Out of Control (6 page)

“In English, Meka.”

“That is, any stock or other financial instruments that, in the judgment of the day trader, is in a tension state, ready to accelerate in price in either direction, that when traded well has a potential for a substantial profit. The number of trades you can make per day is almost unlimited, as are the profits and the losses.”

Since the price of financial instruments can vary greatly within the same trading day, some day traders focus on very short-term trading within the trading day, in which a trade may last just a few minutes. Buying and selling many times in a trading day, receiving trading fee discounts from the broker for their trading volume. Some days Meka would focus only on price momentum, other days on technical patterns. She was careful to exit positions before the market closed to avoid unmanageable risks—negative price gaps which is the difference between the previous day’s close and the next day’s open bull price.

“This is just like gambling.”

“Now you’re catching on. Because of the high profits and losses that day trading makes possible, these traders are sometimes portrayed as bandits or gamblers by other investors.”

“Gambling is something I know a little something about.”

“But I have to tell you that because of the nature of financial leverage and the rapid returns that are possible, day trading can be either extremely profitable or extremely unprofitable.”

“I understand.”

“High-risk profile traders can generate either huge percentage returns or huge percentage losses. We could manage to earn millions per year solely by day trading.”

Deidra Walker had come up hard. She worked all of her life to get where she was, and now she saw it all falling apart before her eyes. No matter what she had to do, Deidra was not about to let that happen. From the minute she heard that a gangster from New York had settled on the island, she knew that nothing good would come of it. Then she stood by and watched as month by month her income diminished.

“We worked too damn hard to build this to just walk away with nothing,” she told Harry, but he was a proud man and her words fell on deaf ears. She had come to Nassau ten years ago with Harry from Miami and she pushed him to create the business that they now stood to lose.

Deidra’s life changed when her mother moved a man in the house with her and her younger sister Alison. She was a tall, pretty and well-developed twelve-year-old at the time. He began molesting her two-months later. He was rough with her and would beat her with his belt if she didn’t do exactly what he said. The lashes were always on her back and her butt, so no one ever saw the bruises. Deidra was scared to death of him. “If you even think about tellin’ anybody I’ll kill all three of you bitches.”

After two years of molesting her, he seemed to tire of Deidra and began looking at Alison. He began playing with her, buying her little things, just as he had done with Deidra two years earlier. Once, when the three of them were alone he tried to send Deidra to the store. She remembered that two years ago he had given her mother money and sent her to the store, “And take Alison with you,” he said the first time that he molested her.

Deidra saw the way he was looking at Alison. “Why don’t you go outside and play, Alison,” Deidra said and all but pushed her out the door. When the door was closed Deidra locked it and walked silently into the bedroom, took off her clothes and laid down on the bed. For the next year, Deidra was his willing sex slave. It only ended when her mother put him out, not because she found out what he had doing to Deidra; she put him out because he hadn’t worked in three years. One year later, her mother moved another man in the house over Deidra’s strong objections.

Deidra ran away.

For the first two weeks she lived at the house of a girlfriend until her father found out and made Deidra go home. A week later she ran away again. This time Deidra lived at the mall. It was cool, because a lot of her friends were there and she ate whatever they would buy her or she would eat out of the garbage when she simply had no choice. That ended the night a security guard caught her sleeping in the bathroom. The police were called and they took her home. Deidra slept at the house that night and left the next day.

After that, she slept in the park and survived by stealing clothes and selling them on the street. One night it rained, Deidra was cold, wet and hungry. She turned her first trick that night. From then on she worked the trade. She didn’t like what she was doing, but at least she could have a roof over her head at night and she could eat every day.

When she was twenty-one, Deidra met Harry Walker. He had come to Miami from Nassau to visit his cousins. They met one night while they were cruising the stroll looking for some action. Harry fell in love the minute Deidra walked up to the car and stuck her head in the window. After that, Harry became Deidra’s only customer. He had money to spend on her because Harry and his cousins were stickup artists. Then they stepped up to bank robbery and Harry spent just about all his money on Deidra. But when the FBI caught his cousins, Harry figured that it was just a matter of time before they caught up to him too. Harry decided to take the rest of his money and go back to Nassau. He begged Deidra to go with him.

Deidra wasn’t wild about the idea of going to Nassau with Harry, but she decided she would go and when the money was gone, she would be gone too. That was ten years ago and the money hadn’t run out yet. That was mostly because of Deidra’s eye for opportunity and her pushing Harry to keep her in the lifestyle he had given her. They say that behind every great man there is a woman telling him what to do. That was Deidra Walker, but she was smart enough to make sure that Harry believed that he was boss.

At first it was a good thing for Deidra and Harry. With Kitch dead, all of his women came to work for Deidra. When they started bringing in less money, a direct result of Jada West taking away the better paying customers, Deidra demanded a bigger cut from her women. But soon that wasn’t enough.

“If you don’t take their offer, Harry, they’ll kill us both,” Deidra said.

“They’ll try,” Harry said defiantly.

“No, Harry, they will kill us, just like they did Kitch.”

“Kitch been cheatin’ and pointin’ him gun at people for years. How everyone know it’s them kill Kitch?”

“Harry, one night they show up at his spot, just like they did us. They make everybody leave. Next morning—Kitch’s body is on the side of the road with two bullets in his head. Who you think killed him? Lulu?” Deidra asked, referring to Kitch’s wife.

“Why not? It could be her get tired of Kitch slap her ‘round.”

“Don’t be so damn ignorant, Harry. You know as well as I do that Lulu is afraid of her own shadow.”

Harry laughed. “You know she is, at that.”

“Take the offer, Harry.”

“No!” Harry shouted.

“That is the only way we can stay alive and we’ll still make money.”

“No!”

Deidra took a deep breath and stepped closer to her man. Over the years she had grown to love Harry, but she wasn’t willing to die for his stubbornness. She put her arms around him. “Please, Harry, I know you’re a strong man, but this is different. What if they come after me?”

Harry kissed Deidra on the forehead. “I’ll protect you, Deidra, I always have. I won’t let any harm come to you.”

“I hope you’re right,” Deidra said, but in her heart she knew that she would do whatever she had to do to protect herself.

 
Later that night, Mike Black sat at his table at The Grill and enjoyed the band. Even though Soca was popular on the island, Black imported a Reggae band from Kingston. Since then, The Grill was packed with tourists. His decision to lower drink prices was helpful too. “Lower the price per drink,” he told his new manager Vonetta on her first night. “Drinks are cheap, people buy more and we make our money on volume.” He even brought Lexi, who managed Cuisine, to the island for a month to teach Vonetta exactly how a Mike Black club was to be run.

Vonetta approached the table and stood there until Black noticed her and asked her to sit down. “Some Japanese men want to run a tab and said they were your guests.”

Black looked around and saw a group of Japanese men and a group of women. He recognized the women as belonging to Jada West. Black nodded his head and Vonetta pushed their check and a pen in front of him. Black initialed their check and handed it back to Vonetta. “Tell our guests to enjoy themselves and ask Jenna to keep them under control.”

Vonetta smiled. “Consider it done.” She looked and noticed that his glass was almost empty. “And I’ll have a waitress bring you another drink.”

“Thank you, Vonetta,” Black said and she got up.

Vonetta walked away from the table thinking about how much she loved her job. “Hey, Jamaica,” she said as he walked up to her.

He kissed her on the cheek. “How’s it goin’, Vonetta.”

“Wonderful as always.”

Jamaica pointed toward Black. “He in a good mood?”

“Far as I can tell.”

Jamaica knew that Black’s mood these days was dictated by the mood CeCe was in. If CeCe had a bad day, he would be in a bad mood. He walked to the table and stood there until Black noticed him standing there.

“How you doin’ tonight, Mike?”

“What the fuck is wrong with you, sit down.”

Jamaica shook his head and sat down. “I guess I don’t have to ask how CeCe is doin’ today.”

Black smiled a little. “Am I that bad?”

“Let’s just say that I start to call CeCe and ask how she treat you before I come in here.”

“I will be so glad when she has that baby it ain’t even funny no more. Cee is about to drive me crazy, Jay. It’s either too hot or the air is blowin’ too cold. Then I gotta hear about how she’s fat and that I did this to her.”

“She still can’t stand the smell of you?”

“If I get too close to her she gotta wobble off and throw up. But it’s funny as hell watchin’ her wobble.”

“Couple more months and it will be over,” Jamaica said.

“Not soon enough. I’m ‘bout ready to fly her to New York and put a gun to the doctor’s head and make him induce labor,” Black laughed as a waitress arrived with a drink for Black.

“Can I get you something?” she asked Jamaica.

“Not gon’ be here that long.”

“Why, where you goin’?” Black asked.

“To see Harry Walker.”

“What’s up with that? You think he’s gonna accept our offer?”

“Honestly, Mike, I don’t think he’s gonna,” Jamaica said.

“If he doesn’t, you know what to do.”

“I already have something in mind,” Jamaica promised.

“Who you takin’ with you?”

“Leonard and Alfred. I’ll come by here later let you know how it go.”

“I’m not gonna be here much longer. I’m gonna stop by Paraíso and then I’m going home. Come by the house when you’re done with Harry.”

“Give my best to Jada.”

“You give my best to Deidra,” Black said as Jamaica left The Grill.

An hour later, Jamaica, along with two of his men, were escorted into Harry’s office. He sat behind his desk with a gun on it and Deidra stood behind him. Harry had two of his men in the office with him. “Have a seat,” Deidra said graciously.