A Wanted Woman Part 29

They turned around again and moved on, expensive shoes crunching gravel.

Zenga looked back at me twice. Both times he caught two middle fingers.

When they made it to their ride, they had forgotten that it was right-side drive. Zenga was driving and went to the wrong side, as did the other guys. They crossed each other again, shaking their heads and sweating. The Starbucks-deprived driver hesitated at the driveway. His windshield wipers came on. The controls were reversed on the car as well. He got the wipers turned off and the signal light came on.

They took to the rugged two-lane road and followed the crowd, headed toward the Wynter Crawford Roundabout, followed traffic flow, went to the left, and vanished up Highway 5.

Then the three unwise men were gone.

I took a nervous breath and picked up the briefcase.

It was heavy. Could be rigged. Could have a detonator, and when they were a half mile away they could push a red b.u.t.ton and make my world go boom. Then I looked behind me. I had left my back wide open. The library's window was a few feet away. There was no gla.s.s, just concrete, board, and bars. The woman who had just entered was standing there. She stared at me from behind iron bars.

She held a Beretta 92FS, an a.s.sa.s.sin's gun, the business end pointing out the window.

THIRTY.

Petrichor exited Six Roads Library, sweat on the tip of her nose, stood next to me, almost shoulder to shoulder, her Beretta no longer in sight, tucked away in her purse, and patted her weave over and over.

I took the .380 away from the small of my back, put the safety on, then dropped it inside of my backpack. I pulled out a purple LIME bandana, dabbed sweat from my face and neck, then tucked it in my back pocket. The hired gun next to me opened her umbrella again, gave us shade, but I could feel the heat emanating from her brown skin, polyester making her a furnace.

She said, "I don't see how women wear these polyester uniforms all day."

I snapped, "You were f.u.c.kin' late."

"Muddasik, Reaper. Can't you at least tell me good morning or good afternoon?"

She had lost the spot-on Jamaican accent and spoke in her natural Bahamian brogue.

I said, "f.u.c.kin' seriously? You should have been in position, on top of the Farmers' Cooperative with your rifle. I had hoped that you were and I couldn't see you. Minutes later you came walking up, walking and doing a wukkup like you were Mother Sally and you worked for Rachel Pringle. What the f.u.c.k?"

"You're angry and looking like ya bound."

"I set this up, had them all out in the open. You should've been there. If I made it here before you, if they arrived first, then you were late. This is inexcusable. f.u.c.kin' inexcusable."

"Noted. It rained on my side of the island. Then I came down Spring Garden Highway and it was jam up because the students at UWI were in the road having some sort of impromptu Mas party. They were chipping and wining, grinding on top of each other and their trucks that blocked the road. DJs were yelling and doing some sort of crazy celebration down by Brandon's Beach. I was stuck in traffic."

"Inexcusable. Don't you dare give me that muddasik face again."

"Do we have to do this in the sun?"

"What kind of backup are you? You're supposed to be a professional sniper."

"Reaper, I had your back at the Hilton. Gimme some d.a.m.n credit. I was on time, waiting in the room one floor up, and I dropped the rope down on time, pulled it back up when you made it to the ground. You walked in the room looking like a guy, then you vanished. I helped you do that."

"That was then. I needed you to have my back this morning. This was crucial."

"Do. We. Have. To. Do. This. In. The. Sun?"

We stepped up the stairs and stood in the shade. It was better, but it was too late to cool down. Anger made me sweat. I handed her the envelope that I had stuffed with Bajan money.

It was her delayed payment for watching my back at St. Lawrence Church and the cricketer job.

I said, "Your wicked a.s.s threw a Haitian woman off a building."

"The government wanted her out of their pockets and out of the news."

"Anyway. You put down four guys in one night."

"Five. No, wait. It was six. No, seven. Lost count. But I think it was seven in total."

"You put an arrow through a guy's chest down by Government Hill?"

"Through his back. He was running across the field, trying to get into the projects, to his guns."

"Why so many jobs in one night?"

She yawned. "Last two guys had seen my face. Had to handle that."

"You didn't wear a mask?"

"Didn't want to mess my hair up."

I said, "Don't get caught. You live here. I haven't reached out to you unless I had to because of that, but when I do my back is against the wall and I have no other options and I do it so you never have to be seen. I protect you. This is serious and I've kept away from you because I don't want you at risk, and you're s.h.i.tting where you eat? That's not good. Why do you do that, work where you live?"

"Saves on gas."

I said, "Next time, if I'm here, let me handle that for you. You won't have to lie to your husband."

"Sounds like you care about me a little bit."

"It's just a professional courtesy, nothing more, nothing less."

She said, "What about the other thing?"

"What other thing?"

"The watch."

"Oh. Right. I washed the blood away and cleaned it."

I handed her the faux Rolex and jewelry that I had worn when I had met with the cricketer. She liked it all. I liked things, but I'd never been attached to material things.

She dropped it inside her purse and smiled.

I said, "Forgetting something?"

"Oh. Right."

She opened her bag and gave me the black sequined skirt she had worn at the Gap.

She said, "Don't be mad. I'm sorry. Forgive me for being late."

We shook hands like men at the end of a business arrangement.

She said, "You're going to h.e.l.l for cutting the man's d.i.c.k off in a church parking lot."

"I did more than that. What I did was trademark for an a.s.sa.s.sin on my level."

"Wicked as s.h.i.te. b.l.o.o.d.y and brilliant. You really need to show me how to do that."

"Forgot to tell you. Been preoccupied. He had ten grand US on him."

"d.a.m.n. Who walks around in the Gap with twenty thousand in Bajan?"

"You want that, too?"

"Nah. You paid me. The fake watch and costume jewelry are enough."

"Maybe I'll get the money back to his legion of kids."

"Why? Finders keepers."

"Kids need to eat."

"Twenty thousand divided by twenty kids won't be much for each kid."

"Twenty kids?"

"From what I hear the number is still rising. Not including whoever is pregnant."

"Not including who else he breed. No matter how it divides, better than nothing."

"All his baby-mommas will do is run to Limegrove and buy bags and shoes."

I said, "He must have been dating American women."

"Most probably watch the Kardashians. They learn from the best."

"Right or wrong, responsible or irresponsible, even if the kids have much more coming, even if they have nothing coming but hard times, that money should be for them to divide."

"That bey was kinda hot. You should have got some before you detached the goods."

"I prefer to have a boyfriend for certain things. Not a one-off kinda girl."

"Met anybody since you've been here?"

"The broker for the Hilton job hit on me. Black Jack came on strong."

"Bey was s.e.xy enough. Bey was fit. W'happen?"

"He offered me his bed. His hot shower. His plunge pool."

"He'd let you plunge in his pool if you let him plunge in yours."

"Pa.s.sed on it."

"You need a bedroom bully. I bet that he would have been a good one."

"The older guy?"

"No, the cricketer. He was all muscles and swag. Bet he was d.a.m.n good in bed."

"Anybody but that alcoholic, weed-smoking, baby-making s.l.u.t. I'm not on the pill and he would have refused to wear a condom. Last thing I would need to do is end up with watermelon belly."

"You would've had to flush it."

"I'm not a flusher."

"Would be bad if you breed for a dead wh.o.r.e who has twenty kids already."

"Not funny. Dead rapist-wh.o.r.e at that. So it's not funny. Half the girls who have had his baby were probably raped on the side of the road and are too ashamed to say they have a rape baby."

"Sorry, it tickled me until you put things into perspective."

"You said he was up to at least twenty kids on the books?"

"He fascinated you."

"He disgusted me."

"I stand corrected."

"The wad of cash piqued my interest."

"That wad of cash piqued the interest of many women."

"Wondered how he had so much money. He owned everything but a condom."

She said, "He might even have babies by the same mother and daughter, too."

"That's two more child-maintenance checks sent to one address."