The Mike Black Saga Volume 8 Read online

  THE MIKE BLACK SAGA VOLUME 8

  The Mike Black Saga, Volume 8

  Roy Glenn

  © Copyright Roy Glenn 2020

  Escapism Entertainment, LLC

  Jacksonville, Florida

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.

  TABLE OF CONTENTS

  THE BOSS WEARS HEELS

  THIS IS MINE

  REVENGE

  WHO’S NEXT

  THE BOSS WEARS HEELS

  The Boss Wears Heels

  By Roy Glenn

  © Copyright Roy Glenn 2014

  Escapism Entertainment, LLC

  Atlantic Beach, Florida

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  Jada West

  When Kenneth opened the umbrella for me, I looped my arm in his and he escorted me to the car. Then he and Leonard got in the front seat and we drove away from Shaggy’s gambling house. I’ve seen my share of blood and dead bodies before. I sat and watched Mr. Black beat a man half to death and then he fed the man to the sharks. But tonight shook me to my core.

  Earlier this evening, I was at Paraíso when I looked up and saw Jamaica's right-hand man, Leonard, come in Paraíso. There was a sense of urgency about the way he was making his way through the crowd to get to me; that let me know that something was wrong.

  “Good evening, Ms. West,” Leonard said.

  “I was beginning to think that you were avoiding me.”

  The last time I saw Leonard was at the coming home party that Mommy threw for me when I returned to Nassau, after practically getting run out of New York. However, Leonard had no time for pleasantries.

  “It is important that you come with me. There is something I must show you right away.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  In the entire time I’ve been acquainted with Leonard, I’ve never known him to be shaken by anything.

  “I need you to come; see for yourself.”

  After letting my mother know that I was going, I left Paraíso with Leonard. His driver, Kenneth, drove me out to the gambling spot that Mr. Black took me to when I first arrived on the island. He had invited me down here to be partners in what would eventually become Paraíso. At first, I wasn’t interested in his offer; I was doing well in New York and saw absolutely no reason to leave. All that ended on the day the police questioned me following the suicide of Congressman Geoffrey Canfield, and an investigation was opened into my activities.

  I think that it’s interesting that the reason that I’m back in Nassau is because of another police investigation. This time I was arrested for promoting and compelling prostitution. Both are class B felonies, so I am facing twenty-five years in prison. Or I could have made it all go away if I had given Lieutenant Gineconna my client list and helped the police apprehend certain individuals. He said I would be a confidential informant.

  I call that snitching.

  So instead of that, I decided to come back to Nassau. Maybe the police were trying to tell me something.

  When we arrived at the gambling house, I went inside with Leonard and he showed me to the back room. When he opened the door, I was first overwhelmed by the smell, and then horrified by the sight of three dead bodies. Each one was bound, gagged, and shot in the back of their heads and their throats were cut as well.

  I steadied myself. “What happened here?”

  “Four men come and rob the place. Then them come in here and do this,” Leonard said.

  “Where is Jamaica?”

  Leonard dropped his head. “Best you come see for yourself.”

  While Kenneth drove, I sat in the backseat and tried to compose myself and I tried to put the images of what I’d just seen out of my mind, but I couldn’t. There was so much blood. As I stood there, it seemed as though the room began to spin. Suddenly I felt tired, nauseated and lightheaded, like I was about to break out in a cold sweat.

  When we arrived at Jamaica’s house, Kenneth remained in the car while Leonard and I went in the house. When he closed the door, an older woman wearing a nurse’s uniform came into the foyer and greeted Leonard.

  “Ms. West, this is Lauren Curtis.”

  “Good to meet you, Lauren,” I said. Now I was more curious about what I came here to see than I already was. Lauren chose not to speak. She nodded her head in recognition of my presence in the room, and then she turned back to Leonard.

  “Where is he?”

  Once again, Lauren didn’t answer with words; she just pointed toward the second level and rolled her eyes at me. Then she turned, walked away, and led us up a flight of stairs to one of the rooms at the end of the hall.

  “I just injected them—” Lauren looked at her watch, “eleven minutes ago.” She opened the door and looked inside. “They’re still deep in that nod.”

  The words inject and nod told me all I needed to know without going in the room.

  Heroin.

  Leonard extended his hand and I stepped in the room and found Jamaica and two women passed out in the bed. All I could do was shake my head in disgust and leave the room. With both Leonard and Lauren following behind me, I went back downstairs and went in to the living room.

  “How long has this been going on?”

  Leonard explained that it began about six months ago when Jamaica was remembering a friend of his that died of an overdose of cocaine. “After that, Jamaica drifted into shooting heroin heavily.” Leonard explained. “I believe that’s when it began.”

  Mr. Black told me about her once. Her name was Vickie Payne, and her dying was a pivotal point in his life. It changed his opinion about drugs, which caused him to get out of the drug business. However, and may I say, not surprisingly, Mr. Black never mentioned the effect that her death had on Jamaica.

  Leonard went on to explain that he found Jamaica nodded out one day with the needle in his arm. “When I began finding him nodded out on a regular basis, I tried to get him to go to Miami for a while and get into a program, but he refused. He said he didn’t want the boss to know that he had relapsed after all these years. He make me promise not to tell a soul and he promise me, Ms. West, he promise me that he could kick it on his own.” Leonard dropped his head. “You see how that worked out.”

  “Yes. I see that it didn’t work out at all.”

  “No, Ms. West, it didn’t,” Lauren said, choosing to speak to me for the first time. I started to say, Well hello, Lauren. It really is a pleasure to meet you, but this really was not the time.

  “When I came here one night and find him unconscious I call Lauren, and she come to revive him.”

  “That is when Jamaica make Leonard hire me to inject him,” Lauren said. “I also make sure them eat something from time to time and bathe them, because them seem to throw up a lot, you know.”

  “Now he doesn’t leave this house,” Leonard continued. “The three of them shoot up, sleep and shoot-up again.”

  “They have sex after they shoot up sometimes.” Lauren laughed. “But that’s only when I put less poison in the shot I pour into him veins.”

  “But after them finish, them call Lauren to come shoot them up again,” Leonard mused.

  “You forget to tell she ’bout the preacher,” Lauren said.

  “Preacher?” I could not wait to hear what a priest had to do with this set-up.

  “At least once, sometimes twice a day, Jamaica will send for Father Cartwright to come pray for his soul,” Leonard said.

  Lauren laughed. “He’ll pray in one room, and then go in the next room and have me push the poison in his arm.”

  “Who else knows about this?” I asked and then I thought about the question I’d just asked. “Wait.” I didn’t really care who else knew about this, because it didn’t matter to me. So I asked one of the two real questions that I had: “Does Mr. Black know about this?”

  “The boss was here two days ago.”

  “Was he,” I said as my fists hit my hips.

  Leonard paused. “Mrs. Black was with him.”

  “I see.” I thought for a second and then I asked my other question: “Why did you come to me with any of this?”

  “The boss tell me that when Jamaica is not able to make decisions that I must come to you. That time is now.”

  Chapter Two

  On the ride back to Paraíso, I began to understand what Mr. Black meant when he said that it would be best for all parties concerned, if I returned to Nassau. He wanted me here. I started to get mad about it, but for Mr. Black, this made perfect sense. He has told me on more than one occasion, of the importance of knowing everything that is going on in the organization that I run.

  Him knowing what was happening on the island and having me in place is the logical move. And believe me; I have ev
ery reason to believe that Mr. Black knew exactly what was going on. Instead of being mad at him, the fact that he trusted and had this type of confidence in me, made me warm in places. Places that I was trying not to allow Mr. Black to get me warm, ever again.

  When we arrived back at Paraíso, once again, Kenneth remained with the car while Leonard escorted me to my office. As I walked through Paraíso I saw my mother and the look on her face was priceless. I knew that she was dying to know what it was that would make me go out in the rain. Once we were in the office, I offered Leonard a seat.

  “Can I get you something to drink?” I asked.

  “Thank you, Ms. West. I could certainly use one.”

  I went to the bar and made Leonard a glass of Ridgemont Reserve Bourbon, and a French 75 for myself. I handed Leonard his drink and then I went to sit down behind my desk. Before I could actually sit, Leonard very quickly drained the glass and then he asked the question I’d been dreading answering since we left Jamaica’s house.

  “What do you want me to do, Ms. West?”

  I sat down and looked at him for what seemed like a long time before I answered him. Then I finally said, “Find who is responsible.”

  Leonard sprang to his feet. “I will take care of it.”

  “But do not, under any circumstances, take any action until you discuss the matter with me. Is that clear, Leonard?”

  “I understand, Ms. West.”

  “And let’s keep this quiet for a while. The fewer people that know about what happened, the better.”

  “That may be hard, but I’ll do my best,” Leonard said, and then he left my office.

  Once the door closed, I took a deep breath and slowly, but ever so surely, the reality of the situation began to sink in. With the exception of Paraíso, there are only a few gambling spots that Mr. Black operates on the island. His primary business is the extortion of money from the tourism industry. If you made money, you had to pay Mr. Black. Just about all of the tour operators, bus and cab companies fishing boat tour operators, the port merchants and a host of other businesses, all paid Mr. Black for the privilege of doing business on his island.

  I shook my head, got up and went to the bar to pour myself another drink. Then I picked up the phone and called Caprice.

  Before I left to go back to New York, Caprice was one of my best earners, so I took her and Simone with me to help me rebuild. While we were there, Simone took over dispatching the ladies and Caprice became my personal assistant.

  After my arrest and the decision had been made that I was returning to the island, I took steps to shut down my New York operation. Since either the police or the IRS had somehow obtained the address of the apartment I had just rented, we moved. Simone wanted to keep it running, but I was able to convince her that even though I would be gone, the police would still be investigating the operation.

  “I assure you, Simone, it will only be a matter of time before they come after you to try and get you to give up the client list.”

  She reluctantly agreed.

  While Simone and I were rebuilding, Victor had been busy. He had opened up two new spots outside of the city and was about to open another. I told Simone to divide the ladies between the four houses and try to stay off Lieutenant Gineconna’s radar.

  “Yes, Jada,” Caprice said when she answered the phone.

  “Would you find my mother and ask her to join me in the office, please.”

  “I’ll take care of it.”

  “Thank you, Caprice,” I said and hung up the phone. It wasn’t too much longer before Mommy tapped once and came in the office.

  “You know I am dying to know what Leonard could have possibly wanted that would make you rush outta here in the pouring rain wearing an Emilio Pucci dress and Manolo Blahnik sandals,” she said, and went straight for the bar.

  “I thought you might.”

  “You want me to fix you one too?”

  “No thank you.” I held up my flute. “I already have one.”

  “When has that ever stopped you?”

  “What are you trying to say?”

  “That we both drink too much. Now stop messing around and tell me what Leonard wanted.”

  “Have a seat and I’ll tell you.”

  I took my time and explained to her everything that had happened. I did, however, leave out the part about Jamaica being on heroin. I didn’t think she needed to know all that. While I was explaining the situation to her, something interesting occurred to me, but I would pursue that in earnest later.

  Mommy got up to make herself another drink. “I’ll take one this time, please.”

  While she made the drinks, I got up and went into my dressing room to change, as well as to avoid answering her question. All I really wanted to do is take off these heels, come out of this dress and soak in a nice hot bath. I changed into something a bit more comfortable and thought about whether I was going to stay there or go home to the Yellow Rose. When I came out, Mommy handed me my drink and I sat down.

  “So what did you tell him?” Mommy wasted no time in asking.

  “I told him to find out who was responsible, but not to do anything until he speaks to me.”

  “And then what?”

  “I don’t know. I’ll worry about that when I get to it.”

  “Are you really gonna order Leonard to kill those men?”

  “I said I don’t know, Mommy.” I was trying not to get irritated with her. She just wanted answers, and I didn’t have any answers to give her. I forced out a little giggle. “It’s my first day on the job.”

  “This shit ain’t funny, Babygirl. I think you should call Black and ask him what he wants you to do.”

  “No,” I said quickly and adamantly. Calling Mr. Black was the last thing I was about to do. “I already know what Mr. Black expects me to do.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Mr. Black expects me to handle this.”

  “I think you’re making a mistake.”

  “Do you really?” I asked sarcastically.

  “Yes, I really do. I know that you were practically running the island before you left, but the word to remember is practically.” She took a big swallow of her drink. “You did fine because you left all the rough stuff to Jamaica.”

  “That may have been true then, but now—” I paused. “Now there is no Jamaica, so I have to do it.” The realization slowly began to sink in that I am running this island now.

  And yes, that realization is going to take a while to get used to.

  I finished my drink and told Mommy I was going home for the night. I had my bodyguard, Alex, drive me to Lyford Cay to the Yellow Rose. It’s a ten thousand square foot house, which is built on a half-acre of land that sits on the canal. The main house consists of four bedrooms; all with en suite bathrooms, as well as a one-bedroom one-bathroom apartment on the grounds. It’s the house Mr. Black used to live in before he left the island.

  Mommy calls it part of my consolation prize.

  “She may have got that man, but you got this ten million dollar house, Babygirl.”

  I was never amused by the statement, but I do love this house.

  That night I couldn’t sleep, and I tossed and turned until I finally got up. The more I thought about what I was faced with, the more it bothered me. I poured myself a glass of Rémy XO and went out on the balcony. It’s my favorite spot because the view of the canal from here is awe-inspiring. I sat there looking out at the water and hoped that it would give me answers to all the questions I had. The question Mommy asked me earlier that evening was uppermost on my mind.

  Could I really order Leonard to have men killed?

  It was a huge responsibility and I have to be honest; it was one that I wasn’t sure that I was up to.

  Was it really Mr. Black’s intention for me to actually take command of his family on the island?

  Leonard’s words answered that question.

  The boss tell me that when Jamaica is not able to make decisions that I must come to you. That time is now.