Mercy was on edge. Not because she was sending me on my first ‘solo’ gig but, because she felt like Pita was pulling away from her since finding out about the drive-by. She didn’t want to hear that he was a nineteen-year-old man boy who’s probably getting laid or hopes to get laid. She’s convinced something is wrong, that Pita was mad at her and while I warned her that suffocating the kid wasn’t the way to go, Mercy tuned me out.
While she was driving toward the riverfront, I assumed she was still caught up in worrying about the kid when she slammed on the brakes causing my face to acquaint itself with the dash. “The fuck was that for?”
“Did you just litter?” she says white knuckling the wheel.
“No?” I try and lie.
“I saw you, Dion,” she snaps.
“You are seriously wound up,” I point out as she takes a turn far sharper than necessary while mumbling, “Fucking litterbug.”
A few minutes later, we’re pulled off to the side of the road as Mercy gives me the run down and I patiently listen. Fine, I pretended to listen. “—armed,” she was saying. “Fast on foot too,” she says putting on lip gloss and my cock loved Mercy in lip gloss. “Scrapper,” she says popping her lips together. “Hates authority, so don’t yell threats at him.”
“What flavor is that?” I ask leaning in.
“Repeat what I just said.”
I was doing my best to recall her words when she squeals, “No time like show time, baby!”
“Huh?”
“He’s right there! Go! Make me proud!”
Shit. Folding out of the car, I eat up the distance and when I was close, I threatened, “Don’t move or I’ll break your God damned neck. I need to give you –”
And the fucker didn’t even stick around to hear the rest. Reaching for his side, Mercy yells, “Down!” and hurdled over my back with her own gun drawn. “Your family hired me to find you, Richie,” she says calmly.
“You, I’ll talk to, maybe,” he shrugs. “That suit wearing motherfucker? Naw.”
“It’s his first big boy job,” she shrugs back. “Learning curve, come on, Richie.”
“You a cop?” he questions.
“No.”
“He a cop?”
“No,” she sighs.
“Then fuck you both!”
Like a bolt of lightning Richie was gone. Looking up at her I expected to see disappointment not amusement.
“My first big boy job, huh?”
“I’ll make a PI out of you yet, Dion.”
Extending her arm, she helps me up and spends the next forty minutes explaining our next lead and this time, I fucking listened.
“Harris Nelson,” I repeat, still finding it funny he has two first names. Staring at his photo, I had to admit he didn’t look like much, but according to Mercy, the guy was nuts and trigger happy. This job was intel only. This Nelson guy wasn’t the big fish, his boss was. Because she had a way with earning people’s trust the department had asked for her assistance on this.
All I needed was the boss’s name. That was the job.
A name.
I also needed to show Mercy I could fucking handle any task she gave me and I was embarrassed to admit that so far, I blew at it. I was an action guy not an asking guy. But, even I should be able to get this prick to give me a name. “There he is,” she points at the Temple Bar. “He stays for one drink, that’s it. Go get ‘em, tiger.”
Exiting the car, I jog across the street, walk in and find Nelson at the bar.
Noticing he drank fast, I initiated conversation and was ignored.
I nudged him to get his attention and he told me to fuck off.
When he threw his money on the bar top, I did the same and followed him outside. I wasn’t around the corner when he fucking fired at me.
“Shit!” I yell running in the opposite direction and then there she was, my Mercy.
“How’d it go?” she fucking giggles.
“I think,” I pant. “I may need a gun.”
“Oh,” she says raising her shirt. “Here, take one of mine.”
“You are fucking scary,” I grunt taking it. “So now what?”
“Um, now you chase him down, Dion.”
“I knew you’d say that,” I mumble and tucking the pistol in the back of my pants I was about to ask where he went when she says, “he’s parked in the lot off Charlotte.”
“Fucking great.”
And then I took off.
The plan was to impress her, prove that I could do this gig with little to no training.
That plan failed and instead of impressing her, I’d made a fool of myself.