Payback

Thoughts of that night when Bobby wanted to kill him had haunted Nick for years, like a bad dream that never ended. Bobby, with his gun in Nick’s mouth, screaming that he would kill both Nick and Camille. It should have never happened, but Nick had never met any woman like Camille. It was the way she looked at him when they made love. For years, when he closed his eyes, it was Camille’s eyes looking up at him.

It began the first time Nick saw Camille and she walked right up to him. She put her left hand on his chest and looked into his eyes. From that moment on, Camille had Nick and she knew it. Each time he saw her after that, Camille made that point clear. When she called, Nick would come. What Camille wanted, he got for her. What she said, Nick did, without so much as a kiss. He felt like a fool carrying this around all these years. It was time for him and Bobby to make peace and finally lay their beef over Camille to rest. After all, the bitch has been dead for ten fuckin’ years.

When Nick and Mike arrived at the rental car counter, Bobby was already there and had begun the process of renting a car. Mike walked up behind Bobby and tapped him on the shoulder.

'I hope you got a black car.'

Bobby turned around quickly. 'No, it’s red,' Bobby replied as he shook Black’s hand. Then he looked at Nick. Bobby nodded his head to acknowledge Nick’s presence before returning his attention to the reservation clerk. Nick stood back awkwardly and watched as Mike leaned on the counter and whispered to Bobby, who would glance over at him and the two of them would laugh. Nick felt like an outsider.

Once the rental was secured, Mike and Bobby came toward Nick. Mike passed by, but Bobby walked straight up to him.

Nick started, 'Look, Bobby, I just wanna say-'

Bobby cut him off. 'You can save whatever it is you think you gotta say to me. That shit is over, been over since the day somebody put two bullets in her brain.' Bobby started to walk away, but turned around quickly. 'Damn, it’s good to see you, Nick.'

'You ladies coming?' Mike asked.

'Yeah, we’re coming,' Bobby said as he hugged Nick.

Once they were in the car, Mike called Wanda. She told him where he could find the boat Destiny docked. He asked if she was able to find out who the boat was registered to. She informed him that it was registered to somebody named Esperanza Valasquez, and gave Mike her address. 'You heard from Freeze?'

'Yes, but I’ll explain that to you when I see you,' Wanda replied.

When they arrived at the place where Destiny was docked, Nick took a look around the area and could see one man standing guard on deck with an AK. 'I can pick him off from here,' Nick told Mike and Bobby.

'Bullshit,' Bobby said quietly, not wanting to attract any attention.

'Go ahead,' Mike said with a laugh as Nick put a silencer on his gun and took aim with his.45. He fired one shot and the hit the guard in the head.

Mike turned to Nick with a very serious look. 'Why couldn’t you save Cassandra?'

'She pours a mean drink.'

'She sure does,' Mike said quietly, dropped his head a little and started for the boat. Even though he was doing his best not to show it, this shit was fuckin’ with Mike, and it was fuckin’ with him bad. No matter how he felt about it, he had to remain calm and strong. But it wasn’t easy. He couldn’t blame Nick for what happened. The only one he could blame was himself. He should have been there.

If I hadn’t lost my mind when Cassandra said that she would rather go to jail, then I would have been there to save her, instead of being off somewhere pouting like some spoiled fuckin’ child.

The worst part of it was that he felt so helpless. Well, at least now he was doing something. Mike wanted to scream, to hit somebody, to hurt somebody, to cause somebody pain. Mike wanted to kill somebody. He made a vow then to kill everybody involved, no matter how long it took.

When they got on the deck, Nick checked the pulse of the man he’d shot. 'He’s dead,' he said and began to drag the man below.

'You sure this time? I mean, he ain’t gonna get up and kidnap me later, is he?' Bobby asked.

'Stop fuckin’ with him, Bobby. He probably feels bad enough already,' Mike said.

'Oh, it’s all right when you fuck with him, huh?' Bobby asked as they went below.

When Bobby opened the door with his gun drawn, he found two men. Julio was lying on the bed with his eyes closed, and another man was seated in the chair next to him. As soon as he saw Bobby come through the door with his gun pointed at him, the man stood up and raised his hands.

'Please don’t kill me.'

Nick patted down the man to be sure that he wasn’t armed, then took a look around the room and left to check the rest of the boat. Mike stepped up to the man.

'Who are you?'

'My name is Carlton, Daniel Carlton. I’m a doctor. I was brought here by force to treat this man.'

'You can put your hands down,' Mike said and put his arm around the doctor. 'Is he gonna be okay?'

'He suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen. He is very weak from the blood loss. I think that he’ll be fine if he is allowed to rest and give the wound time to heal,' the doctor went on to explain.

'Where’s the woman they had with them?'

'I don’t know. I left her and the other man on deck, and I came down here to treat this man.'

'You know what this other man’s name was?'

'No, I don’t. Nobody said any names, and they always spoke in Spanish, except when he was talking to me.'

'Was he a white man?'

'Yes.'

'The woman, was she all right?' Mike asked.

'Yes, from what I could tell. But she looked scared.'

'Did you hear them say where they were goin’?'

'If they said where they were going, they said it in Spanish, and I wouldn’t have understood them anyway. Sorry I can’t be any more help,' the doctor said. It was obvious from the way his voice cracked when he talked that he was scared too.

Nick came back into the room. 'Rest of the ship is clean.'

Mike picked up the doctor’s bag, handed it to him. 'You can go now, doctor. I think that we can handle it from here.' Mike reached into his pocket and pulled out some money. He peeled off five hundred-dollar bills and handed them to the doctor, then he turned to Nick. 'Would you mind showing the doctor out?'

'Not at all.'

'Thank you, thank you,' the doctor said as he left the room, thankful to be leaving with his life.

When Nick returned, Bobby slapped the shit of out Julio. 'Wake up, asshole! Where’s the woman you took from the club?' he demanded to know. Julio opened his eyes and looked at Bobby and then to Black. When he saw Nick, his eyes opened wide.

'Remember me?' Nick asked.

'He feels that pain in his gut, Nick,' Bobby said and punched Julio in the face. 'Yeah, he remembers it was you that put that bullet in him,' he said and punched Julio in the face.

Mike put his foot on Julio’s stomach and put his weight on it. 'Who are you working for?'

Julio screamed in pain and spit at Black. 'Usted no puedeentenderunapalabrayodigo y yo no le diria nada siustedpuede,' Julio said in Spanish.

Nick stepped up and leaned over Julio. 'Puedo. . y ustedhace,' Nick replied in Spanish.

'What did he say?' Bobby asked.

Nick turned to Bobby. 'He said we can’t understand a word he’s saying, and that he wouldn’t tell us anything even if we could. I told him that I can understand him, and he will tell us.'

'I didn’t know you spoke Spanish, Nick,' Mike said, grinding his foot into Julio’s stomach. Julio winced in pain.

'Yeah, I speak Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, several Arab dialects and a little German,' Nick said.

Bobby started laughing. 'Damn, I remember when you could barely read.'

'Yeah, well, things change,' Nick told Bobby.

'Ask him who he’s working for, Nick,' Mike said, trying to stay on task.