Black or White

Chapter 19 )( We're Back to Bargaining With Criminals

   Dan had to apologize to the men and reschedule their meeting for another day. Mara had texted Dan about a half hour in to say that she could not make it; she had to stay with her mother while she underwent rigorous chemotherapy. Dan had almost scoffed at the blatant lie but he used it none the less.

When he went over later, she asked him questions and Dan divulged the bits of information that he was able to get during their talk. Then he was being spent away so that she could have some alone time; she did not say anything when he sat down and decided to stay.

They decided to meet up at Hunny Bunny two days later, at the earliest convenience of their meeting partners. Dan was so jittery it was like he'd shaken out of his body, just to walk beside himself on his way to Hunny Bunny, and almost ascended to the heavens at the sight of the men sitting at the same table as last time when he arrived. He checked the time, they were all an hour early, looked like it would be a wait for Mara. He sat down in front of them like before and noticed that only three of them had shown up that day.

By the time the afternoon sun was up, she had walked through the doors and sat down next to Dan with a tap to his shoulder. She had dressed up a little, in a light grey sweater, a shiny dark grey coat and black pants, her hair was kept up under a cap to keep most of the colour concealed. She signaled for one of the employees to come over, presumably so she could order, then turned fully to face to small crowd around the table.

Dan only looked at her, momentarily caught up in that familiar trance as the sun lit her up in a way he had not seen in a long time. Though her features were the same, her expression as she looked at the men one by one was much like the look of disdain she had given Dan after his run in with Grimes all those years ago. She was living nostalgia for Dan as her tone came out with the same unwelcoming delivery from that day too; she was interrupted.

Damien came over before Mara said anything, she ordered without a spared look in his direction. When he left she spoke again, this time addressed to the table.

"So which one of you runs things?" Dan bristled a little at her gruff tone because from the hour that Dan had spent speaking to the men, he knew that approach would not work. He touched the inside of her wrist, feather light and hopefully not overstepping. She glance at him and he gave her the most communicative look he could muster. The one he got in response lead him to clear his throat and speak.

"Gentlemen, this is," Dan paused, he did not want to give her real name but they had never come up with aliases between themselves; he improvised, "Addae/Zoya, my partner. She is the one you will be working with for whatever jobs you may do, if you agree."

Thankfully, Mara caught on and adjusted her sitting position to be more upright. She laid her hands on the table and relaxed her face, an almost smile formed with ease.

"It's nice to meet you gentlemen. Thank you for agreeing to meet with us."

One of the men humphed and took a sip of his drink, the change of character did not go unnoticed it seemed. A different man spoke, from the left with a shiny head of hair pulled back into a low bun.

"We not here to make business. The only reason we here cause Damien ask wi, but we not wanting apart of whatever you have in mind. We stop all dat business from Uncle Josiah dead and we not lookin to make trouble again." The man beside him nodded in agreement but the one still drinking said nothing. Mara blinked and squinted at them then simply said, "Ok. We're done here then."

Dan's eyes had stayed on Mara for majority of the past few interactions and they widened at Mara's flat dismissal of their company. He almost grabbed for her hand under the table but Mara shot him a look before his arms could reach out. Maybe Mara did have her reasons for always sending Dan out to talk to people, maybe Mara just can't do it and she was about to mess things up.

"Wait just a minute," Dan said, "are you all sure you want nothing to do with us, I haven't even told you what we wanted to work with you for."

"And we're not going to." Mara turned to Dan, a very pointed look in her eyes which prompted him to draw his eye brows together. He nodded his head in the direction of the outside but Mara turned away from him again, she made no move to get up.

As jittery as Dan had been about partnering with the men, he could feel the time tick by and their window of opportunity close. If Mara had been serious about the banks and getting it done as soon as possible, this was how and Dan had no clue how he would pull another group of thugs out of his ass to please her.

He touched on the inside of her wrist again but she drew her hand away. One of the baker girls came with Mara's drink and a few pastries for the men right then. Before she had finished setting all the plates down, the man to the far left took a big bite of his order. He smiled and gestured to the girl with the pastry in his hand.

"Dey get better every time I come here. Mom gon' love some a dem grata cakes when you come visit." The girl gave a little smile and walked away. Mara took a quiet sip of her drink and watched her go. She got up afterwards and walked outside, drink unfinished, so Dan knew she would be back. He got up out of his chair to follow her.

"Mara, you can't just let them leave!" Dan shouted as quiet as he could. "If you're really not good at talking you could have just told me and I would have talked to them before you got here."

"We can threaten his sister." Dan blinked.

"What?"

"Or relative, whoever she is. The baker girl who brought the drinks."

"Ok, first she could be any kind of relative because they are all related," he pointed out, "and how would we even do that."

"The same way I did it with you."

Her insinuation of their conversation over the river made Dan's skin pebble with goosebumps as the chill of the afternoon breached his new but thin sweater. The idea did not put him off though. He glanced inside at the men, who were having a small disagreement of their own, and wondered if it would work. His eyes caught sight of Damien behind the counter and that's when he hesitated, a friendship damaged could be fixed but Dan did not think Mara's plan would do that.

"Ok, say I agree, let's not put her over a river. And anyway how are so sure that would not just get us hurt and/or in the river ourselves?"

"I don't, but I'm willing to bet on it. You're acting like you have a better idea." She was right but Dan opened his mouth to respond, but stopped when he saw one of the men get up and walk to the door. He assumed Mara saw too because neither of them spoke as he walked out the door. Then instead of walking past them like Dan assumed, he stopped behind them.

It was the one who had not said anything during their short interaction with Mara, his voice was low but flowy.

"I can get you some people for yuh thing. I hear from Zoey that you goin' give Damien some of the money for the bakery. Me and them in there talk it out again and they not goin' stop me. I can help you."

Dan turned around to him, he did not know what to say but apparently Mara did.

"What's your price?"

"We can talk bout that later. When you want the men dem?"

"Two weeks from now the latest."

"You get dem in one."