“You and Mrs. Black friends?”
“We have business. What about you, what are you doing here?” she asked her ex-lover, recognizing that he was in a place where gangsters and killers hung out.
“I work for her husband.”
That got her attention. “I see,” Valencia said, as Carter walked up to them. “Carter Garrison, Valencia DeVerão.”
Since Geno had told Carter all about her, he looked her up and down. “Nice to meet you.” He turned back to Geno. “We gotta go. Rain’s waiting,” he said and walked away.
“So that’s Carter Garrison,” Valencia said. She had heard about Carter, not only from Geno, but from Ezequiel Simmonds, a major associate in the Comodoro Cartel when he talked to her about The Family.
“Yeah, that’s him.” Geno stepped closer to Valencia. “I gotta go.”
Valencia glanced over at Carter, who was standing impatiently by the door waiting for Geno. “I see.”
“I’d like to see you again.”
Valencia quickly reached in her purse and gave him a card. “Give me a call when you’re free. We’ll have a drink and talk about old times.”
“You mean after you left me dirt broke and fucked up?” Geno said laughing, and then he walked away.
Valencia stayed at Purple for a while after that. She talked to Shy briefly, but still hadn’t seen Black. So, after one more drink, Valencia left and went home thinking about Geno Crocker.
Chapter Nine
As Carter waited for Geno to come out of Purple, he took one last look at Mileena. This was the first time that he had been to Purple; the first time he’d seen her since they broke up and she quit working at J.R.’s. If it hadn’t been for Ryder browbeating him, calling him a coward for being unwilling to man-up and face her, he wouldn’t have come.
The pain that he felt over losing Mileena remained an open wound that he’d allowed to fester and had become infected. Carter was angry, angry to the point of rage at times, but since he was Carter Garrison, and delivering pain was what he did, nobody noticed. And the few that did, didn’t seem to care because he got results.
It didn’t help when Rain told him that Mileena had met somebody, and they had practically moved in together. “Your dumbass might as well stop walking around here looking crazy and move the fuck on. She damn sure has.”
So he did.
Carter hadn’t seen nor heard from Fantasy since Jada ran her off, and she began working for Monika. When he asked Rain about her, she simply said, “She’s alright,” and moved on.
Shortly after she filed for divorce from Perry, Glenda told Carter that she was moving to Bakersfield, California to take a residence position at Mercy Hospital, so he was alone.
There’s a saying among some men, that the best way to get over a woman was to replace her with two new ones. That wasn’t going to be a problem for Carter. He was a handsome man who women tended to throw themselves at, and there were literally hundreds for him to choose from each night at J.R.’s.
“So that’s Valencia DeVerão,” Carter said as they walked out of Purple.
“Yeah,” Geno said, with visions of Valencia still dancing in his head.
“That’s her … the one you used to tell me about?”
“That’s her,” he said, walking with his chest stuck out.
Carter nodded his head. “I see why you were losing your mind over her.”
“Yeah. So, do I,” Geno said, as he and Carter got in the car with Rain.
“… took y’all so long?”
“I had to drag lover boy away from somebody,” Carter said, as Geno started up the car and drove off.
Rain laughed. “You’ll have plenty of time to get that pretty pussy later. Right now, we got this to do.”
“I don’t know, Rain. Pretty pussy like that don’t like to be kept waiting,” Carter said.