Part 1The $100k Bonus and the $800k Bill

My year-end bonus was a solid hundred thousand, and my girlfriend, Valerie, insisted I treat her to a grand dinner. The bill, though, came to eight hundred thousand. My jaw dropped. This was daylight robbery! I refused to pay. The restaurant owner, a formidable woman, didn’t bat an eye. Instead, she had her crew seize me, snarling that if I didn’t come up with the cash, they’d make me disappear.

I finally got a good look at her, and a surge of anger coursed through me. Wasn't this Ramona Flowers, one of my mother, Astrid Vance’s, former associates? My mom, for all her ruthless reputation as a crime boss, had always been incredibly tender with me, her only son. When my dad divorced her years ago, I was disgusted by her violent lifestyle and refused to see her. She’d promised me then, tears in her eyes, that she would retire from the underworld for good. I never imagined that all these years later, her crew would still be running their old rackets! And now they’d actually kidnapped me!

…

“Think you can dine and dash? You seriously don’t know whose turf you’re on, do you?”

“Settle the bill, or you’ll lose an arm!”

A group of menacing men and women encircled me. One guy even held a cleaver, testing its edge on my shoulder. My heart pounded. Was this some kind of crooked establishment? No wonder four dishes cost eight hundred thousand. They were clearly trying to extort me! I took a deep breath, trying to stay calm.

“Where’s Valerie? Where did she go?” I asked.

If Valerie hadn’t insisted on coming to this particular place for dinner, I would never have found myself in this godforsaken corner of the city. Sure, the décor was opulent, clearly expensive, but I figured my hundred thousand bonus would cover even a lavish meal. I never expected a bill of eight hundred thousand. This was definitely a setup! They might as well have just robbed me outright, instead of serving me a meal first.

When I mentioned Valerie, someone sneered, “Looking for her won’t do you any good. She’s the one who told us to grab you!”

“Said you were a fat cat, ripe for the picking. Eight hundred grand? She claimed you could easily cough up eight million! Guess she was wrong. What a pain!”

“Worst case, we break his legs and send him to a high-end club to entertain some cougars to earn that eight hundred grand!”

I gasped, shouting, “No! This is kidnapping and extortion! It’s illegal! Let me go!”

The woman laughed as if I’d told the funniest joke. “Illegal? Honey, I am the law around here!”

“Don’t want to go with the cougars? Fine. Pay the bill! Otherwise, I’ve got plenty of ways to make you suffer!”

With that, she grabbed my neck with a wicked grip and plunged my head into a water barrel. The intense sensation of suffocation brought me to the brink of death. I thrashed and struggled, finally gasping for air. A wise man knows when to yield. I quickly tried to negotiate.

“I’ll pay, but I don’t have that kind of money on me right now. How about you let me make a call? I’ll have someone bring the money over.”

I wasn’t lying. Most of the money I earned was with my dad. Only this hundred thousand bonus was in my own account. Even if they drowned me, I couldn’t produce eight hundred thousand. As soon as I finished speaking, a heavily made-up woman slapped me.

“Head to toe in designer clothes, and you don’t have eight hundred grand? Who’d believe that!”

“Make a call? Don’t think I don’t know what you’re planning! If you dare call the cops, I’ll tear you apart!”

At that moment, a younger woman, a punk-rock type, grew impatient. “Ramona, stop wasting time with him. Just send him to the club already!”

“Rich women these days love pretty boys like him. He’ll fetch a good price!”

I stared intently at the woman they called Ramona. She looked familiar. It was Ramona Flowers! Ramona, known as “Ramona,” was one of my mother Astrid Vance’s top lieutenants. My mom was a legendary crime boss, decisive and ruthless, yet she reserved all her tenderness and affection for me, her son.