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  Tillman smiled at the thought of his awning in front of his office and a beautiful brunette secretary bringing him coffee in the morning along with the schedule for the day. He would have a staff of well qualified ex-military men and women ready to serve. Tillman’s company would serve to the best of their ability.

  “What are you over there smiling about?” Special Agent Dott asked Tillman.

  Tillman’s daydream faded into the sky...

  “What did you say, Agent Dott?”

  “That’s Special Agent Dott. I was just wondering what had you smiling like that.”

  “That’s none of your business, Special Agent Dott. If it’s all the same to you, I’d rather talk to you as little as possible. I’m here to do a job, and so are you. The only thing you need to be wondering is what will happen if you fail your mission-Special Agent or not.”

  If a black man could change colors with his anger, this would have been one of those times. Dott clawed at his own knees, digging his nails deep to prevent himself from rushing across the aisle and knocking the arrogant smirk off of Tillman’s face. Nobody talked to him like that. He knew how to do his job. Clearly, Dott was smarter and made better decisions in life than Tillman. Who was the highly decorated and highly compensated FBI agent, and who was the underpaid and unappreciated bodyguard?

  Still, Tillman was right. They didn’t need to talk. As long as Tillman stayed out of Dott’s way, everything would be fine.

  Dott released the lock on his jaw and spoke a word of warning to his new partner. “Tillman, you need to be very careful of what comes out of your mouth. I don’t take kindly to threats!”

  “Who said I was trying to threaten you? What, you think you can get in the bed with the devil and risk not getting burnt? Special Agent Dott, you better play catch up, because you are falling behind. Mr. Newman doesn’t like failure, and he will not take lame excuses. You need to make sure you complete this mission exactly the way the boss wants it done, or we’ll see if my threats are idle or promises.”

  Tillman turned back to staring at the stars again. He was sure what he said got under Dott’s skin. Maybe Dott would stop asking him personal questions and keep the focus on the task at hand.

  Special Agent Dott wanted to strangle Tillman for talking to him the way he did, but now was not the time. If everything went right, he would show that oversized steroid glutton a thing or two about respect.

  A beep came from overhead, and Dott and Tillman looked up to see the Fasten Your Seatbelt sign illuminate. They were less than twenty minutes from landing in New York, an hour and a half from their hotel, and less than twenty-four hours from killing a man.

  Chapter 20

  “Simon, you’re going to get us killed!”

  “How is that, Linda? All we have to do is win. If your contact can come through at the bank, we will break Leblac. Look…”

  He pulled out his iPhone and did a Google search for Leblac. I anxiously rubbed my temples as he ranted and searched for something I knew wouldn’t be there.

  “See, look!” he said, handing me the phone.

  I grabbed the phone, not knowing if Simon had wised up to everything, and we were burnt.

  I looked over at Malik in the twin-size bed that Simon had let him use. The boy was knocked out. I was sitting on the other bed that was closer to the door. It was good in case we were busted, and I needed to make a quick run for it. However, the only problem was Simon was leaning against it, looking down at me and waiting for me to view the information he found on his iPhone.

  Holding my breath, my first thought was it would be a message saying, “Got you, bitch!” but it wasn’t. It was the Wikipedia website giving every detail of Leblac’s life. It described everything, from where he lived, his parents’ names, the schools he had attended, his occupation, and even how much his net worth was, which totaled six million dollars. Of course, if you were looking at the gross figure, he was worth a lot more. But, money he could liquidate by just going to the bank was roughly six million dollars.

  Without putting on too much of an act, I looked truly surprised. Simon may have thought it was because he found out about Leblac’s assets, but it was really because there was information to find.

  There was only one person I knew, or should I say heard of, who could have pulled something like this off– Shadow. He basically gave Ace, or rather Leblac, a real life. He even put Ace’s face on the page to settle any doubts.

  I looked up at Simon. “Okay, so what do you plan to do?”

  “Bet it all!”

  I jumped up from the bed. “Bet it all?! You can’t do that, Simon! That’s crazy. If you bet that kind of money and lose, what do you think your father is going to do to you when he finds out, huh? Eventually, he will find out! You can’t go, ‘Oh, um, Dad, I lost it betting on a fight.’ I’m not a hundred percent sure, but I don’t think he’s going to go for that, you being his son or not. We’re talking about $2.5 million, Simon! That kind of money makes a man kill. Are you sure your father wouldn’t bring harm to you if you lost all of his money?”

  Simon smiled down at me. “Linda, we won’t lose. I have a good feeling about this. Plus, we have Mike ‘The Sledgehammer’ in our corner.”

  I smiled and nodded my head to let him know I knew where he was going with his reasoning.

  “Okay, Simon, say you win…say you win but Leblac reneges on the bet? What are you going to do then? This man has a mob of people working for him, and it’s just us. What are you really going to do?”

  “I’ll kill him.”

  That sent a chill up my spine. Simon said that with an evil I’ve never heard in a man.

  Suddenly, we heard a faint voice from the other bed say, “What are y’all talking about?”

  Simon released me from his devilish stare. We both looked over at Malik. He looked bad. He had a white, blood-stained bandage covering his head and a clean white one wrapped around his chest.

  Simon managed a smile. “Martin, buddy, how do you feel?”

  “Like I just got my ass kicked by a Chinese gang.”

  Simon sat down next to me, faced Malik, and asked, “Do you want to tell us what that was all about? You had Linda scared to death. Hell, she started freaking out and calling you by her ex-boyfriend’s name. I got to admit, man, you had me a little worried about you, too.”

  Malik coughed a little. “You guys do love me.”

  He laughed. He was the only one in the room who laughed, though. I wanted to punch him in his sore-ass head or maybe in his broken ribs for putting me through this mess.

  “I’m serious, bro. Who were they, and how much do you owe them?” Simon asked.

  “An Asian gang called Tae Boaw Boaw, which is Thai for Soft Touch. They run Chinatown. The one doing all the talking was Tony…Tony Suttikul.” Malik blow out a painful breath of air. “How much I owe them, you ask? Well, I really just owe Tony, but it’s around fifty thousand dollars. I have some of it, but I was hoping to have the rest after Mike’s fight.”

  “Why do you owe him so much money?” I questioned.

  “Poker. He owns a small gambling shack in Chinatown I used to visit on my trips here. But, I haven’t been there in almost a year…not since I lost all that money.”

  Great, now I’m dealing with two gambling freaks.

  “So how much do you have?” I asked

  “Roughly, twenty thousand. If we play Leblac like you guys said, I can make the money I need to pay him back and get to keep all of my teeth while I’m at it.”

  Simon stood up and just looked at Malik for what seemed like forever. “I don’t get it, Martin. At first, you were all against us plotting against Leblac. I’m guessing those guys have been after you for some time now. So, why the big change of heart now? The risks are still the same.”

  “Because, they found me. I was going to find a way to get the money, but I also thought they couldn’t find me until I was ready to be found. Somehow, they knew where and when to find me. I can promise you so
mebody is watching us right now and my sister… Oh my God! They know where my sister stays! My phone! Can one of you pass me my phone?”

  I jumped up and passed his phone to him from the micro-fridge. I had tried to find his sister’s number while he was asleep, but there wasn’t a contact marked sis or sister. However, when he grabbed the phone, he pressed two buttons and then put the phone to his ear. Simon and I looked at each other for a brief second and waited for Malik’s sister to pick up on the other end.

  When the person answered, Malik was surprisingly calm.

  “Hey sis, I was just––”

  Then, for some reason, Malik tried to sit up, but the pain in his ribs stopped him. That pain, however, didn’t stop him from yelling into the phone.

  “PUT MY SISTER BACK ON THE LINE! YOU SAID I HAD TWO DAYS!”

  Whatever was said on the other end made Malik lower his voice.

  “Okay, okay, I’ll have the money tomorrow. Just let me speak to my sister again… Hello? HELLO?”

  Malik tried to throw the phone, but he was only able to get it about a foot in front of him. He let out a wail of agony. I ran over to find out what the hell had just happened.

  “Martin, what’s going on? What did they say?”

  Tears were running from Malik’s eyes. “They have my sister. They gave me until tomorrow to come up with the money.”

  Softly rubbing Malik’s back, I looked over at Simon. He sat emotionless on the other bed. “Simon, say something!” I demanded. “What do we do?”

  Simon grabbed my prepaid phone off of the nightstand “I think it’s time you get in contact with your friend at the bank.”

  Chapter 21

  The bank closed at four. That gave us roughly four hours to get the money together before the fight. Simon and I met Jessica at a loud, busy restaurant near her job called The Diner. It was a Brazilian place that served a mean lobster dish. I’d heard the cocktails were no joke, either, but we weren’t there for the drinks or the food. We were there to find out how to make $2.5 million disappear from Simon’s bank account.

  Jessica was dressed in a sunny yellow skirt and a patterned blouse that complemented her rich golden skin tone. The name tag I told her not to wear was hanging on her beautiful shirt and scrapping across the table as she leaned in close to whisper, “I can’t do it.”

  Simon was red. “What do you mean you can’t do it? Linda, you said that she said she could do it! What the hell is going on here?”

  I shrugged my shoulders. “That’s something I would like to know, too. Jessica, when you text me, you said it can be done. You wrote me, telling me it’s a piece of cake. If you couldn’t do it, why did you drag us out here?”

  Jessica shot back, “It is a piece of cake, but I can’t do it for free. What if I get caught, huh? I'd lose my job and go to jail. But, that’s not on your mind. You’re not thinking about that, because it’s your money. So, what are you offering me as compensation for risking my career?”

  Simon’s face started to loosen up, returning to its natural color. I could tell he was almost relieved that he wasn’t messing with an idiot. But, he still tried her.

  He flashed a winning smile and replied, “If it’s money, don’t worry about it. After this fight, I will give you five thousand dollars for all your trouble. Besides, all you have to do is release the money.”

  “Yo no soy pendeja! Look, I’m not stupid. If you want to do business with me, let’s do it. But, please, don’t be wasting my time with your games.”

  I wanted to smile at the show Jessica was putting on for Simon. It looked like she had just found her new career. She was laying it on so thick that I almost wasn’t sure if she was conning him or trying to shake him down for real.

  Simon picked up a glass of water. “So how much are you talking about?” he asked, before taking a sip.

  “Two hundred thousand.”

  “Are you crazy?” Simon and I said in unison.

  “No. You guys came to me. I don’t need you. You need me. But, I’ll be fair. Give me a counter offer.”

  Simon said, “Fifty thousand.”

  “Make it a hundred and you have a deal.”

  He slowly took a drink from the cup. “You’re telling me that you can get this done? For that much money, you better know how I’m going to walk it out of there in such a short time, too. I need all of it before tonight.”

  “You know you can’t walk into a bank, tell them you want to take out that much money, and just expect them to have it on-site. You would have to place an order from the reserve and pick it up the next day. But, I made arrangements this morning for you to pick it up at our major reserve center. That is, if we have a deal.”

  “So, what if I would have said no?”

  “You didn’t come here to say no.”

  Simon and I smiled.

  “So,” Jessica continued. “I need you to meet me at the bank, so you can withdraw what you owe me. After I get off around 4:15, I will give you the information needed to pick up your money. The information will have the location, time, and password you need to gain access to the funds.”

  He nodded. “So, what time do I need to be at the bank?”

  Jessica put on her shades and got up. “Two o’clock and make sure to say you need to make a large withdrawal.”

  We watched Jessica maneuver through the callous crowd and headed toward the door.

  Simon asked me, “So you trust her, right?”

  “As much as you can trust someone, I guess.”

  “Hey, call and check on Martin. He should be better after sleeping all night.”

  “Yeah, that’s a good idea.”

  I was relieved he mentioned checking on Malik. I wanted to check on him also, but I didn’t want to bring it up first.

  Since we didn’t have to meet with Jessica until two o’clock, we walked to Best Buy and purchased two earpieces. Simon thought it was best that he went into the bank alone, but I wanted to stay in contact with him just in case anything went wrong. I suggested we stay on the phone with each other until he walked out of the bank with the money. I also wanted to make sure they didn’t set up any side deals.

  At 1:45, I was sitting on a bench in Union Square Park, feeding pigeons some breadcrumbs I bought at the bodega. I saw Simon take a deep breath right before he entered the bank.

  “Can you still hear me okay?” I whispered through the earpiece.

  He whispered back, “Yeah. Now be quiet! I’m not supposed to be talking to anyone. Just pay close attention.”

  “Sorry. Gotcha.”

  A few seconds later, I heard, “Good afternoon. Welcome to Union Square Bank. My name is Jessica. How may I help you today?”

  “Hi, Jessica, I just want to make a withdrawal.”

  “Oh okay, no problem. All you have to do is go to the one of the tellers and they will be happy to help you with that.”

  “Well, Jessica, the thing is it’s a rather large withdrawal, and I would like to do it in private. Is that possible?”

  “Are you the customer who called earlier?”

  “Excuse me.”

  “May I see your ID please?”

  I could hear Simon shuffling in his pocket.

  “Thank you, sir. Yes, Mr. Newman, please follow me.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “A room for our VIP customers to bank in private.”

  “Thank you, Jessica.”

  “That’s no problem. As you requested, we will make a withdrawal for you here and the rest to be picked up later tonight at the time you requested. Just have a seat in here for a few minutes. I’ll be back with your money and the forms you need to sign to authorize today’s withdrawal and tonight’s pick up. I’ll be right back Mr. Newman.”

  When I heard the door close, I whispered through the phone, “Where are you?”

  “Their VIP room, I guess,” he whispered back, “but there’s nothing special about it. It’s just a table with two chairs in a very small space. The only thing g
ood about this place is there are no cameras in here. Hey, somebody’s coming.”

  I heard the door creak a little as it opened and then Jessica’s voice.

  “Sorry to have you waiting, Mr. Newman. I have everything you need to make your transaction possible. By the way, my manager just wants to speak to you for a couple of minutes.”

  I heard Simon’s voice shaking as he answered, “Okay.”

  I heard the door open a little more and then a new voice was in the room.