each of his arms and a very small one on his neck.
I came out of the bathroom and looked at the other two. I got in one’s face; he was scared too. “I’m gonna beat you to death,” I said, and began hitting him in the face. When I stopped, Bobby took over.
Then I turned to the third. There was no fear in his eyes. When the other two were screaming about CeCe settin’ ’em up and what they’d do about it, he was quiet.
“It was your idea to try me, wasn’t it?”
He nodded his head slowly.
“You was gonna be the man that killed Mike Black.”
He nodded his head slowly.
“I can respect that.” And I could. I could see the position that it would put him in. If he killed me, he could go to Stark, who’d been hidin’ from me, in a position of power.
“Too bad you missed and you gotta die for it,” Bobby added and continued his work.
“I’m gonna kill you quick; break your neck. But not before you watch me kill your boys.”
For the next hour or so, me and Bobby took turns beating our would-be executioner while his partner looked on. Every so often, I went into the bathroom to check on the bleeder. I came out and grabbed their leader. “Come on. I wanna show you something,” I said and pushed him in the bathroom. He flinched and tried to look away, but I grabbed his face and made him look. “Look at him!”
By this time the bleeder was covered in blood and shaking. The leader had sat there calmly and watched his boy take a beatin’, and didn’t flinch or close his eyes not once, but this scared him.
“He’s shakin’ ’cause he’s goin’ into shock, he’s startin’ to get cold and he’ll start losin’ color.” I pushed him out of the bathroom and he stumbled to the floor.
“Get up,” I said and pulled him up and back into his chair so he could watch Bobby work. I watched Bobby and thought about us two old guys doin’ shit we ain’t done in years. It felt great. Then Bobby went old-school style on him.
Back in the day, Bobby's idea of torture was while he slapped the guy around, he’d tell jokes. Some of them were funny, but most of them weren’t. If you laugh, you get slapped. If you don't, you get hit-hard. Only this guy got duct tape covering his mouth so he couldn’t laugh. So Bobby’s was just whalin’ away, tellin your-mother jokes, and swingin’. “Your mother is so ugly that they had to hang a pork chop around her neck so the dog would play with her.”
About two hours in to it, Bobby got a call from Nick. “Bobby. Is Black with you?”
“He’s right here. It’s Nick,” Bobby said and handed me the phone.
“What’s up, Nick?”
“I just got a call from Monika. She wouldn’t say what it was about, but she said Jackie needs to talk to you.”
“And she didn’t say what, huh?” I asked, wondering what Jackie could possibly want.
“Nope, but Monika wouldn’t call if it wasn’t important.”
“Okay, call her back and tell them to meet me at Cynt's,” I said and pressed end. When I handed Bobby back his phone, he was laughing. I didn’t tell him that I made Mystique stop working there, and I didn’t feel like goin’ into it. “Let’s wrap this up,” I said and went in the bathroom and shot the bleeder twice in the head. When I came out, Bobby was doing the same to the other.
I walked up behind the leader. I promised to break his neck. I picked up the sawed-off shot gun by the butt, and swung it as hard as I could to the back of his neck. I don’t know if it actually broke his neck and I really doubt that it did, but his neck and head did jerk forward. I walked around in front of him, shot him twice in the head, and followed Bobby out the door.
Chapter Twenty-seven
Jackie and Monika sat at Cynt's and waited patiently for Black to get there, or at least Monika did. Jackie was nervous and couldn’t sit still for very long. She’d be all right for a while, but then she’d bounce up and walk around, just in case he was there and she just couldn’t see him while she was sitting down.
“I wish you’d stop doin’ that,” Monika said when Jackie came back and sat down. To her, waiting to report was nothing new and she seemed content sipping her drink and people watching.
“I can’t help it,” Jackie said and picked up her watered down drink.
“I understand, but finish your drink and relax. He’ll get here when he gets here. You like pussy, don’t you?” Monika asked. “Well there’s plenty in here to look at.”
“I noticed you gettin’ your eyes full, Ms. I’m-strictly-dickly,” Jackie came back.
“How could you not? It’s very compelling to watch. The atmosphere, energy of the dancers, the raw sexuality of it all, you know what I’m sayin’? I mean, just the look on some of these guys’ faces is priceless.”
“I know. It’s like they’ve never seen a naked woman before. I never have understood that one,” Jackie said as she stood up again and noticed that Black and Bobby had come in.
Since Mylo had mentioned Cynt’s so prominently in his conversation with the man he’d met earlier in the evening, Jackie was apprehensive about them meeting Black there. She wanted to tell Monika to call Nick back and insist that they should meet somewhere else, but she didn’t want to seem like she was overreacting.
As soon as he saw her, Black made eye contact with Jackie. He was on his way to her when Cynt cut him off.
As soon as Black saw Cynt storming toward him, he knew what she wanted. He had meant to talk to her about telling Mystique that he didn’t want her dancing there, but he just hadn’t gotten around to it. “We need to talk, Mr. Black.”
“Yes we do, Cynt,” Black said. “How’s business tonight?”
“Good night,” Cynt replied. “Good night. But it would be better if Mystique hadn’t quit on me. And when I asked her why, she says I should ask you.”
By this time, Bobby was beside himself with laughter. “Mystique quit? What you know about that?”
Black ran his hand over his face. “I told her she didn’t work here any more.”
“Oh,” was the only answer Cynt could manage.
“I was gonna talk to you about it, but I been busy.”
“If there was some problem with her, I’m sure we can work it out,” Cynt said, believing that he had fired her. “Mystique is one of my best earners, Black, so-”
“Cynt, there’s no problem. I just don’t want her workin’ here,” Black tried to explain without having to go into any detail.
“He’s clamin’ her, Cynt,” Bobby said.
“Oh, that’s different. Now it’s business,” was her comment.
“I know, Cynt. I’ll compensate you for the loss of income. Think of a price, just don’t get ridiculous,” Black said as the room exploded in applause. Frank Sparrow, the middleweight champion of world, had just come in Cynt’s and was immediately mobbed by both dancers and fight fans.
“I guess we’ll talk about this later, Black. Let me go make the champ spend some money.”
“Oh hell no, Cynt,” Bobby said and grabbed Cynt by her arm. “Don’t do that. The fight is tomorrow night, so he don’t need to be playin’ poker all night or leave here with two or three hoes. I got money ridin’ on him.”
“Okay,” Cynt said and snatched her arm back. “And don’t be grabbin’ me. I ain’t one of these young girls you be all over in here.”
“Don’t hate, Cynt, you can get some too,” Bobby said, remembering that Cynt used to give good head back in the day.
“Whatever, Bobby,” Cynt said and walked away.
Bobby turned to Black. “Why didn’t you tell me you were claimin’ amazon Shy?”
“’Cause I didn’t want to hear your mouth.”
“You did right. If you gonna keep fuckin’ her. ”
“And I am.”
“It didn’t look right to have what everyone considers your woman shakin’ her ass for every nigga that rolls
