Grand Opening

by Carl Weber

  “Oh, damn. I hear you.” He reached in his pocket and pulled out a roll of money, peeling off a few bills. “Hell, guess you might as well make a few bucks in the process.” He tried to hand them to me, but I refused to take them.

  “Are you serious? You just don’t get it, do you?

  “Get what?” He scrunched up his face in confusion. “Shirley, you’re making this entirely too complicated.”

  “Well, let me simplify it for you.” I sighed, sitting up in the rocker and pointing at my scarred face. “You haven’t so much as looked at me once since I got this on my face, so yes, I’m going inside, but not to fuck you or anyone else. I’m going in there to nurse Levi back to health, and if he’ll have me, he’s the only person gonna get between these legs.” I spoke emphatically so he would know I meant every word I’d said.

  Lou chuckled. “You and Levi. Girl, you barely know my brother. He’s different. Let’s call him special.”

  “What I know is that he’s a good man. Sure, he’s not as smart or as smooth as you or your other brothers, but Levi is kind and good. My whole life I ain’t never been treated the way he treats me, and I like it. I like it a lot.” I folded my arms with determination.

  He stared at me for a whole minute. “Wait, so you want to be with Levi? Like boyfriend and girlfriend?”

  “Boyfriend and girlfriend, husband and wife . . . I’ll take whatever I can get. And I’ll take care of him, Lou. I won’t let anybody take advantage of him. I promise.”

  Lou was skeptical. “And why should I believe you’re not just looking to use my brother to better your own situation? I mean, now that you and Sam on the outs, you ain’t got nowhere to go.”

  “Because I love him,” I stated simply. “I know you think I’m nothing but a whore, but hoes can fall in love, and I love your brother. I can make him happy, Lou. Really happy.”

  I was seconds from breaking out in tears before he shocked me with his response. “Well, I guess he could do a whole hell of a lot worse than you.”

  Chippy

  47

  “I’ll do that and some other things you never even thought of, because a man like you deserves a special treat,” I promised Ben, a wealthy trick, leaning over and stroking his thigh suggestively while he downed his gin and tonic. He’d been one of my regulars since my first day, and even though I couldn’t stand the way he smelled or his raunchy breath, like he had some kind of allergy to water or something, I was happy for the business—especially my twenty percent. Besides, he came quick and always tipped a few extra bucks that I could add to my stash, so I’d deal with the smell. I had to admit that this job had become a lot easier since I started to look at it as a job and not some grand gesture of love for a man who turned out to be playing me.

  “Chippy?” Little Momma hollered at me.

  “Yeah?” I answered, my hand now massaging the bald spot on Ben’s head.

  “Big Sam wants to see you in his office right away.”

  “Tell him I’m with a customer,” I said.

  “After the shit that went down with Shirley and Levi last night, I wouldn’t play with him, girl. He’s snapping at the slightest thing. He even beat that new girl Crystal’s ass for no reason.” She gave me a stern look, and I nodded my understanding.

  I’d tried to sneak over to the gas station earlier, but Sam had all the girls on lockdown. We couldn’t even make a phone call. I didn’t see it because I was with a customer at the time, but some of the girls said Levi was beat up so bad they didn’t think he was going to make it. I’d been working my ass off all day, trying to distract myself from thinking about what LC must be going through with his brother all beat up like that.

  I leaned in to Ben and whispered in his ear, taking the opportunity to nibble on his lobe the way he liked before hoping off the stool to get this over with. “I’ll be right back.”

  He reached for my arm. “Baby, don’t make me wait too long.”

  I turned and gave him my best seductive smile. “It’ll be worth it,” I told him as I sashayed off, knowing damn well his eyes were still on me. I made sure to give him a good preview of what I had to offer him, to give him a reason to wait. Otherwise, I knew that the way those bitches worked, I’d be gone for less than a minute before they were in there competing to take my spot and my money.

  Sam’s office door was slightly ajar, so I pushed it open. “You wanted to see me, Sam?”

  “Come in and close the door.” Big Sam’s booming voice, heavy on politeness, made me immediately suspicious as I entered the room. There were too big gorillas standing against the wall to the right, but what sparked my curiosity was the person wearing the white-brimmed hat seated opposite Sam. I’d gotten used to the extra security since the incident with Levi, but this mystery person was another thing.

  “Is this important? ’Cause I’ve got a customer,” I informed him, knowing money trumped everything for his greedy ass.

  “Not anymore. One of the other girls will handle him. You got someone that really wants to see you.” I walked over to get a look at the man in the hat, who was obviously the person he was talking about.

  He turned in my direction, and the sight of him brought a genuine smile to my face. Smiles like that definitely weren’t easy for me anymore.

  “Alejandro!” I gushed. The last time I saw him, he’d shown me the time of my life. Yep, if you had to be with a trick, he was the trick to be with.

  “Hello to you too, Miss Charlotte.” He smiled up at me.

  “I didn’t know you were coming to town.” I lifted his hat and started to run my fingers through his thick black mane as Sam watched. He took my free hand and kissed it as if it were the most precious thing in the world.

  “Neither did I, but since I’m here, I was hoping to add business with pleasure.”

  “Knowing how you get down, that sounds like a lot of fun.” And a lot of money, I thought.

  “So, Alejandro, my man, you said you were here on business. I guess that means you’re here for this?” Sam reached down beside his desk, and I could feel everyone in the room stiffen up, until he plopped a briefcase on his desk.

  “What is this?” Alejandro asked, eyeing the case suspiciously.

  “It’s your money,” Sam replied nonchalantly. “Thirty-five grand, just as I promised. You said to make sure I paid promptly. I figured that’s why you’re here, since your boys didn’t pick it up earlier this week.”

  Alejandro let go of my hand and reached for the briefcase. He opened it, and I sighed when I saw all the money.

  “We good?” Sam asked.

  “Yes, this part of our business is concluded, but there is one other piece of business that we must discuss.” Alejandro glanced at his men, and all of a sudden the gorillas pulled out pistols, pointing them at Sam. “Do you want me to kill you, Sam Bradford?”

  “No!” Sam’s eyes grew wide with fear. I recognized that look. I’d seen it the night Big Shirley came at him with a knife. “And if you don’t mind me asking, why exactly would you want to kill a man who just gave you thirty-five Gs?”

  “Because we have two missing men, one of whom just happens to be my employer’s nephew. Two men you were supposed to meet and give this money to on Monday.”

  Sam sat up in his chair and started talking fast. “Look, man, I’m not sure what you trying to insinuate here, but I called you about those boys not showing. Why the hell would I just take out two of your boys then give you the money? You’re a smart man. Does that make sense?”

  Alejandro stared at Sam as if trying to read his mind. He finally gestured to his men, who lowered their guns. “My men were in this town. We found their car at a truck stop on Route Thirty-eight. This is supposed to be your town, Sam Bradford. If you want to do business with my people, then I want some answers.”

  “You want answers, I’ll get you answers, but I’m going to need a little time. Why don’t you take Chippy on upstairs and let her entertain you until we come up with something?”

>   Alejandro reached for my hand. “Yes, I think I’ll do that, but I will take her to the hotel, and my men will work with you directly. You have no objections to this, do you?”

  Alejandro’s head was between my legs, doing something most tricks never did. He was good at it—just not as good as someone else I knew. So, I laid back trying to enjoy myself. Of course, every time I closed my eyes my mind went to LC. As the old people would say, I had it bad for that man.

  Alejandro and I hadn’t been doing it but so long when there was a knock on the door. He sat up and reached for his gun, gesturing for me to go to the door. I wrapped myself in a robe and went to the door. I tried to look through peephole, but I couldn’t see anything.

  “Who is it?” I asked

  “It’s me, Sam. Open the goddamn door.”

  I opened the door and in walked Sam with Henry, the head of his security team, and three of Alejandro’s men. “Chippy, you need to leave!” Sam barked at me, but Alejandro took my hand to stop me from leaving. Since Alejandro was the one about to butter my bread, I decided to take my marching orders from him and froze on the spot.

  “She can stay. What is it?” he snapped at Sam.

  Sam glanced from Alejandro to me. I could tell he still didn’t appreciate my presence in the room, but he wasn’t about to defy Alejandro. “There is something we need to go check out. My man Henry here thinks he’s found what you were looking for.”

  Alejandro stood up. He placed his hand on the small of my back in a motion meant to keep me at his side. “Let’s go, then,” he said. “We’ll be dressed in five minutes.”

  “She can’t come,” Sam protested.

  Alejandro clearly didn’t like taking orders, so he upped his stance. “She’s with me. While I’m in this town, she goes where I go.”

  Sam tried again. “Chippy can wait right here until we get back. Nothing will happen to her.”

  Alejandro shook his head. “I’d like to keep her with me. Would you deny me the hospitality of this beautiful woman?” He reached in his pocket and threw some money on the bed, putting Sam on the spot. He offered Alejandro a big, fake-ass smile.

  “You’re the boss. You want a whore to come, then fine with me.”

  I could feel Alejandro tense up when he called me a whore. Interesting.

  Alejandro and I, were in a car following behind Sam and his men, to wherever they were taking us. Alejandro spent the entire ride asking me questions about Sam’s organization. I didn’t disclose nearly as much as I could have, although I gathered he was sharp enough to understand exactly what I was not saying, especially about Sam. By the time we headed down a darkened dirt road in the swamp, I was starting to get worried. Sam and his henchmen were in the car ahead of us, and something just didn’t feel right about anything that was going down. This wasn’t the kind of place I’d assumed we were going when we left. I’d been so happy that somebody had put Sam in his place that I hadn’t thought about anything else.

  About a two miles down the road, both cars stopped. Alejandro and his men got out but kept the car headlights on. Not that they needed it with the bright moonlight. Sam and his men approached, and they all walked a few feet. I rolled down the window so that I could see and hear.

  “Pinche pendejo!” Alejandro’s angry voice spat out words I didn’t understand, although I recognized immediately that they had to be curses of some kind. “El coño de tu madre!”

  The look on their faces was one of horror. Whatever the hell Alejandro was upset about sure must have been bad.

  “These your guys?” Henry asked in a way that was more of a statement than a question. The look on Alejandro’s face was pure evil as he paced back and forth, nodding.

  “I’m sorry, Alejandro,” Sam added.

  “I don’t want your sorrow!” he roared. “I want to know who the fuck did this!”

  I creeped out of the car and walked over to where they were standing. Curiosity had gotten the best of me, and I just wanted to see what they were seeing. Well, I saw all right, and it took everything I had not to throw up. “Jesus Christ, what the hell happened to them?” I blurted out.

  There were two men lying on the ground with their eyes, ears, and noses cut off, along with their dicks, which were shoved in their mouths. It was a pretty gruesome sight, especially with all the maggots and flies that had found the body.

  Alejandro’s voice was pure acid when he answered. “This is crazy. I don’t know what kind of person would do this.”

  That’s when I saw Sam bend down and pick up something off the ground. He stared at it and started shaking his head.

  “Oh, shit. Fuck, no. No!” He raised his voice before handing Alejandro something I couldn’t see.

  “This is a Cuban? They are not easy to come by,” Alejandro said.

  “Yeah, I know.” Sam sounded strange. Something was in his tone that I couldn’t quite recognize, which was saying a lot. I’d spent a month and a half studying his every inflection to make sure I wasn’t upsetting him or allowing him to become bored with me. I could tell you in a second what kind of mood he was in from the tone of his voice. “I can’t fucking believe he would do this.”

  “What do you mean?” Alejandro questioned. “You know who smokes this?”

  Sam took a dramatic breath before continuing, almost like he was consciously putting on a show. “Yeah, it’s one of my closest friends. Although we’re not so close right now.”

  “You know the animal who would commit such a heinous offense? Who? Who would do something like this?” Alejandro shouted at Sam.

  “His name is Lou Duncan. But, Alejandro, he ain’t nobody to be fucking with. He and his brothers are some bad motherfuckers.” He sounded like his voice was about to break.

  For the briefest moment, Alejandro and I locked eyes.

  “I don’t care how bad a motherfucker he is. This Lou Duncan and his brothers are dead men,” he proclaimed, and I swear I saw a smirk on Sam’s face.

  The only thing that I could think was, Damn, what the hell has Lou gotten my LC into?

  LC

  48

  After two and half weeks of waiting—not to mention listening to John rant and rave about how long it was taking—I’d finally gotten the part for his car. I couldn’t wait to fix his ride so that he could finally get on the road. I hadn’t noticed when the part was delivered yesterday because of everything with Levi going down, but I decided to surprise John and have his car ready by the time he got up in the morning. The way he stepped up and saved Levi made me certain that Sam and his cronies had added his name to their hit list, and they’d be coming after him, which made me more anxious to get him out of town. There weren’t many people who would do what he did to save my brother, so I had to make sure I didn’t get him killed.

  As I worked on the car, I was starting to think maybe I should have gone to see Levi first, because the work should have taken an hour tops, but here I was finishing three hours later, only to find a new problem.

  “What the hell?” I yelled after I banged my hand against something unfamiliar wedged into the undercarriage of the car. I reached my hand up into the cavity, already dreading another issue, when something wrapped in plastic and duct tape fell to the floor. Before I could pick it up, another one joined it. Then I stuck my flashlight up under the hood, and down came another one. From what I could see, there were even more of the same object up there.

  “What the fuck?”

  Click! The unmistakable sound of the hammer on a gun caused me to drop the plastic-wrapped package from my hand. Then I heard John’s voice.

  “LC, I wish you hadn’t found that, my friend. This is not what I would have wanted to happen.” His voice was menacing, but there was a hint of sorrow at the same time.

  “John, what’s going on, man?” I asked, looking from the items on the ground to John, who was holding a gun to my head. He reached around and took out the holstered gun I’d been carrying since the incident with Levi and Sam. “You in some kind o
f trouble?” I asked.

  “I was in trouble the day I met you,” John admitted, sounding sad. He glanced around the garage then motioned to the rope we used to tie things down to the roof of the truck. “Pick that up.”

  I wasn’t sure where this was going, but I knew it wasn’t any direction I wanted. “Hey, John, talk to me, man. This is me, LC. I’m your friend, remember?”

  “Don’t make this any harder than it already is. Just pick up the damn rope!” he shouted, waving the gun at me.

  I leaned down and grabbed the rope, holding it out to him. John pushed a chair over to me. “Sit!” he commanded.

  My first thought was to fight, but with him holding a gun to my head, I was pretty much out of options. Besides, I preferred to fight my battles with words. Larry would have known how to turn this around in a second, but I wasn’t violent.

  “John?” I tried to use a calming voice to persuade him to lower his gun, but he had something else in mind as he tied my hands and feet to the chair. “Talk to me. Tell me what’s going on. Maybe I can help,” I pleaded, hoping to stop this.

  He started to pick up the bundles that had fallen to the floor. “Yes, you’re that type of man, aren’t you? Unfortunately, I am way beyond yours or anyone else’s help, my friend. That is, unless you have a hundred thousand dollars.”

  “John, what is that?” I asked, looking at the bundle he was holding.

  “Marijuana,” he answered. “Some of the best in the world, grown from the coffee fields of Colombia. And while I’m being honest, my name is not John. It’s Juan. Juan Rodriguez.”

  “I don’t understand,” I said. “How did you—”

  He interrupted my question and gave me some more details. “Three weeks ago, the guy I work for took my sisters and my mother. He’s holding them hostage until I sell this to some guy in New York and come back with their money. But now the buyer’s gone, and I have less than a week to come up with their money.”