Out of Control (3 page)

Nick shook his hand, but he never took his eyes off Wanda. “Can I speak with you for a minute, Wanda,” Nick said and grabbed Wanda by the hand.

Rain looked on, barely able to contain her laughter. Marcus looked at Rain and smiled. “Hi, I’m Marcus Douglas.”

“Lorraine Robinson,” Rain said in her most lady-like manner.

Nick had always thought that there was something more going on between them other than just the law. Funny how he just happened to show up right after they broke up. They hadn’t gotten far away from Rain and Marcus before Nick asked, “What are you doing here?”

“I’m having lunch. What are you doing here?”

“I’m looking for Black.”

“I talked to Mike this morning. He should be in Nassau by now,” Wanda said to Nick with an attitude, but her eyes were on Rain.

“What’s really goin’ on, Wanda? You fuckin’ this nigga now?” Nick asked quietly.

“You still fuckin’ that low-life bitch?” Wanda said and pointed at Rain. Only she said it loud enough for Rain to hear.

“Excuse me a minute, Marcus,” Rain said politely and stepped quickly to Wanda. “Who the fuck you callin’ a bitch,” Rain said and slapped the shit outta Wanda.

Wanda grabbed her cheek and Marcus rushed to her side.

Nick picked up Rain.

“You fuckin’ lucky
my man
is here, bitch or I’d be kickin’ your bitch ass right now,” Rain shouted as Nick carried her out of Cuisine.

She was barely speaking to Black because when she told him about it, he had the nerve to take Rain’s side, or at least that’s how Wanda saw it. “You’re right, Wanda. Rain had no business puttin’ her hands on you, but maybe you shouldn’t have called her a low life bitch loud enough for her to hear it.”

“Good night, Mike,” Wanda said.

“Good night, Wanda,”

“And maybe if she wasn’t such as low life bitch, I wouldn’t have to call her one,” Wanda said and slammed down the phone. She hadn’t had much to say to him since.

Now she was on her way to Cynt’s to meet with Cynt, Doc and Grant. They each run gambling houses for Black and had the organization and the influence to help Wanda in what she planned to do. Her plan was simple. Destroy Nick Simmons and take control of the organization away from him.

Although she originally supported Black’s decision to put Nick in charge after Freeze was murdered, she didn’t agree with it. And had Black consulted with her first, she would have told him so. At that point she knew her power was slipping away from her. When Black left the country and eventually married Cassandra, she was the boss, Freeze and everybody else answered to her and she liked it that way.

When Black came back to the city, he let Cassandra
play
like she was in charge, but everybody knew that she was just a puppet mouthing the words Black was putting in her mouth. When Cassandra was brutally murdered, Black was distraught and put Freeze in charge. But Freeze always turned to her for advice and counsel, so she still had power. Then Freeze was murdered.

Wanda always thought it was too soon to put Nick in that position. He wasn’t ready for it. But she went along with it because at the time, she was in love with Nick and knew that she would still have influence.

If she chose to be honest with herself, and at the moment, she didn’t, she would have to admit that she still was in love with Nick and that’s what all this was really about.

But none of that changed the fact that Nick wasn’t ready to lead the organization. “But Black is so fuckin’ loyal to Nick that he can’t see that. Men can be so blind.”

Nick had only just returned from a ten-year absence and was just getting back into things. He ran off and joined the army when Bobby Ray threatened to kill him over Camille Augustus. And then he stood by and let Freeze get killed. Wanda knew that there were more than enough people in the organization that blamed Nick for Freeze’s death, and just as many who were dissatisfied with the way Nick ran things. She was going to meet with three of them now.

James parked the car in front of Cynt’s and got out to open the door for Wanda. “Thank you, James. I’ll be about an hour.”

“Do you want me to wait?”

“No. I’ll call when I’m ready to go,” Wanda said and went inside.

Since she didn’t like walking through the crowd of horny men and naked women, Wanda used her card key to gain access to the steps leading directly to Cynt’s office. When Wanda walked in the office, Cynt, Doc and Grant were all waiting for her.

“Sorry to keep you all waiting for so long,” Wanda said as Cynt got up from behind her desk and let Wanda sit down.

“That’s okay, Wanda. It just gave us a chance to talk among ourselves,” Grant said as he got up and refreshed his drink.

“Not talking about me I hope,” Wanda mused.

“Of course not,” Cynt said and sat down in one of the chairs in front of the desk. “You know damn well what we been talkin’ ‘bout.”

And she did. Over the last few months, each of them had come to her individually to express their displeasure at the way Nick ran the show. More to the point, the way Rain treated them.

Rain was queen now, and she conducted herself that way. Nick let Rain make the rounds to collect the money from all of their spots. When Rain showed up, she always traveled with four men. They had become known as The Purple Gang. At first Rain, didn’t like it, then she thought it was funny. But when she saw the type of reputation they had developed, she ran with it. They were feared and they did whatever she told them to do.

“I’m sick of that bitch Rain,” Cynt said.

“You got to do something to get that bitch off my neck, Wanda, before I have to kill her young ass,” Grant added.

“She was in here last night with that gang of hers. Disrupted the whole house,” Cynt said.

“Them niggas ain’t got no respect for shit,” Grant said. “What they did to Pegram was unnecessary.”

Wanda’s eyes narrowed and she looked at Grant. “Pegram was a thief and a liar who deserved to die.”

There was silence in the room. No matter what Rain did, or how she did it, Wanda had no use for thieves.

“You need to talk to Nick and get him to do something about her,” Cynt said.

“There’s no talking to Nick. He doesn’t see anything wrong with what she’s doing,” Wanda said.

“That young bitch got that nigga so pussy whipped that he can’t see things for what they really are,” Grant said, then he realized he was talking to Wanda. “I’m sorry, Wanda.”

“That’s all right. Sad to say that you’re right. He can’t or doesn’t want to control her.”

“So what we gonna do about her?” Grant asked.

Wanda looked at Cynt. “We all know what needs to be done. Wanda you need to take over,” Cynt said just as Wanda told her to. She didn’t want to be the one to suggest it. “Things went a lot smoother when you ran things.”

Wanda knew that Grant would go along. The one she was worried about was Doc. “You’ve been very quiet, Doc. What do you think?”

“I agree that something needs to be done about Rain. But I’m just not sure this is what we need to be doing. Have you talked to Black about this?”

“Yes, I have,” Wanda lied. “And he is busy in Nassau. With Jamaica expanding his operation on the island and CeCe expecting a baby, he doesn’t have time to be bothered with this.”

“I know all that, but what did he say?” Doc asked.

“He said to do what I think is best,” Wanda lied again and looked at Cynt to back her up.

“I’m sure that Black will support what we’re doing here,” she said quickly. “And I know each one of you know enough people who are tired of Nick’s shit that we won’t have any problems making this move.”

“That’s right,” Grant said quickly. “My people are behind me and ready to make a move.”

“What do you say, Doc?” Wanda asked and wondered could she have Doc assassinated if he wouldn’t go along.

“As long as Black don’t have a problem with it, I’m in,” he said somewhat reluctantly. “Me and my people will support whatever we decide here.”

“Then it’s settled,” Wanda said.

“Where do we start?” Grant asked.

“Before we do anything I think it would be a good idea if all of us beefed up our security,” Doc suggested.

“I think that would be a wise move,” Cynt added.

“I don’t have a problem with that,” Wanda said.

“Okay, after we add some new faces, what then?”

“When Rain comes around for the money, don’t pay her,” Wanda ordered. “And tell her that if Nick has a problem with it that needs to take it up with me. I’ll take all the heat.”

“Agreed,” Cynt said quickly.

“Agreed,” Grant said.

“Doc?” Cynt asked.

“Agreed.”

“Thank you all for coming,” Wanda said and everybody stood. They shook hands on their new alliance.

“Come on, Doc,” Grant said and patted a still reluctant Doc on the back. “I’ll buy you a drink.”

After that, Doc and Grant got up and left Cynt’s office. Once they were gone, Cynt turned to Wanda. “What are you gonna do when Black finds out what we’re doin’?”

“If we do what we gotta do and do it right, it will be over with before he finds out.”

“Don’t you think Nick will tell him what’s going on?”

“And admit that he can’t handle his business? I know Nick. He would die before he admits to Black that he can’t handle little old me,” Wanda laughed.

“I hope you’re right. I’m just glad that Bobby is still down south runnin’ behind Pam’s crazy ass,” Cynt offered.

“Me too. If Bobby were here, we couldn’t do this.”

Cynt laughed. “Yeah, I know. Bobby would shoot all of us for being disloyal to Black.”

“We’re not being disloyal, Cynt, not at all. The way I see it, we’re doing what is necessary to protect his interests.” Wanda said.

And if she destroyed Nick in the process of protecting Black interests, that was all the better.

Nick Simmons got up from behind his desk and left the office. He realized that he was out of Johnnie Walker Black and thought that it would take too long to call the bar manager, to get a barback to go get him another bottle. It would be quicker to go himself, so he headed for the liquor room to get it.

When he got there, Danielle, the food and beverage manager was in there doing paper work. She was what she liked to call sexy skinny; her skin was the color of honey, with long reddish brown hair. Danielle had an infectious smile and a thing for Nick. “Hey, Nick,” she said when he walked in.

“How’s it goin’, Danielle,” he said barely looking in her direction and headed straight for the Johnnie Black. She wanted to tell him how she felt, but Danielle was scared to death of Rain and what she would do if she knew that she was interested in her man.
But it’s okay for a girl to dream,
Danielle thought and fantasized about her shutting the door to the liquor room and seducing Nick.

“You want me to check that out to your office, Nick?” Danielle asked. Fantasy or not, she still had a job to do.

“Huh?”

“That bottle? You taking it to a bar or your office?”
 

“To the office,” Nick said as he walked out. He went back to his office. Nick had set up shop at JR’s. A nightclub and gambling spot that used to be owned by Rain’s father, Jasper Robinson. When JR died, Rain took over the spot and promptly turned it over to Nick.

Nick poured himself a drink and waited for Rain to get back to the club. He sat there drinking and as usual, his thoughts turned to Wanda. He was still very much in love with her. Only problem with that was, he couldn’t get enough of Rain. Everything about Rain excited him to his core. She was all gangster, all the time and her sex was incredible. They were perfect together. He thought about the first night that they made love.
If that’s what you wanna call it.
They stared into each other eyes while the bullets flew over their heads. “I want to fuck you so bad,” Rain said.

That’s how she was, all gangster, all the time, even in bed. And she was totally devoted to Nick. But after they settled with the Abraham brothers, Rain was bored. At Nick’s request, she had given up the dope game and needed something to do. Nick decided to let her start making the rounds, collecting money from all of their operations. It didn’t go well at first, people who had been with Black for years didn’t know who
this child that Nick sent
was; they complained and she got no respect. It was his idea for her to recruit a couple of guys that were loyal to her.

That gave birth to The Purple Gang, Donavan, Brandon, Chris Toney and Memphis. From that point on, Rain had no more issues with respect. Their reputation was solidified when Rain found out that a numbers runner named Teddy Pegram was skimming. Rain knew that this was her opportunity of make an example so everybody knew that she wasn’t to be played with. She went to see him one afternoon at the bar he hung out in and The Purple Gang dragged him out.

They took him to his house, and after a brutal beating, they stripped him naked and bent him over the kitchen table. Then they took plastic cuffs and cuffed his waist and ankles to the legs of the table. Then Rain stepped up behind him.