want to.”
“You go ahead and be with your father. I’m gonna stay for awhile,” I said knowing that I wanted to talk to Miles, but thinking that maybe this wasn’t the best time to hit him with this.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m cool. You go ahead.”
Rain went back in the unit and I reclaimed my seat. It was two hours later when I looked up and saw Miles and Lakeda go in the unit. It would be another hour before Rain came out again. “He regained consciousness. He’s still very weak, but they say he has a good chance.”
“That’s good to know. I’m gonna go ahead and leave,” I said and handed her, her keys. I had decided that I would wait and talk to Miles another time. “I’ll take a cab back to my car.”
“Thanks for stayin’ as long as you did. I’ll call you tomorrow.” Rain kissed me on the cheek and walked back toward the unit. I watched her until the door closed behind her.
I caught a cab back to my car and went and hit a few of our spots. As I went from spot to spot, I wondered who Wanda’s spies were and how I was gonna find out who they were. Maybe she was clocking me right now.
I thought about what Black said about not hurting Wanda. It wasn’t like I was trying to hurt her, but I knew that I was. Even if Wanda didn’t know for sure that I was fuckin’ Rain, every minute I spent with her, every time I’m with Wanda and I think about Rain, I was driving the knife a little deeper. I loved Wanda, but there was something about Rain, something I wasn’t ready to give up.
I called Wanda and told her that I was gonna make a few more stops and then I would be there. “That’s if you want to see me,” I said.
“Of course I want to see you. How long do you think you’ll be?”
“I don’t know.”
My next stop for the night was the game. I stayed there for awhile and talked to Jackie. “Where’s Travis tonight?”
“Monika called him last night, and he rushed out of here. I haven’t seen him since,” Jackie told me.
“What’s up with that?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Monika had a tip on a hot job and needed Travis for it. You know how they roll.”
“Yeah, she did say she was into something the last time I talked to her.”
When I left Jackie, I decided to call it a night and head for Wanda’s, but I called Rain first to check on her. “Where you at?”
“On my way home.”
“Your home or your woman’s?”
“Hers.”
“Tell her I said hello.”
“No.”
“Why don’t you stop by here on your way? I promise not to keep you too long.” I started to tell her no. “I just need you to hold me for awhile,” Rain said, and against my better judgment, I agreed.
I drove back to the hospital thinking of how just about every time Rain and I were together we killed somebody. Now she needed a hug. Under all that gangster-Go figure.
When I got back to the hospital, I didn’t see Rain anywhere, so I was about to go in visitor’s area to wait for her. I saw Jeff Ritchie sitting there and then I saw Miles come out of the intensive care unit and walk down the hall. Since the old man was gonna be all right, I thought I might catch Miles weak and he’d actually tell me the truth.
I followed Miles to the cafeteria. He got a cup of coffee from the vending machine and sat down at one of the tables. I waited a minute before I went and joined him. When I sat down, Miles didn’t seem to notice that I was there. Then he looked at me. “You’re Nick, right? Rain’s friend?”
“Yes. Sorry about your father. Is he going to be all right?”
“I don’t know. He’s awake now. His arteries are so blocked that it’s restricting the flow of blood. He may be in danger of having a stroke. They say we’ll have to wait and see.”
“This might not be the best time, but I need to ask you something.”
“What’s that?”
I took Zakiya’s picture out of my pocket and slid it in front of him. “You wanna tell me about her?”
“I told you that I didn’t know her,” Miles said and started to get up.
“Yes, you do. You were having an affair with her. Nice N. Slow? That’s you, right?”
Then Miles did something that I really wasn’t expecting him to do.
He started crying.
I mean crying-like-a-baby crying.
I felt like shit for asking.
“I loved her,” Miles said and picked up Zakiya’s picture and stared at it.
“What happened?”
“I met her at the club a year ago. She was there to meet somebody, but he stood her up. And I wondered what kind of fool would stand up somebody as beautiful and sweet as her.”
“How long after that did the affair begin?”
“That night.” Miles looked up at me. “I loved her from that first minute I saw her. I know it was wrong. I have a beautiful wife, two wonderful kids. I know everything about what I was feeling for Zakiya was wrong. But I couldn’t help myself. It was like nothing mattered to me except being with Zakiya. But it was wrong and I knew it had to end.”
“So you had her killed?”
“What? What are you talking about? She was killed during a robbery.”
“You hired those two men to kill her. The robbery was just a front.”
“I didn’t have her killed. You’ve gotta believe me. I loved her!”
“They walked right up to her and killed her.”
“No,” Miles insisted. “It was a robbery. The police said it was some type of gang thing, I don’t know, but I didn’t have anything to do with it. Don’t you understand; I couldn’t hurt her. She was-too important to me.”
“No, Miles, you hired those men and they shot her.”
“That’s not true. I don’t believe you!” Miles said and jumped up.
“Come with me,” I said and stood up too.
“Where are we going?”
“To watch a murder.”
Miles and I walked through the hospital and passed Jeff Ritchie still sitting in the visitor’s area. Along the way, I thought what if I’m wrong? What if he’s telling the truth, and he really didn’t have anything to do with it?
When we got outside, he followed me to my car and we got in. I took the DVD of the murder out of the glove compartment and put it in DVD player. “Watch for your self.”
I sat and looked at Miles while he watched the video. Saw the smile come over his face when he saw Zakiya, and then I watched him breakdown when he saw her die.
I felt like shit.
“I wouldn’t,” he said through his tears. “I couldn’t. She was going to have a baby.” Miles looked at me. “Our baby. I was meeting her there that day to tell her that I would stand by her; that I would take care of her and our baby.”
“Who else knew she would be there that day?”
“Nobody,” Miles said quickly and then he looked at me. “Lakeda knew.”
“How did she find out?”
“That night before, I was in the office and Zakiya called. I knew Lakeda was in the club, so I told her that I couldn’t talk and would see at Paradise tomorrow. I didn’t hear Lakeda when she came in. I don’t know how long she was there before I noticed her, but she heard enough. She heard me tell Zakiya that I loved her.”
“What happened after that?”
“We argued about it. A lot of ‘how could you?’ and ‘how long has it been going on?’ kind of stuff. Then she left and she didn’t get home until after midnight. I asked her where she’d been, but we just started arguing about
