After the Rain

by Vanessa Miller

  “But God has the power, right?” Ikee asked as if he needed reassurance.

  “He’s got more power in His baby finger than any of the gangsters I ever dealt with. I need you to believe that, Ikee. Because if I’m ever not around, I want you to know that you can always depend on God. Okay?”

  Ikee nodded and then they held hands and prayed.

  When they finished praying, Isaac told his son, “Your mom and I never wanted you to know anything about the drug life. We wanted you to live in peace.” Isaac was silent for a long moment as he looked out the window. When he turned back to his son he said, “If I had my life to live over, I would have chosen not to be a gang banger. Seems like my children keep paying for all the damage that I caused. I see how painful it is to know that someone is gunning for your child… I just wish I could go back and change some things.”

  “It’s not your fault, Dad. You tried to warn me and I should have listened. I don’t know why I ever thought anything was cool about being a drug dealer. I’m scared to death that I might get killed and to be honest, with as much trouble as I’m having, I don’t even know how you made it out.”

  Isaac didn’t know if he would survive this night, but if he died, he would go out fighting for what was right. He leaned over and hugged his son, real tight… like he wondered if he’d ever see him again tight. “Let’s do this.” He smiled at his son as they rode out; but in truth, Isaac wished that Keith had that seat rather than his son. He and Keith had outlasted the game and they were now respectable citizens of this great nation. But trouble kept finding them.

  While Isaac and Ikee were inside the car praying to God for His protection and guidance, Brogan, the warrior angel who had fought many battles with and for Isaac stood on the hood of the car with his sword extended. They were going to battle again tonight, and he would be ready.

  Luke joined him on the car, with sword drawn. “Is it happening tonight?”

  “Oh yeah,” Brogan told him. “And I intend to extinguish that devil before this is over with.”

  ~~~~

  With Lou trying to bring so much product into the city all at once, the police were on high alert. And that meant a serious crackdown was going down and hustlers were running for the hills. DeMarco, Bobby-Ray and Lou met up in the basement of one of Lou’s low key spots. Each man took turns frisking the other and checking for wires. Bad movies do have their basis in some truth, and too many hustlers have gotten snatched up because another hustler turned snitch and wore a wire on him.

  “Let’s get down to business,” DeMarco said. “I’m heading south tonight and I’ll be laying low for at least a year down there.”

  “So you gon’ skip out after bringing all this heat down on us?” Lou said with an angry scowl on his face.

  DeMarco’s eyes shifted as he pointed at himself like he couldn’t understand the exchange that was going on. “I didn’t bring nothing down on you. The po-po must of had you under surveillance anyway, for them to swoop down on every one of your contacts. I’m just lucky they didn’t pinch me in the process.”

  “That’s the million dollar question, right there,” Bobby-Ray said, eyeing DeMarco like airport security looking at a suspected terrorist. “Why didn’t the cops arrest you, since they tracked Geeze from the spot where he picked up the package?”

  “Because I wasn’t there. I sent one of my boys. Now why he didn’t get arrested, I can’t tell you. But I will soon find out. My boys are taking him out of town right now. When I meet up with them, if he doesn’t have my money and a good explanation for why he’s not in handcuffs,” DeMarco shrugged, “we’ll never hear from him again. If he is a rat, then their case just got a little weaker.”

  “Alright, you go handle that piece of business; Bobby-Ray and I will stay here and tie up some loose ends.”

  Bobby-Ray wasn’t feeling that. “I’m not staying in this town another hour. I’m taking my woman on an extended vacation, which should have already started. She’s packing our stuff at the house right now.”

  “So what you sayin’?” Lou asked. “You just gon’ leave me hanging like that?”

  “What you want from me? I told you that was too much stuff to bring in here at once. But you wasn’t trying to hear from me. Told me you didn’t need my money to make the deal and went on about your business like you was getting ready to top me on the street. But now all of a sudden you need me.”

  “It’s like that, huh?”

  “It’s like that,” Bobby-Ray told him as if it was nothing. The two men had once been the best of friends. Had grown up on the same street and received respect in the neighborhood because their fathers, although deceased, had once been running the streets… until Isaac Walker ended their reign.

  “What about this kid? You was supposed to help me settle up with his daddy by taking care of him. Then he comes in my territory and now I’ve got five-o breathing down my neck. You don’t think you owe me, when you let that loose in my streets?”

  “How is that my fault, Lou? His daddy practically drug him out of my place the other night. I thought for sure I would see him again because he needed a place to sell the drugs he’d purchased from me. But the next thing I know he’s on your turf.”

  “Don’t forget about the police showing up the same day he did. My operation would have gone smoothly if it hadn’t been for that kid. So, somebody’s got to kill him… and I pick you.”

  “And while I’m taking care of that, what are you going to be doing?”

  “I have a loose end I need to tie up before I can get out of here. So, if the three of us handle our business tonight, the cops won’t be able to touch us and we can start making money again.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Isaac pulled up to the house that Ikee saw Candy walk out of. “I think this is it,” Ikee said.

  Isaac opened the car door and said, “You stay here and duck down.” It was almost one in the morning, but Isaac stood on the porch and knocked on the door as if it was two in the afternoon. No one came to the door, so he knocked again. He went around back and looked around. The place was dark and he couldn’t hear anyone moving around.

  “I don’t think anyone is in there,” Isaac told Ikee when he got back in the car.

  “Maybe we should call the police. She might be laying in there dead or something.”

  “If she’s already dead, I certainly don’t want to be the one calling the police. We don’t need that kind of heat right about now. Let’s just drive around and keep an eye out.” At one point as Isaac and Ikee were looking, he was about to make a left turn but felt a nudging in his spirit to turn right instead. He went with his gut and then said, “Okay, now where?”

  “Huh? What?” Ikee said.

  “I wasn’t talking to you, boy. I’m talking to the Holy Spirit. It feels to me like God is trying to lead me somewhere so I’m trying to listen and let the Lord guide.”

  “Gotcha,” Ikee said, but didn’t really understand.

  Isaac turned off the gospel music he’d been playing to calm his mind, and he listened as he made another turn and then another one.

  They were heading down a long street where a bunch of abandoned houses that had already been condemned were. The only other thing Ikee saw on this street were trees and more trees. “Are you sure you’re listening right?”

  “Hush up, boy. Don’t interrupt the Lord when He’s trying to take us somewhere.”

  Ikee twisted his lip and eyed his father like he wondered if he should offer to drive. Like maybe the stress of the last few days had loosened a few screws or something. But just as Ikee’s doubt began rolling in, he spotted someone walking a few blocks up. Pointing and getting excited, he said, “Daddy, I see someone.”

  “Okay, just calm down. If it’s her, we don’t want to scare her off.” Isaac eased the car up, put it in park. “You get on her right side and I’ll pull up on her left.” Isaac got out of the car but left the door open and told Ikee to do the same.

  As they got
close to the woman, Isaac signaled his son to say something to her.

  “Hey Candy, let me holler at you.” Ikee was right up on her.

  She turned and tried to take off running in the other direction, but Isaac caught hold of her arm. “Hold on, now. We came to help you.”

  “Leave me alone. I’m not going to say anything. I just want to be left alone,” she screamed at them.

  “Listen to me,” Isaac said while holding on to her. “We think that you are in danger, so we came to get you. We don’t want to hurt you… just want to help.

  But Candy wasn’t hearing it. She struggled and screamed until the first gunshots were heard. The three of them ducked as more bullets flew in their direction. Two bullets hit the car as Isaac, Ikee and Candy crawled over to it. They jumped in the car, Isaac closed his door and sped off as Ikee was still struggling to close his.

  “Pull it harder,” Isaac commanded as he rounded the corner.

  “Oh my God, he really does want to kill me,” Candy said as she accepted her new reality.

  Brogan and Luke were hanging on while Isaac wheeled that car like a Nascar racer. “That was a close one,” Luke said.

  Brogan shook his head. “I caught the assailants scent before Isaac stopped the car. That’s why I jumped off and stood in front of him.”

  “If you hadn’t that first bullet would have hit him for sure.”

  “Isaac don’t have time to die. He has work to do for the kingdom. And this young woman must have an assignment also, because there’s no other reason why she’s not already dead.”

  Luke covered the car with his flaring coat just as he had to protect Ikee. He wanted to give Isaac enough time to escape by disturbing the assailant’s vision.

  “I won’t talk… I won’t talk,” Candy kept saying as she rolled her head from side to side.

  “What were you so afraid of when we approached you? Did you already know that Lou was after you?” Isaac asked, perplexed by the situation. But then he chalked it up to the paranoid disorder that often comes with drug abuse.

  She started crying and kept chanting, “I won’t talk… I won’t talk.”

  “What’s wrong with her, Dad? She didn’t seem this crazy yesterday.”

  “I don’t know son. Sometimes drugs can make a person paranoid. Hopefully, Candy hasn’t lost her mind completely and will be able to recover and live a normal life once she makes up her mind to get off drugs.”

  “How’s she going to do that living down here? Drugs are available everywhere you turn in the hood. You and Mom were right to move far away from this place. Now that I have seen for myself how much devastation goes on around here, I don’t want any parts of it. I promise you, Dad, if we make it through this I’m going back to school and this time I’m going to do what I need to do to make it in this world the right way.”

  If nothing else, his son had experienced a real life scared straight program in which he had a starring role. Isaac was grateful that his son had finally seen the light, but he realized that Ikee was right about Candy’s prospects. If they drove her out of here tonight and took her to another hood, she’d just keep geeking until she killed herself. At that moment Isaac’s plans changed. He drove home and pulled into the garage. He helped Candy out of the car and took her into the house. He left Candy in the family room with Ikee and then went to the bedroom and woke Nina up.

  “What’s going on? Did you bring Ikee back home?”

  “He’s here. But we also brought a woman he was worried about. Our son has a good heart. He wants us to keep this girl safe. And I was hoping that you could pray with her or get her comfortable enough with us that she’ll at least give Jesus a try.”

  “And we have to do all of this at two in the morning?”

  “Well, we did just save her from a drug dealer who was trying to kill her.”

  Nina held up a hand. “Hold up… wait a minute. Exactly what kind of trouble is Ikee in? And what possessed you to bring this woman here this time of morning?” Nina put her robe on as her husband told her about how Ikee got himself mixed up with a drug ring and now the guy is mostly after Ikee and the woman they just rescued.

  “Why doesn’t he just run? That’s what I would do if the police were after me. I wouldn’t even bother myself with two people who ticked me off… or I guess he feels like they cost him some money.” Nina rolled her eyes at the silliness of it all.

  “That’s because you’re not a gangster. It’s about street cred and code. And anyway, if Lou is anything like his father, he’s probably half crazy. And the things he does only make sense in his own mind.”

  “Do you think we should call the police?”

  Isaac nodded. “You go and talk with this girl, pray with her or whatever you can do to calm her down and I’ll give Iona and Johnny a call.”

  As Nina left the room, Isaac walked over to the keypad for their alarm system and turned the door alarm and the window sensors on. They were locked in and the dangers of the world were locked out. He went to the closet and took out the tasers and pepper spray. Isaac might not believe in killing, but he wasn’t going to be caught slipping on protecting his family.

  He sat down on the bed and called Iona. After filling her in, he asked if she could call Johnny.

  “I just talked to him. His trip is being cut short and he should be home by morning.”

  “Okay, just tell him to get over here as soon as he can.”

  “Diana is spending the night. I’m leaving the kids with her because I’m on my way.”

  “No Iona, you stay home with my grand babies. I don’t want you getting in this. Ikee and I will hold things down here until morning.”

  “Is this a joke? You done got all old and non-violent and I’m worried you might have forgotten how to handle thugs like these.”

  “I’m prepared. You just stay home.”

  “All you’ve got over there is a bunch of tasers and an alarm system. Thugs ain’t scared of no alarm. And unless you can wrestle that gun away from them after you tase them, you’re hit. My husband is with the FBI so I’ve got the real gangster stopper. And I’m bringing it with me.”

  “I’ve been taking care of myself for more years than you’ve been born, young lady. I got this.”

  “Whatever,” Iona said, “I’m on my way. You just turn off that alarm and let me in because I’m going to be packing heat.”

  ~~~~

  Iona couldn’t believe this, she had just been complaining about how boring her life had become and now her family’s lives were in jeopardy again. She would take boring over something like this any day of the week.

  By the time she reached her dad’s house she had talked to her husband and her step-father Keith, who was also her father’s best friend. Once inside the house she told her father that not only would Johnny be there by morning, but Keith said to tell Isaac that if he wanted him to get on the road, just say the word.

  “Naw, let that old man stay where he’s at. No sense getting him involved in this.” Isaac would love for Keith to be there and for the two of them to put their heads together to figure a way out of this jam. But Keith had just gotten out of the hospital due to some clogged arteries from all that good food his wife cooks.

  “I figured you’d say that. I just wanted to update him, because if I didn’t, sick or not, he’d come down here and skin me alive. But he did say that he and Mama would be up the rest of the night praying.”

  “Thanks for that. This family can use some prayers right about now.”

  Isaac and Iona headed into the family room where Nina and Ikee sat with Candy. The moment Iona saw her, she grabbed her father’s arm and headed in the other direction. Once they were in the kitchen, Iona whispered, “Do you know who you have in there?”

  Isaac shook his head. “All I know is that she’s on drugs and she almost got Ikee arrested the other day because she was trying to trade sex for drugs.”

  Pointing towards the family room, Iona informed her father, “Her name is Cand
ace Drake. She had once been a very beautiful model who decided that the drug life was more profitable. She helped Lou Jones grow his business and probably knows where every body is buried.”

  Now everything made since to Isaac. Before he didn’t understand why Lou would risk being nabbed by the police in order to kill Candy, simply because he was ticked about the part she played in the cops showing up on his block the other day. Lou was getting rid of a potential rat and none of them would be safe until Isaac could turn her over to Johnny.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Bobby-Ray parked his car on the side of the house and then he and two of his boys went around back. In fancy neighborhoods like these there were always sliding glass doors. And every so often someone would forget to re-lock it after spending a fun filled evening grilling on the patio. People didn’t do stuff like that in the hood. They knew to always be on guard, because a TV could come up missing just like that.

  Thieves these days were so bold; they didn’t even sneak around back. Some of them walked right onto the porch and kicked down the door in broad daylight. And those I-have-an-alarm signs didn’t detract most thieves in the hood, because they knew that when push came to shove, and a person had to decide between feeding their kids and paying an ADT bill. ADT would lose every time.

  “You got your tools?” Bobby-Ray asked Gimme-Jimmy. They called him gimme because he was the kind of burglar who would come to your house, steal everything that would sell and then take the worthless I-have-an-alarm sign out of the person’s front yard and go sell that to someone too.

  “I don’t leave home without them,” Gimme-Jimmy told him. He went to work on the sliding glass door, and within minutes, he had popped the lock and opened the door. But they soon found out that the sign in the front wasn’t just for show as the alarm sounded the minute the door opened.