No More Tears in the End (12 page)

“I told you, I got shit to do.”

“That’s cool, but you still need to know who hit your spot, right?”

“Right.”

“So let me help you.”

“Why, you got somebody else you need to kill?”

“Fair question. But no. I handled all the family business tonight.”

I pulled up in front of her father’s spot and put the car in park. I took out a pen and wrote down my cell number. “If you hear anything that I can use, call me.”

“I will, you can count on that.” Rain got out of the car and leaned in the window. “I might call you;
even if I don’t have nothin’ but some sweet talk for you
.”

Rain walked away from the car and I watched her swing that big ass until she went in the club. I thought for a second about having more than a drink with her. Then I put the car in drive and drove away.

I might have told her no, but part of me wanted to. Like I said, I was startin’ to like Rain. I respected the way she saw what needed to be done and took care of it. There was a time when I might have done the same thing and worried about the truth later.

Chapter 19

Mike Black

I looked at Maria as she slept. She seemed to have a smile on her face and I wondered if she was dreaming, and if she was, was she dreaming about me.

When I do dream it’s always about Cassandra. Truth is I think about her all the time. It doesn’t matter where I am, who I’m with, or what I’m doin’, I can’t get her off my mind. I think about what my life would be like if she were still apart of it. I think about the sound of that sexy voice of hers dancing in my ear. I think about how her eyes seemed to come alive when she saw me. I think about how at every step I made decisions that led to her death.

I thought about my own nightmares. I don’t have them as much as I used to, but every once and awhile I do. It always begins different, but it always ends the same way. I’ll be dreaming about being with Cassandra, and we’ll end up back at our house. No matter what I do to try and stop him, Kip Bartowski, the man who beat and murdered Cassandra, kills her again. Then I wake up in a cold sweat. It reminds me that everybody who was involved in her murder isn’t dead.

But not tonight.

Tonight my mind wasn’t on Cassandra. Tonight my mind was on CeCe.

I got out of bed and walked toward the window. I thought about our last conversation. She said Cash knew Mylo by his real name. Cassandra had a friend named Juanita that worked for the DEA in Washington.

I had her do a little digging and she found out that Clint Harris was a DEA agent and Kenneth DeFrancisco was his last supervisor. The way she got it was that after DeFrancisco went to jail, the agency lost track of agent Harris until they found him dead at his house in Philly. Fortunately for me, they had no idea what he was working on or I would probably be in jail for his murder.

But that started me thinking about how long these bastards been on me, how deep they had infiltrated my house. It made me realize there was more to this than just DeFrancisco ordering Cassandra’s murder and me being framed for it; that’s just how it ended up. This was all part of Diego Estaban’s plan for me.

Now maybe I’m paranoid, but I wondered just how deep this plan was? Killing Diego didn’t stop it. DeFrancisco going to jail didn’t stop it. He still had Cassandra killed. I thought killing DeFrancisco would put an end to it, but suppose it doesn’t? Pete Vinnelli was still alive and pulling the strings.

The more I thought about it, the more the pieces fell into place. Mylo or Harris worked for DeFrancisco. DEA agent Masters worked for Vinnelli. Logically, he had to know about their plan to kill me and for Mylo to take over the Commissions drug markets. That meant that Vinnelli had his hand in it.

I had to know.

In spite of my promise to Angelo that I would let it go; I had to know. I had to know what their plans were, and try to get a feel for what else they may have in store for me. This was a crucial time for us, making the move to go legit. I didn’t need this shit coming from nowhere to bit us in the ass. I had to be ready. I had to be a step ahead of them. I had to kill Vinnelli.

It was and still is the only way for Cassandra to rest in peace.

The next morning
me
, Bobby and Wanda met with the real estate broker, and then she had a meeting scheduled at her office with Meka Brazil, the investment banker that we’ve been dealing with. The meeting was to discuss with us the financing ideas, equity and bond issues.

At the meeting Meka recommended a very aggressive strategy for taking over some smaller companies, merging with others to form a larger company, and selling the company’s stock to the public. At this point, we had no plans to tell her how we made our money, but she’s smart, so if she hadn’t figured it out for herself, at some point she will.

Then Meka started talking about us buying or investing in an insurance company that was looking to use derivatives to reduce risk in its investment portfolio. “I don’t mean to sound stupid, but what are derivatives?” I asked Meka. I could tell that both Wanda and Bobby were glad that I asked ’cause neither of them had a clue what she was talking about.

“Derivatives are financial instruments whose value changes in response to the changes in underlying variables,” Meka answered without appearing to be annoyed by my question. “The main types of derivatives are futures, forwards, options, and swaps.”

“In English, please.”

“Derivatives can be based on different types of assets such as commodities, stocks, bonds, interest rates, exchange rates, or indexes. The main use of derivatives is to reduce risk for one party. The diverse range of potential underlying assets and pay-off alternatives leads to a huge range of derivative contracts available to be traded in the market. Their performance can determine both the amount and the timing of the pay-off.”

“Thank you, for clearing that up for me,” I said even though I still had no clue what she was talking about.

After the meeting was over, instead of rushing off to her next appointment, Meka came and sat down next to me.

“Mind if I ask you a question?” Meka asked.

“Not at all.” I thought she was about to ask where the money came from, but I was wrong.

“Did you really understand my explanation of derivatives?”

“To be honest with you, no, I didn’t. You might as well be speaking Latin.”

“I didn’t think so. But if I’m going to continue working for you, I think it’s important that you understand what I’m doing on your behalf.”

“I agree.”

“That means that you have to understand what I’m talking about so you can make informed decisions about your company’s future. Not just going along with what Meka says because she sounds good saying it.”

“I couldn’t agree with you more. The question is what are we going to do about that, Meka?”

“If you like, and your schedule permits, we could spend some time together and I could explain some of the basics of business investing.”

“That sounds like an excellent idea. Naturally, you can present a bill for your time,” I said, wanting to, as Wanda would say, at least give the appearance of professionalism.

 
Meka looked at her watch. “Look at the time. I have less than an hour to make it to a lunch meeting.” Meka got up and gathered her papers. “But any time you want to get together and talk finance, just give me a call,” she said and handed me another one of her cards.

“I’ll do that.”

Chapter 20

After Meka left, Wanda said she had a client coming and needed to prepare for it. Bobby, who had been talking to Wanda while I was talking to Meka, stood up to leave. “What you gonna do now, Mike?”

“Why; what you got up?”

“I was thinking about rollin’ by Cuisine for lunch and then going by Cynt’s.”

“You go ahead, Bob. I got something I need to do.”

“Does that something have anything to do with Meka Brazil?”

“No. Just some loose ends I need to tie up.”

I didn’t like keeping things from Bobby, but like Angelo, he thought leaving Vinnelli alone was the best thing for all of us. I didn’t need him knowing that killing Vinnelli was back on top of my list of things to do. So him ridin’ with me where I was going wasn’t about to happen.

My next stop was the apartment of Monika Wynn. She used to work with Nick while they were in the army and for awhile after they got out and were playing private detective. She helped Jackie uncover what Mylo and Masters were up to.

“You want me to go in with you, boss?” Kevon asked me when we arrived at her apartment.

“You relax, Kevon. I got this one.”

Kevon got out of the car and stood by the door while I went inside and rang the bell. It didn’t take Monika long to answer. “Well hello, Mr. Black. This really is a surprise.”

“Hello Monika. I need to talk to you about something,” I said and wondered if I was interrupting her or if maybe she was expecting somebody else. She was wearing a Knicks throwback jersey, and as far as I could tell nothing else. Nick said his old partner Jett Bronson used to call her lips, tits, and hips.

She was definitely all those things.

Monika had a patch over her right eye. While they were investigating Chilly and that whole synthetic crack nonsense, she got shot five times; two shots in the chest, and two to the head. One hit her above the left ear. She caught the other one in her eye. They weren’t able to save her eye. The other one was in her hand.

“Mind if I come in?”

“Sure.” Monika stepped aside and let me in. “This must be important if you’re here yourself.”

“It is. I want you to do something for me.”

“What you need, Black?”

“Information and discretion.”

“Two things I’m good at.” Monika came and sat down across from me. It gave me a chance to admire the way her nipples pressed against her throwback. “What’s up?”

“Pete Vinnelli. I need to know everything there is to know about him. Everything. I wanna know where he lives, who his friends are, where they live and what they do. Who and where he hangs out.”

“You still thinking about killing him?”

“That’s where that word discretion comes in.”

“I understand. But I’m way ahead of you,” Monika said and got up. I watched her walk.

“You are?”

When she sat back down she had her laptop and a disk with her. “When all this came down, Nick asked me to start diggin’ into Vinnelli. You know, looking for the best way to take him out.”

“Really.” I had to remember to thank Nick. It confirmed for me that I had made the right choice in putting him in charge of the house.

“I haven’t had much luck following the money. After DeFrancisco went to jail, he got careful and tried to clean up his shit. He left enough of a trail for me to follow, but so far, every time I think I’m on to something it hasn’t led anywhere.”

“Stay on that for me. I need to know where the money is and how much there is.”

“I put my observation about his patterns, both business and personal in this file.
There’s pictures
and a little bit of detail on his two girlfriends.” Monika handed me the pictures she had. “An Amanda White, divorced, mother of two, age: thirty-nine. And that one is Pamela Connote, she’s twenty-seven.”

“They kinda look alike.”

“To me, Pamela is just a younger version of Amanda. Both got blonde hair, blue eyes,
big
tits.”

“Man knows what he likes.” I couldn’t say shit since I was with Maria because she looked like Cassandra.

“Anyway, my report includes what I thought was the best way to kill him.” I looked on as Monika copied the file to a disk and handed it to me. “You look that over and let me know what else you need from me.”

“I need you to stay on finding that money,” I said and got up thinking about what I could do with a woman like her. She was a munitions expert, trained in weapons and commando tactics.

The perfect assassin.

“Drop by Cuisine later tonight and I’ll have something for you.” I started to leave but then I stopped. “By the way, Nick doesn’t need to know anything about you giving me this.”

“That’s where that word discretion comes in.”

“I knew I could count on you.”

“I’ll see you tonight,” Monika said and walked me to the door.

“Thanks again for this,” I said and held up the disk she had given me.

“Not a problem,” Monika said as I walked toward the door. “Drop by anytime,” she added in a voice that made me a little curious.

“Is that an invitation?”

“Yes. You can come by and see me anytime.”

“What ’bout you and Nick?”

“There is no me and Nick, Mr. Black.
Me
and Nick served together in the army. We were partners. Nick is like a brother to me.”

“He’s like a brother to me too. I guess that makes us
like
brother and sister?”