DP looked at Venus. “Would you excuse us, Venus?”
Gladly, she thought. “Certainly,” Venus said and bounced up, because she didn’t want to be there anyway. But after Sterling saw her all up in RJ’s face the night before at The Four Kings, he insisted that she stay there with him that day and hadn’t let her out of his sight.
“Venus.”
“What?”
“Don’t leave.”
“I’m not,” Venus sucked her teeth and closed the door.
“What’s up with that?” DP asked.
“Nothing.”
“Looked like something to me.”
“But it ain’t. Now quit trying to change the subject. What happened to your face?”
“Rain Robinson and Carter Garrison came to see me at the bank today.”
“Oh shit.”
“Yeah, oh shit.”
Sterling shook his head. “You on a roll, ain’t you?”
“What you mean?”
“I mean this twice I told you what the smart play was and twice you didn’t do it.” Sterling laughed. “I like being the smart one on the team. I think it suits me.”
“Don’t get the big head about it.”
Sterling leaned forward in his seat. “Let me ask you a question. And I’m only asking this because you said Rain Robinson and Carter Garrison came to see you at the bank and you’re still alive.”
“What’s that?”
“What they want?”
“They’re looking for my father.”
“So, they don’t know it was you, they think it was your Pops. You tell them where he is?”
“Of course, I did,” DP said quickly. “The first thing he did was put a gun to my head.”
Sterling laughed. “Before he did that to your face.” He shook his head. “He fucked you up bad, Dee.”
“No shit.”
“So, when you leaving?”
“I can’t. At least not yet.”
Sterling shook his head. “Dumbass move number three.” He laughed and pointed at DP. “But you go ahead on and tell me why it only looks like dumbass move number three, but it’s really the stroke of genius, super smart move … and it’s me who’s the dumbass.”
“Fuck you.”
“I’ll shut up, so you can enlighten me,” Sterling said, folded his arms across his chest and sat back.