“That’s what I just fuckin’ said. I cut his fuckin’ throat.”
I remember sitting down in that hard-ass chair and burying my head in my hands. “Jett, you killed the only person who could tell us who tried to kill her and why.”
“He wasn’t gonna talk, Nick, so he had to fuckin’ die. We don’t need him to tell us shit, Nick. That fuckin’ Chilly knows why.”
And it didn’t take Jett long to find out. He called me later that night. “I know who did it.”
“Who?”
“I can’t talk now. Meet me here.”
“Jett, wait!” I yelled, but he was gone. I drove as fast as I could but when I got to the house, Jett was gone. I drove down the street slowly. I saw Jett’s car parked on my right. I parked up ahead of him and walked back to his car. I came around to the driver’s side. “What’s goin’ on, Jett?”
“Jett!”
I looked in the car. His eyes were wide open. “Jett!” I shook him. That’s when I saw the trail of blood coming from his ear. I opened the car door and Jett fell into my arms. He was dead.
He had been there for Monika. She called Jett, and his being there to stop the bleeding saved her life. He called me and I didn’t get there in time. I thought about Freeze; another good friend that died in my arms because I wasn’t there for him.
“Nick? You all right?”
“Just thinkin’ ’bout Jett and Freeze. And don’t tell me I need to let that go.”
“I wasn’t gonna. Hold on to that pain; embrace it. We need our pain. I think it makes us stronger.”
“I think so too.” I just hoped we were both right and the pain I felt from their deaths would make me stronger in some way.
“Now, what you need from me?”
“I really need Jett on this,” I said and told Monika what I was into, what I found out, and what I needed her to do. When I told her, she laughed.
“You don’t need Jett for that. You could have used any number of IP-address locators that are available on- line to find out where those e-mails were sent from,” Monika said and opened her laptop.
“I didn’t know that.”
“Pay attention and learn something,” she said and Googled IP-address locator and chose the first one it listed. “This is quick and dirty, but it will get you the information you want.”
“Suppose I wanted to know where it was sent from and who the account belongs to?”
Monika closed her laptop. “That requires a little more work. This is only gonna tell me where the server is and who it belongs to. To get what you want, I’ll have to hack into their system. This is where you need Jett.”
“That’s why I came to you. Can you do it?”
“Of course I can. I may not be as good as Jett, but I have skills too. Give me some time. I’ll call you when I have something.”
Chapter 10
I went back to my apartment and called Kevon. He said that they would pick me up in an hour. While I waited, I had a drink and thought about Freeze. I thought about how I was allowing my rage and guilt to consume me, and the effect it was having on every part of my life. I was drinking a lot more than I should and I knew that it was affecting my relationship with Wanda, if not our sex life.
I’ve been staying in my own apartment more than at the house with her. I was angry and irritable and though I try not to take that anger out on her, there are times when I know I do.
When Black got there, I jumped in the back seat of his Cadillac CTS. Black got in the back with me and we were on our way. “Did you take care of Mrs. Phillips?” Black wanted to know.
“I gave her the money and she said to thank you, but if you really wanted to do something for her, you’ll find the guys who did it.”
“Revenge.”
“Yeah.”
“How’d you leave it?”
“I told her that I couldn’t promise her anything, but I’d see what I could do.”
“What do you think?”
“Wouldn’t hurt to ask around; see if anybody knows anything about it.”
“I agree. How much did they hit us for? ”
“Couple of hundred.”
“Oh,” he said. I thought Black was going to say that it wasn’t gonna be enough money for him to want to invest any time in. “But I don’t need people thinkin’ that since Freeze is dead that it’s cool to hit our spots, and we don’t do anything.”
“I’ll take care of it.”
Black nodded. “Good.”
I guess “I’ll take care of it” was the right answer.
“While we’re on the subject, do you actually have a license for being a private investigator?”
“Yeah, why?”
“I was thinking about revivin’ our old security company.”
“Invulnerable. I haven’t thought about that in a long time.” When Black and Bobby went freelance and started doing jobs on their own, Wanda insisted that the first thing they should do was to start a business to run their money through. The name of their company was Invulnerable Security. Black chose a security company because it would give them a license to carry guns.
“Yeah, neither have I,” Black said. “But Wanda got me thinking about legitimate business opportunities.”
I laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
“Nothing. Just trippin’ on how she got us all.”
“Yeah, well, when she’s right she’s right.” Black looked out the window for awhile, and I wondered if he was trippin’ on being legit. I knew I was. I was about to ask him when he turned to me. “Anyway-I was thinking about revivin’ Invulnerable and hirin’ some people and puttin’ them to work in our cash businesses. You know, make our people feel more secure workin’ there, maybe even provide a deterrent to little bullshit robberies like this. Get somebody to go around and get other businesses to take a guard at their spot. You know how we do it. If that works out, I was thinkin’ that we could expand into private investigations too.”
I laughed a little. “That’s a damn good idea.” Even though Black was thinkin’ legit he was still gangster.
“You get with Wanda and tell her to find out what it’s gonna take and make that happen.”
“I’ll talk to her about it.”
“I know Wanda has her own ideas about this. She wants you take over the finance company. I know that ain’t you. So have you thought about what you might want to do?”
“I was thinkin’ about the game.”
Black laughed. “Don’t think Jackie can handle it, do you? I know Bobby and Wanda don’t.”
“How do you think she’s doin’?”
“She got her boy Travis up there with her now.”
“Which means?”
“Which means I’m not sayin’ no to you. Not yet anyway. Give her a chance. Which means you check on the game every night.”
“Just the game or do you want me to check on everything?”
Black looked out the window and didn’t say anything at first. Then he looked at me. “Freeze checked on
