It was Tuesday, my day off from school. I had wanted to work on my car but waiting on parts and with more important items coming up I decided to spend the day doing reconnaissance. At first I was a little hesitant to take the Nightingales down, but the more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea. 

I was spending money like crazy. I had future knowledge and should have been putting more into the market. The Nightingales had a treasure trove somewhere. A cache of less than reputable funds stashed away. I could make some money while I was making sure that the girls at the Club were safe. 

I didn’t mind gangs in my general vicinity. They kept their noses clean most of the time. But I had killed for far less of an insult. I needed to remember who I was. I had once flown into a town, killed a man, and flown out, back home in time for dinner. No questions asked, a simple exchange of money and a bullet and the deed was done. I had to get back to my roots. A man that didn’t fear anyone. 

Sitting across the street from the Nightingale’s club I watched it from an alley. Standing behind a dumpster I was surprised that the women were awake already. Most left to get breakfast, but watching them was the first step in learning who they dealt with. I had to get an idea of the other players in town. Who else I could steal from, who to blame thefts on if things started disappearing. A lot of my problems would be fixed if they killed each other, but that was rare. Gangsters weren’t like in the movies. They didn’t want to kill either. Killing meant cops, while also opening them up to being killed as well. Unluckily for them I didn’t mind doing the deed. 

Having taken Luna’s car she was none too pleased. I was close lipped about what happened on our strip club date. None of the girls were happy about it. With a call I assured them I was fine and eventually caught a cab. 

Luna and Penny demanded spending the night with me, repeating our fun on the 3rd floor of Audrey’s home. They were better after a lot of work. Lanny too was upset so I had to stop by last night and give her and Mary the same treatment. Farrah was far from okay. Yelling at me for causing her problems I assured her I wouldn’t stop by her club anymore. Then after I was done fucking her senseless she was back to my horny pregnant business woman. 

As the hours went by I noticed a few people stopping by that I didn’t recognize. I wrote down license plate numbers and tried to notice distinguishing marks and tattoos. All were women. From the way they carried themselves they were possibly part of other gangs. But as time went on I noticed a few scared people stopping by the Nightingale’s club. I guessed they were in debt to the women, telling me that the Nightingales acted as loan sharks as well. 

More women stopped by. More license plate numbers were written down. I made a plan on how to get the information I wanted as the bigger players in the area stopped by as well.  

Race was a very good indicator on gangs. The Nightingales were the white gang. There was another Mexican woman gang as well. With different tattoos and skin color they were easy to spot. Reading lips I guessed they were called the Hermanas, which meant sisters in Spanish. Another smaller gang was also involved. Run by black women they didn’t show up to say hi as much as the Mexicans, so I guessed they were the weaker of the 3. I would have to ask Brianna. Since she lived in a less than desirable part of town I was sure she knew of gangs in the area. 

Chewing my inner lips as I went through the mental process of how to get more information I was juggling between making a pit stop at Ryleigh’s mom’s police station. Asking some simple questions, pretending to be scared after my kidnapping a little while ago. Or I could simply seduce a cop. Adding a police officer to my harem would be great for information in the future. From what I had seen so far in the world there had to be more than a few that wanted to get pregnant. Convinced this was my best option I continued watching as hours ticked away. 

As more Nightingale members showed up, another idea hit me. I should really seduce one of the members. That would get me all the information I needed, and allow me to play both sides. But that brought up another question. 

“What is my end goal?” I mumbled. 

Florence pissed me off. A favor I did for her by outing a fed and a snitch had only bought The Club 2 months of no Nightingales. She wanted a favor from me, but was too tight lipped about it. Did I just want her gone? 

If I could work with one of the Nightingales, possibly help one of them take over. That could be a much better position for me. As I mulled it over in my mind the plan quickly took shape. 

“I need money,” I realized. I might have been putting too much of my current funds into the stock market. There was no guarantee that certain stocks would explode so quickly like in my original timeline. I needed to start businesses. Cash businesses that I could launder money through. If I could get the leader of the Nightingales in my favor I could get a line on drugs or guns or whatever. Start my own gang. 

That would be a great way to get my island if stocks didn’t explode like they were supposed to. The Walter White way. There were risks of course, but I was fairly experienced. If these people could do the work, there wasn’t any reason I couldn’t. It was all coming together. 

“Step 1: Follow the money,” I said. I needed to figure out the current laundering methods the Nightingales used. Locations to hit for my startup funds. 

“Step 2: Get in touch with the number 2,” I mumbled. “I need someone hungry for the top spot. Someone to guide or push into the position. A person that I can actually use.” 

“Step 3: Gang war,” I added. “I need a scapegoat.” That meant more following and watching the other women that stopped by. Adding multiple miniature steps to my plan made me like the prospect of starting  a drug empire more and more.

Around noon the full group of ladies were at the club. I was able to get an idea of hierarchy as women opened doors, drove, or ran around this way and that. When I noticed one especially eager girl she was easy to identify as the gopher. Either a pledge, newbie, trainee, prospect, or whatever, she was on her way up to becoming a full member of the Nightingales. 

All skin and bones she had short-cut red hair with a side of her head shaved. Some dirt on her face and hands she had already changed the tire of one of the full-members cars. I heard her nickname yelled a few times. Known as Red, she didn’t complain when they made her do most everything. 

At noon she ran out of the club and jumped in one of the Jeeps with another full member. They had a serious look on their face so I decided they were worth following. Readjusting my wig I turned and walked out of the alley. 

Once in Luna’s car I checked my getup in the mirror and headed to meet up with the Jeep. It only made sense to dress up as a woman. I borrowed one of Penny’s wigs for the endeavor. A simple brown shoulder-length wig I wore some baggy clothes to hide my distinct muscles. Though I was about 5 foot 6 inches I could still pass for a woman easily enough. A bony, distinct jaw, adam’s apple wearing woman, but still, close enough. I didn’t put makeup on, but there were more than a few women in the world that sported their looks to be more masculine. During my life as a mercenary wearing disguises was the norm. I could never have passed for a woman in my old life, but necessity took precedence. Men were too noteworthy here. 

Catching up to the Jeep it stopped at a small mechanic shop for a moment. Red running inside she came back out with an envelope then was on her way once more. It was easy to see what they were doing. Collections. 

Farrah had admitted to paying them monthly to not mess up the Club. The businesses in the area appeared to pay as well. A racket as old as time I wondered if there was a female mafia in New York somewhere doing the same thing. 

Hanging back I watched and earmarked all the locations they collected from. I realized then that they were much stronger than I expected. Instead of running all over town they stuck around the West side of the neighborhood. Which meant that there were other days that they were doing collections on the North, South, and East parts of the neighborhood. They had pretty much every small business in the area paying them dues. From coffee shops to clothing stores, Red ran into all of them and came back with an envelope. It made me feel a little bad outing the Fed. The Nightingales really should disappear, they could when I was done with them. 

After they had a good dozen envelopes Red and the full member of the Nightingales stepped out of the Jeep at a massage parlor. At first I thought that the full member went in because the massage parlor required muscle to get the money out of them. But when both women walked out without envelopes I realized that I had already found the jackpot. The parlor was one of their money laundering businesses. 

No cameras outside, they could inflate how many women came in for a “massage” and pay with cash. The boss there probably took a small cut to launder the cash. The Nightingales or members of the club were partners of the business and got a cut of the “profits”. It was smart and made me want my own massage parlor. 

I followed Red and the full member back to the Nightingale club, but they were done making the stops. Chewing my cheek I guessed they would go to other businesses in the area on other days. Unsure how I could swing this I realized that the Feds gave me my answer. Providing me with a GPS they were still very rare and expensive. If I could sneak that into the Jeep, maybe I could get an idea on where the other businesses the Nightingales owned were. 

Mulling it over that probably wouldn’t work though. I would need software for that sort of thing. I doubted that you could find that legally so I would need to dig into the Dark web and make some less than legal purchases. 

A plan coming together though I decided to do that later. For now I had to plan my first heist. Turning around I headed back to the massage parlor for some more…reconnaissance.