by Roy Glenn
We got to Nacho’s building and went in behind one of the residents. We took the steps to Nacho’s floor and knocked on his door. It took a while before a male voice came back from the other side of the door. “Who is it?”
“It’s Rain. Open the door, nigga!”
“Go away!”
“Oh…so it’s like that, huh?”
Rain started banging and kicking the door until he opened it. When he did, Rain stuck her gun under his chin.
“Go away, my fat ass,” she said and took his gun from his waist. “Now, where’s Nacho?”
The man pointed.
“Well move then.”
He started walking backwards slowly, and Rain kept the gun pressed to his chin. I followed her in. For a young girl, Rain could definitely handle herself. As we got closer, I could see that there were three men seated in the living room.
“Who’s at the door?” one of them yelled.
Once we were in the room one of the men started to reach for his gun, but the other one stopped him. I assumed that he was Nacho. “What do you want, Rain?”
“What’s up, Nacho?” Rain said and pushed the doorman to the floor. He looked at me and started to get up. I shook my head and showed him my gun. He decided to keep his spot.
“Get off the floor, you look ridiculous,” Nacho said. He looked at me one more time to make sure it was all right before he got up. “Now, what do you want, Rain?”
Rain went and sat across from Nacho with her gun on her lap. “I don’t want nothing. Maybe I just came to holla at you, Nacho. You know, since we cool and shit.”
“Yeah, Rain, we cooler than a fan. Now what the fuck do you want?”
“See how you treat a sister? That shit ain’t even necessary.” She looked at me. “Why can’t mutha fucka’s just get along?”
I don’t know what she was looking at me for. I agreed with Nacho. I wanted her to get to the point too.
“Like I said, I don’t want nothing, but this man here; he got a couple of questions he need to ask you.”
Nacho looked at me. “Who are you?”
“That ain’t important. Right now, all you need to know is that I’m the one asking the questions.” I said and slowly reached in my pocket. I pulled out a wad of bills and that got his attention.
“What you wanna know?”
“There was a robbery at Paradise Fish and Chicken a couple of days ago. You know anything about that?”
“I heard about that. Couple of people got shot.” Nacho looked at my roll again. “But as much as I hate to say it, I can’t say who did it.”
I put my money back in my pocket. “If you hear anything, you tell Rain. It’ll be worth your while.”
“If I hear anything about it I’ll let her know, for sure.”
Chapter 18
When I turned to leave, Rain stood in front of Nacho.
“Say goodnight, mutha fucka.” She pointed her gun and put two in Nacho’s head. “Rude mutha fucka.”
Then she turned and shot at the one sitting on the couch near Nacho. But he moved a little too quickly for her. The other man in the room pulled his gun, hit the floor quickly, and fired at me. I hit the floor and returned fire, but he had crawled away. I looked for Rain; she was running down the hall chasing the doorman and the one she’d missed.
“I got them,” she yelled and ran down the hallway.
I stayed low and made my way into the kitchen. I stood up to get a shot off, but he shot at me, and I ducked back in the kitchen. I held up my weapon and shot back blindly.
I could hear shots being fired. I yelled for Rain, but she didn't answer. I peeked around the corner and saw one running for the door. I hit him in the back before he got out there. I stood over him and put two shots in his chest.
There was still shooting going on in the back. I kicked his gun away and started moving toward the hallway. I heard footsteps coming at me. It was the doorman, only now he had a gun. Rain came out of one of the rooms behind him. I aimed and fired at him, and he went down from one shot to the head. I kicked his gun out of the way as Rain walked slowly toward me.
“You all right?” I asked and Rain stopped right in front of me.
She was breathing hard.
So was I.
I could feel my heart pumping blood through my body and for the first time since Freeze died, I felt good. Felt alive.
“Yeah.”
I could tell that Rain felt it too. I could see it; it was written all over her. She was practically glowing.
“Any more back there?”
“No. I got his ass.”
“We should go. Come on.”
Rain and I left the building the same way we came in, down the stairs, and out the front door with a group of residents. We took our time walking to my car; neither of us said a word until we were out of Co-op and on I-95.
Rain let out a deep breath; it was more like a moan.
“Hmmm.”
Like the experience was almost sexual to her. It wasn’t that good for me, but I did need to get some of the rage that I was feeling off of me.
I was starting to like Rain.
I didn’t trust her, but I was definitely starting to like her. But I wasn’t about to tell her that. I was more interested in finding out why we just wiped out Nacho and his crew.
“You wanna tell me what just happened.”
“Family business, Nick. Nacho was a snitch and had to be dealt with.”
“You need to come a little better than that, Rain.”
“You mind if I smoke?”
“Go ahead. Just tell me why we … and I do mean we … why we just killed Nacho.”
Rain lit a cigarette and rolled down the window. “I had to take care of him for my father.”
“What does J.R. have to do with this?”
“A couple of days ago, my father told me that he was worried about Nacho.”
“Why?”
“He said that Nacho called and wanted to come by to talk about the money he owed him. Only Nacho don’t owe Pops no dough.”
“What did J.R. think he really wanted?”
“He thought Nacho was trying to set him up.” Rain took a deep drag from her cigarette. “You see, my father is a silent partner in a porno flick company with a guy named Paul Gaggiano. Well, a couple of weeks ago, Nacho was there to see one of the chicks in the movie. The cops raided the set and Nacho gets arrested along with everybody else.”
“Was your father there?”
“No. But Jeff Ritchie was. Jeff Ritchie is a freaky fuck. He goes there all the time to watch. He was arrested too. But Nacho was back on the street before Jeff Ritchie even got his one fuckin’ call. You know what I’m saying?”
“Nacho gave the cops something.”
“What he gave up was my father. That’s why I had to do this and not him. Jeff Ritchie is hot now.”
“Go on.”
“Pops began to suspect that Nacho had folded under pressure. Nacho’s a weak-ass bitch, you know the type, can’t do the time. So he told the cops that both my father and Jeff Ritchie were involved in gambling and were extorting money from him.”
“How do you know this?”
“Pops may be a step or two slower, but he still got his sources. They was telling Pops that Nacho hadn’t signed anything official, but he had more than one meeting with the cops. Bottom line, the bitch needed to be dealt with.”
I didn’t know if I believed her or not, and I wasn’t sure if I really cared. If I really needed to know if she was lying or not, I could check her story with Tamia Adams or even her father. “I’m sure that J.R. will be relieved that you took care of that for him.”
“He would, but he don’t know, and I got no plans of telling him. Both him and Jeff Ritchie are at the club with plenty of witnesses. They don’t need to know nothing about this. All they need to know is that the bitch nigga is dead and he ain’t no threat no more. End of story.”
“That the way you want it?”
&nb
sp; “That’s the way it’s gonna be, because I hope you ain’t planning on telling him nothing about what happened in these streets tonight. This between you and me. Cool?”
“You asking me or telling me?”
“Honestly, Nick, it’s both.”
“Don’t worry, Rain. Your secret is safe with me. You don’t need to tell anybody, and I mean anybody, that I was involved in any of this in any way. This stays between you and me. Cool?”
“Cool.”
“I don’t need any of this coming back on me and it looking like Black had anything to do with this.”
We drove for a while in silence. I needed Rain to think about how me backing her up on settling her business, could drag Black and our whole organization into a place where none of us needed to be. We were supposedly moving toward getting out, not backing Rain in whatever plan she had to consolidate her position. Me riding with her and backing her play makes it look like that was exactly what we were doing.
I looked over at Rain; the way the streetlights hit her face. I really hadn’t paid much attention to the fact that Rain was kinda cute. The fact that she was all gangster with it made her sexy.
“Look, Rain, I understand that you had to handle your business, but why involve me?”
“My dog got cracked a couple of days ago, and the way it’s looking, he’s going down for a long time. I knew I couldn’t do this alone, so I needed a road dog to ride with me. Then you walked into my life and I knew that there wasn’t nobody better at this shit than you.”
“You coulda asked me.”
“Nigga, please. You woulda asked me if I had lost my mind and told me to go away little girl.”
“You’re right, little girl, I would have.”
“See.”
“You lied to me.”
“That’s not exactly true. I didn’t lie to you. I’m for real about that. Yeah, I used you to get my shit done, but I did hear that Shake was in on the robbery, and Nacho. Since Shake say he didn’t have nothing to do with it I thought he could really put you on to the right people; for a price of course.”
“Of course.”
“So we good?”
“Don’t ever lie to me again.”
“I don’t like the fact that you keep calling me a liar, but under the circumstances, I’ll let it pass for now. Let’s get a drink and talk about it.”
“I told you, I got shit to do.”
“That’s cool, but you still need to know who hit your spot, right?”
“Right.”
“So let me help you.”
“Why, you got somebody else you need to kill?”
“Fair question. But no. I handled all the family business tonight.”
I pulled up in front of her father’s spot and put the car in park. I took out a pen and wrote down my cell number. “If you hear anything that I can use, call me.”
“I will, you can count on that.” Rain got out of the car and leaned in the window. “I might call you; even if I don’t have nothing but some sweet talk for you.”
Rain walked away from the car and I watched her swing that big ass until she went in the club. I thought for a second about having more than a drink with her. Then I put the car in drive and drove away.
I might have told her no, but part of me wanted to. Like I said, I was starting to like Rain. I respected the way she saw what needed to be done and took care of it. There was a time when I might have done the same thing and worried about the truth later.
Chapter 19
Mike Black
I looked at Maria as she slept. She seemed to have a smile on her face, and I wondered if she was dreaming, and if she was, was she dreaming about me.
When I do dream, it’s always about Cassandra. Truth is I think about her all the time. It doesn’t matter where I am, who I’m with, or what I’m doing, I can’t get her off my mind. I think about what my life would be like if she were still apart of it. I think about the sound of that sexy voice of hers dancing in my ear. I think about how her eyes seemed to come alive when she saw me. I think about how at every step I made decisions that led to her death.
I thought about my own nightmares. I don’t have them as much as I used to, but every once and awhile I do. It always begins different, but it always ends the same way. I’ll be dreaming about being with Cassandra, and we’ll end up back at our house. No matter what I do to try and stop him, Kip Bartowski, the man who beat and murdered Cassandra, kills her again. Then I wake up in a cold sweat. It reminds me that everybody who was involved in her murder isn’t dead.
But not tonight.
Tonight my mind wasn’t on Cassandra. Tonight my mind was on CeCe.
I got out of bed and walked toward the window. I thought about our last conversation. She said Cash knew Mylo by his real name. Cassandra had a friend named Juanita that worked for the DEA in Washington.
I had her do a little digging and she found out that Clint Harris was a DEA agent and Kenneth DeFrancisco was his last supervisor. The way she got it was that after DeFrancisco went to jail, the agency lost track of agent Harris until they found him dead at his house in Philly. Fortunately for me, they had no idea what he was working on or I would probably be in jail for his murder.
But that started me thinking about how long these bastards been on me, how deep they had infiltrated my house. It made me realize there was more to this than just DeFrancisco ordering Cassandra’s murder and me being framed for it; that’s just how it ended up. This was all part of Diego Estaban’s plan for me.
Now maybe I’m paranoid, but I wondered just how deep this plan was? Killing Diego didn’t stop it. DeFrancisco going to jail didn’t stop it. He still had Cassandra killed. I thought killing DeFrancisco would put an end to it, but suppose it doesn’t? Pete Vinnelli was still alive and pulling the strings.
The more I thought about it, the more the pieces fell into place. Mylo or Harris worked for DeFrancisco. DEA agent Masters worked for Vinnelli. Logically, he had to know about their plan to kill me and for Mylo to take over the Commissions drug markets. That meant that Vinnelli had his hand in it.
I had to know.
In spite of my promise to Angelo that I would let it go; I had to know. I had to know what their plans were and try to get a feel for what else they may have in store for me. This was a crucial time for us, making the move to go legit. I didn’t need this shit coming from nowhere to bite us in the ass. I had to be ready. I had to be a step ahead of them. I had to kill Vinnelli.
It was and still is the only way for Cassandra to rest in peace.
The next morning me, Bobby and Wanda met with the real estate broker, and then she had a meeting scheduled at her office with Meka Brazil, the investment banker that we’ve been dealing with. The meeting was to discuss with us her financing ideas, equity and bond issues.
At the meeting, Meka recommended a very aggressive strategy for taking over some smaller companies, merging with others to form a larger company, and selling the company’s stock to the public. At this point, we had no plans to tell her how we made our money, but she’s smart, so if she hadn’t figured it out for herself, at some point she will.
Then Meka started talking about us buying or investing in an insurance company that was looking to use derivatives to reduce risk in its investment portfolio.
“I don’t mean to sound stupid, but what are derivatives?” I asked Meka. I could tell that both Wanda and Bobby were glad that I asked because neither of them had a clue what she was talking about.
“Derivatives are financial instruments whose value changes in response to the changes in underlying variables,” Meka answered without appearing to be annoyed by my question. “The main types of derivatives are futures, forwards, options, and swaps.”
“In English, please.”
“Derivatives can be based on different types of assets such as commodities, stocks, bonds, interest rates, exchange rates, or indexes. The main use of derivatives is to reduce risk for one party. The diverse range
of potential underlying assets and pay-off alternatives leads to a huge range of derivative contracts available to be traded in the market. Their performance can determine both the amount and the timing of the pay-off.”
“Thank you, for clearing that up for me,” I said even though I still had no clue what she was talking about.
After the meeting was over, instead of rushing off to her next appointment, Meka came and sat down next to me.
“Mind if I ask you a question?” Meka asked.
“Not at all.” I thought she was about to ask where the money came from, but I was wrong.
“Did you really understand my explanation of derivatives?”
“To be honest with you, no, I didn’t. You might as well be speaking Latin.”
“I didn’t think so. But if I’m going to continue working for you, I think it’s important that you understand what I’m doing on your behalf.”
“I agree.”
“That means that you have to understand what I’m talking about so you can make informed decisions about your company’s future. Not just going along with what Meka says because she sounds good saying it.”
“I couldn’t agree with you more. The question is what are we going to do about that, Meka?”
“If you like, and your schedule permits, we could spend some time together and I could explain some of the basics of business investing.”
“That sounds like an excellent idea. Naturally, you can present a bill for your time,” I said, wanting to, as Wanda would say, at least give the appearance of professionalism.
Meka looked at her watch. “Look at the time. I have less than an hour to make it to a lunch meeting.” Meka got up and gathered her papers. “But any time you want to get together and talk finance, just give me a call,” she said and handed me another one of her cards.
“I’ll do that.”
Chapter 20
After Meka left, Wanda said she had a client coming and needed to prepare for it. Bobby, who had been talking to Wanda while I was talking to Meka, stood up to leave.
