by Roy Glenn
“Your carriage awaits you, Ms. Sims,” Mike said, extending his hand to help her into the carriage.
“Oh, baby, this is so romantic,” Shy said, kissing him on the cheek.
“I’m glad you’re happy,” he said, squeezing her hand a little tighter. “I love to see you smile. Just like a kid with a new toy.”
“I am. Only my new toy is tall, dark and very sexy.”
The coachman rode them around Nassau into the morning hours, telling stories and pointing out some points of interest. He gave them a brief history lesson. Even though at points their kissing prevented them from paying attention.
He told them that, “In 1492 Christopher Columbus made his first landing in the New World in the Bahamas, on an island that was then inhabited by the Arawak Indians. He claimed it for Spain, naming it San Salvador.” He also explained that the island was a stronghold for buccaneers and pirates, most notably the infamous Blackbeard.
“No relation,” Mike said.
As the evening wore on, the coachman stopped talking and left the love birds to their own resources. He dropped them off at their car. Mike jumped down and then he turned to help Shy.
“Baby, this has been the most romantic day I’ve ever spent. There is no place I’d rather be than right here with you,” Shy said.
“I feel the same way too.”
“I wish it never had to end.”
“Why does it have to?” Mike asked.
“Because like you said, one of us has someplace to be,” she replied walking away looking very sad. She couldn’t stay and she knew it.
“What do you wanna do now?” Mike asked.
Suddenly the smile returned to her face as she turned and walked toward him. “I wanna make love,” she said, putting her arms around him. “I wanna make love until the sun comes up.”
Mike drew her close and kissed her passionately.
“I wanna fall asleep in your arms, wake up and make love again. Do you think you can handle that?”
“I know I can.” Mike replied.
“You’re pretty sure of yourself, aren’t you?”
“Self-confidence never was one of my weaknesses,” Mike said walking to the car.
Things went pretty much as they had discussed for the rest of the early morning hours and well into the afternoon. Afterwards they debated whether to call room service or go out. They settled on the hotel restaurant. The closer it came to Saturday morning, the more Shy thought about her situation. The last three days were wonderful. Mike was wonderful. Still there was one thing that bothered her.
“Mind if I ask you a question?” Shy asked.
“Shoot.”
“What did you mean when you told Hector that as a matter of principle you wouldn’t guarantee my deal?” she asked.
“You know I don’t do that type of business, Cassandra. And as a matter of principle, I don’t like having my name associated with it.”
“Yeah, yeah, I know all that, but why?” Before he could answer Shy said, “Everyone’s been telling me that you hate dealers, but here you are with me.”
“What somebody does for a living is none of my business, as long as it doesn’t conflict with my business. One has very little to do with the other. I’m in love with you for who you are Cassandra. I just don’t want no parts of your occupation.”
“The question still stands. Why?” she asked again. “You’re not going to answer me, are you?”
Mike stared into her eyes and began eating. Then he said, almost as an afterthought, “When we were coming up, there was another member of the crew.”
“Was?” Shy asked.
“Her name was Vickie.”
“What happened to her?”
“I killed her.”
“What?” Shy said in shock.
“I killed her.”
Shy stared at him for a while, expecting an explanation of that one. All types of things ran through her mind. Perhaps she was wrong about him. Maybe he was as vicious as his reputation after all.
“Coming up, all of us knew where we were going and were moving toward it. Perry and Wanda were in college. But not Vickie, she just wanted to have fun. Hanging with me, Bobby, Nick and Jamaica was all she wanted to do.”
“Who is this Nick y’all keep talking about?”
“Nick came up with us.”
“What happened to him?”
“He joined the Army, got into some black bag stuff. You’ll meet him. Anyway we took care of her, all of us did. She had a key to the crib, the whole nine, and that was cool. We had it like that and she was down with us.”
“How did you kill her, Black?” Shy asked seriously.
“I’ve never done cocaine in my life, but back in the day I would always keep some around because ho’s … I mean women would freak for it.”
“You have a real problem with calling women ho’s,” Shy remarked.
“Until I met you.”
“Go on.”
“We were hanging out one night, I saw André and he gave me some pure. I didn’t get home until like nine the next morning. I was getting ready to put a cut on it, but I was blasted and didn’t feel like it. So I threw the bag on the coffee table and crashed on the couch. I had been asleep a couple of hours, I guess, when Vickie came in. We kicked it for a minute then I passed out again. I woke up again and decided to get in the bed. But the door to my room was locked. I knocked on the door, but she didn’t answer. After a while I kicked the door in. I found her laying on the floor naked, with the pipe still in her hand.”
“Was she dead?” Shy asked.
“Yes.”
“What did you do?”
“I called 9-1-1. Ambulance came, and so did the cops. They wanted to charge me, but André took care of that.”
“I’m sorry,” Shy said, feeling bad that she had pushed it.
“Don’t sweat it. How would you know that I killed her?”
“You didn’t kill her, baby. But being the type of guy you are, I know you tortured yourself about it.”
“I did. André had to send me away for a couple of months, because I just started killing everybody he’d send me at. That’s when I really earned the name.” Mike stood up and reached for Shy’s hand. They walked out together. “Vickie and Jamaica were real close; he took it badly too. He got off into that heroin strong after that. And you see how that turned out.”
“I didn’t know. I shoulda let it go.”
“Don’t look like that, baby. You look so sad. Now we have to do something to recapture the mood, I know …” Mike began walking faster, grabbed Shy by the hand.
“You think you got me figured out?” Shy said as they approached the beach.
“Not yet. But I’m learning more and more every day,” Mike said. He was right. The beach brought the smile back to her face. Then it started to rain.
“Walking in the rain with the one I love,” Shy said.
“The Three Degrees.”
“Ever since I heard that song I always wanted to do this,” Shy said, as raindrops ran down her cheeks. “Did you arrange this too?”
“I can’t take credit for this one. Changing the weather is more than I can handle,” Mike said as they walked for a while longer. “There’s something else I like doing in the rain.”
“Me, too. I’ll race you back to the condo.”
By the time they got there, they were both drenched.
“One more excuse to be naked,” Shy joked.
They both began to remove their wet clothes. Shy took her 22 out of her back pocket and laid it down on the night-stand. Mike asked, “I’ve been meaning to ask you if you knew how to use that thing?”
“Yes baby, I know how to use it.”
“You ever kill anybody with it?”
“No.”
“Think you could?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about that for a while. More recently, for obvious reasons. But hopefully I’ll never have to find out. I’m no gangster, baby. Maybe that
’s why I’m having all these problems. Maybe you can give me some pointers?” Shy asked.
“Maybe tomorrow. I’m still on vacation.”
Later that evening, they chartered a boat and sailed back to Freeport. The dream ended when Shy saw Pete on Saturday morning.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Upon arrival in New York on Saturday evening, Mike and Shy took a cab to Cuisine. They sat quietly in the back seat of the cab holding hands, neither one wanting to be back in New York. Freeport was beautiful. Shy wished they could have stayed forever. However, she felt she had no choice. She had to return and face her responsibilities. Staying in the Bahamas seemed too much like running away. Had she chosen that course she would not be able to face herself.
Now the reality of her situation came back into focus. First, there was the small matter of the quarter of a million dollars she owed Angelo. Although she felt that Black planned on covering her debt, it wasn’t his responsibility. Shy became determined to find her attackers and destroy them before they destroyed her.
Mike had called Sylvia from the airport and told her to have Freeze and Kenny, who had finally returned from Detroit, to meet him there. Shy called Jack and told him to do the same. The last time Kenny called he told Sylvia that he had a few strong leads. Mike was anxious to hear what he had. Hopefully, there would be something, anything, that would lead him to whoever was trying to do harm to Shy.
“Hello, Sylvia.”
“Welcome back, Black. Everyone’s waiting for you.”
“Good. Sylvia, this is Shy,” Mike said as he passed her desk.
“It’s nice to finally meet you,” Sylvia said.
“Same here,” Shy said as she rushed past her.
“You had a call from someone named Tony. He said he would meet you here.”
“When he gets here please send him in.”
They entered the office to find Kenny and Jack seated in the two chairs in front of Mike’s desk. Freeze was sitting behind the desk with his feet up.
“What’s up, Black?” Freeze said as he got up from the desk, taking a seat on the couch.
“Did you enjoy the vacation, Kenny?” Mike said as he went behind his desk. After saying hello to Jack, Shy sat down on the couch next to Freeze.
“I was working, Black.” Kenny said, pleading his case.
“Okay then, working vacation.” Mike sat down at his desk. “Long as you been gone, you should know who it is, where they are and what they’re having for dinner tonight.”
“Leon wasn’t easy to track down.”
“Nothing about this is,” Shy said matter-a-factly. “What’d you find out?”
“What I got is the address of an art studio in Manhattan. This is where the first meet was supposed to be. The way I got it is that whoever paid for the hit met Leon there a little more than a month ago.”
“That’s about when we first got hit. What else?” Shy got up from the couch and stood before Kenny, demanding more information.
“After that Leon goes back to Detroit. The hit was set up then. But it didn’t get paid for until a week or so later in Detroit.”
“You know where that was?”
“No.”
“You get a description?” Shy asked.
“Not a good one. Black man, wearing a hat and sunglasses, about five eight, maybe five ten.”
“That’s it?” Mike asked.
“There’s a place in Brooklyn, a chop shop. Guy there named James Kerns is supposed to have arranged the meet with Leon.”
“Shy, that’s the place you sent Tony that night. That guy Tim just played him off. But now we got a name,” Jack said.
Shy turned and said to Mike. “E said he had a tip that someone there knew something about it. When Tony went there he thought it was a setup, like they were expecting me to be there.”
“Freeze, you ever hear of James Kerns?” Freeze shook his head. “Check it out; see if you can get something on him. Then …” Mike said.
Shy turned quickly and looked at Mike, and then she leaned across the desk.
“Baby, let me handle my business.”
Mike leaned back in the chair with his hands up in surrender. Shy turned to Freeze.
“Freeze, I would appreciate it if you checked him out, but you don’t go out there without Tony.” Freeze looked at Mike, who nodded in approval.
“Jack, let’s go check out that studio.” He got up and started for the door. “Freeze, Kenny, would you two excuse me. I wanna talk to Black.”
Mike motioned for them to leave. Shy followed them to the door and closed it behind them.
“I’m sorry for cutting you off, but this isn’t your problem,” Shy said as she walked over to him and sat in his lap. “I appreciate your help, but I gotta do this.”
“I don’t want you to get hurt,” he said. Shy kissed him.
“I can’t hide behind you. So don’t have anybody following us. I’ll be all right with Jack. And besides,” Shy said with a smile as she got up and started for the door. “Don’t you have something to do?”
“I get your point. But you call me here as soon as you leave there.”
“I promise.”
“Send Freeze in for me please.”
“I will,” Shy said, closing the door behind her.
She and Jack made their way across the restaurant floor and out to the street. As they walked to Jack’s car, Tony pulled up in his BMW and walked toward them. Shy told Tony the information Kenny had gotten in Detroit.
“I want you to go back out there with Freeze. Where’s E?” Shy asked.
“He’s making the rounds. We should be ready to do business in a couple of days,” Tony replied.
“Cool. You call him. Let him know what’s going on. After you check this Kerns guy out, you call me on Jack’s cell phone,” Shy ordered, before getting in the car with Jack. Tony went inside to get Freeze.
When Jack started to pull away a woman got out of a car, which had parked a short way down the street. As she walked closer, Shy could see that it was Melinda. “Slow down, Jack. I wanna make sure this bitch sees me.” They drove past slowly but Melinda wasn’t looking.
“Honk the horn,” Shy said to Jack. Melinda looked at the car and Shy mouthed the words, “He’s mine,” then motioned to Jack to drive on. Melinda looked away and went inside.
While Shy was marking her territory outside, Freeze returned to Mike’s office to see what he wanted. “You wanted to see me, Black?”
“Yeah, I do want you to check out that spot in Brooklyn, but I want you to check out this Ricardo guy first.”
“Who is that?”
“Some guy she used to go with. Tony will know how to find him.”
“Done.” Freeze paused as he was about to leave the office. “Black, we getting back in the dope game?”
“You lost your mind? Hell no!” The question made him angry, “Sit down, Freeze,” but he knew it had to be answered. “Look, I know that we been committing a lot of time and resources to this, but, we are by no means getting back in the game.” Gesturing with his hands to emphasize his point.
“Just wanted to know if I should start recruiting. Hey, watch out when you see Bobby. He’s gonna come at you hard about this, so be ready.”
“Yeah right. I’m sure he won’t be the only one.” Knowing Wanda would have some more to say on the subject. “Get outta here. Yo, Freeze, good looking out.”
“Yo, ain’t that what you pay me the phat cash for?” Freeze said, closing the door to the office. After leaving Mike’s office Freeze approached Tony at the bar. “You ready?”
“Yeah, let’s go.”
“Black wants us to check out some guy named Ricardo. You know how to find him?”
“Ricardo? Yeah, I know where he lives. After he dissed her, Shy had to see who he dropped her for. So, me and her followed him ‘til we saw her. She was kinda fine. Anyway, they got a tuff ass house in White Plains. But I don’t think …” Tony thought for a minute about the type of guy R
icardo was. “Now that I think about it, I wouldn’t put this past him. He’s too weak to do it himself, but he got money.”
“Let’s do this,” Freeze said, starting for the door.
“Hold up. Let me call Shy, tell her where we’re going,” Tony said.
“No. She don’t need to know all that. Let’s just go do this.”
“You’re right. She’ll just start clowning on a nigga.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“Hello, Black,” Melinda said as she entered the office.
“Hello, Melinda,” Mike said with the phone in his hand. “It’s good to see you.”
She sat down on the couch and crossed her legs.
“I was just about to call you,” he said, as he put the receiver back in the cradle.
“To tell me it’s over?” she said, nodding her head and rocking her leg in perfect rhythm.
“Yes,” Mike said without emotion.
“I knew it wouldn’t take long,” Melinda said in much the same manner.
“I’m gonna order dinner. Want me to order something for you?”
“If I’m gonna get kicked to the curb, it might as well be over steak and lobster.”
Mike called the kitchen and ordered their meals then escorted Melinda to his table. Diane brought Mike a drink and asked Melinda if she wanted a cocktail with her meal. “Double Black Russian,” Melinda replied. “So, I saw your little drug dealer girlfriend on the way in. Is she the one?”
“Yes.”
“I thought so. I always knew this would happen. I just didn’t think it would be this soon.”
“This isn’t easy for me, Melinda.”
“I know. And I’m not gonna make it any easier for you. It was easy for you to fuck her. So what’s the big deal? What’s so special about her?”
“I love her.”
“You love her. Ain’t that a bitch? You love her. Well I love you.”
“What?”
“I know I never said it before, but I do.”
“I never knew.” Genuinely caught off guard, he continued, “I never knew how you felt. I always thought you were in it for the money.”
