No More Mr. Nice Guy (32 page)

“Put her ass in that room with no windows down the hall and lock the fucking doors,” I ordered as soon as we walked back into my house. That crazy old hag was working my nerves.

Bruce shot me a look that let me know he'd had about enough of her crazy ass too. There was something about the smug way this woman was acting that made me want to torture her son even more. She kept promising he was coming to rescue her, telling me he was going to walk in here like a goddamn black Jason Bourne or some shit. For a little while all her big talk about her bitch-ass son was funny, but eventually she started to drive us nuts with that shit., so midway to my place, we had to pull over and duct-tape her mouth, 'cause I couldn't hear one more thing about her son the fucking hero.

“Done, boss,” Pooh said, pulling her down the hall.

“Yo, I thought you said you left Li'l Frog here with Keisha,” Bruce said, plopping down on the sofa.

“I did.”

“Where they at? I don't need her popping up home and finding her momma's body before we get rid of it. I don't know what you plan on doing with Keisha, but she ain't gonna take too kindly to what I did to her mom.”

“Man, that bitch is gonna be on her way to the same place as her momma real soon. Ain't no room for disloyalty with all these fine-ass bitches running around here.” I stuck my arm out, and we fist-bumped.

“Yo, Frog! Frog! Where the fuck you at?” I hollered, annoyed that he hadn't been front and center when we arrived. Now he came running out of the basement, buttoning up his pants like he just took a shit.

“Uh, yeah, boss.” He couldn't look me in the eyes, which was a bad sign.

“Where the fuck is Keisha?” I took a step closer to him, but then I couldn't stand looking at him, so I just smashed his head into the wall. I didn't have time for this bullshit.

“She's right here,” Li'l Frog said, looking around like a fool.

“Is she fucking invisible? 'Cause I don't see her!”

Bruce jumped in between us, snapping at him. “You were supposed to be watching her. Now where the fuck she at?”

Li'l Frog started cowering like he was waiting to be swung on again, but he wasn't moving, just looking stupid. “I don't know. . . . She was right here. All I did was go handle my business.”

I wanted to break his fucking neck. “What fucking business do you have? You don't have any business! The only business you have is my business. Now, when was the last time you seen her?”

The fool had the nerve to check his watch. “Maybe thirty, forty minutes ago. She was in the theater watching a movie.”

I grabbed him by the neck and threw him against the wall, and instead of pleading, the motherfucker just stood there looking guilty. He knew he had fucked up, and I was willing to bet he'd been down in that basement a hell of a lot longer than he was saying. I turned to Bruce, who must have thought the same thing, because he swung open the door to the basement, and we both saw why he'd been distracted. That ho Denise was standing on the stairs. She was the business he had taken care of.

Damn it! Keisha had set this shit up; I just knew it. Why the hell had I left this pussy-hungry child to do a man's job?

“Hey, Majestic! Bruce!” Denise came out of the basement, grinning like we was all cool and shit, not like she had just helped my baby mama escape.

Bruce grabbed her up and pushed her toward the door. “Get the fuck out, bitch!”

She knew enough to get out while she still could. You ain't never seen nobody hit the door as quick as she did.

“I'm sorry,” Li'l Frog wailed, falling on the floor. He was in fear for his life, rightfully so. He was another thing I'd have to handle later.

“Go lock his ass up,” I told Bruce.

I made a move to the garage. If that bitch had taken any of my cars, her ass was mine. I'd been so busy getting that old broad into the house that I hadn't paid attention when we were in there before. Now I saw that sure enough, my Mercedes was gone. That's when it hit me. If she had the balls to take my car, she might have taken something else.

“Shit!” I hurried to the bedroom to make sure my shit was where it was supposed to be. When I punched in the code and opened the safe to find an empty space, I turned around and punched a hole in the wall.

“Fuck! Bruce!” He came into my room and I told him, “That bitch took all my cash.”

He stepped into the closet and looked into the empty safe. “Damn, man, that bitch is bold.”

“I should have just killed that ho the same way you did her momma.”

Bruce nodded his head. “But don't worry, man. We'll get to Keisha. Where the fuck is she going that we can't find her?”

“You're right,” I said, thinking about Keisha's dumb ass trying to get away from me.

“We need to be worrying about this Niles cat. From everything I saw in that house, dude's a professional killer. Let's not forget he took out El Gato,” my partner reminded me. “How about you take your anger out on him? 'Cause he's gonna be coming for us.”

I nodded, walking out of the closet and heading toward the living room. “Call all the guys. We need to assemble an army of motherfuckers, 'cause if he's coming, we got to be ready. Tell everybody to get here not in ten minutes, but right fuckin' now. I want everyone locked and loaded. If that bastard shows a hair around here, I want his head blown the fuck off.”

“Exactly. Let's do this,” Bruce said.

Niles spent most of the afternoon down at the Dynamic Defense offices being debriefed by a bunch of stuck-up soldiers of fortune in suits. On the ride back home, I could tell that he was upset about a whole bunch of shit, but I'd learned to let him talk about things at his leisure. To be real clear, I was pissed about whatever kind of game Bridget had played with Niles's feelings, especially coming on the heels of Keisha. Maybe Bridget didn't steal all his money, but that bullshit about putting ten percent of it away for his retirement was a crock of shit. She'd been skimming off the top way before the two of them became an item. I just didn't want to upset Niles by saying it. Not that it mattered anyway. She wasn't going to be invited to Thanksgiving dinner anytime soon.

“So, do you think either of them ever really loved me, Unc?” Niles spoke for the first time in our forty-five minute drive. He was still staring out the window, but at least he was speaking.

“I don't know, Niles. I never really understood women other than wanting to fuck 'em, until I met Tanya. I'm probably not the best person to ask,” I told him honestly as we pulled off the highway at our exit.

“You should marry her,” he told me out of nowhere.

“Excuse me?”

He turned in my direction and gave me a stern look. “You should marry Tanya. She's a good woman, and she's one hundred percent in your corner.”

“Yeah, she is, isn't she?” I think I was talking to myself more than him.

“Mm-hmm. Besides, you're gonna need somebody to change your Depends in a few years, and I'm certainly not doing it,” he joked.

“Later for you.” We were both laughing as I pulled into the driveway. No way was I going to admit that I'd already been looking at rings. I hadn't said the L-word yet, but that was only because I was scared to jinx it, 'cause I damn sure felt it.

We got out of the car and made our way to the door.

“Tanya? Lorna?” I called out as we came through the door. Not getting any answer was concerning. “Doesn't look like they're home,” I told Niles.

“They gotta be home. Both cars are in the driveway.” There was a split second where neither of said anything, then panic set in. We both knew something had to be wrong.

Niles started yelling, “Ma! Ma!” But again we heard nothing in response, not one sound as we rushed around to search the house.

“Shit. . . . Shit! Noooooooo! ” I heard a voice when we entered the kitchen, but I was too emotional to realize that it was my own voice. There on the floor was Tanya. I ran over to her, dropping down and cradling her head, but it was too late. She was gone. The woman I planned to spend the rest of my life with was dead.

“Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!” I could hear Niles racing throughout the rest of the house.

“No! No! Nooooooo!” I wailed, lifting Tanya from the floor and carrying her ever so delicately from the kitchen to the sofa. I couldn't help myself; I was crying like a baby as I lovingly placed Tanya's body on the sofa “Who would do this to her? Who, Niles? She wouldn't hurt anyone.”

“I don't know,” he answered, “but whoever it was must have taken Ma too.”

I was so distraught over Tanya that I had completely forgotten about my sister.

“Man, I can't take this shit!” I got up and walked over to the cabinet where Niles kept the booze, and took out a bottle of whiskey. I screwed off the top and took a deep breath, raising the bottle.

“What the fuck are you doing?” Niles shouted just at the moment the bottle was about to reach my eager lips. He shoved my arm so the whiskey ended up spilling all over the front of my shirt.

“What?” I growled at him, pissed that he'd interrupted my self-sabotage.

“She wouldn't want this,” he said, forcing me to think about all the good Tanya had brought into my life. This shit just wasn't fair.

“I can't, man. I can't go on without her,” I cried out, breaking down as he came toward me. I fell into his arms.

He just hugged me and let me cry for a long time, until I had worn myself out. “You can't do this, Unc. She loved you, and she would never want to see you lose the life you were just starting to rebuild.”

“But that life was because of her. She was the reason I worked so hard. I wanted to be a man she could love.” I was sobbing now.

“I know,” he said meekly. No matter what he said, it wouldn't do anything to lessen the pain I was feeling, and he knew it.

“She was a good girl. She was my everything.” I started sobbing again.

“I know, and whoever did this, we are going to make them pay,” he promised, and I felt my pain transforming into anger. “But Willie, I need you to get a hold of yourself right now, because we've got to get Ma back.”

“”You're right,” I said, drying my tears. “Someone's got my sister, and we need to go kill that motherfucker.”

I wasn't sure what the hell was going on, but this day had just gone from bad to being the worst day of my life. Willie's wails of pain over finding Tanya dead were the nightmare soundtrack playing in the background as I raced from room to room. At this point, all I wanted was to find my mother safe and bring her home, but first I needed to figure out who had taken her. The first place my mind went was to Bridget and the organization. Could this be someone related to the jobs I had done for them or, God forbid, one of El Gato's people? I may have killed him, but I left an important loose end by allowing Dominique to live; not to mention the fact that his son was out there, probably hell bent on revenge. What if they had figured out my real identity and taken Ma?

I was yanked out of my thoughts when the house phone rang. Nobody had the number. I went into the kitchen to answer it.

“Hello?” I said, all my senses on high alert. Willie stopped wailing and stared at me as I took the call. No doubt he was also alarmed by the unexpected call.

“Are you missing something?” A deep male voice spoke, sounding like the caller thought he was cracking a joke. “I've been trying to call you all day.”

“Who is this?”

“I'm your worst fucking nightmare. You think I wasn't going to find you? You think you could hide from me?” he yelled. He sounded like he wanted to murder me, but I didn't back down from the threat in his voice. I matched his fury with my own.

“You have my mother?” I hissed.

He gave me an answer that made we want to come through the phone and choke him to death. “You damn right I have your mother, and I'm going to do to her what you did to my brother Rodney, only a lot more painful and a whole lot longer.”

That's when I knew who I was dealing with: it was Keisha's boyfriend Majestic.

“You fucking touch her and I'll kill you and the rest of your Neanderthal family,” I raged.

“I'd like to see you try,” he taunted.

I couldn't keep threatening him when he had my mother. I needed him to stay calm until I could find out where they were, so I tried a different tactic. I lowered the tone of my voice. “Look, I did not kill your brother. Last time I saw him he was alive. You have to believe me.”

He laughed out loud, but I knew he wasn't amused. “Yeah, well, I don't believe you. Now you get to see how it feels to have your own flesh and blood killed.”

“Look, this is about me, not my moms. I'm asking you—please—to exchange me for my mother.” I was begging at this point, desperate to save Ma. “She's sick, man. She doesn't deserve this.”

“Hmmmm. That's a thought. Let me think about it,” he said sarcastically. “I'll get back to you. Oh, and if you call the cops, I kill her. I ain't got nothing to lose.”

The phone went dead.

“Fuck!” I slammed the phone back on the receiver. I hated the helpless way I felt. I had gotten used to being the one who rode into difficult situations and fixed shit. Willie, who had gotten the gist of the conversation, was already at my side.

“Call Keisha. She'll know where that motherfucker lives. We need to go and get Lorna back,” he said, spurring me to make the call because I was too fucked up to figure out what to do next.