The Pleasure of Pain (10 page)

Coming Clean

Chapter 26                           

Tess drove into Chinatown.
She was now in lower Manhattan what they call lower eastside. She made a left then turned into an auto body shop and drove the car into the garage. A brown- skinned Guyanese man was working on a car when he looked up and saw Tess. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Tess yelled out, “Hi Uncle Thomas.”

“Hey baby
,” Uncle Thomas replied while coming over to give her a hug when Tess stopped him.

“Listen,” Tess said.
“I don’t have time to talk. I need you to hide this car for me and fast.”

Bless got out of the passenger seat
, “Hi Uncle Thomas.”

“What’s up
, Bless?”

“Nothing Uncle, but we don’t have time for the small talk.”
Thomas took one look at the Chrysler and knew what time it was by all the bullet holes in the car. Thomas was an older man at fifty years old. He was still young at heart. Tess and Bless gave him the start up money he needed for his car’s body shop. So, he would do anything for them and plus he loved his niece. She was the only family he had. He raised Tess because her mother and father got killed over a bad drug deal in Guyana. So, in return he took care of his sister’s child. The body chop was empty that day. It was just him and his business partner, Young.

“Young close the gates please,” Thomas yelled.
Young pressed a button that lowered the gates. “Listen, I’m going to take the car apart. You two get out of here,” Thomas replied.  Young threw a set of keys at Bless. Bless looked at the keys then the cars.

“Yo
, what car do we go to?” There were five cars in the garage, a Lexus ES, Lincoln LS, Buick, Chevy Impala, and a Dodge Magnum besides the shot up Chrysler.

“It’s the Impal
a and all the papers are inside the car. The car is in my name.”

“Good looking,” Bless replied.

“Yo, I got something for you two,” Young said. “Follow me to the back.”

T
ess looked up at her uncle. “Well don’t look at me, girl. I don’t know what he’s talking about.” All three of them followed Young to a room at the back of the shop. Once they were all inside, Young went to a box and pulled out two bulletproof vests, one big and one small.

“Shit Young, you were thinking of us,” Tess said.

“Always,” Young replied. “I was going to call you, but you just popped up.”

Young was Chinese in his
thirties and had been friends with Thomas for a while. He talked Thomas into opening the body shop in the lower eastside right next to Chinatown where he could bring him a lot of business through of all his family and friends. So they became business partners, but young also was in the Chinese Mafia and so was all his family and they sold a lot of things on the Black Market. It allowed him to get his hands on things most people couldn’t like these new vests. “They are stronger than the old bulletproof vests and lighter.”

“Yo
, good looking out Young,” Bless said.

“Wait I’m not done.
I got something else for you.” Young dug into the box until he pulled out the most beautiful machine gun Bless and Tess had ever seen. “Yo, this here is an AR15 machine gun it holds two hundred rounds and its light as fuck and comes with the black infrared light. Motherfuckers won’t even see the dot on them. Only the person with the gun in his hand can see it,” Young stated.

“Shit,” Bless said.
Young passed the gun to Bless and he liked the weight of it. ‘This shit is beautiful,’ he thought to himself.

“And I’m not done,” Young
said. “I got four boxes of Black Talon’s bullets to go with that.”

“Damn,” Tess said knowing black Talon’
s bullets went through any and everything. “Shit you get an FBI case if they even heard you had some of those bullets.”

Young saw Tess’ face. “Yo
, don’t worry Tess. There’s no way they can be traced back to us.”

“Please
, I know you on point,” Tess replied. “I was wondering where the fuck is mine.”

W
ith a smile on his face young pulled out another machine gun and handed it to Tess.

“You kids and your toys,” Uncle Thomas said sarcastically.

“Yo Young, I need you to pick something up. I need 15 Mac 11 machine guns,” Bless stated.

“I can get you ten,” Young replied. “Is that cool?”

“Yeah, that would do for now.” Bless knew shit was about to hit the fan and wanted to be ready. Their lives were in danger, but by whom?

“Yo
, there is a stash box in the Impala.  You guys know where it’s at,” Young replied.

“Bye Young,” Bless said.

“Bye Uncle Thomas,” Tess said and kissed him on the cheek.

“Stay out of trouble please,” Thomas said with concern, but he knew she’d do what she wanted to do.
She always had. “I’ll have the Chrysler broken down by tonight. Young and I will work on it. There’ll be no evidence of it,” he said seriously.

Tess and Bless got in the black Impala and headed for their house in Brooklyn.
“Shit the FDR is blocked off with cops everywhere.” So, they drove to the 59
th
Street Bridge to go through Queens to get to Brooklyn.

“Yo Tess
, I’m tired of playing games with you,” Bless yelled. “Tell me what the fuck is going on!”

“What you mean,” Tess said.

“Listen, ever since I came home people been trying to kill us and our team. You’re not telling me something. I’ve known this for a while now, but I told myself you’ll tell me when you were ready, but fuck that. You have to come clean with me.”

Tess closed her eyes and sat back in the passenger seat as they made their way to the bridge.
She knew it was time to come clean. She really didn’t know how she kept it from him this long. They had always kept it real with each other in their relationship, but she knew it would make him angry and there was no telling what that nigga would do when he was mad, she thought. “Listen baby, I don’t know how to tell you this,” Tess said.

“Just spit it the fuck out already,” Bless replied.

Tess took a deep breath. “Just let me finish before you flip out on me. While you were locked up, I did some jobs for Ricardo.”

“What kind of jobs?” Bless asked.

“I did some contract killings for him.” Tess answered.

“You what?
What the fuck you mean you did some contract killings for him? While I was in jail, you was out here wilding the fuck out. What if something would’ve happened to you? Then what would I do? Did you ever take the time to think about that?”

Tess knew he was
right because she felt the same way about him. If anything was to happen to Bless, she’d lose her mind. “Baby, I did it for the money. So, we could get out the game sooner like we always talked about.”

“But Tess we were making more than enough money doing what we do,” Bless stated.

“But you knew it wasn’t enough to get out, boo.” Bless knew she was right about that one. They needed enough money to never look back.

“So
, how much you made?”

“I have seven million in a
Swiss Bank Account,” she replied.

“Damn girl
, why you didn’t tell me sooner with the two million in drug money and three million in the real estate company, we could’ve been out.”

“I was scared to tell you.”

“So, how many contracts you did to get that money?”

“Eight and they were all drug lords or dealers and I have more money stashed from times me and the girls robbed some and killed some of them.”

“I should’ve known you didn’t do it alone. So, all of you were doing killings and no one was going to tell me shit.” Bless was getting mad at the fact that they all had hidden this from him.

“The girls didn’t know who we worked for, only Iris does
. And Bless one of the contracts was on Ricardo’s brother, Hector.”

“Yo
, you killed your connects brother. What the fuck? Does he know?”

“I told you we were working for him.
He ordered the kill.”

“So
, dude killed his own brother for what? That’s some grimy shit and does Jose know?” Bless asked.

“He did it to take
over the family business and Jose doesn’t know. He was supposed to be next on my list, but I told Ricardo I was done with that shit. We have enough money put away and I don’t want to live that life anymore.”

“I understand Tess, but you done hurt
so many people we have no way of finding out who our enemies are. But we have to break it down and find out before they get to us!”

“So
, you’re not mad at me,” Tess replied.

“Oh yeah, I’m mad at your ass, but we have bigger problems to worry about.”
Bless looked at her and felt she was still keeping something from him, but it wasn’t as big as what she just told him. ‘I’ll get it out of her later,’ he told himself.

Traffic was backed up in Long Island City, Queens.
Tess started to think about Ebony and who had her killed and she wondered how Vanessa was holding up. “Yo baby, when we get on the Van Wyck Highway can we stop by Vanessa’s house,” Tess asked.

“Yeah boo, but it’s going to take time with all this traffic.” Bless knew how much Tess loved her girlfriend and knew Ebony’s death was killing his woman.
The fact that she didn’t find out who was behind killing her friend was breaking her heart and pulling Vanessa and Tess apart and when Tess hurt, he hurts.

Tracing the Loot

C
hapter 27             

Vanessa was in the kitchen of her Jamaica, Queen
’s house with her brown red nose pit Chew Chew. She named him Chew Chew because he would always be chewing on something. Vanessa was crying while she was cooking pork chops for her and Chew Chew. “I guess it’s me and you now boy.” Chew Chew was sitting at her feet and could sense her pain. So, he licked her toes making her laugh. “Stop Chew Chew,” she said in between laughing then she bent down and hugged her dog. “I love you too, Chew Chew.”

Sitting across the street watching Vanessa with binoculars w
ere Carlos and five of his henchmen in a black Chevy Avalanche. Carlos looked at the monitor of the tracing device once more making sure he had the address right and making sure the money was inside the house.

“Yo
, we been watching the house all day when are we going to fucking move in on her,” one of the gunmen said from the back seat.

Carlos turned around and smacked him i
n the face in one quick move. “We move when I say we fucking move. Don’t you dare question me!”

Carlos was thinking if this person in the house was the same person that called themself Cash.
She could be a deadly person. A woman is like a teabag you never know how strong they are until their in hot water. Carlos looked through the binoculars again at the house and then the woman. Carlos thought she was beautiful and had a voluptuous body. She had on booty shorts and a tank top. ‘What a shame,’ he thought.  His cell phone rang, “Who?”

“It’s me did you find my money?”

“Yeah and guess what?”

“What?” Jose yelled.

“It’s someone that’s a part of Tess’ team that snitched on her.”

“Yeah bring Cash to me and my money.”

“Say no more, I’ll handle it.” Carlos and his five gunmen jumped out of the black Chevy Avalanche. “I want her alive.”

“Okay Boss,” one of the gunmen replied.

It was 10pm and the night sky helped
cover them as they surrounded the house. Carlos climbed to the second floor window and gave the others the order to rush the house. The front gunman kicked in the front door to only be met by a hollow point bullet ripping through his left eye.

While the five gunmen were surrounding the house Vanessa looked down at her dog, Chew Chew and saw the way he was growling and knew something was wrong.
She trained Chew Chew herself. Chew Chew didn’t bark. He bites and growls. It was his way of warning her before he attacked. Vanessa knew she had no time to go upstairs and grab her Tech- 9 mm automatic, just the thought of the gun made her want to cry. It was her and Ebony’s favorite gun. She only had time to grab the 9mm Luger handgun from the stash in the living room before the first gunman busted through the door. Vanessa squeezed the trigger and watched the hollow points rip through the gunman’s face. The gunman slumped over before he hit the floor.

Vanessa ran down the hall with Chew Chew behind her trying to make her
way to the back door to escape her house. When she made it to the door, she opened it just to find a gunman with a ski mask on standing there. Vanessa’s eyes opened with surprise. The gunman had his gun to her head and she knew it was over.

“Damn,” she yelled
.

As soon as the word
escaped her mouth, Chew Chew jumped up, knocked the man to the ground, and then locked his teeth on his neck. Chew Chew shook and ripped away at the gunman’s neck. The gunman tried to scream, but his screams were drowned out by his own blood and the pressure from Chew Chew’s jaw. Chew Chew ripped the gunman’s wind pipe out, came up with a big piece out of his neck, chewed it, and swallowed it.

“Damn boy
, I was going to feed you,” Vanessa said looking at her dog with shock.

A second gunman had reached the backdoor.
He looked down, saw the dog eating his partner, and began to scream. “Oh shit, oh shit,” he raised his gun and aimed it at Chew Chew.

He never noticed Vanessa with her gun raised to his head.
“You’re not going to shoot my dog asshole,” Vanessa yelled as she fired the 9mm Luger. The first shot caught him between the eyes then two quick rapid shots to his chest that spun him around and he hit the floor.

Chew Chew saw Carlos coming down the stairs while Vanessa’s back was turned so he ran and jumped in the air at Carlos
. In one swift move Carlos fired his 44 caliber revolver. The bullet hit Chew Chew in the chest while he was still in the air sending the dog flying back into the wall and he slid down hitting the floor soaked in blood.

Vanessa saw Chew Chew ge
t hit by the bullet and went crazy firing shots at Carlos left and right. “You shot my dog you son of a bitch,” she yelled.

Carlos jumped and dodged moving in time before Vanessa blew off his head.
Vanessa saw Carlos on the floor ducking behind a table from the bullets. She had an aim on him. She squeezed the trigger and heard a click. She squeezed again and heard the click sound once more. “Shit,” Vanessa yelled realizing her gun was out of ammo.

Carlos stood up with his gun pointed at her.
“I see you’re out of bullets,” Carlos said with a smile. Vanessa put up her hands because she knew it was over. “All right kill me already, asshole.”

“I’m not going to kill you,” Carlos replied.

Vanessa looked in his eyes like he had lost his mind and then a big hand wrapped around her neck and another around her mouth and she smelled something funny. She tried to fight, but felt weak and her eyes were heavy, then her world went black.

“Pick her up,” Carlos said to his henchman.
“Don’t leave yet. I have to find the money.” Carlos pulled out the monitor for the tracing device. The red dot on the screen showed the money was downstairs in the basement.

Carlos went downstairs and followed the red dot to the back of the basement where there was a suitcase.
Carlos opened the suitcase and looked inside at the money. “Shit, it only looks like two million in there. Where’s the other six million?” Carlos thought something was wrong. “This doesn’t feel right!” Carlos grabbed the suitcase and went back upstairs. “You take her and put her in the truck.”

The gunman with the big hands threw Vanessa’s body in the backseat and sat next to her.
Carlos jumped in the passenger seat and told the driver to pull off.

             
Bless was still mad at Tess for keeping a secret from him. “You still mad?” Tess asked.

Bless said nothing.
Once they got to 191 on Jamaica Avenue and turned down Vanessa’s block all they could see down the block was flashing red and blue lights. Cop cars were all over the block. Tess’s heart skipped a beat. She had a feeling something was wrong. They pulled up to Vanessa’s house to find cops walking in and out and what looked to be a man’s dead body at the front door. Bless and Tess got out the car and approached the house.

“Hold on
, where do you think you’re going,” a young officer said.

“We’re family of the woman who owns this house,” Tess stated.

“Oh really,” the officer said. “Hey Dan come over here,” The detective came over. He was a fat man with rolls under his chin and was much older than the cop that stopped them. The young officer began to talk. “These two here say they’re family of the person who owns this house.”

“Well then I have some questions for you,” the fat detective replied.
“What’s the owner’s name and what did her or he do for a living?”

“I’m not answering any fucking questions until you answer mine,” Tess yelled.

The fat detective looked at Tess with a mean eye. He hated these smart ass niggas these days if he could take her down to jail she wouldn’t think she was so smart. ‘I hate the fact that they’re making money and doing better than me,’ he thought. ‘If it was up to me, I’d put a bullet in all their heads,’ but he needed information for his boss about this case and couldn’t go back empty handed.

“Okay,” he said.
“There are three men dead in the house; two from gunshot wounds and one that looks like the dog in there ate his neck.”

“What?
Where is Vanessa,” Tess yelled.

“Who is Vanessa,” the detective asked.

“Vanessa Sky is the woman who owns the house.”

Detective Dan took out a writing pad and began to write what Tess had said down.
“And where does she work?”

“Hold on,” Bless said cutting into the conversation.
He was letting Tess handle this, but there was more they needed to know and he didn’t like the way the fat detective looked at Tess. “So there was no woman inside the house,” Bless asked.

“No,” Dan said with an attitude,
“but there was a dog. The dog has been shot, but he’ll live. We sent him to the Veterinarian.”

“I want the dog,” Bless said.

“You can get him from the vet once the investigation is over.
Listen, do you have any more answers for me,” Dan asked.

“No,” said Tess.
Her and Bless walked to the house next door and Tess knocked on the door.

An old woman
’s voice asked who it was. “It’s me, Tess, Ms. Brown.” A light skinned old lady opened the door.

“Oh child, how have you been
? I haven’t seen you since Ebony’s funeral.” Ms. Brown was Vanessa’s next door neighbor. She had watched Tess, Vanessa and the other girls grow up. She was the grandmother of the neighborhood.

“How have you been Ms. Brown?” Tess asked.

“Child, I’m fine, but those cops keep coming over here asking me all kinds of questions. I have nothing to say to them.”

“What about me,” Tess said with a smile on her face.

Ms. Brown looked at Tess and then Bless. “Who is this handsome young man?”

“Oh Ms. Brown, this is the love of my life
. You know him. He just looks different now that he’s home.”

“Oh Dear, this is Bless.
How are you doing sugar?”

“I’m fine, Ms. Brown.”

“You two kids come in.” Once inside Ms. Brown began to talk. “I want to tell you what I saw before the police come back over here. I heard the shots and there were a lot of them. So, I called the police. See child I won’t talk to them, but I’ll sure call them if someone needs help. After I got off the phone, I came to my window and saw two men that looked Latino one was muscular and big. He had Vanessa on his shoulder and the other was smaller and had what looked like a suitcase in his hand. I may be old, but I got some good eyes.”

“Ms. Brown
, do you think you know who the men were?”

“Child they
weren’t from around here. I know everybody in this neighborhood, young or old.”

Everybody knew Ms. Brown.
She had lost two grandsons to the streets and still had one out there selling drugs and everybody loved and respected her grandsons. They were ride or die niggas.

“Dear you know no one around here is foolish enough to mess with your peoples.”
Ms. Brown knew what Tess and Vanessa did for a living. She heard everything that went on in the streets, but that didn’t stop her love for them; in fact, it made her love them more. She loved all the young and all old hustlers to her they were just trying to survive in a cold world. “But Dear, I do have something for you,” Ms. Brown handed Tess a piece of paper.

“What’s this,” Tess asked.
“It’s the license plate number to the truck I saw them take Vanessa away in! I told you I got good eyes,” the old lady said with a smile.

“Thank you
, Ms. Brown.” Tess bent down and hugged the older woman and Bless did the same.

“Please
, you two take care of each other, bye sweetie,” and with that her door was closed.

Bless and Tess made their way across the stree
t to their car with the cops on the block looking at their every move. Once in the car Tess took out her cellphone from her purse and made a call as Bless pulled off the block. “Hi,” a voice said.

“Hi Young
, I need you to run a license plate number for me. I’ll hit you off when we come and pick up those toys from you,” Tess stated.

“Alright it’s not a problem.
I’ll have everything tomorrow.” With all of Young’s family it was easy for him to get the information they needed.

“Thank you
, Young,” Tess said as she hung up.

Bless was in deep thought as he was driving home.
Shit had really gone to hell since he had been home. All he wanted was to be out of the game, out of this lifestyle and married to the woman he loved, but shit had gone all wrong. It seemed everybody around him had been lying to him and now there were people trying to kill him and Tess. This was driving him crazy. Ebony and Vanessa were like sisters to him, whoever was behind this were going to pay and pay with their life.

As if Tess knew what her man was thinking she began to speak.
“They’re our sisters and we will get vengeance on whoever it is and their family for fucking with our family,” Tess stated. “Young said he’ll have the info we need tomorrow.”