Private Deceptions (23 page)

I was tired.

I hadn’t slept in two days.

And I needed a shower.

But I didn’t care.

I drove as fast as I could to Cuisine to pick up Freeze. As I drove, I couldn’t help but think about the story I’d just heard.

"Wow."

That was about all I could say about it. "Wow."

I had to reconcile within myself the fact that Chilly hadn’t killed Jake or Lisa. He probably didn’t have anything to do with Rocky, Pamela, or LaShawn either. I pretty much figured that LaShawn’s death was, like everything else, an accident. She more likely than not just got hold of the wrong package.

It was Gee who dominated my thoughts. I couldn’t turn her over to the police. She had been through enough in her lifetime. Her life to this point had been filled with nothing but betrayal and violence. For the rest of her life, she would have to deal with the site of Jake’s dead body, staring at her. Hearing his last words, "Why, Gee?" over and over again. She would have to live knowing that Chésará killed Lisa so she could be free. And all this was the result of her association with Chilly.

That to me was punishment enough.

But now Chilly was dead.

I killed him.

He had caused so many people so much pain. In a way, he was responsible for all the deaths. Maybe he deserved to die, maybe not. It wasn’t for me to judge. I understand now why it was so important for Mike to get out of the drug business and go legit. He had too much of a conscience, too much love for life to continue with the legacy that André set out for us. The path Chilly followed. I respected and appreciated Black more now than I had at anytime in the last ten years. When all this is over, I have to call and thank him, not only for bailing me out, but for giving me so much to remind me of who I am and where I came from. Maybe I would even swallow my pride and make peace with Bobby. It was long overdue.

When I got to Cuisine and went inside, I found Freeze sitting by the door, ready to go. "What took you so long?"

"Traffic."

"Well, let’s go," he said practically jumping to his feet.

"You drive." We started out the door. "Wait! I need three clean weapons."

"Three .9’s?"

"No, .45’s."

"You? Packin’ a .45? Why the change?" he asked as we got in his truck.

"Kirk knows that a .9 is my weapon of choice. And I’m tired of talkin’ to him."

"Oh by the way," Freeze said. "Wanda came here looking for you."

"Did she really?"

"Yeah, she did. She said if I saw you, I should tell you not to do anything stupid."

"Okay, you told me. And I’m not goin’ to do anything stupid. I’m goin’ to kill somebody. And you’re goin’ to make sure that I don’t do anything stupid."

"You startin’ to sound like the Nick I used to know."

"I’m startin’ to feel like him too."

"It’s good to have you back, Nick. I don’t want to sound soft or nothin’ like that, but I missed you man."

"I missed all of you."

We stopped at Cynt’s; one of the gambling houses we’ve run for years.
"We."
I felt a part of all this again. Maybe this is what Wanda meant when she said I needed to recognize.

"Hey, Freeze. And who is this fine ass man you got with you?" Cynt said as she twisted her hips in our direction.

"How’s it goin’ Cynt?" She threw her arms around my neck and gave me a kiss that raised an eyebrow on Freeze. Like there was some past thing between us that I never knew about.

"How are you, Nick? I heard you were back in the city. I was wondering, like everybody else, why you hadn’t come around. But I see you picked back up with your old thug buddy here."

"Let’s go to your office Cynt. I need to get something out of your safe." Freeze said.

"You two, rollin’ together, just like old times." Cynt said and turned toward the steps to her office.

I looked at Freeze. He looked at me. We both watched Cynt walk her big pretty ass up the steps. We both smiled. "Just like old times."

Once we were in her office, Cynt opened the safe and stepped aside. She had a small arsenal in that safe. "Help yourself. They’re all clean, acid on the serial numbers. Damn near impossible to trace."

I stepped up and picked out three 45’s and two silencers. Freeze grabbed one too and an AK47
,
"Just in case things get thick out there."

"That should thin things out nicely." Cynt threw in.

"Got any gloves, Cynt?" I asked.

"What do I look like, Macy’s?"

"Come on Nick, I got some for you in the truck. Lets go."

"Good to see you again Cynt," I said as I followed Freeze out the office.

Cynt grabbed me by the arm.

"You make sure you come back and see me soon, Nick," she said and kissed me on the cheek.

"I’ll do that."

As soon as we got in the truck, Freeze turned to me and shook his head. "What’s up with you and Cynt?"

"I swear man, I don’t know what was up with that."

"Nigga, when you gonna get enough of fuckin’ with Bobby’s women," Freeze laughed. "I’m just fuckin’ with you kid."

"Bobby still fuckin’ Cynt?"

"Naa, Pam got that nigga pussy whipped and on lock down since the day she met him."

"Pam, that his wife?"

"Yeah, she’s a good girl. Real solid, you know. She’s been good for Bobby. Mellowed him the fuck out."

"Maybe after this is over with we can roll by there."

"Time you and Bobby made peace and put that Camille shit behind y’all. Bitch been dead for ten fuckin’ years and shit."

"I feel you."

"Where the fuck we goin’, anyway?"

"Greenwich."

"Connecticut?"

"Yeah. Wake me up when we get there."

When we got to the house, there was gated entry and a guard posted. I told Freeze to roll by so we could get a look at the place. I sure missed Jett, he would have tapped into some satellite and had a birdseye view of the set up. But that wasn’t the only reason I missed him. He was a good friend. I thought about Monika lying in that hospital bed, fighting for her life. I was here for them.

I didn’t see any camera surveillance, but I knew there had to be some. Once I had satisfied myself with the layout of the grounds, I told Freeze to give me five minutes and then drive to the gate and I would join him there. I made my way around to the gate. I put the silencers on the guns and waited in the brush for Freeze to pull up. As he approached the gate, the guard came out and stopped him.

"Good evening, sir. Can I help you?"

"No, but he can." Freeze pointed at me.

"What?"

He turned around and I put two shots in his head. I dragged him into the guard shack and opened the gate. Freeze drove through the gate, I got back in the truck, and we headed for the house. He stopped the truck around the side of the house. "Well what’s the plan?"

"Give me five minutes, then come in after me."

"You got it."

I moved toward the house, staying in the shadows. The lock was no problem. I moved quickly through the house, guns drawn, looking for my objective. Checking each room, before moving on to the next. The thought did occur to me that the bastard might not be there. If he wasn’t, I’d burn the bitch down.

"Monika would like that," I said to myself.

I heard footsteps coming toward me. I got out of sight. Once he passed me, I put two in the back of his head. I dragged his body into the first room I came to. I recognized him. He was Lieutenant Commander Snow. He was in command of a different Special Ops unit, but he was a part of our little community. At that point, I knew I was in the right place. I had been through all the downstairs rooms and was making my way up the steps, when I heard more footsteps coming. I put my guns in their holsters and went over the rail. I would hold on until they passed.

I watched as they stopped at the top of the steps and talked. I hoped it wouldn’t be a long conversation. My arms were starting to hurt. They started down the steps. I was in a bad spot if they saw my hands. I gave some thought to letting go if they did. I looked down. "Bad idea."

Fortunately, they passed me by. Once they were out of sight, I came back over the rail and continued up the stairs. I could have shot them too, but I figured it would give Freeze something to do. He always did like to compare body counts.

I walked down a long hallway until I saw a light coming from an open door. As I got closer, I heard voices. I heard his voice. My heart began racing, I moved faster. I came through the door and there he was, Uncle Felix, seated behind a marble desk. I should have blasted him on sight. But first I had to know why.

"Come on in Nick, we’ve been expecting you," Felix said smiling. "Have a seat."

I took a step closer.

"Why don’t you just put those guns down, nice and slow while you at it, Nick." I recognized that southern accent. I turned to see General Peterson seated on the couch with an M-16 pointed at me. He was my commanding office for our last tour of duty. It was all starting to come together. I took a deep breath and complied with his orders.

"That’s a good soldier, Nick, but you always were," The general said, laughing. "Shit, I got half a dozen men in this house and one at the gate. But you walked right by them like it wasn’t shit, didn’t you, Nick?"

"Sit down, Nick. Take a load off." Felix said.

"I told you he was the best soldier I ever commanded Felix. Made you a damn good operative, didn’t he?"

"Yeah, he was good."

"Tell me about it Felix, why’d you do it?"

"Do what Nick? Oh, you mean Jett and Monika, don’t you?"

"Yeah, Monika was too good to be taken by any of Chilly’s boyz without gettin’ off a shot. It had to be you."

"No, Nick, it was me," the general said. "Monika let me in, no problem. Perkins, that was the boy that Bronson cut up, well she made him while she was out on her little date with Chilly. Once he was compromised, it wouldn’t take her long to put it all together just like you did. So we had to kill her. Then Bronson showed up. Perkins covered while I left. His orders were to kill Bronson. But you see how that turned out."

"Then you brought in a cleaner to clean up after Jett. Who killed Jett?"

"Lieutenant Commander Snow had that honor," the General said. "Bronson saw us when we were coming out of the house where he killed Perkins. So we let him follow us to Chilly’s house. Your boy was careless, Nick. He let Snow walk right up on him and shoot him with a .22 in the ear. Very effective."

"I just want to know why?"

"Well, for that I got to take you back a ways," Felix said as he got up and poured himself a drink. "You see, Nick, the whole time you were in South America, you may have been under the General here’s command, but you were working for me."

"Just what were we doin’ down there Felix?"

"You were conducting the war on drugs as a agent of the United States Government, sort of." Felix said and he the General both laughed, but I wasn’t amused. Maybe they would let me in on the joke.

"Well, not exactly," the General said.

"You and your unit were there, not to stop the flow of drugs into this country, but to stream line it. You see, Nick, I have a friend down there. He came to me and asked for my help in eliminating some of his competition. In return we would be partners in his rather lucrative enterprise."

"Cocaine."

"Right. So I went to my friend the General here, and he was kind enough to donate the services of your unit. But he said to me that instead of just eliminating some of his competition, hell, let’s get rid of all the bastards or at least do damage to their operations."

"So you sent us down there to assassinate key people and destroy drug labs. The whole time we’re thinking it’s for good old Uncle Sam, we were doin’ it all for good old
Uncle
Felix. Good plan. What went wrong?"

"Who said anything went wrong. You and your unit were doing an excellent job," Felix said smugly. "Especially your team, Nick. The entire campaign was a success."

"That’s right. Your team was especially destructive. That Monika sure can blow some shit up." The general added. "How is she doin’ anyway, Nick? I understand it doesn’t look good for her."

"She’s a fighter. She’s gonna make it."

"No, she’s not, Nick. If she makes it out of intensive care, she’ll be dead before she gets to her room." Felix said.

"We’ll see about that. But we’ll pass that for now. So you brought us all back together to eliminate the eliminators, but we fucked it up when Monika broke her ankle. We were all supposed to die that day."

"I knew you were smart enough to figure that much out," the general said. "I was just gonna just line you all up and shoot you. But Felix said that he could use your team for some other jobs he had goin’. Said you three had a skill set that he would make excellent use of. So I got y’all out from down there. Handled the debriefing myself and turned you over to Felix."