“I don’t see where her association with Mr. Villanueva or Mr. Copeland has any relevance to the matter at hand.”
“Mrs. Black’s association with known criminals is relevant to this investigation,”
“Why?” Shy asked.
“Because you and your husband are known criminals, Mrs. Black. And you personally were arrested and charged with murder and conspiracy to distribute.”
“Just for the record, I’d like to point out that Mrs. Black was never arrested, and those charges were dismissed with prejudice,” Patrick said calmly. “And as you well know, agent Dietrich, Mr. Black has been investigated by the FBI and the DEA, twice, and both agencies concluded their investigations without any charges being brought having found that Mr. Black has no involvement in the narcotics business.”
Shy smiled at the agent.
“Were you aware that certain members of the Ferreira Family run The Comodoro Cartel?” Sanders asked.
“No. Prior to you just saying it,
I had no idea the Mr. Ferreira was involved with any cartel.” Shy smiled and looked at Dietrich. “If I had known that he had any association with any cartel I would not have anything to do with him.”
When Shy left the precinct with Patrick, she was not charged in the murder, but she understood that with her being the last person to see him alive and the implied connections to known drug dealers, that she was a person of interest if not a suspect. As soon as she got in the car with Chuck, Shy immediately called Valencia, but the call went straight to voicemail.
Chapter Nineteen
The reason that Shy’s call went straight to voicemail was because Valencia and Geno were on a flight to Freeport. As the plane drifted over the clouds, Valencia thought about where she was, where she was going and how she got there. She was on her way to The Bahamas to meet Napoleon Wade. For a time he was Black and Shy’s bodyguard, but when Jada had Aaron killed, Black suggested that she put Napoleon in that spot and since Jada generally took Black’s suggestions as orders, Napoleon became the boss of her operation in Freeport. For that, Valencia was happy; excited even.
If everything went well, and there was no reason for her to think that it wouldn’t, in a few hours there was a good chance that she could put all this behind her and move forward with her life. Something that she’d been trying to do for quite a while now with no success. But even if she got Ezequiel Simmonds off her neck, there was still the matter of the murder of Coleman Patterson that she had to deal with. That’s where she was. How she got there, how she got herself into this mess and a result of her choices.
Her grandmother’s words always rang true.
If you give a dance, you gotta pay the band.
Valencia glanced at Geno, sitting next to her with his eyes close and knew that it was time to pay the check. She hadn’t done right by him either. He hit the nail on the head when he said, I was a street hustler and he was a millionaire. Sad and sorry as it may seem, that was the reason that she chose Gustavo.
You can’t love without money, you can’t make love on hungry belly, was another of her grandmother’s sayings.
In the days when they were together, Geno was always looking for the next big hit and then the one after that. Valencia may have thought that she was falling in love, but she couldn’t see that life for herself, so she chose with her head instead of her heart and chose poorly. She looked away and closed her eyes, thinking how happy she was that she had a second chance with him.
Geno opened his eyes and looked at Valencia. He exhaled, shook his head, and wondered what the fuck was he doing? He was on his way to Freeport to talk to Napoleon about some shit that wasn’t his business, for a woman who left him for another man, and was responsible for Shy being questioned by the police for murder. And the question that he had to ask himself was why? His answer was as complicated as it was simple; you loved her once and she needs your help. Complicated, simple, and just a bit stupid.
Geno Crocker was a member of The Family, Mike Black’s family, and in that family, there are rules, one of which was no drugs. The Comodoro Cartel wanted to move their product coming into the country through Freeport, which, by definition meant that he should have no part in it. But there he was descending through the clouds to land at Grand Bahama International Airport.
I need to call Carter, Geno thought. He was in deep, and his captain needed to know where he was, what he was doing, and who he was with.
When they got off the plane in Freeport, Valencia turned on her phone and got Shy’s message.
Good afternoon, Valencia. This is Cassandra Black speaking. It is extremely important that you call me as soon as you get this message.
Instead of calling Shy back and without telling Geno that she called, Valencia silenced her phone and put it back in her purse. After making it through customs, Geno excused himself and went to make his call.
“You’re where, with who?” Carter asked, walking quickly away from Rain.
“I’m in Freeport with Valencia DeVerão.”
“What the fuck, Geno. You know Rain got the whole damn family out hunting her?”
“No, but I’m not surprised.”
“What the fuck are you doing there?”
“I’m going to Palais De Plaisir to see Napoleon.”