“Okay,” Mrs. Watson said and shook her head.
“But making the right decision is important ’cause make the wrong decision and I’ll kill y’all.” Rain looked at me. “I don’t give a fuck. I’m just the hired help.”
Rain stepped closer and put the barrel of her gun between Mrs. Watson’s eyes.
“You think you can do that?”
Mrs. Watson shook her head with her eyes closed tightly.
“Good. But first I need you to call Clay Barksdale and tell him that your husband wants to see him at the house, right away.”
“What should I tell them it’s about?”
“I don’t give a fuck what you tell them,” Rain said and pressed the gun to her forehead again. “Just get them over here now!” Rain screamed and handed her the phone.
Mrs. Watson did as she was told and called Barksdale. She was surprisingly calm about it for somebody that had a gun to her head. When he said he was on his way, I took a few pairs of plastic handcuffs out of the purse and handed them to Rain.
I stood up with the Tec-16 in my hands and pointed it at Mrs. Watson while Rain put the cuffs around her wrists. Rain left the room and when she came back she had a chair from the dining room. She positioned it in front of the couch, and then told Mrs. Watson to go make herself comfortable.
While we waited for Barksdale to show up, Rain took the chair Mrs. Watson was in and talked shit to her. I stood by the window and watched out for him. I looked at Rain. She got up and was wandering around the living room-talking shit. I liked the way she worked. I would definitely use her again.
Rain stopped in front of a picture of two teenagers.
“These your kids?” she asked.
Mrs. Watson nodded her head quickly. “They’re away at college,” she informed us.
“Good looking kids.” Rain brought me the picture. I glanced at the boy and girl and handed it back to Rain.
When I saw Barksdale’s car pull up in front of the house, I signed for Rain to cut Mrs. Watson’s cuffs and walk her to the door.
She opened the door slowly and Barksdale came in. “Hey Frankie, how you doing? I see Charlie ain’t here yet.” It was at that second that he felt the barrel of Rain’s gun at the back of his neck.
“You just keep walking,” she instructed. I stepped out so he could see me with the Tec-16 in one hand and a.9 miller in the other, just in case he thought about trying Rain. “Sit down in that chair and don’t make a fuckin’ sound,” she demanded.
Barksdale complied with Rain’s request and sat in the chair in front of the couch. I kept my guns on him while Rain put duct tape over his mouth, and cuffed his arms behind his back and his ankles to the chair.
Rain handed the phone to Mrs. Watson. “Call your husband.” She, too, complied with Rain’s request. Rain cuffed Mrs. Watson hands in front of her and sent her back to the couch to wait. Then we made ourselves comfortable.
It didn’t take long before Watson walked through the front door. “Frankie, Frankie.”
Rain was in place and put a gun to his head. “Not Frankie. Why don’t you go inside and sit down next to your wife.” She walked Watson into the living room.
“What’s going on here?” Watson said and Rain hit him so hard in the back of his head that he dropped to one knee.
Rain pressed the barrel against his forehead and got in his face. “You don’t say a muthafuckin’ thing, unless I muthafuckin’ tell you to! You got that?”
Watson nodded his head.
“Now get up and go sit down like I told you to.”
Watson got up and Rain pushed him in the direction of the couch. “You better tell this muthafucka what time it is, Frankie. This muthafucka wanna get y’all niggas killed.”
“Just do what they tell you, Charlie, please.”
“What’s goin’ on, Frankie?” Watson said quietly.
“Just sit down and be quiet, Charlie, please,” she pleaded with him. Watson did as his wife said and sat down next to her.
After Rain put plastic cuffs on Watson’s wrists and ankles and duct tape over both their mouths, it was time for the show to begin. I stood up and ripped open Barksdale’s shirt. For the next hour or so, the Watson’s watched in horror as I beat Barksdale and burned his chest with acid.
When Barksdale finally passed out, I went and got another chair from the dining room and placed it close to the Watson’s. Once I sat down, I looked at Rain.
“Wake him up.”
Rain reached back and backhanded Barksdale. His head snapped back and his eyes jerked open.
“Now kill him.”
Rain put the gun to his head. You could see the fear in his eyes and terror in the Watson’s. She fired once. The impact knocked the chair over.
I told Rain to take the duct tape off Watson’s mouth.
“Do you know who I am?”
“No.”
“My name is Nick Simmons. Howard Owens works for me.”
“I was goin’ pay him his money. I just need a little more time.”
I looked at Rain. She stepped up quickly and punched Watson in the mouth. “What I say about talkin’, huh? You don’t say a muthafuckin’ thing, unless I muthafuckin’ tell you to!” she said and hit him again.
“You had your chance to pay Howard. You had your chance to pay the two gentlemen I sent to talk to you last week, but you ducked out on them and then you sent that asshole to rough-up Howard’s brother and take a shot at him. That’s why he’s layin’ there dead now. When you shoot, shoot to kill not scare!” I said to the dead man.
“You don’t owe that money to Howard anymore. Now you owe me. So here’s what’s gonna happen. I own ten percent of your business. Tomorrow morning I’m gonna send the same two men around to your office at ten o’clock and you’re gonna be there to meet them. You’re gonna give them the money you owe, including the interest and they’re gonna give you some papers to sign. Sign them. The next morning another man will be there. He is my representative, he’ll explain how things are gonna work. The good news is you still run the company, but you don’t do shit unless you talk to him first. Do we have a deal or do I have to kill your wife?”
Watson didn’t answer at first; he just looked at Rain. Mrs. Watson nudged her husband. Rain laughed a little and nodded her head. “We have a deal,” Watson said and dropped his head.
“Smart man. Do what I say and you’ll live a lot longer and you’ll make a lot more money,” I said and got up. “By the way, if you even think about callin’ the cops and sayin’ anything about our deal, I promise you that you will get to watch me kill your wife and those two kids, before I cut your head off. Do we have an understanding?”
Watson looked at Rain again for permission to speak. When she nodded her head, Watson said, “Yes, I understand.”
We left the Watson’s tied up with a dead body in the middle of their living room floor. Once we got back to the car and drove away, Rain turned to me.
“Let’s get a room and fuck.”
Chapter 31
I rolled out of bed and quickly got it the shower. When I was finished I got dressed. While I put my clothes on, I looked at Rain lying naked on the bed.
“I gotta go,” I said and ran my hand along her hip and down her thigh.
“You got a woman, don’t you?” Rain asked without looking up.
“Yes.”
“Go handle your business.” Rain rolled over on her back, spread her legs, and made it just that much harder for me to leave. “I’ll see you tomorrow?”
“You will,” I said and rushed out of there.
It was after two in the morning when I unlocked the door to Wanda’s house. On the way there, I ran through several scenarios in my mind. Trying to prepare my answers to whatever questions Wanda was going to throw at me.
The reason men get caught cheating is that they don’t have their story straight and can’t remember what story they told when they did, so the story always changes. Men think of their excuse on the way home, like I had done.