The Silver Lake Murder by Gregg Matthews (read novel full txt) 📗

Cindy watched as Luke gathered Pierre, Shawn, Caleb, and Dylan. And Tracy, Shannon, Megan from the side rooms. They all walk to the center of the room where Luke was standing. The four men sat down on the circle of couches in the center of the room. Luke motioned for the four women to stand behind the men and the couches.

“Please feel free to sample my Jackal cocaine,” Luke said, pointing to the coffee table with small mounds of cocaine, mirrors, straws, and razors on it.

The four men leaned over in concert and took a long, slow snort of the Jackal cocaine. The four men sat back on the couch. Cindy looked up and saw Pierre pointing to her with a wide smile. The smile was showing his brown-stained teeth. She stepped up and over the side of the couch, picked up a straw, leaned into the cocaine, and also took a long, slow snort. The other three women followed Cindy’s lead and did the same thing hurriedly. Cindy noticed a razor blade used to chop the cocaine up was on the table; she slid the razor into her right back pocket. The razor will be used in case of an emergency; the way tonight is going; an emergency is imminent.

“Pierre, please feel free to sample my Jackal Methamphetamine,” Luke said, pointing to the coffee table with a pile of Jackal Methamphetamine on it.

Pierre took a long, slow snort of the Jackal Methamphetamine. He sat back on the couch. She saw Pierre’s eyes rolling around in the back of his head. He was pointing to her with a dangerous smile. She shook her head no. The smile on Pierre’s face quickly turned into a frown.

Cindy, Tracy, Shannon, and Megan watched as Luke and the four bikers made arrangements for the amount of Jackal cocaine, they were purchasing that night. In total, they all had at least one kilo of cocaine. Some of the bikers had two kilos, and Pierre purchased three kilos of cocaine and a large amount of the Jackal Methamphetamine. Some of the bikers also purchased cases of Jackal Moonshine, Beer, and Marijuana to be delivered to them by the Lakeview Lounge delivery trucks later in the week. Luke wrote the orders down sloppily on a piece of paper. Cindy watched Luke and realized the disorganization of the orders was Luke’s fault. That’s why she had to do the inventories now.

Cindy, Tracy, Shannon, and Megan stood in a line in front of the men. Luke stood behind them and raised a hand over Cindy’s head. Pierre raised his hand first. Luke leans into Cindy.

“Cindy, I will take two hundred fifty dollars off of your tab if you go with Pierre and treat him good,” Luke whispers into Cindy’s ear.

“No way, Luke,” Cindy said.

“Cindy, I will take five hundred dollars off of your tab if you go with Pierre.”

“No, Luke!”

“I will take one thousand dollars off your tab if you go with Pierre.”

“One thousand dollars?”

“Yes, one thousand dollars.”

“OK, Luke,” Cindy says, knowing she is putting herself at risk, but also knowing she needed to pay her tab down to be out from under Luke for good.

She knew Pierre was a bad guy and was also out of his mind right now. But the thought of wiping one thousand dollars off her tab was too good to pass up.

She watched as the deals for Tracy, Shannon, and Megan were made. They will all reduce the amount of money they owe to Luke by a substantial amount tonight. Cindy and the other girls know, if not for this opportunity tonight, it would take them months, if not years, to pay off the money they owe Luke.

She saw the wild look in Pierre’s eyes and knew she was in trouble. The internal storm from the concoction of cocaine, meth, and alcohol put Pierre in a violent mood. Her arm was quickly grabbed, and her body followed in the direction of the strength. He continues pulling her by the arm towards one of the side rooms. She tried to fight off the contact from him, but she was losing the battle quickly. She started to squirm.

“Stop fighting. I paid good money for you,” Pierre said angrily.

“Let me go, Pierre,” Cindy cries out.

Receiving the strength, anger, and rage from the fist of Pierre. Her body contorted and moved backward as far away from his fist as she could. Her head and neck snapped back from the punch, causing her body to whiplash. Her right eye quickly swelled and showed the damage from the punch. She fell backward; the back of her head met the floor.

Cindy never realized a man would punch a woman like he did. She understood she was in way over her head and wanted out of the deal she made with Luke. But she knew it was too late. She felt him picking her up off the floor and putting her on the couch. Her right hand went to the right back pocket of her jeans. But her arm was stuck under the weight of her body. She wiggled her fingers, trying to get at the razor in her right back pocket.

Pierre stood over her and slapped her in the face, shouting at her. She was disoriented and not sure what was going on. The punch to her face has put her in a state of confusion. She reached up with her left hand and scratched him across his face. A couple of deep, desperate scratches were seeping blood across his face. He let out a painful moan. He backed off a little, trying to recover from the scratches. She managed to get her right arm out from under her body. She quickly retrieved the razor from her right back pocket.

She swung her right hand with the razor in it and slashed Pierre across his right arm. He cried out in pain. She agreed to this deal but did not agree