CHAPTER THIRTEEN
2000 – Know Your Role
June first, I decided to get ahead of the problem. It wasn’t gonna be fun, but it was the right thing to do.
I got in my Mercedes and drove over to Eula’s. By now, I had my own key. Damn. Aside from the fact that I patently refused to fuck this girl, I really had taken over Mundo’s life. This was some Face/Off shit.
Eula was leaning across her counter, drinking a large bodega coffee and reading that mafia book, Wiseguy.
She looked up and gave me a half smile. Always guarded, always on edge. This girl was a trip.
“What are you doing tonight?” I asked.
“Nothing. Why?”
“I want to take you to a restaurant on Smith Street,” I replied.
“Any reason in particular?”
“No, not really,” I said. “There’s a French restaurant I like. And I want to talk to you about something.”
I said I’d pick her up at 8:30 and left.
She was waiting on the stoop when I pulled up at 8:32.
We hit Patois at around 9:00pm. The hostess, sizing us up as a romantic date that would prefer to linger over an expensive dinner and multiple rounds of drinks, led us to an out of the way table. Perfect for my mission- I was there to tell Eula about her new role as mistress of the stash house.
Dinner was good. Conversation was fine, but I could feel Eula studying me. It was like she was working so hard to figure out a problem that wasn’t even there. A heat seeking missile aimed at nothing.
Once I ordered dessert, I figured I’d get into the reason for this dinner meeting- but Eula jumped in first.
“I’ve been cutting down on the dope,” she said, and then went on a long tangent about how she wanted to stay clean for me and Bolo. How she loved working with us.
“I’m glad to hear you’re trying to take care of yourself,” I replied. “It does make a difference, especially with what I’m about to bring you into.”
She took a huge gulp of her Armagnac and started to look like I was about to stab her in the heart.
“We had a little problem with the holding bay in Brownsville,” I explained. “It was compromised. There was a break-in and inventory was stolen. And now we have to put that location on the market and find a temporary stash spot. Very temporary.”
After that, she flipped out. “I’m not holding guns for you, are you fucking crazy?” Rey rey rah rah.
I felt bad, but I had to lay it out for her. Eula had been rolling with us for over a year at this point and she just wasn’t getting it.
“You know what, Eula,” I said, “I’m gonna tell you the full version of this story, just so you can finally come around to understanding who exactly it is that you’re dealing with.”
By the time I paid the bill, it was all very clear.
She was already in it.
She just didn’t realize it.
