And she did play me.
I don’t think Jemisha thought that I would kill her, but she knew that by telling me that Lisa Benson might be involved would, at the very least, be unpleasant for her, if not extremely painful.
It was stupid … and it was careless, and I couldn’t afford to do stupid and careless shit.
Not anymore.
I had to be the source of fuckin’ wisdom, not the cause of the chaos, I remembered promising myself because I was the boss of this Family and there were people that I was responsible for. I had to be smart, and that meant that I couldn’t let my feelings influence my judgment.
And definitely not pussy. That shit was out.
From this point forward, I needed to be focused on finding out who hired Vance and them to kill Whitey. That was the only way to find out if they were trying to kill me too.
I needed to make it out to the island to talk to Kasim to find out what was going on with him and Whitey. And I needed to talk to Angee to find out what was up with Crazy Nicky and Johnny Boy. All that shit was much more important than what I was doing.
I stood up. “I’m gonna get outta here,” I said, and my girls stopped dancing.
“You goin’ home?” Bobby asked.
“No. I’m gonna go back to the Residence Inn.”
Anya and Lo-Lo gave me that, what about us, look.
I nodded my head and they quickly left our VIP room to get their stuff so they could leave with me.
Chapter Nineteen
Late that next morning, I called Wanda and asked her to come pick me up at the hotel. There were a lot of things that I wanted to get done that day. I had a lot going on in my world, but long term, this was the most important.
“Where do you wanna go that Bobby couldn’t take you?” Wanda asked when I got in the car with her.
“To see Angee.”
“Oh,” she said and since she knows how Bobby feels about Angee, Wanda started the car. But I knew that there would be many more questions. “I understand why Bobby isn’t going with you, but is there a reason why I’m going and not Nick or Freeze?” she asked as she drove us out to Yonkers.
“One, because I wanted to talk to you
about something and two, there are certain things that I need you with me on.”
I looked at Wanda as she drove, and I knew that there was something that she should already know, but I needed to tell her. “Wanda, you are the smartest person I know. You always have been. So, I count on you to see shit I don’t see, to know shit I don’t know and to keep me from making careless mistakes. If this thing is gonna work, Wanda, I need you.”
“Damn right, you need me,” Wanda said quickly and laughed. “And you know I always got you. I always have, and I always will.”
“I know you do.”
“But we’re getting bigger, Mike. And that means we need to be much more organized.”
I laughed. “Organized crime, what a concept.”
“I’m serious, Mike.”
“You always are,” I said, and Wanda punched me in the arm. “Ouch. Hitting me with them damn monkey paws.”
“But seriously, Mike.”
“So am I, them damn monkey paws hurt.”
We both laughed and then Wanda continued. “And since we’re getting bigger and more organized, I just think that we need to spend some time talking about what everybody’s role is in this Family.”