CHAPTER NINE

"Bruno."

"Kendrick."

"Bruno."

"Kendrick."

"No way is Kendrick better than Bruno, what are you saying? It's Bruno all day long!" Katie Connors, Amelia's assistant, was a woman who knew little about almost everything except word on the street. She knew how to gain the confidence of the street talkers just by being herself, and thereby gain all kinds of intel for Amelia and her investigators. She sat on the backseat of Ameila's Maserati and was determined to hold firm to her belief. "Bruno Mars is the best soul singer that ever lived!"

Amelia looked through her rearview at Katie as if Katie had just lost her mind, and then she looked over at Dak, who sat on her front passenger seat. "Get your girl, Dak. Get your girl."

Dak Harris grinned that grin that turned on every woman in the office. "She's not my girl. Don't even go there. You're the one that hired her."

"But for real y'all," said Katie. "Bruno's the best, I'm telling you."

Dak turned and looked at Katie this time. Other than her gift for making people comfortable enough around her to tell her everything, he knew she was otherwise an airhead. But damn! "Katie, if Bruno Mars is the best soul singer that ever lived, that would put him ahead of Sam Cooke, Marvin Gaye, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Mary J. Blige--"

"Whitney Houston," added Amelia, grinning at the absurdity of Katie's claim.

"Whitney and all these other great singers," said Dak. "All I was saying was that Kendrick Lamar is a better performer than Bruno Mars, but even I'm not going so far as to say Kendrick is the best rapper that ever lived. Because he's not. And he won a Pulitzer!"

Katie was confused. "What's a Pulitzer?"

Amelia smiled. Dak turned back around, shaking his head. "Get your girl, Boss. Get your girl." Amelia laughed.

"Whatever Pulitzer is," said Katie, "I don't even care. I still say Bruno Mars is better than Kendrick Lamar I don't care what y'all say. And I still say, in fact, that Bruno Mars is the best soul singer that ever lived."

Even Amelia was tired of it. "You need to quit," she said to Katie, looking through her rearview. "For real. Just stop it. That man is not the best soul singer that ever lived I don't care how many times you say it. And his ass ain't even black? Girl bye!"

Katie looked at her boss as if she was looking at an alien. "What do you mean he's not black?"

Both Amelia and Dak turned and looked at Katie so fast they could have caught whiplash.

"You're serious?" asked Amelia.

"You didn't know Bruno Mars wasn't black?" asked Dak.

Then Katie grinned. "Just messing with y'all," she said, and although Amelia and Dak both laughed, they glanced at each other too. Katie was a sweet girl and one of the best get street info assistants Amelia had ever had. But again: Brains R Us she was not.

And then the car fell into silence.

It was six that same afternoon, in East Baltimore, and their subject was still in that no-tell motel room with his "lady friend." More than a few sketchy characters had already walked over thinking the Maserati might be empty and prime meat to clip, but Amelia would flash her hardware and the guys would keep it moving. But there was silence in the car for another reason.

Dak looked over at his boss and friend. "You okay?"

Amelia continued to look out at the black night in front of her. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Come on, Mill. You had court today. You're officially divorced. You gotta be in your feelings. You gotta be. When I got divorced it was like the worst thing ever for me, and I hated my wife."

Amelia looked out of her side window. She was trying not to think about it. "Not yet," she said.

Katie and Dak both looked at her. "What does that mean?" asked Dak.

"The judged continued the matter for two more months."

"But why would he do that?"

"So that Hammer can mull over the fact that I don't want shit from him." Amelia said this and looked at Dak.

As she suspected, Dak was frowning. "You don't want anything financially from him?"

"Nothing. Not a dime."

"But Boss, you know you put every dime of your money into the business and we're still barely getting by. Yeah, this assignment is going to help us tremendously, but it's still just a temporary fix. You never asked your brothers for help. You never asked your husband for help. And we struggled on. Now you're telling me you had a chance to get a part of that man's billions for yourself and you took a pass? I'm shocked he wouldn't at least offer you something."

"You aren't listening to me, Dak. I said I turned down money from him. He was offering some. I'm not taking any."

"But why?"

"Because I don't want any man thinking they got something over me. Especially Hammer. I don't need him for that. I know how to survive. That's all I've ever known. Before I knew I was a Sinatra, I survived, and I'll survive again. No man is going to rule over me."

Dak and Katie both looked away from Amelia. Because they both knew that was exactly what Hammer Reese had done to her: he ruled over her. He would be gone for months on end on whatever government work he had to do, and as soon as he returned to his home in Canada, he would call her to come to him and she'd go. Every single time. No matter what was going on she'd drop it to go and see her baby again. And give him what he most seemed to want from her again. And then she'd leave upset that he was always willing to give her his body but never his time, and they'd be on the outs again.

"What does all that mean though?" asked Katie. "Does it mean the divorce is off?"

Amelia looked at Katie through the rearview. People didn't seem to understand her at all. "It's over between Hammer and I. And when it's over with me, it's over." She had that look that weakened knees.

Katie's knees were shaking. "Yes ma'am," she said.

Dak grinned. "She's scared of you."

Amelia cut that look of steel at him too. And his smile quickly dissolved. He forgot whom he was dealing with. Amelia used to be an international drug queen pin before her brothers forced her out of business and Hammer forced her to go legit. Now she ran a huge detective agency. But she was still that girl. "She's not the only one," he said with a smile. When Amelia looked away from him, he exhaled.

Then Amelia's eyes perked up when she realized what she thought was a door opening in that upstairs motel room was an actual fact. "There's that bastard!" she said with animation in her voice.

Dak and Katie looked up at room 282 as a United States Senator, attempting to disguise himself in a baseball cap, came out of the room with the same young lady he had gone into that room with. Dak immediately grabbed his camera and began taking photograph after photograph as the couple left the room and made their way down the stairs.

"Wonder why a major senator like him would take a lady to a hole-in-a-wall place like this?"

"Because he doesn't give poor people any credit. He figure they never watch the news. He figure they wouldn't know him from Adam," said Amelia. "But we know his ass," she added as she began unbuckling her seatbelt.

"What are you doing?" Dak asked her.

"My job," Amelia said as the couple made it downstairs and she began getting out of her car. It was only then did her employees realize she wasn't with them just for surveillance. She was there to confront the guy! "You just keep taking pictures," she said to Dak.

"Boss, don't do it," said Katie. "That man has a lot of clout."

"Katie's right," agreed Dak. "I don't think confronting him is a good idea, Boss. We've got the evidence. That's all we need. We got the pictures. Right Boss? Boss?"

But Amelia had already closed the door and was stepping high, in her stilettos, leather pants, and ankle-length mink coat, as she made her way over to the senator and his friend.

"Do something, Dak!" Katie implored. "That's a United States Senator. She could get us all shut down and out of work. Do something!"

"You do something," Dak said, knowing Amelia all too well. "I'm not losing my job disobeying an order. She told me to take pictures, that's what I'm doing." And he kept on clicking away.

Katie just shook her head. "That lady's crazy," she said.

"Like a fox," said Dak as Amelia walked up on the man her private investigations agency was paid, not to prove was cheating, but to make clear his wife's intentions to expose his cheating if he didn't bend to her will.

"Hello, Stanley." She was directly behind him. "Long distance to travel to get laid, isn't it?"

Stanley Kucinich, the junior senator from the great state of Idaho, turned quickly at the sound of his name. He seemed equal parts scared that somebody recognized him and irritated that he was being bothered. "Do I know you?"

"No. But I know your wife," Amelia said glancing at the woman that was half the senator's age. "And she's not her. Unless that's your daughter?"

The senator's arrogant anger unleashed. "Fuck you!"

Amelia's notorious temper unleashed, too, and she pulled out her Glock, grabbed the senator by the throat, and ran him backwards until his back slammed against the wall, causing him to cry out with sudden sharp back pain. "I don't fuck cheaters, you asshole!" she yelled at him.

"Who are you? You Cleopatra-Jones-looking motherfucker. Who are you?" The senator, though filled with rage and was much larger than Amelia, was talking his big talk but was literally unable to move.

The young lady, realizing it too, began leaving. "I don't want no parts of this," she said, hurrying away from the scene.

But Amelia had her face right up in the senator's grill. "This is what's going to happen, Stanley," she said. "You will agree that your wife will get the house in Delaware, the rental homes here in Maryland, and your homes and properties all around Idaho too. Without objection."

"You must be mad!"

"I'm not mad. But your wife is. She's cheating mad. Mad at your cheating. And furthermore," Amelia continued, "you will agree to pay her alimony at the price already presented by her attorneys. Do you understand, Stanley?"

"Do you understand who you just jacked up against this wall? Do you truly understand who I am?"

"Oh I know who your ass is." Amelia moved closer against him. "Now understand who my Cleopatra-Jones-looking-ass is. I'm that sista in the alley you don't wanna fuck with. I'm that sista with pics of you and your lady friend and all that freaky shit y'all been doing. I'm that sista that will expose your ass so fast you'll be resigning by the end of this week if you don't do what I just laid out for you to do. You can kiss goodbye to all those grandiose schemes and dreams you had of making it all the way to the White House someday if you defy what I'm telling you tonight. Do we understand each other, Stanley?"

She could tell the Senator was now defeated. He was old enough to know how quickly a sex scandal could take a politician down. And Amelia was old enough to know to go for the jugular before they had time to fight back.

She looked around, saw that there didn't appear to be witnesses, and slyly pressed her Glock against the senator's genitals. He jumped when he felt the barrel of that gun. "Those papers better be signed by tonight or your constituents will get an eyeful tomorrow. Those papers better be signed tonight or what's inside this gun might just end up inside of you. Your soon-to-be ex-wife ain't playing. She already told me so. And neither am I. Do we understand each other, Stanley?"

He was still angry and arrogant and reluctant to admit defeat on that grand a scale, but he was nobody's fool. He quickly nodded his head.

Then Amelia, satisfied that he fully understood the stakes, put her gun back inside her coat pocket and released the senator. He rubbed his neck and stared angrily at her. She could tell he was wondering if she was as badass as she was making out to be and if he should try to take her down right then and there. But something in those cold, unrelentingly hard green eyes of hers made him decide against it. And he hurried away from her, got into his rental car, and sped away.

Amelia, still staring at the wall, closed her eyes and exhaled. This was no kind of life for a lady. That was why her ass was alone now. Probably why Hammer wasn't trying to keep her anymore. She wasn't ladylike enough for a man of his esteem. She was too ghetto fabulous for his taste. She was too much. Way too much for just about every man on this planet. But she thought Hammer was different.

But she wasn't settling for Hammer Reese or anybody else's leftovers. She had to start over, alright, which was tiresome, but she was still going to be herself. She was still going to handle her life her way and on her terms. She went into the motel office.

Katie, who saw her leave, was puzzled. "What's she going in there for?"

Dak was checking his pics. "She's going to confiscate all of the video that might have recorded her encounter with the senator."

"But we checked. There's no cameras around this place and there's no places nearby with cameras. That's probably why the senator picked this location."

"You know that, and I know that. But you know Boss. She's thorough. She's extra. She's shady, let's be honest. That's why people who are shady themselves hire her. You saw how she pulled that gun on that guy."

Katie didn't see her pull any gun out, which was by Amelia's design. But Katie wasn't going to admit that she wasn't the most observant person in the world, given their line of work.

"Everything you saw tonight," said Dak as he continued to check the quality of his pictures, "you didn't see tonight. You know that, right? Because just like she drew that gun on a United States senator, she'll draw one on you."

Katie smiled. "Quit playing boy."

Dak, dead serious, turned and looked at the young assistant. "Do I look like I'm playing? Amelia Sinatra used to be one of the biggest drug dealers in the world before her gangster brothers forced her out of that profession. And when I say gangster brothers, I mean Mafia gangster brothers. You don't fuck with her. Nobody fucks with her. Ask Hammer Reese.

Katie sat back. She had no more access than Dak did to ask anything at all to the former head of the CIA. Was he joking?

But she got his point.