The Heist (4 page)

“No, I don’t have the key.”

“Oh, please help me,” she cried weakly.

Kumar glanced back over his shoulder. “Hey, it’s going to be okay. Lee is a—”

“A monster! Can’t you see what he’s done to me? He’s crazy! You have to help me!”

“Calm down.”

“Noooooo! Help! Help! Help!”

Kumar dropped the food and rushed to her, throwing his hand over her mouth, forcing her head to snap back. He moved his face so close to hers their lashes brushed. He spoke in an even tone. “Don’t! If you keep screaming, then you’re going to force the men outside this door to come up with ways to keep you quiet. Do you want that?”

She shook her head from side to side. He nodded. “Good. Maybe I can talk to them about loosening the restraints. But you’re going to have to cooperate. Be smart about it!”

She nodded that she understood.

Kumar dropped his hand. “Look, I got a burger and fries for you. I can feed it to you.”

“Yes,” she agreed softly. “My stomach hurts. I think it's from the drugs he gave me.”

Was she trying to summon sympathy? He sensed her stare as he walked back to the table.

***

Sasha thought he looked to be from India. His skin was a richer shade of brown than her own. His blue-black hair was wound in tight, dark locks, tapered neatly around his face, cut low to his head. He was athletic, lean, and sinewy. His dark eyes and delicate features made him strikingly handsome. He turned and managed to smile. Sasha greatly appreciated his gentle manner at that moment.

Lee had used her and discarded her like trash. She’d played Lee's game and lost. Her only hope of salvation was this man. So she remained mute as he dragged a chair over to face her, then he straddled it and held the burger to her lips.

Sasha took a small bite and began to chew. Her eyes scanned her surroundings and found it to be an office. With cement floors and gray paneled walls, the entire room was dreary and dusty. It smelled of mildew, oil, and musk. Pipes hung above, some of them leaking into gooey puddles that had formed over time.

She swallowed before asking, “Where is this place?”

Kumar shoved the burger back under her nose. She took another bite. Chewing, she glanced at the fries. The stranger fed her a few. Talking with her mouth full, she tried to chew and smile through it. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Kumar Suresh.”

“My name is Sasha Dixon.”

“I know,” he replied, picking up a soda then giving her the straw. Sasha sipped obediently. Kumar continued to feed her as if it were the most natural thing between them. He did so in silence, with Sasha thinking of how she could use his friendship to her advantage. There had to be a way.

“I have to go to the bathroom,” she announced.

“You what?”

“The bathroom. I’ve been tied to this chair for hours. You just fed me. You gave me half a soda.”

He cursed under his breath. She guessed he couldn’t deal with the new development. “I told you I don’t have the key.”

“Well, what do these people expect me to do? I have to use the bathroom.”

He rose and folded up the burger paper. “Hold it,” he snapped.

“Whaaa?” She watched him pick up the soda as if he were about to take leave. “Wait! Don’t leave me like this! Please!”

He slammed out. Sasha panicked. “Kumar! Come back! Please!”

***

“There she is!” Cosmo grinned as Michelle pushed open the door to the diner. Jody and Corrine were on duty, helping him close up for the night. They were both clearing away the last traces of customers when she entered. Cosmo, a balding Italian man with a round belly, chubby face, and a big heart, sat in a booth counting out the money from the drawer.

Michelle turned over the “closed” sign, released the lock, and engaged it. How many times had she warned him to lock the door? Two stores on this block had been hit with nighttime robberies. Cosmo was old school. He felt his long-term presence in the community provided him some protective cover. Michelle knew better. The community had changed. These young thugs lived by no code and respected no one. They would shoot their own mother if she stood in the way of a shiny watch or new pair of sneakers.

“Hi, Cosmo.”

“Come, sit with me…help me make sense of this.”

She walked over, removing her coat, her heart still heavy and her mind reeling. Lee wanted a job done in less than a week, one that his enemies took years to plan. The ticking clock was the noose around Sasha’s neck. Picking up the credit card receipts, she began to tally. Cosmo’s gaze lifted at her in silence. “Something wrong?”

Michelle chewed on her bottom lip but held her tongue. His hand covered hers, and she finally met his concerned stare. “What is it?”

“Sasha.” She pulled her hands free and rubbed the ball of her palms into her weary eyes. “She’s been taken.”

“Taken?”

“Kidnapped. She’s been kidnapped.”

“What!” Cosmo roared. Michelle immediately regretted telling him. But she was so desperate and worried. “If it were my own life, Cosmo, I could handle it. But I swore to Pops I’d protect her. I can’t believe this is happening.”

“So it’s from Pops’ life, those gangsters he stole for? They’ve come after you?”

“More like Sasha went to them. She’s been gambling. Like Pops. Gambling and now she’s in deep.”

Cosmo rubbed his fat unshaved jaw. “Michelle, I got some cash.”

“No, you don’t have this kind of cash. Besides, he doesn’t want payment that way. He wants
me
.”

“He can’t have you!” Cosmo slammed his meaty fist down on the dinner table. “You listen to me, you have options. Pops chose that life, but you made a different choice. Three years ago, you enrolled in school. You’ve done good, real good. We’re waiting to hear on medical school, right? No, not this. I made my own promises to Pops when you walked away from it. We’re calling the cops.”

“No, no.” She grabbed Cosmo’s wrists. “No, don’t. These men will kill her.”

“They may kill her anyway.”

Michelle drew back as the words she had refused to consider birthed a new fear. Sasha’s life hung in the balance, no matter what she chose to do.

***

The door opened and her head shot up. The room was dark. She’d been asleep but didn’t know for how long. A flashlight beam shone on her. Squinting in the light, she listened as someone approached. There had to be what, two or three of them? “Who is it?”

“Hello, princess,” a familiar voice coaxed.

“Lee?”

The visitor stepped in front of the beam. A tall, darkly clad figure. Then he lowered himself to eye level. The light fell over him from behind, giving faint definition to his handsome features.

“You asshole!” she spat out.

Lee smirked. “How’s my princess doing today?”

“How? I’m chained up, you jerk! This was never part of our deal.”

“Our deal was you’d be kidnapped and
Chocolat
would come to the rescue. It was your idea.”

“Not for real!” she squealed.

Lee’s voice hardened. “In this world, little girl, everything is real.”

Sasha drew back. “I wasn’t a little girl when you had your dick in my mouth!”

Lee rose. Towering over her, he offered some relief from the relentless beam of light. She no longer had to squint. However, his dark shadow felt as comforting as Satan’s wing pulling her in close. He was much scarier now that the balance of power had shifted between them. Who was she kidding? She never had the power to begin with.

“
Chocolat
has your message and she’s very upset.”

“Don’t hurt my sister! Don’t hurt her!”

“She has three days to come up with a plan to get my gemstones. I suggest that during your stay, you be careful who you share our agreement with. Not many people would take kindly to a woman who purposely sets up her own sister.”

“I didn’t mean for it to go down like this. I meant…I just wanted your attention. Not for her to go after it alone. You have to help her. Protect her. This isn’t her fault.”

“She’ll deliver. When she does, you better be ready to answer her questions. She doesn’t strike me as being the kind of woman who likes to be played with.”

Sasha’s bottom lip trembled, and her eyes pooled with tears as he walked away. “Lee?”

Lee stopped; though she couldn’t see him she sensed him. The light was in her face again. “Lee, can you please untie me? I can’t stand being chained down. For God’s sake, just untie me. Where could I go?”

“Take care of it,” he told someone and the light clipped off. The men all left.

“Lee!” She yelled after him as the door closed, shutting her in darkness. Sasha dropped her head and screamed until her vocal cords strained. “Leeeeeee!” She wept until she slumped over and fell back into a painfully uncomfortable sleep.

***

Michelle forced the door open. The turnkey always jammed the locks. Pops’ room, rented the last year of his life for $150 a month, was as he left it. She paid the tab faithfully. Sasha’s and her own grief after his death had shocked her. Keeping his room was something they both agreed upon. It was the only piece of him they could hang onto.

She entered the darkness, not bothering with the light. A heavy cloud of sadness descended upon her shoulders and weighted her steps. She paid for the room, yes, but she hadn’t returned since the funeral. With Sasha gone, and her life in Lee’s hands, Michelle couldn’t think of any other place to go.

***

“
You want to talk about it?” Pops asked.

“No,” Michelle said, making the next turn. She couldn’t ever talk about it. Her heart and her pride suffered a tremendous blow. How could she share that with her Pops?

“Lee told me.”

Michelle swerved from her lane to the next until the car veered off the road into the dirt path. The vehicle pitched and then screeched to a halt in a cloud of dust. Pops didn’t seem the least moved by her reaction. She gripped the steering wheel tightly, all the suppressed emotion lodged in her throat preventing speech. The words were hard to form but she spoke them through clenched teeth. “What did he tell you?”

“That he found you in his bed, naked.” Pops looked over at her with concern. “Why, Chocolat? Why would you go to him?”

“Why? Did you just ask me why? What do I know of men and love? Huh, Pops? All I know is this. All I know is men like him. You swear that he’s the best in the business, and the most faithful friend. Why wouldn’t I give him a roll?”

Pops’ backhanded slap knocked her head back into the headrest. Her vision blurred and her nose dripped blood. Michelle touched her face in horror. Her father had never struck her. Never. He'd never even raised his voice to her or Sasha. She trembled at the anger and disappointment in his eyes. What right did he have to be upset?

“You listen to me.” He put a finger in her face. “You listen, because I’m only going to say this once, girl. You are no man’s whore. I didn’t raise you to be some skank like your mother. Or drunk like me. I gave you a hustle, a game of your own, to make you a survivor. You better than Leith Sullivan. You better than me. Do you understand?”

Michelle blinked back tears.

“Do you?” he yelled.

She nodded. “Yes, yes, Pops.”

He threw open the car door and got out. Michelle burst into tears. There was no room in her life for such irrational emotion, so the reaction hit her with more pain than she was accustomed to. She fell forward and cried, hard. She could do nothing to conceal her embarrassment. She didn’t turn to Lee to be his whore; she went to him to feel loved. How could she tell her father the reasons why when she could barely admit them to herself?

Opening the car door, she got out. Her legs felt stiff. Her face burned hot and so did her nose. Pops paced. He stopped and looked at her. He went to her. “Forgive me, Chocolat.” He brought her into his arms. “I will never hit you again, I swear it. I swear it.”

“I’m sorry, Pops.”

“No, no, you’re right. I did this to you. To you and Sasha. I'll find a way to make this all right. Just hang in there with me. Let me find our way out. Okay?”

She held onto him, the man who rescued her as a little girl from foster care. Who taught her to play cards when she was only six. Her blood and flesh. Pops was all she had. “Okay, okay, whatever you say, Pops.
”

***

Pops had kept his promise. Part of it. He never struck her again. But he failed in his mission to free her and Sasha from his life. When she told him she was done, he accepted it bitterly. When she enrolled in college and refused to take his money to pay for it, he agreed. But when he pulled Sasha in on a job that nearly got her killed because of his sloppy handiwork, she had enough. That year, the last one before he died, she banished him from their lives. And even from the grave they couldn’t escape Pops’ legacy.

Michelle sat on his sofa. The tiny room he rented and lived out of had one window. It faced the alley and the brick wall of another building. Despite the blockage, moonlight poured in. She slumped forward with her face buried in the palms of her hands. “What do I do now, Pops?” She folded her arms tight under her breasts. “What do I do now?”

Chapter Three

A truck backed up with warning beeps. The sounds of the city rushed to her subconscious and her eyes opened slowly. She’d slept in Pops’ bed to clear her head. To summon the answers that eluded her when she was awake.

A straight girl would have called the police. That girl would risk the life of her loved one and stupidly put it in the law’s hand. That girl believed the good guys always won. But she wasn’t a straight girl. If the cops got to Lee, and that was a big ‘if’ since most were on his payroll, then every international smuggler in the world would think the Dixon girls would flip them next. The Order would step in to deal with them. She would have a target on her back whether she was free or in jail. There was no way around that reality.