Urban Renewal (20 page)

As the dog was getting the scent of both men, Princess said, “And this is Rhino. You know him. He’s my
best
friend. We even live in the same place. But don’t worry, Sweetie. There’s plenty of room for you, too.”

The hyper-muscled man didn’t see Tiger pull one of her throwing daggers from the sheath around her thigh, telling the others not to react if the dog growled—if anything went wrong, she had it covered.

“Go on, pat him,” Princess told the seated men. “He loves that.”

Cross reached down and ran his hand over the beast’s head. Ace was a lot more reluctant, but he finally gave in.

“See?” Princess crowed, walking around to the far side of the three men. “Come on, Sweetie.”

The monster’s hand was about the same size as the dog’s head, but his touch was gentle.

“I always wanted a dog,” Princess said, unaware of the tears running from his eyes. “I love him.”

“You should have told me,” Rhino gently chided.

“I … I wanted to. Lots of times. But … I don’t know.”

“It’s all right, honey,” Tiger said, patting Princess on his right biceps. “I understand. Some things, they just take time.”

At the word “time” all three seated men looked at Tiger. Her eyes widened in a deliberate parody of innocence.

“Please?”
Princess said to Ace.

“That ain’t my call, bro. That’s up to my woman.”

“Oh, Sharyn likes me,” Princess said confidently. “We’re friends.”

“She likes her babies better, I promise you.”

“That’s only fair,” Rhino put in.

“That’s what a mother’s
supposed
to do,” Tiger assured him. “Protect her children, right?”

“I … guess,” the man whose mother had sold him to a warlord at birth answered. The warlord knew the value of a baby who weighed thirteen pounds plus, but never lived to collect.

How that baby had survived for years alone in the surrounding jungle was a mystery no man was interested in investigating.

“I’m not bringing my kids to this place,” Ace said, flatly. “And don’t even
think
about the spot.”

“Our poolroom? I brought Sweetie with me, and nobody said anything.”

Cross and Rhino exchanged looks. The idea of anyone being stupid enough to challenge Princess
and
that killer dog, never mind
inside
Red 71, was too ludicrous even to contemplate.

“Okay, here’s how it happens,” Cross said, using a voice that accented every word with
“done deal”
italics. “After Ace gets his house, and everybody gets moved in, you bring that dog—”

“Sweetie.”

“Sweetie, yeah.” Ace jumped in, on the cutting edge of his patience supply. “You bring that dog over. If the kids like him, then we’ll see, okay?”

“What if they don’t like him?”

“Then he never comes back. One chance, that’s all he gets.”

“I guess that’s fair. Right, Rhino?”

“Of course,” the giant squeaked. “We wouldn’t want anyone playing with Sweetie unless they liked him.”

“Okay!”

“I’ll be there, too.”

“Well, sure,” Princess said, not understanding what Ace had just told everyone else in the room. Tiger sheathed her dagger. Ace took his hand out from inside his coat.

A tiny orange fiber-optic dot showed above the door.

“They’re back,” Cross said.

BUDDHA SHAMBLED
into the back room, a now habitual stride he had worked many years to develop. Anything that caused an enemy to hesitate even for tenths of a second could be a lifesaver. Or life-taker.

TRACKER SLID
into the room behind Buddha, as soundless as a shadow flowing into a corner.

“There’s nothing out there, boss,” Buddha said. “Not on either side. Few baby-bangers, Latino to the north, Afro to the south. They’re not moving on each other, so they don’t need a pass-through.”

“Neutral turf?”

“Nah. They ain’t even
that
far advanced. Can’t even throw their sign at a passing car without getting their fingers tangled.”

“That all they threw?” Ace said.

“Yep.”

“Maybe they didn’t pick up on you,” Cross said. “It’s hard to see our machine at night, specially with all the streetlights busted.”

“Could be they saw it coming. Even heard it. But it ain’t got that right sound. That old-school rumble-coming one,” Ace said.

“They are not coming for one another,” Tracker said.

“How do you know that?” Tiger asked him, genuinely interested.

“We had to go several blocks
past
the one we … care about before there was even a sign of them. On both sides. That means it’s not a neutral zone—it’s like when two tribes are separated by a river too wide for them to see across. They may know an enemy is somewhere on the other side, but they have no way to get across. And if they try and fail, the river itself becomes their enemy.”

“
YOU TELL
So Long yet?” Cross asked Buddha when they were alone.

“Tell her what?”

“That one of the houses is already sold. You’ve had a couple of hours. Tiger’s still playing around on the damn stage, and we’ve got to get her home.”

“Oh. Well, about that …”

“About what?”

“Well, So Long, she says the plan wasn’t to take cash. She figured on making more out of the mortgages, I guess. You know, both ends.”

“Yeah. And …?”

“And she don’t trust you, brother. The way she scans it, you put up the cash ’cause you already have
other
buyers lined up. For more gelt, see?”

“No, I don’t see. The plan was to off-load each house for five, maybe a little more. She was supposed to take care of all of that. We just cut down her task. Squeezing extra points off the mortgages, that would be greedy and stupid. So Long’s only half of that. We couldn’t let her do it, anyway. Not with Ace’s family moving into one of them.”

“I guess that’s right.”

“Buddha, come on, brother. You think I trust her?”

“No.”

“You think
she
thinks I trust her?”

“Oh,
hell
, no.”

“She was going to jack us on five sales. We just cut her down to four.
That’s
what she sees happening.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“She told us the deal. We took it. The deal was to buy the whole package for three-fifty and sell for a minimum of
two point five, total. I didn’t change
that
deal. And she’s not gonna do it, either.”

“What do
we
want one of those houses for? We already got—”

“I already told you. We don’t want it. Ace wants it. And he’s already put down the cash.”

“Pretty risky,” Buddha mused aloud.

“Buying the house?”

“
Marking
the house. Over where he was cribbed, wasn’t a banger in this whole town insane enough to knock on
that
door. Word is out.
Way
out. Been that way since … a long, long time, boss.”

“That crib’s in the projects. What’s left of them, anyway. This house, it’s in a nice neighborhood.”

“
That
block? Since when?”

“Since we started our own Urban Renewal project.”

“Which we did when we made the deal, right?”

“Right.”

“So Long’s never going to stop giving me grief on this.”

“Oh, that’s just the way girls play.” Tiger’s voice, coming a fraction ahead of her body as she glided into the room. If she was wearing a costume, it was invisible.

“You want to get dressed, so we can roll?” Cross snapped.

“You’re no fun.
You
want me to get dressed, Buddha?”

“Hell, yes! If I have to look at you for another ten seconds, So Long’s gonna know.”

A WEEK
passed before the crew met at Red 71.

“You want to get the place all fixed up before Sharyn and your kids move in? Or …?”

“You ever live with a woman, Cross? In your whole life?” Tiger said, hands on hips.

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“Sharyn’s going to have her own taste. And she doesn’t want to be running around like a lunatic checking on workmen, either. I’ll give you ten-to-one she wants to get in the new place first, and get to the decorating later.”

“Buddha could probably fit them all in one trip.”

“How many you talking about?” Buddha asked Ace.

“Got two in college, three in the house. So, five, total.”

“How does your wife plus three equal five?”

“You forget me, bro?”

“Yeah. Okay. Sure, that’d work. And—what?—you get the Maori Maulers to do the moving.”

“Too many trips,” Ace vetoed.

“So we get a big van, what’s the problem?”

“Problem is, they got to go up and down a lot of stairs, a lot of times.”

“Who’s gonna bother
those
guys?”