didn’t comment, CeCe continued.
“And you gotta admit, when you need me, I come through for you, don’t I?”
“You do.”
“Every time. And you’re gonna need me again and I got you, baby. Anything I can ever do for you is done. But I need you to understand something.”
“What’s that?”
“I do what I do for you ’cause I want to. I want you to know the kind of woman I am. I understand that since I used to be with Cash that you didn’t trust me, but I hope we’ve gotten past that. I want you to know that you can trust me, and you know that you can depend on me to handle mine and whatever you need me to do. I want you, Mike Black; want you bad and I want you to want me the same way. That’s why I do the things that I do for you. Not ’cause I know you’ll break me off something. I don’t need nothing from you, I got my own.” CeCe took a breath. “Oh, I didn’t tell you, I’m getting ready to open a high-end boutique in a couple of weeks. So bring your woman by and I’ll hook her up.”
I knew why she threw that in. By now CeCe must have heard that I bought a gym for Maria to run. Since she was a personal trainer, I thought it was a good match for her since I made her stop dancin’ at Cynt’s.
“Let me know when you open and I’ll drop by.” I thought about legitimate business opportunities for the future. “Depending on how you do in business, I may want to talk about investing in your expansion.”
“Partners with Mike Black, I like the sound of that. It will make me work that much harder.”
Not now, maybe not ever.
“Nope, I would have told you by now if I had heard your name. Him and K Murder used to talk about you all the time. Talk about you like you was Darth Vader.”
I laughed. “No one ever compared me to Darth Vader before.”
“How you know?” CeCe said and stood up. “You don’t know how these niggas in them streets are scared to death of you.”
“I guess I don’t.”
“That’s why you got me to let you know these things. And you do got me, Mr. Black, all of me. I’m just waiting for you to take me.” CeCe started walking toward the desk. “I know you got to get back to your woman. She’s probably looking for you and giving Bobby a hard time about where you are.”
I picked up the phone and called Kevon on his cell. “Yes, boss.”
“Come to the office.”
“On my way,” Kevon said and hung up.
I got up and led CeCe to the door. “The least you can do is give me Kevon’s number.”
I went back to the desk and wrote it down. I handed the paper to her. “Thank you. I promise not to blow it up.” CeCe looked at it then looked at me. I felt that urge to rip her clothes off as Kevon knocked on the door.
I opened the door for Kevon. “Escort the lady out and tell Bobby I need to talk to him.”
“Well, I guess this is goodnight, Mr. Black.”
“We’ll talk again, soon.”
“Is that a promise or a threat?” CeCe remarked as she closed the door behind her.
I walked over to the couch and sat down. I sat there thinking about what CeCe had just told me about Cash and Mylo. Did Cash know Mylo was DEA? If he did know, how did Vinnelli fit into this?
Chapter 13
Nick Simmons
I was tired when Black dropped me off. I had gotten up early that morning and it had been a long day. I decided not to fight it any longer and got in bed. I woke up to the sound of my cell phone ringing. “Hello,” I said, but I was still half asleep.
“Nick, its Tamia. I got something for you.”
“What you got?”
“The way I hear it, the murders were drug related and the robbery was just a cover.”
“That the official line?”
“Pretty much, but I heard some talk that the robbers might be associated with a gambler named Jasper Robinson, calls himself JR.”
“Thanks, Tamia. If you hear anything else let me know.”
“I will,” Tamia promised and hung up the phone.
I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep when I heard somebody knocking on my door. I thought about ignoring it, but got up anyway. I got my gun and went to the door. I was about to see who it was when I heard the key hit the lock.
The door opened and Wanda stepped in.
“Hello.”
Wanda jumped. “You scared me.” Then she saw the gun. “Were you gonna shoot me?”
“Yes,” I said and turned around and headed back to bed.
“You all right?”
“Just tired,” I told her and got back under the covers.
“Too bad,” Wanda said and began getting undressed. “You been with Mike all day?”
“No. I took some money to Mrs. Phillips. I spent the day lookin’ into the murder at Paradise. I was with him most of the night. ”
“Did Mike ask you what you wanted to do?”
“I told him that I was thinkin’ about runnin’ the game.”
Wanda frowned. “What did he say?”
“Black said to give Jackie a chance; Said she got Travis up there now.”
“What good does he think Travis being there, knowing less about the game than she does, is gonna accomplish?” Wanda asked, questioning Black’s logic.
“Security. I didn’t ask him. He wants me to check on them every night.”
“Just the game?”
“No, Black wants me to check on everything.”
“Anything else he want you to do?” Wanda asked without commenting on what I had just told her-which surprised me. Maybe she didn’t understand what everything meant. But knowing Wanda, she just wanted to know everything before she said anything about it.
“No, that’s it.”
“Okay,” she said and headed for the shower.
Once she got out of the shower and dried off, she got in bed. When Wanda rolled close to me and kissed me, I thought we were getting ready to have sex, but Wanda had other ideas. “I have to be honest with you, I’m not sure I like the idea of you checking on everything.”
Now it comes.
“I didn’t think you would.”
Wanda rolled her eyes at me. “I mean, I can see where this is goin’.”
“Where do you see it goin’?”
“He’s got you taking money to that family, something Freeze used to do. You’re going to start making the rounds every night, something Freeze used to do. Black wants you to take over.”
“That’s exactly what he wants. But you have a problem with it?”
