Grand Opening

by Carl Weber

  They must have finally heard the urgency in my voice, because they scooped up the money like they had caught fire and were dressed and out of there in a flash.

  I was standing on the porch sipping a cup of coffee and smoking a cigar when the truck pulled up, driven by LC and followed by John’s station wagon. They parked around to the back of the barn and I followed on foot. When John opened the car, I saw these two guys looking salty and resigned at the same time. I’d never seen them before, but there was definitely something about them that seemed familiar.

  “Get their asses outta there,” I demanded as LC walked over and stood by my side. “What’s your thoughts on this, college boy?”

  “I’m not sure. This seems way bigger than Sam,” LC replied as Larry and John dragged them out of the car. “Larry tried to get them to talk back at the shop, but those are two tough cookies. They weren’t saying shit.”

  “Maybe we need to give then some motivation,” I said as Larry paraded them in front of me. “You were planning on killing us?” Both men stayed silent, their bodies stiff as steel, like well-trained soldiers. “All I wanna know is why.”

  “Fuck ’em. Let’s just smoke ’em!” Larry said, pointing his piece at them and looking real eager to pull the trigger. That wouldn’t have been smart, though, considering we needed some answers.

  “No. That would be too humane for these men,” I replied, blowing smoke in their faces as I paced back and forth in front of them. “John, how exactly did you come upon these two?”

  His eyes shot over to LC and Larry, then to the two guys, and finally to me. I could tell there was something between him and LC, but whatever it was would have to wait.

  “I was at the Waycross Diner when I heard these two talking in Spanish to a man in a white suit,” John started. Then he proceeded to tell me about how he had followed these two, who were headed in the direction of our property. When they pulled over, he approached them like he needed to ask for directions. I didn’t know the details of how he managed to get both of them tied up and into his car, but one thing I knew for sure: that John was a bad-ass motherfucker.

  I turned to the silent men. “Who’s your boss and why does he want you to kill us?”

  They exchanged looks, still refusing to answer. Larry took it upon himself and kneed one of them in the nuts. Down he went. Then he turned to the other, but I held up my hand to stop him, at least for now.

  The other one finally spoke. “You are going to shoot us anyway, so why should we tell you anything?”

  “I never said I was going to shoot you. There are a lot of ways to die.” I whistled, and all thirty dogs came running. I grabbed the leader of the pack, Busta, a two hundred–pound German Rottweiler, by the collar and let him sniff the men. Busta barked, and all of a sudden the dogs went crazy.

  One glance at the thirty ferocious animals baring their teeth made those men look ready to shit on themselves. I took a pull off my cigar, watching them closely. Larry started to laugh at their response. I caught his eye and nodded at him, and he went into the pen on the other side of the yard.

  “Gentlemen, I know that you have cockfights in Mexico or wherever the hell you’re from, but here, we have dog fights. These dogs you see are the most vicious dogs in all of Georgia, and they do not lose. You want to know how we train them to tear the heads off of other dogs? We deny them food for long periods of time, so that when they get in the ring, they don’t see another dog. All they see is food.”

  “Eat!” Larry timed this perfectly as he returned with a baby pig raised high above his head. In one swift motion, he hurled it overhead and into the open. The dogs went insane, attacking the pig, which squealed out in pain. The noise didn’t stop until the entire animal was devoured by the ferocious pack. Everybody was affected by the swiftness of the kill, especially the two men who knew what that little demonstration was meant to say to them.

  I turned once more to the men. “So, as you can see, there are many more painful ways to die,” I explained in my most rational voice, as Larry picked up one of the men and held him on the fence. The dogs, sensing yet another nibble, raced to the fence, ready for their next meal.

  “No! No! Please!” he begged, starting to truly understand his fate as the dogs barked violently right below him.

  “You better spill quick, ’cause the beasts will enjoy you way more than that pig,” Larry said with a laugh.

  “Alejandro!” He cried out his boss’s name in a voice filled with terror. “His name is Alejandro Zuniga.”

  I couldn’t blame him for trying to save his miserable life. I nodded to Larry, who looked disappointed as he lowered him to the ground. John and LC held on to his partner, who had just pissed his pants. I looked around and grabbed a barrel and sat down, suddenly enjoying this.

  “And who the fuck exactly is Alejandro?”

  Our captives were suddenly ready to spill all the details. “He is part of the Mexican Mafia. He was sent here to take control of the drugs in the entire Southeast. He is a very important man.”

  For the life of me, I had no idea what was going on. This didn’t make any sense. “I don’t know him, so why would this man want to see me and my brothers dead?”

  “Because you killed our men and desecrated their bodies,” one of them said, the bitterness apparent in his voice.

  Larry shot me a look of concern. I was sure we were both thinking about the same job we’d done recently.

  “One of the men was the nephew of a high-ranking member.”

  “What men? And what do you mean we desecrated their bodies?” I asked, because this was the one kill where we didn’t leave the men in the barrels.

  “You know what you did. It was despicable. You cut off their dicks and shoved them in their mouths. Why would you do that? It is one thing to kill them, but another to treat them like animals. You should have just fed them to your dogs.”

  “Whoa! What the hell are you talking about? We can do some sadistic shit, but we have never cut off anyone’s dick,” Larry protested. I could tell that he hadn’t put two and two together yet.

  “The two guys from the diner that Sam sent us after,” I said, and Larry’s face lit up with recognition. I turned and spoke directly to our two captors. “We didn’t do that. When we gave them to Sam they were alive.”

  One of the men spoke up. I don’t know if he believed what I’d said, or if he even cared. He seemed stuck on the way the men’s bodies had been treated, not necessarily on who did it. “Our boss is not necessarily upset that they are dead. That is a part of this business,” he said. “But the desecration is sacrilegious. Their souls cannot go to heaven in pieces. Only a true monster would do that.”

  “Yeah, a monster named Sam Bradford,” LC stated clearly, giving voice to the thoughts that we were all realizing at that exact moment.

  Chippy

  52

  I slipped out of bed quietly, sliding into the silk robe I’d left folded on the night stand. I made way across the room, opening the sliding glass door and taking in the warm, salty sea air just as the sun was beginning to crest over the ocean’s horizon. I’d never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life. The only thing that could have made it more special was if LC was there to see it with me. God, I hoped he was still alive. Even if I couldn’t have him, I still wished him only the best.

  I let out a long sigh then gasped when I felt two hands grab me from behind. I’d been so into my own thoughts that I had completely forgotten Alejandro was in the room until his hands were on my shoulders. He wrapped his arm around my waist, pulling me closer.

  “Pretty, isn’t it, mi amor?” Alejandro whispered into my ear with that sexy Latin accent of his. He kissed my neck, tickling me with his thick mustache as I continued to gaze at the beautiful blue Atlantic shimmering below the balcony.

  “Breathtaking. It’s like a postcard. I could stare at it all day,” I cooed, turning around in his arms. He stared down at me, smoothing the hair out of my face. I still couldn�
��t believe how much he’d paid Sam for me to spend the weekend with him, only to bring me all the way down here to his new home in St. Augustine, Florida.

  “Yes, you are breathtaking,” he said.

  I giggled, unaccustomed to such compliments, as I turned back toward the water. I just didn’t understand him. Not only was he completely gorgeous, but he also had money and knew how to treat a woman. Most men who paid for sex needed to be lord and master over a woman, or at least get her to do the freaky shit they would never expect from their wives, but he did none of that. There had only been one other man in my life to treat me this well, and unfortunately, he was the person I spent most of my time trying to forget. Getting as far away from Waycross as possible should have helped heal my broken heart, but it didn’t.

  I stared out at the shifting blue water, trying to keep my thoughts in the here and now. I felt a calm taking hold of me as I watched the waves, like ten years of bad luck had finally fallen off of me. From the moment we’d arrived, Alejandro made sure that any and every thing I asked for or wanted had magically appeared. Down in the kitchen, he had a woman whose job was to cook whatever I wanted, and she had talent. She didn’t understand how to make soul food, though, so I’d started eating some of Alejandro’s native dishes, and man did I like Mexican food. This whole experience had certainly shifted something in me: the expensive clothing, shrimp and lobster meals, boat rides, and the overall comfort felt incredible, like I was finally living my real life.

  There was nothing for me to do except make him happy, which, if the smile on his face was any indication of my success, I’d done that well. I felt like this house, this life, this was exactly the way that I deserved to be living. Too bad it was only temporary. I didn’t know how I’d deal being back at Big Sam’s after having experienced how the other half lived.

  I started imagining my life growing as wide and deep as the water in front of me, and I thought, Why the fuck not? There was so much more that I wanted out of life. I had been dealt a bad hand in life up until this point, and I was just now realizing that I deserved much better than what had been offered to me thus far.

  “My entire life I’ve wanted to see what’s on the other side of the ocean,” I said, pointing across the horizon.

  “Then why don’t we do that?” he responded calmly, his words surprising me.

  I laughed, refusing to be made a fool. “Yeah, right.”

  “I am very serious. Why do you laugh?”

  “Because I don’t believe you’re serious. What about Sam?”

  “What about Sam?” he answered, almost like it was a challenge. “Let me deal with him. I will pay him whatever it costs for him to leave you alone forever.”

  Now I finally understood his game. I stepped back, facing him. “So I would go from working for Sam to working for you?” I asked, and I guess it made sense now that I’d said it out loud. Sam had roped me in with shopping sprees and a clean hotel room, and now it seemed that Alejandro had stepped up using the same tactics. I guess I was supposed to go from ho to high-class ho.

  “No!” he shouted emphatically. “I never once said anything about work, and I never will. I want you to be my woman.”

  I gazed up at him, trying to figure out what his angle was, but he wasn’t finished.

  “First we will go to my villa in California. If you think Florida is nice, then my other home will be an oasis. Then we will go to London, Spain, Greece. . . .”

  “Paris?” I asked, letting my guard down for a minute as I imagined myself finally in the city of love.

  “Of course, we will go to Paris first,” he insisted in a tone that sounded so real it threatened to break my heart, because I knew he was just playing with me.

  “I wish I could believe you.”

  He shook his head. “Chippy, my actions speak louder than my words. You are here, are you not?”

  “Yes, but—”

  “I am going to drape you in jewels, trips, clothes . . . everything your heart desires.” He took my hands in his and stared deeply into my eyes.

  “But why? Why me?” I questioned. Sure, I was cute and I’d proven myself to be a great fuck, but no one would be willing to do this much for sex.

  “Because I have fallen madly in love with you.” His words took my breath away.

  “You love me?” I repeated.

  “Since the day I laid eyes on you,” he said sincerely, which was more than a little overwhelming. “My only wish is that one day you will love me half as much as I do you.”

  I pulled back, walking over to the railing to put some distance between us. “This all sounds good, but . . . but what if I can’t love you back?” I confessed, risking everything for the sake of staying true to my heart.

  He stared at me. “Yes, I can see that you have held back your emotions from me. There is another man, yes?”

  “Yes, and because of him, I could never love you.”

  “Who is this man? Sam?” He chuckled. “I am not worried about Sam Bradford. He does not love you, or anyone else other than himself.”

  “I know that. I learned the hard way,” I said sadly.

  “If not Sam, then who? One of these men who have paid for you?”

  I raised an eyebrow and he caught himself.

  “I do not mean any disrespect. I am merely curious about my competition.”

  “If you must know, his name is LC Duncan.”

  “Why do I know that name?”

  I suddenly realized that mentioning LC’s name might have angered Alejandro and put LC in more danger. Then again, I realized, he couldn’t be in any more danger than he already was. In fact, maybe I could use Alejandro’s feelings for me as a way to protect LC.

  “You know that name because last night you sent your men to kill him and his brothers. LC is engaged to be married to someone else, so I know he and I will never be together, but I still have strong feelings for him. I would never want to see any harm come to him. So you see, I could never love you if I knew you had brought harm to the Duncan family.”

  He gazed into my eyes, and I was relieved to see that there was no anger over my admission of love for LC. Instead, he looked at me lovingly and said, “Your honesty is one of the reasons I love you. Most women seeing this life I lead and hearing what I have offered you would never think to be this honest. They would have said yes no matter what they felt.”

  He stepped closer and took my hand. “You will love me, Chippy, because I will stop my men from killing this LC Duncan.”

  I wanted to throw my arms around him and kiss him at that moment, until he deflated my joy by finishing with, “But I cannot do the same for his brothers.”

  A knock at the door saved me from having to thank him for sparing only one life. I was torn up about not being able to help LC’s brothers too. I thought about poor NeeNee and what she would do if Larry was killed.

  Alejandro crossed the room to answer the door. I knew he’d be back shortly to continue our conversation, so I tried to figure out what I would say. In spite of the fact that he was willing to spare LC’s life, I still couldn’t promise him my heart. I knew it didn’t make sense to be giving up all the luxury and world travel he was promising me. The girls back at Big Sam’s would be cursing me out for being stupid if they knew what I was thinking, but giving him my heart would feel like a betrayal, and I just couldn’t do it. I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to love another man. Alejandro could have my body. That would have to be enough for him.

  At the door, Alejandro shouted, “Who is it?” He was obviously annoyed by the interruption.

  The man on the other side of the door answered, “It’s Luis.”

  My heart dropped because I knew Luis was one of the men sent to kill LC. From the panicked look Alejandro gave me before he opened the door, I’m sure he was thinking the same thing.

  I gasped when the door opened. Luis was standing there, but it was the person next to him that caused my knees to buckle. The man standing next to Luis, holding a gu
n to his head, was LC.

  Lou

  53

  LC and John shoved the two guys, handcuffed together, into the room with guns to their heads. I puffed up my chest as I entered, sizing up the man who I assumed to be Alejandro Zuniga. I was concerned when I saw that Chippy was there, wrapped in nothing but a bathrobe, wondering how her presence would affect LC and our chances of getting out of there alive. She was staring at LC, which didn’t go unnoticed by Alejandro. He looked at LC and smirked, like he knew something we didn’t.

  I grabbed two chairs, strolling over to where Zuniga stood motionless. I sat down, gesturing for him to sit down as well, which he did. His eyes darted over to his two men, and I saw a flash of anger. No doubt he was furious that they’d botched their job and brought the enemy right to his door.

  I took out a cigar, one of my favorites, and cut the tip with the cigar cutter I carried around. I had to give the guy credit; even sitting there in his drawers, he had a presence about him that I’d only seen in a handful of men. This guy was not one to be trifled with. Larry must have sensed it too, because he had his gun aimed directly at Alejandro’s head, just in case he got the idea of trying something stupid.

  “I take it you’re Alejandro.”

  “And you, I presume, are Lou Duncan.” Alejandro looked me up and down.

  “Yeah, that’s me.” I lit my cigar and took a drag while studying the man.

  “I’m sure you’ve come a long way, Mr. Duncan, and as you can see, I am rather preoccupied.” He glanced in Chippy’s direction. In response, she wrapped the robe tighter around her body. Alejandro turned his attention back to me. “So, how can I help you?” he asked.

  “Plain and simple, you can tell me why you have a problem with the Duncan brothers.”

  Although he didn’t lose it, his demeanor seemed to change right before my eyes. There was rage lurking just below the surface. “I have a problem with anyone who kills my men.”