that, she thought about doing it herself. I could walk right up on that bitch and blow her brains out.

But that was then. Now Jackie knew that she was no killer. She was a chemist, and a damn good one. That life seemed far away now too. Right now, she was a part-time gambler, part-time robber with a job to run in a couple of hours.

It would be Vonda’s first time doing a job with Travis and Jackie. They were going to hit a jewelry store. Vonda would hit the display cases while Travis forced the manager to open the safe. This would beJackie’s first time calling the job, which meant that she was responsible for the safety and security of the team. It was a position that she lobbied Travis long and hard for. Now Jackie wondered if she was up to the challenge. But in her heart, she knew that when the time came, she would do her job.

Chapter Sixteen

Detectives Kirkland and Richards arrived in the briefing room for their assignment with the DEA.

'Gentlemen, this is Detectives Kirkland and Richards. They are on loan to us from the NYPD homicide division.' Once Agent DeFrancisco introduced them to the agents involved in the operation, he turned things over to the agent in charge, Pete Vinnelli, who started the briefing.

'All right, gentlemen, settle down and let’s get to business. Our objective is Mike Black. We have information that he is a major player in the drug traffic in this city, and has been for years.' Detective Kirkland immediately raised his hand. 'Detective?' agent Vinnelli said.