Nat wasn’t exactly sure of what had just happened, but he instinctively said, “I’ll be there.”
Sheba rolled her eyes. “You better be. This will be the first time I’ll get to enjoy one of Lamont’s parties without having to fend off his annoying advances.” She frowned at Lamont and told Nat, “Your job is to keep this asshole away from me.”
Lamont said, “I’m not that bad.”
“Yes you are,” Sheba insisted. “You’re a dirty dog.” She smiled at Nat and said, “I’m only agreeing to go because you seem like a nice guy.”
Lamont pulled out his Black card. “Can we pay for this stuff now please?”
They paid for the things and Sheba walked them out the boutique. “Don’t stand me up either,” she firmly told Nat.
Nat laughed. “I won’t.”
“Don’t worry,” she warned. “I’ll hunt you down and kill you if you do,” she joked.
“I got you,” Nat promised and then climbed in the limo with Lamont.
Sheba stood at the curb as the limo pulled off. Lamont stuck his head out the window and said, “Just make sure you show up!”
Sheba shook her head in amusement. Then she realized how giddy she had acted around Nat and had to admit she was looking forward to seeing him again. She even decided right there on the spot that she would get her hair done up nice and special. For the first time in a long time she was going to style herself for an event. She turned to head back in the shop and stopped when she noticed Tess, Saleena, and Izzy pulling up in the Escalade.
“Twelve forty-five. They’re early,” she whispered.
Tess, Saleena, and Izzy climbed out the truck and Sheba greeted them with a wide smile and led them inside.
Sheba told Tess, “I’m glad you came back.”
Tess waved her off. “Please, I told you this place was like a dream come true.” Tess hurried over to the handbags and squealed, “Yes.” She turned to Izzy and said, “Go get the Macy’s bag from the truck.”
Izzy ran out to the truck and returned with a Macy’s bag.
Sheba eyed Saleena’s outfit and asked, “Are you looking for anything particular this afternoon?”
Tess announced, “We need one of everything we can fit.”
“One of everything?” Sheba asked in disbelief.
Tess smirked. “You told me everything in here was select right?”
Sheba nodded. “Every piece is handpicked by me and delivered direct from the designer.”
Tess motioned to Izzy and he tossed the bag at Sheba’s feet. “That’s a hundred and fifty grand, cash,” Tess said.
Sheba slowly picked up the bag and looked in it. “This is probably double what your bill is going to be.”
Tess nodded. “I know. Hold the rest as a prepayment on any new pieces you get. As soon as you get a piece, we get a piece.”
Sheba’s eyes narrowed. “You don’t need a stylist, you need a buyer.”
“Whatever you want to call it,” Tess said. “Do you want the job?”
Sheba thought about it for a moment. “I’m not sure.”
“Thirty percent on top of your markup,” Tess offered. “But we want everything before season.”
“Deal,” Sheba agreed. “Let me get each of your measurements.”
Sheba spent the next hour wrapping every inch of their bodies in measuring tape. She recorded everything from their shoe sizes to their hat sizes. By the time Sheba finished taking their measurements; she could look at any article of clothing and instantly know how it would fit them.
“We’re all done,” Sheba declared.
“Good,” Tess replied and handed Sheba a piece of paper with the address to the Pittsford mansion, “Pick us out one of everything from your current stock that will look good on us and ship it to that location. Make sure you throw in some accessories too. Ship future articles to the same address.”
Sheba glanced at the address. “Okay. You can expect the first shipment in two days.”
Tess looked Izzy and Saleena up and down and then told Sheba, “I think we’re gonna need to change into a few things before we leave.”
Sheba put together outfits for each of them and sent them into the back room to change. Izzy put on a sweater and jeans by DKNY Men, a pair of Cole Haan shoes, and a wool coat by Gucci. Saleena dressed in a top and jeans by Burberry and a double breasted swing coat by TBA.
Tess slipped into a pair of jeans by Dolce & Gabana, a Gucci top, and her mink. When they were done dressing Tess carried the pile of Polo clothes from the back room and dropped them at Sheba’s feet.
“Give them to the salvation army,” Tess instructed.
“Whatever,” Sheba muttered.
Tess, Izzy, and Saleena stepped out the boutique looking like a million bucks. Tess got behind the wheel and Saleena and Izzy got in the back seat. On the front passenger seat sat the backpack with the rest of the half million they brought for the trip.
Izzy reached over the front seat and grabbed the bag. “We have a lot of money left,” he pointed out.
Saleena said, “I like my new clothes a lot, but shopping wasn’t that much fun.”
Tess laughed. “That wasn’t shopping. Shopping is about negotiating and working a salesclerk down from a price. Shopping usually takes places in jewelry stores. We’re about to go shopping. But first we have to make a stop in Chinatown.”
Saleena asked, “A stop for what?”
Izzy answered, “The ID’s remember?”
Tess pulled off with no idea that someone had been watching them since they pulled up.
Nor did she notice the nondescript sedan that followed them all the way to Chinatown. It wasn’t until after they spent two hours in the back of a so-called massage parlor getting new identities complete with birth certificates, social security cards, and high-quality fake driver’s licenses that Tess realized they were being tailed.
“We got company,” Tess said as she stopped at a red light.
“Where?” Saleena asked and looked back.
“Don’t look,” Tess said. “Two cars back.”
Izzy checked the rearview mirror. “What do you want to do?”
Tess thought for a moment and said, “I got an idea.”
Tess took the Lincoln Tunnel to Jersey and hopped on the Jersey Turnpike and pulled into the first rest stop she came across. As expected, the tail followed them and parked a few feet away.
“Stay in the truck,” Tess told Izzy and Saleena while grabbing a Glock .9mm from under the driver seat.
Tess tossed the gun in her mink and walked in the main entrance of the rest stop. She went into a gift shop and purchased a ball of yarn and then left the rest stop through a side exit. The tail was busy watching the main entrance. He didn’t notice Tess as she crept to the back of the car. She quickly hopped in the back seat and pressed the barrel of the gun against his temple. It happened so fast that he didn’t have a chance to react. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes.
“Don’t shoot me,” he pleaded.
“Why are you following us?” Tess asked already knowing the answer.
He stuttered as he said, “My boss told me to keep tabs on you and find out where you are staying.”
“Who’s your boss?” Tess questioned.
He paused and Tess pressed the gun deeper into his ribs. “Look,” the guy said. “I usually do pick-ups and drops. Whatever problem you have with PJ has nothing to do with me.”
“Pick-ups and drops,” Tess mouthed, and then asked, “Money?”
“Yeah,” he nodded. “I’m just a delivery guy.”
Tess smirked. “Good enough. I’m not going to kill you.”
The guy sighed in relief. “Thank you.”
“What’s your name?” she asked.
“Phil.”
Tess put her gun down and threw Phil in a choke hold from behind. He tried to wiggle his bo
dy free, but her grip was too strong. “Sleep,” she whispered to him as his body went limp.
Saleena and Izzy were waiting for Tess to walk out the main entrance when Tess parked Phil’s car next to the truck. Tess got out the car and waved Saleena and Izzy over.
“What happened?” Saleena asked as they approached the car.
Tess pointed at the back seat, where Phil’s unconscious body lay hog-tied. “I got him”
Izzy chuckled. “Let’s take him home and make him the first step in our quest to take over
Simon’s organization.”
Saleena smiled devilishly. “Sounds like a plan to me.”
Chapter Ten
Sheba walked into her sparsely furnished Soho loft carrying the Macy’s bag of money. The loft was basically a huge room with a kitchen, a bathroom, and a walk-in closet filled with designer clothes and shoes. A king size bed sat in the center of the room with a sectional sofa on the wall to the right and a wall mounted flat screen TV on the wall to the left. Sheba had barely taken two steps into the loft when the doorbell rang. She glanced at the bag and then threw it under the bed before going to the front door and looking through the peephole. She snatched the door open and sighed at the sight of a tall, blond-haired man in a dark-blue suit.
“What Marcus?” she said with frustration.
Marcus walked in and shut the door behind him. “You have a job to do,” he said and removed an envelope from his blazer.
Sheba snatched the envelope with attitude. “I told you I was done.”
“No you’re not,” he stated firmly.
“Yes I am,” she insisted.
Marcus exhaled. “Look Sheba, this is bigger than the jobs. This is about family.”
Sheba shook her head. “Family should respect the life I’m choosing for myself.”
“And we do,” Marcus assured. “But that doesn’t mean you can walk away from the family business. Thomas expects you to do this job.”
Sheba hesitated before she responded. “I’m grateful for Thomas taking me in. I’ve always done what was asked of me, and I never asked for anything in return, but I need to choose my own path now.”
Marcus scratched his chin. “Just go with Mary to do this job. I’ll sit down with Thomas and try to get him to see things your way.”
Sheba opened the envelope and read the contents. “North Dakota?”
Marcus nodded. “You leave tomorrow. You’ll be back in a day.”
“I’ll do it,” she surrendered. “But this is it.”
“It is what it is,” Marcus shrugged. “I’ll let Thomas know.”
“Thanks Bro.” She hugged him.
“Good luck,” Marcus told her before leaving.
Sheba leaned against the door and exhaled. She hoped Marcus could get Thomas to let her go, but she knew it was a long shot.
***
Twenty years earlier, Sheba had been a snot-nosed toddler when Thomas found her abandoned in Grand Central Station. Someone had placed a fanny pack around Sheba’s waist with a note inside that read, “Her name is Sheba. Please raise her right.”
Thomas had been in his late 30’s back then. He was CEO and founder of a very successful private security firm that catered to corporations. He was also a widower and a single father of an eight-year-old boy, Marcus; and a six-year-old girl, Mary. His children just happened to be with him when he stumbled upon Sheba.
“Can we take her home, daddy?” Mary had asked.
Thomas looked around and thought about how rough life would be for Sheba in foster care. “I guess so,” he said without thinking.
Thomas took Sheba home to the family’s Hampton estate and raised her like his own, which meant preparing her to enter the family business. Not only did Sheba get the best education that money could buy, but she was still just a toddler when Thomas had her join Marcus and Mary in martial arts training. By the time Sheba was sixteen, she was highly efficient in more than four fighting styles, more than adept at using a knife during close combat, and a qualified marksman with a handgun. By the time Sheba was eighteen, she and her siblings had joined the family business.
It turned out that Thomas’ firm was more into securing the interests of powerful corporations than offering security for their personnel. Thomas was a corporate assassin. Corporations hired him to resolve irresolvable situations, and that usually involved destroying a reputation, torching an establishment, or arranging an untimely death. Thomas had been a one- man firm for nearly thirty years, and then each of his children joined him as they came of age. The children became his secret weapons, and Sheba had been the deadliest.
Sheba had effortlessly mastered the art of murder. She never ceased to amaze Thomas with the eagerness and diligence with which she completed her assignments. She never disappointed. There once was a major shareholder who refused to sell one of Thomas’ clients his shares. Sheba crept into his house while he was in the shower, broke his neck, and made it look like he slipped and fell. Then there was the whistle-blower who would’ve cost a client billions of dollars in fines and taxes. Sheba sabotaged a boiler in the basement of a movie theater and blew up the entire building. She didn’t give a second thought to killing four hundred people to get to her target. She had an indifference about killing that filled Thomas with pride.
Sheba had done Thomas’ bidding for almost four years. He had been ready to retire and hand her the reins of the company. He was confident she would not let his clients down. He had been prepared to announce his decision to the children when Sheba told him she no longer wanted to be a part of the family business. Thomas mostly blamed himself. He had encouraged her to start a business of her own on the side as a cover for the work she did for the family business, but he had never imagined she would take her boutique so seriously. First he considered burning her boutique to the ground, and he would have done it if it had been just about business. But it was also a family matter, so he decided to give Sheba a little time and space to see if she would come to her senses—then he would protect his business interest at all costs.
Sheba knew that Thomas had sent Marcus to deliver more than just the assignment. The assignment itself was a message that her little sabbatical was over and the notion of her leaving the family business was no longer up for discussion, but Sheba wouldn’t give in that easily. She hoped Marcus could gain her enough time to come up with a plan to shake free.
***
Simon had transformed the entire sixth floor of his headquarters into an eight bedroom penthouse that had enough amenities to put any house on MTV Cribs to shame. It had a state of the art home theater, an industrial-sized kitchen with professional cooks, an indoor basketball court, an indoor pool, and a full-size bar. Only one of the building’s six elevators went to the sixth floor, and it opened right into Simon’s lavishly furnished living room. Everything about the pad was overdone to the point of meaningless extravagance. It was a direct reflection of Simon’s ego. He was on top, literally and figuratively. Stacy, Tracy, and Angela were the only other people with permanent residences in the building, and they all lived on the fifth floor.
Simon sat on the living room sofa eating a burger and fries when Stacy stepped off the elevator. She sat down beside Simon without a word, and he knew she had brought bad news.
He slowly sat his food down and asked, “What is it?”
“Good news and bad news,” she said.
“Bad news first,” he insisted.
Stacy crossed her legs. “The tail we had on Tess disappeared.”
Simon nodded as if he had expected the news. “And the good news?”
“The last time the tail checked in, Tess, your sister, and Izzy were meeting some woman at a boutique. They spent almost two hours with her,” Stacy explained.
Simon shrugged. “It was probably just shopping. That’s why we put eyes in the Village in the first place. We expected her to go shopping.”
“
The woman met them at their car and they didn’t have any bags when they left,” Stacy pointed out.
Simon thought for a moment. “You think this woman might be one of Tess’ old contacts?”
“Anything is possible,” Stacy said with a nod.
“Alright,” Simon exhaled. “Run a background check on this boutique and find out whatever you can about this woman.”
Stacy stood. “I’m already on it.”
***
Phil sat gagged and duct taped to a chair in the middle of Izzy’s living room while Tess, Izzy, and Saleena debated what to do to him. Saleena held the summoning blade and Izzy and Tess held handguns.
“I’m telling you,” Tess said. “His body will survive as long as we don’t shoot him in the head”
Saleena suggested, “Let’s just stab him in the heart.”
Phil’s eyes grew wide and he struggled to get free to no avail. Tess pointed her gun at his chest, but Izzy stepped in the line of fire.
“Wait,” Izzy shouted.
Tess sighed in frustration. “Now what?”
Izzy reasoned, “If we want a demon to keep his body, we should keep the body intact.”
Saleena and Tess agreed, and then Saleena asked, “How are we going to do that?”
Izzy ran in the kitchen and came back with a plastic bag. “We suffocate him with this. It won’t mark his body at all. Then our demon will take on his life.”
Tess’ face lit up. “That’s perfect. I would’ve never thought of that.”
Izzy poked his chest out with pride. “That’s because you’re not a reaper.” He handed the bag to Tess. “You do the honors.”
Pain and fear filled Phil’s eyes as Tess walked behind him and pulled the bag over his head. He frantically tried to turn and tilt his head from side to side, but Tess held the bag tight around his neck cutting off his air. His body tensed as he struggled to breathe. Izzy and Saleena watched as his body went limp showing no signs of life. Tess removed the bag and Izzy and Saleena stepped closer. All three of them kept their eyes trained on Phil’s lifeless body. Minutes passed and there was no sign of any demon. Izzy moved Phil’s head from side to side and got no response.
“Maybe he wasn’t one of mine,” Izzy proposed.
“He worked for Simon,” Tess reminded.
Saleena said, “Indirectly. Maybe he didn’t realize what he was doing for Simon.”