They Call Me...Montey Greene

Chapter Twenty Seven

A SINGULAR ROATATING blue light is what he spotted first. The four interlocked circles on the grill of the large black car registered next.

Then the sound of that black Mercedes sprinter van pulling off in a hurry spun his head back around. "What the hell was going on? Montey wondered to himself.

If not for the architecture surrounding him, or the gray and red bricks he was standing on Montey would have thought he was back on Dumont Avenue off Rockaway Boulevard in the Borough of Kings. All that was missing was the ghettobird flying overhead with those rotary blades competing with a voice barking through a bullhorn.

When the two men in dark suits and in-ear monitors jumped out of the Audi and clamped their fingers around Montey's arms he had that sick feeling of sinking in a pit of elephant dung without a rope to pull himself out.

Montey didn't know if he should be concerned or relieved when he peered into the vehicle and saw Alejandra's father, Juan Carlos Lasprilla, sitting there.

"Step in," Juan Carlos offered.

It was more a figure of speech than anything else as his security personnel had already shoved Montey into the spacious back seat one of them had vacated.

Slam!

Juan Carlos' security team shut the door so fast and hard Montey jerked his head back for fear of being hit in the face. That was about the exact moment when the white Alfa Romeo sedan pulled up alongside Juan Carlos' luxury tank and Paolo stepped out.

"Lamonte...Darius...Greene," Juan Carlos said in a slow deliberate tone.

Upon hearing some semblance of his entire name Montey's throat went dry and his hands became damp. A lump formed in his throat so big that when he tried to swallow, it might as well have been a golf ball.

"Born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn. You know I searched this Brownsville, Brooklyn on the internet. It is the concrete equivalent to where I grew up in Colombia. For the sake of keeping the statistics in balance we should both be dead already. Yet, here we both sit. Fascinating," Juan Carlos continued.

Montey had been in enough situations in life to know at times it was best to be seen and not heard, this was one of them.

Tap-tap-tap!

The window rolled down and Paolo handed Juan Carlos an aluminum colored file folder.

Juan Carlos opened the rectangular file box, removed another folder with files of papers lodged inside.

"Fascinating, that a man who averages less than one thousand dollars in personal savings at any given time, somehow finds the means to travel to the far reaches of the globe. Singapore. Germany. Puerto Rico. Japan. Czech Republic, etcetera, etcetera. You are quite the world traveler señor Greene."

"Where did you get that?"

Juan Carlos ignored Montey's question as if he were a child about to be chastised. "You know there are some people out there who wish to do me harm," he continued right over Montey's words. "Governments. Industry. They all have spies, moles who will try just about anything to infiltrate your circle. Espionage, I believe that is the word for it. Therefore I make it my business to find out who's sleeping in my house," he ended in a stern tone of voice.

"Then you know it was my job, traveling to those places, it was work."

"True, so true. But lately, not so much. So as a gift, call it a belated birthday offering if you so choose, I offer you this job—"

"To breach your company's network firewall to see how vulnerable it is?"

Juan Carlos chuckled, "That's child's play. I can do that. I want you to secure something much more valuable."

Montey glanced through the tinted glass to see the man he knew to be Alejandra's fiancé, boyfriend or fuckbuddy, pacing back and forth outside.

"There's nothing more important in this world than family do you not agree?" Juan Carlos continued. "Not money, not power, family." Juan Carlos paused then asked, "You do have a daughter do you not señor Greene? Then you should have a good idea of how much my daughter means to me. Do you know how much I love my daughter? She's my only child. I promised her mother, even before she was born, that I would do everything in my power to protect her from whatever cruelty this world has to offer to us from Colombia. Alejandra has a very important fashion show coming up in several months, in Paris. I would like for you to accompany her."

A heartbeat of silence hung in the air as Montey's eyes met Bruno's in the rearview mirror.

"Ex-ex-excuse me," Montey stuttered as his eyes shifted from the mirror to Juan Carlos.

"Think of my daughter as your own. Would you not do what you had to do, at all cost, to assure her wellbeing?" Juan Carlos looked into Montey's eyes for an answer and when he didn't reply he asked again, "Well, would you?"

"How does your daughter feel about that? I mean—"

"After yesterday's evening fiasco, Alejandra, she will do as I say."

The only thing Montey wanted more than getting out that car right now was being on that Alitalia flight that was probably being fueled up at this very moment. And the longer the back pockets of his jeans were making an indentation in the supple leather rear seat of that armored plated vehicle, the slimmer his chances grew.

Montey cleared his throat. "So, let me see if I get this straight. You want me to bodyguard your daughter?"

"I said accompany her. Think of it more as a chaperone."

"Chaperone. To Paris. Just me and her. For how long?"

"Until this thing that is happening right now blows over. So you will do this thing, no?"

"Let me sleep on it and get back at you."

"Forgive my phrasing. It was not a question awaiting an answer. You will do this thing. Refuse? Then that would mean you are not as lucky as the rabbit's foot Alejandra believes you to be. I am aware you traveled across the Atlantic on holiday. But holidays can also become permanent resting places if one is not careful."

Montey stared at the man who was reputed to head the largest narcotics distribution network in Central Europe, if he were to believe the news cast he watched not even forty-minutes ago. And if Montey had his doubts the next words that came from Paolo's mouth put all that to bed.

"Besides, what else do you have to do? It is not like you have anything to go back home to in the States. For as of this very moment, life as you knew it no longer exists," Juan Carlos informed Montey as he held out a stuffed envelope for Montey to take.

It seemed like a thousand winters passed right there as Montey sat it the car. He felt a coldness come over him so frigid that even death itself would shiver from and ask for a coat. Montey was hoping that he wasn't wearing his heart on his sleeve because right now every inch of fiber in his being wanted to reach across the back seat of that car and rip out Juan Carlos' throat.