It was after 11 p.m. when Mike and Nick arrived at the airport in Miami. As soon as they got off the plane, Mike turned on his cell phone and it rang.
"I’m at the airport. Where are you?" asked Bobby.
"We just got here. We’re going to rent a car. Meet us there."
While Mike talked to Bobby, Nick stood by and listened nervously. This would be the first time that he saw Bobby since the night Bobby threatened to kill him. After that night, Nick joined the Army.
He became part of a special operations unit. On their last assignment, they were stationed in South America, working on an illegal drug eradication effort. They were killing drug dealers, blowing up drug plants, and seizing financial records. However, something went wrong on their final assignment, and the plant blew up with the servicemen still inside. Only three members of the unit, Nick, Jett Bronson, and Monika Wynn got out alive.
They were flown back to Fort Bragg, where they were promptly debriefed and processed out. A man who called himself Uncle Felix approached them the day after. He recruited them to do jobs for him that required their special skills. Jett’s specialty was electronic surveillance, and computers. Monika’s specialty was munitions. Nick’s specialty was weapons and special tactics.
Felix set them up in a front business as private investigators. To maintain their cover, they actually did some surveillance jobs. The real money was in doing those little jobs for Felix; hacking into computer systems, some light demolition, and the occasional termination. They would do jobs that couldn’t be done through normal channels.
It was after Chilly’s wife, Gee, hired them for a missing persons case that things started to go wrong for the trio. When it was all over, Felix and their Army commander, the General, were dead, as was Jett and Monika was in the hospital after an attempt on her life. Nick had flown to the Bahamas to recuperate after the ordeal, and that was when all hell broke loose in Black’s club.
And now, here he was standing with Mike, knowing he had no choice but to face Bobby again after all these years. Even though he didn’t think that Bobby would pull out his gun and shoot him on sight, the idea of finally having to confront Bobby made Nick very apprehensive.
Before all the shooting started, he had talked openly about the situation with Shy, more openly than he had with anybody. Shy told him that it was about betrayal. When Nick betrayed Bobby’s trust, she pointed out, "You said you felt like you betrayed everybody."
"And?" Nick asked.
"That includes you. You betrayed yourself. And that’s what hurts you," Shy told Nick. "So, now that you know the whole story, you’re gonna have to forgive yourself for what happened. You were just a pawn in whatever game this woman was playing. Maybe when you forgive yourself, it will be easier for you to ask Bobby to forgive you." Nick understood that, and he even pretty much agreed with her.
But that was then. Now Shy had been kidnapped, and Bobby was in Miami to help Mike look for her. Nick would have preferred better circumstances to put this Camille business to rest.
Thoughts of that night when Bobby wanted to kill him had haunted Nick for years, like a bad dream that never ended. Bobby, with his gun in Nick’s mouth, screaming that he would kill both Nick and Camille. It should have never happened, but Nick had never met any woman like Camille. It was the way she looked at him when they made love. For years, when he closed his eyes, it was Camille’s eyes looking up at him.
It began the first time Nick saw Camille and she walked right up to him. She put her left hand on his chest and looked into his eyes. From that moment on, Camille had Nick and she knew it. Each time he saw her after that, Camille made that point clear. When she called, Nick would come. What Camille wanted, he got for her. What she said, Nick did, without so much as a kiss. He felt like a fool carrying this around all these years. It was time for him and Bobby to make peace and finally lay their beef over Camille to rest. After all, the bitch has been dead for ten fuckin’ years.
When Nick and Mike arrived at the rental car counter, Bobby was already there and had begun the process of renting a car. Mike walked up behind Bobby and tapped him on the shoulder.
"I hope you got a black car."
Bobby turned around quickly. "No, it’s red," Bobby replied as he shook Black’s hand. Then he looked at Nick. Bobby nodded his head to acknowledge Nick’s presence before returning his attention to the reservation clerk. Nick stood back awkwardly and watched as Mike leaned on the counter and whispered to Bobby, who would glance over at him and the two of them would laugh. Nick felt like an outsider.
Once the rental was secured, Mike and Bobby came toward Nick. Mike passed by, but Bobby walked straight up to him.
Nick started, "Look, Bobby, I just wanna say-"
Bobby cut him off. "You can save whatever it is you think you gotta say to me. That shit is over, been over since the day somebody put two bullets in her brain." Bobby started to walk away, but turned around quickly. "Damn, it’s good to see you, Nick."
"You ladies coming?" Mike asked.
"Yeah, we’re coming," Bobby said as he hugged Nick.
Once they were in the car, Mike called Wanda. She told him where he could find the boat Destiny docked. He asked if she was able to find out who the boat was registered to. She informed him that it was registered to somebody named Esperanza Valasquez, and gave Mike her address. "You heard from Freeze?"
"Yes, but I’ll explain that to you when I see you," Wanda replied.
When they arrived at the place where Destiny was docked, Nick took a look around the area and could see one man standing guard on deck with an AK. "I can pick him off from here," Nick told Mike and Bobby.
"Bullshit," Bobby said quietly, not wanting to attract any attention.
"Go ahead," Mike said with a laugh as Nick put a silencer on his gun and took aim with his.45. He fired one shot and the hit the guard in the head.
Mike turned to Nick with a very serious look. "Why couldn’t you save Cassandra?"
"She pours a mean drink."
"She sure does," Mike said quietly, dropped his head a little and started for the boat. Even though he was doing his best not to show it, this shit was fuckin’ with Mike, and it was fuckin’ with him bad. No matter how he felt about it, he had to remain calm and strong. But it wasn’t easy. He couldn’t blame Nick for what happened. The only one he could blame was himself. He should have been there.
If I hadn’t lost my mind when Cassandra said that she would rather go to jail, then I would have been there to save her, instead of being off somewhere pouting like some spoiled fuckin’ child.
The worst part of it was that he felt so helpless. Well, at least now he was doing something. Mike wanted to scream, to hit somebody, to hurt somebody, to cause somebody pain. Mike wanted to kill somebody. He made a vow then to kill everybody involved, no matter how long it took.
When they got on the deck, Nick checked the pulse of the man he’d shot. "He’s dead," he said and began to drag the man below.
"You sure this time? I mean, he ain’t gonna get up and kidnap me later, is he?" Bobby asked.
"Stop fuckin’ with him, Bobby. He probably feels bad enough already," Mike said.
"Oh, it’s all right when you fuck with him, huh?" Bobby asked as they went below.
When Bobby opened the door with his gun drawn, he found two men. Julio was lying on the bed with his eyes closed, and another man was seated in the chair next to him. As soon as he saw Bobby come through the door with his gun pointed at him, the man stood up and raised his hands.
"Please don’t kill me."
Nick patted down the man to be sure that he wasn’t armed, then took a look around the room and left to check the rest of the boat. Mike stepped up to the man.
"Who are you?"
"My name is Carlton, Daniel Carlton. I’m a doctor. I was brought here by force to treat this man."
"You can put your hands down," Mike said and put his arm around the doctor. "Is he gonna be okay?"
"He suffered a gunshot wound to the abdomen. He is very weak from the blood loss. I think that he’ll be fine if he is allowed to rest and give the wound time to heal," the doctor went on to explain.
"Where’s the woman they had with them?"
"I don’t know. I left her and the other man on deck, and I came down here to treat this man."
"You know what this other man’s name was?"
"No, I don’t. Nobody said any names, and they always spoke in Spanish, except when he was talking to me."
"Was he a white man?"
"Yes."
"The woman, was she all right?" Mike asked.
"Yes, from what I could tell. But she looked scared."
"Did you hear them say where they were goin’?"
"If they said where they were going, they said it in Spanish, and I wouldn’t have understood them anyway. Sorry I can’t be any more help," the doctor said. It was obvious from the way his voice cracked when he talked that he was scared too.
Nick came back into the room. "Rest of the ship is clean."
Mike picked up the doctor’s bag, handed it to him. "You can go now, doctor. I think that we can handle it from here." Mike reached into his pocket and pulled out some money. He peeled off five hundred-dollar bills and handed them to the doctor, then he turned to Nick. "Would you mind showing the doctor out?"
"Not at all."
"Thank you, thank you," the doctor said as he left the room, thankful to be leaving with his life.
When Nick returned, Bobby slapped the shit of out Julio. "Wake up, asshole! Where’s the woman you took from the club?" he demanded to know. Julio opened his eyes and looked at Bobby and then to Black. When he saw Nick, his eyes opened wide.
"Remember me?" Nick asked.
"He feels that pain in his gut, Nick," Bobby said and punched Julio in the face. "Yeah, he remembers it was you that put that bullet in him," he said and punched Julio in the face.
Mike put his foot on Julio’s stomach and put his weight on it. "Who are you working for?"
Julio screamed in pain and spit at Black. "Usted no puedeentenderunapalabrayodigo y yo no le diria nada siustedpuede," Julio said in Spanish.
Nick stepped up and leaned over Julio. "Puedo. . y ustedhace," Nick replied in Spanish.
"What did he say?" Bobby asked.
Nick turned to Bobby. "He said we can’t understand a word he’s saying, and that he wouldn’t tell us anything even if we could. I told him that I can understand him, and he will tell us."
"I didn’t know you spoke Spanish, Nick," Mike said, grinding his foot into Julio’s stomach. Julio winced in pain.
"Yeah, I speak Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, several Arab dialects and a little German," Nick said.
Bobby started laughing. "Damn, I remember when you could barely read."
"Yeah, well, things change," Nick told Bobby.
"Ask him who he’s working for, Nick," Mike said, trying to stay on task.
"Quienesustedtrabajandopara?"
"El me matarasiyo le digo!"
"Que le hacepensarqueva a vivir Si usted no”
"What y’all sayin’?" Bobby asked.
"I told him I’ll kill him if he doesn’t tell me."
"Oh, that’s good, Nick. Really original," Bobby said with a laugh.
"This is taking too fuckin’ long," Mike said. "Nick, hold his arm." Nick grabbed Julio’s arm and Mike shot him in the hand. Julio screamed and cursed in Spanish.
"Where the fuck is my wife?" Mike shouted.
"Dondeesta la mujerqueustedrapto?" Nick demanded.
"Yo no se!" Julio screamed.
Mike shot him again, this time in the kneecap. "Where the fuck is she?" Mike yelled.
"Don’t you see these boys ain’t playing with you?" Bobby said to Julio. "I know you understand what I’m saying to you, and I know you understand this," he said and shot Julio in his other kneecap. Once again, Julio screamed and did some more cursing in Spanish.
"Dondeesta la mujerqueustedrapto?" Nick asked him again.
"Yo no sedonde, pero Sal la tomaron a Nueva York."
"He says he doesn’t know where, but Sal took her to New York."
Mike took his foot off Julio’s stomach and started to walk away. "Bobby."
"Say goodnight, Gracie." Bobby raised his gun and shot Julio twice in the head.
Mike turned to Nick, "So, Mister I-speak-Spanish-French-Italian-Japanese-several-Arab-dialects-and-a-little-German, can you pilot this ship?"
Both Nick and Bobby laughed. "Carver 404, twin Mercruiser engine; cruising speed, seventeen knots; max speed, twenty-five knots. Yeah, Black, I can pilot the ship."
"Good. Take us out to sea so we can dump these bodies," Mike said. "We’ll take care of things down here."
While Nick went on deck to take the ship out to sea, Mike and Bobby cleaned the room of blood and wiped down any area that might have their fingerprints, just in case the doctor decided to report what he had been involved in that night to the police.
Once they were finished cleaning, Bobby came up on deck and sat down next to Nick. "I’m gonna learn how to sail one of these things so next time I can be up here chillin’, enjoying the night air, and you can be the cleaner."
Nick laughed. "It ain’t that hard, Bobby. You want me to show you?"
"Nah, not tonight," Bobby replied as he yawned and stretched. "You know we ain’t sleepin’ no time soon, right?"
Nick nodded his head slowly then turned to Bobby. Despite what Bobby said about the shit being over, there was something Nick felt he had to get off his chest.
"Look, Bobby, I’m sorry."
"For what? ’Cause I can’t sail this ship?" Bobby joked.
"No, about Camille."
"Listen, Nick, I can’t be mad at you for fuckin’ her when she set the pussy out for you. She was a ho, and I shouldn’t have gotten so strung out on her. I mean, shit, the bitch fucked Freeze and Mike then she fucked me, throw the pussy at you from the first time she saw you, and she wanted to fuck Wanda. And those are just the ones we know about."
"I didn’t know that until I read that journal she was keeping," Nick said and laughed. "You’re right. She was a ho."
"It’s me who could be sayin’ sorry to you. I should have never pulled my gun on you. I’ve regretted that shit every day since. I should have never let a woman, any woman, come between us. You’re like my brother, Nick, so let’s just put that shit behind us. Cool?" Bobby stood up and extended his hand.
"Cool," Nick said and accepted his hand.
Mike came up on deck and joined Bobby and Nick. "How far out are we?"
"About ten miles," Nick responded.
"That’s far enough. Come on, Bobby." Mike and Bobby carried the bodies up on deck. They weighted the bodies down with whatever they could find and tossed them overboard. Once they were done, Nick turned the ship around and headed back to the dock.