Beneath The Surface (18 page)

“It is; very. But
what’s
missing is women. That clientele isn’t interested in paying for the caliber of women that currently work the trade in Nassau.”

“I see. What did you have in mind?”

“You have a talent for recruiting and training women to be high-price escorts. The caliber of women my international clientele would be willing to pay top dollar for.”

“What would be my end?”

“You could name your price, call all the shots, or put somebody in place to run it for you; unless of course, you want to move to Nassau.”

“I just might. I hear you spend a lot of time in Nassau.”

“I have a house there.” Black finished his drink. “I don’t want you to give me an answer now. Give it some thought, and we’ll talk some more about it.”

“Tell me something.”

“What’s that?”

“Is this what I owe you for taking Oleg Mushnikov off my neck?”

“Only if you want it to be.”

“Do you remember what I said, or more to the point, what I did that night?”

“It’s hard to forget,” Black said glancing over at Carmen, who was staring at them. “Your lips are very soft.”

“Good.”

Black stood up and so did Jada. She looked at Carmen and kissed Black on the cheek. “What was that for?”

“So you’ll come alone next time we talk. I’ll let you get back to your girlfriend.”

Rain Robinson opened her eyes and sat up in bed. She called out for Nick, but he wasn’t there. She didn’t like being left alone. She could have stayed in the hospital and been alone. But Rain knew that it was for the best. Staying there in bed had given her a chance to heal, especially after the night she had. But the people that stabbed her brother Miles in jail had to be dealt with.

With nothing else to do, Rain
laid
back down and turned on the TV. She surfed channels for a while and finally settled on the judge shows. Her favorite was “Divorce Court.” She liked Lynn Toler, but thought that Mabeline was better. Halfway through the show, Nick walked in. “How you feelin’?” he asked, and sat down on the bed next to her.

“I’m a’ight.”

“Good. Get dressed, we’re up,” Nick said and got up.

Rain reached for the gun that she had under her pillow and got out of bed. “Where we goin’?”

“We’re goin’ to kill Ralph Watson.”

“That one of the nigga’s that robbed us?” Rain asked while getting dressed.

“Yeah. And hurry up before we miss him,” Nick said and walked out of the room.

“You a’ight?”

“Yeah,” he said, but Rain knew that something was wrong; and she had a pretty good idea what it was.

Nick went into the living room and sat down in a chair. He stared out the window and thought about Wanda. Losing her had sucked all the life out of him. Nick had been quietly in love with Wanda for as long as he could remember; and now she was gone. And the reason was his relationship with Rain Robinson.

Wanda’s last words to him that night floated around in his mind, and ate away at him piece by piece. “
I really did love you, Nick, even though I never said it before now. I really did love you.
” Then Wanda walked out of his life and closed the door.

He should have known that Wanda would find out about it. And knowing that she would, he should have tried a little harder to keep it a secret.

But he didn’t.

Rain went everywhere with him. They were seen at places and by people that would be sure to tell Wanda; and they did. Naturally, Rain did everything she could to make her presence known. She would tell anybody who’d listen that Nick was her man, and that that bitch Wanda can’t do shit to stop it.

And then she started getting robbed, and he had to do something about it. Nick knew that he couldn’t tell Wanda the truth about why he had to handle it; because it would lead back to the arrangement Black had made with Angelo, and that wasn’t what Black wanted. He had a choice to make: remain silent and run the risk of losing Wanda, or betray Black’s confidence. The choice was easy for him, but now he was suffering the consequences.

Once Rain was dressed, she walked out of the bedroom with a gun in each hand. She had on tight jeans, black boots with three-inch heels, and a top that clung to her chest and displayed her ample cleavage.

“I’m ready,” Rain said, and Nick stood up. “You sure you’re all right?”

Nick stepped up to Rain and kissed her. The fact of the matter was that he loved Wanda, but he found Rain to be irresistible. Every time he looked at Rain, he wanted to rip the clothes from her body and fuck the shit out of her; and he usually did. That day was no exception, but they had business to tend to.

While Rain was resting, Nick had gone to see Rose to see if she recognized any of the pictures that he had gotten from Detective Harmon. She picked out three of them. Willie Dyson, who Millie had told them was the one that her late husband Blue had gone to, to put the job together, Alexander Walker and Ralph Watson. Then Nick watched the video of the robbery again. Two of the robbers wore ski masks, while the three that Rose picked out, did not. He paid close attention to the two masked men as they executed the robbery. Noting the way they moved. Nick could tell that this wasn’t their first time executing a precision operation. It was obvious that the big man in the mask was running this crew, and not Willie Dyson. Blue might have gone to Dyson to set it up, but this was the big man’s show. All Nick had to do now was find them.

Nick assigned that task to his best collector, Jap. His specialty was finding people that didn’t want to be found. When somebody went underground owing big money, it was Jap that you called. Through his sources, Jap was able to find out that Ralph Watson was hold up in an apartment in Brooklyn, and enjoying the company of several working girls.

“You sure he’s still there?” Rain asked.

“I got one of my people watching the building,” Nick said as he drove.

Rain smiled at him. “You could have got him without me.”

“I could have, but I knew you wanted to be there when his life ended.”

“No. I want to be the one who ends this nigga’s life.”

“Yeah, I know. But we’re not gonna kill him right away, unless we have to.”

“Why?”

“’Cause I haven’t been able to run down the rest of the crew, and there are two others that were involved that Rose couldn’t identify. We need him to tell us who they are and where they are. So don’t kill him. Understand?”

“I got you.”

“Good,” Nick said as his cell phone rang. “This is Nick.”

“It’s Jap.”

“What’s up, Jap?”

“He’s got another one just went in,” Jap advised.

“That means he’ll be in place for a minute. You call me if she leaves before we get there,” Nick said and ended the call.

When they got to Brooklyn, Nick and Rain checked with Jap before they went inside the building. “He’s still in there,” Jap told them as Rain put silencers on her guns. “You want me to go with you?” he asked.

“No,” Rain said quickly.

Nick looked at Rain and then turned to Jap. “You stay here. In the unlikely event that he comes out, he’s yours,” he said, and Rain followed him in the building.

Once they reached the apartment, Nick started to pick the lock.

“One day you gonna have to teach me how to do that,” Rain whispered.

“One day,” Nick said and opened the door.

There was music playing as they made their way through the apartment, until they got to the bedroom.

“Yeah, bitch. I’m fuckin’ the hell outta this pussy,” they heard Watson say.

“Yes, daddy,” the working girl replied without emotion, like she was running a program that she’d run thousands of times.

“You lovin’ this dick, ain’t you, bitch? Say it. You lovin’ this dick,” Watson demanded, and Rain giggled as Nick opened the door.

“Yes, daddy, I’m
lovin’
this dick,” she responded on demand as Nick and Rain approached the bed.

“Tell me how big it is.”

There were a few seconds of silence, and then, “Oh daddy, it’s so big.”

“If you gotta tell her to say it, it probably ain’t,” Rain said, and Nick put the barrel of his gun to Watson’s head.

He froze.

“Now rolled off of that pussy and don’t try anything stupid.” Very slowly, Watson did as he was told. Rain looked at him. “I was right, a little dick. Did you even feel that, honey?”

“Hey. Whatever y’all want, I ain’t got shit to do with it. I don’t even know this nigga. I’m just workin’.”

Rain laughed. “Yeah, I know. Little dick nigga like this couldn’t get a bad bitch like you without money.” Rain punched Watson in the face. “My fuckin’ money!” she yelled and hit him again.

“Get up and get outta here,” Nick said to the woman. Rain was right, she was a bad bitch, and Nick watched as she got out of the bed and grabbed her clothes. Rain saw Nick looking at her, but she didn’t care. Rain appreciated the female body. She was addicted to watching porno flicks and she had been involved in her share of threesomes. On those occasions, she had kissed women and sucked a nipple or two in the heat of the moment. But Rain drew the line at eating pussy, but didn’t mind a woman sucking her clit. She had thought about getting one of her dancer girlfriends and having a threesome with Nick, but she wasn’t about to share that dick with anybody ever again.

Once she was dressed, Nick put his gun to her head. “Now get outta here and forget you were ever here.”

“What about my money? This pussy ain’t free.”

Nick cocked the hammer.

“Okay, okay, I’m goin’,” she said as she walked out mumbling.

Rain sat down on the bed and put the barrel of her gun to Watson’s eye. “Where’s the rest of my money?”

“In the drawer there,” Watson said and pointed at the nightstand next to the bed.

Nick opened the drawer and took out a stack of bills. “Now, where’re Willie Dyson and Alexander Walker?”

“Alex and Dice are at an apartment on Tremont.”

Rain punched Watson in the face again. “Where?”

“I know where,” Nick said. “Now tell me who the other two are?”

“They’ll kill me,” Watson said quickly.

“I’m here now. Worry about me,” Rain said and hit him in the mouth with her gun, before returning it to his eye.

Nick fired a shot between Watson’s legs.

“The Abraham brothers: Alan and Darryl.”

“Where can I find them?”

“I don’t know.”

Nick fired another shot between Watson’s legs.

“TQ,” he shouted.

“What the fuck is a TQ?” Rain asked and hit Watson again in the mouth with her gun.

“Taquandria Brown.”

“Who the fuck is that?” Nick asked.

“She’s Darryl’s woman.”