I put on my best smile. “I am sure I’ll see you again soon, Mr. Black.”
“I’m sure you will, Ms. West,” he said. And that night, once again, I watched him walk away from me.
Chapter Ten
Nina Thomas
After the night I’d had, I wasn’t surprised that I slept late that day. I had just gotten out of the shower and dressed when the doorbell rang. I went to the door and peeked out. Since I didn’t see anybody, I yelled, “Who is it?”
“It’s Leon,” he said and stuck his head where I could see him.
I opened the door and let him in. He gave me a big hug and we talked for a while, and then he got quiet. “You wanna tell me about it?”
“About what?”
“About what you and your friends is plannin’, Nina.”
“How you-,” I started to ask, but I knew the answer. “Pearl told you?”
Leon laughed. “No, Pearl told Diamond; Diamond told me what you was plannin’. I came to talk you out of it.”
“We took care of it last night,” I said.
Leon dropped his head. “Any problems?” he asked. I could tell by the look on his face that he was disappointed in me.
“Nope,” I said. I didn’t think he needed or wanted to know the details. The doorbell rang again and I got up to see who it was. “No problem at all.”
I looked out and saw a man standing there. “Who is it?”
“Police. I’m looking for Nina Thomas.”
“No problems, huh?” Leon said.
A cold chill came over me as I opened the door.
“Sorry to bother you, Miss Thomas. My name is Detective Kirkland, and I was wondering if I could talk to you for a minute?”
“What do you want to talk about?”
“Can I come in?”
I opened the door a little wider and let him come in. As soon as he saw Leon sitting there, his expression changed. “Hello, Leon.”
“What’s up, Kirk?” Leon said.
“I heard you moved to Florida. I didn’t know you were back in the city?”
“No, sir; I’m just here visiting.”
“Leon Copeland,” Kirk said and smiled. He looked at me. “Mind if I sit down?”
“Please, have a seat,” I said and the doorbell rang again.
“I’ll get that,” Kirk said and went to the door and opened it. “Come on in, Gene. There’s somebody here that you might remember from the old days.”
Another man walked in and took a look at Leon. His reaction was the same. “Leon Copeland.”
“Lieutenant Sanchez,” Leon said.
“I heard you took your business to Florida,” the Lieutenant said. “I didn’t know you were back in the city?”
“No, he said he’s just here visiting.”
“Who?” The lieutenant asked.
“I came to see my sister Angel.”
My phone rang and I looked at the cops. “You can go ahead and answer it,” Kirk said.
I picked up the phone. “Hello.”
“It’s Teena. I just heard the Kenyatta and two of her folks got dropped last night at her spot,” she said excitedly.
“Really, girl. You gonna have to tell me about that later. I got company right now,” I said as casually as I could.
“Company? Bitch, this shit is important.”
“Okay, I’ll talk to you later, girl,” I said and hung up, and when I did the cops got back to Leon.
“What are you doing here, Leon?” Kirk asked.
“Miss Thomas used to date my cousin,” Leon said.
“Lorenzo Copeland,” Kirk said and looked at the lieutenant.
“That’s right. I just stopped by to holla at her.”
“I’m glad you’re here,” Kirk said.
“Why is that, Kirk?” Leon asked.
“Because it just might answer a question that was nagging me.”
“Glad I could help, Kirk. You wanna tell me what that is?”
“Sure. Last night three people, Kenyatta Damson, Robert King and Bernard “Blade” Bradshaw, were killed outside of her drug spot. We also found the body of another woman, Shantia Lewis; she was executed in a vacant apartment in the same building,” Kirk said, and I did my best to look like it meant nothing to me. “She used to work for your cousin Lorenzo.”
“And since he’s in jail,” Sanchez said with a big smile on his face. “We were wondering who was supplying her. That wouldn’t be you, would it, Leon?”
“No, sir. I don’t have no business in New York no more.” Leon looked at Kirk. “You know that, Kirk.”
“You made a deal with Black?”
Leon didn’t answer, but it was apparent that everybody but me knew what he was talking about. I knew I should just keep quiet since they seemed to be more interested in Leon than me, but I couldn’t. “Can I ask a question?”
“Sure, Miss Thomas, go ahead.”
“What are you doing here? I don’t know any of those people you mentioned; so why are you here?”
Kirk and Sanchez both stood up. “We came here hoping that you might help us find some of your boyfriend’s associates and we found you with Leon,” Kirk said. “I’m sorry to have bothered you. But I’m sure we’ll talk again.”
After that, the cops left my apartment and I breathed a sigh of relief. I looked at Leon. He was sitting there with his head in his hands. “That’s not good, Nina. You don’t wanna be nowhere around nothing Kirk is involved in. You need to shut down now and come South with me for a while until that is closed, or until Kirk moves on to something else.”
“Why? I didn’t kill none of them,” I said and knew that Shantia Lewis was the one Teena executed. “Why do you think we need to shut down?”
“Nina, listen to me. If Kirk came to see you, fuck what he said, that means he knows that you’re involved with Kenyatta. Next thing you know, they have you under surveillance, if they don’t already, and then you’ll be in jail.”
I trusted Leon, he was more than just my supplier, Leon was family. He was my mentor. It was Leon who taught me the game after Lorenzo went to jail. He told me that I needed to build my own team. And I did. The only exception to that was Kenyatta. I had known her since junior high school. And since I was the one that brought her to Lorenzo, I thought that she would be loyal to me-and she was. She was the foundation of my operation; where I moved the bulk of my product. Now she was dead and my being associated with her brought the cops to my door, and what’s worse was that Leon was there and now they suspected him. I had fucked up all the way around.
I looked at Leon, he looked worried and I had never seen him look that way. I knew he wasn’t worried about himself. He could get on a plane and head back to Jacksonville and never have to worry about the NYPD again. He was worried for me.
“Look, Nina. Maybe it’s time you think seriously about getting out of the game.”
