The Carrier (5 page)

So Marcus was going gangsta? If that’s
what she’d wanted, there were plenty of Ricks in Brooklyn she could
have had. No, she was done with Marcus one way or the other. If he
succeeded and brought back a few dollars, great. She’d help him
spend until it ran out. If not, she was gone even sooner. There was
a girl at school who’d take her in short term. This was the smart
way to play it, even if it made her feel like a callus
bitch.

Marcus was still standing above her,
looking sincere and committed.

“
Really, baby, it’s going to
be fine,” he said.

“
How long are you going to
be away?”

“
I don’t know. Maybe a few
days, maybe a week.”

“
When are you
leaving?”

“
I don’t know, soon. Really,
I’ll tell you when I know, but I just don’t know right
now.”

“
All right, then. Let’s not
talk about it anymore.”

When he lifted her, she didn’t tell
him to put her down. They went to the bedroom and made love like it
was necessary, the two of them surprisingly present to the
act.

***

Marcus’s phone rang just after three
the next morning. He shut off the ring and hopped out of bed before
Saida had a chance to complain. He kissed her sleeping head, and
she hummed ambiguously.

He met Danny out in the parking lot,
many hours earlier than either underemployed man was used to. It
was pitch black on a cold Monday in November, and Danny had to
scrape a little frost from the windshield of his car. It was the
first time they’d been together outside of the apartment complex.
Danny took the receiver out of the glove compartment and turned it
on. He showed Marcus the blip that represented their target. It was
sitting there on a map of a residential street in Dutchess County,
New York.

“
He hasn’t left yet, but we
want to get out in front of him,” Danny said, starting the
car.

“
Who is he?”

“
I don’t know his name or
anything, but he’s just one man and he’s definitely
unarmed.”

The device was small, and more than
anything else, it looked like an old hand-held electronic
game.

“
Inez just slapped it on his
car. He must be leaving soon.”

Danny drove west through the darkness.
When the sun came up they stopped for breakfast near Wilkes Barre.
The car on the tracker still hadn’t moved.

“
At this point we should
just sort of chill out. You want to gamble?”

“
Is that a good
idea?”

“
There’s a casino in
Bethlehem.”

“
I don’t know about
gambling. I mean, we want to have cash to spare, right? In case we
need it?” Marcus asked, but he also felt like gambling, or
skydiving, or running with the bulls. He felt ready for any task
all of a sudden.

“
Maybe you’re right.” Danny
nodded across the room. “Some elegant ladies at the far
table.”

Marcus glanced over.

“
Don’t look, man,” Danny
said.

“
Is
that
a good idea?”

“
How else are we going to
meet ladies? I have always found that the best way to meet a lady
is to walk over and say hello to her.”

Just then a beeping, like a
no-nonsense ringtone, came from Danny’s pocket. He took out the
receiver and smiled.

“
Our man is
moving.”

CHAPTER 8

When Duane walked into the bar and saw
the girl, he knew trouble was coming sooner rather than later. Who
was she, and why was Tony Braxton sitting with one arm around her,
drinking liquor when he’d called specifically to have a serious
conversation with Duane?

The girl was slim, about average
height, very pretty, probably Dominican or Puerto Rican. Tony was
looking horrible: his hair was thin and greasy and he’d lost weight
since the last time Duane had seen him. It was pretty clear that
the girl let his arm stay where it was for something other than
personal pleasure.

Yeah, Tony was a mess. Duane
had told Top that once, and Top had shut Duane
down—
not a topic of
conversation
. If Duane could leave these
clowns, he would, but he still had too much invested with them at
the moment. Top was moving money through bank transfers in a way
that was supposed to make it all clean and scrubbed, but it was
taking a long time for any of it to get back to Duane. So he had to
sit through this nonsense; he had to meet Tony in this ridiculous
sports bar.

“
Duane,” Tony yelled across
the room. Loud, stupid Tony, looking like a strung out panda
bear.

Tony stood up and gave Duane a punch
on the arm—playful and malicious. In a different time and place
Duane would have hit back hard, right in the mouth. He’d try not to
do anything like that, but he wasn’t going to act as if this was a
fun game.

“
Okay. Now we’ve got Duane
in the house,” Tony said and glanced at the girl as if he’d said
something really clever. She nodded and smiled.

“
This is Inez.”

There was a very faint scent of candy
coming from her. Then again there were a lot of competing smells in
this busy room.

“
I’ve got to take care of
something later tonight, so let me know what’s going on,” Duane
said, not sitting down.

“
Say again?”

It wasn’t particularly loud in the
bar, but Tony was losing his hearing. It was another reason to hate
him.

“
Maybe we can have a minute
alone, and you can let me know what you have to tell
me.”

“
Let you know? What do
you
think
this is
about?”

“
I don’t know. Maybe we can
take a walk outside and you can tell me why I’m here.”

“
Duane, are you going to be
prickly? Is that it?”

Duane could certainly be prickly, and
he could also break a man’s jaw for calling him less offensive
things than prickly, but, of course, this would not be one of those
times. He simply said nothing.

“
Relax and have a drink,”
Tony said.

“
All right. I will have one
drink.”

“
Look at this girl.” Tony
gave a little squeeze to Inez. “Beautiful, beautiful. Am I lucky
with the honeys, or what? You know my secret? I’m funny. Women like
to laugh. Look at this guy—look at that jaw.” Tony came within a
few inches of tapping Duane on the chin. “He’s all rugged and
handsome, but you don’t get any laughs out of him. So what are you
going to do with a man like that, Inez?”

“
I don’t know,” she said.
“Maybe I’d fuck him for several hours and then watch some standup
comedy later. You know, like on a DVD.”

Tony definitely heard that, and his
fake laugh had more than a little surprise in it. He didn’t really
appreciate this from Inez. He liked to be the headliner. But it
went past that; had Inez just cashed in her chips? Whatever it was
Inez got out of Tony—and Duane could imagine a few things—she was
getting ready to move on. Tony stood up.

“
What are you drinking?” he
asked Duane. “And, no, you can’t just have cranberry
juice.”

“
Get me a beer, whatever
she’s been drinking.”

“
Mademoiselle
?” Tony looked at
Inez.

“
More of same,” she
said.

Tony went to get the drinks and Duane
sat down across from one of the best-looking women he’d seen in a
while. There were wings on the table. Some were eaten clean, but
most had only a bite or two taken. Either Inez or Tony didn’t know
how to eat a chicken wing. Duane put all the blame on Tony
Braxton.

“
How long have you known
him?” Duane asked.

“
Not long.”

“
You know him from
work?”

She laughed.

“
What, from my workplace? Is
that where I know him from?”

“
Is it?”

“
We meet people, you
know?”

Duane nodded and hated Tony more than
he ever expected he could hate a clown.

“
You know Tony isn’t
normal,” he said. “I mean when it comes down to it.”

“
How do you know he’s not
normal?”

“
Because he cannot shut his
mouth about anything.”

“
So he tells you about the
army men and the little plastic canoe?”

“
I haven’t heard about the
canoe.”

“
It’s pointy.”

“
That’s what I’m saying.
Toys don’t make a lot of sense.”

Damned if he wasn’t flirting
hard with this girl.
Stop it—right
now.

“
You make sense?” she
asked.

Before he could answer, two men
approached the table—the bigger one in the lead.

“
Get up,” he said to
Duane.

“
Excuse me?”

“
I’d like to talk to this
Latino lady. You’re in the way.”

What the hell? Was this some noise
sent by Tony as a joke?

“
Let me ask you a question,”
Duane said, still seated, looking up at the bigger man. “Are you
right handed or are you left handed?”

“
Am I right handed or left
handed?”

“
That’s the
question.”

“
I told you to get
up.”

The man kicked at the leg of Duane’s
chair, and Duane slipped his metal baton into his hand under the
table.

“
Okay, last chance: are you
right handed or left handed?”

“
You think this
is—”

“
I ask because I’m going to
break one of your hands, but I’m going to do you a favor and break
your off hand. So are you left handed or right handed?”

Inez watched—an interested spectator.
Without her there Duane wouldn’t have done all the talk, and the
man would already be on the ground in pain. But without her there
would these guys have still stepped up to him? Duane wasn’t sure
exactly what was going on, but physically, he was fully
prepared.

“
Tell Tony I’ll be at the
Denny’s,” he said to Inez. “If there’s anything he really needs to
say to me he should go there.”

“
Who’s Tony, your
boyfriend?” the smaller man asked.

“
Okay, here we go,” Duane
said. “Put your hands out on the table, so I don’t have
to—”

And midsentence Duane hit the bigger
man in the kneecap with his stick. A direct hit—and down he went.
The smaller man didn’t move a muscle. Duane stood and gave the
bigger man a kick to the face then walked to the exit. The word was
moving around the room quickly, but Duane was out the door before
it got anywhere near the bouncer.

CHAPTER 9

“
I’m thirsty,” Willow said.
“Are you thirsty?”

Willow had Cyril get her a plastic cup
of water from the bathroom. She didn’t really get off on the
subservience, but she did like watching him walk around the motel
room.

“
Here’s how I’ve saved your
life,” she said. “You didn’t know you were done as a courier until
I told you, right? Think about it: if Tony Braxton is setting you
up to get jacked, then you can’t go home, can you?”

“
So let me see if I
understand who
you
are,” Cyril said. “Tony thought I was carrying money, and he
sent you out here to take it and then return home and split it with
him?”

“
That’s pretty much
it.”

“
It’s his money to begin
with, though, isn’t it?”

“
No, mostly it goes to
someone called Top. Tony thinks he should get much more than he
does.”

“
Why does Tony think you’ll
come back to him?” Cyril asked.

“
He thinks I love him. He
actually thinks he’s irresistible to all women. He’s got, like,
three or four buzzing around. But he really, really thinks
I’m
in love with him. I
tell him as often as I can—
you are my
world, I need to be near you
,
I love you like no other
.
He thinks he’s Don Juan—like Don Juan of getting girls to throw
plastic toys at his nuts. And he thinks I’m his hunting dog, that
I’ll grab the money and bring it all back. Roll around at his feet
like a lovesick puppy.”

Willow was now swaying with the
romance of it all.

“
You really like working
that way?” Cyril asked.

“
What way?”

“
Nothing.”

“
No, not nothing. You look
down on
me
? You’re
a mule—that’s the lowest thing there is.”

“
No, it’s not the lowest
thing there is.”

Willow kept the gun at her side, but
she was angry now. He was trying to rattle her, but she’d stay
professional.

“
How about you just tell me
where the money is before I shoot you in the thigh?”