No More Tears In The End

Once we were done with Cynt, Black signaled to Kevon that he was ready to go. I followed Black to the door, but when I turned back, Kevon seemed to be having problems separating himself from Mercedes. When we got in the car and were on our way, Black tapped Kevon on the shoulder as he drove.

Chapter 11

Mike Black

“What she say?”

“Her say she can’t understand why I am trying to keep her from you. That I know you want to see her,” Kevon said. “Her think I must be working for Miss Maria and not you.”

I laughed. “She’ll be all right.”

Then I turned my attention back to Nick. “It’s all you now. I know I can count on you. From here on out, you and I need to talk at least once a day. And if you don’t mind, for the time being, unless it’s a legal matter, I want to keep Wanda out of the

loop. I don’t need her thinking that you have to report what’s goin’ on to her. If she has a problem with it you tell her that’s the way I want it and she can talk to me. I know she ain’t gonna wanna hear that shit.”

Nick laughed. “She’ll be all right.”

Nick didn’t say anything else on the way to his apartment. Probably thinkin’ ’bout what he had in front of him. I knew I put him in a tough spot, but I also knew he could handle it.

Once we dropped Nick off at his apartment, I told Kevon to call Maria. We were going dancin’ at Impressions, and I wanted her to be ready when we got there for a change. But I knew when I got there she still wouldn’t be ready. She never was.

Maria used to dance at Cynt’s, where she went by the name Mystique. She’d been dancing at Cynt’s for years and I always marveled at how much she looked like Cassandra. I ran into her about a month after Cassandra died. At first, I thought my mind was playing tricks on me. Maria was bigger than Cassandra: five-eleven and heavier, but there’s not an ounce of fat on her. Her complexion, lips, facial structure, and her eyes; she had the same beautiful eyes. There are still times when I wondered if Maria and Cassandra could be sisters. Could she be one of Chicago’s many children? Maria never met her father and her mother was dead, so there was no way I would ever know for sure.

“Nick say anything about Jackie?” After Freeze was killed, it was a couple of days before I got around to checkin’ things out. When I got to the game, there was Jackie holdin’ it down. Since she’d been watching Mylo for me, Jackie knew how things worked. Everything was goin’ fine. I owed Jackie for puttin’ me on to Mylo. And besides, I respected the way she stepped up and ran the game when I needed her, so I left her there.

“He start to come in the office, but I tell him, Jackie ’dem know you boss now.”

“What he say then?”

“Nothing. Him lost in thought after that. We drink and wait until you come out.”

“Lost in thought, huh?” Yeah, I know, I shouldn’ta just dropped it on him like that. I shoulda talked to him about it, made sure he understood what I wanted him to do. You know, made sure he wanted to do it. But you know what? Either he’ll step up to the job or he won’t. If things had happened the way they were supposed to, it would have been Nick runnin’ the day-to-day operations when me and Bobby made the decision to take a less active role.

If Bobby hadn’t threatened to kill him over Camille, he would have never joined the army. I would have chosen Nick over Freeze. Not that I had a problem with Freeze or the way he ran things; it woulda just been Nick’s time.

When we got to Impressions, I found Bobby at the bar surrounded by women, as usual. “What’s up, Bobby?”

“Chillin’,” Bobby said and dismissed the women he was talkin’ to. “How you doin’ tonight, Mystique?”

“I’m fine, Bobby.”

“Yes, you are,” Bobby said to her and then turned to me. “You and Nick do y’all’s thing today?”

“Just dropped him off.”

“And?”

“He’ll be all right.”

“Come on, there’s somethin’ I need to talk to you about.”

“I’ll be right back, Maria,” I said and kissed her on the cheek. “You want me to leave somebody with you?”

“No, Kevon is around here somewhere.”

I followed Bobby to his office. As we made our way through the crowd, it seemed like he knew every woman we passed-Waving to him, blowin’ kisses and shit. “I thought you were gonna call me today,” one woman said.

“I thought so too,” Bobby said and kept walkin’.