Private Deceptions (16 page)

I turned around and was met immediately by a fist in my face. There were three of them, one grabbed me from behind and held me while the other two hit me repeatedly. I recognized one of them from Rocky’s joint. I fell to the ground and they started kicking me. Once that was over he said, "Chilly sends his regards."

They left me lying there and walked away laughing. I struggled to my feet and breathed deeply. I would have to repay their kindness. I started walking the rest of the way to Cuisine. I made it as far as the lobby before I passed out.

When I came to, I was lying on a couch, a woman was tending my wounds, and Freeze was standing over me. "What happened to you?"

"Some of Rocky’s boyz tried to warn me off and blame it on Chilly," I said, and stood up slowly.

"How you know it wasn’t Chilly?"

"’Cause Chilly just —," I got up and reached in my pocket. I still had the money. "Chilly gave me five thousand dollars to find Jake."

"I thought you was workin’ for Gee?"

"I am. He still wants me to tell her where he is, as long as I tell him too." My head was still spinning, so I sat back down.

‘‘I told you not to fuck with this, now look at you." Freeze laughed. He walked over to the desk, put the phone on speaker and dialed a number. "Fucked around and got your ass kicked."

"I think my ass was the only thing they didn’t kick."

Freeze just shook his head. "This is Freeze, let me speak to Rock."

"This, Rock. What’s up, Freeze? I ain’t —"

"Shut the fuck up nigga and understand what I’m tellin’ you. You sent your boyz after Nick Simmons tonight."

"I didn’t have nothing to do with that, Freeze. I —"

"Shut the fuck up, bitch! Nick Simmons is family to me. You feel me, Rock? So I’m tellin’ you now, if that shit happens again, fuck peace. I’ll kill you and your whole set. Got that!" Freeze hung up the phone and started laughing. I laughed too, but it hurt.

Freeze took me out to Perry’s house so he could check me out and give me something for the pain. It was damn good seeing Perry again after all these years. Like everybody else, Perry treated me as if I never missed a day.

"I brought somebody by to see you, Perry." Freeze said.

"Yeah, who’s that?" Freeze stepped aside. "Nick! Damn its good to see you. Y’all come on in. Hold up, neither one of y’all shot or bleeding?"

"No, man. We just came to visit." Freeze said as we went inside Perry’s house.

"Okay, ’cause I still remember the last time you two came to my house this late."

"So do I. How could I forget," I said to Perry. I looked at the smile on Freeze’s face and I could tell he hadn’t forgotten either.

"Couldn’t forget what, Nick?" Wanda asked. "Y’all were just full of stuff I didn’t know about. I’m starting to feel like an outsider."

"Don’t feel like that, Wanda. We never even told Black. But you know Black, he found out anyway."

"Found out what, Nick?"

"Back in the day, me and Freeze did a little freelancing."

"What kind of freelancing, Nick?"

Even though we still sorta worked for André, who was one of the biggest drug dealers around those days, Black absolutely forbid any of us to have any direct involvement with drugs. Black made his money highjacking trucks, robbing warehouses and payrolls. We all made crazy money, but me and Freeze wanted to, needed to, make some money on our own.

"So what we gonna do, Nick? We can’t roll, so how we gonna get paid?" Freeze asked.

We kicked around a bunch of stuff, but everything we thought of, either wasn’t worth the risk or wasn’t enough paper to make it worth the effort. It all came back around to the fact that fast, easy money was spelled D-R-U-G-S. Then it came to me. "Look, who’s making the money?"

"Dope boyz," Freeze replied.

"Right, so why can’t we get that money?"

"’Cause Black will kill us if we started rollin’, that’s why. And don’t you say that he’ll never find out. That mutha fucka is psychic about that shit. You ain’t forget what we did to Banks when Black found out he was dealin’?

"No, I ain’t forgot. But who said anything about us dealin’?"

"You did."

"No, I didn’t. I said why can’t we get that money. There’s a difference. You interested?"

"I’m listening."

"Dope boyz rollin’ around everyday with stupid cash on them. I’m talkin’ about rollin’ up on them, and robbin’ them niggas while they laid back."

"You talkin’ about rollin’ up on a bunch of heavily armed mutha fuckas while they do business? That ain’t no plan, that’s suicide."

"You ain’t scared are you, Freeze?"

"Hell no!"

"I didn’t think so. But I ain’t talkin’ about hittin’ them while they doin’ business, that would be suicide. I’m talkin’ about catchin’ them comin’ out their cars. They get out the car. Bam, we hit them quick and bam we out."

"That could work. I mean we know who they are. I don’t like most of them niggas anyway. And as long as we don’t take their dope, Black won’t have shit to say."

So it was set.

Me and Freeze became stick up kids. We’d hit two or three a night some times. And the money was good, three, four, five grand a pop for a minutes work. Most times we never had to fire a shot. But after awhile, word got around and things started to dry up. The money was less and the security was more. But we were addicted to that cash. So the plan changed. We started robbin’ them while they were selling quantity. Things were going good; it was easier than we thought. Except this one time. We over heard a guy, used to call himself Forty-eight, who had a real high, squeaky kinda voice, talkin’ about he had some white guys on the hook and he was gonna retire on the money he was gonna make.

"You mean we gonna take." Freeze said to me, making fun of the way Forty-eight talked.

We sat and watched as the players went into a motel room on Boston Road. Once the deal was in progress, we busted in.

"Nobody move! Nobody gets hurt!" Freeze shouted.

I looked at the guy carrying the briefcase with the money. Forty-eight and his boy raised their hands and backed away from the dope. But the two white guys with the money started beefin’.

"If you know what’s good for you, you’ll walk out that door quietly." And then he made a play for his gun.

Freeze wheeled around. "Shut up, white bread!" He hit him in the mouth with the pump. "You’re speaking out of turn."

I covered with the semi while Freeze grabbed the case and we backed out of the room. It wasn’t long after we got out of the room before somebody started blastin’. I fired back while Freeze headed for the car. The firefight continued until we were in the car and away.

We both looked at each other and started laughin’. "That was gettin’ kinda hectic." Freeze said as he drove away. "Must be a lotta money in that case for them to have backup outside."

"I think this is the biggest score we ever had," I said, as I opened the case. "Maybe we can retire." Making fun of the way Forty-eight talked.

We were both laughing so hard that neither of us noticed the black Ford that pulled up along side of us. Until they started blastin’. With the first shot, they busted out the back window on the passenger side. "Where the fuck did they come from!"

"I don’t know!" Freeze yelled as he floored it. He sped away down Boston Road with the Ford on our tail.

"Get us out of here, Freeze!"

"What you think I’m doin’; writin’ a love song?" Freeze turned sharply against traffic, but they stayed right with us. He turned on 222
^nd
and then back onto Boston Road. "You see them?" Freeze demanded to know.

"No, I think you lost them."

"Damn right, I did! I told you I’d lose them!" That was when the back window got shot out.

"Shit!"

Freeze turned on Eastchester Road and kept going until he hit Laconia Ave. "I thought we lost them?"

"You did. These are different guys."

"What do you mean, different guys?"

"That it’s not the same guys. It’s a different car. Blue Chevy, coming up on your right." I began firing through the now opened back window. Trying to get them off us. But they kept coming. "Turn here! Try to lose them in the projects!"

Freeze turned on 229
^th
street and drove through Edenwald Projects. "Damn! These guys are good." But he couldn’t shake them. We came out of the projects and back onto Laconia, up 219
^th
and onto Bronxwood Ave.

"Who the fuck are they?" I asked.

"I don’t know. How the fuck should I know?"

"You just lose them." A car pulled out in front of us and we crashed into a parked car. I grabbed the case and we got out blastin’. "This way!"

"I ain’t goin’ down there, there’s dogs down there!"

"Shoot them! Lets go!" I yelled as I started running down the alley.

"Look out!" Freeze yelled. I turned quickly, in time to see that two more guys were shooting at us. I caught one in the shoulder. "Ahhh! Shit!" If I hadn’t turned when Freeze yelled it would have hit me in the chest.

"You hit?"

"Yeah, in the shoulder! I’m all right, keep goin’!"

I could hear the dogs barking in front of us and the guys firing behind us. I started firing in both directions. The barking stopped and the dogs ran in the opposite direction. But the guys kept coming. Freeze ran toward the building and shot the lock off. We ran through the building and out the front door. A car came down the street. Freeze stood in the middle of the street with his gun drawn.

The car stopped in front of him.

"Get out!"

Both doors swung open and the people ran away from the car.

The guys came out the door and opened fire on us again. This time it was Freeze who got hit. He went down.

"Freeze!" I yelled and ran toward him, shooting that semi-auto wildly in their direction.

They took cover.

I kept shootin’.

I pulled Freeze up and pushed him in the car, got in and drove away. I looked over at Freeze. "Where you hit?"

"In the gut! Shit that hurts. They got me in the leg too."

"Who the fuck are they?"

"How many times you gonna ask me that shit? I told you I don’t know."

"They still on us?"

Freeze struggled to turn around; he was bleeding pretty bad. "I don’t see anybody."

I drove around for awhile to make sure we’d really lost them, who ever they were, this time. Then drove as fast as I could to Perry’s house. Freeze had passed out at some point, so I had to carry him. He was in pretty bad shape. Perry said if it had been any longer he’d be dead. He took care of our wounds and I made him promise not to tell Black, but he found out anyway.

"You saved his life, and he saved yours."

"That’s just one more reason why we’re so tight."

"You ever find out who those guys were?" Wanda asked.

"Yeah. They were cops. They had a sting set up on Forty-eight. We just picked the wrong guy to rob that time."

I slept late the next day. It was well into the afternoon before I finally rolled out of bed. It was almost five and I was still feeling a little groggy from the pain pills I had gotten from Perry. I thought about going back to bed, but I picked up the phone and checked my messages.

Felicia had called and left me this message;

"The least you could have done was call me and let me know that you made it back safely. Anyways, I didn’t call to fuss. I just wanted to say that I miss being with you. Bye, bye, honey."

I was really starting to like Felicia Hardy and I missed being with her too. I started to call her back, but then I remembered the last time I started feeling this way about a woman. I hung up the phone and called Mrs. Childers instead. It had been more than a week since the last time I saw or talked to her.

I left a message on her voice mail and asked her to meet me at
Sparks Steak House
on 46
^th
Street around nine. I was a little late getting there and much to my surprise she was there, looking impeccable as usual. "Hello, Nick."

"Hello, Mrs. Childers. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting very long?"

"I’ve been here about a half hour. But that’s okay, I wanted to get out of the house anyway. Have a seat."

"Thank you." Once I was seated, her smile turned to a frown. I guess she noticed the cuts and bruises on my face.

"What happened to you?"

"I ran into some people who had something to prove."

"It looks like they did a good job. Are you all right?"

"I’ll be fine."

"What have you found out for me, Nick?"

"Well, Mrs. Childers, I don’t think your brother is missing, or that anything happened to him. I think Jake is somewhere hiding."

"What makes you say that?"

"He was involved with Chilly in some type of scheme to develop synthetic crack."

"Synthetic crack?" she looked at me strangely. "I’ve got a good idea, but just what exactly is synthetic crack?"

"Basically, Mrs. Childers, it’s crack without the cocaine."

"How is that possible?"

"I really don’t understand how the formula works, your brother’s the chemist. But the long and short of it is, that it didn’t work. At least seven people have died from it."

"Pamela?"

"Yes."

"That’s not possible. Pamela didn’t use drugs."

"I know that, but I believe that anybody who knew anything about it had to die. Pamela was just runnin’ with the wrong people."

"I’ll try not to take that personally." She rolled her eyes at me and turned away, but she turned back quickly. "If that’s the case, then what makes you think that Jake isn’t dead too?"

"Because Chilly is still looking for him."

"How do you know that?"

"Trust me." I thought about telling her that he gave me five grand to find Jake, but she didn’t need to know that. Or the fact that he had somebody keeping tabs on her account and that Chilly wanted to know about the money that she gave Ben Josephs. "Anyway, as far as I could tell, Chilly hasn’t killed him. But he is nowhere to be found. So I guess that concludes our business."

"I guess it does" Mrs. Childers said and gave me a strange look. "Did you talk to Rocky?"

"That’s something else I wanted to ask you."

"What’s that?"

"What type of relationship do you have with Rocky?"

"He’s a friend of Jake’s. Why?"

"Your friend?"

"Well — "

"Well?"

"Well, not really. Me and Rocky don’t speak to each other anymore. We haven’t spoken since before I left Philly."

"Why?"

"I don’t think that’s any of your business."

"Mrs. Childers, you made all this my business. What happened between you two?" She frowned up and looked away. The waiter finally came to take my order. "Hennessy Martini for the lady, and I’ll have Johnnie Black, straight up." Once the waiter departed to get our drinks, I went back to the question. "What happened, Mrs. Childers?"

She rolled her eyes and looked away. "Do you remember me telling you that I did some things that I’m not proud of to get away from Philly?"

"And?"

"I asked Rocky for the money so I could get away from there. He told me he would give me the money and that I should come by his apartment to pick it up. When I got there he tells me to come in the bedroom. When we get in there, he tells me that I could have the money, but I had to fuck him first."

"Pathetic."

"I was a virgin, Nick, so I told him that I couldn’t do that. I started to leave, but I wanted to get away from there and I knew that nobody else was gonna give me the money. So I did it. I cried the whole time, but he didn’t care. After he was done with me, Rocky said he was sorry and gave me the money. I took it and left."

"I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have pushed it." What else could I say?

"No, you shouldn’t have." When the waiter returned with our drinks, Mrs. Childers drank hers down like water. "Can we get out of here?"

"Sure. Where do you want to go?"

"I don’t care, anywhere." She threw some money on the table. "Just come ride with me." She got up without waiting for an answer. I shot my drink and headed out the door behind her.

We drove around for a while and ended up at her house in Nyack. After she opened up the house she went to make us a drink. I sat on the couch and watched her as she poured. I had noticed that she wasn’t making eye contact with me when she talked. There was fear and uncertainty in her eyes. She handed me my drink and sat down across from me and started to talk.

We drank, and like I said, she talked for over an hour and then she stopped. She got up and walked over to the French doors. I walked over to her and touched her arm. It seemed to startle her.

"Is something wrong?"

"No, just wondering what you must think of me."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean what do you think of me, Nick?"

"I don’t know, I think you’re nice. Very pretty."

"Is that all you see in me, Nick. A pretty face, — nice. Nice to look at, but not much more, right?"

"I didn’t say that."

"You don’t have to, because it’s the truth. That’s all I’ve ever been, pretty. Oh, look at Gabrielle, she’s so pretty. All my life I’ve gotten by on my looks."

"You ain’t all that now." I knew I had touched a nerve, so I tried to make light of it. "I was just being nice when I said you were pretty."

"Very pretty, that’s what you said, Nick." She laughed. "You said I was very pretty."

"I was lying, ’cause you look like you been hit in the face with a bag of quarters. I bet little children scream and run to their mothers when they see your ugly ass."

"Stop it, Nick. I’m not that bad. And besides it wasn’t a bag of quarters, it was a fist."

"I know, I was trying to be nice about it. But I can see. And I see that make up doesn’t hide everything."

She looked away from me and stared into her drink. "I’ve never been in control of my life, Nick. I went from my father’s house to Chilly’s. The first day I met him, he told me that I was the prettiest woman he’d ever seen. From that day on, I never wanted for anything. After a lifetime of being told no, you can’t, that’s not for you, Gabrielle. Everything was yes. All because I was pretty. But that’s all I was. All I’ve ever been. I was just something for him to show off to his peeps. To look good on his arm. I don’t have a life of my own. That’s Chilly’s wife, Mrs. Childers, even to you, Nick. To you I’m Mrs. Childers. Well I’m not, my name is Gabrielle. My friends call me Gee. Since I’m not your client anymore it’s time you started calling me Gee too."

"Okay, Gee. Why don’t you get me another drink?"

"I didn’t say you could start ordering me around," she said, snatching the glass out of my hand. "Want any ice?"

"No, just Hennessy will be fine."

Mrs. Childers handed me my drink and sat down next to me. "You’ve never told Chilly that story about you and Rocky, have you?"

"He’d kill Rocky if I told him. I never told anybody. Not Jake, not even Chéz. You’re the first."

"What makes me so special?"

"I don’t know. I’ve told you a lot of things about me, Nick. Shame that none of it is good. But that’s the way it is."

"There must be some happiness in your life."

"You tell me what there is to be happy about? I live in fear, Nick. I never know when Chilly’s gonna snap. Sometimes he can be so sweet to me and other times he’s like a nightmare."

"Maybe it’s time you wake up."

"Maybe. Maybe it is time to get my life back."

She began to cry.

"I never meant for things to turn out the way they did. You have to believe that, Nick. It was never supposed to happen."

"What are you talking about?"

"Huh?"

"What are you talking about?"

"Nothing." She got up and poured herself another drink. "I’ve been babbling on like a fool. I am a fool."

"When are you gonna tell me the truth, Mrs. Childers? I mean, Gee."

"I have told you the truth, Nick." The tears were gone.

"I don’t think so. I can’t help you if you don’t tell me the truth."

"There’s nothing else to tell. Jake is gone. You said it yourself, it was all about this synthetic crack."

"Okay, if that’s the way you want to play it." I finished my drink and stood up. I was ready to go. I wanted to call Felicia. But she got up too and took the glass from my hand. I looked at her. I mean really looked at her for maybe the first time. She was miserable. The more she talked about her life, the more I wanted to, needed to talk to Felicia, hear her voice. Hear something positive. Mrs. Childers returned my glass to me full. I thanked her and took a sip of my liquor.

"Maybe now that you don’t work for me, you’ll start paying me some attention."

"Just what makes you think I haven’t been payin’ attention to you?"

"I see the way you look at me."

"I —" she put hand over my lips.

"I’m hot." She stepped closer, resting her chest against me. "And I’m sticky. I’m goin’ to take a shower." I took a moment to contemplate the way her moods took dramatic swings. Not five minute ago she was crying. Now she was almost predatory. She stepped away and turned around. "Unzip me." I unzipped her dress and she walked away as I lost site of her in the darkness. The light came on in the bathroom. I stood motionless, watching as she turned on the shower. Then she looked back at me. I took that as my invitation to join her.

She kissed me. Then she put her arms around me and kissed me again. "Undress me, Nick."

I took my time undressing her slowly. Once I was done, she stepped into the shower. "Aren’t you coming?"

I undressed myself very quickly and followed her into the shower. My presence was met immediately by her arms around my neck and her tongue in my mouth. I picked her up by the waist, and she wrapped her legs around me. I angled her back against the wall and entered her. Despite the lack of foreplay, she was dripping wet. I like it like that.

"Harder, Nick! Fuck me harder!" I pounded her furiously against the wall. "Yes, Nick! Yes!" she screamed her delight. We went at it in the shower for awhile before we got out. Without bothering to dry ourselves, she hopped up on the bathroom vanity and spread her legs. "Come here," she said, motioning with her finger. I quickly complied. I placed my hands on the mirror to steady myself as well as get some added leverage. She lifted her legs and grabbed her ankles.

For reasons which I can’t explain, Ben Josephs crossed my mind. I thought about what Chésará said,
"’Cause he can’t fuck. Gee said that he couldn’t keep it up long enough to do anything for her. Gee said she rocked the house two times and he came."

Well, she was rockin’ that house with a vengeance, but I was hanging right in there with her. Then her eyes bucked open, her body began to quiver, and her mouth opened as if she wanted to scream, but no sound came out.

Mrs. Childers picked up a towel and walked out of the bathroom without a word. I grabbed a towel and followed her out, drying myself as I walked. She wrapped the towel around her and headed for the bar. She poured a drink for each of us and handed me one. I drank mine, and watched as she came from behind the bar. She poured her drink across my chest and then she proceeded to lick it off. Once she was satisfied that she had gotten every drop, she led me into one of the bedrooms, and we went for it again. "Your turn now."

Mrs. Childers laid down on the bed and she climbed on top of me. I felt her ease herself down on me. She grinded her hips into mine, pinning my shoulders against the bed and stared in my eyes. I felt paralyzed, I couldn’t move and I didn’t have to. She rode me furiously until I felt myself expand and explode inside her. I had to laugh, because when I came, she screamed louder than I did.