Smut Central Read online

  “You’re right. I do care. I guess this is more than slashed tires and broken windows.”

  He watched Sparks put the gun behind him in the crook of his jeans and spine. His T-shirt went down, concealing the automatic weapon. It was compact and fully loaded.

  “Marty,” Entice called him to her attention. “You said he has three or four dudes with him. Where are they?”

  “With him in the observation room or roaming around the club, sometimes they are in here, in my office harassing me,” Marty told Entice.

  Suddenly they heard the door knob turning.

  Although the music in the club was booming at a high volume, they could hear the door being opened. Markus figured the office was sound proofed. A goon walked inside the office.

  “Haven’t you heard of knocking?” Sparks growled with the blunt dangling from the side of his mouth.

  Markus recognized the hoodlum. He was a guy he had seen hanging with Cali a few times. He smoked weed with him on the corner in the hood. His name was Wayne. He walked inside the office then closed the door. He was completely inside when he saw the other people in the room.

  He was about to open his mouth, but Wayne’s eyes widened when he saw Sparks and Markus. He knew who they were and was shocked to find them in Marty’s office. Markus was as still as a mannequin. He didn’t know what to do. Sparks whipped a hand behind his back, and pulled out the gun. And just like Entice warned, it was all about to go down.

  The guy moved a hand toward the door. Sparks grabbed him before the door got halfway open. The booty shaking music thumped into Marty’s office then got muffled when he closed the door shut.

  “Where are you going nigga…?”

  The gun was in Wayne’s face. Markus watched as Sparks escorted Wayne to Marty’s desk.

  “Get your Jew ass up,” Sparks snapped and Marty hopped out of the seat behind the desk. “Sit down,” he ordered. Wayne sat. “You got some duct tape or something?” Sparks asked.

  Before Marty could answer Wayne looked at him and said, “What the fucks going on?”

  “What do you think is going on?” Sparks barked.

  The gun was kissing his forehead. Wayne was trembling and Entice seemed to be enjoying it. Markus didn’t think it would come down to putting guns in anyone’s face. It had come down to exactly that.

  “You are now officially a hostage,” Sparks told Wayne with an evil grin.

  “Hostage…?” Markus and Marty chorused.

  “That’s right,” Sparks responded. “If we let him go, he’ll run and tell Cali.” He directed his attention toward the hostage. “Was your black ass down with the tire slashing and breaking the windows?”

  “I don’t know anything about nothing…” Wayne worded.

  His words were punctuated by a slap across the face with the pistol.

  “Yes!” Wayne said faster than Sparks could smack him with the gun again.

  Sparks gave Markus a grin, “We got a confession already. See how easy things are going.”

  “Where is Cali?” Markus asked Wayne. He thought about things. “Where is Tanisha?”

  “Somewhere on the earth,” Wayne muttered.

  “Somewhere on earth, huh,” Sparks chuckled. “Your ass is very funny.”

  Marty had the duct tape somewhere in the office. While they were interrogating the hostage, the old Jew scrounged it up.

  “Ah here’s the tape,” he uttered, nodding.

  Sparks tore off a good deal of tape and wrapped it around Wayne’s mouth. He looked at Markus.

  “We don’t need any information from his dude. All we need do is walk around and search for Cali.” He directed his eyes back to Wayne. “I’m gonna wrap so much tape around your black ass and this chair, you won’t be able to move your dick if that shit gets hard. I’m not even worried about you.” He turned back to Markus. “I saw this shit in a movie. Sometimes the best plan is no plan at all. Tonight we’re keeping it gangsta.”

  Markus knew what Sparks said was supposed to reassure him. But it only had the opposite effect.

  21

  Markus and Sparks left the office. They walked further into the strip club, Jingling Babes. Sparks wasn’t sure about Marty. He figured once they left the office he would loosen all the tape they wrapped around Wayne. He instructed Entice to stay in the office with them. She grinned and pulled out a decent size pocket knife.

  Markus decided to follow Sparks and play things by ear. He was glad Sparks took the gun from his pocket. Markus was a tall, athletically built man who didn’t look like he needed a weapon to defend himself anyway.

  Whirlwind,by Black Moon was thumping throughout the building. The beat was hypnotic and exotic, the perfect sort of music for a strip club. Sparks, a hip-hop connoisseur, sang along with the lyrics while they walked.

  …Buck, flow with the speed of a bob sled/bust lead to the head/plus I stay red/every time I think about the dead/I think about what Machiavelli said, fight for the ones who bled/in this emcee shit, we agree shit got out of hand/but they ain’t stop the plan/un-effective, no respect for this/but my perspective is/those who walk the path of the straight n narrow/we can rule the land like Pharaoh/plus enjoy the bone to the marrow/delicious, eat an emcee for breakfast to break fast/shatter niggas dreams like glass I ask/how many niggas wanna get with this shit…

  The club was packed to capacity. Markus had never seen as many dudes in the joint as he had this night. Perhaps it was because of the extracurricular activities Cali had established. It was way too crowded. To distinguish one person from the next, one had to get real close.

  Markus let that be known to Sparks. Sparks shrugged off his worries.

  “We ain’t looking for more of Cali’s cronies. Marty said the VIP is on the other side of the club. That’s where our black ass’s is headed.”

  The music was way too loud and the place wasn’t brightly lit, but that’s where they went. The lit stage was where strippers seductively spun their gyrating bodies around poles. Half drunken men tossed bills, and put dollars in G-strings and cleavage exposed before them.

  Sparks took a quick glance at the stage, and kept moving toward the other side of the club. Markus gave the stage a more thorough look because he was trying to see if Tanisha was on there. About eight dancers were on the stage. Tanisha was not one of them.

  They had to brush past and bump into people as they pushed themselves through the club’s patrons. No one gave them more than a half look. The men had their eyes glued to one of the dancers, or had a stripper on their lap.

  Markus and Sparks walked through a draped entrance that led to a small corridor with four doors. Sparks cracked a door open and stuck his head inside. It was a cubicle that had a plush circular couch in the middle of it with a multi colored strobe light above. Two females and a dude were inside.

  There was a Latin woman wearing a flimsy dress, straddling the guy and bouncing up and down. The john was moaning. Sparks knew what was going down. The other woman was on her knees on the floor. Sparks couldn’t see her head because it was stuck up the other females dress. He figured she was eating the girl’s ass out.

  “Interesting,” he mumbled, before closing the door.

  “What?” Markus asked.

  “Nothing, I don’t think Tanisha’s in there, though she could be. But if she is, her head is between some Puerto Rican’s ass cheeks” Sparks laughed.

  Markus pushed him aside. He was going in the room to see if Tanisha’s head was inside a Puerto Rican’s ass or not. Sparks grabbed his shoulder before he could open the door.

  “Over here,” Sparks said, pointing. One of the doors was different from the others. It appeared not all of the rooms on this side of the club were cubicles. “That must be the observation room,” Sparks said, pulling out the gun. “We got two choices. We can search the rest of these cubicles, or we can go straight in there on some Dirty Harry shit and get this over with.”

  Markus began thinking about his whole life, taking everything int
o perspective. All that had happened in the past couple of weeks flashed through his mind. Markus knew what was beyond the door. He wasn’t ready to get physical with Cali, and he wasn’t ready for the emotions that would come with seeing Tanisha in a whorish situation. Markus and Tanisha were introduced directly before they fucked on film. She hadn’t changed, and was only pretending. Markus was still doing porn. He didn’t know why he was feeling this way toward Tanisha. He wasn’t supposed to care, was he?

  Markus found himself feeling more anger over the fact that Cali might possibly be pimping Tanisha than about what was done to his car. He shook his buzzing thoughts away, and got a better look at Sparks in the dimly lit area.

  Sparks’s eyes were gleaming with anticipation. He seemed to be enjoying things a bit too much. He was a drug dealer. Markus figured all of the gun flashing, and wrapping people with duct tape was normal to him. He realized he didn’t know Sparks, really didn’t know Tanisha, never wanted to know Cali, and worst of all didn’t know himself.

  “What is your real name?” Markus asked.

  “What was that?” Sparks said. He pulled the clip out of the pistol and snapped it back in. The sound caused Markus to flinch.

  “Your name…?” Markus asked. “Listen, we are about to walk through that door and possibly hurt Cali or worse and get arrested afterwards. I know we ain’t gonna just scare him. I see it all in your eyes.” He paused but Sparks didn’t say anything. He was all ears. “Once we walk through the door I ain’t gonna be talking. You can do all the talking. I’m gonna punch the nigga in his face and keep hitting him till my knuckles break. I don’t feel too good. I feel light headed. Now wouldn’t be a good time for me to blackout.”

  “Nah, it wouldn’t,” Sparks told him, thinking. “Nigga don’t faint on me. I’ll shoot Cali and leave you on the fucking floor with the smoking gun.”

  Markus wasn’t sure if he would do that or not.

  “Cory…” Sparks said his birth name with a grin.

  “Cory…?” Markus broke out in a hearty laugh. “That’s your fucking name?”

  “Fuck you! You don’t even know who you are. Your name might not be Markus. It could be Mortimer or Oliver for all you know.”

  “True,” Markus whispered. “If I’m lucky I’ll find out more about myself on Wednesday.”

  “Wonderful,” Sparks began moving toward the door. “Now, Mortimer, would you do the honors of opening this fucking door.”

  “What if it’s locked?” Markus asked.

  “If it’s locked, we’ll just shoot the fucking lock off. Ain’t no stopping us now…”

  Markus felt like he was about to fall unconscious. He reached for the doorknob with a shaky hand. He was determined not to fail Sparks, not to fail Tanisha, and for once, not fail himself.

  22

  Nancy Adler had many things on her mind as she unclothed herself. She slowly submerged her body inside the tub. The water was hot and soothing. She needed something to ease her body and mind. All the things Gary Zimmerman said while taking her home were so strange. She couldn’t stop thinking about them.

  Markus Johnson was definitely the most interesting client she ever had. Gary told her about children who had their pasts completely erased. He spoke of a magician who could control and manipulate swarms of flies. He talked about the things he suspected. About how all the special children in the long ago abandoned case were all sexually molested.

  He suspected some sort of huge, twisted group of individuals who kidnapped children, sold them to pedophiles, had them doing child porn and other things despicable. Nancy thought the whole thing was way beyond her. She had looked at Zimmerman in open mouth surprise and listened while he drove and spoke. She tried to determine whether he was mentally stable or not. He was talking about dark magic, about how this illusionist Randleman, the one they called Lord of the Flies, about how his magic was real. Markus Johnson was indeed a weird case.

  Cali sat in a chair, leaning forward. He had an eye in a digital video camera in front of him. The video camera was on a tripod. A trick mirror showed one of the VIP room’s the camera was focused on. The music was booming inside the club. He didn’t notice Sparks and Markus’s arrival. Someone else was in the room with Cali.

  Markus directed his wavering vision away from Sparks to Cali. He felt himself within the early stages of being yanked into the blackness, the void of unconsciousness. He was so used to the sensation. He knew he had a few seconds before he was thrown into La-La-Land.

  He heard commotion going on around him. It was Sparks and the other dude. He didn’t divert his eyes from Cali. Cali had turned his head around, his eyes widened. Markus told Sparks he wasn’t going to say anything. He didn’t. He jumped on Cali in a flash of aggression and silent rage. His nemesis was a tall, slender dude. Markus was taller, more muscular. The odds were in his favor, he figured.

  Cali was shocked but only for a second. Markus didn’t waste any time throwing one punch after another. He wasn’t sure what sort of damage he was doing. Eventually his fists started connecting with Cali’s face.

  Cali grunted, trying to throw a couple of punches of his own, but Markus’s adrenalin was on overdrive. He didn’t feel any of them. Markus kept throwing his own fists and didn’t bother to block. Cali was weak. Markus felt no more than a sting when he punched his jaw. Markus threw a punch at his jaw in kind but the punch landed on his nose instead, blood flew out of a nostril. He went flying. His body knocked the camera off the tripod, his back hit the trick mirror before the rest of him slid to the ground.

  “Wait!” Cali begged.

  Markus was almost completely out of it. He began seeing images, the man and woman again and the little girl.

  “No-o-o,” he yelled.

  He had to concentrate on staying conscious. He couldn’t blackout now. He focused on his opponent’s body up against the wall. He began kicking and stomping him, aiming his boots at Cali’s face. Cali had his arms up, trying to protect his face. “You mother-fucking pussy! Why were you fucking with me? What the fuck did I ever do to you?” Markus yelled.

  Cali didn’t bother to answer. Markus kept stomping and kicking.

  The old man with the scar emerged in front of Markus, the man grinned something evil with his lips curled… The man’s mouth opened inhumanly wide, exposing a set of black teeth… Flies, thousands and millions of them flew out his mouth and gushed out at Markus in a swarm. Markus yelled something inhuman…

  He jumped back, began swinging his arms wildly trying to get the flies away. They kept coming. They kept swarming around him and kept coming out of the man’s mouth.

  Markus knew nothing else.

  Markus gained consciousness. The room was once again before him. There was no evil white man with a scar. There were no flies. He saw Sparks sitting on a chair. Cali was on the ground, he was conscious and huddled in a corner. Sparks had the gun aimed at Cali. He dared not rise. Markus tried to gather himself. He looked around. The other dude was laid out on the floor. Sparks had pistol whipped him soundly. The guy didn’t look like he would cause a problem for them.

  “Look,” Sparks said. “Look through the trick mirror.”

  Markus looked. When he saw he turned away, “Shit” he uttered.

  Tanisha was in the room and two men were fucking her. One had her from behind, and she had the other man’s dick in her mouth. Apparently Cali was filming the situation before they rushed into the room and began dishing out violence.

  “She’s nothing but a ho Markus. Your ass knew what she was the day you met her. Forget about that bitch!” Sparks said, stifling a laugh.

  Markus looked for a couple of seconds then he turned away. He seemed confused, dazed from the episode.

  “I was out for—”

  “For about five minutes. I didn’t wanna stay here that long but I wasn’t gonna leave you here, like that. Let’s get our black asses the fuck out of here and call it a night,” Sparks worded in urgency.

  “Thanks,” Markus sa
id.

  Sparks said, “Don’t mention it.”

  “We gotta get out of here.”

  “Didn’t I just say that? You beat the shit out of Cali. He’s either gonna try to kill you or he’s gonna be so scared he’s gonna leave you alone. It’s one or the other. I’m proud of your black ass. I feel like crying. Damn! I didn’t think you’d bring it like that.”

  “Neither did I, Sparks, I need to get Tanisha out of here.”

  “Why?” He questioned. “I bet you she’s enjoying it. Take a look at her do what she does. I see why you were always going over to her crib. That bitch can suck and…”

  “Alright Sparks!” Markus snapped.

  “It ain’t easy being Captain Save-a-Ho, is it? What is your ass gonna do? Rush in there, pull those niggas off of her, pick her ho ass up, and go running off into the sunset with that bitch over your shoulders.”

  Sparks spoke then walked over to Cali. He whacked him across the jaw with the pistol. Markus was pretty sure Cali was knocked out now. Sparks reach into a pocket and pulled out the roll of duct tape.

  “We gotta wrap these jerks up. Cali’s gonna wanna kill us. Fuck him being scared, I think this is gonna turn into war. I suggest you move.”

  Markus said, “Move, I don’t know what you mean? Like us leaving the club?”

  “No jerk. I mean move like from where you live.”

  “Move, where?” Markus asked.

  An up and coming porn star, he had a little cash stashed away, emphasis on a little. He understood what Sparks meant. He just wasn’t sure how he was going to get it done.

  “Move anywhere. Sign that contract and give it to the dude who owns Smut Central. Get that money. Get your black ass a house in Jersey, up in the hills like rappers do. Give me a hand.”

  He gave Sparks a helping hand. They found another chair and put both chairs beside each other. They put an unconscious Cali and his companion on the chairs, sitting them upright. Sparks wrapped so much duct tape around them, they looked like mummies. Cali had gained back consciousness during but he was way too weak to put up a fight. Once he started throwing death threats Markus grabbed the tape from Sparks and wrapped some around his mouth. He didn’t want to hear anything Cali had to say.