“Nope, but I seen him around. Pop thinks a lot of him. Says Black’s one of the few people around these days got some honor left in what he does.”
“All true.”
“You gonna introduce me to him?”
“I hadn’t planned on it. I was gonna drop you off and go meet him.”
“Drop me off where? I don’t wanna go back to my apartment yet.”
“Wherever you want.”
Rain folded her arms across her chest and sighed. “I know you got shit to do, but could you take me by a mall or some place I could get some clothes? I don’t wanna get dropped off no place lookin’ like this. I look like I been fuckin’ all night.”
I looked at Rain. Her hair was a mess and she had no makeup on. Since I ripped it open the night before, she had tied her blouse in the front, and her nipples were pressing against the material.
“I mean you tore the buttons of this shirt, and I came out of my bra and panties before we left my apartment.”
I looked at the clock on the dash. “I could do that.” It was the least I could do under the circumstances.
We drove to Cross County Mall and since I hate shopping, I took a seat on a bench and told Rain to go on without me. “But don’t take too long.”
“I know, you got someplace to be,” Rain said and walked off.
As soon as she was out of sight, I took out my phone and called Wanda. Thankfully, she didn’t ask me any questions that I had to lie about. She said that she missed me and that Kevon was looking for me earlier.
“I talked to him. I gotta meet Black at Cuisine in about an hour.”
“I gotta go, but I was hoping that you could make some time for me tonight.”
“Sounds good. But let me see what Black wants before I say yes or no.”
“He wants to talk to you about Charles Watson. I checked it out like you asked and Mike is interested.”
“Then I’d say I’m probably gonna be busy tonight.”
“I understand that, but you gotta sleep sometime. Come by when you’re done. I need to see you. I mean, I really need to see you. I gotta go now, Nick, but come over tonight. It doesn’t matter what time,” Wanda said and hung up the phone.
I put my phone back in my pocket and thought about Wanda and what I had done with Rain the night before. Right or wrong, I had no regret about having sex with Rain. We both got what we wanted, and from the way we went at it, it was what we both needed.
The question was what now? What was gonna happen with me and Rain? I could drop her off wherever she wanted to be dropped off and be done with it.
The thing was, I liked Rain, enjoyed being with her, enjoyed sittin’ around talkin’ shit with her. I had to laugh though, ’cause every time we’ve been together we’ve killed somebody. And maybe that was part of the attraction.
Since I was out here with time to kill, I went by Bath amp; Body Works. Mrs. Phillips told me that Zakiya used to work there, so I went in hoping to learn something that would help me find her killer.
After talking with her manager, I went and reclaimed my spot of the bench. Like everybody else, her manager had nothing but high praise for Zakiya. What a wonderful person she was; a hardworking, dependable employee. That was Zakiya. But she was only working there part-time. Whoever Nice N. Slow was, he had money. All useful information, but moved me no closer to my objective.
It was over an hour later when Rain came walking up.
“How do I look?”
She was wearing a black sleeveless dress and heels to match. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail and her face was made up.
“You look very nice.” She really did.
“You like this dress? It’s an Anne Klein taffeta dress.”
“I like it,” I said and started for the car. “It looks good on you.”