The Boss

The following night, Tyesha and her nieces were playing spades in the apartment when there was a knock at the door.

“Are you expecting Thug Woofer?” Deza asked, jumping up off the couch and putting on a fresh coat of lipstick.

“Okay, girls,” her sister said. “Babysitting time with Auntie Ty-Ty is over. So pack up your shit, because we’re going back to Chicago.”

“What?” Amaru said. “School doesn’t start for another month. I’m just getting into a workout rhythm here.”

Tyesha came over and put her arm around Amaru.

“Yeah, Mama,” Deza said. “Auntie Ty’s gonna get me the hookup in my music career.”

“I know y’all think your Auntie can work miracles, but I’m sure she’s tired of your little slumber party. Especially when she can’t just send you back. Like I said, we’re going back to Chicago. I got your plane tickets. Now go get yo shit and come on.”

“Mama,” Deza said, “this is some bullshit. We came to New York with no notice, nothing. You were just like, ‘pack yo shit, Zeus is going to New York.’ So we get something going here, and now you’re like ‘let’s go.’”

“Don’t you cuss at me, little girl,” Jenisse said. “And when you pay the bills, you can make the rules.”

“It’s not like you pay the bills,” Deza muttered.

Under her arm, Tyesha could feel Amaru tense.

Jenisse turned her head sharply. “Excuse me?” Jenisse asked pointedly. “What did you say?”

“Nothing,” Deza said.

Jenisse put her hands on her hips, and any pretense at politeness fell away. “Now you listen here, you little ungrateful bitches,” Jenisse said. “That motherfucker doesn’t just pay for shit out of the goodness of his heart. Just because he got money don’t mean we got money, and it certainly don’t mean you got money. I been fucking that nigga and stroking his overblown ego for thirty years to make sure his ass is in a good mood when it’s time to throw down money for his kids. So yes, I do pay the bills. Now get yo asses ready and let’s go.”

“We’re not going,” Deza said. “You and Zeus have a fucked-up relationship, but that’s not our fault. Auntie Ty said we could stay, and we wanna stay.”

Amaru swallowed hard and nodded.

“You think Auntie Ty is ready to take on a pair of no-job heifers like you all?” Jenisse said with a laugh. “Think again.”

Tyesha looked directly at her sister. “They can stay if they want.” Her voice was gentle, but not apologetic. “It’s up to them.”

“Oh, so now you want them,” Jenisse said. She turned to her daughters. “You about fifteen years too late. Just so you know, it was your precious auntie who told me to get an abortion when I was pregnant with Amaru. And when I told her I wouldn’t, she said she was sorry I had Deza. That’s right. I gave you life. Life, you ungrateful little bitches. And she thinks you both a mistake. So I’ll be at the hotel, and our flight leaves Saturday. But if you don’t come tonight, you’re on your own to get back to Chicago.”

Jenisse turned on her heel and slammed the door behind her.

Tyesha was stunned. Jenisse’s revelations left her as mute as when she had stood at the podium.

Amaru was crying, her eyes on the floor with tears dropping down onto the lacquered hardwood.

Deza’s eyes were focused out the window, staring out as a police car came shrieking up the street, lights flashing, engine roaring, wheels splashing down the slick pavement.

“Is it true?” Deza asked quietly.

Tyesha struggled to form words. “I—it’s—it’s not how it sounded,” Tyesha said, curling her arm tighter around Amaru. “I love you both. It’s—I was just worried about the kind of mom Jenisse was. And I thought . . . she was having kids for the wrong reasons. To keep your father. I mean, when she got pregnant with you, Amaru, your brothers were running the streets and getting into trouble and—”

She broke off and looked at Deza sitting on the floor against the front of the couch, her arms wrapped around her knees. “Deza, you were barely in kindergarten and Jenisse seemed to think she could just keep having kids and give them to Mama and it was all good, but I knew Mama’s health wasn’t great, and it was only a matter of time before Jenisse was gonna have to actually take care of you, and that looked like a bad plan. The only people Jenisse seemed to be able to think about were herself and Zeus.”

“You’re right, I guess,” Amaru said. “When we lived with Grandma, it was cool. But since we been living with Ma, it’s been all bad.”

“But now you got me,” Tyesha said, a tear sliding down her own face. “And getting to know you these past days, I’m so glad you were born. I can’t believe how much I love you both.”

“But if I got pregnant today, you’d tell me to have an abortion, wouldn’t you?” Deza asked. “Don’t lie.”

Tyesha blew out her breath. “I—it’s a paradox.” She searched for the words. “It’s like the idea of a child isn’t the same as an actual child. Jenisse having more kids was a bad idea. But then you were born, and you became real. Beautiful, precious human beings.”

Amaru’s face was still puckered in a frown. “But how can a good life come from a bad decision?” she asked.

“It’s not about good and bad,” Tyesha said. “It’s about making a commitment to raise a child. Like Deza, if you got pregnant, I’d hope you got an abortion because I know you’d resent the hell out of a kid coming between you and your basketball career. It’s like . . . I believe in protecting and supporting the life that’s already here. So once you got here, I’m committed to making sure you fulfill your dreams . . .”

“Did you ever get pregnant, Auntie Ty?” Deza asked.

“No,” Tyesha said. “But that’s probably because Aunt Lucille made me promise to use emergency contraceptives if I ever had unprotected sex.”

“If I could get pregnant from sex with a girl, I’d have an abortion,” Amaru said. “Nothing’s gonna get in the way of basketball.”

“So I hope you can understand why I said what I said to your mama,” Tyesha said. “I knew how abusive she could be, and I would never want someone so abusive to have power over a child. But now you’re old enough that you never need to live with her abuse again. My house is your house.”

“For real?” Deza asked. “We could actually live with you? Permanently?”

“For real,” Tyesha said. “Amaru, should I be looking at schools for you in the fall?”

Amaru shook her head. “I gotta go back to Chicago,” she said. “But one of the girls on my team says I can stay with her when school starts.”

“Deza?” Tyesha asked.

“Ain’t nothing for me in Chicago but two crazy parents and an ex who broke my heart,” Deza said.

“What ex?” Tyesha asked. “Do I need to go to Chicago and kick his ass? Where do I find this motherfucker?”

“He’s one of the most famous DJs in Chicago,” Deza said. “Everywhere you go, you’ll see his picture, hear his mixes on the radio. It’s like I couldn’t get away from him. I’m so glad to be in New York. I can go three or four days without hearing that motherfucker’s name.”

“Tell me about it,” Tyesha said. “When I stopped seeing Thug Woofer that last time, I had to leave the country to get away from reminders of him.”

“But how am I gonna get back to Chicago in the fall?” Amaru asked.

“Mama gonna calm the fuck down before then,” Deza said.

“And if she doesn’t,” Tyesha said, “I got you covered. For plane fare and whatever else you need for the start of the year.”

“Thank you, Auntie Ty,” Amaru said, and she threw her arms around Tyesha’s neck.

“So it’s settled,” Tyesha said. “Amaru, you’re staying for the summer, and Deza, you’re here indefinitely.”

Deza smiled. “More like temporarily,” she said. “I’m just staying til Thug Woofer discovers me and sends me out on tour.”

Tyesha just smiled and nodded, figuring she’d need to get Deza a real bed.

* * *

Late the next night, Tyesha, Marisol, Kim, and Jody sat around in Tyesha’s office with the latest updates on the mob heist.

Kim and Jody sat on the black leather couch, and Marisol and Tyesha had the two matching chairs.

“So Kim and I staked out the Ukrainian mob bar all week,” Jody said. “What’s the plan? I get all sexied up and hang out in the bar til the nephew comes in?”

“I think that’s too risky,” Tyesha said. “We want you looking so hot that he can’t ignore you. But we don’t want you in there looking hot for three hours and fighting off the rest of the mob.”

“I can handle myself,” Jody said.

“We don’t want him walking into a bar brawl,” Tyesha said. “You and I can stake it out. We’ll wait outside in the car til he comes in.”

“That won’t work,” Kim said. “Some of the mob guys live above the bar, and there’s a back stairway. Sometimes he goes up to their place for a little pre-drinking. We need someone actually inside the bar, watching til he comes in.”

“So can one of you dress down and sit lookout til he gets there?” Jody asked.

“One of us?” Kim asked. “No, baby, we’re all too brown for that place.”

“What about Serena?” Jody asked.

“We agreed to keep it just the four of us,” Tyesha said.

“Serena was pretty ride-or-die with that last job,” Kim said. “She almost took a bullet for the clinic.”

Marisol shook her head. “I agree with Tyesha,” she said. “We’ve made it this far by keeping it to the four of us.”

“Plus Eva,” Tyesha said.

“Eva knows what we’re doing, but we’ve never asked her to be a part of it,” Marisol said.

“Then it’s time to ask her,” Tyesha insisted. “She’d be a perfect lookout. An older woman in a bar. She could watch everyone for hours. It’d be like she was invisible.”

“There’s gotta be another way,” Marisol said. “I’m not asking Eva.”

“Don’t worry,” Tyesha said. “I’ll ask.”

* * *

The next morning, Tyesha knocked on Eva’s door.

“Thanks for fitting me in,” Tyesha said, stepping into the cluttered office. She sat on the chair across from Eva’s desk, which was covered with tall piles of client files and a stack of self-help books.

“Is everything okay?” Eva asked. “Did the girl agree to testify?”

Tyesha shook her head.

“Did those thugs try something new?” Eva asked.

“About that . . .” Tyesha said. “We have a . . . a plan in place to handle the mob. We just need a little help—”

“Legal help?” Eva asked.

“I hope not,” Tyesha said.

Eva’s eyes narrowed. “You and Marisol are cooking up another crazy plan, aren’t you?” Eva said. “Didn’t you two learn anything from your many narrow escapes from disaster earlier this year? Why would you tempt fate after you survived those heists?”

Tyesha swiveled in the chair and observed the narrow office’s therapy side. It was open and peaceful, with two chairs, a couch, and a Zen sand garden on the table.

“Just let me explain the situation,” Tyesha said.

“No,” Eva said. “Don’t tell me anything. So when I get a subpoena, I can pass the polygraph when I say I didn’t know anything about it. So there can be somebody left to run the clinic when all of you are in jail.”

Tyesha took a deep breath. “Okay,” she said. “Let me ask you this. You know that guy in the One-Eyed King video who tries to drag the girl into the VIP room?”

“How could I forget?” Eva asked.

“Would you be willing to sit in a bar and look out for him?” Tyesha asked.

“Does this plan include him getting what’s coming to him?” Eva asked.

“Definitely,” Tyesha said.

“Just sit and have a few drinks?” Eva asked.

“Yeah,” Tyesha said. “And when you feel ready to leave, just call one of us and say you’re headed home.”

“Can I drink the good stuff?”

“Supposedly they have an amazing Inheritance vodka martini,” Tyesha said.

“Good,” said Eva. “Because I’m too old to drink cheap liquor.”

* * *

That afternoon around four p.m., Eva went to the Ukrainian mob bar.

It was a narrow space. A few men sat on stools at the long bar, and an empty pair of small tables were squeezed between a men’s and women’s restroom down at the end.

Behind the bar, one sign boasted that they stocked more than seventy-five brands of vodka. Another sign advertised a food menu: stuffed cabbage, stuffed peppers, varenyky (pierogi) in varieties of spinach, potato, and cheese.

A young bartender approached her, wiping the dark wooden bar with a stained cloth. He had bleached blond hair and a ribbed sleeveless shirt. He made Eva a vodka martini, which was indeed as good as Tyesha had promised.

A couple of hours later, the place had filled up. She had to wait a half hour for a plate of cheese pierogis, but the savory dumplings were worth it. She even got a couple with fruit for dessert.

It was after eight p.m. and Eva was sipping her way through her second martini when the nephew finally came in through an interior door across from the bar. He made a loud entrance with several cronies, elbowing his way across the crowded, narrow room. He greeted the bartender by name and ordered a round for his friends, although he was obviously already drunk.

Eva texted a signal to Jody and walked out.

Jody walked in and leaned on the bar next to where the nephew was waiting for his drinks.

He said something in Ukrainian, but Jody shook her head. “I speak English,” she said.

“American, huh?” he said. “I like it. Come talk to me.”

Jody shook her head. “No thanks,” she said. “I’m just looking for the bathroom.”

“You obviously don’t know who I am,” he said. “My uncle owns this bar.”

“Then maybe I’d be interested in your uncle,” she said. “I don’t date from the kiddie table.”

He grabbed her wrist, but she elbowed him hard in the chest.

“Don’t you fucking walk away from me,” he said.

She made her way to the women’s bathroom without even turning her head. Inside there were two stalls.

She stood behind the bathroom door and flattened herself against the wall.

A moment later, the nephew loped into the room.

When the door opened, Jody caught the handle, using the door to screen her from view.

The nephew looked into each stall.

As he leaned into the second stall, Jody stepped forward and planted her feet. “What the hell are you doing in here?” she demanded.

When he turned around, he lunged at her. He managed to grab her breast with one hand and her arm with the other, but he was too drunk to be stable.

She put all her weight behind her shoulder and sprang at him, toppling him back. He went down in a slow, wobbling arc, hitting his head first on the stall wall, then on the toilet. He was knocked out before he even hit the ground.

He let out a whimpering groan as she stood over him and called Tyesha.

“You okay?” Tyesha asked.

“It was easier than I thought,” Jody said. “I didn’t even have to use my Taser.”

* * *

The next night, they followed the same routine. Eva sat unobtrusively at the end of the bar and drank until the nephew came in.

Jody had barely ordered a drink when the nephew came up to her.

“Please,” he said, “let me pay for that.”

“Get away from me,” she said.

“Listen,” he began. “I’m sorry about last night. I was so drunk. I’m not even totally sure what happened. Only that my cousin found me in the ladies’ room with a bump on my head. Please, let me buy you a drink to apologize.”

“Fine,” she said. “You can buy my vodka shot. But I still don’t date at the kiddie table.”

“I’m Ivan,” he said and offered to shake.

“How nice for you,” Jody said and ignored his hand. “I drink Inheritance.”

He ordered the shot. “Did I mention my uncle owns this place?” he asked. “And there’s a party at my uncle’s house this Saturday. You might like to come? Meet some guys at the grown-ups’ table?” He gave a forced laugh. “Here’s the information.”

He handed her a card with an address.

“I’ll think about it,” she said. “But if I show up, you need to understand that I’m not coming as your date, because I’m not interested in you.”

“Understood,” he said. “It’s just a peace offering.”

“Maybe I’ll give peace a chance and see you Saturday,” she said and downed her shot. “Thanks for the drink.”

* * *

The following day, Jenisse showed up at Tyesha’s office.

“I need to talk to you,” Jenisse said. She had on tight designer jeans and stiletto sandals. Her short-sleeved blouse was sheer silk, with ample cleavage spilling out of the camisole clearly visible beneath.

“Listen, Jenisse,” Tyesha began, “I wasn’t trying to undermine you, but—”

“Don’t nobody care about that anymore,” Jenisse said. “That’s old news. Listen, I need you to get saliva samples from Deza and Amaru for a DNA test.”

“Why are you coming up here on my job asking me to get something from your own kids?” Tyesha asked. “Get it from them yourself.”

“Neither one of those little bitches will pick up the phone when I call,” Jenisse said.

Tyesha shrugged. “How is that my problem?”

Jenisse set her jaw. “Listen, I know I ain’t no mother of the year, but I get shit handled for my babies. If they don’t wanna live with me, then they need another situation. Deza’s grown and can live with you or that DJ in Chicago or whatever. But Amaru’s too young. Mama was the main one taking care of them, and then Deza took care of Amaru.”

“Amaru wants to go back to Chicago,” Tyesha said.

“You don’t know everything,” Jenisse said. “Amaru begged me to send her to this basketball boarding school, but it costs a ton of money. Zeus wouldn’t pay last year. Anyway, I think that’s where she oughta go. That’s really what I been fighting about with him. I finally got him to admit that he don’t wanna spend all that, because he ain’t sure that he’s Amaru’s daddy. He been saying that shit about both girls since I got pregnant. So I said, let’s do a DNA test. And he said okay to test both girls. If they both his, he gonna send Amaru to that school. He might even send Deza to cosmetology school.”

“So I’m supposed to get a sample of their saliva and send it in?”

“Here’s the kit,” Jenisse said. “Zeus already sent in his sample and paid for the test. Just get the girls to do it, okay?”

“Of course,” Tyesha said. “I’ll do it as soon as I have them both together.”

“Good,” Jenisse said. “My plane leaves for Chicago tomorrow. You got my number if those girls need anything. I know we ain’t friends, Tyesha, but we family.”

And she swept out, leaving a cloud of perfume in her wake.

* * *

The following night was Saturday, and a dark limo pulled up outside the security gates of a massive stone house just north of the Bronx.

Tyesha sat in the car wearing a chauffeur’s cap. Marisol, Jody, and Kim sat in back. All four had on in-ear walkie-talkie communicators.

“Okay, test the camera,” Tyesha said.

She activated the recording device on Jody’s necklace. Suddenly, the image of the car’s interior and the back of Tyesha’s head with the chauffeur’s cap came up on the laptop.

“Looks good,” Marisol nodded approvingly.

“Let’s do this,” Tyesha said, and maneuvered the car back onto the road, and up to the security gates.

Jody rolled down the window and gave the nephew’s name to the security guard in the booth.

He made a phone call and looked her over as she waited. The limo’s windows were blackout-tinted. Marisol and Kim sat in a rear-facing middle seat, completely hidden from the guard’s view.

The guard nodded. “He’ll meet you at the house,” he said.

The heavy, barbed-wire-topped gate slid open, and Tyesha drove the car up the winding driveway.

The four of them could see a wide lawn and silhouettes of hedges and distant outbuildings.

They pulled up to the front of a mini mansion the color of wet sand.

Jody slid out of the car in a clinging navy blue dress, and Ivan came down the front steps to meet her.

The limo slid quietly away to a paved parking area filled with limos and town cars. Several guys in chauffeur’s caps were standing around talking and smoking.

Meanwhile, Ivan took Jody by both hands. “You made it,” he said, grinning at her.

“You’re lucky I was bored tonight,” she said.

“So what’s your name?” he asked. “You never told me.”

“Heidi,” she said, as she clacked up the porch steps in stiletto sandals, her long blond ponytail swinging behind her.

He put a palm on her back, as if she needed steering into the house.

“Hands off, junior,” she said, pushing his arm away.

He pulled open the large wooden door and they walked into a foyer. Off to the left, she could see a room with several security guards and a bank of monitors. Jody turned so that the camera got a good view.

“They don’t hide the security setup, do they?” Kim said in the back of the limo.

“I don’t think they’re trying to hide it,” Tyesha said. “I bet he’s advertising for everyone here that he’s got loads of security.”

As they walked in, Jody pretended to be preoccupied with her phone.

“Is the cell reception bad here?” she asked.

She held up the phone as if to get a signal, but was really snapping still pictures of the security setup and the camera locations.

Ivan grabbed her phone. “I want your attention tonight,” he said.

Watching and listening from the video monitor in the limo, Tyesha felt panicked.

“Marisol, get ready to go in after her if need be.”

Over the monitor, they heard Jody’s voice, a combination of irritation and boredom: “Give it back, junior,” she said. “Daddy’s company is in the middle of fighting a hostile takeover. I’m a shareholder and have to lobby other shareholders to keep him from getting ousted. The vote is Monday morning.”

From the body camera on Jody, they could see Ivan’s chest, and the phone gripped in his hand with the security photo clearly showing.

“What?” Jody said with a sneer in her voice. “Did you think I came here to give you my undivided attention? Did I hurt your wittle feewings?”

“I don’t usually let girls talk to me like this,” Ivan said, an edge in his voice.

“You’re lucky I’m talking to you at all,” Jody said. “Now give me my phone.”

From the body cam, the team could see the blurry image of both her hands, her blue nails in motion as she fidgeted with the panic gizmo. She could hit the alarm if he called her bluff.

He held the phone aloft, out of her reach.

Jody and all of the team saw the screen go dark as the phone auto-locked.

“Fine,” she said. “Go ahead and look. It’s really an ex that’s been texting me. I’ll see myself out.”

“I’m sorry, Heidi,” he said. “I just wanted your attention.”

“Men get attention by being interesting,” she said. “Boys get it by being annoying.”

“Please,” he said. “Stay.”

“Don’t ever do that again,” she said brushing past him to walk into the party. She snatched her phone from him and took the panic alarm off alert mode.

Inside, the foyer opened up into a large room with tall windows and a marble floor. It was filled with attractive young women and older men. Occasionally, a man would have a woman over forty on his arm, but those men were usually over sixty. Ivan took Jody across to the open bar.

A bartender rushed over to help him.

“She better not drink anything he gives her,” Kim said, as she watched from the car.

“A vodka shot for my friend,” Ivan ordered.

“I’d rather have a beer,” Jody said, and grabbed a closed bottle. She banged it open on the edge of the bar.

“That’s not very ladylike,” Ivan said.

“But a vodka shot is?” Jody asked.

“Let me show you around,” Ivan said.

“What?” Jody said. “You gonna show me the nursery? The playroom?”

“Actually . . .” Ivan began.

“If you say bedroom, I’m calling my chauffeur,” she said.

“How about the hot tub?”

She shook her head. “I live in a house twice this size. What can you show me that I haven’t seen before?”

“How about I show you my uncle’s office?” Ivan asked.

Jody raised her eyebrows. “Really?” she said. “That does sound interesting.” She downed half her beer and set the bottle on a side table.

Ivan took her by the hand and led her down a long corridor. At the end of the hall was a large door. Ivan produced a key and unlocked it.

“Do the grown-ups know you’re in here?” Jody asked.

“Maybe,” he said, and swung the door open.

The room was dark mahogany and leather, a deep burgundy that was almost black. It had an oversized antique wooden desk. On the walls were several oil paintings in large frames. Rural landscapes and nude women.

“Nice,” Jody said. “Now where does your uncle keep the good liquor?”

She opened several cabinets and peeked behind a few pictures. Inside the limo, the three team members shared a simultaneous intake of breath as they caught sight of a safe’s dial behind one of the landscape paintings.

“I don’t see any good booze,” Jody said. “Let’s go back to the bar.”

“I thought maybe we could look around some more,” Ivan said.

“Who are you, Dora the Explorer?” she asked. “I told you I’m not your date. Now let’s get back to the party.”

“I was thinking maybe we could have our own little private party in here,” he said, pulling a bag of white powder from his pocket.

“Oh, please,” she said and walked to the door.

“What’d I do?” he asked, pocketing the bag and scrambling after her.

Jody paused in the doorway, with her phone out. “You don’t get it, Junior,” she said. “I came in my family’s limo. I’m not one of the party girls out there who’s ready to drop her panties because there’s an open bar. If I wanted coke or heroin or ecstasy or whatever’s in your little bag there, I would call my dealer and get stuff that’s ten times better quality.” She turned her back on him and strode down the hall. Pulling out her phone, she commanded, “Claudette, bring the car, I’m leaving.”

Tyesha climbed into the front seat and started the limo.

Back in the house, Ivan hurried after Jody: “I didn’t mean to offend you,” he said.

“Save it.” She waved a hand over her shoulder and walked out the front door, with him trailing after her.

Tyesha stood outside the limo with a blank expression. She held the back door open. Inside the limo, she had raised the partition between the middle and rear compartments, so Marisol and Kim were completely hidden. Sometimes Marisol had used this kind of limo when a pair of dates wanted privacy to have sex in the car.

“Please,” Ivan begged as Jody slid in. “Heidi, give me another chance.”

“This was already your second chance,” she said.

He handed her his card. “Look, call me and tell me how I can make it up to you.”

She took the card. “That’s unlikely,” she said and slammed the door in his face.