The cost of vengeance - [5]

“Who’s at the door, Miles?”

“It’s Aunt Rain, mommy,” he said and grabbed my hand and dragged me to his mother.

“Hello, Rain,” Lakeda said.

I could tell she wasn’t glad to see me. The bitch never is. You would think that since I support her ain’t-never-had-a-job ass, that she would show me some respect. At least she could show some appreciation for the fact that I pay all of her bills, and send somebody to give her worthless ass money every fuckin’ week, but I guess it don’t work that way for her.

I knelt down and looked at my cute little nephew. “Why don’t you go play. I need to talk to your mommy,” I said and hugged him. After he ran off, I sat down ’cause I knew the rude bitch wasn’t about to offer me a seat. “You heard what happened to Miles?” I asked, even though I knew she hadn’t. Lakeda hadn’t forgiven Miles for the affair and hadn’t spoken to him or been to see him, since the day he shot Jeff Ritchie. Millie takes the kids to see him in jail.

“No.”

“He got stabbed.”

Her expression didn’t change.

“He asked me to come by here and make sure that you and his children were safe.”

Lakeda stood up. “We’re fine, so you can go.”

“It ain’t that simple, Lakeda. The people that stabbed Miles might come after you and the kids. So what I need for you to do is pack up some stuff for you and the kids and come with me.”

Lakeda looked at me and sat down. “Miles got stabbed over something you did. That’s it, isn’t it? What did you do?”

“You don’t need to know all that. What you need to do is pack up your shit so I can take you someplace where y’all will be safe.”

“I’m not going anywhere with you, Rain,” Lakeda said, and I looked at this bitch like she was stupid. I started to pull my gun and say oh yes you are, but I took a deep breath.

“People might be on their way here right now to kill you and your kids. So for once in your life, you need to act like you got some sense and realize that I am all you got.”

Lakeda sat back in her chair and gave me a fuck-you-bitch look. Then she got up and started getting stuff together. Once I made sure that they were someplace safe, I went to shut this shit down before it went any further.

Chapter Three

Mike Black

Nick was talking to me, but I wasn’t listening. I knew where he was taking me and the only thing on my mind, was what I was about to do. It had been a long time, but I was having the dream again. I was dreaming about the night that I found Cassandra dead.

When it first happened, I used to have the dream all the time. It would always be different, but it would always end the same way. No matter what I did, Bart would always kill her and I would wake up in a cold sweat.

“Black, are you listening to me?” Nick asked.

I didn’t answer him. When he put the car in park, I got out, took out my gun, and walked toward the house.

“What’s wrong?” Nick shouted and got out of the car. “You want me to come with you?”

“No! Get out of here!” I shouted and unlocked the front door, turned off the alarm, and stepped inside.

“Cassandra,” I called out; but as usual, there was no answer. I went into the living room and the television was tuned to the local news on CBS, just like it was that night. That night, I called out for her again and she didn’t answer. The remote was on the couch, so I picked it up and turned off the TV. I remember thinking that night, where the hell is she? I dropped the remote on the couch and headed upstairs, thinking that it was funny that she would have gone out just that fast. Maybe she’s hidin’. I took my time looking into each of the upstairs rooms, but she was nowhere to be found. I knew then that somethin’ wasn’t right. I came back downstairs and opened the kitchen door, and I immediately fell to my knees.

There on the kitchen floor, I found her; lying there with her arms out in front of her and her face turned to the side. Both eyes were blackened, nearly purple; there were blotches of blood on her cheek. Her face was swollen so much that I couldn’t believe I was looking at my wife. There was so much blood, and there were bullet wounds in her back: one just below her left shoulder blade, another a little below it, and two near her lower back.

This time would be different.

I went upstairs and started down darkened the hallway. As I got closer, I could see that there was somebody standing by the bedroom door. “Ms. West? What are you doing here?”

“I don’t know. This is your dream,” she said and dropped that giggle that always makes me wanna strip her down and fuck her brains out. But that wasn’t what I was there for. Or maybe it was. Just the fact that she was there made the whole thing different.

“I don’t know either, but you better stay close to me.”

Ms. West smiled. “I plan to.”

I opened the door and stepped inside slowly. There he was, Kip Bartowski; the man who killed Cassandra. He was sitting on the bed with his gun on his lap. I looked around the room for Cassandra, but she wasn’t there. Bart stood up when he saw me. Then he smiled and looked at the gun in his hand. He put the gun on the bed and motioned for me to come toward him. I handed my gun to Ms. West. “You want me to shoot him for you, Mr. Black?”