The Systemic Series - Box Set

by K. W. Callahan

  Then it was back to his condo building where the driver would drop Jake off out front and escort him inside the building before moving the vehicle to a nearby underground parking garage.

  Each morning, true to his word, Bushy would arrive with a new vehicle filled with gas and exchange it for our old one. As the fourth day of our tracking dragged on, we began to find our duty of following Jake rather monotonous and the excitement of playing private-eye starting to wear off. Will and I were running out of things to talk about and we were going stir crazy sitting inside the car all day.

  Late afternoon – once Jake was done with his woman and we were left without the prospect of any live-action nudity – was when the boredom really started to set in. And while the rain that had settled over Miami for the past few days was a welcome addition in helping to bolster our water supply back at the apartment building, it forced us to keep the car windows up, turning the interior into a hot, stinky mess by day’s end. The windows would fog up, and half the time the defoggers on the vehicles Bushy brought us didn’t work well or at all. We were forced to keep a roll of paper towels with us to constantly wipe the moisture off the windows so that we could continue observing Jake from a safe distance. Several times, I had to stick my head out the window and drive with it in the pouring rain just to ensure we didn’t lose him.

  Each afternoon after Jake returned home from his outings, we’d take our notes, read over them, organize them, and make any additions we thought might be helpful. Then we’d drive to an upscale boutique hotel in the Little Havana neighborhood. There, we’d take our notes, concealed within a sealed envelope, inside the air-conditioned lobby where we’d dawdle just a bit in the frosty coolness before leaving them with the man at the front desk. We had no idea where or to whom they went next. We figured Ava or Bushy, but we really had no idea, nor did we care.

  On Thursday evening – with just one day left to go in our week of work for Ava and Bushy – Will and I treated ourselves to a drink in the hotel’s adjoining bar. Each drink cost us two rounds of ammunition from the weapons that we were requested to check at the lounge’s entrance. Will had a double whiskey on the rocks, and I had a vodka martini with two olives. We both thought it a reasonable price to pay, and we savored our drinks, relishing not just the alcohol but the air-conditioned lounge as well. Not having tasted alcohol since we’d left Georgia, it was a great treat and one that left us feeling a bit tipsy.

  On the way home, our booze buzzes got the better of us, and we decided that we shouldn’t be the only ones to enjoy a special treat. Therefore, we stopped off at the downtown market to pick up something special for the group’s dinner.

  We took our time, enjoying the evening, and walking among the array of different vendor stands. We ogled the merchandise and debated what exactly we should get the group as their treat. Finally, as we neared the far end of the market, we found a stand selling fresh meat. We ended up picking up several nice cuts of beef. The cost was a little higher than we hoped, running us ten rounds of ammo. But knowing that a good payday was just around the corner, we bit the bullet – or ten bullets rather – and bought the cuts. We chose a nice piece of tilapia for Sharron, which ran us another two rounds of ammo. With fish far more plentiful in the Miami area than beef, we negotiated into the deal four good-sized potatoes and two onions at no additional charge.

  Pleased with ourselves, and excited to get home and show the others their special dinner, we headed for the car. About halfway back through the market, we saw Myron standing in front of his stand.

  “Let’s go say hi,” said Will jovially, still feeling good from his drink.

  “Wait,” I said, grabbing his shoulder to stop him. “Look who else is there.”

  Standing just a few feet away – a group of some not-so-nice looking characters circled around him – was Jake.

  As though sensing our presence, Jake turned to see us standing there, our goodies in hand, staring at him.

  “Hey!” he called over to us.

  We both turned our heads slightly to look at the nearest vendor stand, pretending as though we were searching for something, hoping that Jake would turn his attention back to his hovering gang of thugs, but it didn’t work.

  “Hey you!” he called again. “Get the fuck over here!”

  The group of men he’d been talking to all looked to see who Jake was yelling at.

  Will and I glanced at one another. We didn’t feel as though we had much of a choice in the matter, so we slowly walked over to see what Jake and his band of goons wanted with us.

  CHAPTER 14

  Jake was quickly getting bored. Frankly, he’d expected more from Miami. He’d had high hopes when they were fighting for control of the city. He had something to do, he had something to achieve, there was death and destruction to be wrought. But then it all ended, and it ended far too quickly for Jake.

  While he enjoyed the power he now held over the city, there was something missing. The challenge in his life was suddenly gone, leaving a void that he was finding difficult to fill. Jake thought it would be nice to have the power he’d always dreamed of, but it was almost like hitting the lottery. Now there was nothing to do, nothing left to achieve. Sure, he checked up on things, held meetings with area traders, met with his minions, and oversaw the general operations of his organization, but that wasn’t him, that wasn’t what he liked to do. He liked to fight. It really didn’t matter against what. He just liked to fight. And without some sort of opponent to pit himself against, the challenge of life was gone, leaving it largely meaningless.

  This was why he’d decided to take a mistress. Ava was still his main girl, but he needed something else, something to challenge him. He wanted to see if he could keep a woman on the side without Ava finding out. It wasn’t much, but it was something to help keep him occupied. And he had to admit, it was one hell of a hobby. But even with another woman in the picture, he was still finding himself lost in this foreign land.

  Ava had made Miami sound like some sort of paradise, but Jake was finding it to be his own personal hell. It was hot all the time. There were buzzing, biting, and annoying swarms of bugs everywhere he went. He constantly had to lather himself with a grimy layer of bug repellant and sunscreen so that his pasty skin wouldn’t burn or be bitten all to hell by the rabid insect population, which to him seemed far more dangerous than the civilian population.

  The resistance in Miami had folded like an overplayed poker hand. They’d hardly put up a fight in his opinion. It was as though they wanted to be ruled by someone, and that left a bad taste in Jake’s mouth. He couldn’t respect it. Back in Chicago, they would have fought tooth-and-nail to keep outsiders from coming in to rule their territory. He’d never be able to accomplish there what he’d done here in just a month. This left him feeling angry and frustrated because what he’d hoped would be his greatest accomplishment now tasted bitter-sweet. It was almost as though he hadn’t earned it.

  Even worse, Ava had been behind much, if not all of the takeover plans, and while others might not have known it, Jake did, and this left him feeling less than a man. Not only this, but it worried him. Ava was taking more and more control, and in doing so, she was away much of the day, leaving Jake lonely and stewing over his less than satisfying life. He’d been sorely disappointed to find that even his mistress and her fantastically awesome body just couldn’t give him what Ava could physically or emotionally; but for the time being, she was better than nothing.

  And even though he would stop in at their operation’s main bank branch downtown each afternoon for a general report on how their impact upon the local economy was being felt, and he met regularly with those controlling the area markets in the surrounding neighborhoods, Ava was far more in tune with the bigger picture of how Miami was controlled and the overall future plan for the organization and development of the area.

  Thinking about it left Jake with a feeling in his stomach that he wasn’t accustomed to, it was a sort of nervous churning that
informed him that even if his brain wasn’t good enough to fully realize and understand the impact of Ava’s role, his gut was. And lately, this instinctual awareness that something wasn’t quite right had left him feeling paranoid, and for one of the first times in Jake’s life, afraid.

  The anger that he felt owing to the fact that this fear was because of a woman made his blood boil, and he was determined to do something about it. Ava might be smart, beautiful, and all the rest, but he had balls, and he was going to use them. He was done letting her call all the shots, even if it was from behind the scenes. He also didn’t like the fact that he had to share power, even if in a minimal fashion, with Little Havana. While it might not have been a big deal to Ava, it was to him. It was just another thorn in his side, and leaving the door open – even just slightly – to competitors, was a risk he didn’t feel necessary.

  But first things first. Jake recognized that he needed to get a more personalized bodyguard in place. Many of the men who now filled the ranks of his organization had been hired by Ava. This meant that he couldn’t be sure about their loyalty, so he decided to make a visit – without Ava – to the downtown market in hopes of turning up some new hired guns who would fall solely under his control. And so, he called up the generals he was still reasonably confident were loyal to him – Steel Will, Johnny Switchblade, and the Kill King – and had them accompany him on his evening recruiting trip.

  * * *

  Will and I walked over to where Jake stood, almost angrily, waiting for us.

  He watched us the whole way, a scowl on his face.

  “Yes?” I said as we stopped a few feet from him.

  He glanced down at the goods we had purchased, then back at us. “You two shopping Marys want some real work or are you too busy prancing around here at the market?” he asked.

  Jake seemed about as amicable as he looked, which didn’t really come as a shock after following him around for the past week.

  “Thanks, but no thanks,” I said as pleasantly as I could.

  “You’ll be paid good,” he continued as if he hadn’t heard me. “Good food, good booze, women if you want ‘em, and ain’t nobody gonna give you any shit when you work for me.”

  “Thanks,” I nodded. “But we’re good.”

  “You don’t look too good, doing women’s work here at the market. You two girls got something better to do?”

  “Actually, we do,” I said. “But again, thanks anyway.”

  We started to turn, but Jake wasn’t about to drop the matter.

  He pushed me hard in the shoulder as I turned. “Hey, you fuckin’ pussy,” he growled, obviously trying to illicit a response. “Don’t you turn your fucking back on me. You want to scavenge and grovel your way through life, then so fucking be it, but you don’t ever turn your fucking back on me, not until I’m done with you.”

  I turned back around, my teeth clamped together so that I wouldn’t say something I’d regret. I paused just long enough to calm myself and swallow my pride, and then said, “I apologize.” I kept reminding myself that we’d be out of all this soon, hopefully never to see Jake or his scumbag underlings again. “That was rude of me,” I went on. “Please, continue.”

  My politeness seemed to catch Jake off guard, and now he looked unsure of what to say next.

  Suddenly, Myron the trader who I hadn’t noticed moving his way up to where we stood, stepped up close and whispered something in Jake’s ear.

  Jake took a minute to digest whatever Myron had said and then looked with distaste at me and then to Will and then back to me. He shoved me hard again in the shoulder. “Get the fuck out of here, you fucking homos,” he swore, kicking some sand and gravel at us as we departed. “We don’t have room for your kind anyway.”

  We were quickly on our way.

  “Should have kicked his ass,” Will said, once we were out of earshot.

  “Yeah, right,” I said. “We’d be dead if we tried. Did you see the guys around him.”

  “So what?” Will said. “We could have taken them.”

  “Yeah well, I’m not so sure about that; but even if we did, did you notice the other ones?”

  “What other ones?” Will said, frowning.

  “The ones hanging back around the periphery of the market. There were at least three that I saw watching us…maybe more. There was one with an eye patch over by Myron’s stand, there was one to our right playing with a switchblade, and there was the black dude wearing the sunglasses behind the group of men Jake was talking to. Notice any of them?”

  Will was silent.

  “I didn’t think so,” I said. “It’s better just to tuck tail and get the hell out of here. We don’t want any more to do with those guys than we’ve already had.”

  “I guess you’re right,” Will said. “Wonder what Myron said to Jake,” he said after a minute.

  “I think he told him we were lovers,” I said.

  “Ewwww,” Will grimaced. “That’s disgusting!”

  “Hey, if it helped get us the hell outta there, I’ll take it. He probably saved our asses.”

  “I guess,” said Will. “But…ewwww,” he shook his head at the thought.

  I just laughed. I was feeling good now that we were away from Jake, and I was happy to focus on preparing tonight’s dinner and looking forward to our last day of work.

  “Make a note of what happened tonight for tomorrow’s report,” I told Will.

  As we got in the car, Will asked a question that had been bothering me for some time but that I’d never brought up.

  “Does Jake look familiar to you?” he said. “It seems like I’ve seen him somewhere before, but I just can’t put my finger on where or when.”

  “I know,” I said, frowning. “I’ve had that exact same feeling since we first saw him, but I don’t know how or where we might have seen him before.”

  “Guess it doesn’t really matter,” Will said. “It’s just kind of strange, especially since you had the same feeling.”

  “After tomorrow, it won’t matter,” I shrugged as we climbed inside the car and I started the engine.

  CHAPTER 15

  Everyone was excited and appreciative of the meat we’d brought home. They oohed and aahed over the smells during its preparation and moaned and groaned in delight as they ate the sumptuous meal. I even sliced off a few tiny portions for Cashmere, not wanting to waste much of the precious meat on our little kitty but nonetheless wanting her to partake in the group’s savory meal to some degree. She’d gobbled them up and then rolled back and forth on the floor in delight. One by one, we let her greedily lick the plates of what little juices were left as we finished our meals.

  We woke up the next morning not feeling hungry but instead still full from the evening’s delicious dinner for the first time since we’d arrived to Miami. While the dried fish, fresh fruits, and vegetables we’d been eating were healthy, they weren’t exactly what one might consider satisfying. They’d often fill us up in the short term only to leave us feeling hungry an hour or so later, having to sleep through the night with our bellies rumbling.

  Will and I were up bright and early and feeling upbeat about the prospects of our final day on the job. We were downstairs and waiting for Bushy when he pulled with our new ride.

  “Well you guys certainly look ready to go,” he said as he got out of the car.

  “We are,” I said. “Not to be too pushy, but when should we expect payment for our work?”

  “I’ll be by Monday morning,” he said, handing me another vial of insulin. “You keep your final report to us as collateral until we deliver on our end. I’ll take you down to Miami Beach Marina then to check out the boat.”

  “Sounds like a plan,” I agreed. “We’ve got some good stuff in yesterday’s report,” I told him.

  He just nodded, “Good,” he said, not seeming to care in the least.

  After Bushy left, I ran the insulin upstairs to Claire, feeling freed from a small portion of the immense weight up
on my shoulders with each vial I delivered.

  Then we were on our way downtown where we picked up Jake leaving the condo building at his usual time – right about noon.

  “Gosh, wonder where he’s heading?” Will mumbled sarcastically. “Guy is about as predictable as the sun in the sky.”

  “No shit,” I snorted.

  We watched as Jake was escorted to his SUV by his driver who opened the door for him and then walked around and got inside the SUV himself. A few seconds later, they pulled away from the curb heading west.

  It was the usual routine, and Will and I prepared to settle in for yet another uneventful day of watching a whole lot of nothing.

  As we trailed a safe distance behind Jake’s SUV, Will said, “It’s Friday, maybe his mistress will surprise him and run outside naked to greet him.”

  “It’s our only hope of livening things up,” I yawned.

  With this as the highpoint of our expectations for the day, we were both surprised when about halfway between Jake’s building and his mistress’s condo, several SUVs and a large armored vehicle joined Jake’s own SUV.

  The two SUVs took the lead while the armored vehicle followed behind, sandwiching Jake’s personal SUV in between them.

  “Well that’s something new to add to our notes,” Will scribbled in his notepad. “Guess the guy’s not quite as predictable as we thought.”

  About five blocks from his mistress’s condo, one of the SUVs and the armored vehicle peeled off down a side street. The other SUV stuck with Jake all the way to his lover’s home and parked behind him on the street out front.

  Jake and his driver got out and went up to the house, the driver going inside with Jake and then coming back out several minutes later as he typically did in what we assumed was his security check of the condo.

  It appeared that Jake was wising up a bit.

  No one exited the other SUV, its tinted window concealing the occupants inside.