Smugglers 1: Nikki (22 page)

Finally she got Rick alone and asked him, “What’s with the handbag?”

“What handbag are you talking about?” he said with a smile.

“You know.”

“Yeah, well, about four or five years ago she had a fire and lost all her important papers. Ever since that day she carries all her papers with her, and they never leave her shoulder.”

“That’s funny, or I should say, I see the point, but why for so many years and years.”

Rick just shrugged.

Nikki left and continued walking the dock until she came to Cynthia and Tim on the Broward. “Can I come aboard?”

“Sure!” Cynthia replied. “I haven’t seen Mike for the last couple of days. Is he feeling okay?”

“I think you’ll never see him again. He got a cab and went back to the Sportfish.”

“Sorry to hear that. Men like that have all these hang-ups about threesomes and foursomes, and the next morning they’re ashamed of what they did or who they went to bed with.”

“Don’t you mean who or what?”

They started to laugh when Tim said, “Cynthia, you would get mad if I slept with Nikki, wouldn’t you?”

Cynthia thought for a minute then said, “With Mike gone, she has nothing to trade.”

“I have John. In fact I have John and Rita.”

“Okay, I trade Tim for both John and Rita.”

Cynthia and Nikki broke into laughter but not Tim; he was hoping to get this deal.

Nikki was still laughing as she left. She ran into Jerry and Loretta going to their Roundabout for a night dive, and also John and Rita coming to her apartment to talk about the deal.

“I just traded you two for Tim, for the night,” Nikki said when they got inside.

“Not me, you didn’t,” Rita said. “I have to get some sleep because I have to go back to work Friday night and shake my ass, plus every time I roll over, he’s ready to go again. It’s not like I haven’t earned the five thousand he gave me for sex. I earned that by Wednesday.”

They laughed and John said, “You had a stand-in two nights in a row. What are you tired about?”

Nikki explained the deal and how it would work. Then they started drinking in earnest. Nikki broke out the toot that Mike left, and Rita said, “I got to get some sleep tonight. John, if you want to stay here tonight, it’s okay with me.”

When Rita finished her drink, she went home. The sexual tension between Nikki and John had been growing and was now intense, even though they had been together twice before. When they went to do another line, John pulled Nikki to him and gave her a long open mouth kiss, which she returned with enthusiasm.

They started to dance and undress each other. There was a knock at the door, so Nikki hid the toot and opened it. There stood Cynthia and Tim, drink in hand. Nikki let them in and went over and turned the CD back up and put the mirror back on the table top.

Nikki said to Cynthia, “Well, did he bring it with him?” and they laughed and kept dancing. Soon most of the clothes were back on the floor, and Nikki danced with everyone in between drinks and lines.

Tim and Nikki paired off, and John and Cynthia. Nikki led Tim to the bedroom, followed by Cynthia who kept repeating, “I just want to watch.”

Nikki pulled Tim up on the bed, and John started making love to Cynthia. As Cynthia watched, Tim and Nikki made love. This went on for hours. Eventually Cynthia joined in.

Tim and Cynthia got dressed and went home about two o’clock. Then Nikki and John started on each other. They were hotter than ever because of the sex that had gone on before with the four of them in a pile. Sometime in the early morning, they fell asleep, and every so often a fantasy about the foursome would bring them to the surface, and they would kiss and caress each other and fall back to sleep in each other’s arms. They stayed in bed most of the next day and made love again, several times, until Rita arrived and asked, “Have you two been in bed all day?”

“Don’t we look like it?” asked Nikki, “Shit, look at my hair and smell my breath.”

“No, thanks!” said Rita, holding her hand out.

“Just as well, it smells like John, Tim, or Cynthia, or maybe vodka or toot.”

“I have to go to work at six and shake my ass for ten or twelve hours.”

“Would you like some of this to get you in the mood?” Nikki asked.

“No, thanks, I had all of that I can stand. You can have him for the next couple of days. I guess I’ll go home and change.” As she left, John and Nikki went back to sleep.

CHAPTER 23

Nikki got up and made coffee, which she took with her out on the dock to see if all was well. She went down to Don’s boat. Mark and several other guys were there, and Mark was looking better to Nikki each day, even with all the sex she had been having the last couple of days. She drank her coffee and made small talk with the boys, sneaking glances at Mark from time to time. Nikki felt the warmth wash over her body from her toes to the top of her head. God, Mark looked good. She just knew she had to have him.

Then John stuck his head out of her apartment, looking for her. Nikki went home to see what he was up to. They both needed something to eat, so they went inside to have some food.

After four or five days they got word it was time to meet the service runner. They left the dock at midnight and headed out. The meeting place had been changed, this time to sixty miles off the coast. By the time Nikki and John got there, the sea was rougher than a cob and had fewer flats than a draft dodger.

Needless to say, trying to keep the boats together to unload was a constant fight; it was all they could do to keep the service runner from sinking. Due to the narcotics on their boat, it rocked like a slalom skier.

It took two hours to load, then they headed home. About half the way back, they caught sight of a coast guard cutter coming their way. John could not go past half throttle because of the roughness of the seas. He could still outrun the cutter, but he knew the coast guard had called their base for go-fast boats and a helicopter watch he could not outrun.

“Tie everything down tight, Nikki,” he yelled. “As soon as you’re done, we’re going to full throttle.” When Nikki gave the okay, their boat leapt forward like a scalded dog. It went from a very rough fifty miles per hour to an extremely violent one hundred miles per hour.

They started to lose the cutter big time, and they could see the lights of the coast now. If the sky and the water started to clear, they would make it. They held on for dear life as the boat was in the air as much as it was in the water. As they neared the cut, they saw a go-fast with lights ablaze coming right at them.

“Keep your lights off,” Nikki yelled, “and keep going straight at them.” She could tell that John had nerves of steel, but she also knew this was his first trip, and he had a lot to learn, if he got the chance.

When they were fifty feet from the DEA boat, and both going one hundred miles per hour, plus, John heard the report and saw the flash of a fully automatic gun, which made him temporarily fall to his knees. In a split second he regained control of his boat and turned to see Nikki emptying the thirty round clip at the DEA boat.

All four of the DEA agents looked like they had been hit. Nevertheless the engines were out on the boat.

“Are you crazy?” John yelled back at Nikki. “Tell me if you’re going to fire, and shooting cops is not all that smart!”

Nikki just stood there with a smirk on her face, staring at him and didn’t say a word, so John kept going fast with no lights. Inside the cut they could see the chopper at the DEA boat.

“They must be tending to the wounded,” he called back to Nikki who approached him as they slowed to half speed.

“Go straight to the dock,” she said.

They made it to safety and retreated to Nikki’s apartment.

“Nikki,” John said, “never shoot without talking it over with me first.”

“Bullshit! When did you want to talk it over, at one hundred miles per hour jumping waves, or when we are in cells for forty-five years!”

They were interrupted by a knock on the door. It was the Chief. They exchanged the stuff for the money.

As they divided the money in half, Nikki said, “If asked, the boat is in Mike’s name. Let’s say we haven’t seen him all day. Now sit over here, you’re too distant.”

John moved beside her and they kissed between sipping drinks.

“I have a place to hide our money,” Nikki said, “here on the house boat, until we have ten or twenty million put away. What do you think? Want to help me hide it after these drinks?”

“Let’s finish these drinks and go to bed; I’m really hot from all the excitement.”

“Let’s finish these drinks, hide the money, and go to bed. I’m not tired, I’m hot and you just have to lie on your back, and enjoy yourself. By the way, the next trip won’t be for a month or two, to let things cool down.”

Later in bed, Nikki took control as John lay on his back, enjoyed himself and then fell asleep. Nikki got up, made another drink, and did a big line. Then she went out on the dock, as it was getting light. As she worked down the dock, she stopped at Mark’s new Bluewater where she heard him making coffee. She thought for a minute before knocking at the door.

Mark opened the door, obviously surprised to see Nikki this early. He wore boxers, and Nikki couldn’t help think of how good Mark looked to her with his beard shaved off and his recent weight loss, not to mention his great new tan.

“Mornin’, Nikki, what’s wrong?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing’s wrong, Mark. I don’t want you for the marina, I want you for myself.” Nikki stepped inside and shut the door behind her.  Then she moved close to Mark and kissed him.

He pulled her tight, kissing her face, neck, and breasts as if he had been expecting this for weeks. He pulled her down the stairs to his bedroom, kissing her all the way.

At his bed, Nikki took of her tee shirt, exposing her breasts, for him to take in, and then he took off her shorts, and panties. All the while, Mark was kissing her from her breasts to her knees. Just as he pushed her back on the bed, they heard a knock at the door and a voice hey both recognized.

“Mark, it’s the Chief, are you in there? Mark? Mark?”

Nikki scrambled for her clothes, got dressed, and tried not to look stoned. Mark went out to the dock and led the Chief and two other men to Mike’s go-fast boat.

While they had their backs turned, Nikki got out of Mark’s boat on the other side, using the Bluewater for cover. She walked up to the four men like she had just come from her apartment. The other two men were with the DEA and Coast Guard. They were asking about Mike, and where he might be found.

Nikki told them that they had parted ways two or three days ago, and she hadn’t seen him since, “Why, what’s going on?” she asked with practiced innocence.

“We are going to take the boat,” the Chief said. “It was involved in drug running, and several murders of DEA agents. Just call me if he shows up. Okay?  By the way, the boat engines are hot.”

Mark went on to Don’s boat for coffee, and Nikki returned to her place. When she got there, she got John up and told him what had just happened.

“Do you believe it, the Chief is as good as anybody you’ve seen on screen? I wish you could have seen this yourself, it was like he hadn’t seen me in months, not thirty minutes ago. God, it’s so nice having him in this deal. Now that they’re looking for Mike, let’s go somewhere see the sights by boat or something.”

After breakfast and a round of sex, they went out on the dock. It was about ten thirty, and they saw the new couple, Rick and Criss surrounded by several others, talking about Mike and his boat. When they joined in, Nikki told about her encounter with the Chief and the other two agents.

One of the women expressed sorrow that Nikki and Mike had parted ways.

“Don’t be concerned,” Nikki said. “We hadn’t been getting along for a week or better, anyway. So, it’s just as well.”

Mark came up from inside the dock, hot and sweaty.

“Is that sweat from this morning?” Nikki asked with a secret smile. Mark made some weak excuse about tools and left for the tool shed.

Nikki went back to the group where Criss appeared with her shoulder bag, holding onto it like it was the Mona Lisa itself.

John told the group they were thinking about going to Miami for a couple of days or fishing in the Bahamas, or something.

“You can be in South Bimini in three hours, by center console,” Rick said.

“That’s true. And stay in the new hotel in the marina, it’s called Bimini Sands.”

That sounded good to both Nikki and John who retreated to her apartment to plan their trip. They spent the next two hours online getting reservations and such, when there was a knock at the door.

It was the Chief. He looked around to make sure they were alone. “We have an emergency. You have to make a trip in two days, because the other boat is out of commission. He said that it would be even safer as the DEA is short a boat and very busy.”

“Joe, we have no boat, you took it,” Nikki protested.

“That’s going to be a problem, but you’ll have to work that out yourself. I’ll see you in two days. Be ready!”

John and Nikki looked at each other and simultaneously said, “Where are we going to get a clean boat in a day?”

Nikki thought for a long moment, then said, “There are lots of go-fast boats here, so let’s steal one and use it for the trip and put it back.”

“That might work. Do you know of such a boat?” John asked.

“No, but Rita does. She knows who has one, and who is leaving town.”

“Do you trust her, and can you count on her?”

“She’ll get up shortly, and we’ll ask her.”

Nikki called Rita, who came over for coffee. They all sat down and talked about the boat deal. Nikki and John had agreed in advance to offer her one hundred thousand dollars to do the deal.

“For a hundred thousand, I’ll do it,” Rita agreed and said she’d get back to them by the end of the day with the details.

The rest of the day went by, and most of the night. They broke down and called Rita on her cell phone. All she would say was she was working on it.

In the morning over coffee, John said, “We can’t wait any longer. We have to make a move today, to get a boat for tomorrow’s trip.”

They went in Nikki’s boat to find a boat to steal the next night. During the day they scouted out boats they could take from the slip without the owners being able to hear them. When they got home they took the car to the address to check things out.

One of the houses looked as if the owners only came down on the weekends. It was perfect, but the boat was a thirty-foot center console. It had two outboards, but it was old.

They went back home and had a couple of drinks, waiting for the Chief to show up.

When he got there and went through everything, he said, “Don’t worry about the boat, there will be no one watching for runners tonight. They are all busy trying to find Mike. It will be an easy and safe trip. Call when you’re ready to load tonight,” he said as he left.

John and Nikki got ready for their trip, stocking up on extra gas and oil, in case it was empty. They left about eleven o’clock, planning on being at the other boat about midnight. When they got to the destination, Nikki shut her boat off and drifted to the outer dock. John got aboard to hotwire and untie the other boat. Then Nikki towed it out to start it, and check the gas. They had a long trip, with their lights off, so John followed Nikki and her GPS.

In a couple of hours they got to the spot where they were supposed to meet the service runner who was already there. Nikki pulled up first and loaded, then it was John’s turn.

They headed back to the dock. They had just entered the cut when they noticed that cops were at the dock where they’d stolen the boat. They kept going with their lights off, staying at a slow speed.

When they got to the marina, there was no place to berth one of the boats. So Nikki called the Chief and told him that one of the boats would be in between her houseboat and the sea wall.

They put her boat back in its slip, and went to the sea wall to help the Chief unload. Nikki took the dock cart full of bundles, to the pick-up truck, making five or six trips until the exchange was over.

John and Nikki decided to take the money back to her place and have a drink before taking the stolen boat out to turn it loose.

After a bit John went out to jump into the stolen boat. To his surprise, there was a man in the boat stealing the engines, or trying to steal them.

“Hey, asshole,” John yelled. “What are you doing?” The car behind him took off, and the man jumped up on the sea wall. John took several swings and kicks at him, but he ran off.

When Nikki got there, the controls were all off the motors, and they could see it wouldn’t run. They had no choice but to tow it out to the cut and set it adrift.

Back at Nikki’s, they made breakfast and some coffee in to-go cups, and after eating, headed to the dock. The only person they saw was Don, who was making coffee on the back of his boat, so they went aboard. Soon Rick, Criss, and Mark showed up, too.

As they sat and drank coffee of all assorted kinds, they made small talk.

“I heard a boat come in around four this morning,” Mark said. “Sounded like it parked. Did anyone else hear it?”

Everyone said no or shook their heads. Nikki knew that it must have been her and John but pretended as if they heard nothing. The talk went to the DEA agents that were killed, and Mike. Again they acted as if they didn’t know anything about it.

After an hour, John and Nikki headed back to her place. Nikki asked, “When is our next trip? Or do you know?”