Hitta's Tea Maker

by Edwina Fort

  Nakhti

  I put the car in park and checked my GPS. This couldn’t be the right address. The big grey building looked as if it had been one of those old industrial warehouses before it was turned into an apartment building. Several men and boys stood outside the building at the door, some looked like they were dealing and some looked like they were hanging out with the dealers. I raised my eyebrow at a group of young girls in short skirts and shorts that walked by laughing and posing trying to catch the eye of one of the men.

  “Oh hell no.” Reaching in my bag I took out my phone and pressed one.

  “What’s up, Nak?” The deep masculine voice came from the other end.

  “What the hell, Jo? I’m in the hood.” He chuckled.

  “Yeah, I know. Did I forget to mention that?” I sat back in my seat leaning my head back against the head rest. I was too damn tired for this.

  “Nak?”

  I exhaled. “I’m here.”

  “Come on, darling, don’t give me the silent treatment. It’s not that bad. I just need you to find out what information he has about me and my family, and then erase it. I don’t give a damn if you have to wipe his whole system clean. Somebody has been digging real deep and my gut is telling me it’s him. We are at re-election time and we can’t afford any slipups. This guy is buried in mystery, I need to know what he knows before he knows what he knows.” I rolled my eyes.

  “So, how am I supposed to get in there? This place is a fortress. Can you get me the blue prints to the building?”

  “Already in your mailbox.” Silence came from the other end for just a moment. “I wouldn’t have asked you to do this on such short notice if it wasn’t important. I know I pulled you from another assignment and you’ve had no recovery time. It’s just that whatever system he’s working with is impenetrable from the outside. I’ve had the best hackers on the agency’s payroll trying to crack it. It’s impossible. The only way in is through the front door.” I exhaled, in no mood to put up with some ignorant thug, gangsta, wannabe playa.

  “And you’re sure this isn’t a job that Miller or Terry could handle?”

  “Neither Miller or Terry will be able to get through those doors. I need the best on this one. I told you he laid out Michaels and Baker. And get this… he was handcuffed at the time. Had I not come out the room when I did, he would have snapped Tom’s neck. There’s not a man around that can resist that pretty, innocent face of yours. It causes them to let down their guard and then like a black widow, you strike, which makes you perfect for this job. Just look at it this way, you get in, you get out. You’ll be home wherever that is, in no time.”

  “So, if things get out of hand with this civilian, can I kill him?”

  “You have no idea how much I want to say yes to that. But alas, he’s my lady’s brother and she loves him. She’ll be crushed if anything happens to him and I can’t stand seeing her hurt. But hey, the quicker you gather my information, the quicker you can be done with it.”

  I grunted, eyeing the man that was approaching my car with a spray bottle and a windshield squeegee that looked as if he’d borrowed it from the nearest gas station. Reaching in my briefcase, I pulled out a five-dollar bill before letting my window down.

  “Wash your windows for you, beautiful lady?” He asked smiling, showing off his rotting teeth. The smell of alcohol and unwashed flesh singed my nose.

  “I’ll give you five dollars if you don’t.” He grinned as I handed him the money.

  “Generous as well as beautiful. Have a blessed day.” I rolled my window back up.

  “Fine, but this is my last assignment,” I said into the receiver. “I’m too old for this sh*t. I’m retiring.” He chuckled again.

  “Get out of here, you can’t retire at thirty-four. I need you to have my back. I’ll feel naked without you.”

  Dammit, Jo… he knew he had my loyalty for life. He knew that there was nothing I wouldn’t do for him. The man had saved my life on more than one occasion. He and I went way back to the days of being two green eared Seaman recruits. All the way up through becoming the only two minorities in our SEAL unit.

  It wasn’t easy and several times I wanted to quit, but Jo never let me. He pushed me until I became the soldier that my father never was. My father who left home because I was just a stupid girl and not the boy he wanted, had tried several times to become a SEAL but could never make it through BUD school. Not only did I make it through, I became a decorated soldier in my own right.

  When Jo left the military for the Bureau, he took me with him. Again, pushing me to be more than I thought I could. Yes, I was loyal to him unquestionably, but I was tired and he needed to know that.

  “I can and I will. I’m thirty-four, but I feel sixty-four. You remember what happened last month in Libya?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I still hear ringing in my ear from that sh*t. I don’t think I will ever get my hearing back on my right side.”

  “You got too close to the fireworks.”

  “It’s just the way it played out. Anyway, I said all that to say I quit after this, Jo, I’m serious. The agency already fired me, why won’t you just leave me the hell alone?” He chuckled, the charming bastard.

  “Because you’re the best man I got in the field. I won’t be able to run for office unless I know you have my back.” He repeated for the second time, knowing what those words did to me. I bit down on my teeth determined to stand my ground.

  “Yeah well, I’m done after this.”

  “Nak, on a serious note…” he said, brushing off my words.

  Sh*t!

  “Be careful with this one. I took this kid for granted and he surprised the hell out of me. He’s smarter than you can imagine. He doesn’t look it, but he is. And he’s dangerous. My sources tell me he’s responsible for many a stiff found floating belly up in Lake Michigan. You’re on his turf, everybody within twenty city miles either way is loyal to him till the death. Keep your eyes open, and whatever you do, don’t take this kid lightly.”

  I eyeballed the hustlers standing outside of the building and farther down on the corner. It was nothing about them that appeared spectacular, just your everyday average thugs. However, Jo was the most skilled soldier I knew, so if he told me not to let down my guard, then I won’t.

  “Roger that.” Hanging up the phone I slid it back in my briefcase.

  For just a moment, I sat enjoying the silence of my rental car. I had no time to rest from my last assignment for Jo, well, for his father really. The mission like most of my missions called for me to get close to a man and then kill him.

  Pablo Consuela, an Argentinian drug lord had thought to blackmail the senator with some compromising photos to try and get him to vote to pass some legislation that would make it easier for him to move his product in The Gulf. I didn’t know all the details, it wasn’t my job to. My job was to retrieve the photos and erase them from any hard drive they may be on, and then put old Pablo out of his misery.

  A job I had done flawlessly until I got too messy making my escape and ended up with a bullet wound in my side. I shook my head, this was just another sign signaling that it was time for me to walk away from this life. Jo didn’t believe me, but I was going to show him, this was my last mission. When it was over and I was paid, I was ghost. I was disappearing in a way that even he couldn’t find me.

  I was going back home.

  Nobody knew where my home was because I barely knew where it was. The only thing or shall I say the only person holding me there was my mom. I put her in the nursing home ten years ago under an alias. And the only way for the nursing home to contact me was through a message service that I checked from time to time, waiting for the call saying she’s dead.

  But I have yet to get it, so I guess she’s still alive.

  Maybe she was just waiting on me. Waiting to look me in the eye one more time and blame me for being the reason daddy left. Waiting to hit me one more time for not being the boy my father w
anted more than he wanted either of us. Waiting to let me know just how much she hated me before she took her last breath.

  After this job, she’ll get her chance if she wasn’t dead. Exhaling I pushed those thoughts from my mind. Those are the kinds of thoughts that can get you killed on a mission. Those were the thoughts I was thinking when the bullet penetrated my flesh the day before yesterday.

  I reached in my suitcase for a pair of eyeglasses that would complete the look I was going for and slid them on my face. Then I popped two pain pills in my mouth because my side was killing me. I hadn’t even had time to get it looked at. I had to remove the bullet and stitch it up myself, before lathering it with a tube of Neosporin, and slapping a damn bandage over it.

  Perks of the job…

  When I was prepared, I stepped out the rental car and after locking it, headed toward the building.

  “Daaaammmnnn!” Several of the men said as I approached, looking at me as if they had never seen a pretty woman in a two-piece fitted skirt suit carrying a briefcase.

  Men…

  Jo was right. For as long as I could remember, men have fallen over themselves for my face that did look very innocent, only to end up with their noses broken for thinking I could be taken advantage of. My face was one of the reasons the agency had hired me in the first place. They knew with my innocent looks, I would be able to slip under most people’s radar.

  “She look like a sexy school teacher. Hey yo, P, yo’ teacher here, man!” One of the men that was holding a red cup in his hand said chuckling at his own joke. Judging by the redness of his eyes he wasn’t drinking juice. I lifted my eyebrow at him checking my watch. Damn, it wasn’t even ten o’clock. The smell of marijuana was also very strong in the air.

  “Man, if she was my teacher, I would have stayed in school.” A young guy, who I assume was P responded. He looked to be around fifteen or sixteen. I kept walking as if I didn’t hear them. Blocking the door with both of his hands on the frame was another young man who could be no more that twenty-one or twenty- two.

  He wasn’t a bad looking guy. As I approached him, he passed the blunt he was smoking to another man that was much older than him sitting on the stoop. He slowly blew out the smoke as he took me in. When it was clear he wasn’t going to move I stopped, but I bit down on my teeth to hold on to my temper.

  Okay, so let me tell you guys why I got fired from the agency. Yes, I have an innocent face that most men consider beautiful and I look soft and approachable. Jo once described me as the girl next door. That being said…I don’t have the constitution to match my looks.

  I’m not friendly or soft and I could give a damn about beauty. I have a short fuse and I’m easily irritated. I may have used lethal force a time or two when pushed the wrong way. And I may have used excessive force when one of my directors thought it was alright to grab me and try to force me to kiss him one night while we were all at a bar celebrating the promotion of one of our colleagues. I was aware he was drunk, but it did little to assuage my irritation at his action.

  I smashed his face into the bar, breaking it. Anyway, the agency said their hands were tied; I had too many complaints on my record to continue.

  I told you guys that story to try and get you to understand what I was going through standing here in front of this civilian, allowing him to get away with his actions.

  “How can I help you, sweetheart?” he asked.

  “Is your name Romeo Reevers?” For a moment a look of surprise crossed his face before he shared glances with a few of the other men. Now that I had mentioned that name, none of them were smiling anymore. The air got really tense. Even the men farther down on the block had come to attention.

  Jo had been right. Whoever this Romeo was, they were very loyal to him.

  “Who’s asking?”

  “Brenda Bonita.” The lie slid easily from my lips. I had studied Romeo’s file on the plane ride home. What this situation called for was a case worker.

  “That’s all I’m at liberty to discuss with you unless your name is Romeo Reevers.” I continued.

  He chuckled. “You the law?”

  I reached up and pushed the curly strands of hair that hung by my ear behind it, an act that made me appear soft.

  “Excuse me?”

  “Police,” he said losing patience with me. “Are you the police?” I softened my eyes.

  “Oh no! Nothing like that.” He looked at me for a minute to determine if I was telling the truth. I blinked slowly, allowing my long lashes to sweep across my doe shaped eyes.

  “Aight, follow me.”

  “Yo Rob, what you doing man?” The older guy that had joked about me being P’s teacher said as he lifted the blunt to his lips.

  “Relax, Han. She cool.” I looked back at the other men and they all wore a look of astonishment that he was taking me inside the building. As I followed him through the halls that were surprisingly very clean, he kept stealing glances at me.

  “You look like some kind a case worker,” he said, still fishing for my identity. I smiled at him. I liked the kid.

  “Something like that,” I told him.

  He nodded. “Jo sent you, didn’t he? To keep an eye on Rome?” I chuckled surprised by how astute he was.

  “Something like that.”

  There were several children playing in the hall outside one of the apartments on the first floor. It looked as if the building had four levels. I could hear loud rap music playing from another apartment. We walked through a door that led to some stairs.

  “I hope you don’t mind taking the stairs. The elevator is broken and Rome’s place is all the way up on the top floor.” I smiled at him, yeah, I liked this kid.

  “I don’t mind.”

  When we got to the fourth level, there was a keypad on this door that wasn’t on the others. Standing directly in front of it he keyed in a four-number code.

  7,9,5,6…Got it.

  I noted the fact that the fourth level was not open to the rest of the building. There seemed to be very little activity on this level. In fact, once we walked out of the stairwell, the door locked automatically when it closed behind us; there seemed to be only one other door that I could see. On this door was another keypad, he quickly keyed in the code.

  3,2,9,7…Got it.

  My eyes widened behind my glasses as we walked through the door. It was a loft, a very spacious loft, a nice very spacious loft. For the third time in a matter of minutes I was pleasantly surprised. The tall floor-to-ceiling windows ran along the east side of the loft, they looked to be at least twenty feet tall. They were also covered by beautiful golden drapes.

  The loft itself had to run along the entire length of the building because like I said, it was roomy. One could play a game of futebol in its open space or what you Americans call soccer. There wasn’t a lot of furniture, it didn’t look as if Rome invested in that.

  However, I now understood why I had been assigned this mission. I am an AIT specialist trained at Fort George to be able to handle missions were IT initial was needed. Along the entire length of the north wall was a state-of-the-art computer system. Secured to the lovely rust colored brick wall had to be at least twenty flat screened monitors. Although they were turned off, one couldn’t help but wonder what appeared on them when they were turned on. In front of the elaborate system was a single plush leather chair on wheels.

  It was a chair for a king.

  A king whose throne was in front of several very impressive computer screens.

  One thing was for certain, this beauty was something you wouldn’t ever expect to find in the heart of the ghetto. My fingers twitched in anticipation of finding out what was stored on that massive hard drive. He spared no expense for it. There were million-dollar corporations that could not afford one such as it.

  My guess was the owner of that beautiful system was lying in the bed that wasn’t too far from it. Rob walked to a wall and hit a button, opening the curtains that were closer to the bed just a lit
tle. However, it was enough to shine a burst of sunlight into the loft. I came to a stop in front of the bed looking down at the occupants.

  The man that I would assume was Rome lay sleeping on his stomach, my eyes traveled over his muscled back to the equally muscled arm that hung out the bed. He had on a pair of black jeans and expensive gym shoes. Asleep next to him completely naked was a very voluptuous young lady. Only the lower half of her body was covered with the sheet.

  Rob wore a goofy smile on his face as he too stood looking down at the two. I could tell right off this kid was a rascal. His aim was to shock me with this. I looked at him and lifted an eyebrow, poor baby, it would take more than this to shock me.

  “Yo Rome, you got a guest,” he said hitting the man’s shoe.

  “Beat it, chump,” the sleeping giant grumbled turning over in the bed without opening his eyes. Rob chuckled hitting his shoe again.

  “Get up, nigga.”

  “What I tell you about using that word?” Rome mumbled without opening his eyes. He had a very deep voice. The younger man didn’t respond, instead he looked up at me with that devious grin still on his face. He nodded in a way to tell me to watch this.

  Rome opened his eyes and turned to look at him, sitting up slightly. “You deaf, punk?! What I tell—” his words stalled as his light brown gaze came to rest on me.

  Although I didn’t show it, for the fourth time since coming to this place, I was completely taken off guard.

  Rome was gorgeous.

  He looked at me through a pair of amber eyes that missed nothing. He’d just woke up from a deep sleep and judging by the empty Hennessy bottles and cups, it had been a drunken sleep, yet his eyes were sharp. They took me in making me feel as if he was reading me like an open book. I shifted on my feet feeling uncomfortable with that. No one has ever looked at me that closely.

  He ran his hand over his head. It looked as if he was fresh from the barber, his fade, beard and mustache was lined perfectly around a pair of lips that looked like they would work havoc on a woman’s body.

  Nossa, Nak! Where did your mind just go?