Beneath The Surface (31 page)

“That’s no problem. I’m here more as an observer,” Marcus said and returned Meka’s smile. He found her to be very attractive.

“The proposed offshore wind farm that could eventually include 100 turbines, is located 20 miles offshore and is capable of producing approximately 15 percent of the state’s energy needs,” Meka said as Wanda thumbed through the proposal, and she and Marcus exchanged glances.

He looked at Wanda. He thought about Carmen, and Angela Pettybone, and Panthea Daniels, and Yvonne Hagler, and Randa, his ex-wife. Maybe his problem was that he got too involved too quickly with all of those women, and he was making the same mistake with Wanda. Or was this just another case of the little head thinking for the big head, because he thought Meka was fine.
 

“As you can see,” Meka continued, “the CEO is well-known on the power transmission side of the energy business. He spent two years at Cross Hudson, overseeing the electrical transmission project under the Hudson River. If you flip to page 4, you’ll see that the 1.5 billion dollar proposal has the potential to provide 1.3 million megawatt hours of power. Construction on the project is expected to begin in later this year.”

“Impressive. What do you have on the Russian front?” Wanda asked. “Mike is particularly interested in hearing about that.”

Good to know,
Meka thought. She knew that it was Mike Black who she really had to sell this project to, and knowing what his button was, is a valuable piece of information. Meka was looking forward to spending some time in Nassau to present it to him. “Summit Point is a concern that makes multimedia switching gear for cable companies; that recently received certification for its Safari C3 product line in Russia, through the Ministry of Communications. Summit Point has shipped more than 5 million lines of equipment to the Americas, Europe, and the Caribbean. This certification opens a new region to the company.”

“Where do we fit into that mix?” Wanda asked. She noticed Marcus looking at Meka.
He always did have a wandering eye.
Wanda knew all too well that with Marcus, where his eye went, his dick was sure to follow. And if she knew that about him, what was she doing with him?

Wanda had to admit to herself that there was still a part of her that still loved Nick. If she wanted to be honest, maybe she was doing this to make Nick jealous. That part worked. She could still see the rage in Nick’s eyes when he saw her and Marcus together. Wanda wanted Nick to realize what he had lost—what he had thrown away for Rain Robinson. She looked at Marcus looking at Meka, and at Meka trying not to look at him. She could tell it was making Meka uncomfortable.

Wanda decided right then to enjoy this thing with Marcus for what it was.
And what is that? S
he asked herself. Wanda picked up her glass and took a sip.
Great sex and whatever else comes from it,
she thought, and turned her attention back to Meka.

“The upshot is that Eastern Europe has a ways to go in terms of communications infrastructure to catch up with the rest of the world,” Meka continued. “But it presents a significant growth opportunity for companies like Summit Point that can gain some acceptance there. It’s interesting to note that while reliable market numbers out of the region are difficult to find, what is available, points to a growing market in the deployment of new communication’s services such as: voice over Internet protocol.”

“Looks good; very good, Meka. Mike is back in town for a couple of days. I’m meeting with him in the morning. If he’s as impressed with this as I am, I’m sure he’ll be ready to move on this fairly quickly.”

Those words were like music to Meka’s ears. On her way home, Meka thought that this was the type of deal that would put her back in the big-time. There’s nothing like making big money to attract big-money clients.

Meka unlocked the door to her apartment and flipped on the lights. Her apartment looked like it had been hit by a cyclone. Then she felt the cold steel at the base of her neck.

“Hello, Meka.”

She recognized the voice: It was Cerrone Merkerson. Before she left Miami, Meka stole half a million dollars from him. She knew he was there to kill her.

Meka tried to run but Cerrone pushed her down. She hit the floor hard, but got right back up and made another run for the door.

Once again Cerrone grabbed her. He raised his fist and was about to hit her. Meka covered her face. “Oh no, Meka, not in that pretty face,” Cerrone said and punched Meka in the stomach.

The punch knocked the wind out of her. Meka grabbed her stomach and went down. Cerrone grabbed her by her hair and pulled her up. “I come for what’s mine,” Cerrone said and dragged Meka by her hair to the couch. “That includes that pussy.”

With his gun to Meka’s head, Cerrone shoved her over the couch and pulled down his pants. “You miss me, Meka?” he said as he forced his way inside her.

Meka didn’t answer. She just closed her eyes.

Cerrone pulled her hair and leaned into her. “Answer me, bitch!”

“It doesn’t have to be like this!” Meka said through her tears.

The only thing on her mind right then was finding a way to live through this.

Cerrone pulled out of her and dragged her by the hair into the bedroom. He ripped off her dress and pushed her down on the bed. Cerrone pointed his gun at Meka and slowly unbuttoned his pants.

Meka inched to one side of the bed and thought that if she could make it to the closet, where she kept her gun hidden in a shoe box, she would kill him. But before she could make a move, Cerrone was on top of her. Once again, Meka closed her eyes and hoped that Cerrone would be his usual quick self.

He remained true to form; but when he was done, he returned the gun to Meka’s head. “Now, where’s my money?”

“I don’t have it.”

Cerrone grabbed Meka’s arm and twisted it. “What you mean, you ain’t got it?”

“I lost big when the markets crashed,” Meka said and he let go of her arm.

Cerrone got out of bed and pulled up his pants. “I don’t want to hear that shit! Where the fuck is my money?”

“I told you, I don’t have it!” Meka yelled back. Cerrone raised his gun to her head once again. “But I can get it,” she said quickly, even though she had no idea how or where she’d get it.

“You got two days to come up with my money,” Cerrone said and left Meka lying there.

Jap sat in his car across the street from where Willie Dyson was hiding out; but he wasn’t alone. He had heard about what happened with Ralph Watson and Alexander Walker, so Dyson was waiting with three other men for Nick and Rain to come after him. He walked over to the window and looked out. Dyson hadn’t slept in two days, and his AK47 hadn’t left his hands.

“What you keep lookin’ out the window for?” the younger one of his men asked. He was stretched out comfortably on the couch watching television.

“’Cause they comin’. I know
they
comin’.”

“Shit, let ’em come then.” The kid held up a gun. “Them niggas come through that door, I got somethin’ for they ass.”

Jap looked in his rearview mirror and noticed that a van had parked behind him. When he saw that it was Rain driving, he got out of his car and walked around to the back of the van. Jap knocked on the door. Nick opened the door and he got in.

“What’s up, Nick?”

“You tell me,” Nick said while he turned on the equipment, and Rain joined them in the back.

“There’re four of them in there. One of them is usually in the window lookin’ out. I couldn’t tell where the others are.”

“We’ll know in a minute,” Nick said and turned toward the display screen.

“So you finally gonna tell me how this shit works,” Rain said, moving moved closer to Nick.

“The image on screen is a satellite generated, three-dimensional thermal image of the house. The red lines represent walls, so we can see how many are in each room of the house.

“What are those dots in each room?” Rain asked.

“Those represent the heat signature of everybody in the house.” Nick looked at the display. “One in the back; the other three are in that front room.” He handed Rain a pair of night vision goggles. “Put those on.”

Once she had them on, Rain stood up. “This is the shit right here.”

“What you want me to do?” Jap asked.

Nick handed him a grenade launcher and Jap smiled.

When Nick and Rain were in place, Jap fired a flash grenade into the room. The sudden flash of light and loud noise distracted the three men. When Jap fired the smoke grenade, Nick and Rain went in. Nick came in firing and shot one man as he came out of the kitchen. Rain hit the kid on the couch with her first two shots, before he could get a shot off. She stood over him and fired two more shots to his head.

Hearing shots fired, the man by the back door came charging down the hall. Rain fired two shots to his chest, and then one to the head. Dyson fired at Nick and ran into another room. Nick went after him and Rain went out the front door. He heard a window breaking and then two shots.

When he got to the window, Jap was down and Dyson had Rain pinned down on the porch as he made his way to his car. Nick jumped out the window and opened fire on Dyson. It gave Rain time to get to her feet and reload. Nick checked on Jap. “I’ll be all right.”

Dyson made it to his car, got in and drove off. Rain ran behind the car firing shots as she ran, until her gun was empty. Nick pulled up alongside her in the van. “Get in!”

With Rain on board, Nick went down Eastern Parkway after Dyson. Rain reloaded and opened fire until the clip was empty. Nick handed her another gun. She hit one of Dyson’s back tires and he slammed into some parked cars. Dyson was shaken up, but he got out of the car and took a couple of shots at Nick and Rain, when the got out of the van.

When they returned fire, Dyson ran down the street. Rain got back in the van while Nick ran after him. Dyson ducked behind a truck and began firing at Nick. Nick hit the ground and fired back. Dyson raised his weapon, but he had run out of bullets. He got up and tried to run. Nick got up and shot him as he ran.

Rain rolled up in the van and got out. She approached Nick as he stood over Dyson’s body. Rain knelt down and began checking the body. “What are you doin’?”

“Makin’ sure he ain’t got our money on him,” Rain replied and finished checking.

Once Rain was satisfied that Dyson didn’t have their money on him, they drove back to the house. Jap was nowhere to be found and his car was gone.

Nick and Rain went back in the house and searched it, but once again, they didn’t find any money. Rain was furious. She took out her gun and shot the body closest to her, three times. “Where’s my fuckin’ money!” she screamed.

“I don’t think he’s gonna tell you,” Nick said and laughed.

It was late and Carmen had just turned off her light to go to sleep, when her phone rang. “Hello.”

“Hello, Carmen. It’s Mike.”

“Where are you?”

“I’m downstairs.”

“Really.”

“Really. Why don’t you come down, and let’s go talk to Tangela House’s scam partner TR.”

“I’ll be down in ten minutes,” Carmen said.

“Make it five,” Black said.

 
When Carmen came down, she and Black went to the address that he had for TR. On the way there, Carmen told Black that she had gotten a call from Tommy Belletti, and that he said that none of his associates have any business with Yasir. “A lot of talk but no business.”