The Desert Lion's True Colours (16 page)

‘
Security.
’ Leon thought.

One of them turned to Leon and said, ‘Yo, which way did he go?’

Leon replied, ‘What did he do?’

‘Does it matter? Just tell us which way he went?’ Another called out.

Leon did not want to draw attention to where Bo was lying blooded up
-
somewhere between sleep and hell. But he did not want to send them in the direction Carter went either. Leon stood there silent for a while then said, ‘Dude, why don’t you go ask yo mamma!’

The security guard looked Leon up and down to which Leon could tell he was being sized up. They were all bigger than him but none of them carried a gun so to Leon it was still a fair fight. Without hesitation Leon stepped forward showing he was not going to back down. One of the guards was about to say something when the sound of several people shouting at each other, came from the other-side of the door. The three security guards turned around just in-time to see the door open and two police men walking out followed by a dozen half naked women cursing loudly.

One of the security guards called out, ‘Hey! We think this punk knows where he is?’

Not seeing the person the security guard was referring to, the taller of the two policemen stepped forward and with a frown replied ‘Who?’

The three guards turned around only to realise Leon had already gone.

Before the door was fully open Leon caught sight of the first police men, turned right and ran back to the car on the other side of the parking lot. Leon could see the blue glow of police sirens and hear the distant sound of a helicopter.

‘
Damn
!!’ Leon thought. ‘
Since
when
Miami
PD,
have
cops
on
the
scene
within
a
minute
and
a
chopper
in
less
than
ten.
AND
WHERE
THE
FUCK
IS
JAY
?!’

Leon ran passed the car and over to Bo, still lying on the ground with his eyes closed and mouth open. Leon quickly riffled through Bo’s pockets and grabbed his phone but decided to leave Bo with his gun. Leon then jumped into the Q45, started the engine and drove around to the front of TooTsies across the main car park. It was filled with the occupants of the club who exited when they heard the gun-fire and onlookers who could not help but be a part of the commotion. Police were trying to keep the situation contained while trying to piece together what actually happened. Leon did not want to stick around however he could not leave without knowing Jay was ok.

Leon saw an empty parking bay near the main street exit and pulled into it. ‘They’ve probably found Bo by now’ he thought. Leon turned the engine off and was about to get out of the car when the leather interior of the Q45 was engulfed with two quick flashes of light. Leon looked up at the rear-view mirror and to his relief saw Jay sitting in the driving seat of his Mercedes. Leon hit a button on the dash to release the trunk and quickly got out to transfer the Gucci bags from the Q45 to his car. Thankfully Jay was on the same page and already had the trunk of Leon’s Mercedes open and waiting. Within seconds Leon had all five bags transferred and was sitting in the passenger seat next to Jay. As the Mercedes pulled away, Leon looked over at his partner and noticed he had a cut over his right eyebrow. Concerned and a little surprised he said ‘Yo. What happened to you?’

Without hesitation Jay replied, ‘Perry, that’s what happened.’

‘Huh, what you mean? I told you to go get the car. Perry was inside the club.’

Leon waited for Jay’s response but did not get one. Jay was too busy manoeuvring through the crowd of people in an attempt to leave the area before the police had the whole section cornered off. Despite the small cut above his eye; Leon figured Jay seemed ok, so he decided to wait until they were out of the parking lot before he repeated the question. Within a few minutes, they had exited the clubs parking lot and were heading south down 2
nd
Ave. As they took the ramp for ‘I95 South’ Jay finally spoke up. ‘What the fuck!’ he shouted.

‘What, what happened?’ Leon asked.

Before giving a reply Jay indicated left, changed lanes then said ‘When I got back to the car
-
one of the guys I saw in the club were trying to break in.’

‘You serious?’ exclaimed Leon.

Jay nodded and then indicated left again so he could move over into the fast lane.

‘So what happened?’ Leon asked again.

Trying to keep his composure, Jay took in a deep breath and released it slowly. Leon was about to tell Jay to hurry up but his arm movement gave away his intentions, so Jay cut him off by holding up a finger
–
so as to say ‘give me a minute’ and proceeded to overtake a black Audi A7 with black rims and blacked-out windows. As Jay passed the car and moved in front, Leon said ‘It’s Carter.’

‘Who… Carter… ? Where… ?’ Replied Jay

‘In the car behind us,’ Leon replied. ‘Take the next exit and find somewhere to park up.’

Jay complied, took the next exit and pulled into the back of a Burger-King parking-lot. By the time Leon could get out of the car, the blacked-out Audi A7 pulled up on the left beside them. Leon stood up straight with his arms folded, waiting for the occupant to exit the car. The Audi’s engine shut off, the driver’s side door opened and as Leon thought
-
Carter got out.

‘So you guys made it out ok then?’ he said with a smile.

‘What you mean.’ Leon’s words trailed off into silence as he paused to take a deep breath. Unfortunately for Carter, in that short pause Jay had got out of the car, walked around it and without saying a word punched carter square across the jaw.

‘Motherfucker! Where were you?’ Jay shouted.

He had Carter pinned up against the side of the Audi and had his hand cocked back ready to hit him again however Leon jumped in and held onto his arm.

‘Yo! Get off me. Jay shouted,
-
struggling to relinquish Leon’s grip.

‘Not until you calm down.’ Leon stressed.

Unable to pull away from Leon’s hold, Jay eventually got the message and reluctantly backed away.

‘Wasn’t this motherfucker supposed to be watching us?’ Jay shouted.

Before Leon could respond Jay continued, ‘Please! Can you tell me who he was watching, because it wasn’t us?’

Leon walked back over to Carter
-
who was now leaning on the hood of the car nursing his lip, and said ‘So Carter, you gonna let us know what went on in there?’

Carter spat out some blood and wiped his mouth with the sleeve of his white-Tee.

‘I was looking out.’ he said finally

‘Bullshit!’ Jay shouted.

‘I WAS LOOKING OUT… ! Carter insisted.

After spitting out some more blood he said ‘Shit, I think you broke my jaw.’

‘Good!’ Jay scoffed.

Leon got even closer to Carter and said ‘Look. If I was you, I’d start talking or Jay’s gonna kick your ass all over this parking lot.’

Standing up straight Carter said, ‘I was looking out. When you guys left with Perry’s Body-guard, I saw Perry call two other men over. Not sure what was said but when he was finished they both ran for the front door…’ He paused to gently rub his jaw before continuing ‘I wanted to follow you guys but I couldn’t be sure what they were sent to do.’

‘So?’ Jay prodded.

‘So, I created a diversion.’

Jay started laughing sarcastically. ‘A diversion… ?’ He said mockingly. ‘You fired two shots in motherfuckin TooTsies… You mean to tell me that was the best diversion you could come up with?’

Jay was getting angrier by the second. Turning to his friend he said ‘I’m sorry Leon, I gotta say it. I HATE THIS GUY!’

Pleading his case Carter replied ‘I had to do something! So I snatched some cash of the girl coming off the stage and tried to make a run for it. But before I could get to the door the security had it covered so I decided to fire two shots into the air to cause some commotion.’ He paused, pulled out a small 22 from his jeans pocket then said ‘When everybody ducted I ran for the back door and that’s where I saw you. I couldn’t stop. I had to get out of there.’

Thinking he had heard enough Leon decided to leave Carter to his busted jaw and lip and turn his attention back to Jay.

‘You were saying?’ Leon said flatly.

‘What you talking about?’ Jay replied.

‘Carter said two guys headed for the door.’

Before Jay addressed Leon’s statement, he looked back over at Carter and laughed.

‘This fools a liability.’ he said.

Nodding his head Leon replied, ‘Well that may be but I still wanna know what happened to you.’

‘There were two guys…’ Jay replied resolutely. ‘. . . I just didn’t get to that part yet. Basically dude was trying to get into the car. I held him up and out of nowhere another guy catches me blind side.’ Jay paused so that he could point to the scar on his eyebrow.

‘Then what happened?’ Leon asked.

‘The guy that was trying to get into the car ran back into TooTsies, but the fool who hit me…’ Jay paused to let out a chuckle ‘. . . Well, let’s just say he ain’t gonna be walking for a while.’

Leon scrutinised Jay’s face to see if he was holding anything back but there was nothing there. If anything Jay did not want to bring to light the fact that this time he got caught out.

They were all quiet for a moment before Jay realised Leon did not mention anything about Bo.

‘So shit got ugly huh… ?’ he enquired.

Leon nodded his head and then said ‘In a word.’

Leon was going to say something else but Carter interrupted him by making a yawning sound as he moved his jaw around in a circular motion.

‘See, it’s not broken.’ Jay said disappointedly.

The pain was bearable,
-
but only just, so Carter could not be bothered to voice a comeback. Instead he just flipped Jay the bird. Jay smirked in response, lifted his right hand in the air, made a fist and kissed it.

‘You two, need to grow the hell up.’ Leon admonished. Then turning back to Jay said ‘Bo’s gone.’

‘What you mean
-
Bo’s gone!’ Jay replied.

‘I mean…’ Leon stopped short. He was finding it hard to put his words together. The plan he had gone over in his mind a hundred times was looking like it was going to come apart before it even started. Leon reached into his back pocket and took out the phone Perry had given him earlier.

Looking at Jay Leon said, ‘We need to talk to Black.’

Without dialling any numbers Leon hit the call button and the screen and the phone came up with a Miami Dade Landline number. Leon raised the phone to his ear. It rang twice and Black answered the phone without an introduction. ‘Do you have the money?’

‘Yes I have the money.’ Leon replied.

‘Good.’ Black said coldly. ‘Now can you please tell me what happened tonight?’

‘What happened?’ Leon retorted. ‘Your boy Bo tried to jack me and two other fools tried to break into my ride. That’s what happened!’

Leon could hear Black laughing and then let out a long sigh.

‘Leon, Leon, Leon. You really do remind me of your father.’

‘Oh.’ Leon replied feigning interest.

‘Yep. You’re the mirror image of him. It’s almost like your living his life.’ Black paused to let his statement settle. However Leon took Black’s break in speech to test the waters.

‘Where’s Perry? Is he with you?’ he asked.

‘Since when do you give a fuck about my nephew?’ Black replied.

‘I don’t. But there was a shooting in the club, Po-Po was everywhere. Just wanted to make sure he got out.’

Leon could hear Black start to chuckle, so he waited for him to finish.

‘Perry’s fine.’ Black said. ‘He’s on his way to me now.’ Black paused for a moment then said

‘I don’t give a fuck about Bo. He’s failed me a few too many times already. I’m not interested in what happened. And you should not let one idiot cause you to think me and you are in any beef. You did what you had to do and it’s water under the bridge as far as I’m concerned. All I’m interested in is you making that drop.’

‘I get it.’ Leon replied

‘Good. I don’t need or want to hear from you again until you touch down in New-York.’

Leon was about to talk but once again Black cut him off.

‘Oh! The work you put in over in O.T hasn’t been overlooked. It shows where your loyalties lie.’

With that Black ended the call.

‘So, what’s that fat bastard saying?’ Jay asked with a frown.

Before Leon gave a reply he turned to Carter and said, ‘Go get your jaw looked at and then go tell the Chief we’re on our way to New-York to make the drop.’

‘With who?’ Carter asked.

‘We don’t know yet. We find out when we get there. If he needs us, he knows how to get us.’

With that, Leon and Jay got back into the Mercedes and left Carter standing alone in the Burger-King parking lot.

CHAPTER 10