The Reign of Rain Robinson

by Roy Glenn

  Rain sat down, waited and watched quietly as the game went on. The room was completely quiet until Black said, “Checkmate.”

  “I did not see that,” Bobby said and stood up. He picked up his glass as well as Black’s and went to the bar. “You want one too?”

  “Thank you,” Rain said.

  “What’s up with you?” Black asked.

  “I came to talk to you about where we are with Rona.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “I’ve had Jackie and Carter in the streets since AD was assassinated and from what they can tell, there is no change in the way they’re doing business. Nobody stepping up trying to grab power, none of that. From what we can tell, the only change has been that her boy, Garon has been more visible.”

  Bobby handed Rain her drink. “And what conclusion are you drawing from that?” Bobby asked.

  Black laughed. “You know, I can always tell when you’ve been spending a lot of time with Wanda.”

  They all laughed.

  “But it is a good question. What conclusions do you want us to draw from that?”

  “That Rona King took over her father’s business when she got off the plane and AD met her in baggage claim,” Rain told Black and Bobby.

  “Agreed,” they each said.

  “What do you want me to do?” Rain asked.

  “It’s your move. Draw her out. Make her come to you,” Black said, and you can pretty much tell what that meant to Rain.

  Kill Rona King, and then go about systematically shutting down, killing and burning to the ground her entire operation.

  “I’m going to Freeport for a couple of days. There’s a bad storm coming, so I’m going to bring the family up here until it passes,” Black said.

  “Need company?” Bobby asked.

  “You are always welcome. I’m sure M will be glad to see you.”

  Rain stood up. “I’ll have this taken care of by the time you get back,” she said, and Black walked her to the door.

  “I know you want to shut this down. But be smart about it. Understand?”

  “Understood.”

  When Rain got back to J.R.’s and parked in her parking space in front of the club, Alwan and Byrd were standing outside with Leo waiting for her. Once she got out of the car and walked toward the club, Rain walked by Alwan and Byrd without saying a word to them about her disappearing. Leo opened and held the front door for her. Rain walked in the club with her security detail in pursuit.

  Alwan tapped his headset. “Latresia.”

  “Go ahead with your traffic.”

  “Entering the club through the front door now with one,” Alwan said.

  “I have her,” Latresia said and Leo laughed.

  “Now, if she gets away, it’s on both of y’all,” Leo said.

  “Shut up, Leo,” Alwan and Latresia both said but they knew he was right. Cameras or not, if Rain Robinson wanted to get away from her security, she would and there wasn’t a damn thing that they could do about it.

  When Yarissa saw her coming up the stairs, she started laughing. “Back safe and sound I see.”

  “Where’s Carter?”

  “In his office waiting for you,” she said, and Rain headed that way.

  “Welcome back,” Carter laughed when Rain came in his office. “You know you got the whole damn security staff debating and trying to come up with ways to keep up with you.”

  “Ain’t gonna happen.”

  “Did Mike say anything about Rona?” Carter asked.

  “Yeah, he did.” Rain smiled. “He said kill her.”

  “Good,” Carter said. “Time to put an end to this shit and get back to making money. What do you want to do?”

  “Call Jackie. We about to bring this shit to the bitch front door.”

  Chapter Twenty-four

  When Jackie left her house that night on her way to J.R.’s to meet Carter and Baby Chris, she was mad. Mad because there were a lot of things going on in her world and none of them were going the way that she needed or wanted them to.

  As she stomped to her car, Jackie hit the alarm and unlocked the door to get in. Once inside, she started the car and then pounded the steering wheel before she drove off.

  In addition to cleaning up after Rona’s proxy war, Jackie was trying to rebuild her decimated crew. What was once Ed Weather’s crew and Jelly’s were now hers and she now had to start all over.

  Jackie had gone to great lengths to whip her old crew into shape before all of her earners, with the exception of Baby Chris, were murdered. Sure she still had soldiers and associates; men and women who were putting in work and earning, but without Chet Bright, Jerry Demet, Gene Hazelton and Irving Spencer, her money wasn’t right.

  Losing Spence was literally losing her right hand. Sure Baby Chris was stepping up big time trying to fill that huge void, but that would take time.

  And he just isn’t Spence.

  He was the first one to stand up and have her back in more than just words when Black first made her a captain. For a while, she was skeptical about whether his loyalty to her was based solely on his loyalty to Black.

  “Does it matter as long as it means he’s loyal to you?” Black asked her when Jackie address the matter with him. And she had to think about that. “Of course his loyalty to me is why he’s loyal to you, but that’s what you need from him, and all the rest of them, is their respect and loyalty to me. Now, do you know why?”

  “Because I respect you, and I’m loyal to you.”

  “Right.” Black pointed to himself. “I command this family, so as far as they’re concerned, you are me. Your orders are my orders, like they came straight out of my mouth.”

  “I understand.”

  “Remember, loyalty is a two-way street. Their respect and loyalty to me will only last so long. You’re gonna have to earn their respect and loyalty by respecting and being loyal to them. And that takes time and opportunity.”

  “Opportunity?”

  “Somebody is gonna try you. And when that opportunity presents itself, you crush them. And you make sure that everybody knows that you crushed them because this is your house and you wasn’t havin’ that shit. Understand?”

  “I understand.”

  And she did understand. Jackie had Ike Potter killed her first week as captain for talking like he was thinking about being disloyal. She earned respect when she personally killed Earl Jones, Nuck, Cribs and Little Larry for selling drugs in Mike Black’s house. But then her opportunity presented itself in the form of Bevaun Ramello.

  Bottom line is that Jackie Washington is a paper captain.

  As she drove, Jackie remembered how the words paper captain enraged her to the point that it led to her having a, what would Mike Black do moment.

  “It’s about keeping your fucking mouth shut and remembering who runs this house,” Jackie said calmly, raised her weapon and shot Ramello in the face at point-blank range.

  Her public execution of Ramello in front of her entire crew at Avonte’s birthday party was her defining moment. At that moment, respect for Mike Black became respect for Jackie Washington and the paper captain became the new killing captain.

  But all that was over.

  Now, it was time to rebuild.

  “And that’s why I need you out there with me,” Jackie said to Travis.

  “And you know that as much as I want to, I can’t be out there.”

  “Yeah, I know, if you get arrested for any new crimes, they reinstate the cyber bank fraud charge and you get thirty years plus the new charges.”

  “Right.”

  “But you’re still committing cyber fraud, Travis,” Jackie said louder than she needed to and paused to catch herself. “Okay, you’re not the million dollar bandit anymore, but you’re still out there.”

  “No, babe, I’m in here committing cyber fraud. Not out in the streets guns blazing,” Travis said louder than he needed to and then he paused to calm himself. “I don’t understand why you don’t
understand that I don’t want either of us to go to jail and I don’t want either of us to die.”

  “I don’t either!”

  “Then where are you going, Two Guns?” he shouted and then he laughed. “You know, I remember when Two Guns was just something they used to call you.”

  Jackie laughed because it was true. “It was more of a fashion statement back then.”

  “Now look at you. Two guns, vested up, looking like Rain Robinson.” Travis shook his head. “That just ain’t my world anymore. And it doesn’t have to be yours. I have enough money now and so do you that we can get away from here, move to the islands or wherever, and leave all this behind us.”

  Jackie said nothing.

  “But you won’t do that, will you?”

  “Then why don’t you just leave me? Why don’t you run back to the islands so you can be with your precious Trish?”

  “That one is easy.” Travis smiled. “Because I tried that. I ran away to the islands and yeah, I met somebody.”

  Never gonna live that down. Travis shook his head.

  “But I came back. I came back to be with you. I’m here with you because I’ve loved you my entire life and I’m not leaving you again.”

  “You did it once, what’s to stop you from doing it again?”

  “Stop it. This isn’t about me, Jackie, it’s about you,” Travis said calmly. “You’re out there because you want to be, not because you have to be. You don’t wanna walk away. Admit it to yourself, you love that shit. If Rain wanted to do that shit every day all day, you’d say I’ll drive.”

  “You sound like Carter now.”

  “I guess Carter got some sense.”

  “Yeah, he does,” Jackie nodded, but now she was mad. “But Carter Garrison is talkin’ that shit sitting in the seat next to me while I drive, and Rain is sitting in the back.” She stood up. “Because we are her captains and we got shit to do. I gotta go,” Jackie said and then she stormed toward the door.

  “Go to live and die at Rain’s command!”

  “Damn right,” she said softly and slammed the door on her way out of their bedroom.

  “Have a good night, Jackie,” Fiona said waving from the couch wearing the thousand dollar Oscar de la Renta silk lace chemise that Travis bought for her because he thought it would look nice on her, but it was struggling to contain her titties.

  “Good night, Fiona,” she said grabbing her keys and leaving the house.

  Jackie wasn’t really mad at Travis, mostly because he was right about her. Jackie really did love that shit and she really would live and die at Rain’s command.

  She was mad at Fiona.

  “Have a good night, Jackie,” she said aloud, imitating Fiona’s soft and seductive voice. Jackie shook her head and parked at Conversations. “Probably deep throating Travis right now before she begs him to fuck her in the ass.”

  She got out of the car, slammed the door and went inside to meet Carter and Baby Chris as she thought about how Fiona made her scream and left her shaking a couple of hours ago.

  “But that is what she’s there for.”

  On Rain’s orders, they had been hanging out at Rona’s spots. She was sure that if AD were really in charge of the operation, now that he was dead, things would be in disarray.

  “When there is a change in the leadership, there is by necessity, a change in the way things operate concerning the leadership as well,” Rain said paraphrasing the timeless wisdom.

  “That sounds like something that Mike Black would say,” Baby Chris said.

  Rain shook her head. “Hebrews, chapter seven, verse twelve,” Rain said and there was silence in her office. “What? I read the Bible.”

  “So do I,” Carter said and laughed. “I had a lot of time to read recently.” He looked at Rain. “What’s your favorite book?”

  “Romans.”

  “No doubt.”

  However, as Rain explained to Black and Bobby, to that point, instead of disarray, what they found at the spots that they’d been to was that despite the change in the leadership, there was no change in the way things operated and that was all Rain needed.

  That night, she sent them to The Booming System, the place where AD was killed to begin drawing Rona out. Therefore, in spite of Rona’s order not to confront them, the tension at The System exploded the second that Carter, Jackie and Baby Chris came in the place and arrogantly walked to the bar.

  “Hennessy straight, all around!” Carter shouted at the bartender. “Whatever your top shelf is.”

  The bartender just looked at him for a minute,

  “What? You don’t carry Henny, then make it Remy Martin,” Carter said, and the bartender went off to make the drinks.

  “Hey, sexy. You fine as hell,” A man at the bar next to Jackie said. She looked at him, rolled her eyes and looked away. He grabbed her arm. “I’m talkin’ to you,” he said, and Jackie jerked her arm back.

  “Keep your hands off me,” she said and slapped the fuck out of him. Embarrassed, he was about to swing on Jackie, but Carter grabbed his hand and punched him in the face.

  Guns were pulled and they were immediately fired on. Jackie hit the floor and fired at the men. As the civilians headed for the exits, Carter and Baby Chris pulled their weapons and fired as they ran for better cover. When the man Jackie slapped tried to run away firing, she shot him in the back. Carter rose up from his cover position behind a table and fired. He hit the one man with two shots to the chest.

  While Baby Chris fired, Jackie got up and made it to cover with Carter. Another man came out of an office and began firing. Carter grabbed Jackie and pulled her to the floor. Jackie came back up firing and hit him with two in the chest as he came toward her position.

  While Carter covered, Baby Chris reloaded his weapon and shot a man. But he didn’t see that another man had come out of the office and was preparing to fire.

  “On your nine, Chris!” Carter yelled and took out the shooter with a shot to the head.

  Once everybody was dead and they were getting ready to leave, Baby Chris made an observation.

  “Wait a second,” Baby Chris said.

  “What?” Carter asked.

  “We can’t go yet.”

  “Why not?” Jackie asked.

  “Because we’re not done.” He paused. “What would Rain do if she were here?”

  Both Carter and Jackie laughed. “She’d burn the bitch to the ground,” Carter said.

  “We already killed everybody,” Jackie said still laughing. “But I don’t have any C-4.”

  “Then we do it the old fashion way,” Carter said and started toward the bar. He grabbed a bottle and tossed it to Baby Chris. “Alcohol burns.”

  After slamming bottles around the spot, Carter doused a table with alcohol and set it on fire. The three stayed long enough to make sure that it was going to burn to the ground before they left.

  Chapter Twenty-five

  Two men got up, raised and pointed their weapons and opened fire. Carter fired several shots in the direction of the men, and they fired back. As the crowd scattered, they took cover behind some tables and continued firing. Jackie took out her nine and began firing at the men. She shot one as she moved for cover.

  While the other man continued firing, Carter hit the floor and crawled to where Jackie had taken cover. The two men blanketed the room with a barrage of bullets.

  “We gotta get outta here!” Carter shouted.

  “No shit!” Jackie shouted back as she opened fire until she had emptied her clip.

  “Cover me,” Carter said as Jackie reloaded.

  As Jackie fired away, Carter stayed on the ground and positioned himself near the door. He got to one knee, fired and hit one with three shots before moving to better cover. When another man turned to fire at Carter, Jackie killed him. Right then, both Jackie and Carter came out of cover and made a run for the exit as the shooting continued.

  “Come on, their getting away!” Jackie heard one yell as she fol
lowed Carter out the door firing.

  They had just cleared the door and had taken a few steps when the building exploded. The impact of the blast took Carter and Jackie off their feet.

  “I told you we should have used remote detonators,” Carter said as he got up from the ground and extended his arm to help Jackie up.

  “And I told you, if I had any left, I would have used them,” Jackie said as they dusted themselves off and then they looked back at the building that they had just destroyed.

  “That should make her happy,” Carter said as they moved quickly toward their car so they could go back to J.R.’s to report.

  As for Rain, she was sitting alone in her office thinking about the last words that Black said to her.

  It’s your move. Draw her out. Make her come to you.

  To Rain, that meant go hard at her and that was what she was doing. She ordered Jackie to plant bombs in the spots they’d been to that Rona controlled. Five of them to be exact; and with the exception of the one that Jackie had to set manually; they were all set to go off at the same time.

  “What you gonna do about Rona?” Jackie asked Rain when they got back to J.R.’s.

  “I don’t know yet,” Rain said. “Have you two taken care of your business?”

  “I had Yarrisa make the bomb threat calls.” Jackie glanced at her watch. “Should be going up in smoke right about now,” she said of the bombs that she and Carter set.

  Rain thought for a second about how she wanted to kill Rona. “Jackie, can you do all that shit that Carla can do?”

  “Oh, hell no. I can do a little bit, but Monika did all that work when I was on the team. Why?”

  “Nothing.” She paused. “Y’all go ahead and go, take the night off,” she giggled. “I need to think.”

  Jackie stood up. “You don’t have to tell me twice.”

  “I’ll call you if I need you,” Rain said, and Jackie was out the door. Carter just sat there.

  “What you getting ready to do?” Carter asked.

  “I told you, I need to think.”

  “That ain’t what I asked you. I asked what you were getting ready to do?”

  Rain smiled. “You know me a little too well.”