The Reign of Rain Robinson

One thing that you could say about Ryder was that she never was a dumb bitch. She knew exactly what was going on between Jab and Jadonna. But that wasn’t a thing that she concerned herself with, and it damn sure wasn’t the most important thing. What concerned Ryder was that she felt her influence slipping away and with it, her power.

She attributed the loss of influence and power, not to Jadonna Marrin, as one might expect, she was just pussy. Highly polished, well dressed, very polite pussy, but she was pussy all the same and that is all that she had to offer. No, Ryder attributed her loss of influence and power to the fact that Mileena Hayes was her cousin and her man was Carter Garrison.

To Jab, he should have been made Captain and now Carter was just the mutha fucka that was in his way. Somebody who had something that he didn’t deserve because it was stolen. Stolen from him. Ryder always failed to see the logic in his argument, because there was none.

She thought that Jab was a stupid man and easily led, which was why it was so easy for her to basically takeover and run the crew.

But still, that wasn’t Ryder’s most pressing concern at the moment. What concerned her now was that she hadn’t heard from Hill and Anderson and it had been over two hours. She planned the exchange and knew they should have been back by now. But when she mentioned it to Jab that they should have been back, he seemed unconcerned and said to give them some more time.

Stupid, Ryder thought as she prepared to leave. To her, the fact that they weren’t back and hadn’t called meant that something had gone wrong and it was time to get outta there.

Jab was in the media room watching an animated Batman movie when she stuck her head in. “I’m gone,” Ryder said.

“You coming back?”

“Call me,” Ryder said and headed for the door.

When she opened the door she was surprised to see Carter standing there. He covered her mouth with his hand and put his gun to her head.

“You make a sound and you die. Got that?”

Ryder nodded her head and Carter moved his hand.

“Where is he?”

“Media room.”

“Move.”

With his gun at the back of her head, Carter followed Ryder to the media room. “Open the door,” Carter said, and Ryder did what she was told.

“Forget something?” Jab asked when the door opened.

Carter pushed Ryder in the room, and she stumbled to the floor. Carter pointed his weapon at Jab and fired twice as he walked toward him. Both shots hit him in the chest. Carter stood in front of him and put two in his head. Then he looked at Ryder. She was still lying on the floor.

“Get up!”

Ryder quickly scrambled to get to her feet as Carter approached. He put the barrel of his gun to her forehead.

“I don’t care if you are Mileena’s cousin. If I ever find out that you were a part of this nigga’s plan, I will kill you where you stand.”

Ryder looked confused. “What plan?” she asked, because she really didn’t know.

“I oughta kill you anyway for setting up a deal with the fuckin’ guys that killed Reese and shot Geno.”

“I swear, Carter, he said that you knew about the deal and was good with it.”

“Just don’t let me find out different,” Carter said and left Ryder standing there knowing that she now had no influence and no power.

When Carter got back in the car with Rain, she was smiling. “See, you didn’t need my help at all, did you?”

“Nope. I handled them all by myself,” Carter said, and started the car.

Rain patted his leg. “I knew that you could. Now let’s go end this nigga,” she said, and Carter headed for Cole’s Place, the bar where Kwame Coleman ran his number bank.

When Rain and Carter walked in Cole’s with their guns in hand and walked around, nobody seemed to pay them any attention. The place was quiet; the Yankees game was on one big screen and the Mets game was on the other and the handful of people that were there were simply drinking, talking and enjoying the games.

The quiet calm was interrupted when Jake came out of the back and recognized Rain. Carter saw when he went for his weapon. Carter raised his and shot Jake in the chest. That was all it took to quickly clear the room, as the few customers ran out the door.