After the waitress went to get our drinks, Rain turned back to me. “You find your shooters yet?”
“Not yet. But I heard from some of her friends that she liked to hangout here.” I took out the picture. “I got a picture of her,” I said and handed Rain the picture. I was anxious to see the expression on her face and the look in her eye when she saw Zakiya’s picture, but there was none.
“Never seen her before. You show that to anybody else here, maybe one of the waitresses seen her here.”
“I did but nobody recognized her,” I lied.
“I ain’t surprised. A lotta people come through here every night.”
“It was a shot in the dark.”
“You were just lookin’ for an excuse to come see me, that’s all.”
“That’s one way of lookin’ at it.” The waitress came back with our drinks and disappeared quickly. “I was hopin’ that you would show me around your spot, maybe play a couple of hands of poker.” I needed to have a look around for computers. That would give me a better idea of who had access to them. I don’t remember seeing one in JR’s office, but I wasn’t actually looking for one that
night
. I knew there had to be at least one.
I told Rain that I wanted to play poker because Black said he wouldn’t mind takin’ over JR’s gambling operation.
“Not a problem,” Rain said and stood up. I followed her, watching how her wide hips swung in the mini as she showed me around the club.
We had been all through the club and I hadn’t seen a single computer anywhere. Then we went in the back. Rain showed me the dressing rooms for the entertainment and the door to gambling room.
“We’ll go down there in a minute.”
The next door we came to was locked, so Rain knocked. “That door always locked?” I asked.
“Most of the time. This is Miles office.”
“That’s your brother, right?”
“Right.” A woman came to the door. “I’m not interrupting, am I?” Rain asked and walked by the woman.
“How are you doin’?” I said to the woman and followed Rain in.
There was a computer on the desk.
“What’s up, Miles? There’s somebody I want you to meet.” Miles stood up and came from behind his desk.
“I’m Miles Robinson,” he said and extended his hand. By that time the woman who opened the door was standing next to Miles. “And this is my wife, Lakeda.”
“Nick Simmons.”
Miles looked impressed. “It’s good to meet you. Heard a lot about you.”
“I was about to take Nick downstairs, but I wanted to introduce y’all before I went down there. You know how you like to run outta here. I’m surprised you’re still here,” Rain said and turned to leave. “Oh, by the way,” she turned to me. “Show them the picture, Nick.”
“Y’all ever see this girl up in here?” Rain asked as I handed Miles the picture. He looked at the picture and handed it back to me.
“No, I haven’t.”
“I didn’t think you would. Just thought I’d ask,” Rain said and headed for the door.
I looked at Miles and then at Lakeda.
“You
comin’?”
Rain said.
“Nice meeting you both.”
Chapter 24
Mike Black
My dinner meeting with Meka Brazil turned into dinner with Meka and Wanda. When Meka mentioned that she was meeting me for dinner, Wanda invited herself to join us; which turned out to be a good thing ’cause she told me that State Senator Martin Marshall was having a fundraiser that night, and Mr. Marshall was somebody I needed to have a conversation with.
Wanda’s presence at dinner with Meka did put an entirely different spin on the night. Especially when Meka looked at her watch and announced she was late for that evening’s conference call. She immediately slapped her Bluetooth on her ear, started punching numbers on her Blackberry, apologized and ran out of there.
Wanda turned to me. “
That’s
gonna be you one day.”
“No. It’s not. I can’t ever imagine a time when I’ll become as attached to that thing as she is. I don’t have a cell phone. I don’t like bein’ that accessible.”
“You’re already accessible. You’re on Kevon’s phone more than he is,” Wanda said.
“That’s because you, Meka, and now Bobby call me all the time to talk about what we just talked about at the meeting.”
“Which reminds me, how did your meeting go with P Harlem?”
“How does any meetin’ with P go? P talked, we listened.”
Paul ‘P Harlem’ Roberts is one of the two major rapper clients that Wanda represents. The other is The One. His real name is Earl, real nice guy. Get that nigga a bag of weed and some pussy and he’s a happy man. But not P. Don’t get me wrong, he’s all for pussy and weed. P is words, P is conscience,
P
is anger. That’s what his music is all about. But he’s real about it, so he says what he thinks. Sometimes it gets him in trouble.
There was an incident at strip club in Atlanta, P was there with his whole set and they’re droppin’ paper like its water. Some young gangster comes in, sees P, and gets the DJ to put him on the mike. When he gets done, he comes over to P and says, “What you think?”
P says, “Somebody got to explain to me why they even let you near the mike with that weak shit,” and turns his back on the little gangster.
Shots were fired and the little gangster ends up dead. P was arrested but the case was thrown out. There were no witnesses. People could definitely say that P was there that night, but nobody saw him with a gun. “But that ain’t his problem this time.”
“What is it now?”
“He won some award, so at the show P gets up and says he’d like to thank his record company, ‘But I can’t ’cause they robbed me blind. These bitches want me to sing and dance, but they want me to do it for free.
’
Now they won’t re-sign him.”
“I know all about it. But that’s not why they don’t want to sign him,” Wanda said.
“Why not?”
“There’s only so much of a market for what Paul does. They told him if he started callin’ women bitches and hoes that he’d sell more records.”
“What about them robbin’ him blind? Isn’t that, like, our job to see that they don’t rob him blind?”
“All legitimate expenses incurred by Paul. The contract allowed them to subtract tour expenses from his royalties.”
“I understand now. But don’t you usually send somebody on tour with them to keep shit like this from happening?”
“I did. I sent Webster Houston.”
“What happened?”
“He said he was seduced by the dark side of the force,” Wanda said and shook her head.
“P turned him out?”
“Something about how orgies and room service go together.” Wanda looked disgusted. “So what did he want?”
“He just wanted to vent.” Actually he wanted me to kill some A&R guy at the record company for disrespecting him. I told him that I wouldn’t kill him, but he should expect an apology.
But Wanda didn’t need to know about all that.
I’ve been making a real effort to keep her away from that side of things. I’ve been thinking that it’s not a good idea for her to be the managing partner of our legitimate businesses and be advising a criminal organization. Better she stick to business.
What surprised me is how Bobby has gotten into the whole legit thing. Bobby always has looked at things a little differently from the rest of us. So he asks Meka a lot of questions—makes her explain shit. I don’t think she likes Bobby. But he gets me to see things in ways that I hadn’t considered.
“How’d you leave it with him?” Wanda asked.
“I told him that I’d think about starting a record company.”
Wanda looked at me without speaking while she considered the possibilities. “That could work for us.”
“See what it’s gonna take to make that happen and get back to me,” I told Wanda. Then I looked up and saw something that I never thought I’d see.
There in the foyer stood Angelo Collette and two of his men. Angelo was giving my manager Lexi a hard time, and pointing at me. She’s probably tellin’ him that she don’t care who he says he knows, he’s not getting in without a reservation.
I looked at Kevon, he was looking at me. I nodded my head; Kevon went to take care of it. That’s another reason why I chose him to be my bodyguard, Kevon never misses anything. He’s always aware of his environment and he’s always looking around so he sees everything.
“Isn’t that Angelo at the door?” Wanda said when she noticed the commotion.
“Yeah.” I watched as Kevon settled Lexi down and then let Angelo pass. He escorted Angelo’s men to the bar.
“What’s he doing here?”
“I don’t know. I’ve been trying to get Angee to come here for years. He wants something. Something major or he wouldn’t be here.” Probably some Crazy Joe shit. Out of respect, I stood up to greet him. Wanda did too.
“Mikey, Wanda,” Angelo said and shook my hand. “How’s everybody doing tonight?” Angelo hugged Wanda and kissed her on the cheek.
“I’m fine, Angelo.”
“How long has it been since I saw you, Wanda?” Angelo asked and took a seat.
“Been at least eight years.”
“Well, you’re as beautiful as I remember.”
I sat down without speaking and listened while Wanda and Angee made small talk like two old friends that hadn’t seen each other in years. While they talked, I couldn’t help but wonder what would make Angee come up here. It’s rare when he leaves his little area in Yonkers.
“Wanda, I don’t mean to be rude, but I need to talk to this guy.”
Wanda stood up, so did Angelo. “I didn’t think you came here just to tell me how pretty I was. It was good seeing you.”
“Great seeing you, too.”
“We should talk more when you have some time,” Wanda said and looked at me. She wanted to explore, as she called it, legitimate business opportunities with Angee, but she knows I’m against it. Angee has his own problems with the law. This is not the time to be in business with him. But Wanda can be hard-headed sometimes. She turned to me. “I’ll be in the office, Mike.”
Wanda said goodnight to Angee and headed for the office. As soon as she walked off, Angelo leaned toward me and whispered. “Can we talk in here?”
“I have the place swept for bugs every day. But we can talk outside if it makes you more comfortable.”
I stood up and led Angee out the back door. Kevon and Angee’s men followed behind us.
Once we had gotten a little ways down the street, Angee got to the purpose of his visit. “I wanted to ask you about Stark.”
I wasn’t expecting that. “What about him?”
“I hear he’s a serious man, who’s deserving of respect.”
Now I knew what Angee wanted. He hasn’t been a player in this game since Cassandra got out. She had a dual degree in management and marketing, saw drug dealing as a business, and ran her program that way.
I learned a lot about business from her. One more reason to miss her. With the direction we’re taking now, Cassandra’s advice and involvement would have been invaluable to me.
When she left the country with me, Chilly sucked up what was left of her operation. With the rest of his Commission dead or in the wind, Stark controlled a big chunk of the drug market and Angee wanted back in. “You want to meet him?”
“I was hopin’ for something a little more than just an introduction from you, Mikey.”
“Like what?”
“I was thinkin’ that maybe you would take more of an active role. You could be kind of a stabilizing influence. You know, keep problems down.”
“What makes you think I got that kind of influence with Stark?”
“Come on, Mikey. You’re a legend ’round here. Stark probably grew up hearing stories about you. I hear this kid respects you; Idolizes you. And I also hear that you like him.”
“You hear a lot of things.”
“I do.”
Definitely wasn’t expecting this.
“I know I’m asking a lot of you. I know you’re tryin’ to move in a different direction. But with Stark out front you wouldn’t have to get your hands dirty. Naturally, you could charge a fee for your influence.” Then he hit me with it. “I would consider it a personal favor.”
Definitely wasn’t expecting this.
“You are askin’ a lot.” I stopped walking and looked Angee in the eye. “I’ll tell you what I will do. I’ll set up a meeting with you and Stark. I have to think about what you just asked me, for personal reasons.”
“I understand completely, Mikey. All I can ask is that you think about it.”
Chapter 25
“What him want, boss?” Kevon wanted to know as we watched Angee drive off.
“Something I don’t wanna do,” I said and started walking toward the club.
I definitely wasn’t expecting Angee to come outta nowhere with that shit. I should have told him no. I should have said, flat out, no. What you ask, I can not do. I should have said that I can’t do it for personal reasons that he is well aware of, and that I was insulted that he would ask.