No More Tears In The End

“Not right away, but I’ll be there sometime tonight.”

“I’ll see you up there later. I wanna run something past you.”

“Cool,” Bobby said and left the restaurant.

After Bobby left, Black, Nick, and Wanda talked and had drinks. When Wanda excused herself to the ladies room, Black turned to Nick.

“There’s somethin’ I want you to do for me.”

“What’s that?”

“There was a robbery at Paradise Fish and Chicken. Two people were killed.”

“Employees?”

“No, customers. They were standing in line when the bandits hit. Shot them for no reason.”

“What do you want me to do?”

Black reached in his pocket and pulled out a fat envelope. “Take this to the family. The address is in the envelope. Her name was Zakiya Phillips; the money is for her grandmother. To help out with expenses.”

Nick took the envelope from Black. “It’ll give me a reason to get out of the house.”

“With Wanda’s pushin’ me to get involved in the legit side, I’ll be busy most of the day,” Black said and shook his head.

“You? Busy during the day?” They both laughed because Black was truly a night person.

“Picture that. But if that’s where we’re headed, she’s right. I need to be on top it; especially since that’s where the most money is being made. So tomorrow, you call Kevon after you get done with Mrs. Phillips. I want to talk to you about some other things.” Black told Nick as Wanda returned to the table. “About time. I was about to send a waitress in to check on you.”

“I didn’t think I had been gone that long. You must be ready to go?”

“Exactly,” Black said and called for the check.

Nick didn’t feel like driving back uptown, him and Wanda got a room at the Westin on 43rd Street. Once they had checked into the room and had gotten comfortable, Wanda had questions. “Did Mike ask you what you wanted to do?”

“I didn’t tell him that I was thinkin’ about runnin’ the game if that’s what you wanna know. But there is something he does what me to do.”

“What?”

“Did you know that there was a robbery at Paradise Fish and Chicken?” Nick asked, knowing that she did. Wanda stayed on top of everything. There were times when he wondered who her sources were. He would make it his business to find out.

“Yes. I heard that a couple of people were killed. What does he want you to do?”

“Take some money to one of the victim’s grandmother,” Nick replied and waited for her to say something, but she didn’t. Wanda just moved closer to him in bed and put her head on his chest. Maybe I don’t know her as well as I thought I did, Nick thought. When she began gliding her hand over his chest, Nick knew then that Wanda wasn’t interested in talking.

Chapter 6

Nick Simmons

The next morning Wanda left to go to her office, and I went back uptown and got ready to take the envelope to the victim’s family. I understood from my army days what was in front of me. Having to tell parents that their child was dead wasn’t an easy thing. This wasn’t the same thing, since she already knew that her granddaughter was dead, but I still wasn’t in the mood to deal with her grief. I had enough of my own.

When I got to Mrs. Phillips’s apartment, I knocked on the door and waited for her to answer. It took a while, but finally the door opened. “Mrs. Phillips?”

“Yes.” she smiled. “How can I help you, young man?”

“My name is Nick Simmons. Mike Black asked me to stop by and give this to you.” I tried to hand her the envelope and get away from there.

“Mr. Black said to expect you. Come in,” Mrs. Phillips said and stepped aside to allow me to enter the apartment.