The cost of vengeance - [14]

“So you decide to start robbin’ me?”

“I still got all the dope and the money. After I’d shut you down I was gonna step to you and give it all back.”

“Bullshit! After all this shit, you was just gonna hand it all back to me?”

“Yeah. I wanted to show you that you needed me in your life. Not this nigga! He can’t do the shit for you that I can.” He just didn’t know. Nick had done more for me and to me in a week, than he did the whole time I knew him.

I parked outside the spot and I knew that if his crew was there, they wouldn’t be glad to see me. I checked my weapon and went in, thinkin’ that maybe I should have called Nick and asked him to ride with me on this. But he would be mad ’cause I wasn’t in bed restin’ like he’d told me to, and I didn’t feel like hearin’ his mouth.

I stepped inside and looked around. I saw his boy Fred Mac, and two other niggas I’d never seen before, sittin’ at a table in the back. I walked back there and they stopped talkin’ when they saw me comin’. I opened my coat and made sure they saw my gun when I stopped at the table. “What you doin’ in here, Rain?” Fred Mac asked.

“I’m lookin’ for Jay’s brother, Kevin. You seen him?”

“It’s been a minute since I seen Kevin. Let’s see, oh yeah, it was at Jay’s funeral, after you shot him.”

“I ain’t got no beef wit’ you, Mac. Me and you always been cool. So unless you sayin’ you was in that shit wit’ him, I want to keep it that way. You know what Jay was doin’ to me and why it went the way it did.”

“Yeah, okay, right-we cool and all that, and the shit Jay did was foul, but did you have to shoot him in the face?” Fred Mac asked and the guys with him laughed a little. “That’s what’s blowin’ Kevin and them. That closed casket funeral shit.”

“Whatever. You tell Kevin I got one for him, too, when I find his ass. You tell him that if he got a problem with me, he needs to grow some balls and bring that shit to my face. Not go after my brother,” I said and walked off.

I hung around for a while and talked to some more people before I left. Nobody had seen Kevin Easely or would tell me where he lived. I left the spot and was headed for the car, when I felt somebody walkin’ up behind me.

“Rain.”

I turned around quickly and pointed my gun. That shit hurt like hell. “Step out in the light where I can see you.”

When they stepped up I saw it was Dee. A crackhead that hung around the bar doin’ whatever he had to do to get money for another bump. “Don’t shoot me, Rain,” he said and walked toward me with his hands up. Even though I didn’t think I had anything to worry about, I kept my gun pointed at him, just in case he was desperate and wanted to try something foolish.

“What you want, Dee?”

“I didn’t mean to get in your business, but I heard what you was askin’ about in there.”

“And.”

“And I know somebody that might know what happened to your brother.”

“Who?”

“He’s name is Whitlow. He just got out of Rikers and he was down with Kevin before he went in.”

“I already know what happened.”

“Yeah, but he might know who did it,” Dee said.

“Where is he?” I asked and put my gun to his head.

Dee flinched and covered his head. “What you gonna give me?”

Ain’t this a bitch? Dee was scared to death, but he still gonna try and get some money. “I’m gonna give you a bullet in the brain if you don’t tell me.”

“He was down there by the train station about an hour ago.”

“Come on,” I said and grabbed Dee by the collar. “Show me.”

I kept my gun in his back and we walked down the street toward the train station. “That’s him,” Dee said and pointed.

“Where?”

“Over there in the jean jacket.”

“Now if this nigga don’t know shit about my brother, I’ma come find you and put one in your head,” I said and handed Dee a fifty.

“Thank you, Rain; thank you. Anything I can do for you, it’s done.”

“You hear anything you think I need to know about, you come find me and it’ll always be like that. I take care of people that look out for me,” I said and kept my eyes on Whitlow as Dee hurried away.

I stood there and watched him for a while and then he started walking across the street, so I followed him. He went inside the liquor store. I stood at the window and watched as Whitlow stepped up to the counter and pulled out a thirty-eight. Damn shame; mutha fucka just got out the joint and already robbin’ a liquor store. I needed to talk to him, so waited for him to come out. When he ran out of the store, I shot him once in the leg and he went down. When he rolled over and tried to raise his gun, I shot him in the arm and he dropped the gun. I walked up on him. “Your name Whitlow?” I asked with my gun to his head.

“You a cop?”

“Do I look like a fuckin’ cop to you?”

“What you want?”

“You just got outta Rikers?”

“Yeah.”

“You know Miles Robinson?” I could tell by the way his eyes bucked open that he did. “Who stabbed him?”

“He’ll kill me.”

“I already shot you twice, one more to the head ain’t gonna make me no difference,” I said and pressed my gun against his temple. I could hear the sirens coming in the background. “Make up your mind. You can tell me who stabbed my brother so I can go kill him, or the cops will find you here dead.”