Nick laughed. "He would go over there right now and kill Bo."
"I ain’t sayin’ that’s what you should do. You handle Bo any way you want. All I’m sayin’ is sooner or later you’re gonna have to deal with him."
"I understand," Nick said and got up. "I’m gonna go have a talk with Bo."
"You do that. And then I want you to see what you can find out about Kenny."
"I’m on it," Nick said, and Black watched him as he left Cuisine.
"Who do you think’s gonna move first?" Bobby asked.
"My money’s on Bo."
"Word I get is that Bo thinks he should be running things, and he blames Nick for Freeze bein’ dead," Bobby said.
"I heard that too. That’s why I told Nick he’s gonna have to kill Bo. But he needs to decide that for himself."
"You’re right," Bobby said and sipped his drink. "Where you goin’?" Bobby asked as Black got up.
"Goin’ to see if I can find out anything about what happened to Kenny."
"Didn’t you just send Nick to do that?" Bobby said and followed Black toward the door.
"So I wanna ask a few questions myself," Black said. "What else you got to do?"
CHAPTER SIX
When Black and Bobby got outside, they got in Bobby’s car. They had driven for a while and Black noticed that Bobby was uncharacteristically quiet. Since he had a lot on his mind, Black didn’t mind, but there was a question he had to know the answer to.
"What’s bothering you?"
"Nothing," Bobby replied as he drove.
"Nothing, huh? Well, let me ask you this then; what was up with you last night?"
"What you mean?"
"I mean you chopped the guy’s toes off with an ax."
Bobby laughed. "The shit worked, didn’t it?"
"That’s not the point."
"Well, what’s the point then?" Bobby asked angrily.
"I just never saw you like that before, that’s all," Black said and decided it was best to back off.
They had driven for a while in silence when Bobby looked at Black and said, "Pam wants a divorce."
"That’s what’s bothering you."
"And she’s talking about moving to South Carolina with the kids."
"That’s fucked up. What did you do this time?"
"I got home one night and the house was fucked up. I mean, shit was thrown everywhere. I looked around for the kids, but they were gone. I finally found Pam sitting in the basement. She said some woman called the house asking for me."
"Same old Bobby. Didn’t you learn shit from fuckin’ around with Cat?" Black asked referring to the last woman Bobby had an affair with.
Cat decided it was a good idea to call Pam and tell her that she had just gotten finished fucking Bobby, and he would still be there if Black hadn’t called and asked Bobby to pick him up. That forced Pam to have to deal with the situation in a way that nobody ever thought she was capable of.
After that, Pam had a nervous breakdown. When she got out of the hospital, she told Bobby that even after what he put her through, she could be a good mother to the children and a good wife to Bobby, but she couldn’t bring herself to have sex with him.
After that, they came to an understanding. Pam understood that if she wasn’t gonna give Bobby any pussy, somebody else would. "Just keep it away from me and the kids. I won’t go through what I went through again," Pam told Bobby. And that was fine with him. So it was settled. Bobby did his thing and kept it away from his family. Until now.
"Yeah, I did, but I swear, Mike, it ain’t like that this time."
"What’s her name?"
"Ivillisa Ortiz. Little Puerto Rican ho I fucked a couple of times. I don’t even know how she got my number."
"What she say to Pam?"
"Nothing; just asked to speak to me, and if she saw me to tell me that she’ll be at home waitin’ for me."
"That’s a little more than nothing, Bob. It was enough to set Pam off and make her tear up the house and ask for a divorce."
"No shit."
"What you gonna do now?" Black asked as Bobby pulled the car over.
"I don’t know," Bobby said and put the car in park.
"Your choices are simple. Either you’re gonna be what Pam wants or you’re not."
"No shit," Bobby said and started to get out of the car. "You coming?" he asked and got out of the car.
They went inside the convenience store and walked up to the young woman at the counter. "He here?" Black asked.
"He’s in the back," she said and pointed.
"Thanks," Black said and headed for the back.
"Hey, Bobby," the woman said flirtatiously.
"Hey, Debra," Bobby winked and followed Black.
"What? You fuck her too?"
"Prettiest titties I ever saw, but she couldn’t fuck her way out of a paper bag," Bobby said.
Black shook his head and opened the office door. Bobby followed him in.
"Black; Bobby," Sherman Williams said and stood up to shake hands. He had been running numbers out of that store for years. Sherman also had a reputation for keeping his mouth shut and his ears opened.
"What’s goin’ on, Sherman?" Bobby asked.
"Money. Lots of fun and lots of money. Same as every other day. What brings you two high-rollers up here?"
"You heard about Kenny?" Black asked.
"Yeah, I heard about it. Shame, too-dirty shame. Kenny was good people. Honest as far as that goes in this business."
"You heard anything about who killed him?" Bobby asked him.
"I ain’t heard shit about Kenny. But I tell you what I have been hearin’. And I can’t say that it had anything to do with Kenny, but I keep hearin’ it from a lot of people-people who know what’s up-that something big is gettin’ ready to go down around here," Sherman told Black and Bobby.
"That does us a lot of fuckin’ good," Black said. "Something’s gonna happen, something big, but you don’t know what."
"Sorry, Black, that’s all I got, but I’ll let you know if I hear anything else."
"You do that."
"Have you talked to Luke?"
"No."
"I did hear that he was with Kenny last night when it happened."
"Why didn’t you tell us that shit before?"
"Sorry," Sherman said as he watched Black and Bobby walk out.
CHAPTER SEVEN
When Nick got to JR’s, Rain was more than ready for him. She was all over him as soon as he walked in her office. Once she had gotten her fill, Rain got dressed and ready to go. "You don’t mind if I ride, do you?"
"No, come on," Nick said and turned around. Rain followed him out of the club and to his car; neither had much to say to the other while they drove. Rain sat and stared out the window, thinking about what Blue had said to her. I know he must be rollin’ over in his grave ’bout the shit you doin’.
When Rain was young, JR took her everywhere with him. That’s why she was so much like him. Back then she was daddy’s little girl and there was nothing more important to Rain than pleasing her father. But as she got older things began to change. Rain was always in trouble and her brother Miles, the straight-A student, became JR’s favorite. No matter what Rain did to impress him it was always wrong. "No, Lorraine, do it this way," she remembered JR telling her so many times in her life.
She knew her father wouldn’t approve of what she was doing. It was always like that. If it wasn’t exactly what JR wanted it was wrong. But JR was dead and Rain had to do what she knew how to do; what she’d always done. Having money and power behind her just made things easier, and her association with Nick gave her that power. It was the perfect arrangement except for one thing.
Wanda Moore.
Whenever Rain would get a little too comfortable with Nick, Wanda would always come along to jerk her back to reality. It didn’t bother her when they first got together. But every time Nick would get out of her bed to go be with another woman, it would remind her that Nick was Wanda’s man and she was just the bitch he was fuckin’ behind her back.