by JC Kane
Bruce looked out the window and saw Lee pull into the parking lot. Bruce went downstairs to meet him.
Downstairs in the motorcycle shop, Bruce hit a couple buttons on the wall and opened two of the four garage doors for Lee, Jesus, and another member of Lee’s executive protection team. Lee left the blacked out Suburban outside and they all walked in to say hello to Bruce.
“Where’s Green?” Lee asked. “We’re supposed to meet at one o’clock.”
“Well, you’re both late,” Bruce said. “It’s twenty after one.”
“That’s fucked up, man,” Lee said. “That’s another problem you gotta fix with your people. When you show up late to a meeting with your boss, that shows a complete and total lack of respect. It’s a slap in the face.”
“I can’t even remember the last time you actually showed up on time,” Bruce said.
Lee shook his head. “That’s different, I’m the boss. Green is getting out of control and you need to put him in his place.”
Bruce heard a familiar sound. He knew it very well. It was the sound of a large group of motorcycles thundering down the street and it was getting closer.
Green, and thirteen other members of the Two Zero Five Motorcycle Club, drove their motorcycles into the Firehouse parking lot. Bruce could feel the vibration from the engines. The loud growl of the motors was deafening. A Ford F-150 pulled in behind them. It was the chase vehicle, a truck or vehicle that followed the bikes in case of an emergency. The chase vehicle came in handy when a bike broke down or if they just needed to transport someone or something too big for a motorcycle.
Green drove his motorcycle into the shop, intentionally driving right in front of Lee. He did a U-turn at the back of the shop and parked next to Bruce. The others parked their bikes outside, directly behind Lee’s Suburban. Some of the guys got off their bikes. Some remained seated. It was a definite show of force on Green’s part and it was anything but subtle. Green wasn’t a person that you could intimidate or control and he wanted Lee, and Bruce, to know that.
Green hung his helmet on his handlebar. “I hope you don’t mind, I brought a couple friends. We’re going for a ride after this, so I just said, what the hell, the more the merrier, right?”
“You’re late,” Lee said.
“Traffic was a bitch.”
“When you have a meeting with your boss, you make sure—”
“Let’s get something clear right now,” Green said. “You are not my boss. I’m an independent contractor. I can do whatever the fuck I want, when I want. Now, I respect Bruce and I will always do what I say, for him. But, he pays me because I’m good at what I do. I get paid to produce a result and no one tells me how to do my job. I will certainly consider Bruce’s input, but ultimately it’s my ass on the line and, to be honest, I really don’t give a shit what you think about the way I do things.”
Jesus started walking towards Green. He couldn’t stand to see someone like Green disrespecting Lee. Who did he think he was? Green had no respect for rules or authority and Lee was the head of a major drug operation.
Lee put up his hand to stop Jesus. “No. It’s okay.” Jesus stopped and Lee walked slowly towards Green. “I see how it is. You’re pretty tough when you have all your biker buddies with you, right?”
“That’s how it works in my world. If you have a problem with me, you have a problem with all of us.” Green looked at Lee’s security team. “It’s not like you travel light.”
Green and Lee were getting a little too close for comfort, so Bruce walked over and stepped between them. “Okay, now that the salutations are out of the way, let’s move on. The whole point of this meeting is to discuss Old Goat. Lee, what do you want to know about the Old Goat situation? Green is here. Ask him what you want to ask him and let’s get this over with.”
Lee held his gaze on Green. “Where the fuck is Old Goat? That’s what I want to know. You’re so good at your job and you don’t even know where your own brother is. His phone is off. He could be talking to the police, talking to our competitors, or he could be dead in a ditch somewhere.”
“As a matter of fact, I got a text from him last night. He hooked up with a lady friend of his and he’s taking some time off.”
“Well, where is he?” Lee asked.
“I just told you.”
“No, you told me what he’s doing. I want to know where he is.”
Green shook his head. “I don’t know and I don’t care. I know he’s safe and he wants to be left alone. That’s all I need to know.”
“I need to know more than that,” Lee said.
“Well, good luck with that,” Green said. “But that’s all I know.”
“Don’t forget who you’re talking to,” Lee said. “You want me to respect you and yet you stand here and talk to me like I’m just some guy off the street. Show some respect if you want respect in return.”
Green took a deep breath and tried to control his rage. “You wanted this meeting because you think I’m lying. That doesn’t suggest that you have a whole lot of respect for me, especially considering the years that I’ve spent doing your dirty work. Have I ever let you down in that time? No, I haven’t. And now you think I’m lying to you about something that honestly has nothing to do with you. So forgive me if I’m a little pissed off, but I have better things to do with my time than come here and explain my brother’s personal life to you.”
“You’re right,” Lee said. “I think you’re lying because it doesn’t make sense. Your own brother disappears, without a trace, turns his phone off even though he’s not supposed to, then, all of a sudden, he sends you a text message that says he’s fine, he’s just taking a break. Are you fucking kidding me?” Lee looked at Bruce. “You’re not buying this shit, are you?”
Bruce shrugged. “Look, I trust Green. We have no reason to believe that there’s a problem right now. I think you’re making this a bigger thing than it needs to be.”
“If he was arrested, he would’ve called Bruce by now,” Green said. “Or the police would’ve already raided this place.”
“Let me see the text message.” Lee put out his hand.
“Fuck you.”
“What’s the problem?” Lee asked. “Unless you’re lying to me, just show me the text message.” Lee looked at Bruce. “Have you seen this text message that just came in last night? How convenient that it just came in last night, the day before our meeting.”
Green cracked his knuckles. “Now you’re just being disrespectful and I’m about to get really pissed off.”
Lee looked to Bruce for support. “How am I being disrespectful? I just want to see the text message and then we can all move on.”
Bruce put his hands up in the air. “This was a mistake. You’re treating Green like a child. That’s not how you treat someone that’s been loyal to you forever. I understand that you want to be sure that Old Goat isn’t talking to someone, but this isn’t going to work. There is nothing that suggests Old Goat is a threat to us right now or that he’s in any trouble. Green says he’s fine and that’s enough for me. This is not a productive use of anyone’s time.”
Bruce put his arm around Green and walked him towards his motorcycle. “Green, I’m sorry I wasted your time. Thanks for coming, but, you guys should take off now. I’ll call you later.”
Bruce turned to Lee. “Lee, you can hold me accountable for anything that happens as a result of Old Goat being off the grid, fair enough?”
“No, that’s not good enough,” Lee said. “If I find out that Green is lying, I’m gonna hold him accountable, and it ain’t gonna be pretty.”
Green put his helmet on and hopped on his motorcycle. “Because I promised Bruce that I would be on my best behavior today, I’m going to ignore your threat, for now.” Bruce started his motorcycle and revved the engine. “But I won’t forget it.”
Chapter 12
Lee’s private office inside the Heavenlee Holdings office building was massive. It was more than 2,000 square feet of open spac
e. It included a large custom desk, leather chairs, couches, a fireplace, a bar, bookshelves, and a floor-to-ceiling wall of bullet-proof windows. And that was only one room in the building.
Bruce, Lee, and Jesus were sitting by the fireplace in Lee’s office. One of Lee’s security guys opened the door and two young gentlemen walked in, Igor and Benson.
Igor Lebedev and Benson Alperstein were computer programmers living in Silicon Valley. They were looking for people to invest in their software company. They needed more programmers, more servers, more everything. They wanted to grow faster and that would require a lot of money. Bruce saw this as the perfect opportunity to go legit and leave the drug business behind. He wanted Lee to get on board, too. If Bruce could persuade Lee to leave the business, he could close all of the loose ends and be fairly confident that all incriminating evidence would be buried for good.
Bruce walked over and shook hands with Igor and Benson. “What’s up guys? Good to see you again.”
“This is my partner, Lee Giordano. Lee, this is Igor and Benson.” Bruce purposely ignored Jesus. He never liked to acknowledge his presence. Igor and Benson shook Jesus’s hand anyway and introduced themselves before they sat down.
Lee looked at Bruce. “So, these are the nerds you keep telling me about?”
“These are the very smart computer programmers and entrepreneurs that we’ve discussed and they have a really amazing investment opportunity,” Bruce said. He turned his attention to Benson. “Why don’t you tell Lee a little bit about your business.”
“Sure,” Benson said. Benson was a Jewish kid from Brooklyn. He had the attitude of a New Yorker, but didn’t have the street smarts to go along with the attitude.
“Igor and I met at MIT, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, about three years ago. We were both enrolled in the Computer Science and Engineering program. After our first year, we started building a data collection and analysis application together. In the middle of our second year, we decided to pursue it full-time because it was going so well and we had a lot of interest from some pretty big companies. That’s when we dropped out of school and moved here to focus on building out the software and growing our business. It’s basically a backend application for collecting and analyzing big data. We’ve had several Fortune 500 clients test it and, at this point, we’re just trying to scale it as fast as we can to keep up with demand.”
Lee held up his hand to stop Benson. “How do you know Bruce?”
“Igor is friends with Skully, one of the guys from the Two Zero Five,” Bruce said.
“The Two Zero Five? How did this guy become friends with someone like Skully?” Lee asked. “I mean, you don’t typically see nerds like these two guys hanging out at the Two Zero Five clubhouse. You know what I mean?” Lee laughed.
“I think Igor was looking to score a little cocaine for a party or something and a friend introduced him to Skully.” Bruce looked at Igor for confirmation. “Then Skully introduced him to me when he found out they were looking for investors.”
“You’re telling me these guys are cokeheads?” Lee asked.
“No, no, no, no, no,” Bruce said. “Don’t be an asshole. He buys a little bit from Skully from time to time. They’re not cokeheads.”
“If I could just add to that,” Igor said. Igor was from Russia and still had a strong accent even though he spoke English very well. “I admit, I do like to buy cocaine and I use cocaine to stimulate my mind and it helps me work faster, but I also share a lot of it with friends, especially female friends, and it has never been a problem and it actually helps me focus and work longer.”
“Spoken like a true cokehead,” Lee said. “And how much money are you begging for today?”
“We’re not begging for anything, Mr. Giordano,” Benson said. “We were under the impression that Bruce was interested in an angel round, so we were considering putting off the series A round if you guys were interested.”
Lee stood up to get a drink. “I have no idea what that means. How much money do you need, for this investment?”
“If you guys are willing to invest ten million, we would do an angel round, and put off the series A until we have a higher valuation with more clients.” Benson studied Lee’s reaction. Lee’s jaw dropped. He was shocked.
“Ten million dollars?” Lee asked. “Are you fucking kidding me? This has got to be a joke.” Lee looked at Bruce. “You’re fucking with me right now, right? You told them to say that just to mess with me? Just so you could see my expression?”
“No, it’s not a joke,” Bruce said. “This is a serious investment in a proven concept. If we invest ten million today, that ten million could be worth one hundred million, or more, in five to ten years.”
“Or, more likely, it would go straight up his nose,” Lee simulated snorting cocaine, “and our ten million would be gone in six months.” Lee took a drink of his whiskey.
“Look, I know these guys,” Bruce said. “I’ve talked with them about their business. I’ve seen their balance sheet. I’ve even researched the big data market and this is a great opportunity for us.”
Lee laughed. “Ten million dollars for some computer shit that I don’t even understand. What the fuck does that even mean - big data? Thanks for coming, but not interested.”
“We do have revenue already,” Igor said. “We also have a number of clients, including large government agencies, who want to use our service but we need to improve and stabilize our infrastructure before we can accept significant growth.”
“Look, man,” Lee said. “This stuff really just bores the shit out of me and I have no interest whatsoever in giving you any of my money, let alone ten million dollars. That’s just fucking insane. If Bruce is dumb enough to give you money, that’s on him. But me, hell no. So, thanks but no thanks. Goodbye.”
Jesus stood up and gestured towards the door. Igor and Benson slowly got up and started to move. They were a bit confused by the short, abrupt conversation.
Bruce stood up and apologized. “I’m sorry. I didn’t expect him to be so narrow-minded about this whole thing. I should have discussed the details with him before I brought you guys in. I’ll call you later and we’ll talk.”
Jesus escorted them to the door where another member of Lee’s security team escorted them out of the building.
“What the fuck was that?” Bruce asked. “Did you have to be so rude? These guys are the real deal, man.”
Lee took a sip of his drink. “I wasn’t interested. What do you want from me?”
“I bring you a great opportunity that could make us a ton of legitimate, clean money and you can’t even hear them out before you make a decision?”
“Look, we have better things to do with our money and we’re gonna make a lot more money when we expand.”
“Wait, what do you mean expand?” Bruce asked.
“Oh shit, I forgot, I haven’t even told you yet.” Lee laughed. “We met with Severo last week and discussed the possibility of expanding our product line.”
“Who is we?” Bruce asked. “Because I know I haven’t talked to Severo about this.”
“Jesus and I met with him. I didn’t want to bring you in until it was a done deal. I know you’ve been talking about going straight and all that, so I wanted to make sure everything was lined up before I tried to sell you on the idea.”
“You promised me that we would shut this entire drug operation down,” Bruce said. “That’s why I brought you this opportunity - so you could invest your money in something legal and get out of the drug business.”
“I promised you that I would consider it. I considered shutting things down and after thinking about it, I decided against it. In fact, we’re going to expand into heroin and meth as soon as we can get the product.”
Bruce shook his head. He smiled at Lee. “Wow, unbelievable. I thought you were smarter than that. You have an opportunity, right now, today, to walk away from a life of crime. You have more money than you can spend, and you choose t
o continue on this crazy path that will lead to prison or death.”
“Bruce, you don’t understand. We are going to make so much money when we expand into heroin and meth. It’s going to be ridiculous.”
“It’s ridiculous, that’s for sure,” Bruce said. “I thought I could trust you. Now you go behind my back and pull this.”
Jesus couldn’t keep his mouth shut any longer. “Jesus Christ, would you get over it already,” Jesus said. “If you want to leave then leave. Lee and I are perfectly capable of running this without you. Just stop crying. I can’t take it anymore.”
“Hold on,” Bruce said to Jesus. “I’m not talking to you. You have nothing to do with this partnership. You might have Lee wrapped around your little finger, but I know who you really are. You’re a fucking thug and you’re too stupid to make any decisions when it comes to this business. As a matter of fact, why don’t you get the fuck out of here so I can talk to Lee in private? I’m tired of looking at your dumbass face all the time.”
Jesus was furious. He lunged towards Bruce. Bruce stepped to the side and kicked Jesus’s leg out from under him, knocking him off balance. Jesus fell to the ground and Bruce pounced on top of him. Bruce twisted Jesus’s arm before he could react. “Are you that stupid?” Bruce asked. “Are you really that fucking stupid?”
Bruce dropped his knee on to Jesus’s neck and wrapped his arm around his elbow, nearly snapping Jesus’s arm in half. Between the pressure on his arm and Bruce’s knee on his throat, Jesus couldn’t move. Bruce let go of Jesus’s arm and slammed his elbow into the side of Jesus’s face. Bruce quickly snatched the gun from Jesus’s waistband and pointed it at Jesus as he stood up, letting Jesus move again. “You want to attack me? Is that what you want to do?” Bruce pointed the gun at Jesus’s head.
“All right, all right,” Lee said. “Relax. Calm the fuck down,” Lee said as he laughed at the situation. “This escalated way too fast. Jesus, sit down on the couch. Bruce, put the gun down.”
“You’ve done a lot of dumb things before,” Bruce said to Lee. “But this is one of the dumbest things you’ve done. You’re going to start a war. For what? More money that you have to hide from the government?”
