{"product_id":"2940015726244","title":"Holding The Bag","description":"When a bag full of cash falls from the sky on Sparkling Clearwater Beach and lands a few yards away from Al and his current sales-call-prospect, M.J., he and the young beauty are carried into the terrifying world of Giacomo ‘Jimmy’ ( the Freak) Pelagatti, an Old School Tampa gangster who is the current owner of the cash.  \u003cbr\u003eWhat seems at first like an opportunity to do the right thing turns quickly into a deadly game. Jimmy wants his bag of money back and he is not bashful about it. Before Al and M.J. can understand what kind of trouble they’ve fallen into they are tracked down, followed, chased, and shot at. Al turns to his long time friend, C.B., for help but soon the terrified trio finds themselves running for their lives.       \u003cbr\u003eIn less than a day the three find themselves bound together in a triad of trust or death, hunted by the powerful and deadly Pelagatti crew, and transported to the mysterious Zona Maya region of the Yucatan where Jimmy’s Caribbean hideaway becomes a maze of death from which Al and his friend C.B. must free M.J. before a lethal midnight deadline.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eEXCERPT:\u003cbr\u003eOctober 6\u003cbr\u003eThree A.M. and all is not well. In an alley behind Two Moons, one of Tampa’s most infamous adult entertainment venues, there are two groups of men standing beside two black sedans, trunks open, facing one another, headlights ablaze. One of the sedans is a Mercedes Benz S600 with a 5.5 liter, 510 horsepower, 36 valve V12, and all wheel drive. The other sedan is a 1989 Chevrolet Impala and it is not really black, it’s more like dark gray primer, mostly. The men beside the Benz are all African-American, dressed in tailored Italian suits; the men beside the Chevy are wearing wife beater undershirts, dark hoodies and watch caps. Both groups are well armed, extremely dangerous, and very nervous, because neither group trusts the other. This is wise because neither group has any reason to trust the other.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eDiego is getting impatient so he starts to walk slowly toward the Benz parked ten yards away. He’s carrying a large black gym bag. When he’s half way there one of the Suits steps a few feet in front of the Benz and waits, a large black gym bag slung casually over his shoulder. As Diego nears the Suit both groups of men begin to spread out and show their artillery. It is a tense time. The temperature tonight in Tampa is 58 degrees but every man in the alley is sweating. Diego fans at a night flying insect buzzing too close, an unwanted distraction. Face to face the two men set their bags on the pavement. Slowly and simultaneously each secure to the other’s bag. They each spend a full minute verifying and vetting the contents of the respective bags under the ‘Mutually Assured Destruction’ cover of their armed compatriots. Each of the men pick up the other’s bag and back slowly toward their rides, still uncertain there will not be violence and blood in the cool of the night. Diego has farther to walk so the Suit waits in the wash of the Benz’s headlights until Diego is at the Chevy. A seed of trust and respect has been planted. The Suit nods and gives Diego and his men a mock salute as both men drop the black bags into the trunks of their sedans and all of the men get in their cars, back into three-point turns and leave in opposite directions. All may end well …\u003cbr\u003e. . . or not.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eGiacomo, “Jimmy the Freak” Pelagatti’s two teams of highly skilled shooters were waiting silently in ambush. It was all over in less than two minutes. The tires were taken out with automatic weapons fire, the motors disabled with heavy caliber metal piercing rounds, and the human cargo inside the vehicles were all hit multiple times as the hit teams literally sprayed the passenger compartments with scores of rounds. The two teams then pulled the bodies from the cars and neatly laid them side by side on the pavement. The sounds of rasping breath and guttural moaning were silenced by the captains of each team as they administered the deadly finale – one round to the head, one to the heart. As the captains did their job the rest of the team quickly and efficiently removed the right hands of all their victims, tossing them in a trash bag. The trunks were popped, the gym bags removed, and all bags were now placed in the baggage compartments of Jimmy’s SUV’s. Not a bad night’s work: a bag full of heroin and a bag full of cash – a million bucks worth of ‘H’ and a million bucks. Jimmy would keep the dope stateside to sell and send the cash to Quintana Roo. Jimmy did not like competition. He very much liked having his cake and eating it, too. Tonight that is just what he did; and it tasted very good.","brand":"Kathryn Lehman","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47182082834672,"sku":"2940015726244","price":3.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940015726244_p0.jpg?v=1763623934","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940015726244","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}