Chapter Eight
They had cleaned Oscar up a bit and given him clean pajamas. Oscar had been put beneath the covers and he had settled in.
Jelly Bean looked at him and nodded. “Ok Dr. Bad, how is he?”
Doctor Badliss smiled at her name for him.
He had met her several times now and he realized it was her safe mechanism to be sarcastic.
“He’ll survive. They did not break any bones, so we can celebrate that fact.
It would have been a lot worse for him. He’s been beaten but his bruises will heal after some good food and rest. He’ll be sore for a few days while he heals but he’ll survive. ”
Jelly Bean walked over to the bed and grinned at Oscar. “You hear that? You won Survivor, Oscar! You just didn’t get a prize unless you count all the black and blue marks on ya, I suppose. You’ll be sore but you will survive. That’s a good thing ain’t it?”
Oscar snorted. “I survived because you found me sooner rather than later. If you guys hadn’t shown up when you did, I might not have survived at all.”
Jelly Bean paused to ask, “What does that mean? Why would you say that?”
Oscar laid back against his pillows. “If Mac hadn’t heard from someone by tomorrow morning he would have slit my throat and tossed me overboard on his way out of town.”
Jelly Bean’s eyes narrowed as she clenched her hands at her sides as if she wanted to use that bat on someone just now. She glanced at Leon and then at Storm.
Oscar spoke again, “He took two guards with him last night to see if he could find Ricco. He told his men he wasn’t wasting any more time on that punk and if he didn’t find him this time, he was going to hunt that little fucker down and put a bullet in his head.”
Jelly Bean snorted. “Well, that wouldn’t have been a loss we couldn’t live without. Humanity would probably benefit from it.”
Oscar shook his head. “No honey, you don’t understand. Mac wasn’t only waiting on Ricco’s money he was waiting for Ricco’s men to show up.”
“We knew about that,” Leon said. “But why would Mac care?”
Oscar turned to look at Leon and explained it, “Ricco made certain promises that he knew he couldn’t keep.
You see, part of Ricco’s plan was to join the cartel, then he thought with Mac’s help he could kill whoever survived taking you down.
Then he would step in as the new head of the cartel and join with Big Mac.
Take over his drug trade, launder the money and become someone no one could touch.
Only thing is, Ricco was high when he made his plans and he thought he could accomplish just what he thought up.
” He shook his head. “But you and I know a man like Mac wouldn’t take orders from a junkie. ”
“And just how was he going to dispose of Ricco from the head of his new operation?” Jelly Bean wanted to know.
“Go to Ricco’s men and give them a choice, come in under his wing or die,” Oscar told her.
“Mac is a big enough man that he’s got the power behind him to deal with pissants like Ricco.
He is what Mac calls a weak link, because he needs to get high real bad and Mac was going to use that against him.
And yes, he was going to let Ricco kill Leon first and get everything set.
Then once it was in place Mac would have put a bullet in his head and just taken over. ”
Jelly Bean looked over at Rebel and just shook her head.... exactly what they had been talking about in the hall.
Leon paced while he thought about what he’d learned. He paused to look at Oscar for a moment then he shook his head. “Just what did he think would happen if Ricco actually got into the cartel? The Gondos never would have let that happen in the first damn place.”
Oscar shrugged. “You know that and I know that but Ricco talked a good game. Besides, I think Mac was going to bring more of his own men in to help him. And his own men are a hell of a lot tougher than Ricco’s men would be. All Mac needed was a way in and Ricco offered him that as a partner.”
“And just where was Ricco going to set up his headquarters?” Jelly Bean asked.
Oscar looked over at her and shook his head. “You aren’t gonna believe this. He was looking at your grandmother’s mansion. He’s been looking hard at the area and now there’s no one living there. The place has been locked up tight since they arrested her.”
Jelly Bean burst into laughter.
Everyone stared at her like she was losing her mind.
Oscar finally shook his head and said, “Honey, this is not funny.”
Jelly Bean put her hand over her mouth and just looked back at him.
“Come on Oscar, you have to admit it is funny. Jasmine would have had a fit if she knew her mansion was housing a drug cartel. She would have had a heart attack if those dirty drug dealers messed with her fine paintings or her porcelain figures or they dared to sleep on her pristine sheets and do no telling what else on them. Or if they set up their labs in her Mexican tiled bathrooms and left poop all over the toilets. Maybe tequila barf on her oriental rugs.”
Leon burst into laughter as he agreed.
Storm just shook his head. “You just got no filter, do ya girl?” he told her.
Jelly Bean shrugged. “If people don’t like what I got to say they don’t have to listen, do they?
But from what I remember of the Bitch Queen, she deserved more than that.
In fact, I am disappointed I never thought of making all that happen.
Just let all the lowlifes into her estate.
Tell them to do it nasty. Then send her some Polaroids of it!
” She laughed. “She probably believes that she will get released soon and go home to that luxury and it would have turned into a real shithouse!”
Storm shook his head as he muttered, “Shithouse.”
Rebel burst into laughter, along with Leon.
Oscar even chuckled.
Leon calmed his laughter then turned to look at Oscar and said, “So we not only have to take Big Mac down but we have to take Ricco’s men out as well?”
Oscar nodded. “Mac was saying something about an old friend of his lending a hand as well. I didn’t hear too much about that friend but I don’t think he’s the sort of guy you want in your city.
He sounds like a rough character.” He shook his head.
“If you know the kind of man Big Mac is then you can almost bet his friends are the same or worse than he is.”
Storm cleared his throat and took his cell phone out. “We can get men all over the streets and they can at least warn us if Mac or Ricco’s men make their first move.”
“We can also speak to Ria and ask her if she knows where these supposed men were expected to be?” Leon suggested. “Or what time they were supposed to come.”
Storm agreed, “We might be able to find out more from her. Let us get the men out to watch over the city then we can talk to Ria. The sooner we know what’s really going on here the better.”
Leon looked at Jelly Bean and Rebel to ask, “What about the other brother, Benzo? Would he be willing to talk to us?”
Jelly Bean shrugged. “I don’t know if I’d trust anything he says. He seems to be under Ricco’s thumb.”
Rebel stepped forward, “But I also think Ricco scares him to death. He might just be a weak man anyway.”
Leon looked at Storm and said, “Get your men out to watch the city. We can speak to Ria before we take our chances on BS and speak to Benzo. We need to know where to start before we invite war to our streets.”
“Rest up, Oscar,” Leon told him.
“We got this now,” Jelly Bean added as she leaned in and kissed Oscar’s bruised cheek.
Everyone but Oscar headed for the door. They went down the hall.