Payback

constructive, but it wasn’t easy to keep a positive mental attitude when she’d been kidnapped and tied to a bed for who knows how many days.

There was one thing that she, no matter how hard she tried, couldn’t help thinking about. Who was that woman and why did she want to kill Shy so badly? No matter what she thought about, and Shy had nothing but time to think, she always came back to that one point.

She thought about all the women who might have a reason to want her dead. She had, as a rule, steered clear of women. They are bad news and bad for business, Shy remembered her father telling her when she was younger. For that reason, her list of suspects was short. First on her list was Susan, Ricardo’s wife. When Shy met Mike, she had been dating Ricardo. But for three years, Ricardo had been living a double life. One night when they were at a club, Ricardo told Shy that he could never see her again because while Shy was in love with him, he had another woman and they were getting married. But then he flipped it on her and told Shy that they could still see each other on the low.

Shy lost her mind. She stood up and pulled out her gun. She was about to kill him, but one of her crew grabbed the gun out of her hand. After that, Shy didn’t have any interest in men, preferring instead to concentrate on making money. That was until she met Mike Black.

It didn’t take Shy long before she ruled Susan out. She just didn’t have it in her.

There was only one person Shy could think of who would have a reason to want her dead. She never actually met her. In fact, she’d only seen her twice, and for the life of her, she couldn’t remember her name. Shy remembered the first time she saw her at Impressions on the night that she met Mike. The second time, Shy had just left Mike at Cuisine. She was riding with Jack, one of her old crew, when she saw the woman coming. Shy remembered saying, 'Slow down, Jack. I wanna make sure this bitch sees me.' They drove past slowly, but the woman wasn’t looking. 'Honk the horn.' When the woman looked at the car, Shy mouthed the words, He’s mine, then motioned to Jack to drive on.

Shy remembered thinking that it was funny back then. Now, if this was the same woman-And I’m sure that it is, it couldn’t be anybody else-then it wasn’t funny. And if that was the case, then what was whatever her name is doing mixed up with South American drug dealers?

Since the doctor sedated her back on the boat in Miami, she hadn’t heard Sal’s voice. Was it possible that she was no longer in Miami and that Sal brought her to New York and left her?

New York, Shy thought.

The idea that she might be back home in New York made her smile. Not just because she was in the city, but if she was in the city, Shy knew that sooner or later Mike would find her. It was a very comforting thought.

Just then, Shy heard footsteps coming down the hall and fumbling of keys. She had to laugh at herself, because that sound always made her heart beat faster. She felt like one of Pavlov’s dogs, as she knew that sound might mean that she would be allowed to get up and use the bathroom, which, in fact, she had to do soon. Shy listened as the key went into the lock and the door opened.

Once she was untied, Shy got up and stretched. It felt good to get off that bed. Her back was starting to hurt. Shy started to reach for her blindfold.

'Leave that on. We’re leaving.'

'You’re letting me go?' Shy asked.

'Don’t ask questions. Just do what you’re told and we won’t have any problems.'

'Can I at least use the bathroom first?'

There was a long pause and then Shy’s blindfold was removed. There before her were the same two masked and armed men. 'Make it quick.'

Once Shy was finished in the bathroom, one of the men told her to put her hands behind her back. Shy complied with their request. After her hands were tied tight and a hood was placed over her head, one of the men said, 'Let’s go.'

They led her out of the room and down four flights of stairs. From the sounds that she heard and the heat, Shy knew she was outside. They walked a little farther then stopped. Shy heard a noise.

I hope that’s not what I think it is.

One of the men picked her up and laid her down on something hard. Then she heard the noise that she didn’t want to hear: the sound of the trunk slamming. From the time she heard them say that they were leaving, Shy was hoping that it didn’t mean she would be riding in the trunk.

Oh well, just one more story to tell the grandchildren. That’s when Shy realized that her period was late.

While she was riding in the trunk Shy thought about the men who were holding her captive. She had heard both of them speak. They sounded like they were black, but she couldn’t be sure. It made her a little more confident in her earlier assumption that she was no longer in Miami and with the South Americans. But where was she?

When the car stopped and the trunk was opened, one of the men helped Shy out of the trunk and led her into a building. They walked for a while and then stopped. Shy heard an elevator door open. They went up a few floors, and she was led into a room, where she was untied and her hood was removed. Both men backed out of the room and locked the door behind them.

Shy looked around the room she was in. It was definitely a hotel room, but not the best hotel she’d ever been in. In fact, it was probably the worst. The first thing she did was try the door, but it was locked. Next, Shy went to the window to see if she could tell where she was or at least what floor she was on, but the window was bricked shut. She went into the bathroom. 'At least it’s clean.' Shy walked over to the bed, picked up the remote control and turned on the television.

Chapter Twenty-four

At exactly five o’clock, a car pulled into a parking space directly in front of Impressions. The driver, a tall man dressed in jeans and a white tee-shirt got out and walked away.

One half-hour later, a woman drove her car into the parking lot at Impressions, and went inside for happy hour. She sat at the bar and ordered a drink.

'Let me have a hypnotic, honey,' she flirted with the bartender. 'You’re kinda cute, honey, what’s your name.' She sat at the bar drinking and flirted with just about every man who came near her. This went on for the next hour, until a man came in and she invited him to sit down next to her.

The two of them sat at the bar, talking, laughing, dancing and drinking together for hours. At eleven thirty the man looked at his watch and whispered, 'It’s time.'

They got up from the bar and walked out of the club arm in arm, still talking and laughing. As they approached the front door they saw three cops along with the club’s security. As they got close enough for everybody to hear, they went into their act. 'You sound like a fuckin’ fool,' she said as they passed the cops.

'You got that right,' The man laughed. 'I am a fuckin’ fool.'

At the same time in the club’s office, Tara Wallace the club’s manager looked at her watch and prepared to make her rounds. She put on her head set and called security. 'Greg, meet me in the office. I wanna get my rounds done before the show starts,' Tara told him.

'Yeah, P-Harlem is hot. I wanna see him too,' Greg said of that evening’s entertainment. 'I’ll be there in a few.'

Once Greg arrived, he and Tara went around to all five of the bars in the club and took money from each of the cash registers. A couple of months earlier, Wanda had noticed that profits at the club were down, but the crowds had remained consistent. She brought it up during the monthly meeting with Mike and Bobby. 'That means that somebody is stealing,' Bobby said.

Wanda handed the income statement to Mike and he looked at the numbers. 'Looks more like a whole lotta somebody’s stealing, Bob.'

'Why don’t you have Tara go around during the night with security and count down the registers,' Wanda recommended. 'That will at the very least give us better control of the money.'