What I didn’t know, and didn’t find out until much later, was that Freeze had been rollin’ with Black. Freeze had learned his craft directly from Mike Black. Like I said, Black doesn’t like to drive, and at the time, Freeze didn’t know how to drive, so they would take the train. Picture that; they do what they gotta do, and then walk calmly back to the train station and go back uptown.
It only took a few more shots to the gut before Greasy went on and handed Freeze twenty large, and promised to have the rest in three days. “Three days, big boy, no more,” Freeze threatened and we left.
After that night, Freeze and I got tight, as close as brothers. He saved my life and I saved his. When I was accused of murder and needed somebody to ride with me to settle things, Freeze was right there. Ride or die, just like it always had been, even though he hadn’t seen me in ten years. Now he was gone and it was my fault; my fault because I was careless.
Chapter 4
I looked over at Wanda. She had curled into the fetal position and had drifted off to sleep. I guess she woke up when I got out of bed and walked to the window.
“You all right?” Wanda asked and sat up in the bed.
“I’m good,” I said without looking back at her.
“You sure?”
“Yeah, I’m fine.”
Wan
da got out of the bed, wrapped the sheet around her body, and joined me at the window. She put her arms around my waist and I put my arm around her.
“Don’t get me wrong. I’m not complaining, really I’m not. But you weren’t there a while ago.”
“I’m sorry.” And I was. “I’ll do better next time.” And I will.
“It’s not that it wasn’t good. Lord knows it was. It just would have been better if you were in it with me.”
“I thought I was all up in it.”
“You know what I mean.”
“I know.”
“You gotta let it go, baby.”
“I know.”
“You want me to call around, find somebody for you to talk to about it?”
“What do you mean, like a shrink?”
“Yes.”
“No. I ain’t crazy. And I don’t need no fuckin’ shrink,” I said louder than I needed to and felt bad after I said it.
Wanda let me go and walked away. She went in the bathroom and slammed the door. Even though I didn’t really want to, I went in after her. She had turned on the water and was about to take a shower.
“Look, Wanda, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to snap at you. I know you’re just trying to help.”
Wanda turned around quickly. “Then let me help you, Nick, please. Talk to me. Don’t shut me out like this. Let me in. Tell me what you’re feeling. I know you’re mad, I know you’re hurting. It might make you feel better if you let it out instead of keeping all that rage bottled up inside you.”
“I just need something to do; something to occupy my time and my mind.”
Freeze dying changed a lot of things. Black was back, set up at Cuisine, the supper club he opened years ago, and he’s running things from there. He had been staying out in Rockland County with Bobby. He moved out there after his wife, Pam, had a nervous breakdown. Now he was back running Impressions, the dance club that I had been running. That left me with nothing to do.
Black told me that I could do anything I wanted to in either side of the business. Naturally Wanda, who didn’t like me working at the club, wanted me to think about doing something on the legit side of the house, but I ain’t really feeling any of that shit. She’s been talking up me taking over the finance company. All of it seemed like major boring shit.
“Have you given any more thought to what you might want to do?”