“I know Angelo didn’t leave his hole just to talk about Crazy Joe, but I’ll leave it alone.”
But when I excluded her from the meeting with Martin and then wouldn’t tell her what we talked about, she lost her mind.
“What do you mean you didn’t talk about anything in particular? The two of you were sure gone a long time for just small talk.”
“It didn’t seem that long to me.”
“Mike, I understand you keeping me out of the loop with Angelo, but Martin is another matter. Unless you’re telling me otherwise, then Martin Marshall is a legitimate business contact and I should have been there with you.”
As far as Wanda knew, we hadn’t had business in years. She doesn’t know that Martin and I have some fresh history. I never told her that Martin had any involvement in or knowledge of Cassandra’s death. I intended to keep it way.
“Bobby is at the club, boss,” Kevon informed me and headed in that direction.
“Let me see the phone.” Kevon handed me the phone and I dialed Monika’s number.
“Hello,” Monika said tentatively.
“Hello, Monika. This is Mike Black. Did I call at a bad time?”
“No. I don’t get a lot of calls and I didn’t recognize the number. In fact, I don’t remember giving it to you. Not that it’s a problem,” Monika said quickly.
“Nick told it to me once.”
“Once?”
“I’m good with numbers.”
“Ooo-kay,” she said like she didn’t believe me, but I am. “So what’s up?”
“Does the name Eileen McManus mean anything to you?”
“Eileen McManus? The name sounds familiar, but I don’t know from where. Who is she?”
“I don’t know. But see how she fits in with that thing we talked about.”
“Got yah.”
“Call me at this number if you get something.”
“I will.”
“And I haven’t forgot about that other thing we talked about.”
“See that you don’t,” Monika said and ended the call.
When we got to the club, I made my way toward the office. The club was packed. As I pushed my way through the crowd I wondered if CeCe was in there some place. If she was she’d be sitting somewhere near the office. I didn’t see her, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t there. I walked up the steps and thought about why I went out of my way to avoid her.
I was perfectly willing to fuck just about every other woman who set it out for me. Why not her? I thought about what she said the last time we talked.
I walked into Bobby’s office and decided that I had too much goin’ on to worry about that now. A convenient excuse, but it is what it is.
“What’s up, Mike?” Bobby said, leaning back in his chair.
“I got something we need to talk about,” I said and sat down.
“I don’t like the sound of this already, what’s up?”
“Angelo Collette came to see me tonight.”
Bobby sat straight up. “Came to see you where?”
“At Cuisine. Just showed up at the door.”
Bobby stood up and went to the bar. “What he want?” he asked and poured us a drink.
“He wanted to talk about Stark.”
“He wants you to get them together or something?” Bobby handed me the glass and went behind his desk.
“He wants more than that, Bob. His exact words were that he was hopin’ for something a little more than just an introduction.”
“Like what?” Bobby asked and sat down.
“That he was thinkin’ that maybe I would take more of an active role. I could be kind of a stabilizing influence. You know, keep problems down.”
“What you tell him?”
“I told him that I would set up a meeting, but I would have to think about that influence shit.”
“How’d he take it?”
“He said that he would consider it a personal favor if I would do that for him.”
“What you gonna do?”
“You know what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna tell him no.”
“How do you think he’ll take that?”
“I don’t know.”
“Angelo has done a lot for you over the years.”
“I know. How do I say no?”
“First off, what does he mean by stabilizing influence?”
“I didn’t ask him.”
Bobby laughed. “Wasn’t tryin’ to hear that shit, were you?”
“No.” I laughed too, but the shit wasn’t funny. “This couldn’t happen at a worse time.”
“I know. Why now, when he knows we’re tryin’ to go another way? Why drop that shit on you now?”
“I wish I knew for sure, Bob. What I do know is that Angelo has problems of his own.”
“With who?”
“FBI, DEA, I didn’t ask him and I didn’t wanna know. But he wants to do business with Stark.”
“But he doesn’t want that heat now.”
“That’s where we come in.”
“You gotta think that what he means by stabilizing influence is that you deal with Stark. Any problems come up, you deal with it. Any heat, you catch it.”
“Naturally, I could charge a fee for my services.”
“Naturally.”
“What do you think we should do?”
“You know,” Bobby said and took a sip of his drink. “My first thought is that we should go ahead and do it.”
“But-”
“But I’m only thinking about the money. With Angelo behind Stark, and with our muscle and organization, we should takeover the city. At that point it’s just business. Same business we used to be a part of.”
“But-” I said and Bobby cut me off again.
“But, with that comes the flipside. The cops and the fuckin’ DEA start looking at you.” Bobby paused. “You know when you first came to me and said you wanted to get out of the dope game, I wasn’t for it.”
“I remember.”
“But I went along. Now I truly believe that it was the best decision we ever made. We’re not in jail because nobody cares if a muthafucka loses his money gambling or borrows money or he gets some pussy. They think what we do is a harmless vice. And as long as we payoff the right people, nobody bothers us.”
“I agree. It’s what put us in a position to move this thing to the left.”
“I was startin’ to get into this legit thing; having meetings with Meka Brazil. That’s a bad bitch. By the why, if you’re not gonna fuck her I will,” Bobby promised.
“Go ahead; it’s a free country, Bob. Go for it, but I don’t think she likes you.”
“I don’t think she does, either. But that’s what makes it fun.”
“Whatever, Bob. So you agree with me, you don’t think we should do it?”
“I don’t know. But here again, I’m only thinkin’ about the money.”
“Is the money worth what we stand to lose?”
