Commit To Violence

"Maybe you should get some," Black advised.

"No," Jada insisted. "I don’t need security. I need Mike Black," she said and moved close to him.

"Me? Why you think you need me?"

"Do I really need to answer that question?"

"No. Not really. I get the point. So, if take care of this guy for you, what makes you think that I wouldn’t want twenty percent of your business?"

"Because you’d be doing me a favor. You know, like the one I did for you not too long ago."

"I see."

"I was talking to James Fremeno. You remember the reporter from the New York Post that I set out for you."

"How’s he doing?"

"He said that he wanted to thank me for putting him in touch with Miss Collins, because the story she gave him was inline to win some award for reporting."

"The Tom Renner Award for Crime Reporting."

"Was that what it was?" Jada giggled. "Then he told me that the guy the articles were about ended up getting murdered in Mexico. A DEA agent; Peter J. Vinnelli, I believe his name was."

"I see you’ve been checkin’ up on me, Ms. West?"

"Jada, please, call me Jada," she said and smiled at Black. "But, no, I’m not checking up on you. It’s like I told you, you’re a very important man, Mike Black. And I try to know important things about important men."

"How do you wanna come outta this?"

"With this guy off my back and me not owing you twenty percent of my business," Jada said quietly.

"How’d you leave it with him?"

"He said he would be back here tomorrow afternoon, and he’ll expect my answer."

"What time tomorrow?"

"He didn’t say."

Black looked at Jada for what seemed to her like a long time. "Okay. I’ll see what I can do for you."

"That’s the best I could ask for," Jada said.

"What’s this guy’s name?"

"He said his name was Mushnikov. I think that’s how it’s pronounced."

"Oleg Mushnikov?" Black asked.

"I believe so. Do you know him?"

"Yeah, I know Oleg. We’re not exactly what you’d call friends, but I do know him," Black said and laughed a little. "You mind if I use your phone?"

"Not at all," Jada said and got up to get it. She knew she had come to the right person. Jada always loved a man who could get things done for her, and Mike Black was that type of man.

She handed Black the phone and he dialed a number. "Yeah," a man’s voice answered.

"Let me speak to Angelo."