Nicole's Smoking Story Part 36

In the following months after her breakup with Esposito, Nikki was in an especially foul mood. The result was more frequent violent outbursts and with increasingly ruthless behavior. With the prospects of taking over Esposito’s business out the window, she had to double her efforts in her own. She was dead set on putting him out of business as payback.

Stefania had repeatedly attempted to contact Nikki, but she ignored her calls and texts. She ignored them in part because it would hurt too much, but also because Nikki wanted Esposito explain to her why they were no longer together.

One thing Nikki was pleased about was how her new captains were operating. Business was good, but of course, she wanted more. She encouraged more business and more ruthlessness when it came to unpaid debts. Once summer arrived, Nikki had more time to devote to becoming more active herself, although she understood that meant picking and choosing when to get involved to avoid staying off police radar.

The majority of business was discussed at Perrillo’s and she attempted to stay away from Pacelli’s as much as possible, given it was Al’s business to run, but Nikki thoroughly enjoyed tormenting her college “friend” as much as she could now that she was employee. Now that Adrianna, worked for Nikki, the insults lobbed her way came to an end and Nikki frequently took advantage.

On one June afternoon, Nikki, Jasmine, Erica, Greta and Christine roared into the Pacelli’s parking lot on their motorcycles — the vehicle of choice during the summer — and headed in the back entrance.

Nikki — wearing a white tank top, tucked into a pair of dark blue bootcut jeans, tied together with a thick black leather belt and a pair of black cowboy boots on her feet, along with her normal gold necklaces around her neck, bracelets and Rolex and white bandana on her forehead — immediately beckoned for Adrianna to come to the back room.

Sitting behind Al’s desk, Nikki took her pack of cigarettes from the pocket of her black leather vest and extracted a cigarette from it, placed it between her lips and fired it up. As she let out a long exhale, Adrianna walked into the room.

“You called for me?” She asked.

“Yeah, why don’t you get us all something to drink and some sandwiches,” Nikki said, left arm cocked in the air at a 90-degree angle as her cigarette smoldered between her fingers.

“It’s kind of busy out there,” Adrianna responded.

“I know, I saw the parking lot,” Nikki said. “But we’re your customers, too.”

“Right away,” She sighed.

When Adrianna came back, Nikki simply smiled at her, fully enjoying Adrianna’s misery. After all, it was payback for more than a year of insults and mockery.

“So how are your shifts going?” Nikki asked her, knowing full well she directed Al to give her as many low-tip hours as possible.

“Well, tips are kind of slow,” Adrianna admitted.

“You know, you could just join us,” Nikki said. “You’re a pretty little Italian number, I bet you’d be a good earner.”

“What would I be doing?” She asked with a look of uncertainty on her face.

“Ah, don’t worry about it,” Nikki said, waving her off. “You’re too good to hang out with a bunch of bikers.”

With that, she sent Adrianna off. As she exited the room, Adrianna still had a confused look on her face, unsure of how to take the last interaction with Nikki.

A few days later, Nikki once again swung by Pacelli’s, but as she was about to leave, she received an unexpected visitor. She was sitting on her motorcycle talking to Jasmine, when Adrianna walked up to her.

“So, um, I wanted to talk to you,” Adrianna mumbled.

“About?” Nikki said with an unlit cigarette bouncing between her lips.

“What you said the other day,” Adrianna said. “About joining you.”

“I was just messing around,” Nikki laughed before cupping her hands around her lighter, igniting her waiting cigarette.

“Oh,” Adrianna said with a look of disappointment on her face. “Nevermind then.”

As Adrianna started to walk away, Nikki summoned her back.

“Why do you want to join?” Nikki asked candidly.

“My parents are divorcing,” Adrianna admitted. “My dad has a gambling problem and he’s filing for bankruptcy. That’s why he’s selling his restaurants.”

“I know,” Nikki said matter-of-factly. “He gambled on Al’s book. He owed an awful lot of money, so we used those businesses to our benefit.”

“You made my father go broke?” Adrianna said in disbelief.

“No,” Nikki said. “You’re old man made himself go broke. I didn’t make the motherfucker gamble. I just collected on his debts.”

“How could you do that?” Adrianna asked.

“Because that’s what we do,” Nikki said. “Life isn’t all rainbows and marshmallows, honey.”

“I see,” Adrianna said. “I don’t how he could do that to us.”

“Yeah, he’s kind of a cocksucker,” Nikki joked.

“So what if I wanted to join?” Adrianna asked.

“You’d have to prove yourself,” Nikki said. “How do I know you’re not a rat?”

“I guess you’d have to trust me,” Adrianna said.

Nikki and Jasmine both erupted with laughter at her response. “Honey, trust is earned and not given. Am I to expect that you would spend a year mocking me and then you would put all of your trust in me?”

“Well, what do I have to do?” Adrianna said.

“Run with Erica’s crew for a while and we’ll see how you do,” Nikki said.

With that, Nikki strapped her helmet on, flicked her cigarette to the side and started her chopper, leaving Adrianna standing in the parking lot.

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Meanwhile, as Nikki’s pending nuptials crumbled, Gina’s relationship with Jack wasn’t progressing well either. While the initial rush of finding someone new was exhilarating, Gina was beginning to find him dull and he did not meet her intellectual needs.

To Nikki, this was perfect timing. She wanted to form a partnership with Jack’s club — Sons of Guns — and she had just the right plan. So Nikki told Gina to pump him for as much information as possible about their activities, which didn’t take much effort.

The Guns were to receive a cocaine shipment, but Nikki instructed her team to hit the truck before it even arrived and to make it known to the Guns who did it, which also worked like a charm.

One night in June Nikki was sitting in her office when Jasmine brought her a visitor, this one however, was more expected than the last. The president, vice president and sergeant at arms of the Sons of Guns walked in, looking none too happy.

“I think you have something that belongs to us,” The president, who simply went by the name of Skull, said without wasting time with introductions.

“I do?” Nikki said, feigning surprise.

“You know that you do,” Skull said forcefully.

“Gentleman, I have no idea what you could be referring to,” Nikki said. “I’m just a restaurant owner.”

“We knew you hit our shipment,” Skull persisted.

“And if I did?” Nikki asked with a nonchalant tone.

“Then it would be a big mistake on your part,” Skull said menacingly.

“Relax,” Nikki said. “I’ve got all your shit. I just needed an easy excuse to get you to meet with me.”

“Why didn’t you just call?” Skull asked.

“Really, honey?” Nikki said sarcastically. “Do I really need to explain that to you?”

“So what do you want?” He asked.

“To form a partnership,” Nikki said.

“You want us to join you?” Skull asked.

“Baby steps,” Nikki said. “First of all, you’re not a woman and second of all you’re not Italian.”

“So?” Skull said.

“So I want to run Angelo Esposito into the ground,” Nikki said. “I think if we join together to take his shipments and step on his rackets, we’ll do just that.”

“How would this arrangement work?” Skull asked.

“I’ll give you 10 percent on each shipment we hit together,” Nikki told him.

“Well if we’re doing it together than it should be 50,” Skull demanded.

“Considering I have the information and simply getting 10 percent would help you grow your business exponentially, I don’t think that’s a fair figure for you to demand,” Nikki said.

“Why should we trust you?” Skull asked.

“Because I don’t consider you a competitor,” Nikki said. “I don’t have anything to gain by taking you out and quite a bit to gain if we partner up.”

“OK, 20 percent and you have a deal,” Skull offered.

“My final offer is 15,” Nikki said sternly.

“Deal,” Skull said.

“Good,” Nikki said. “Now aren’t you curious as to how we got the information to hit your shipment?”

“How’s that?” Skull asked.

“One of your boys has loose lips,” Nikki informed him. “That needs to be taken care of if we are going to work together. I’m not going to let a snitch take me down.”

“Who is it?” Skull demanded. “He won’t have much to say when we find him.”

“How about we take care of it?” Nikki asked.

Skull agreed and the two shook hands to seal their new partnership. Nikki now also had a way of gauging Adrianna’s commitment and helping her mother end her relationship with Jack.

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Adrianna had performed well with Erica over the course of a few weeks collecting payments, but Nikki made sure that no official business was discussed in front of her in case she was not fully committed. Now she had a way to ensure where Adrianna stood without a doubt.

On a warm June night, Gina lured Jack to an empty patch of forest just outside of town. Nobody would hear anything that was about to happen. They sat in Gina’s car until Nikki and the rest of her associates arrived. Jack knew immediately he was set up when three cars of women pulled up. He tried to get out and run, but Jasmine dropped him with a taser and tied his hands together.

When he came to, Jasmine went to the Mercedes SUV and opened the back door. Nikki stepped out, wearing a black tank top, tucked into a pair of black jeans, with a thick black leather belt around her waist and a cigarette dangling from her lips.

Nikki slowly walked up to Jack, who was surrounded by women and headlights. He knew there was no escaping.

“How could you do this to me?” Jack pleaded to Gina. “I thought we were in love?”

“I warned you not to talk to me about your business,” Gina responded.

“See Jack, we now have a partnership with your boys that’s going to make everyone quite a bit of money,” Nikki said, taking a drag on her cigarette. “But we can’t have someone with such a big mouth involved.”

Nikki motioned for Jasmine to begin her assault. The muscular black woman kicked him hard in the face with her cowboy boot and mounted him, landing punch after punch until Nikki called her off.

“Please,” Jack begged again. “I won’t talk. I ain’t a snitch.”

“You already proved you talk too much,” Nikki laughed.

“Can we just get this one over with?” Gina asked.

Nikki shrugged and held out her hand, Rolex dangling loosely on her left wrist and Jasmine handed her a glock. At first it appeared Nikki would do the deed herself, but at the last second she turned to Adrianna.

“Adrianna,” Nikki called.

Adrianna stepped up to Nikki carefully, not knowing quite what to expect as she did.

“Do him,” Nikki commanded, handing her former enemy the gun.

Adrianna hesitated momentarily, but she stunned Nikki by grabbing the weapon and unloading it into the chest of Jack. In that moment, Nikki not only knew she could trust Adrianna, but that she was going to be a dangerous asset to the group.

Nikki instructed her to take care of the body, but she waited for Adrianna to finish and had her ride back in the SUV with her.

“I didn’t think you had that in you,” Nikki said on the ride home, lighting up another cigarette.

“I guess I did,” Adrianna said. “I knew that I had a mean streak and I guess you caught some of that over the years.”

“Well, congrats,” Nikki said. “You’re with us now. Once you get some more cash, you’ll need to buy a bike, though.”

“It was such a rush,” Adrianna exclaimed.

Nikki handed her a cigarette and said, “Here, this’ll calm you down.”

Adrianna accepted the cigarette and was officially the newest member of the Perrillo Family.