Payback

jewelry box. Then she said that our bed was very comfortable and that she was looking forward to fuckin’ Bobby on our bed. That’s when I hung up on her.

'But then I thought about it. This woman is crazy. Crazy enough to come in our house and not only search it, but call and tell me about it. She wasn’t gonna stop. I told Bobby to stop her, or I would stop her.”

'So I called her back. I told her that we needed to talk face to face. I was surprised when she invited me over. I took the kids to my sister’s house and I came here. When I got here, she asked me to follow her. Said she wanted to show me something and led me straight to the bedroom. She opened the door and pointed to the bed. She said this is where her and Bobby fuck every day. That’s when I shot her.'

Chapter Forty-four

Mike and Bobby looked at one another. 'The parlor?' Bobby asked.

'No doubt,' Mike replied.

'The parlor?' Shy asked. 'What’s the parlor?'

'Funeral parlor, we owned it for years. It comes in handy for occasions like this,' Mike answered his still confused wife.

'Come on, Mike, you can explain that shit to her later. We need to get Pam and this body outta here,' Bobby said and Mike had to agree.

'We’ll come back later and clean up this place. Cassandra, take Pam to the car and take her home.'

Bobby threw Shy his keys. 'Pam, where’s your car?'

'At home.'

'How did you get here?'

'I took a cab and had the driver drop me off two blocks from here. I walked the rest of the way,' Pam said and Bobby looked at her.

'Okay, just take Pam to the car and wait for us,' Mike told her.

'Shy, there’s an alley that leads to the back of the building, meet us there,' Bobby said and went back in the bedroom.

'Come on, Pam,' Shy said and led Pam by the arm out of the apartment.

After Shy left with Pam, Mike followed Bobby into the bedroom. He found Bobby kneeling beside the body. When he saw Mike come into the room, Bobby stood up. 'Damn, I didn’t think Pam had it in her to do something like this.'

Mike went to the bed and grabbed the bedspread. 'I didn’t think she did either.'

Bobby continued to stare at Cat’s lifeless body.

'You were really feelin’ her?'

Bobby nodded in response.

'You wanna get outta here, go home with Pam? I’ll get Freeze and Nick to take care of this.'

Bobby took the bedspread from Mike and laid it out on the floor next to her body. 'No, Mike. This is my mess, I have to be the one to clean it up.'

'You sure?' Mike and Bobby both knelt down and placed the body in the bedspread.

'Yeah, I’m sure. I’ll be alright. Besides the last thing I wanna do is go home with Pam. Let her and Shy bond, spend some more time together.'

'Maybe the two of you should go away for a while, spend some time together.' Mike suggested as they wrapped up the body.

'Maybe.' Bobby paused. 'You ready?'

'Yeah,' Mike said and together they carried Cat out of her apartment.

Once they got her downstairs and in the trunk, Bobby started to take Pam home, but she insisted on going to her sister’s house to pick up the children. Shy was able to convince her that she shouldn’t be around her children in her current state of mind. Once Pam finally agreed to that, then she didn’t wanna go home.

'I keep thinking about you and her in our bed,' Pam said.

Bobby remained quiet.

'Take her to my house then,' Mike suggested and Pam agreed. Mike asked Shy if she would mind staying with her until they took care of things. Naturally Shy agreed and said that they’d be fine. Bobby drove to Mike’s house and took Pam inside. He stood by and watched in silence as Shy and Mike took her upstairs to his room and put her to bed. When they came back downstairs, Bobby went up and tried to talk to Pam.

'Bobby,' Pam said without opening her eyes. 'I think you should go help Mike. I know we need to talk, but this is not the time.'

Bobby told Pam that he understood and gladly left her alone. After Mike and Bobby left, Shy went upstairs to check on Pam. She told Shy that she was fine, and that she just wanted to get some rest. As Shy was about to go back downstairs Pam said, 'Shy.'

'Yes, Pam.'

'Where’s my gun? I need my gun back.'

'Michael has it. I’m sure he’ll take care of it,' Shy promised. 'What do you need a gun for?'

'In case she comes back. She may try to get in the house again.'

'I don’t think that’s possible,' Shy said and let out a little laugh. 'Michael and Bobby are taking care of that right now.'

'Do you have a gun?' Pam asked.

'No, Pam I don’t have a gun.'

'Okay,' Pam said and rolled over.

When Mike and Bobby drove off, they drove right past Melinda, who had been following them all night. After she left Freeze at Cuisine, Melinda went to Impressions to establish her alibi. She would stay there until the club closed and go home to find the body. Once she found it, she planned to scream at the top of her lungs until one of her nosey ass neighbors came to see what she was screaming about.

When Melinda got to the club, who was the first people she saw on the dance floor? Black and that bitch Shy. It made her think about her great plan. You mean Diego’s great plan. Diego had realized the first time he met Melinda that she controlled D-Train. When Diego came to her and asked for her help in destroying everything that Black worked so hard to build, she gladly accepted. Black was never coming back to her, so why not? It all was gonna be so easy, Melinda thought. She was going to get back at Black for dumping her. She would take apart the organization that she thought she knew so much about, piece by piece. Melinda would do it slowly and methodically, the way Black would do it. And it would have worked if D-Train’s people hadn’t fucked everything up.

But her plan changed the day that Sal Terrico dropped that bitch Shy in her lap. Melinda begged Diego to kill her, but he had other plans for the bitch. It was only after Melinda promised Diego that she wouldn’t to kill her and a little something else, at least he was quick about it,that Diego told Sal to deliver the bitch to D-Train. Now she had a new plan. She would convince D-Train to kill her. Once the bitch was dead, she would tell Black. Black would kill D-Train and take him off her neck. Which would leave her free to be there for Black in his time of need.He would need me again.

When D-Train slapped the shit outta her, Melinda knew that she had lost control of him, but the plan was still a good one. That night after she left The Spot, Melinda drove to 151^st to the place where they were holding Shy. She would kill Shy herself and still tell Black that D-Train did it. But nobody was there when she got there.

It made her mad as hell to see them together, out on the dance floor that they used to call their own. She hated that bitch Shy with a passion. Melinda decided that whether she got Black back or not that, bitch didn’t deserve to live. Even if it meant killing Black too.

When she saw them leaving the club with Bobby, Melinda followed them. She knew that there was a warrant out for that bitch Shy’s arrest. It would be easier to simply call the police and tell them where she was. But that wasn’t good enough. With Black’s power, Wanda’s think she’s so fuckin’ smart ass, that bitch Shy