by Roy Glenn
Now it was Carter who no longer had an appetite.
“Can I get you anything else?” their server asked, bringing Carter back to the table. He looked at Glenda, she shook her head.
“Just the check.”
The server quickly pulled their ticket and placed it on the table. “I’ll take that whenever you’re ready.”
“I’m finished,” Glenda said when the server left the table.
“You hardly touched your food,” Carter said, reaching for the check.
She shrugged her shoulders. “I guess I wasn’t as hungry as I thought I was,” Glenda said looking at Carter’s half-eaten plate. “You done with yours?”
“Yeah,” he said, throwing some cash on the table. “That steak got me full,” he said instead of telling her that her words made him lose his appetite. “You ready to go?”
“Yes,” she said, and they left the restaurant. They walked to the elevator and rode up in silence. “Thank you for coming,” Glenda said when they got to her room. Carter took the card key from her hand and opened the door.
“It wasn’t a problem. I’m here for you.”
He handed her the key. “I don’t want you to go, but I don’t want to make love either. I just need you to hold me.”
“I understand,” he said and followed Glenda in the room.
Chapter Eight
Things certainly had changed for Rain since she became the boss of The Family. She used to enjoy times when she could be alone; now there were five men that were with her at all times for protection. She used to live in a one-bedroom apartment, now Rain lived in a four-bedroom house. There were never fewer than ten men on the property at all times, so she was never alone and then there was Kim.
Since there is nothing at all domestic about Rain, Kim ran the house. She cooked, kept the house clean and took care of anything else that Rain needed.
When she left the club with Carter, Rain was taken to the house by her men. After Kim served her a big breakfast of steak, eggs and potatoes, she ran a bath for Rain and then she went to sleep. It was something that took Rain more than a minute to get used to. Never in her life had anybody ever catered to her, made it their life’s work to take care of her needs, but that was Kim’s responsibility. She was totally devoted to Rain.
The light tapping on the bedroom door caused Rain to stir. When she heard it again, she opened her eyes and saw Kim at the door.
“What is it, Kim?”
“Gavin Caldwell is here to see you,” Kim said.
“Give me five minutes and then send him in,” Rain said and got out of bed.
“I’ll wait ten minutes and then I’ll send him in,” Kim said and closed the door. Rain got out of bed to use the bathroom and freshen up and was back in bed when Kim returned with Gavin.
“I got your text,” he said, walking in the room as Kim closed the door behind her. “So, I came to see what you needed.”
“You already know what I need. So why you still got that suit on?”
Gavin began loosening his tie. “No reason.”
Gavin’s strokes were slow and gentle at first, grinding his hips into her. Rain’s eyes were shut tight as he plunged himself deep inside her. She wrapped her legs around his waist and held on tightly because it was feeling so damn good.
“Fuck me, Magic!” she shouted with her mouth opened wide.
He kissed her again and sucked her neck and breasts.
Rain dug her fingers into his back as he pushed himself deep inside her. Gavin felt her body pounding against his, felt her muscles tighten and release around him. He ground his hips into her with each deep stroke. Rain threw it back at him furiously, and Gavin stepped up his pace, hitting it hard and fast.
Rain flipped Gavin on his back and quickly got on top of him.
“Put that dick back in me.”
Rain planted her feet on the bed and rode Gavin hard and fast. Rolling her hips and loving the feel of every inch of Gavin’s deliciously satisfying dick, Gavin grabbed Rain’s hips and started slamming her body down on him as hard and as fast as he could. Their bodies were banging against one another, before they came together in a rush. Rain rolled off of him and collapsed next to him.
Once he had caught his breath, Gavin sat up in bed. Rain had rolled on her side and he knew that it wouldn’t be long before she drifted back to sleep. He got out of bed, picked up his clothes and headed to the bathroom. When he came out, instead of finding her asleep as he expected, to his surprise, Rain was sitting up smoking a blunt.
“Hey, Sexy.”
“You out?”
“Yeah,” Gavin said and put on his jacket. “I have some things that I need to talk to London about.”
“I’ll call you later,” Rain said as Gavin walked out of her bedroom and headed to Anderson Montgomery, the full-service investment banking company that was founded by his mother, Yovanna.
After straightening his jacket and tie, he left his office and walked to the opposite end of the hall to his sister, London’s corner office.
“Got a minute?” he asked, sticking his head in the door.
“I always have time for you,” London said and closed the file that she was reading. “Come in.”
“There are some things I need to make you aware of and some things that I need for you to do,” he said, closing and then locking the door behind him.
London leaned back in her chair and crossed her legs. “Is this something that you need me to do, or something Butchie needs me to do?”
“At this point, it’s the same thing,” Gavin said and sat down.
“No, they are not. You can always make decisions for yourself and not do everything Butchie says.”
“Very true. I do think for myself and for right now, I think that Butch is right, so we need to get done what Butch needs done.”
“If you … I mean Butchie says so,” London said.
“Besides, you did say that you wanted to know everything. Well this is everything.”
“So, what do you need me to do?”
“I need you to begin liquidating the Eastchester Investment fund.”
“Why? That fund has achieved a thirty percent profit margin during the last quarter.”
“We are going to need that capital for an investment in the Boston Fund.”
“I’ve been operating under the assumption that we had moved away from any interest in an investment in a Boston project. What happened to change that?”
“The restructuring of the Wakefield and Kingsbridge Funds have made looking at the Boston project more attractive and worth a second look.”
“I’ll begin looking at liquidity measures so the business can continue to meet its financial obligations with the liquid assets available to them.”
“Make it happen.”
“Is there anything else?”
“Not at the moment. I have a meeting this afternoon with some of the interested parties. After that meeting is over, I assume that there will be some addendums to make to our overall business prospectus, but I am confident that we can make this happen.”
“I’m with you. And I will get on those items in the morning.” London stood up and smoothed out her Fendi midi pencil skirt. “But right now, I am about to call it a day.”
“So early?” he smiled.
“You do know that ownership has its privileges, right?” London asked, gathering her things.
“You know I know.” He laughed. “Hot date?”
“I wouldn’t call it hot, but I do have a date,” she said and grabbed her purse. “But she is hot, so I guess you can say it’s a hot date.”
“This somebody new?”
“Yes. The background check finally came back yesterday,” London said as she followed her brother out of her office.
After her experience with Dominica, London was very careful about the women that she allowed to get close to her.
“So, we’re having cocktails at the Pegu Club on West Houston at five.”
“H
ave a good time, but be careful,” Gavin said as they rode down in the elevator together. “I’ll see you in the morning.”
The two went their separate ways; London to prepare for her date and Gavin to a club called Poison. It was a strip club that was once frequented by Greg MacManus aka Greg Mac. That ended when he was assassinated by Gavin, Rain and Jackie. Now, Poison was frequented by Clip, one of Butch’s top lieutenants.
Dressed in an Excursionist Flex 150s suit from the Peter Millar collection, Gavin looked like any of the establishment’s afternoon patrons, rather than its principle owner. Therefore, he was able to enter and walk through the upscale men’s club without attracting much of the attention of anyone other than the dancers, who only saw him as a mark to be relieved of his money.
Gavin wandered around for a while, but he didn’t see Twan or Clip anywhere, so he went to the bar to have a drink.
“Moscow Mule. And could you make that with Devil Springs Vodka, please?” Gavin said and the bartender looked at him.
She had been wondering for months who they were carrying the Devil Springs Vodka for. “Right away,” she said and went to make the best Moscow Mule she could for who she could only assumed was the mysterious absentee owner.
“You wanna dance?” a woman said.
Gavin put his drink on the bar and looked at the dark-skinned woman with long jet-black hair that hung down her back standing in front of him wearing nothing but Dolce & Gabbana pumps.
“Yeah, go ahead,” he said, but that was when he saw Clip come out of the VIP room.
When he made eye contact with Gavin, he pointed toward the rear of the club and then he headed in that direction. Gavin reached in his pocket, peeled off some bills and handed them to the woman.
“What’s your name?”
“Nubia.”
“Well, Nubia, I need to talk to somebody for a few minutes, but when I get done, you need to dance for me.”
“I won’t be hard to find,” Nubia said, kissed Gavin on the cheek and walked off.
Gavin finished his drink and went to the rear of the club where Clip was waiting for him. After shaking hands, they went to the office together to wait on Twan.
“This room clean?”
“Swept it myself before we opened.”
“Okay,” Gavin sat down and relaxed.
“Before that nigga get here, I need to talk to you about Mays.”
“What about him?”
“For a number of reasons, mainly that the nigga walk in and outta jail like it ain’t shit, a lot of people are suspicious that Mays might be cooperating with the Feds.”
“He may be trying to provoke an inculpatory conversation. How many times he been popped?”
“Three that I know of. And every time the nigga get arrested, seems like he back on the street. And it’s always that the cops fucked up some shit.”
“That’s a situation that needs to be handled delicately, but with extreme prejudice.”
“Understood,” Clip said, understanding that Gavin had just ordered his execution.
“I know that’s Twan’s boy, so there’s a lot of shit that could go wrong with that, so I need for you to see to it personally.”
“Done,” Clip said as Twan came through the door. “What up, Baby Boy. How them Beantown hoes treating you?”
“Lovely. It’s lovely, it’s lovely. You can get pussy quicker than you can get a meal,” he laughed.
Twan had been in Boston trying to make a move into that market. As Gavin explained to London, the deaths of Greg Mac, who controlled the Wakefield area and Drum, who controlled the Kingsbridge area, made the Boston project much more attractive.
“What up, Magic?”
“What’s up?”
“I need some help, that’s what’s up.”
“It’s in the works,” Gavin said. “I’m freeing up some capital as we speak.”
“That’s cool. That’s cool and all that, but what I need more than paper is manpower,” Twan said and Clip rolled his eyes. “Some of the locals haven’t been exactly happy that there’s a new sheriff in town and they’re pushing back.”
“I hear you, but the cost of what you’re looking to do grossly outweighs the benefit.” Gavin shook his head. “That’s not the direction that we’re going in.”
Twan sat back. “That’s not the way I heard it,” he said shaking his head.
Gavin’s eyes narrowed. “What are you saying?”
“That’s not what I was assured would happen before I made this move. Now you coming with some whole other shit.”
“I can arrange it so you can hear it for yourself, but I’ve done all I’m going to do.”
“That’s fucked up, Magic.” Twan shook his head. “If your daddy was here, he wouldn’t be talking no cost benefit analysis shit. He’d say what you need, and it’s done. That’s how shit used to work.”
Gavin got up and stood over Twan. “You see my father or Butch in this room?”
“No.”
“Who you see?”
“You.”
“So, what you gonna do?”
Twan hesitated before he said, “Make it work.” He looked up at Gavin. “But there is this one mutha fucka, nigga calls himself Coffee. This the nigga I need out of my way or I’m wasting my time.”
“I’ll have that handled for you, and I’ll handle it without devoting a bunch of manpower to it.”
“As long as he gets dead, I’m good,” Twan.
“You put your work in and let me deal with all the other shit,” Gavin said and headed towards the door to leave. “I’m out.”
Chapter Nine
Against her partner’s better judgment, Detective Bautista charged Baby Chris with four counts of murder in the hope that he would flip on Rain. Dickerson thought that they should stick to the unlawfully discharging a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon charges. Despite what Bautista thought she could make him do, Dickerson knew that Baby Chris would never flip on Rain.
“Not over this nickel and dime shit,” he told her.
But Bautista was not only stubborn and headstrong, she was determined. Determined to arrest Rain Robinson for any of the litany of murders and other crimes that she had committed. So, there was no turning her around.
Seated next to Baby Chris was his lawyer, Akilah Malheiros. After Jackie spoke with Patrick Freeman about the situation, he immediately dispatched his best criminal defense attorney to handle it. Since Bautista made her wait for hours before she interrogated him, Akilah had plenty of time to review the facts of the case and speak with some of the officers that were on the scene that night.
Her experience told her that this interview was a waste of time. Akilah was sure that there wasn’t enough to charge him. She had a bondsman on standby and Baby Chris would be out before the sun came up, but it didn’t work out that way.
“What happened when you went in the club?”
“When I came in the club, I saw two more masked men.” Akilah touched his hand to remind him of what they discussed. “I saw that they had already shot a number of people.”
No longer able to contain herself, Bautista leaned forward. “Did you just start shooting at them too?”
“No, detective,” Baby Chris said smiling at Bautista. “When they shot at me, I shot them both.”
“What did you do after that?” Dickerson asked, but he knew that the way Baby Chris was answering their questions, that his lawyer was primed and ready to scream self-defense.
“I waited for you and Detective Bautista to come and arrest me,” Baby Chris said.
Dickerson knew that the best they could do was charge him with unlawfully discharging a firearm and criminal possession of a weapon and call it a day.
There was no way that he was going to flip on Rain or anybody else with what they had on him. He glanced at Bautista and knew that she wouldn’t agree. She was wide open to get Rain Robinson and nothing, including the facts of the case, were going to get in her way.
“I think that it is safe to say that this is clearly a case of Mr. Arcus not only defending himself, but his place of business as well,” Akilah said as Dickerson predicted.
“Who ordered you to kill those men?” Bautista asked.
“Nobody ordered me to do anything. I was defending myself.”
“And you’re telling us that neither Rain Robinson nor Jackie Washington ordered you to assassinate those men?”
“Asked and answered, Detective Bautista,” Akilah said.
“You work for them, don’t you? I mean Jackie Washington is your captain and Rain Robinson is the boss of The Family, right?”
“Relevance?” Akilah asked, but Bautista ignored her and pressed on.
“I think that both Rain and Jackie were there, and it was Rain, not you, that shot those men.”
Akilah touched Baby Chris’ hand. “Do you have any evidence to support those claims, Detective Bautista? Or sworn witness statements to support your somewhat outlandish claim.”
“Outlandish!” Bautista shouted, and Dickerson dropped his head a little. “You know as well as I do that Rain Robinson is the boss of Mike Black’s criminal organization and you were ordered there and ordered to kill those men,” Bautista said.
“Unsubstantiated. And again, I ask, relevance?”
This time Dickerson shook his head and cleared his throat. “I think we have all we need,” he said, and Bautista bounced out of her seat.
“Christopher Arcus, you’re under arrest for the murders of Darrell Cunningham, Maurice Zeller, Buchanan Buffington and Romy Harris,” Bautista said, and Dickerson looked at her like she was crazy. He stood up as Bautista went to the door and called for an officer to take Baby Chris away.
“Don’t worry,” Akilah said softly to him. “They have nothing, and they know it. Sit tight and I’ll have you out of here soon,” she said before the officer led him away.
Baby Chris was arraigned, charged with murder and Bautista was able to keep him locked down for the weekend. On Monday, Akilah attended a pre-trial meeting with Assistant District Attorney Wiley Monroe. He was very reluctant to pursue the case because, like everybody else, he knew that he wouldn’t have a strong case to take to trial. If he did, he would most certainly lose and that was unacceptable to him. Monroe had political aspirations that extended far beyond that office. But he agreed to do it as a favor to Bautista.