Night had fallen by the time Jorja reached the once familiar address in South London. Though she had not been there in a very long time, not much had changed and she found the block of flats with ease. The small residential suburb was known to be one of the most dangerous boroughs in London and not safe for any woman to be in at night, much less alone. As she pulled up into a well-lit street nearby, she took out her gun and placed it in her pants' waistband underneath her tee shirt, then tucked her satchel out of sight underneath the driver's seat. When she got out of her car, she paused and looked out onto a courtyard surrounded by several three-story apartment blocks. The lights on the four edges of the courtyard were almost entirely broken and dim lights flickered on and off, casting long shadows from the buildings across the yard. At first glance, the neighborhood seemed quiet with not a soul in sight. But as she remembered all too well, her arrival would soon lure the residents out from their shadowy lairs like cockroaches to food. It took all of a minute for the first gang of rough youths to show themselves and she watched with caution as more soon emerged. From the dark shadows behind the isolated bleachers, a pit bull held firmly in place by a chain next to his master's leg, barked ferociously, ready to charge. She walked toward it, instantly recognizing the man she’d come there to see. He looked older, of course, but he wasn't the type to easily blend into any crowd. The dreadlocks that dropped down to just below his shoulders were now streaked with gray and even in the dark, she could see he still had more gold teeth than white ones. It was the feature that had awarded him the title of the most feared man in the neighborhood, and his name.
As on-trend with his fashion as always, the Jamaican man released a little bit of the chain, allowing his dog to charge several yards toward her before it got yanked back by the collar around his neck.
Surrounded by the bright orange glow of cigarettes in the dark, she kept walking slowly but steadily toward him, then stopped under the flickering illumination of a broken floodlight in the center of the courtyard.
The sharp sound of switchblades formed a choir all around her, accompanied by the incessant barking of the fierce dog mere feet from her. She looked straight at its owner, then announced herself.
"Andre, it's me, Georgina."
She heard the trigger of a gun being pulled back from somewhere to her right but remained firm in her stance.
Once again, the pit bull was allowed another few inches toward her. She knelt down and leaned toward the dog.
"Hey, there, old boy."
With exposed canines, the dog paused for just a second before his growling instantly turned to a friendly whimper while his tailbone dropped and sent his tail excitedly wagging. She leaned in closer, holding the back of her hand out for the dog to smell and lick.
"There's a boy. You like that. Don't you? Yes, you're not as fierce as you look now are you?" She smiled as the dog took pleasure in the tickling under his chin.
The chain released all the way and the dog leaped on top of her, nearly pushing her to the ground.
A deep gravelly voice came from the other end of the chain.
"It really is you, ain't it? Must be, because there ain't no one I've ever known that could hypnotize a pit bull like you. Your mojo has messed up every dog I've ever had."
Andre 'Mad Dog' Williams moved to join his dog, holding up the flat of his hand to his gang members to stand down.
"Venom, sit!" he ordered his dog.
Jorja pushed the excited dog off her knees and straightened up.
"Hey, Andre, it's been a while. It's nice to see you."
The mouth of the short beefy man in his early fifties opened wide to expose his gold teeth that glistened under the once working lights.
"You do know you have a half mil bounty on your head, don't you?"
"Only half a million? That's quite the insult.” She smiled.
"Either way we might want to get you out of here. My guys are fine but I cannot say the same of Ludwig's bunch. Word on the street is he's hell-bent on finding you. Since he moved in here five years ago he acts like he's some kind of roadman or something."
He let out a shrill whistle to which the dog instantly reacted before he gave Jorja a firm hug.
"It's good to see you. Come; let's get out of here. I don't want no trouble tonight."
He snapped his fingers and five of his men formed a circle around them, shielding the pair as they walked into the nearby building. Once inside, two of the men stayed at the entrance, while the other three accompanied them into the flat.
"You did some decorating, I see.” She smiled as she sat down on the leopard print sofa and allowed her eyes to take in the bright blue LED lights that trimmed the edges of the walls.
He handed her a beer then took a seat on a white fur-trimmed armchair opposite her. The smell of cannabis lay thick in the air.
"I thought you were dead, Gigi," he said, calling her by the nickname he had for her.
She didn't answer and he leaned forward, balancing his elbows on his knees while he lifted the beer bottle with his thumb and index finger in an almost upside-down manner to his mouth. When he’d had another quick sip, he put the bottle down on the floor between the brand-new pair of trendy Jordans on his feet.
"I'm guessing you soon will be though, huh, that's why you're here."
"I was hoping you would help me, yes."
"You know I will do anything for you, Gigi. We go back a long way. Dang, woman, you were my first customer, the one who put me on the map. I owe all this to you, my friend." He scooped to pick up his beer and took another swig. "So tell me, what do you need help with? I've got new guns, copper uniforms, transit vans, keys, what do you need, my old friend, name it."
"I need a new identity, a passport. I need to get into Switzerland."
His eyes narrowed.
"Don't ask, Andre, please. The less you know the better. How soon can you have it ready?"
"You know, Gigi, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what you're planning. I just told you that Ludwig is all over this thing and that you have a bounty on your head. He might have gotten his name from that Beethoven guy whose music he's always humming, but he ain't no joke. His methods are brutal and from what I've heard, the Swiss man who hired him isn't messing around either. He is after your blood with vengeance. Now you're telling me you need to get into Switzerland. You've lost your mind, my friend."
Jorja crossed her legs and rested her beer on top of her leg.
"I don't have much of a choice, Andre."
"Gigi, you burned the man. Word on the street is he's been looking for you since he got out of jail. He'll never let you live."
"Well, he'll have to fight to get to me first. He's not the only one after me."
Her revelation had Andre wriggle uncomfortably in his seat.
"Tell me it's not who I think it is."
Her silence confirmed his suspicions and he was on his feet nervously pacing the space between them. He leaned in and spoke to her in a hushed tone.
"You've lost your mind going after these guys, Gigi! A burned convict is one thing, but KGB? That ain't no joke, fam!" he said, using the slang word for a close friend.
His dreadlocks bounced from side to side as he nervously shook his head.
"These guys are dangerous, Gigi. They'll kill you."
"Not if I get to them first."
"Then what, huh? You going to have a cup of tea with them over a friendly chat? That's crazy thinking, woman."
"I'm not the one who messed up, Andre. Gustav brought this on himself. He got what he deserved. He used me."
"Yes, and you ratted him out and the man spent fifteen years behind bars for it. Fifteen years is a long time to fester over what you did to him. That's a whole lot of hate and revenge bottling up inside a man."
"I did what I had to do to keep everyone safe. I wasn't going to let him take us down with him. Look, I'm not planning to kill the man, just get him off my back. I put him behind bars once before, maybe I can do it again. He's bound to have continued his illegal activities when he got out of jail."
"And what about the Russian guy, huh? He's the one you really should be worried about."
"I'm not sure yet. Maybe I can get back what he lost. That's worth far more to him than taking revenge on me. You aren't going to talk me out of it, Andre. I've hidden from these guys for twenty years and it stops here, right now."
The trendy gangster shuffled back into his chair and tilted his wild head to one side.
"From that speech, I'm assuming Ben tried to talk you out of it already."
"He doesn't know anything and I prefer to keep it that way."
"You're going after these guys on your own? Now I know you've lost your mind, woman."
"It's better this way, for everyone's sake."