“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 sayin’?”
“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 tellin’ 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 lyin’ or not, I could check her story with Tamia Adams or even her father. “I’m sure that JR will be relieved that you took care of that for him.”
“He would, but he don’t know and I got no plans of tellin’ him. Both him and Jeff Ritchie are at the club with plenty of witnesses. They don’t need to know nothin’ ’bout 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?”
“That’s the way it’s gonna be. ’Cause I hope you ain’t plannin’ on tellin’ him nothin’ ’bout what happened in these streets tonight. This between you and me. Cool?”
“You askin’ me or tellin’ 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 between you and me. Cool?”
“Cool.”
“I don’t need any of this coming back on me and it lookin’ like Black had anything to do with this.”
We drove for awhile in silence. I needed Rain to think about how me backin’ her up on settlin’ 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 backin’ Rain in whatever plan she had to consolidate her position. Me ridin’ with her and backin’ her play makes it look like that was exactly what we were doin’.
I looked over at Rain; the way the street lights hit her face. I really hadn’t paid much attention to the fact that Rain was kinda cute. The fact that she was all gangsta wit’ 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 lookin’, he’s goin’ 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 ’bout 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 nothin’ to do wit’ 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 that fact that you keep callin’ 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 nothin’ 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 startin’ 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 doin’, 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 bit us in the ass. I had to be ready. I had to be a step ahead of them. I had to kill Vinnelli.