Sister's Revenge: Action Adventure Assassin Pulp Thriller Book #1 (Michelle Angelique Avenging Angel Assassin) (17 page)

“K
NOCK, KNOCK, ANYBODY
home?” Michelle said as she unlocked G-Baby’s front door and let herself in.

“Back, here,” Baby-Sister called from the kitchen. The smell of greens, sweet potatoes, and fried chicken filled the house.

They’re getting tight.

“Hey, Unc, what’s up?” Michelle gave him wink. “Hey, Baby-Sister. Something sure smells good. Whatcha cooking?”

“Just a little something I threw together. I can make more if you want some.”

“No thanks,” she said. “I’m good.”

Wine glasses, candles, and linen napkins adorned the dining room table, along with a single rose in front of the two place settings. The cozy scene made Michelle happy for her uncle. For too long, ever since his wife died of cancer, he’d had one night stands and no relationships. No, she wouldn’t interrupt their evening any more than she had to.

“Say, Unc, can I holla at you a quick minute?” Michelle nodded toward the front of the house.

He winked at Baby-Sister. “Only be a minute. Don’t go away, because I’ve got plans for you.” He followed Michelle out of the kitchen, where she leaned in, speaking in low tones.

“I need to take Nikky out on the boat with Tuan. Can you get the hookup for Saturday or Sunday?” she asked.

“Let me give him a call and see if he can help us out.”

“Before you call him, though, I have to tell you, this doesn’t have anything to do with our deal. And this isn’t a professional job, either; I wouldn’t ask for this kind of favor for that. It’s something for my girls.”

“Doesn’t matter, not to me. Tuan and me, we go back to when we were in diapers. We’ve got so much back and forth, neither of us has any idea who owes what. All we know is that if either of us asks, the other’s there for him. This call here is me asking for you, and now you’re the one who owes him. As far as I’m concerned, if you need help on a personal job, you’ve got it. I know you’re serious. I’ve got your back however you need it to happen.” G-Baby stepped away to call his friend.

Michelle grew up on stories of Tuan’s dad and her grandfather in Saigon during the Vietnam war. As a little girl, she didn’t know families in the hood usually didn’t have Vietnamese friends. Tuan was like an uncle; his kids, like cousins. She reminisced about family outings when her whole family was alive. They were the good memories. She also thought about how they’d helped hide her away in Asia. Those memories were not quite as happy.

G-Baby’s voice broke through her reverie. “Okay, it’s set for next Saturday,” he said. “He invited you and your friend to have dinner with his family when we come in. Said to tell you we’re having octopus tentacles and duck heads.” He chuckled. “I never can tell if he’s messing with me or if he’s serious. Guess we’ll find out when we sit down to eat.”

Michelle gave her uncle a hug. “You’re the best. I love you. You know that, right? I didn't want to interrupt you two, so I lied, saying I was all set with dinner already. Now I’ve got to get something to eat; Baby-Sister’s cooking has my stomach growling, big time.”

Glancing back toward the kitchen where Baby-Sister sang to herself, G-Baby said, “Thanks for that. You be good. I’ll see you girls here at five thirty on Saturday morning.”

While G-Baby went back to the kitchen, Michelle hopped into her Crossfire, put the top down, and headed to Western Avenue in search of some dinner.

* * *

“C
offee, I need coffee.”

Although Nikky complained about being up before 5:00 a.m., she was up, dressed, and met Michelle coming up the walk to her apartment. Another long day lay ahead of them.

Yesterday, Nikky had shown up at Michelle’s at 8:30 a.m. “Here I am, on time, and with a full tank of gas, like you said. You’re crazy, though, asking me to be here this early. I never get up before nine, except on workdays.” Michelle knew Nikky was just shit-talking and was good for the day ahead.

“Hey, thanks for being on time; we have a lot of ground to cover. First, we’ll swing by Scott’s—I called earlier—and he’ll have our breakfast and coffee ready to go. We’re headed over to the Burbank Airport where we’ll pick up a rental car. You won’t like it much; it’s cheap and small with a bumpy ride.”

“What are we getting?”

“A white Toyota Corolla. It only has a cheap radio, so we won’t be bumping any good beats. But we’re doing a job, anyway, not going out on a date.”

“If this car is so cheap, why not get something better?” Nikky asked.

“A more expensive car will stick out in the hood. This one’s more or less invisible. And we need to be invisible.”

“You’ve got to explain ‘be invisible.’ How can a car be invisible?”

“All right. Don’t look up,” Michelle said. “Now, describe that gray car parked two cars in ahead of you.”

Nikky scrunched up her face. “I don’t have any idea what it looks like.”

“You don’t know, yet it’s sitting right in front of you, and you had to see it when we got in your car. It’s so uninteresting, so boring, you didn’t even notice it. That’s what makes it invisible.”

“Like a plain girl at school; basically, a wallflower of cars.”

“Exactly. Let’s hit the freeway and see how invisible we can be in the middle of a gazillion cars with drivers who are mostly asleep at the wheel.”

Nikky drove out onto the freeway which soon slowed to a crawl. “Imagine if one of those aliens, like in the movies, came down and heard you talking about invisible cars and people driving asleep at the wheel. They’d think you were nuts.”

“Well, look around.” Michelle waved at the surrounding cars inching along. “Don’t they look like they’re driving in a fog? Also, you and me, we really do need to be invisible. That’s why we’re in your car, and why I told you to take your hair down, wash off all your makeup, and wear old, loose clothes. We don’t want anyone to notice us today or tomorrow, so you’ve got to remember to keep a low profile all day today.

“Tomorrow’s
the
big day, but today’s also a big day. We can’t flirt with any men, no matter how fine. And no shit-talking—none, not even just a little. People who come across us have to just look somewhere else like we’re not even there. We’re a couple of sweet, quiet, boring, country church women going for a ride in the big city.”

“God! First you want me to be invisible. Now you want me to be boring too, and with this traffic, I’m bored to match. I bet we haven’t even gone five miles.” Nikky put on her signal to change lanes. “Asshole!” she yelled, “Did you see that jerk cut me off?”

“He may be a jerk, but remember, you’re a sweet, quiet, country girl who doesn’t get pissed about anything.”

“Well, he’s still a jerk, even if I can’t talk shit. Sweet Jesus, where does all this traffic come from? I didn’t know every mother’s son in L.A. crowded on the freeway this time of day.”

“Traffic will be like this all day,” Michelle said, “and even worse after three this afternoon. But I think we should be okay. Even though we have a long way to go, we’ll miss the worst of it. The hard part will be when we leave Burbank with the rental.”

“We’ll be driving on the freeway, same as now. How’s that harder than this?”

“Because we’ll be driving two cars and we won’t have anyone to talk to. Even if everybody’s not talking, it’s still easier with someone else in the car. Company helps you not get pissed at the stupid shit people do out here on the road.”

“I get that. If you didn’t remind me to be all sweet and shit, I might have done something. I sure want to get up next to that jerk and tell him to go screw hisself. Or at least flip him off. How long will it take us to get down to Newport and leave the rental?”

“A few hours; we should be at the drop-off point around noon. We don’t do anything to draw attention when we get there. The whole area’s rich and lily-white, so we’ll be noticeable. We just drive in, park the car, I hop in with you, and we drive away. We don’t even stay to pee. Irvine University is only a few minutes up the street and we’ll blend in like a couple of students. We can stop there for lunch.”

Michelle got out at the Burbank Airport, where she picked up the Toyota using her Texas license and credit card for Michelle Torres.

Four hours of caravanning later, they stood in the Burger King parking lot with Nikky rubbing her butt and stretching her legs. “You were right. Coming down here with no one to talk to made it a long, boring drive. I’m already tired and we still have to go back up to the hood and catch up with my mom. I’ll be done with driving for a while when we finally get there.”

Inside, the Burger King bustled with college students, all looking as plain and unkempt as Nikky and Michelle. Exactly as planned, nobody gave them a second glance.

“Girl, you’re dragging in here like you done got your butt whupped,” Michelle teased.

“We’re twins, then,” Nikky replied, “because you’re looking pretty to-the-curb yourself.”

“All this driving is boring but easy. Tomorrow will be harder. Tomorrow, we have to be at Uncle G’s by five thirty to hook up with him and Tuan. They don’t know, don’t care, and don’t want to know, what we’re doing. Not now, not ever. We have to be back at the yacht club by mid-afternoon. That gets us to the marina on time to look like a normal day of fishing.”

“Where’s the hard part come in?”

“When we’re driving back here after we’ve done our business with Jerome. The adrenaline will wear off, and you’ll crash hard like a whipped dog. When you’re that tired, it’s easy to make simple mistakes, like get pissed at some asswipe or lock the keys in the car. Stupid shit like that can get you jacked if you’re not careful. Once we get back on the boat, we’ll be okay.”

“What do we do after we finish up with the boat?” Nikky asked.

“First, we help with the clean-up—hose down the boat and all that stuff. Tuan and Uncle G will tell us we have to gut the fish, but they’ll just be messing with us. Then we’ll have dinner with Tuan’s family before we go back home. They’re Vietnamese, so they make some crazy food.”

“I’m not eating any dead baby chick, like you told us about before. No way in hell I’ll do that.”

“Don’t worry, dead chicks are special and they won’t want to give some of their special food to no Negro who’ll waste it. Uncle G said they’re cooking up some duck heads and octopus. Probably not, but there’s a good chance they’ll throw in some fish heads.”

“Yeah, well, you can eat that shit. I won’t be eating fish heads, or chicken heads, neither. No heads of any kind.”

“I’m only messing with you. Every time I’ve eaten with them the food’s always been real good. They know you’re American and can’t eat some crazy Asian shit. They’re good people; they’ll treat us right. Tomorrow will feel a lot longer than today. By the time we’re at their place, you’ll be real happy to eat someone else’s food . . .”

The rest of the return trip to Nikky’s apartment was as uneventful as it was uninspiring. When they arrived, Michelle parked in front. “The night before a hit is always strange. We’ve had a boring day that still was tiring, but it’s normally hard to sleep and easy to stay up late. Don’t let yourself do that. Have a glass of wine, take a long hot bath, then drink some milk and go to bed. I’ll be here early in the morning. We both need to be sharp tomorrow.”

Tomorrow came very early. Today was the big day. Michelle headed to Nikky’s long before the sun came up. She parked on the street and got out to get Nikky, who surprised her by coming down the front walk before Michelle had even reached the front of the car.

They both climbed into Michelle’s Crossfire.

“Girl, did you hear me?” Nikky said. “I need some coffee. I’m still tired from yesterday and it’s an ungodly time. Please, I need some coffee.”

“No, you don’t,” Michelle said. “You need more sleep, not coffee. Leave the coffee alone for now. I put the top up so you’ll be cozy and warm. You just lean back and don’t get too woke up yet. When we switch to Uncle G’s Chrysler, get in the back; it’s roomy and you can sleep on the drive down to the boat. We still have a couple of hours before the sun wakes you up.”

Michelle would rather not have brought Nikky in on this project. She didn’t have the training and she lacked discipline. However, she naturally had the right personality: quiet, watchful, a fast thinker, and always ready to move. She’d be fine. Besides, she had as much right as anyone to get at that rat bastard Jerome. He jacked her pretty bad, and for no good reason, too. Besides, an extra person would be helpful during the busy day.