What was more interesting was when I looked back and saw the expression on Lakeda’s face. The way she was looking at Miles made me believe that he was Nice N. Slow and she knew, or at least suspected, he was cheating on her. I needed to get a picture of Miles and show it to Tasheka and Shameka at Paradise. And even if it is Miles, that didn’t mean that he killed her.
“We can buy in on the next hand,” Rain said, suddenly appearing next to me.
“We? You play?”
“I hold my own.”
After we played a few hands of poker we left the gambling room and went back upstairs. “Well, what you think?”
“Like I said, I’m impressed. Looks like y’all run a smooth little operation here.”
“But it’s nothin’ compared to y’all’s, right?”
“I don’t know. What else you got?”
“What you mean?”
“I mean is this all you got?”
“No, we got a few other spots that do pretty good for us.”
“But nothing like this, right? This is y’all’s big spot.”
Rain put her hands on her hips. “So what you sayin’? That this ain’t shit?”
“I ain’t sayin’ shit. You the one tryin’ to make the comparison.”
“Come on, nigga. Let me show you how we roll,” Rain said and grabbed me by the hand.
Rain led me to her car and we drove off. She took me to around to four of their spots and bragged about having five more. “But they too far and I don’t feel like ridin’ out there,” Rain told me and took me back to JR’s. I really was impressed with what I saw.
The reception Rain got at the spots we went to was different than it was at JR’s. Everywhere we went, it was obvious that she was the queen and everybody bowed down to her. More importantly, every place we went was makin’ money.
When we got back to JR’s, Rain led me back to the offices. “This is Pops’ office.”
“Where’s yours?”
“I don’t have one. Don’t need one.”
JR wasn’t there that night, but she had a key to his office. We went in the office and Rain picked up the remote for the flat screen. “Pops is rarely here at night these days, so when he’s not here this is my spot.” She dropped the remote and headed for the bar. “Johnnie Black, right?”
“Right,” I said and looked at the flat screen. Porn star Lola Lane appeared on the screen, ridin’ some guy’s dick, talkin’ ’bout,
I looked at Rain, she looked at me. “Ooops,” she said and pushed a button on the bar and the image on the screen changed. Now the screen displayed images from around the club. “Sorry about that.”
I sat down on whatever seat was closest to me without commenting on Lola or Rain’s apology. I looked around the office and my eyes stopped on a picture of a much younger JR and a very pretty woman.
Rain handed me my drink and sat down. “Is that your mother in that picture,” I said and pointed to it.
“Yup, that’s my mom, Barbara Robinson.”
“She’s very pretty,” I said and thought that Miles looked a lot like her.
“She was beautiful. She died when I was a baby, so I never really knew her.”
“For some reason I thought you were older than Miles.”
“Most people think that. But he’s older by eleven months.”
“You and him must be close.”
“We used to be.”
“What changed that?”
“Why you wanna know?”
I laughed. “Why you gettin’ defensive?”
“I’m not. We just ain’t close like we used to be.”
“That got anything to do with your sister-in-law?”
“You ask a lot of fuckin’ questions,” Rain said and finished her drink.
“I just noticed that you two didn’t really speak to each other.”
Rain got up and headed toward the bar. “I don’t like the bitch. Never have. I haven’t spoken to her since I was in the seventh grade. There. You happy now?”
“Why don’t you make me one too?” I said and finished my drink. “Why don’t you like her? She seems like a nice person.”
“Yeah, yeah, she’s real nice and whatever. I just don’t like her, and let’s leave it at that.” When Rain came back she had both bottles. Like she planned on us being there for a while. That was fine with me. I had a lot of questions for her; about her brother and their operation. Specifically; what else she had going on. If we do move on them, I wanted there to be as few surprises as possible.
She took my glass and poured me a drink. As soon as she poured herself a shot, I raised my glass.
“Didn’t mean to make you mad,” I said and drained my glass. Rain followed suit and drained hers.
I took the glass from her hand and poured her another and one for myself.
“I would rather drink to something else,” Rain said.
“What do you wanna drink to?”
Rain raised her glass. “Anything that don’t have nothin’ to do with Lakeda Johnson.” Rain turned up her glass. “Talk to me about something else.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know; anything.”
“I’d rather talk about you.”
“Why you wanna know about me?”
“You already know ’bout me. Only thing I know about you is that you’re twenty-two. I know you can handle a gun.”
Rain looked at me and smiled. I was starting to like the way she smiled. Rain had those pouty lips I seem to like so much. “My daddy taught me how to shoot.”
“You daddy’s little girl?”
“Yup. Everything I know that’s important I learned from him. He taught me a lot about dealin’ with people.”
“How to get them to do what you want them to do?”
“That too. But he taught me to look and listen. Said that’s why we got two eyes and two ears.”
“And only one mouth.”
“Exactly.” Rain poured herself another drink. “I remember once when I was in high school.”
“What school did you go to?”
“Immaculate Conception.”
“Catholic school girl.”
“And I ain’t even catholic. Pops sent me there after I got kicked out of public school.”
“What you get kicked out for?”
“Fightin’. Let this mouth get me into somethin’ I had to fight my way out of. That’s when he told me about lookin’ and listenin’ to mugs, see where they really coming from. But when I first got there these girls wanted to try me, you know, ’cause I’m new and shit. But I just got kicked out of school for fightin’, so I’m tryin’ to be cool. But these bitches won’t let up. So I tell Pops about it.”
“What he say?”
“He listened, and then he said, ‘I can’t tell you what to do. I could tell you what I would do if I was in your place.’ Then he said that I had to start makin’ my own decisions, and once I made those decisions that I had to be willing to stand up and be responsible for those decisions.”
“Good advice.”
“Yeah, I’ve lived by it since. But anyway, he said this is a matter of honor. You already know what the right
