After Freeze and I took care of the body, we got rid of the clothes we had on, then I dropped him off and went home. Vickie was asleep when I got there, so I took a shower. I gave serious thought to letting her have the bed and sleeping on the couch. But since I knew for a fact that neither of us was going to take it there, I got in bed with her. As soon as I got under the covers, Vickie rolled over and snuggled up against me.
“Did you handle your business?”
“What business?”
“You know—” Vickie paused. “Oh … nevermind.”
“Go back to sleep, Vickie,” I said, and hoped that she would still be there when I woke up.
I really wanted to talk to her about what was going on with her. The last few times I saw her, she’s been blasted, and from what Wanda tells me, Vickie being fucked up on that Tanqueray Gin, cocaine and weed was an everyday thing. I know I drink more than my share of Rémy and blaze a gang of weed, but I don’t fuck with that cocaine at all. I’ve seen firsthand what that shit will do to you, and I wanted no parts of that. But I did keep some around sometimes because hoes will do all kinds of freaky shit for it.
Naturally, when I woke up around noon, Vickie was gone. I rolled over, took my tray out of the nightstand, twisted up a bob, blazed and went back to sleep.
Later that night, I went to The Late Night to catch up with Bobby. When I got there, Freeze was there and he said that Bobby was there and he said that he’d be back.
“What about Nick or Jamaica?”
“Hadn’t seen either of them,” Freeze told me.
I had sent them to see if they could run down Bodie Ringling. He had been going around telling everybody that he ain’t paying me shit. And I was good with that … for the time being anyway.
I really didn’t want to go to war with Bodie, but I was starting to think that it was inevitable. Problem wasn’t just the muscle he could throw at me; it was how many mutha fuckas would fall in behind him. I also had to consider what it would do to André’s business.
“I want you to do something for me.”
“What you need?”
“Hit the streets. If we gotta go to the mattresses, I need to know where people stand.”
“I’m on it, Black,” Freeze said, and left The Late Night.
One thing I gotta say about The Kid, he’s a loyal soldier. I tell him to do something and it gets done, no questions asked. I could use a bunch more like him, and if we were going to war with Bodie, I was going to need them.
I was on my way to the office, when I saw somebody standing at the bar that I definitely wanted to see, so I began making my way over there to her. On the way to the bar, I saw Hector Villanueva. He was a drug dealer that brought product from André when he couldn’t find it any place else.
“What’s up, Black?” Hector said.
“What’s up?”
“You seen André? I was supposed to meet him here.”
“Haven’t seen him,” I said, knowing full well Andre’ never planned to meet him here because he doesn’t like Hector, and I kept going to the bar.
When I got there, she smiled and waved when she saw me. “Hi, Mike.”
“Hello.”
“Surprised to see me?”
“Yes, I am,” I said as Sammy brought me a shot of Rémy Martin. “Surprised that you’re here and I’m happy about it.”
“I did say that I wanted to see you again, so here I am.”
“Here you are.” Other than her being fine as hell and I wanted to fuck her again, the fact that she wouldn't tell me her name was what interested me. “But what I want to know is, since you’re here, do you plan on telling me your name?”
She laughed.
“I’ll take that as a no,” I said, and stepped a little closer to her. “But I gotta call you something.”
“I tell you what, you can call me whatever you want,” she said, and took a step closer to me.
“Whatever I want, huh?”
She looked up into my eyes. “So what do you want to call me?”
“Suppose I wanted to call you mine? Would you tell me your name then?”
“Do you want me to be yours?”
“I did say suppose, didn’t I?” I said, and I noticed that Bobby had come in with Nick and Jamaica.
“See there.”
“What?” I laughed. “Answer the question.”
She took a second or two before she answered. “If I were yours, and you were mine, yeah, I guess I would have to tell you what my name is. But that’s not the case here is it?”
I laughed.
“I think that you’re more of a mine tonight and we’ll see about tomorrow kind of guy. Am I right?”
“All I can say is be mine now and we’ll talk about tomorrow in the morning.”
“Over breakfast?”
“I make a mean omelet.”
“You can cook?” she laughed. “Mike Black, master chef … I don’t believe it.”
“Why not?”
“You just don’t look like the ‘slave over a hot stove’ type, that’s all,” she said. I was about to say something clever, when Bobby walked up.
“What’s up, anonymous,” he said to her, and then looked at me. “I hate to interrupt—”
“Then why are you?”
“Because we have company,” he said, and pointed toward the door. Bodie Ringling had come in my joint with five of his men.
“The mountain comes to Muhammad,” I said, and Bobby walked away to get ready. This was our house and we were ready for shit like this.
I looked at her. “I hate to say it, beauty.” Whatever her name was, she was a real beauty, and that body was amazing. “Beauty; that’s what I’m going to call you until you decide to tell me your name. But, I have something that I have to take care of.”
“I understand. Handle what you gotta handle.”
“I think you should go now.” I made eye contact with Jap, one of the guys who worked security. “We’ll take up the matter of you and I another time.”
“Okay.”
“Are you driving?”
“I took a cab here,”
“What you need, Black?” Jap asked.
“See this beautiful woman out and get her a cab. Make sure that nothing happens to her. And then you get back in here,” I said, and looked at Bodie. When he saw me, he and his set started making their way toward us. “Go now.”
I watched her swing her hips out of The Late Night and then I looked back to Bodie, thinking of how bad his timing was. I glanced at Sammy, he nodded his head and went and stood where he keeps the pump just in case shit got wild.
I looked around the club to see where everybody was. I don’t know if Bodie and them noticed it, but we already had them surrounded.
When Bodie stepped up, he didn’t say anything. The nigga just stood there, mean muggin’ like I was supposed to be intimidated by that weak shit. Since I wasn’t, I picked up my glass, leaned against the bar and took a sip.
“You come to give me my money?”
Bodie laughed. “No, nigga, I came to tell you to your face that I wasn’t givin’ you a mutha fuckin’ cent.”
“Then you wasted your time. Niggas been telling me that shit for days.”
Bobby, Nick and Jamaica were behind his people. Jap was back from escorting Beauty out, and he and Kenny had moved into position.
“So you’re here wasting my time,” I said, turned and leaned against the bar.
Bodie took a step closer. “Don’t turn your back on me, nigga,” he said, and pounded his fist on the bar.
I looked at Bodie and then I grabbed the back of his head and slammed his face into the bar. When I did, my boys moved in quickly, put their guns to the back of Bodie’s men’s heads and took their guns. Sammy had the pump pointed at them as the rest of my security rushed up.
Just the way we planned it.
“Bottom line, Bodie.”
I slammed his face in the bar again.
“You better have my money tomorrow.”
Then I slammed his face in the bar again.
“And to make sure that you understand me.” I slammed his face on the bar again.
I pushed him toward security. “Get him out of here.”
They grabbed him, and Bobby and them walked his crew to the door at gunpoint.
Like I said, this was our mutha fuckin’ house. Wasn't shit going down in here that we couldn’t handle.