by Roy Glenn
“Martin Marshall wouldn’t be one of them?” I asked, always looking for any edge I could find.
“Martin, no, but I do know him. Martin Marshall is an arrogant, pompous jerk, but no, he’s not a client,” Jada said and looked at her watch. “Look at the time. I’ve gotta run.” She reached in her purse and took out one of her cards. It only had a number on it. “It was good seeing you.”
I accepted the card and kissed her hand. “Hopefully, it won’t be the last time I see you.”
“You have the card. It’s my private number. Anything I could do for you, just ask,” Jada said and finished her drink.
“Before you go, let me ask you a question.”
“Sure.”
“Are any of your clients reporters?”
“Yes. Why do you ask?”
“Can you arrange a meeting?”
“With you?”
“No. I’m not sure who they’d be meeting with.”
“As long as there’s a story in it, I’m sure I can. His name is James Fremeno; he’s a reporter for the Post. What’s the story?”
I finished my drink and looked at Kevon. He stood up.
“I’ll call you in a couple of days.”
“I’m sure that you will.”
“Why is that?”
Jada smiled. “Because it seems that now I suddenly have something you want. And you impress me as a man who always gets what he wants.”
“Not all the time.”
What I really want is Cassandra.
But that’s not gonna happen.
Chapter 34
Nick Simmons
I opened my eyes and looked around the room, halfway expecting Wanda to be sitting there watching me sleep.
It was after midnight by the time I got to Wanda’s house. She was still up waiting for me when I got there. After I left Rain at the motel, I thought it would be a good idea for me to be seen at a few of our spots. Since Wanda had eyes everywhere, I figured I’d put them to work for me.
“How’d it go?” Wanda asked as soon as I got in the house.
“Somebody got there before we did. They were dead when we got there.”
“We? Who is we?”
“Me and Rain.”
“Why you take her?”
“Wanda … we’ve been through this. Rain is helping me. We followed-up on her lead, then I dropped her off at J.R.’s.”
“What did you do after that?”
I laughed. “I really don’t like being interrogated, counselor, but if you want me to account for my whereabouts, fine. After I dropped her off, I got a picture of her brother and then I went to Monika’s. Then I hit a few spots.” Wanda doesn’t like Monika. She swears something is going on between us, so I know she won’t call her for any reason.
“What you go to Monika for?”
“She’s helping me with Zakiya’s murder too. She was having an affair with a married man whose on-line name is Nice N. Slow. The e-mails were sent from a computer at J.R.’s. I think that Rain’s brother Miles sent them. That’s why I got his picture, so I could show it to the staff at Paradise tomorrow.”
That was my plan for the day.
I got out of bed, took a shower, and was at Paradise by one. The place was packed. I made eye contact with Tasheka and took a seat. When things quieted down a little, Tasheka came to the table with some lemonade for me.
“How are you doing, Nick?”
“I’m doing fine, Tasheka. How about you?”
“Tired; need a better job. But other than that, I’m fine.”
And she was; fine as hell.
“Have a seat, Tasheka, I got something I want you to take a look at.”
Tasheka sat down and I handed her the picture that I had taken of Miles. She looked at the picture and shook her head.
“That’s him. That’s the guy she used to meet here.”
“Are you sure?”
“Sure am,” she said. “Shameka, come here.”
“Don’t you see I’m busy?” Shameka shouted back.
“I can’t stand her ass sometimes,” Tasheka frowned. “That’s why I need a new job.”
Tasheka got up. She took the pictures behind the counter to show Shameka. She looked at the pictures and came from behind the counter.
“That’s him,” Shameka said as soon as she got to the table.
“When they were here together, how did they act?”
“What do you mean?”
“Did they seem happy with each other? Did they argue?”
“They looked like they were in love. You know, sitting on the same side in the booth, all hugged up with each other. Holding hands, stuff like that.”
She handed me back the pictures and asked if I was hungry. “Starving.”
“What you want? You want some chicken, or you want some fish?”
“Got any shrimp?”
“Of course; some big jumbo joints.”
“Bring me some shrimp and chicken.”
“You want fries with that?”
“Hold the fries,” I said and Shameka went for the food.
Tasheka brought back the food and another glass of lemonade and sat down. While I ate, she told me all the reasons why she hated working there and needed to be gone.
“You got a pen?” I asked when I was finished eating. Tasheka went and got a pen and I wrote down the number for the finance company that Wanda had been dying for me to run. I handed it to her. “Call this number on Monday, but not until Monday. You ask for April Dancer, she’ll be expecting your call,” I said and got up.
Before I knew it, Tasheka had jumped up, hugged, and kissed me. “Thank you.”
“Just don’t disappoint me,” I said, and could hear her scream for joy as I left the restaurant.
Now that I knew for sure that Miles was Nice N. Slow, the married man that Zakiya was seeing before her death, the question now was, what the fuck was I gonna do about it?
I had no idea.
When I got to J.R.’s it was still early, too early for the club to be open. I went around back and knocked on the door. A short time later, a woman came to the door.
“I’m looking for Miles Robinson. Is he here?”
The woman took a closer look at me. “You were here with Rain yesterday, weren’t you?”
“That’s right.”
“No, he’s not,” she said. “He won’t be back until Monday.”
“Thanks.”
I went back around to the front of the building, thinking that now I had some time to decide what I was going to do about Miles. I was about to get in my car, when Rain pulled up in her BMW.
“Looking for me?” Rain asked as she pulled up alongside of me.
“No.”
“Liar.”
“No, I was looking for your brother, Miles.”
“He ain’t here.”
“Yeah, I know. Some woman just told me that at the back door; said he won’t be back until Monday.”
“He dropped the kids off and took his wife out of town for the weekend, which ain’t a bad idea. Why don’t we go to AC for the weekend?”
“Not happening, not this weekend, anyway.” But it did sound good.
Rain put the car in park. “Since Miles ain’t here, why don’t you come ride with me for a minute?”
“Where you going?”
“Just riding.”
I walked around to the other side of her car and got in. We drove around going nowhere fast, talking about nothing in particular. “There is something I always wanted to know,” Rain said.
“What’s that?”
“Did you and Freeze really set a nigga on fire?”
“What?”
“I heard that you and Freeze burned some nigga to death.”
“We didn’t burn him to death.”
“So what happened?” Rain asked as she drove.
“The guy’s name was Floyd Green. He worked at a garage and was running a little numbers, but he made his money selling heroin. H
e owed André money, Black sent me and Freeze to get it.”
“So far, that’s how the story goes.”
“As soon as he sees us, Floyd tries to run out the back door.”
“But he trips on some tires. Y’all catch him, kick his ass, and set him on fire.
“That’s not exactly what happened.”
“I’m just saying that’s how the story goes.”
“Okay, here’s what happened. Floyd trips on the tires and we started kicking him. We’re asking him where the money is, and he swears he ain’t got it; he’ll have it in a couple of days. Freeze picks up a tire and starts hitting him in the head with it. I pulled him up and told Freeze to put the tire around him.”
“That’s when y’all set him on fire.”
“You gonna let me tell this?”
“Go ahead. But I’m still waiting for this to be any different from what I heard,” Rain laughed.
“You wanna hear this or not?”
“Go on. You know you wanna tell me,” Rain said in a voice that made me want to be inside her.
“After Freeze put the tire around him, we took our time and worked him over. He still kept saying that he would have the money in a couple of days. I was ready to leave it at that, but to make sure he understood that I was serious, I told Freeze to find me some gasoline. I poured it around the tire and asked Freeze for a lighter. Before I lit it, Floyd tells me the money is in the safe. He took us to the safe, told me the combination and got us our money.”
Rain laughed. “Right. That’s when y’all niggas set his ass on fire and he burned to death.”
“No, we didn’t set him on fire. After that, Floyd left the city. I heard he moved to Philly, but we didn’t set him on fire,” I said as Rain pulled into the motel she’d been staying at.
Rain unlocked the door and we went inside. Apparently, she had gone by her apartment after I left her. She had clothes everywhere, some were hung up, and some were on the second bed in the room.
“Planning on being here for a while?”
“No, I just ain’t going back to my apartment. I need to be finding a place, but I ain’t feeling it right now.”
“What you feeling like right now.”
Rain pulled her top over her head and unbuttoned her pants. I figured out the rest.
Before too long I was naked and laying across the bed. Rain straddled me and eased herself down on me. She rode me slowly while she sucked her nipple. I began to feel her legs trembling on my thighs and I pumped a little harder. Rain reached out and touched my face with her hands and kissed me.
Rain stood up and then kneeled down on the edge of the bed. I put my hands on her hips and entered her slowly. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get the image of Wanda out of my mind. What was I doing? I thought while I continued to slide in and out of her.
Her cell rang, but she didn’t choose to answer it.
Rain rolled over and I eased her on her back and entered her. Her body began to quiver as she stretched out her legs.
The cell rang again, but this time as soon as it stopped the room phone started ringing. “Shit!” Rain yelled and pushed me off of her. “This better be important,” she said and answered the phone. “This better be fuckin’ important!” Rain yelled into the phone.
“What?” She said and stood up. “When?” I sat and watched as Rain held the phone and listened. I watched her facial expression change from anger to pain. A look of panic washed over her face and she looked around the room. “I’ll be there as soon as I can,” Rain said and hung up the phone.
“What?”
“That was Jeff Ritchie. Pops had a heart attack.”
Chapter 35
Rain was too shook-up to do anything, so I drove her to the hospital. When we got there, Jeff Ritchie told her that J.R. was in his office at the club, having a steak, and he suddenly grabbed his chest and fell to his knees. “He’s in intensive care. They don’t know if he’s gonna make it. You can go in,” he told her.
“You call Miles?”
“He’s on his way back. He’ll be here in a few hours.”
Good. Now I don’t have to wait until Monday.
Rain turned to me. “I’m gonna go in and see my father. Don’t leave me, Nick, okay. Don’t leave.”
Rain grabbed the first nurse she could find, and they took her to the intensive care unit. Jeff Ritchie looked at me and I looked at him with a yeah, I fucked her, look on my face. He shook his head and walked away. I went in the waiting room and sat down.
I had been sitting there people watching, because it was more entertaining than television, for over an hour before Rain came back and sat down next to me. It was obvious that she had been crying, so I put my arm around her. I held her for a while before she spoke.
“The doctor said his main coronary artery was completely blocked and the other two was just about blocked. They did bypass surgery on him.”
“Is he gonna be all right?”
“They don’t know. Said we just have to wait and see. Look, I’m gonna go back in there. You can go if you want to.”
“You go ahead and be with your father. I’m gonna stay for a while,” I said knowing that I wanted to talk to Miles but thinking that maybe this wasn’t the best time to hit him with this.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m cool. You go ahead.”
Rain went back in the unit and I reclaimed my seat. It was two hours later when I looked up and saw Miles and Lakeda go in the unit. It would be another hour before Rain came out again. “He regained consciousness. He’s still very weak, but they say he has a good chance.”
“That’s good to know. I’m gonna go ahead and leave,” I said and handed her, her keys. I had decided that I would wait and talk to Miles another time. “I’ll take a cab back to my car.”
“Thanks for staying as long as you did. I’ll call you tomorrow.” Rain kissed me on the cheek and walked back toward the unit. I watched her until the door closed behind her.
I caught a cab back to my car and went and hit a few of our spots. As I went from spot to spot, I wondered who Wanda’s spies were and how I was gonna find out who they were. Maybe she was clocking me right now.
I thought about what Black said about not hurting Wanda. It wasn’t like I was trying to hurt her, but I knew that I was. Even if Wanda didn’t know for sure that I was fuckin’ Rain, every minute I spent with her, every time I’m with Wanda and I think about Rain, I was driving the knife a little deeper. I loved Wanda, but there was something about Rain, something I wasn’t ready to give up.
I called Wanda and told her that I was gonna make a few more stops and then I would be there. “That’s if you want to see me,” I said.
“Of course I want to see you. How long do you think you’ll be?”
“I don’t know.”
My next stop for the night was the game. I stayed there for a while and talked to Jackie. “Where’s Travis tonight?”
“Monika called him last night, and he rushed out of here. I haven’t seen him since,” Jackie told me.
“What’s up with that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Monika had a tip on a hot job and needed Travis for it. You know how they roll.”
“Yeah, she did say she was into something the last time I talked to her.”
When I left Jackie, I decided to call it a night and head for Wanda’s, but I called Rain first to check on her. “Where you at?”
“On my way home.”
“Your home or your woman’s?”
“Hers.”
“Tell her I said hello.”
“No.”
“Why don’t you stop by here on your way? I promise not to keep you too long.” I started to tell her no. “I just need you to hold me for a while,” Rain said, and against my better judgment, I agreed.
I drove back to the hospital thinking of how just about every time Rain and I were together we killed somebody. Now she needed a hug. Under all that gangster. Go figure.
<
br /> When I got back to the hospital, I didn’t see Rain anywhere, so I was about to go in the visitor’s area to wait for her. I saw Jeff Ritchie sitting there and then I saw Miles come out of the intensive care unit and walk down the hall. Since the old man was gonna be all right, I thought I might catch Miles weak and he’d actually tell me the truth.
I followed Miles to the cafeteria. He got a cup of coffee from the vending machine and sat down at one of the tables. I waited a minute before I went and joined him. When I sat down, Miles didn’t seem to notice that I was there. Then he looked at me. “You’re Nick, right? Rain’s friend?”
“Yes. Sorry about your father. Is he going to be all right?”
“I don’t know. He’s awake now. His arteries are so blocked that it’s restricting the flow of blood. He may be in danger of having a stroke. They say we’ll have to wait and see.”
“This might not be the best time, but I need to ask you something.”
“What’s that?”
I took Zakiya’s picture out of my pocket and slid it in front of him. “You wanna tell me about her?”
“I told you that I didn’t know her,” Miles said and started to get up.
“Yes, you do. You were having an affair with her. Nice N. Slow? That’s you, right?”
Then Miles did something that I really wasn’t expecting him to do.
He started crying.
I mean crying-like-a-baby crying.
I felt like shit for asking.
“I loved her,” Miles said and picked up Zakiya’s picture and stared at it.
“What happened?”
“I met her at the club a year ago. She was there to meet somebody, but he stood her up. And I wondered what kind of fool would stand up somebody as beautiful and sweet as her.”
“How long after that did the affair begin?”
“That night.” Miles looked up at me. “I loved her from that first minute I saw her. I know it was wrong. I have a beautiful wife, two wonderful kids. I know everything about what I was feeling for Zakiya was wrong. But I couldn’t help myself. It was like nothing mattered to me except being with Zakiya. But it was wrong, and I knew it had to end.”
