“Besides, Betty,” Lynn decided to throw gasoline on the cooling flames, “you couldn’t beat the Dark Lord in a cage-fight with a baseball bat, pussy. Hey… that’s an idea. Why don’t-”
“Don’t say it, psycho!” Tommy’s intuitive hunch as to where Lynn was going with her insult generated amusement. He turned to Knowly, who was seething under Lynn’s verbal smack-down. “I’ll tell you what, John will fight you straight-up for twenty-five thousand if you want to get your ass kicked that badly, but you won’t be getting anything else.”
“Or… if you’re smart,” Jess added, “you’ll walk the hell out of here. Grab your prayer rugs for getting down on hands and knees and thank Allah you’re still alive.”
“What’ll it be, Huckleberry,” Tommy asked. “We have real business to attend to.”
“How much did the Nejem family offer you, by the way?” I wanted to know for future reference.
I could tell the way his features went blank for a moment he never thought we’d question his motive, but Tommy knows nearly everything has a money origin. I wanted a figure to determine if we needed to erase the Nejem family or not.
“Fifty-thousand, brother,” Jafar stated. He had been working his iPad. He has clearance to use any assets the FBI or CIA offer. Hacking into financial institutions isn’t one of them but Jafar knows his way around.
“How… you cannot access our financial records without a warrant!” Knowly neared the sanity demarcation line. “I will report this!”
“No you won’t. Put up or shut up,” Tommy demanded.
“I will beat you to death in the cage,” Knowly stated, pointing at me. “Then, I will work with the Nejem family to destroy your organization of criminals.”
Tommy sighed. “Tomorrow at nine in the evening. Do you know where we hold the cage fights?”
“I know it. You will pay for these blasphemies tomorrow night, Harding.” Knowly backed his crew out the door.
“If those idiots weren’t tied into the Islamic death cult and racist bullshit, the community ideals they have of hard work, two parent families, and belief in God could turn around any inner city problem in existence,” Lucas said. “Knowly called me a houseboy. I want you to beat him until he cries for his Mamma, Recon.”
“I’ll make a note. Let’s get a drink. I need the brothers to wash down this episode of stupid people walking.” I led the way back to our place at the bar, waving the all clear sign to the three Oakland PD officers. They waved back and returned to their dart game. Marla had my drinks ready. I drained my Beam brother and half of brother Bud. “Oh my… that’s much better.”
“A baseball bat, Psycho? Really?” Tommy wasn’t letting Lynn’s adrenaline rush negotiation alone without an accounting.
“Oh calm down, Snow White Sands.” Lynn gave him the wave off. “We need to start charging a penalty for the number of times these posers claim they’re going to beat Cheese to death in the cage. I need to direct an award winning documentary of the fight tomorrow night with the title ‘Before Bragging About Beating John Harding To Death In The Cage, Watch This’. You’ll need to bloody him, Cheese. Tommy let you out of poke drills this weekend. You need the work in the cage”.
“Ah… I think there may be a little more to this.” Jafar held his tablet for us to see. “Knowly is a Northern California MMA Heavyweight Champion – twenty-three wins, no losses. He fights under the name Black Jihadi. Alexi would know more than I do about it, but I think Knowly’s angling to get into the UFC. So far, all he has is a few local TV appearances. It may be how the Nejem family interested him in making this about Amara and Samira.”
“Jafar’s right,” Alexi agreed. “If Knowly beats John handily in a made for YouTube video, he could catapult into the upper levels of UFC with one appearance. Do you still wish to do it, John?”
“Sure. This at least takes the mystery out of Knowly’s annoying visit.”
“I will arrange all the specifics for tomorrow night. I’ll call Earl and ‘Rique for security. Do you wish to bar the politicos?”
“Nope. I know the betting’s good with them in the house. We’ll have tight security, right Gus?”
“Yes. I will call in the Asian Crips to work the outside area,” Gus Denova said. As acting Godfather of the Oaktown Cartel, our absorbed gangs did our bidding.
“You can bill it as Hard Case versus Black Jihadi the MMA Northern California Champion too,” Tommy added. “You have other business too with Nick’s newly found nest between us and Tahoe.”