The Mike Black Saga; Payback (23 page)

"What did you want to ask her about?"

"Doesn’t matter now,
does
it Kirk?" Nick said.

"No it doesn’t, but I’m just curious."

When they got to his car, Nick got in quickly while Wanda played off Kirk. "Have you any reason to detain us, detective?"

"No, just curious."

Wanda smiled. "Then I’ll say good night."

Kirk opened her car door and Wanda got in. "Good night, Wanda," he said and closed her door.

Chapter Thirty-one

"What the fuck are you talkin’ about?"

"You know what I’m talkin’ about, Bobby. I’m tired of that bitch callin’ my house talkin’ stupid. Make the bitch stop, Bobby or I’ll stop her," Pam said and hung up the phone.

Bobby looked at Mike. "I don’t have time to talk about this now. I’ll call you later," he said to nobody as he parked in front of Cuisine.

"Pam sounds mad," Mike said as he got out of the car and headed inside the club.

Bobby followed behind him, "Yeah."

"Handle your business."

When Mike and Bobby got to the office, Wanda and Nick were already there. "I think we need to talk," Wanda said.

"What about," Mike asked.

"I’ve been trying to get more information about those papers and what’s in them," Nick said.

"And?" Mike asked.

"I’m starting to think I was right, those papers are about what went on in South America. I checked with an old source of mine and he put me on to a reporter who writes a lot of articles about Martin Marshall."

"What does Marshall have to do with any of this?" Mike asked.

"My source tells me that Marshall used to be connected to a South American drug dealer," Wanda said excited to finally be a part of something while it was going on and not just having to clean up the mess afterwards.

Mike smiled at her. "Who told you that,
Glynnis
?"

"Yes," Wanda said and smiled back.

"She’s right. Marshall’s been mixed up with Diego for years." Mike looked at Nick. Then he looked at Wanda sitting next to him. "I’m thinking that Diego might have his hands in a lot of shit."

"It was Diego’s operation we were movin’ on when the rest of my unit was killed," Nick said. "Those papers surfacing, their connection to
Diego,
may be his connection to Marshall."

"You think Diego backin’ D-Train in this move he’s making against us?" Bobby asked.

"
Don’t
it all make perfect sense to you? Don’t you see how all the pieces are falling into place?" Mike said to a group of puzzled faces. "Let me break it down for you."

"This oughta be good," Bobby said and sat next to Mike.

"You see Nick, it all begins with you. You were down there eliminating all of Diego’s competition."

"But when it came time to take out Diego’s operation the whole unit is killed," Nick said.

"Eliminate the eliminators," Wanda said.

"But you and your team survived. But Diego still needs you dead. So along comes
Gee
and she distracts you with her legs and that business of hers. One of two things
were
bound to happen. One, Chilly kills you for involving yourself in his business."

"Which he tried," Nick said.

"Or your team is so distracted with Chilly that they don’t see the hit coming."

"Which they did," Wanda threw in.

"Only Monika survives," Nick said. "And Freeze kills Felix and the general."

"But Diego’s objective hasn’t changed," Mike said quickly. "He still needs to kill you and Monika."

"Only now he has a greater sense of urgency because he hasn’t gotten his hands on those papers."

Mike looked at Bobby, who had been unusually quiet. "You know what, Mike?"

"What’s that Bobby?"

"That’s sounds all good, and the shit makes perfect sense, and all fits together so nice and neat and all that shit, but would you like to know what I think is goin?"

"What do you think is goin’ on, Bobby?" Mike asked.

"This oughta be good," Wanda whispered to Nick.

"I heard that Wanda," Bobby said without looking her way. "I think Diego is still mad cause you bitch slapped him and he ended up going to jail behind it."

Mike laughed and Nick and Wanda looked confused. "I never heard this story," Wanda said. "But there’s nothing new about that.”

"Neither have I," Nick said.

"Cause there’s nothing to tell," Mike said, but he was still laughing a little. He turned to Bobby. "You think that’s what this is all about?"

"Yes," Bobby said definitely. "I do." But then he started laughing too.

"Well are you gonna tell us what happened or do we have to guess?" Wanda asked, but by this time, she was laughing too.

"This was a long time ago. Back when
me
and Mike were still collecting for André and Hector used to buy from him. Hector was a little slow payin’, which wasn’t any big deal, Hector was a stand up guy. When he had the money, he always paid. But André didn’t like Hector and wanted me and Mike to lean on him. So we go around to this bar Hector hung out in and have our usual you’re late conversation with Hector, and Diego’s there."

"You gotta remember, back then, Diego was just Gomez’s punk, fresh off the boat from Peru, tryin’ to make rep, kid," Mike said as Freeze came into the office.

"Don’t try to clean that shit up now, nigga. I’m tellin’ this story," Bobby said.

"What y’all talkin’ about?"

"Don’t interrupt me when I’m talkin’. That shit is just plain fuckin rude," Bobby said to Freeze and he put up his hands in surrender. "So Mike is talkin shit to Hector like he always does, but Diego hears him and rolls up behind Mike, and say some shit like, why you comin’ up in here, talkin shit like you all bad and shit, or some shit like that. Mike doesn’t even look
back,
he just wheels and backhands Diego to the ground. Then Mike stands over him and says
,
I wasn’t talkin’ to you. And goes back to talkin’ to Hector like it wasn’t shit.

"So Diego gets up from the floor and leaves the bar, but by now, everybody in the place is laughing at him. Now I guess he went and got a gun and the cops see him with it, I don’t know, but anyway, they stop him and when they search the car Diego’s carryin’, I forget how much, but it was enough to get him ten years. He did two and went back to Peru when he got out."

"That may be part of it, Bobby, but there’s got to be more to it than that," Mike said.

"So what you wanna do now, Black?" Freeze asked.

"Let’s go get Sal
Terrico
."

Chapter Thirty-two

Mike had gotten in the car with Bobby when he noticed that Wanda was getting in the back seat of the truck with Nick and Freeze. "I’ll be right back."

Mike walked over to the truck and Freeze rolled down the window. Mike knocked on Wanda’s window. She cursed and rolled down her window to see what he wanted, but she already knew. "Where do you think you’re goin’ counselor?"

"With y’all," Wanda said quietly, while Freeze dropped his head and Nick looked out the window.

Mike paused for a moment and then he smiled. "She’s your responsibility, Nick," he said and walked back to the car.

When they arrived at Cityscape it was almost one-thirty in the morning. They made their way up the steps and into the strip club.

Once they had looked around and were sure that Sal wasn’t there, they took up positions around the club. Since neither Bobby nor Freeze had ever seen Sal
Terrico
they covered the exits to make sure that he couldn’t getaway once he was in there. Nick and Wanda took a seat near the stage, where Nick could see the door. Mike sat at a table in the back so he could see the whole club.

Mike signaled for a waitress, but a dancer responded to his motion. "How you doin’ tonight? You wanna table dance?"

"I was tryin’ to get a drink," Mike said.

"I’ll send a waitress over," the dancer said and started to walk away.

"Hey!" Mike shouted. "Is there a dancer here called
Jaylyn
?"

"Yeah!" the dancer said and looked around. "There she go right there. You want me to send her over?" she pointed to a dancer dressed in just enough black leather to cover the more sensitive areas.
Jaylyn
was a pretty woman, about five feet eight inches tall, with a small waistline. Deep brown skin, dark brown bedroom eyes and shoulder-length black hair, just like Shy.

"No." Mike reached in his pocket and peeled off a twenty. "Just send the waitress."

"My name is Diamond Princess," the dancer said looking at Mike and the wad of money. "You let me know if you need anything."

On the other side of the club, Nick was looking at Wanda, who was looking at him. "What?" Wanda asked over the music.

Nick leaned closer. "Just wondering if you’re having a good time?"

"Yes. I’m just glad to be here," Wanda said nodding her head to the music. "Not that watching these women parade around naked is any big deal. I can see this at any one of the houses. I’m just glad to be hangin’ out with you guys, you know, like we used to. I miss that. Do you know how it feels to find out everything the day after or maybe years after? Mike is so over protective of me." Wanda took a sip of her drink. "But I guess it’s for the best."

"So I guess we can’t call this a date either?" Nick said in Wanda’s ear. It had become sort of a running joke between them, but after spending the last two nights with Wanda, he was beginning to think that maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea.

Wanda smiled and took another sip before answering. "No, Nick, this is definitely not my idea of a date."

"It’s not? Well then, tell me what
is your idea of a date, Wanda
?" Since the night Wanda bailed him out of jail and he spent the night telling her his story, Nick had been watching her. Wanda was tall and slender, but thick with it in all the important areas.

"Let’s see, my idea of a date…" Wanda began.

"Hold up," Nick said and stood up. "That’s him. Wait here."

Nick moved toward Sal
Terrico
, who was pushing his way through the crowd toward
Jaylyn
. He pointed Sal out to Mike, and he signaled Bobby and Freeze.

Sal stopped dead in his tracks. Even though Mike and Bobby didn’t remember him, Sal recognized Bobby and knew that Mike Black couldn’t be far away.

Sal looked around quickly for a way out. That’s when he felt the gun in his back. "Hello, Sal," Mike said and patted Sal down. "I’ve been waiting for you," he said and took Sal’s gun. "Come on, Sal, let’s talk outside." Mike told Freeze to put Wanda in a cab.

As soon as they got down the steps and outside the club, Sal started talking. "Listen, Black I never wanted to take her. We just needed her to get outta there. I swear to God, Black, I didn’t know that she was your wife or that it was your spot," Sal told him quickly as they walked him around the corner. Bobby and Freeze pulled out their guns and pointed them at Sal. Mike grabbed him by the throat. "When she told me who she was, I wanted to let her go, but
Papi
said to take her to Miami."