Out of Control (2 page)

“What you doin’?” Cerrone said and reached for his gun.

When Meka opened her eyes, she had fired three times. Two to the chest and one at his groin. She stood there for a while, holding the gun and looking at Cerrone’s body. Later that evening, she met Black. Meka leaned forward. “I killed somebody tonight,” she said softly. Black listened as Meka told him what she had done. “Tomorrow morning you go to the airport, to Delta,” Black told her. “There’ll be a ticket to Nassau waiting for you. When you get there go to Atlantis, there’ll be a suite reserved in your name.”

Meka arrived in Nassau that next morning and checked in the suite that Black had arranged for her. When Black arrived on the island a couple of days later, he and Michelle went to Atlantis. They talked as they walked along the beach.

“So what now?” Meka asked.

“You stick around here for while. Like I said, have some fun, do the spa thing, do some shopping.”

“I already did,” Meka said and hit a turn.

“You look nice, but you always do,” Black said. He had always found Meka to be a very attractive woman. But he tried to never mix sex with money. It was always bad for business. “We’ll talk in a couple of days. I’m sure I can make use of your skills.”

After that, Black saw Meka back to her room and went home with Michelle. When he got there, CeCe was sitting in the shade out by the pool. He went outside.

“Where’s Michelle?” CeCe asked as soon as he was close enough.

“She went to her room.”

CeCe sat up and took and deep breath. “Well—sit down. I got something I need to tell you.”

“I am not likin’ the sound of this already,” he said and sat down next to CeCe. She leaned forward and took his hand in hers. Once again, she took a deep breath. “What’s wrong, Cee?”

“For the last few of weeks I haven’t been feeling right. It was like I’d be happy, anxious, exhilarated and exhausted, sometimes all at once.”

Black looked at her strangely.

“But the thing that bothered me the most was I’d have dizziness spells and I was getting nauseous. So while I was in New York, I went to see my doctor.”

“What did he say was wrong with you?”

“I’m almost three months pregnant,”

Black didn’t say anything for what seemed like a long time. He just sat there, staring at her.

“My God, Mike, say something,” CeCe said and a tear drifted down her cheek.

“You’re pregnant?”

CeCe nodded her head.

Black started to smile, and then quickly his smile turned to a frown. “Wait a minute. You went to see the doctor four days ago. Why didn’t you tell me before now?” he asked and wiped away her tears.

“To be honest with you, I was afraid to tell you.”

“Why?”

“I didn’t know how you’d take it,” CeCe said.

“How do you feel about it?”

“I couldn’t be happier.”

“I didn’t know you wanted to have a baby.”

“I wasn’t planning on it. I
was
on the pill, but I guess you’re stronger than that,” she said and smiled a little. She was still worried because he still hadn’t said how he felt about it and she was afraid to ask. Suppose he didn’t want any more children? Suppose he wasn’t interested in having any children with her? What if he asked her to have an abortion? If that was what he wanted, she would do it, but she would be devastated.

“You know what you’re having?”

“No. The doctor said if the baby is positioned correctly, an ultrasound might be able to predict the gender after 16 weeks.”

“We’re gonna have a baby,” Black said and leaned forward. He gently touched her stomach. “It’s a boy. I can feel him. Mike Black Jr.”

CeCe shook her head and started to cry. “I can feel him too. Does that mean you’re happy about it?”

“Yes, Cee. We’re gonna have a son. I couldn’t be happier.”

While Black and CeCe celebrated, back in New York, events were taking place that would affect Jada West’s business in ways that she had never anticipated.

During their investigation of the suicide of congressmen Geoffrey Canfield, the police found Jada’s private number in the congressman’s rolodex. That led to her being taken in for questioning and resulted in an investigation into her activities. She had been down that road once before when an undercover vice operative named Rachael Dawkins was able to penetrate her inner circle. Having barely dodged that bullet, Jada and had no desire to repeat it.

It didn’t take much thinking for Jada to decide that maybe it was time to get out of the business or at worst move her operation to someplace where the police weren’t investigating her. That’s when she thought about Mike Black.

They met years earlier when Jada was a dancer at a small club called Ecstasy and Black was there for a private party for rapper, The One. He enjoyed watching her and afterwards they talked briefly. They met again by chance at a restaurant. By that time, Jada was no longer a dancer; she had transformed herself into one of the city’s top madams with a stable of high priced call girls.

During their conversation, Black mentioned that he needed a reporter to plant an incriminating story about Pete Vinnelli; the DEA agent that arranged the murder of Black’s wife Cassandra and Jada was more than happy to help him. So when Oleg Mushnikov, an ex-KGB operative with ties to the Izmaylovskaya mob tried to shake her down for twenty percent of her business, she turned to Black for help.

“So, if I take care of this guy for you, what makes you think that I wouldn’t want twenty percent of your business?” Black asked her.

“Because you’d be doing me a favor. You know,” Jada said and smiled sweetly. “Like the one I did for you not too long ago.” She never knew what Black did, and she never asked, but after that she never heard from Oleg Mushnikov again.

Jada remembered that Black had recently offered her an opportunity that, at the time, she wasn’t at all interested in. But in light of the investigation into her business, Jada now viewed his offer in a whole new light. “So, what did you want to talk to me about?” Jada asked the night Black showed up to talk to her with television reporter Carmen Taylor.

“There is something I want you to consider doing for me,” Black said and leaned forward. “I’ve got an operation in Nassau.”

“What type of operation?”

“Gambling. It’s attracting an international tourist clientele.”

“Sounds lucrative.”

“It is, very. But what’s missing is women. That clientele isn’t interested in paying for the caliber of women that currently work the trade in Nassau.”

“I see. What did you have in mind?”

“You have a talent for recruiting and training women to be high-priced escorts. The caliber of women that my international clientele would be willing to pay top dollar for.”

“What would be my end?”

“You could name your price. Call all the shots, or put somebody in place to run it for you. Unless of course you want to move to Nassau.”

“I just might. I hear you spend a lot of time in Nassau,” Jada said. She wasn’t in love with him, or anything close to it, at least she didn’t think so. But she was definitely willing to go with him any time or place and do anything he wanted her to do.

“I have a house there.” Black finished his drink. “I don’t want you to give me an answer now. Give it some thought and we’ll talk some more about it.”

“Tell me something.”

“What’s that?”

“Is this what I owe you for taking Oleg Mushnikov off my neck?”

“Only if you want it to be,” Black told her that night.

With her decision made, Jada got dressed for a meeting with twelve of her top earners. She wore a Armani Collezioni herringbone jacket, Prada peep-toe suede platform ankle boots, Gurhan white diamond & 24k yellow gold droplet earrings and a Marco Bicego 18K yellow gold multi-strand ring. At that meeting she explained that the police were investigating her and how it would affect business. “That’s the situation, ladies,” Jada said.

“What are you going to do?” Jenna, one of her top earners asked. “’Cause I’m not at all interested in going to jail,” she said and all of the other ladies agreed.

“Well, Jenna, I’m glad that you asked. If things go the way I want them to,” Jada began.

“And they usually do,” Yanjali, another moneymaker giggled.

“I’m going to relocate to Nassau.”

“Nassau?” LaChelle questioned. She wasn’t as good an earner for Jada as either Jenna or Yanjali, but she held her own. “What’s in Nassau?”

“Mike Black,” Yanjali said quietly.

Jada give Yanjali a look. “Yes, Yanjali, Mr. Black is in Nassau and he has access to an underserved international clientele. Any of you ladies who are interested are welcome to join me. All expenses paid of course,” Jada promised.

“I think I’m gonna stay here in the city,” Simone, Jada’s top earner said.

“I wish you nothing but the best,” Jada said graciously. “Anybody else?” Before the night was done, eight of the ladies accepted her offer to travel to Nassau.

With her team on board, Jada called her travel agent that arranged their flight and accommodations on the island. Then she made a few phone calls and was able to leave a message for Black to call her. When he got the message, Black called her back right away. Since the first time he saw her dance that night at Ecstasy, he could feel the energy between them. She was beautiful, but it was more than that. Black liked her style. Jada West had class and he found that very appealing. But at the time, he decided that he would keep their relationship on a business level.

“Jada West, please.”

“This is Jada. Mr. Black; is that you?”

“Yes. How are you Ms. West?”

“I’m fine now that I’m talking to you,” Jada said sweetly.

“I got a message to call you.”

“I wanted to tell you that I was going to be in Nassau for a couple of days, and I wanted to know if we could get together to discuss business while I’m there?”

“I’m sure that can be arranged,” Black replied.

“Excellent. I’m looking forward to speaking to you,” Jada flirted.

“When will you be here?”

“Tomorrow afternoon.”

“If you like, I can arrange to have you picked up from the airport.”

“That won’t be necessary, but thank you for offering. You are such a gentleman. I’m staying at a place called the Suites at Sandyport on New Providence Island. You are familiar with it?”

“Yes, I am.”

“Will you be available to meet for dinner there tomorrow evening, say seven o’clock?”

“I’ll see you tomorrow at seven,” Black said.

“Until tomorrow then,” Jada said and ended the call.

Black hung up the phone and looked at Jamaica. He was overseeing their expansion of their operation on the island. “Who was that?” he asked.

“Jada West. You don’t know her. But if that’s what I think it is, she’s the solution we been looking for to one of our problems.”

“I like her already,” Jamaica said and they both laughed.

Wanda Moore sat in the back seat of her Cadillac CTS as her driver, James drove her to Cynt’s. It wasn’t a limo, but Wanda hated driving in traffic, so she hired James to drive her where ever she needed to go.

She looked out the window and thought about what she was about to do and how she had let things get to this point. Wanda wasn’t speaking to Nick Simmons at all because of his relationship with Rain Robinson. She hated Rain. The low life bitch had snuck behind her back and stole her man. And if that wasn’t enough, the memory of Rain slapping her in the face was still fresh in her mind.

“Hello, Wanda.” She recognized the voice immediately and let go of Marcus. She was shocked to see Nick and Rain standing in the doorway.

“Hello, Nick,” Wanda said and then she looked over at Marcus. “Marcus Douglas, I’d like you to met Nick Simmons.”

Being a gentleman and not having any idea about their prior relationship, Marcus stepped forward to shake Nick’s hand. “Good to meet you Nick.”