Eddie shoved Reed roughly to the filthy ground. Whispering to Manny, he said “Things went bad, real bad. The driver had private security with him. They tried to grab me. I killed one of them.”
“I already told Fat Frank what happened. He’s pissed they tried to take me down. Anyway, heat’s on the street now. This is high profile man.”
Just then, Eddie’s phone buzzed with a text. He frowned at the message, then said gravely to Manny “He wants us to get rid of him.”
“What the fuck? You mean kill him?” Manny exclaimed.
“Keep your voice down dude,” Eddie whispered. “Too much heat on this. Frankie’s taking the loss. They tried to fuck him, he’s gonna send a message.”
Reed piped up from ground “Hey guys, what’s going on? You gonna kill me?” The fear in his voice was evident. He’d overhead Manny.
Eddie walked over and kicked Reed hard in the face. He slumped down, unconscious and bleeding now. Eddie stomped him several more times in the head. “We gotta do this. Fat Frank wants it done.”
Manny protested “He doesn’t even know who we are, he was blindfolded the whole time.”
Eddie gave Manny a look that chilled him and said coolly “Grab an arm, we’re gonna move him.” Manny knew better than to say no, he’d seen that look before.
They dragged Reed’s limp body down to the end of the alley, where it connected to a pitch black, garbage filled alleyway that ran behind mostly vacant buildings. Eddie sent a text to Fat Frank, receiving a reply almost immediately.
“He’s coming.”
They waited for what felt like an eternity, the silence occasionally broken by a rat scuffling through the garbage. Soon they saw a car stop, then slowly back up at the end of the alley. An old, rusting Cadillac came toward them, Eddie waving them back. A beefy man eased himself out of the driver seat, and a lean, muscled man out of the passenger seat. The lean man was Fat Frank, his name an irony, as he’d been obese at one point in his life and was now the epitome of health.
Fat Frank walked over and shook Eddie’s hand. “Loco, I appreciate you taking care of this. Sorry it went bad, I know you tried.” He nodded, “Hey Manny,” then walked over to Reed’s barely breathing body and said, almost admiringly, “Wow, you did a number on him. Let’s get him in the trunk.”
They piled into the creaky car and drove down to the deserted docks. Pulling Reed out the trunk, they dumped him by the pier.
Gesturing to his beefy bodyguard, Fat Frank said “Sal, finish this chump.” Sal screwed a silencer on his handgun and walked over to Reed, pointing the gun at his head.
Phhhht phhhht! The sound of two silenced shots whispered sharply through the air. Manny saw the last gasp of air escape from Reed’s mouth, like a slow leaking tire. He stood in shock, trying to process what was going on. They rolled Reed Chancellor into the scummy water, the splash barely noticeable with the sound of waves crashing against the pier.
“There goes 100 G’s,” Fat Frank said despondently.
They drove back to the neighborhood in silence. Frank said to Eddie “Don’t worry about no cops, I got it handled.”
Manny and Eddie got out at an all night fast food joint. Fat Frank slipped a large roll of bills out of his jacket and thumbed off a bunch of hundred dollar bills. Shaking Eddie’s hand, he said “I know it was supposed to be a lot more, but for what it’s worth,” as he handed him the bills.
“Thanks Frankie, what can you do. No accounting for what people will try these days.”
Manny walked home, with the early morning sounds of a city starting to come awake. He’d never be the same. As he stepped quietly into his apartment, Manny was suddenly exhausted. He was asleep before his head hit the pillow.
“Manny! Wake up, come eat lunch.” The sun baked his face through the window as he reach for his phone. Noon already! Manny slid out of bed and strolled into the kitchen. Mom was putting his plate on the table “Late night mi amor?”
“Yeah mom,” as he kissed her cheek.
Last night was just a bad dream. After breakfast, Manny got dressed and stepped outside, into the sunshine. He took a deep breath and smiled contentedly. Today was going to be a great day.
