City Lights

by George Sherman Hudson

  “A’ight. Come on so we can handle this biz. I got thangs to do,” Cash said firmly, still watching the group of young hustlers as he reached in the car and grabbed the duffle bag off the back seat.

  “No doubt,” Thad replied as he led the way up to the room.

  Reg was entertaining a thick red bone when Cash and Thad entered. “What up, man?” Reg said with enthusiasm as Thad and Cash walked through the door of the shabbily furnished room.

  “What it is, fam?” Cash replied, walking over to the small wooden table.

  “Say, go get yourself something to eat,” Reg instructed the red bone as he threw her keys. Reading between the lines, she asked no questions before she hurried out of the door.

  “What we got here?” Reg asked as Cash emptied the contents of the bag on the table.

  “Twenty blocks, all weighed up. Our tag is eighteen-five a piece, so we looking at three hundred seventy grand,” Cash uttered, thinking about the wire taped to his chest.

  “Hold up now, bro. You said this drop was going to be a flat eighteen a piece, remember?” Thad said as he walked over to the table.

  “Boy, you dead right, I forgot. Eighteen even, so that’s um….three sixty straight up and down,” Cash agreed.

  “Good deal. Here you go. It is all counted, down to the penny,” Reg said as he handed Cash the backpack full of money that he retrieved from under the bed.

  “Check dat!” Cash said, not wasting time counting the money. He had been dealing with the brothers for years and knew their money was good. He slapped the brothers five, threw the bag over his shoulder, and exited the room.

  Stepping out the door, he saw the young dealers huddled up in a circle shooting dice. Watching everything that moved, Cash hurried over to his car with the bag of money. He cranked up the LeBaron and dropped it in drive before he sped out of the Old English Inn on his way to the G-Spot.

  The black Crown Vic waited until Cash was out of the parking lot to make its move. “All units standby. I repeat… all units standby,” the agent barked into the radio as they got into position to storm the room where Reg and Thad were with the twenty kilos.

  Chapter 12

  “Say, Max, you need to start letting me know beforehand when the bar stock gets low. Now we got to water shit down just to get through the weekend,” Real said firmly while sitting behind his desk writing up an order for more liquor.

  “My bad cuz, man, that nigga Del ain’t even say nothing. He back there making all them dranks and ain’t even holla at me,” Max said, wiping the sweat from his face.

  “It’s your job to be on top of all that, Max! You got to lighten up seriously. This is the last time,” Real told Max as he continued filling out the liquor purchase order.

  “It won’t happen again, cuz. I promise you that,” Max said proudly with a pitiful look on his face.

  While Max and Real were in the back office talking, Cash was walking through the club front door with the backpack full of money slung over his shoulder. Most of the girls knew Cash, being that he paid a lot of them for sex. He walked through the club looking for new meat. Checking out the black as charcoal Jaguar up on stage and not paying attention to where he was going, he just so happened to bump into Cream.

  “Excuse you!” Cream screamed over the Young Jeezy blasting out of the club speakers.

  “Aw, my bad, Cream. What up?” Cash said, looking her up and down.

  “Ain’t nothing up!” Cream replied forcefully, letting him know she was still not one to be bought.

  Cash had propositioned Cream her first night at the club. Taken in by how bad Cream was, he offered her double his normal price of $500. She snapped and cursed him out, and ever since that day, the two had been at constant odds.

  “Damn! It’s like that?” Cash asked, watching Cream’s backside jiggle out of control as she walked off.

  After checking Jaguar out one more time, Cash hurried off to Real’s office. “Knock! Knock!”

  “Yeah?” Real yelled as Max turned toward the door.

  “Me!” Cash screamed.

  “Come in!” Real replied.

  Max took Cash’s entrance as his cue to leave.

  “What up, Max?” Cash said as Max shot by him.

  “What’s up, Cash?” Max replied as he hurried out the door back to the club floor.

  “What’s this?” Real asked. He knew it was money, though he had no idea how much.

  “Three hundred sixty grand,” Cash said. He swallowed hard as he dropped the backpack on Real’s desk, still thinking about the wire taped to his chest.

  “Bro, like I told you, this drop got to go way faster than the last one. That’s the only way I’ll be able to get Moretti down on the price,” Real explained as he pulled the bag over to him.

  “I got you. I got half of it already spoken for. I’m on my way out of Union City now. All this shit will be gone by Thursday guaranteed,” Cash assured Real, still thinking about the feds who were listening in.

  “A’ight, bro. If they gone by then, I’ll put in for one fifty more, but this time, our tag will be ten flat,” Real said with enthusiasm.

  “That’s love! I’m on it. And, oh, by the way—“

  Beep! Beep! Beep!

  Real’s beeping cell phone cut Cash off. “Hey, baby,” Real answered, seeing Constance’s number and picture flash across the screen.

  “Hey, my friend. Listen and listen good. If you want to see your beautiful lady again, you need to deliver $250,000 to the Druid Hills golf course at eight o’clock sharp tonight. You need to be by yourself. Any funny business, and your lady friend here will never be seen alive again,” Milo said in a menacing tone as he stood in the doorway of the room where Constance was kept.

  Real wasn’t sure whether to believe the call or not—his heart skipped a beat when he heard Constance crying loudly in the background.

  Chapter 13

  “As long as your man Real cooperates, everything will work just fine,” Milo said as he slammed the door to the room that housed Constance and slid her cell phone into his back pocket.

  Milo and Saul sat on the couch and went over the night’s plan while loading their weapons. Milo’s money demands were just a ploy to make Real think their motive was money. Their true motive was taking his life.

  Milo’s plan to take over the family was falling into place quite smoothly. Milo’s true intentions were to get his Uncle Rossi eliminated. He planned to make Real’s murder look like it was ordered by Mr. Rossi himself, and in turn, he knew the other families would wage war and ultimately kill Rossi for going against the family truce. Since Milo was second in charge, he would be placed at the head of the family with Rossi’s demise. Milo also knew Saul was a smart man and in due time would figure out his plans, so he’d have to eliminate his cousin right along with all of the others. He wanted to take his rightful place as head—and at all costs.

  “You got everything mapped out right? You know this has to look like it came from bad dealings and not us, right?” Saul asked as he loaded the buck shots into the twelve-gauge shotgun.

  “I got everything worked out. You know I would never be so reckless. Go get the girl and tie her back up,” Milo said, cocking his chrome nine-millimeter, holding it up and admiring it.

  Milo had everything planned out. The golf course would surely be deserted when they arrived. It was the perfect spot, being that it was in a secluded location in the middle of nowhere. Milo planned to get Saul to escort Constance to Real and exchange her for the money. Just as the exchange was going down, he would unload his gun on all of them, leaving no one alive.

  “You haven’t told anyone of our plans, have you?” Milo asked Saul as he returned to the room after tying Constance up.

  “No. No one.”

  Milo had been waiting for this day for the longest time. He was now going to be appointed head of the family. Milo was fed up with his uncle’s passive ways. As far as he was concerned, Mr. Rossi had become weak and feeble and was merely a li
ability in his old age. Milo desperately needed to get the respect of the family back, even if it meant getting his uncle killed, which would surely happen when the other families suspected Rossi went against their word and had Real killed. Going against the families was a mandatory death sentence.

  “It’s almost time to load up,” Milo said, looking at his watch and tucking the nine in the back of his pants.

  Saul went to the back room and retrieved Constance, who was lying on the stained mattress with her ankles and wrists tied. “Time to go,” Saul said as he entered the room and walked over to pick her up.

  “Please,” she begged. “If it’s money you want, I will give it to you,” Constance pleaded as Saul easily picked her up and heaved her over his shoulder.

  “If your friend cooperates, you will be free to go. We are going to meet him now,” Saul said as he carried her through the warehouse and out to the car.

  Saul placed Constance in the back seat and then returned to the warehouse to get his guns.

  “You ready?’ Everything loaded up?” Milo asked Saul, grabbing his nine-millimeter from his back to check it again before he replaced it.

  “The girl is already in the car. I’m getting the guns now,” Saul replied as he grabbed the twelve-gauge shotgun and thirty-eight revolver off the couch.

  “Let’s ride,” Milo said, looking at his watch. It was seven thirty.

  Riding through downtown on the way to meet Real, Milo thought about the changes he would make when he was place in control of the family. He planned to wage war on anyone that got in his way. He was determined to bring the power back to the family. He hated to have to kill Saul, but Saul was his calling card that would tip everyone off that Rossi had ordered the hit. The families would all come together and talk about how Saul, Mr. Rossi’s nephew and known hit man, was found dead with Real, the man Rossi was told by the family not to mess with. As soon as the family meeting was over, the decision to kill Mr. Rossi would be made, and after his death, Milo would be appointed.

  Milo smiled at the thought as he navigated the Delta 88 through downtown.

  Chapter 14

  After Milo hung up the phone, Real went into a rage, slamming his cell phone against the wall. Cash jumped, startled by Real’s reaction.

  “Whoa! What up, bro?” Cash called out as Real lost his cool, which he seldom did.

  “Constance has been snatched up!” Real screamed as he paced the floor.

  After a few minutes of ranting, Real filled Cash in on the conversation.

  “Who do you think it is, bro?” Cash asked, rubbing his chin in thought.

  “Man, I have no idea! The mutha fucker sounded Spanish… maybe Italian. Fuck, man, I don’t know!” Real spat as he paced the room.

  “You think it could be the business with the slick heads that came in the club the other night?” Cash asked.

  “Naw. Moretti gave me his word that he was going to handle that, and then he hit me back later and told me everything was taken care of. One thang about them Italians is they live by a code of honor, so really, that rules this Rossi dude out. Bro, I swear, somebody is going to die behind this bullshit!” Real snapped as he stood up behind his desk.

  Agent Blakely took notes as Real waged murder on the kidnappers.

  “Man, let’s just get these fools the money and get Constance back. We can deal with their sorry asses after that!” Cash snapped, disregarding the man listening in.

  “Get with your people and get them down here ASAP!” Real barked, grabbing the bag of money and opening it.

  “I’m on it,” Cash said as he pulled out his cell phone and called B-Low and Jesse.

  After listening in on Real and Cash, Agent Blakely called Agent Ross and filled him in on the kidnapping. Before they hung up the phone, Agent Ross was dispatching two undercover agents out to the golf course.

  “Bro, we got to play this shit to the tee. I don’t want nothing to happen to Constance,” Real said as he counted out the $250,000 and put it in the backpack.

  “I know, bro. B-Low and Jesse will be here in a minute. They are going to tail you out there. They’ll be all the way out of sight,” Cash said, toning it down for the listening agent.

  “A’ight, I’m going to vest up just in case,” Real said as he walked over to the office closet and grabbed his Kevlar vest.

  After making plans with Real, Cash went out front to wait on B-Low and Jesse. Five minutes later, they were pulling up in an old green Chevy.

  “What it do?” Cash said as he slapped five with B-Low and Jesse as they got out of the car.

  “You tell me. What’s the move?” B-Low asked as Jesse listened in on the plans.

  “This is what’s happening. My man’s old lady been snatched up. The kidnappers want him to bring 250 grand to get her back. They are meeting him tonight at eight at the Druid Hills golf course. I want ya’ll to trail him and watch his back, but you got to stay out of sight,” Cash explained in a passive way because of the wire. He really wanted to order the men to murder the kidnappers on sight, but he thought better of it.

  “Okay, so you just want us to stay hid but at the same time watch your people back?” Jesse asked, listening to the unusual request coming from Cash.

  “Yeah. Just watch his back,” Cash said, biting his tongue.

  Jesse and B-Low sat in the car while Cash went back in the club to let Real know everything was in place. “Everything good, bro. I’ll be laying back. B-Low and Jesse know what to do,” Cash assured Real as they walked out of the office.

  Real wasted no time getting into the Range Rover and heading out to the golf course. As he navigated through traffic he pulled open the glove box and made sure his Glock 40 was there. Glancing back in his rearview mirror, he saw B-Low and Jesse dipped low in the seat of the old Chevy, following him from a distance.

  Agent Ross was on the phone with the two dispatched agents as they zeroed in on Milo and Saul pulling into the golf course parking lot. Ross had to make a critical decision in interfering with the kidnapping. He knew interference could blow their cover, but at the same time, he couldn’t sit back and watch someone get murdered. Thinking fast, Ross radioed a uniformed officer and gave him instructions to pull the kidnappers over for a traffic violation and then arrest them. Ross crossed his fingers, hoping their cover wouldn’t be blown. The investigation was days from being over, and Real would be out of business for good.

  Chapter 15

  The rookie officer spotted the Delta 88 sitting in the far corner of the golf course parking lot. Since they were not en route, he couldn’t cite them for a moving violation, so he decided on the next best thing: loitering on private property.

  As he neared the golf course entrance, he made out two men sitting in the front seat of the vehicle. Pulling his cruiser into the parking lot, he rounded the building and pulled up directly behind the Delta 88 and hit his blue lights.

  “Shit!” Milo screamed as the officer’s blue lights sent an eerie glow over the parking lot.

  “Man, that fucker called the police!” Saul shouted as he watched the police cruiser through the rearview mirror.

  Constance was relieved, but scared that the men may turn their guns on her. She couldn’t believe Real had called the police. That’s not his style, she thought. My man handles his own shit.

  “Just be cool,” Milo said as he pulled his nine from the small of his back and gripped it tightly in his hand.

  The young, White, tobacco-chewing officer got out of his cruiser and approached the car. The two undercover federal agents sat a quarter mile down the road, watching the interaction through high-powered binoculars. The rookie officer walked up to the driver’s side window and tapped it, telling Milo to let the window down. Just as Milo got the window halfway down, the officer noticed Constance tied up in the back seat. The officer’s eyes grew as big as golf balls as he reached for his gun, but it was too late. Milo had leveled the nine-millimeter and pulled the trigger. The bullets ripped through the young rookie�
��s nice creased uniform and entered his chest, knocking him off his feet. Constance screamed at the sight of the young officer being blown away.

  “Damn it, Milo!” Saul screamed as Milo turned the ignition and snatched the car in gear.

  Before they could clear the parking lot, the two federal agents were in full swing after watching the young rookie get killed. They radioed for backup as they positioned their car to block the entrance.

  “Fuck…man!” Milo screamed as they saw the car blocking the entrance.

  Mashing the gas on the Deltal 88, Milo barreled straight for the agents’ car that was blocking their way out. The federal agents took aim at the oncoming vehicle. As the car charged them, they let off shot after shot. Milo and Saul crouched down into the seat and braced themselves as the Delta 88 clipped the rear end of the federal vehicle and sped out of the parking lot. Constance was being thrown around the back seat like a ragdoll.

  Just as Milo and Saul cleared the parking lot, three police cruisers were rounding the curb, coming right in their direction. The two federal agents jumped into their car, which was mashed up in the rear, and gave chase also.

  Seeing cruisers coming from behind and up ahead, Milo knew he was at odds. Pushing the Delta 88 to its top speed, he jumped the curb and took the car down an embankment that ran along a heavily wooded area.

  “Man, we can’t dodge ‘em. They everywhere!” Saul screamed as he tightened his grip on his thirty-eight.

  “Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” Milo screamed as he wheeled the car as close as he could to the wooded area.

  The police were hot on their tail as they left the street and headed down the embankment. Milo saw an opening in the heavily wooded area and slammed on the brakes. Before the car came to a complete stop, Milo was jumping out. Following Milo’s lead, Saul fumbled with the door as the police closed in. The police were hot on his tail as he finally got the door open and jumped out. Saul bolted from the car with the revolver still in his tight grip as he ran for the woods.

  “Freeze!” the old White veteran officer yelled as he took aim at Saul.

  Saul continued to sprint toward the woods, ignoring the officer’s order. Just as Saul got a good stride going, the officer opened fire, hitting him in the back three times and knocking him face first to the ground. One officer secured Saul as the others continued after Milo. Constance was dazed when the two officers untied her and pulled her from the back of the Delta 88.