Chapter Twenty-four
It had not been a good day for Rain. She spent a good bit of it in the bathroom, regretting her decision to have pepperoni pizza the night before despite Daniella’s advice to stay away from greasy and spicy foods.
“Mind if I ask you a question, sunshine?” Monika asked when Rain rejoined her in the living room at Wanda’s safe house.
“What’s that?”
“What’s up with you and Carter?”
“What you mean?”
“I mean, you said we were going to Romans so you could talk to Carter, but when you see him, you got nothing to say to him.”
“It’s nothing. Me and him just got an issue we need to work out, that’s all,” Rain said.
Monika thought, bullshit! “Okay,” Monika said instead.
“You think they know about this place?” Rain asked more to change the subject.
“I don’t know.” Monika stood up. “I know you need to work out whatever it is that’s going on between you and Carter. This ain’t the time for no foolishness.” Monika walked out of the room and left Rain alone.
Foolishness? My feelings aren’t foolishness.
Since she didn’t want to talk to Carter, Rain got up and went to check on Aunt Priscilla. She was asleep, as was Sapphire. And who could blame them? There wasn’t much to do at the safe house. So Rain went and lay down too.
As she lay there, she thought about what Monika said and knew that she was right. Suddenly she felt like her avoidance of Carter was childish, but it was how she felt. She was the boss of The Family, so despite how she felt, and she wasn’t feeling it at all, Rain had to put that aside because they were at war. A war that she started. She picked up her phone and called Carter. The phone rang and rang and eventually went to voicemail.
“Now the nigga don’t wanna answer.”
And he wasn’t going to answer. Carter had accepted that Rain was done with him and had said fuck her, and that was it. As far as Carter was concerned, he had done everything that he could do to be understanding that Rain was pregnant, and he had tried to be there for her, but that was over with. Fuck her. Rain embarrassing him in his spot the night before was more than he was willing to put up with.
Shedasia Latimer was a big-time basketball fan. She liked the Knicks, but the Trailblazers were her favorite team, and she liked to do her gambling at Romans. She started going there because the pizza was good and there were always good-looking men hanging around. She’d get a couple of slices to go on her way home from work every once and a while until one night she was out late and stopped by while the games were on. Shedasia stayed and watched the game, and that was when she found that she could bet on her Blazers. She was hooked and had been coming to Romans to watch the games and gamble ever since.
Shedasia was there the night before and dove under a table when Rain fired her shot in the air. Then she stayed there with her hands covering her head while the shooting continued outside. Then it stopped, and like everybody else, Shedasia picked up her chair and went back to watching the game. A few minutes later, Chao announced free drinks on the house, and it was as if the shooting never happened. When the game was over, and Shedasia had collected her winnings, she was on her way home when she saw Carter at the bar.
She’d always thought that Carter was fine ever since he got out of jail and started coming to Romans. But the word on Carter Garrison was that he was in love with Mileena, and to her, that made him off-limits. But she could look. While she was watching the game, Shedasia had been watching him drink all night and had seen the look on his face.
“You all right, Carter?”
“No.” Carter had turned to Shedasia and smiled. She ain’t a bad-looking woman, and she does have a nice body, he thought. “But I will be all right. You outta here for the night, Shedasia?”
“My boys made me proud, and they made me some money, so I’m gone.”
“Let me walk you home,” Carter had said and extended his hand toward the door.
So that afternoon when Rain called, Carter was still at Shedasia’s apartment. She had taken the day off from work. Therefore, when his phone rang, his tongue was relishing her rock-hard nipples as if they were candy. Her thighs were parted, Carter was lodged deep inside her, and she was pushing her hips back at him, begging him to fuck her harder.
He flipped her over so her ass was in the air. Carter smacked it once before giving it to her hard. His pumps were swift and had her throwing her ass back to him, her cheeks clapping as he pounded away. Shedasia loved it, and she came, shouting, shuddering, and groaning out his name.
Carter got out of bed and picked up his phone. “Now she wants to talk,” he said, walking to the bathroom. When he had showered and dressed, he came out of the bathroom. Shedasia was still out. He kissed her on the cheek. “See you next time,” he said and left her apartment. It took a minute or two before she had composed herself enough to realize that Carter was gone.
When he got outside, he returned Rain’s call. “You called me?”
“You wanted to talk, so let’s talk,” Rain said.
“What do you want me to say, Rain? I don’t even know what’s going on with you anymore. The only thing that I know is that you aren’t talking to me, and I don’t know why.”
“We’re talking now, right?”
“Right. So how are you, Rain?’ Carter asked as he walked back to Romans.
“I’m okay.”
“Are you someplace safe?”
“Yes. Monika is with me.”
“Good, then you are safer than any person in the world. How are you feeling?”
“Stop it.”
“Stop what? We’re talking, aren’t we?”
“Stop fuckin’ around. You know what I mean.”
“You’re the one who needs to stop fuckin’ around and talk to me!”
“And you need to stop fuckin’ around and tell me about Fantasy!”
“You wanna talk about Fantasy? Fine. I saw her at the fight party, and I fucked her before she went on her secret mission for Wanda. Happy now?”
“No, I’m not happy! Why did you fuck her?”
“Why do you care? You were done with me, Rain. What did you think I was gonna do, sit around and wait until you decided that you were gonna speak to me again?” Which was, until the night before, what he was doing. “No, Rain. It was never like that between us. How many times did you tell me we were just fuckin’?”
Rain was quiet. “So I’m just trippin’, huh?”
“I’m not saying you’re trippin’, Rain. I just wanna know if you’re gonna have the baby.”
“I don’t know. When I decide, you’ll be the first to know,” Rain said and ended the call. The phone was still in her hand when it rang again. “What!” she shouted, sure it was Carter, but it wasn’t. “When did this happen?” Rain picked up her vest. “I’m on my way,” she said, putting on her vest and picking up her guns on the way out of her room. “Monika!”
“What’s up?”
“Gear up. We need to go.”