The Mike Black Saga; MOB (30 page)

Me’shelle laughed. “You make it sound like I’m always late.”

“Well—”

Me’shelle took a playful swing at Travis. “Okay, let’s say I believe you when you say that you’re done. Have you told your friends yet?”

“Yes. I told them tonight that I was done.”

“How did they take it?”

“Ronnie called me a fuckin’ coward and told me to get the fuck out of his house.”

“What about Jackie? What did she say?”

“She’s scared that there’s nothing else that she can do.”

“What does she do?”

“She’s a chemist.”

“That’s right. You did mention that. She’ll be all right. They both will, I’m sure.”

“Yeah, I just hope it doesn’t cost our friendship.”

“Have you ever killed anybody?”

“I’m not sure I should be answering all these questions.”

“Why not? You think I’m wearing a wire or something?” Me’shelle asked and smiled.

“I don’t know. You could be,” Travis said playfully.

Me’shelle looked at Travis and wondered about the kind of person you had to be to both plan and execute robberies. She was disturbed by it, but at the same time, and for reasons she couldn’t really explain to herself, it excited her. Travis Burns was the kind of man who went after what he wanted.
Just like he went after me.
She looked into his eyes.
He wanted me, and he got me.

“Maybe this will ease your fears about that,” Me'shelle said and stood up. “This will prove to you that I'm not wearing a wire.” Me'shelle began to undress, throwing Travis every piece of clothing as she took it off. He happily felt each piece to be sure it contained no electronic devices. Once she was naked, Me'shelle made several turns in front of him. Once Travis was satisfied the she wasn't wired, he carried her off to the bedroom.

The following morning, Travis woke up early. He left Me’shelle asleep in bed and left the house to call Freeze. “Meet me at Cynt’s,” Freeze told him. “No, on second thought, since I know you don’t want to run up on Mystique, meet me at Doc’s spot this afternoon around four.”

Travis laughed, but he appreciated the gesture. “I’ll be there.” He had only been to Doc’s once and wasn’t really all that impressed. The dancers were ugly, and Jackie said that the dealers stacked the deck.

That afternoon, he told Me’shelle he had to go handle some business with Freeze. She was reluctant to let him go until he promised it had nothing to do with any more robberies.

When Travis arrived at Doc’s, he was pleasantly surprised to see that Doc had upgraded the quality of women he had dancing there. Gone were the women with stab wounds and bullet holes, replaced by a variety of Nubian princesses to satisfy any taste. He took a seat a table in the back of the room and waited for Freeze to arrive. Since he was not a regular there like he was at Cynt’s, dancers didn’t flock to his table. It didn’t matter to him. He was there to take care of his business with Freeze and get back to Me’shelle.   

As he usually did, Freeze kept Travis waiting. He had been there for over an hour when a fairly large man approached the table. “Can I help you?” the man asked.

“No.”

“I said can I help you?” the man repeated.

“No. I’m waiting for somebody.”

“Who?”

“What?”

“Who you waitin’ for?”

“Who I’m waitin’ for don’t concern you,” Travis stated as the people around them began to move out of the way.

“Everything that goes on in here is my concern. Now, who you here waitin’ for?” The man opened his jacket to be sure that Travis saw his gun.

“Okay. Unless you gonna shoot me now, you need to back the fuck up off me,” Travis warned and stood up. “I told you I got business here. Important business.”

“Is there a problem here, gentlemen?” Freeze asked as he walked up.

“No,” Travis said and reclaimed his seat.

“This guy says he got business in here. Said he’s waitin’ on somebody. You want me to put him out?”

“No,” Freeze said. “I got him.”

“You don’t want me to—”

“What are you, deaf? I said I got him!” Freeze yelled. The man left angry.

Once he was gone, Freeze sat down and Travis discreetly handed him the envelope. “Sorry about that. I should have told you that they’re on edge here ’cause they got robbed a couple of weeks ago,” Freeze apologized.

“Maybe you should have. I wasn’t gonna say your name, so it was about to get ugly.”

“You could handle him. He’s a bitch,” Freeze said. “So, how did it go?”

“Everything went smooth. Cops came, but we handled them.”

“Any problems I need to know about?”

“No problems. Like I said, cops came on the scene, but we handled them.”

“Cool,” Freeze said and started to get up.

“There’s something I need to ask you.”

“What?”

“You ever heard of somebody that calls himself Chilly?”

“Yeah.”

“You know where I can find him?”

“He hangs out at a place called Rocky’s. Why?”

“Me’shelle told me that her brother used to do business with somebody named Chilly.”

“What’s her brother’s name?”

“Bruce Lawrence.”

“Yeah, I know him. And yeah, he was down with Chilly. I heard about what happened. Her brother owed Chilly money. Chilly sent some people around to collect, and things got out of hand. But I know Chilly didn’t send them over there to rape women and little girls. That ain’t his style, but Chilly will kill a muthafucka about his money.”

“Then he knows who did it.”

“Maybe you should stay out that man’s business. Whether he had something to do with it or not, it ain’t none of your business.”

Travis looked at Freeze and thought about Me’shelle. “I understand.”

Later that evening, Travis parked his car across the street from The Spot and turned off the engine. In spite of Freeze’s warning to stay out of Chilly’s business, there he was. As he sat in his car, he wondered what he was going to say, wondered if he should take the advice that Freeze had given him, and wondered what the hell he was doing there. He thought about Me’shelle, and what he was doing there became clear.

Travis reached under the passenger seat, grabbed his gun and stepped out of the car. Since he was determined to do this, he briefly considered coming back with Ronnie, or Jackie and Ronnie. But there was no point in involving them in this. They would think it was stupid, and they would be right.

Travis walked inside and took a look around. It occurred to him that he had no idea what Chilly looked like, and just asking for him might not get him anywhere. From the stares that he was getting, Travis could tell that he didn’t belong there. If that was the case, he knew somebody would approach him soon enough and ask him what he was doing there.

He stepped to the bar and ordered a drink. The bartender looked at him like he was crazy and walked away.

“Something I can get for you?” asked a voice from behind Travis. He turned around to find three men standing in back of him. One held a gun in his hand. The other two had theirs in their waistbands.

“I’m looking for Chilly,” Travis said.

“Who?”

“I’m a friend of Bruce Lawrence and I’m looking for Chilly.”

“No, you a stupid muthafucka with a death wish,” the one with the gun said as he put it to Travis’s head. “Search him.”

Travis was relieved of his weapon and took a fist to the stomach. The blow caught him off guard and knocked the wind out of him, but it didn’t really hurt. Travis was running on adrenaline now. The two men grabbed him by the arms, in case he thought about doing something about the punch.

“What you wanna see Chilly about?”

“I wanna talk to him.”

“About what?”

“About Bruce.”

“What about Bruce?”

“Are you Chilly?”

“No.”

“Then it ain’t your business,” Travis said. He suddenly realized how foolish this was. The smart-ass answer cost Travis two more shots to the gut; he felt the butt of a gun hit his mouth.

That hurt.

While the beating continued, a crowd formed around them. One man forced his way thought the crowd. “What the fuck is goin’ on here?”

“This mutha fucka says he wants to see Chilly, Rocky.”

“Who is he and what he wanna see Chilly for?” Rocky asked.

“He said he’s a friend of Bruce Lawrence.”

“No shit. I didn’t think Bruce had any friends,” Rocky said and slapped Travis in the face.

“Who is this nigga?” someone asked behind Rocky.

Rocky turned around to find Chilly and Derrick standing behind him. “He says he’s a friend of Bruce. Wants to talk to you.”

Travis turned up his bloody face and saw Chilly standing before him. Chilly looked at Travis and shook his head. “You must be a friend of Bruce, ’cause you really are a stupid muthafucka. You walk up in here by yourself, wanna talk to me about another stupid muthafucka.” Chilly looked at Rocky. “He don’t wanna talk to me, he wanna die.”

“Hold up, Rock. Chilly, let me talk to you for a second,” Derrick said and stepped closer to Chilly. “I seen this nigga before.”

“Where?”

“He’s with Freeze.”

“Freeze? You sure?”

“Yeah.”

Chilly looked at Travis again. “You don’t want nothing from me.”

“I wanna know what happened to Bruce,” Travis said and Rocky punched him in the face.

“Nobody asked you to talk.”

“Whatever went on with Bruce ain’t none of your business. Get him out of here,” Chilly said and walked away.

Derrick followed behind Chilly. “Don’t kill him. Just take him out back.”

Travis was taken to the back door of the club and thrown out into the back alley. He picked himself up from the pile of trash he landed in and thought,
that didn’t go well at all.
As he walked away, he realized that it had gone the only way it could have. It was stupid for him to walk up in there in the first place. And coming alone was worse.
What were you expecting, a nice sit-down conversation?

Back inside The Spot, Chilly sat down at a table and pulled out his cell phone to call Freeze.

“Yo.”

“Freeze, this Chilly.”

“What’s up?”

“You send one of your people over here to ask me some shit about how I run my business?”

“No,” Freeze answered, knowing he meant Travis. “I didn’t send him. And you know better than to ask me some shit like that.”

“He with you?”

“Yeah, he’s with me, so I hope you respected that.”

“He’s still alive. But he got educated while he was here.”

“I can respect that.”

“Who is this nigga, anyway?”

“He’s a friend of Bruce’s sister.”

Chilly laughed. “I’m beginning to understand this shit now. She’s a bad bitch, and bad bitches make niggas do stupid shit.”

Freeze laughed. “I told him to stay out of your business. But I should have told him that I would handle it.”

“Handle what?”

“I heard that he owed you money and you sent someone to collect.”

“What about that is any of your business?”

“It ain’t. Whoever you sent raped his daughter.”

“Freeze, word is bond, I didn’t know anything about that. Raped little Brandy?” Chilly thought for a second. “Well, I guess by now she ain’t no little girl.”