Pretty Dangerous (32 page)

“She’s right. I can’t afford to say anything.
The FBI will take everything I own. Just leave and get the money.”
MiMi talked fast as if that would help convince Yvette. Her heart
dropped when Yvette shook her head slowly.

“Not until you tell me where Roderick hid my
money. I’m sure you wouldn’t want anything unpleasant to happen to
sweet baby Sage, now would you?” Yvette said as she took a step
toward MiMi.

Nairoby walked between them and spoke low to
Yvette. “Hey, don’t overdo the threats or she’ll freeze up. Talk
about hurting her child is a bit much.”

“Who says I’m just talking? The bitch took
everything from me. I don’t care if she and her little bastard get
dumped in a deep hole.” Yvette spoke matter-of-factly.

“Listen, I can understand how you feel with
the guy dumping you and all, but... I didn’t sign up for doing no
murders,” Nairoby said.

She lapsed into rapid fire Spanish. MiMi
blinked in shock when Yvette answered her fluently. The women went
back and forth for a time. Nairoby’s tone went from pleading to
desperate and terrified. Though MiMi couldn’t follow every word,
Yvette made her intention clear.

“I’m calling this whole thing off. Now put
away the gun,” Nairoby said in heavily accented English. “I came to
get paid, not to end up rotting in a US prison because of a mujer
loca.”

“Why are you worried, my sister? American
prisons are paradise compared to lock up in the DR. I’ve visited
both enough to know.” Yvette gave MiMi a brief smile. “Ah, you
didn’t know my father is Dominican.”

“I’m not kidding with you, Yvette. Put down
your gun,” Nairoby raised her pistol.

“Or you’ll shoot me? Ha. I unloaded the gun
two days ago. But I can assure you mine has lots of nice bullets.
Now get over there with the princess.” Yvette gestured with her
pistol. She frowned at Nairoby. “Move.”

Nairoby backed up so fast she almost knocked
MiMi over. Instead MiMi grabbed onto the dresser. Once steady, she
snatched the revolver from Nairoby and popped out the cylinder. The
little Colt special had no bullets.

“First you talk, and then I’ll take care of
you both,” Yvette said.

“If I’m dead I definitely won’t be talking,”
MiMi replied. Her heart hammered so, she thought it might drown out
the pounding music still coming from the party people.

“No, no, no. Stop this talk of killing
people. Chica, listen to me, I can get you all kinds of money,”
Nairoby gasped. Then she spun around to face MiMi. “Don’t be a
little fool. Tell her everything.”

At that moment the music stopped. MiMi
breathed hard. “No. She won’t risk people hearing the shots.”

Yvette’s expression didn’t change. When the
music pumped up again, she smiled and shot Nairoby in the right
thigh. The pounding hip-hop music down the hall drowned out the
loud pop. Nairoby screamed once then crumbled to the floor.

“Silencer. I came prepared. Now tell me where
I can find the money and little Sage will grow up healthy,” Yvette
said quietly.

MiMi felt all feeling drain from her legs.
“You’re totally insane.”

“No, just pissed off and determined to get
back what’s mine,” Yvette replied with a sideways smirk.

“You killed Roderick,” MiMi said, horror
moving through her like an electric shock.

Nairoby stopped rocking abruptly and gaped at
Yvette. “What? What did she say?”

“No, the police will have evidence enough to
get a nice neat conviction against you. At least they will by the
time I’m through.” Yvette smiled for a few seconds. Then her
features twisted into a mask of fury. “Roderick played with my
emotions, then stole from me.”

“How could you kill the man you claimed to
love so much?” MiMi managed to say though her throat had gone dry
with fear.

Yvette blinked hard, her eyes glassy with
unshed tears. “I poured my heart out to Roderick, told him things
I’d never confided in anyone. Did things for him I wouldn’t have
done for anyone else. I even tolerated him screwing you. Roderick
swore he had no intention of marrying you. Once he had access to
your father’s deep pocket connections, he’d dump you. That was a
lie, and he enjoyed telling me so. The bastard laughed at me. At
me, after I set him up to make millions. I risked my career and
criminal charges for him, and he laughed.”

“Oh my God. I thought...” Nairoby clamped a
hand over her mouth.

“That your buddies back home had Roderick
taken out? Exactly what I wanted you and everyone else to believe.”
Yvette’s grin looked like a death mask.

Nairoby groaned. “Oh Dios, I need a doctor.
Please help me.”

“Oh shut the hell up. It’s the blood that’s
scaring you more than anything. The pain will come later,” Yvette
retorted.

“The safe, in my house. Roderick put
something in there, but I haven’t looked,” MiMi blurted out when
Yvette aimed the gun at Nairoby again.

“Good. Now you’ll tell me the security code
so your alarm system won’t go off.” Yvette nodded at MiMi to speak
up.

“It’s 669327.” MiMi squatted next to Nairoby
and placed a hand on her forehead. “She’s going into shock I think.
You’ve got what you need, so go. Nairoby can’t walk, and I sure
can’t carry her. I swear we won’t follow you.”

“But she can still talk, and so can you,”
Yvette said.

“You can’t explain two dead women.” MiMi
frantically scanned the room for even a slight hope of escape.

“I won’t have to. You came there to meet up
with your dead lover’s shady business partner. You two planned to
split stolen money, but got into an argument and shot each other.
Before Nairoby could get treatment, she bled out. Wow, you nicked
an artery. Nice aim.” Yvette smiled down at them both. She shrugged
when the music stopped. “I can wait.”

“New Orleans PD. Open the door. We’ve had a
complaint about a disturbance,” a female voice ordered, and
pounding on the door followed a few seconds later.

Yvette jumped but held the gun steady. “Get
away from the window,” she hissed.

“What are you going to do, jump? We’re up
three floors and there’s no balcony.” MiMi stood. “You need better
put down that gun. If they see you holding it---”

“Nobody’s going to see anything. Shut your
mouth. If you cooperate maybe I won’t kill your kid once I take
care of you.” Yvette moved to the door.

She pointed at MiMi to cover Nairoby’s mouth
to muffle her soft whimpers. Then she went to the closet and
grabbed a robe. Yvette covered her clothes and tousled her hair.
Then she opened the door a crack.

“Sorry, I’m just out of the shower and not
dressed. I called about those rowdy thugs and...”

Yvette grunted as the door slammed open. The
force caused her to fly back and MiMi swung out without hesitation.
Before Yvette could aim, MiMi kneed her in the back hard. Then she
grabbed her wrist and twisted. Yvette held onto the gun as she
tried to twist around. Jazz barreled into the room and slapped
Nairoby as she tried to make a run for it. Willa scooped up the gun
Nairoby had dropped.

Dazed, yet still enraged, Yvette tried to
defend herself. MiMi jammed her against the sharp edge of the
dresser. Music thumped louder as the gun popped twice when Yvette
struggled to regain her footing and aim at the newcomers. MiMi
ducked, landed a kick on Yvette’s left knee and shouted “She’s got
a gun” in blur of action. MiMi shoved Yvettte to the floor. The
woman screamed a gutteral sound when MiMi stomped on her back and
then wrist using her full weight.

A tall young blonde guy stumbled through the
open door holding a beer bottle. “Hell, there’s a better party in
here.”

The loopy grin froze on his face when he took
in the scene. Nairoby lay slumped on the floor on the blood soaked
carpet and two women holding her down. MiMi and Yvette still fought
for control of the gun. He bounced from one foot to the other, no
help at all.

“Oh, shit. Oh shit. Oh shit. Somebody call
the cops.”

MiMi got her hands on the cheap hotel flower
vase and broke it over Yvette’s head. The blow stunned the crazed
woman. Willa took the chance to stomp on Yvette’s wrist, and the
blow got Jazz’s arm in the process. Both women screeched in pain.
The gun went off a fourth time. Willa kicked hard and it flew
across the shabby carpet. The blonde drunk peed his jean shorts,
and the police finally showed up.

****

Three weeks later MiMi, Jazz, and Willa
lounged around their private resort patio. Two days of soaking up
the St. Lucia sun proved to be excellent therapy. Cedric swam his
third short lap, blue-green water splashing with each stroke. Willa
and Cedric were booked in a cottage with their own private pool.
MiMi and Jazz had adjoining cottages on the other side of the
resort with ocean views. The women had spent the first day
sleeping. The events of the post Yvette and her gun had been bad
enough. Meeting with various law enforcement agencies had left even
Jazz with frazzled nerves. Willa’s parents and aunts had taken the
children on an island tour. The entire family enjoyed much needed
holiday, and what a spectacular setting the Ti Kaye Resort and Spa
offered.

All four lounged around the private pool as a
waiter made the rounds refreshing their drinks. He smiled at them
cordially, no doubt expecting a nice tip in a few days when the
rich Americans checked out. Edselle frowned at them from the video
call app on MiMi’s android tablet. They’d propped it up TV style on
the patio table. The image came through clearly as did his
disapproval.

“You ladies were extremely lucky.”

Jazz accepted a drink from the poolside
waiter. “Yeah, yeah.”

“Be polite,” Willa mumbled. “This man has
been on our side through a lot of crap.”

“Thank you,” Edselle replied. He grinned when
Willa blushed at being heard.

“Hmm, you’re welcome,” she said and pressed
her lips together.

Jazz swung her legs out of the pool, stood
and strolled over so he could see her. “I agree. You did your job,
Mr. Lawyer.” She winked at him, raised her glass and sipped.

“And, uh, thank you, too.” Edselle blinked as
Jazz strolled off giving him a nice view of her curvy butt covered
in the turquoise bikini bottom.

“I’m sorry we put you through so much, Ed.”
Willa shot MiMi a sharp glance.

“What? I’m the victim here. None of this was
my fault,” MiMi protested from behind her Louis Vuitton amber
sunglasses.

“At any rate the police have plenty enough to
charge Yvette Theirry with murder thanks to your friend Nairoby
Villa,” Edselle said. “She’s healing nicely by the way. Thank
goodness that gunshot was just a flesh would after all.”

“She’s not my friend. The only reason she
talked is because I threatened to tell her ‘business partners’ she
tried to scam them,” MiMi said. “Trust me, if nailing my rear end
to the wall had helped her, Nairoby would have been happy to do
it.”

“Well she told the truth about Jack’s hidden
money.” Willa switched her attention to the sight of Cedric’s long,
muscular frame emerging from the pool.

“She thought I was going to jail for murder
and she’d get to keep it all. She’s lucky I’m generous and won’t
snitch to those snakes back in the DR. They all deserve each
other,” MiMi retorted.

The mention of money caused Jazz to put down
her tall glass. “So the cash is clean? That’s for sure?”

Edselle wore a pensive frown. “The FBI can’t
definitively link the money in the Scotia Bank account to a
criminal enterprise, or that Mr. Crown did anything against the
law. The DR business group may be shifty, but they’re very smart.
They use legitimate business ventures as a cover. So far they
haven’t been caught. It’s complicated, but proving they did
anything illegal would be long and involved. And the feds probably
still wouldn’t win that battle.”

“Besides, they moved that money around in
through at least a dozen companies and through four countries. Most
of those four foreign governments drag their feet on request from
US law enforcement,” Cedric put in as he dried himself with a large
towel.

“Which leads to the happy bottom line; the
money is all mine.” MiMi beamed.

“Oh?” Willa removed her tortoise shell
sunglasses.

Jazz walked behind MiMi’s chair and placed a
hand on both her shoulders. “Really?”

“Ahem, y’all know I was just kidding around.”
MiMi gave a playful laugh and patted Jazz’s hands.

“Uh-huh,” Jazz grunted. She plopped down on
the chaise lounge next to MiMi.

“Yvette is safely locked up. Nairoby is
talking her head off, and we’re over eight hundred thousand dollars
richer. There could even be more. As Willa’s Aunt Ametrine would
say, won’t He fix it?” MiMi grinned at the word.

“Oo-wee, Aunt Ametrine thinks we’re all
godless heathens,” Jazz wisecracked. “I wouldn’t be surprised if
she showed up with a jumbo spray bottle of holy water to wash our
sins away.” They all had a good laugh, though Cedric glanced at the
door leading from the cottage.

“Well you may be having a vacation, but I’ve
got work to do. Have fun, and do me the huge favor of staying out
of trouble. Please,” Edselle said pointedly and without
smiling.

“We’ll give it our best shot.” MiMi lifted
her glass of frozen mango daiquiri to him as a salute. Edselle
heaved a deep sigh as his only response and signed off.

They sat in companionable silence for a few
minutes. Jazz kicked her legs in the pool. Willa and Cedric took
turns massaging sunscreen on each other. MiMi stared out at the
azure water of the Caribbean Sea.

“You know, we could turn this whole mad drama
into a business. I mean might as well put our skills to use and
earn high fees in the process,” MiMi said thoughtfully.

“Let’s see. Get shot at, thrown in jail and
accused of murder. I don’t find that business plan attractive at
all.” Willa gave a grunt.