"I just don’t like the idea of gettin’ pushed out like this," Bobby said.
"I’m not sayin that either of you are wrong, in fact, I agree with you. We don’t need to live like this, but we can’t just walk away. Not from this. Sure we can let D-Train have the houses and Diego can do whatever he’s up to. But we can’t just walk away from the DEA. If we do nothing they’ll still come."
"But if we’re not involved in anything what will they have?" Wanda asked.
"We’re not involved in anything now and here they are. No, Wanda, we got to get the DEA off us."
Chapter Thirty-four
Nick banged on the door to Freeze’s apartment for a good while before he opened the door. "Knew it was you, Nick," he said.
"I thought you were ‘sleep," Nick said and walked in the apartment.
"Nope. But I’m glad you’re here. Now you can ride with me."
"Where we goin’?"
"We gonna knock on a few doors, ask a few questions, maybe kill a muthafucka or two.
"What’s up?"
"Black wanted me to wait for him or Bobby before I go ride on the muthafucka that killed Paulleen, but he’s still looking for Shy and Bobby’s ass is nowhere to be found."
"Fuck that," Nick said. "This is the way it should be. Me and you, like old times. Ride or die, right," Nick said and held out his hand.
Freeze grabbed his hand hard and shook it. "Glad to have you back, Nick," he said as the two walked out to the car. Once they were on their way, Nick’s cell phone rang. "Hello," he answered.
"Hello, Nick, this is Wanda. How are you?"
"I’m fine, Wanda. What about you? Are you havin’ a good day?" Nick asked.
"So far so good. What are you doing?"
Nick glanced over at Freeze as he drove, nodding his head to the beat. "I’m ridin’ with Freeze."
"Oh," Wanda said. "Well, I’m not going to keep you. I have two things to tell you."
"What’s that?"
"I was able to confirm that there is an ongoing operation, but I wasn’t able to get a feel for the scope of it."
"Did you tell Black?"
"Yes."
"What did he say?"
"He said, that’s nice, Wanda, I’ll talk to you later."
Nick laughed a little. "Okay, what’s the second?"
"Our friend Martin Marshall is having a black tie affair at his house tomorrow night. Glynnis says she can get us invitations. You interested?"
"Of course," Nick said and then he thought about it. He started to ask if this was a date, but he looked at Freeze and decided against it. "See if you can get another invite."
"Who are you talking about bringing? Not Freeze I hope."
"No. if she’s up to it, I’d like Monika to come with us," Nick said and thought he heard Wanda sucking her teeth, but chose not to mention it.
"I’ll see what I can do," Wanda said and was about to hang up the phone.
"Make that happen, Wanda. Her being there is important to what I need to do."
"I’ll get it done, Nick. No problem."
Nick hung up the phone. Freeze looked at Nick. "I don’t mean to get in your business, Nick, but what’s up with you and Wanda?"
"What do you mean?"
Freeze laughed. "Okay, that’s how you wanna carry me after all that ride or die shit."
"I don’t know what you’re talkin’ about. There’s nothin’ goin’ on between me and Wanda."
"You forget who you was talkin’ to, nigga? You may be able to run some of that weak shit past Bobby or whatever, but I know better. I know you."
"You know better, huh?"
"Yeah, I know. So you can tell Black and them whatever you want to, but you and I know what’s goin’ on," Freeze said smiling as he drove.
"Why don’t you tell me what’s goin’ on with me and Wanda?"
"You fuckin’ her. And if you ain’t, you gonna."
"How you know all this?"
"I was watchin’ the two of you last night."
"What were we doin’?"
"Nick, where were we last night?"
"Cityscape."
"And what is Cityscape?"
"It’s a tittie bar."
"Exactly. You sittin’ in a room full of naked woman, I mean titties everywhere, and what you doin’, huh?"
"What was I doin’?"
"You were all up in Wanda’s face, and she’s all up in yours. Gigglin’. Fuckin’ Wanda was all up in your grill, gigglin’ her ass off. I ain’t never seen Wanda all bouncy and gigglin’ the whole time I known her."
"That don’t mean nothing. I was watchin’ the dancers too," Nick offered meekly.
"Yeah, whatever kid, sure you were. But I ain’t mad at you at all. Wanda’s a fine muthafucka, somebody need to bust that body. It might even chill her ass out if she start gettin’ some dick on the regular."
"You think so?"
"Yeah. So I ain’t mad at you at all, Nick."
"Then why you fuckin’ with me?" Nick asked and looked out of the window. If he wanted to be honest with himself, he was really starting to feel Wanda. And for maybe the first time in his life he was intimidated by a woman. Wanda was a strong willed woman, and powerful. That’s what turned him on. He’d been tempted to ask her out and probably would have at Cityscape, but Sal Terrico came into the club.
Nick’s plan for the day was to drop by and invite Wanda to join him at this little Mediterranean joint he’d been eyeing. He’d been looking forward to it all day, but for some reason he decided to check on Freeze first. You know, be there for a brother who just lost his woman. But when you really sit and think about it, that’s exactly what I’m doin’. Freeze ain’t the type of guy that was gonna be sittin’ around depressed and feelin’ sorry for himself. Paulleen’s funeral would be in a day or two and her killer had to be dead before she could rest in peace.
Freeze had just turned down Willett avenue when he saw it. "There it is, Nick. Beat to shit 73 Chevy Nova." Freeze got out of his truck and put his hand on the hood of the car. "It’s still warm." One of his snitches told Freeze that the man that killed Paulleen name was Paul Clay and where he lived.
While Nick approached the house cautiously, Freeze walked boldly to the front door and beat on it like he was the police.
The door swung open. "What is it now?" the man said angrily. "Who the fuck are you?" he asked when he realized that it wasn’t the police.
"You Paul Clay?"
"Who the fuck are you?"
Freeze looked at Nick and shoved the man inside the house and he fell to the floor. Both Freeze and Nick had their guns drawn and pointed at the man. "You Paul Clay?" Freeze asked again.
"No. I’m his brother," he said and tried to inch away from Freeze and Nick.
"Where is he?"
"He’s dead."
"Who killed him?" Freeze demanded to know.
"I don’t know. The last time I saw him he told me some shit about how he may die for love, next day he was dead."
Freeze dropped his head and turned away.
"What did he mean by that?" Nick asked.
"He was fuckin’ around with somebody woman. I guess the guy got Paul first."
Nick watched Freeze walk out of the house. "Sorry to bother you," he said and followed Freeze to his truck.
Once they were in the truck and had driven away, Nick turned to Freeze. "You already knew about Paulleen, didn’t you?"
Freeze nodded his head.
"It wasn’t the first time either, was it?"
Freeze shook his head.
"So if you didn’t kill him, who did?"
"I don’t know, Nick," Freeze said quietly.
"What were you expecting to find here?"
"What you mean?"
"I mean, we know that the guy was tryin’ to shoot you and shot Paulleen. Do you think this guy was tryin’ to kill you over her or was he a soldier for your boy Curl?"
Freeze banged the steering wheel. "I don’t know, Nick. Just shut the fuck up and let me think for a minute, okay!"