When we left Sherman’s, me and Wanda hung out until that afternoon until she said that she was tired. She dropped me off at my place and she went home to sleep. I had been there long enough to sit down and think about going to bed and getting some sleep, before a key hit the lock and Bobby came in with three women. So, I didn’t get any sleep right then, but I did go to bed.
When I woke up, I was alone in bed. I got out of bed and went in the living room. The women were gone and Bobby was lying on the couch watching TV.
“What time is it?”
He looked at his watch. “It’s after six.”
“What happened to the women?”
“I dropped them off and came back.”
I turned around and went back in my room. “Where you going?”
“I’m gonna take a quick shower and then I wanna go by the cleaners to see Howard before he closes.”
Once I had showered and put some clothes on, I left with Bobby and we went to talk to Howard.
Howard Owens was a bookie and loan shark, who dabbled in powder when there was enough money and no risk involved. He ran a numbers bank too, his wasn’t as big as Sherman’s, but Howard was a good earner. I needed Howard because he had influence with the loan sharks and the leg breakers. Like Sherman said, with the move that I was making, I was gonna need all the muscle I could get.
When I walked in the Howard’s dry-cleaners, I didn’t see him so I went up to the counter. Since Freeze had been bringing my clothes up here to be dry-cleaned and pressed, I haven’t been there in a while.
“Is Howard here?” I asked the cutie who was running the register.
“He’s in the back,” she said, and smiled her cute smile at me. “Who should I say is looking for him?”
I leaned on the counter. “Mike Black and Bobby Ray.”
The mere mention of our names changed the look on her cute face. The smile on her face had been replaced with one of fear and apprehension. She took a step back.
“I’ll tell him y’all are here,” she said, and backed away from the counter. As she walked back to the office, she kept looking back at us until she got to the office.
Bobby leaned close to me. “See what happens when people hear your name.”
“Me, I thought it was you. Women usually have a different response when they hear my name.”
When Howard came out of his office, two of his men, Bull Harris and Skip Skinner were with him. They both had their guns in hand. Bobby was about to reach for his, but I grabbed his hand and then I raised mine.
“I just came to talk, Howard.”
“Lock the door on your way out Gladys, we’re closed,” Howard said. Gladys rushed past me and Bobby, hit the door and locked it.
Once she was gone, I reached in my coat pocket, took out both of my guns and laid them on the counter.
“What about you, Bobby?” Howard asked.
“What about them two gruesome looking mutha fuckas?” Bobby took his gun out and held it up. “When the gruesome twosome puts down theirs, I’ll put down mine.”
When Howard nodded his head, Bull and Skip held up theirs and they each laid their guns on the counter.
“You wanna talk Mike, let’s talk.” When me and Bobby started to go behind the counter, Howard said, “Just you, Mike. Bobby can stay out here and make sure everybody behaves themselves.”
“Like the perfect gentlemen we all are. Right, Bull?”
“Yeah, like perfect gentlemen,” Bull said as I went behind the counter and I went in the office with Howard.
Howard sat down. “What can I do for you, Mike?”
“I came to talk about what I can do for you, Howard,” I said and began to run down my program. I made him the same offer that I made Sherman.
“Captain of my own crew, huh?” Howard asked and laughed a little. “And they all kick up to me instead of André?”
Howard frowned because he didn’t particularly like André and André felt the same way about Howard. Something about a woman they were both fuckin’. It turned out that she dumped both of them and ran off with a pimp and a gambler named Lloyd Brill before he went to jail.
“You kick up to me and I pay André.” I didn’t see any point in telling either Howard or Sherman that I was partners in this deal with André.
“Can I think about it?”
“Sure.” I stood up. “My offer expires the second I walk out that door.”
Howard laughed. “What happens then?”
“Unfortunately my friend, I would have no choice but to consider you my enemy.”
“And you would have to act accordingly,” Howard said, and then he stood up.
“Afraid so.”
“Then you’d have to pay your dry-cleaning tab and I don’t feel like going to all the trouble of totaling it up.” He extended his hand. “So I’m with you, Mike,” Howard said, and we shook on it.
With that taken care of, we rolled by The Late Night. We weren’t opened yet, but I told Nick, Jamaica and Freeze to meet me and Bobby there. At André’s request, our target for the evening was Jerome Ennis. He was a drug dealer who was moving up in the game, and that meant that he was a problem for André.
When me and Bobby got to The Late Night, not only were Nick, Jamaica and Freeze there, but so was Wanda. Since what we were doing that night was for André, you know, our job, and it had nothing to do with our plan, I didn’t see any reason to tell Wanda about it. But there she was and from the angry look on her face, one of them told her about it. Wanda is as big a control freak as I am, so you know she wasn’t happy, but fuck it. Fact was, we still worked for André and like I said, handling his problems was what me and Bobby did.
Everybody got quiet. “Y’all ready?”
Everybody stood up.
“Can I talk to you for a minute before you go, Mike?”
“Wait for me outside.”
Me and Wanda stared each other down as everybody else filed out of The Late Night.
“What is it, Wanda?”
“Wasn’t there anybody else André could send to handle this for him.”
“No.”
“I just think that we need to stay focused on what we’re doing. I mean really, André is the one who is gonna benefit the most from what we’re doing.”
“You’re right. He is. But what do you expect me to do, huh? We still work for him and this is what we do.”
“I know that, Mike, I’m just saying—”
I held up my hand to stop her. “I gotta go.”
Wanda let out a deep breath. “Be careful,” she said, and I turned to leave.
When I got outside, I walked over to Nick. “What you got for us Nick?”
Nick led us around the corner and pointed at the two cars that I had him steal. “Crown Victoria and a Volvo,” he said, and tossed Bobby the keys to the Volvo.
To be honest with you, I actually agreed with Wanda. I didn’t see what the big deal was. Ennis was little more than a corner boy that had recently stepped up his game. She was right, he could have sent somebody else, but like I said, we worked for him, so fuck it.
Ennis and his crew ran their program out of a second floor apartment in a building with controlled access. That way, if the cops showed up, they’d have a few seconds to run before they broke down the door. Getting in wasn’t gonna be a problem for us, because Jamaica knew a woman that lived in the building and he made a copy of her key.
As soon as we stepped inside, two men armed with Uzis stepped out of the shadows. Nick raised his weapon and shot one in the head. Then Jamaica took out the other.
Just as I predicted, when the shooting started, two more men came to the top of the stairs and opened fire on us with automatic weapons. While Nick, Jamaica and Freeze took cover, me and Bobby stepped to the front and returned fire on them and then we took cover. Once we were out of their line of fire, Nick, Jamaica and Freeze began firing so me and Bobby could make it to the back staircase.
Me and Bobby made our way up the stairs as more of Ennis’s people seemed to come out of nowhere like roaches when the lights come on. We were firing shots and killing men, as we got closer to the second floor. When we got to the top of the stairs, two men came out of an apartment armed with Mac 10s. They began firing. I shot one as I moved for cover while the other one continued firing. Me and Bobby ducked around a corner, he kicked in a door and we ran in as he blanketed the hallway with bullets.
“You niggas don’t want none of this right here!” he yelled, as he came around the corner. Then the shooting stopped. I looked out and saw that he was about to put another clip in when Nick walked up behind him and put one in the back of his head. I came out of the apartment.
“Thanks,” I said.
“Ready?” Bobby said when he came out.
“Let’s go get this mutha fucka,” I replied.
Just then, I saw Ennis come running out of an apartment at the end of the hall, firing. Good thing for us that he wasn’t a very good shot, because he missed every shot and then he went out the window.
“I got him!” I yelled, and went after him with Bobby and Nick right behind me.
By the time I got down the hall, made it out the window and onto the fire escape, Ennis had made it down the ladder and was running down the street. I took aim and fired one shot. It hit him in the back and he went down.
“Go check on Jamaica and The Kid. Me and Bobby got Ennis,” I said, and we went down the fire escape. When we walked up on his body, he was still moving.
He looked up at us. “Who the fuck are you niggas?”
“I’m Mike Black, and this is Bobby Ray.”
“Pleased to meet you,” Bobby said, and we both raised our weapons and fired.