The Reign of Rain Robinson

by Roy Glenn

  “Why? R.J. knows that he can come to me anytime.”

  “Yeah, Bob, but you’re his father and he feels like you treat him like he’s still a little boy.”

  “No I don’t.”

  “Yeah, Bob, you probably do, and that’s why he talks to Wanda.” Black paused. “Who, in case you don’t know, has had his ear since he was old enough to say Aunt Wanda.”

  When he arrived at The Four Kings, Bobby told R.J. to come ride with him. “Where we going?” R.J. asked as he followed his father out of the club.

  “I got something I wanna show you,” Bobby said.

  On the way, Bobby apologized to R.J. if he made him feel he had treated him like a child. “That was never my intention. I’m proud of you, and I want you to know that you can always come to me for advice and counsel.”

  “I know that, but you’re right, sometimes I do feel like a little boy, but what I gotta remember is that in this, I am a little boy and I need to listen to every word you have to say to me,” R.J. said, and told his father about what happened with Venus.

  Bobby laughed. “Never let pussy come before your responsibility to your Family. It’s a lesson I had to learn the hard way. Almost got your Uncle Mike killed,” he said, and told R.J. the story.

  “See, that’s exactly why I need to be a student of both you and Uncle Mike. The two of you seen it all.”

  Bobby laughed. “Done it all too.”

  Bobby went on to acknowledge the things that R.J. and his crew were doing to earn in The Family and the fact that he is doing well in college.

  “I just want you to know that I’m proud of the man you are. Proud to say I’m your father,” Bobby said as they arrived at and park on a street in the old neighborhood that had stores opened, but the spots on each corner were closed.

  “Where are we?” R.J. asked but Bobby said nothing. He got out of the car and walked up to one of the closed places, unlocked the door and R.J. followed him inside. As soon as Bobby turned on the house lights, R.J. knew exactly where he was, and he was more than excited to be there.

  “This is The Late Night, ain’t it?” R.J. asked as he followed his father into the club.

  “Took y’all long enough,” Black said, and stood up.

  Easy was playing on the floor at his father’s feet; he jumped up and ran to R.J. the second he saw him.

  “What’s up, Easy?” R.J. picked him up like he always did.

  “He’s getting too big for that,” Bobby said.

  “And too heavy,” R.J. said and put him down.

  “His grandmother’s cooking,” Black said and hugged R.J. “How are you?”

  “I’m fine, Uncle Mike.”

  “Heard good things about you and your crew,” Black said and hugged him again. “Proud of you.”

  “Enough of that shit,” Bobby said to move things along. “I know you wanna know why we got you down here.”

  “I am, but I hope I know,” R.J. said.

  “The last time we were here, when we closed the place, me and your father made a promise that we would give this place to our sons,” Black said.

  “And now that at least one of you is old enough to run it, we want you to have The Late Night,” Bobby said.

  “Wow,” R.J. said, and everyone could hear the genuine excitement in his voice. He dropped to one knee and looked at Easy. “Look around, Little Prince, this is ours now and this is just the beginning. Pretty soon, the world is going to be ours just like I promised.”

  Chapter Thirty-nine

  Now that Marvin had moved in with the other Kings; that left the couple more freedom in the house to play.

  “Nick, we didn’t close the drapes,” April said.

  “And?”

  “And? I don’t want anyone to see us.”

  “If they are looking that hard, let them. Plus, I doubt anyone can see us from here.”

  He kissed any other protests from her lips as he opened up the shirtdress she was wearing when she came in from the grocery store. Each button was undone, leaving her in her matching pink bra and thong.

  “You’re adorable you know that, right?”

  Again, before she could respond, he was kissing her again. She felt the clasp to her bra come undone and then his fingers were pulling down her thong as they began moving away from the window. April’s hands were in his shortly cut hair and then their bodies were easing down on the couch with her straddling his lap. She didn’t remember him undoing the drawstring lounge pants that he was wearing as she started to put the food away in the fridge. But they were gone, she realized as he started to impale her on his hot length.

  She rode him, her hands on his thighs, helping her to balance and lift up and down on him as he used his hands to pull her back and forth like a bow. They panted each other’s names, whispered I love you to each other, and kissed the smiles off each other’s face. And once she swiveled her hips just the way he liked it; he came right along with her.

  “Happy birthday, baby,” she said to him.

  “Yes, it definitely is.”

  After Nick and April made love again in the shower, they stayed away from each other long enough to get dressed to make it to Cuisine, where Nick thought they had dinner reservations. But April knew that other plans had been made.

  When they arrived at Cuisine, they walked in with her arm looped in his and grinned wide when all their friends yelled, “Happy Birthday!” And began clapping.

  Nick was surprised and looked at April shocked before hugging her tight. “Thank you, baby,” Nick said, and kissed April tenderly to applause from the invited guests.

  “Don’t thank me, this was Monika’s idea. She made all the arrangements,” April said as Monika came to them smiling.

  She gave Nick a hug and a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you, Monika,” he said.

  “You’re welcome. I just wanted you to have a special birthday, Nick.”

  “Happy birthday, old man,” Black said, and hugged him.

  “Ain’t you older than me, old man?”

  “Happy birthday, Nick,” Shy said, and she hugged Nick.

  After Bobby and Pam extended birthday wishes, each of the Captains, Jackie, Carter, Ed Weather, Doc and, even Sherman, as well as Perry and Glenda, came to show respect and wish Nick a happy birthday.

  “You got me good.”

  “We got each other good all day long … but with this,” she kissed him. “Happy birthday.”

  He didn’t say anything at first, but then leaned in to kiss her. “It’s been the best birthday, baby.”

  “Quit it y’all. You can make a baby later,” Wanda teased, and then she pulled Nick away from April to give him a hug.

  “Happy birthday, Nick,” she said to one of her oldest friends. In order for Wanda to move on, she had to put their relationship behind her and remember that they were friends first. They were family.

  One by one, all of the guest paid birthday respects to Nick, laughing with him and telling old stories and wishing him the best. And then Rain who had sat back to watch it all, stood up and approached him slowly. Due to their past relationship, just about everybody was surprised when Rain came through the door.

  The room grew silent, with the exception to Scarlett’s voice singing in the background, there was not a sound. They all waited for her to say something and when she did, she surprised Nick and everybody else, for that matter. First Rain greeted April with a nod and then hugged him.

  “Happy birthday. I wish you the best year with April.”

  “Thanks, Rain,” Nick said, and then the party started, and everyone dispersed to mingle before the meal was served. But on the other side of the room, Pam was grilling Shy.

  “You are absolutely glowing. I mean more than usual.”

  “Thank you, Pam,” Shy said and smiled at her.

  “So what’s going on? The last time I looked like that, I was pregnant with the twins.”

  Shy smiled.

  “Noooo!”

  Shy nodded and her
smile widened.

  “Congratulations!”

  “Shhhh. I haven’t told anyone yet.”

  “Okay, okay, but when are you due?”

  “I’m ten weeks, so do the math.”

  “Well, this is fabulous news. I know Mike is happy.”

  “I haven’t told him yet.”

  Pam laughed. “You need to tell him.”

  “I will, tonight,” Shy promised but before the conversation could go any further, Chef Aja came out with her creations for dinner and everyone sat down to listen as she went over the menu and everyone ate when she left to see to dessert.

  As the meal winded down and everyone sipped on their champagne and made birthday toasts, except for Shy, who sipped on water. The huge birthday cake was wheeled in with sparklers for candles. The Family sang happy birthday as a smiling Nick stood by the cake, asking April to come up to blow out the candles with him. When the singing died, he closed his eyes before blowing out the sparklers as everyone applauded.

  “I don’t think it’s tradition to share your birthday wish with others, but I’m doing it anyway. I asked April up here with me to let you all know that I asked April to marry me and for some reason, she accepted.”

  There was a round of applause and shouts of congratulations and then Nick held up his hand to quiet the crowd. “So, my wish is that we have a very long and happy marriage and I wish for this Family be as happy and as strong as we are right now.”

  The End of The Model and The Madam

  The Reign of Rain Robinson continues in:

  RETALIATION

  RETALIATION

  Retaliation

  Roy Glenn

  © Copyright 2018 Roy Glenn

  Escapism Entertainment

  Atlantic Beach, Florida

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.

  Chapter One

  Detective Bautista felt anxious as she drove down the streets of New York City. She looked at her partner sitting comfortably in the passenger seat beside her looking out the window and looking unconcerned as always. But she knew that when the time came, he would be fully engaged and ready for action. That was just one of the reasons why she respected him, and it was one of the reasons why she thought that she was in love with him.

  It had been a tough couple of days for her because Bautista felt like Kirk was pulling away from her. But she blamed that on the job and all the work they did for nothing. It was just a few days ago that Bautista thought she was another step closer to nailing Rain Robinson. She had an informant that had infiltrated Jab Baldwin’s crew by getting close to Lucus Hill. Jadonna Marrin used to work for Jada West until she got arrested and that’s how Bautista got her hooks in her.

  Everything was in place until Jada got wind of it through her friend, Detective Rachel Dawkins. Jada and Rachel had become friends when the experienced undercover operative easily infiltrated Jada’s fledgling operation using her middle name, Chanté. Therefore, by the time Bautista got to her, Jadonna was dead, as well as Jab Baldwin, Lucus Hill and his partner, Garson Anderson. Now, she had nothing.

  The only person that Jadonna told Bautista about that wasn’t dead was Jab’s girlfriend, Ryder. But who the hell was Ryder? Jadonna didn’t know anything else about her. Not even if that was her real name.

  “So, we still have nothing,” Bautista said, but then she caught a break.

  One of her informants said that he knew Ryder and gave Bautista the address, and that’s where she and Kirk were headed.

  When the detectives arrived at the address they’d been given, they exited their vehicle and walked toward a stand-alone house that was badly in need of repairs. Kirk opened the gate.

  “After you,” he said with a smile.

  “Thank you, sir,” Bautista said and returned his smile.

  That’s when the shooting started. Somebody was firing at them with a semiautomatic weapon from the front window of the house. Kirk and Bautista kept their heads down as they ran back to their vehicle for cover.

  “I’m gonna call for backup,” Kirk shouted over the shooting as he opened the car door and reached for the radio.

  “I have shots fired at this location. Requesting backup!”

  When Kirk got out of the car, Bautista was gone. As the car continued to be pelted with bullets, he peeked over the hood of the car to look for her, but Bautista was nowhere in sight.

  “Damn it!”

  Kirk stayed low and opened the back door to reach for the shotgun. Once he had checked the weapon for shells, he went after her. Kirk went a few cars down while the shooter continued to fire at their car.

  By that time, Bautista had shot her way to the side of the house. She reloaded her weapon, took a quick look around and continued to the back door. Bautista kicked the door in and immediately dove for the floor. She looked around quickly, got to her feet and then the detective headed in the direction of the shooting.

  Outside the house, Kirk had almost made it to the door when the shooting stopped. He ran as quickly as he could toward the house, but before he got there, the shooting started again. Only now, the shots weren’t being fired at him. the shooter was firing at somebody inside the house.

  Bautista.

  Kirk kicked in the front door, went inside and then he ran toward the shooting. When he got to the dining room, Kirk saw the shooter.

  “Police!” Kirk yelled with the shotgun pointed at the shooter. When the shooter turned, Kirk lit him up.

  With the shooter down, Bautista got up from under the dining room table and walked toward Kirk.

  “Are you alright?” Kirk asked.

  “I’m fine. You?”

  “I’m okay. Just wondering what the fuck got into you?” Kirk asked angrily.

  “Me? What did I do?”

  “I said wait for backup.”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  “Yes, I did.”

  “No,” Bautista said and stepped to Kirk. “That is not what you said.”

  “Yes, it is what I said!”

  “You said you were going to call for backup. You didn’t say anything about waiting!” Bautista shouted back as other cops arrived at the scene. “That is not the same thing!”

  Kirk’s eyes narrowed in frustration.

  “Fuck it,” he said and then turned to the uniformed officers as they came in the door. After explaining the situation, Kirk instructed the officers to check the rest of the house as one of the uniforms checked the body for a pulse, and then searched him. The officer found and then checked his driver’s license.

  “Guy’s name is Lawrence W. Ryder.”

  All Kirk and Bautista could do was look at each other and shake their heads, because although they had found Ryder, it wasn’t the Ryder they were looking for. Now Kirk was even madder because Bautista took an unnecessary and stupid risk for nothing.

  The two detectives argued about it all the way back to the precinct. It got pretty-heated at times and it ended with Bautista yelling, “If you don’t want me as a partner anymore, get another one!”

  Kirk didn’t say anything, he simply walked to his desk and sat down, thinking maybe that wasn’t a bad idea. Since they were partners and spent all day together, it was inevitable that their personal relationship would ease into their business relationship.

  And that can’t happen because lives are at stake.

  Maybe it was time to put an end to either their partnership or end the relationship that for him had gotten cumbersome. But one thing was certain to Kirk, one of them had to go.

  “Kirk! My office!” Lieutenant Sanchez yelled, and Kirk stood up. Bautista got up too. “Not y
ou, Bautista. Just Kirk.”

  Bautista sat down and watched as Kirk went into the office, but not Sanchez. He walked over to the desk of Detective Rachael Dawkins. Bautista had paid attention to the way she looked at Kirk, so she didn’t like Dawkins. Now Bautista grew angrier as she watched Sanchez and Dawkins go into the office and shut the door.

  Once the pleasantries were exchanged, Sanchez got to the reason that he brought the two detectives into his office.

  “A teenage girl’s body’s been found gagged, bound, raped and her throat was slit,” Sanchez began. “This is the third body this month and the seventh in the past three months.”

  “I haven’t heard anything about that,” Kirk said.

  “Neither have I,” Dawkins said.

  “Major Case has been keeping it quiet.”

  “I guess that’s changed.” Kirk said.

  “Yes. Suddenly, it’s become clear to the higher ups that the cases actually are related and that we have a serial killer on our hands.”

  “With that many bodies, it should have been a no-brainer,” Dawkins said.

  “I did say that all the victims were black, didn’t I?”

  “No, lieutenant, you didn’t,” Dawkins said. “But now it makes sense.”

  “So, now that everybody is paying attention, the word from the higher ups is that based on the demographics and the trademark killings, that it’s the work of one individual.”

  “Other than being black, what are the other demographics?” Dawkins asked just before Kirk got the words out of his mouth. They looked at each other and exchanged smiles as Sanchez continued. Kirk thought that Dawkins was fine as hell, and she thought that he was one fine black man. A fact that she knew Bautista had picked up on.

  Dawkins could tell by Bautista’s attentiveness towards him, or maybe it was just something about them when they were together, that said to Dawkins they were doing more than police work, but she didn’t know Bautista well enough to care.