Read Unraveled - A Short Story Collective Online
Authors: KR Bankston
Taea and Kayla might have appeared to be two of the least likely people to be best friends. But they clicked and were like sisters, despite their differences.
Taea was all the family Kayla had. With her mother’s side denying she exists and her father’s thinking she had First National Bank stamped on her forehead, Taea was the only person who treated her well. She didn’t ask for anything, and was always straight with her, even when it hurt.
Kayla was very leery of men when it came to romance. Put her in a boardroom or on the trade floor, and she was on. Love was something that always left her hurt, broken and alone. She’d just gotten out of a relationship a year ago that left her drained and guarded. Kayla loved Chris with all her heart, thinking he was truly the one, even giving him her virginity. He was a broker like she was, ambitious and on top of his game. Good looking, athletic, cultured, kind, and faithful. Well at least, Kayla thought he was faithful, until she caught him in bed with his office assistant. She thought she would never get past the pain and want to live again. She’d felt so stupid, but Taea was right there. She’d helped her cuss Chris out, berate him, and bleach his clothes. This made her laugh out loud and Taea looked at her like she was crazy.
“What in the hell is you laughing about girl?” Taea asked.
Kayla told her about the bleach incident and they both broke into long gales of laughter all over again. She often wondered what she would do without Taea being there for her. It sent a chill down her spine. It was a question Kayla didn’t want to ever have to answer.
“Anyway, if you’re through strolling down memory lane,” Taea interrupted her thoughts again, “Do you want to tell Adrian to ask them what they wanna do?”
Kayla thought a moment, admitting to herself and Taea, that she was curious.
“You should be, hell, you ain’t had none in how long now?” Taea teased, laughing at her friend.
“Oh shut up, will you? Good grief!” Kayla laughed. But she was right, which made it even funnier.
“OK, when he comes back, we’ll tell him to go see what’s up,” Kayla said.
“Sorry about the delay ladies.” Adrian said, as he put Taea and Kayla’s orders before them.
“You know its cool Adrian,” Kayla responded with a smile. “You all right? You look kinda upset,” she asked gently.
His usual warm smile had been replaced with a cold, deep scowl.
“Who ass we need to kick?” Taea chimed in.
Adrian smiled then and told them he was fine, just some personal stuff he was dealing with, thinking back to the phone call he’d just received from his lover.
“You can always talk to us if you need to Adrian. We’re not just your customers; we want to be your friends too,” Kayla said.
Adrian looked at her and then at Taea.
“Thanks, I will keep that in mind,” he told them.
“Now, what you two heffas want me to do about the ballers?” Adrian asked, trying desperately to lighten the mood and change his thoughts.
“Ask them what they wanna do,” Taea instructed him, giving him a look that said: you know what to do.
*****
“Well damn, it’s about time,” Dirty growled, thoroughly pissed now and ready to really inflict some bodily harm on Adrian.
“Bring me some more fucking lemonade, and I want a strawberry shortcake,” he ordered in a no nonsense tone.
“I’d like a tea refill myself man, and what about the ladies?” Devastator said pleasantly.
Adrian turned to him then,
God
, he thought to himself,
Why couldn’t the other one be like him? Hell, at least he’s still civil
.
“They asked what y'all wanna do,” Adrian said addressing Devastator, totally ignoring the still fuming Dirty, not wanting to piss him off more by looking the wrong way. Devastator flashed that million-dollar smile and Adrian wanted to melt into those pools in his cheeks.
“Tell them we want to go to The Industry,” he replied without missing a beat.
The Industry was one of three clubs that was owned and run by The Clique. It was the most trendy and upscale of the three, with all the professional, celebrity, and athletic crowd making it their place to enjoy the party.
“Tell them to be there at 10:00. We’ll leave their names at the door and they’ll be escorted to VIP, where we’ll be,” Devastator finished, his mind already working hours ahead.
Adrian nodded, thanked them for their dessert orders and left to complete his mission.
“So what you want with this one?” Dirty asked. “You usually just pick up one from the club, do your thing and move on. So what’s up with this one?”
Devastator paused for a minute thinking to himself before responding to his friend.
That was one helluva good question Dirty just asked. There was just something about her. He couldn’t put his finger on it exactly, but it was there.
He wanted to do more than just hit it. He actually wanted to get to know her.
“I’m not sure yet,” Devastator replied. “Something’s just different about her.”
Dirty thought about that.
“Well, her friend is cute enough, and got a nice body,” Dirty replied. “Hell, I’d do her, so it won’t be a total loss of the evening.” He laughed thinking of the fun he was going to have later that evening.
It never occurred to him that he might not get lucky. He was Dirty. Either they gave it, or he took it, but either way, he got it.
*****
“OK, here’s the deal,” Adrian was saying when he returned to their table to talk to them about the plans for the evening. “They want to go to The Industry. They want ya’ll to meet them there at 10:00, they’re going to leave your names at the door.”
“And then what?” Taea asked suspiciously. She wasn’t going to spend an evening at The Industry being stood up or left on the dance floor.
“They are having you escorted to VIP, where they’ll meet you,” Adrian said. “But remember what I told you earlier and be careful,” he looked at them hard.
Kayla wasn’t really keen on this whole date thing, especially after Adrian filled them in on who these guys were. This was unfamiliar territory for her, and Kayla really didn’t like being out of her element. But she would go because Taea would want to go; they were inseparable.
“Well, ain’t much they can do to us at a public club,” Taea countered, knowing Kayla was internalizing it. “We just wanna talk to them and see what’s really up. So tell ‘em it’s all good.” She looked at Kayla.
“Hey, Adrian, why don’t you come down to the club, too?” Kayla asked him. “We could actually hang out, and get to know you outside of work.”
Adrian thought about what his evening was undoubtedly going to be like after his earlier phone conversation, and told her he’d keep it in mind.
“That’s cool,” Kayla replied, a little disappointed.
“Yeah, we’ll be looking out for you heffa!” Taea giggled to him.
Adrian laughed himself. He took their checks and his tip, which was good as usual, and told them goodbye, as he went to the VIP table to let them know the evening was a go.
*****
“Was everything all right?” Adrian asked, again looking directly at Devastator, not sure of Dirty's mood.
“Yeah, everything was straight,” Devastator replied, flashing that million dollar smile.
He has got to be the most cultured killer I’ve ever seen. Everything about this man suggests class, finesse, even Wall Street; not the drugs, guns, prostitution, gambling and murder, which he knew was exactly what Devastator did
, Adrian thought.
“What was the verdict from the ladies?” he asked, snapping Adrian out of his thoughts.
“They said it was all good and they would be there,” he replied smiling.
This again elicited a smile from Devastator as well as a hundred-dollar tip with his check.
“Thanks man,” Devastator said to Adrian, and patted him on the back as he got up to leave.
Dirty simply growled, “Speed your ass up next time!” at him, mashed the check and money into his hand, and left.
*****
“So what’s the plan for tonight?” Dirty asked Devastator as they drove away from the restaurant.
They were flossing the Porsche 911 Turbo S today, black with the spoiler, 19-inch chrome wheels, black tint with the windows up, but they had the top down today. They enjoyed all the looks from women as they drove by or stopped at lights.
“Well let’s see what they’re about first,” Devastator replied. “Then we’ll go from there. If they’re just chicken heads or gold diggers, hell we know what to do.”
Dirty joined him laughing,
Yeah. Fuck 'em and dump 'em
.
“I like the looks of the lil' chocolate one. What’s her name again?” Dirty asked.
“Taea, I think is what old boy said,” Devastator replied.
“That’s a nice enough name. I’ll just call her Tee though, that way I can’t mess up,” Dirty laughed again.
Normally he didn’t care what their names were. They were just sex to him, but Devastator told him they had to be gentlemen tonight.
Dirty didn’t really get it, but Devastator was his friend and he’d done a lot for him over the years. They were tight and he’d never wronged him, so if he wanted this one thing from him, no problem. He would play this little game.
Hell it might even turn out to be fun
, Dirty thought.
2
D
irty and Dezi had some business to attend to before meeting up with the ladies later in the evening, as they pulled into the parking lot of their private office plaza and entered the building headed up to the top floor. From the casual observer’s point of view, this meeting would look just like any board meeting in any boardroom in America. But make no mistake, the men seated around this table were as deadly as they were intriguing. Devastator was almost ready to call the men to order to tackle that day’s agenda. Dirty was seated to his immediate right, and Monster, his top enforcer and bodyguard, sat to his left. The others were masters of various specialties: prostitution, drugs, money laundering, guns and gambling.
The cartel had no real holdings. But the dummy corporations Devastator created and legally established to launder money from the illegal activities had multimillion-dollar holdings and investments. Both Devastator and Dirty kept their own individual holdings in several off shore accounts making them both millionaires several times over. However, that was their money and they weren’t going to reveal that to any of the Clique members.
The agenda included some house cleaning. There was a hole in the operation. Revenue had been coming up short and locations had been raided. Devastator suspected a leak and told Monster to check it out. The culprit, Bone, had done a fairly decent job of covering himself until he made a fatal mistake of confiding in a woman. This particular woman, Honey, was one in his stable of hookers. She loved and worshipped Devastator, being faithful for years. She had come to him and laid out his whole plan. Then Monster had been sent to check it out, and found it was Bone as Honey had said.
Bone had aspirations of grandeur of taking over The Clique, thinking he was better suited for the job than Devastator because he had been in the game longer. He’d been tipping off the police to locations to raid in exchange for protection of his growing investment. Bone was double dealing with Devastator's suppliers, cutting side deals for himself, thus weakening the flow to the street. He’d even put his own stable of girls on the street to compete with the ones already established by The Clique. Now, having received the report, Devastator knew he had to do what was necessary.
“Gentlemen, lets begin,” began Devastator as he called the men to order. “The first orders of business I want to address are the fluctuations in revenue we’ve been experiencing.”
Dirty was just ready to do the deed, as patience was not his strong suite. He knew about Bone, and he knew what they were going to do.
Why do we always have to go around the maypole with this shit?
he thought. Dirty loved that Devastator made them money and got them respect, but he often wondered why everything had to be such a long drawn out process with him. Devastator loved the dramatic as much as he loved the bloodshed, unlike Dirty who simply gave it to his victim’s straight, no chaser. Devastator enjoyed the thrill of tormenting his victims and took every opportunity to do just that.
Devastator was still talking.
Sounding like the CEO of a Wall Street company
, Dirty thought and chuckled lightly.
When he saw Monster begin to move slowly and methodically from his position at the door, Dirty knew it was almost show time and could hardly contain his excitement.
“We have found the source of the problem and have come up with a viable solution to vastly improve it,” Devastator concluded.
As soon as the words left his lips, a single gunshot rang out from Monster’s gun. The .357 Magnum ripped through Bone’s skull, spraying blood and tissue on the members sitting closest to him. Before even realizing he’d been shot, he was dead.
“And that, gentlemen, will end our revenue shortage,” Devastator continued calmly to the horrified men still remaining at the table.
The two unfortunate men, who’d been sprayed, were busy trying to clean themselves off.
Dirty clapped his hands and gleefully said, “Next order of business?”
The men were speechless. They all knew Devastator was nothing to play with and that he had a serious reputation, but they truly had no comprehension of the depth of evil he was capable of. Devastator delegated this kill to Monster, leaving the body for the remainder of the meeting as a reminder to those who may have aspirations they hadn’t shared with him. He and Dirty were in charge and they weren’t looking for any more partners. The meeting lasted another 45 minutes, covering all the tasks they were undertaking for the month. After he was finished talking, Devastator asked for any questions.
Receiving none, he said simply, “Meeting adjourned,” and told Monster to take out the trash lying on his boardroom table.
*****
“Man that was excellent,” Dirty laughed as they traveled on the expressway heading to see a dealer. “Did you see the looks on their fucking faces? ”
Dirty was almost beside himself now, laughing so hard that tears were beginning to run down his cheeks. Devastator had to admit he’d enjoyed the show. He always loved it when the plan was right and carried out correctly. That one had been done to perfection.
Now, he was concentrating on the task he and Dirty were on their way to. One of the street-level distributors ripped off the Clique for five thousand dollars. Not a lot of money, actually pocket change for him and Dirty. Devastator supposed some would even wonder why they would personally handle the punishment, given the seeming insignificance of the amount.