“Hello, Wanda.” She recognized the voice immediately and let go of Marcus. She was shocked to see Nick and Rain standing in the doorway.
“Hello, Nick,” Wanda said and then she looked over at Marcus. “Marcus Douglas, I’d like you to met Nick Simmons.”
Being a gentleman and not having any idea about their prior relationship, Marcus stepped forward to shake Nick’s hand. “Good to meet you Nick.”
Nick shook his hand, but he never took his eyes off Wanda. “Can I speak with you for a minute, Wanda,” Nick said and grabbed Wanda by the hand.
Rain looked on, barely able to contain her laughter. Marcus looked at Rain and smiled. “Hi, I’m Marcus Douglas.”
“Lorraine Robinson,” Rain said in her most lady-like manner.
Nick had always thought that there was something more going on between them other than just the law. Funny how he just happened to show up right after they broke up. They hadn’t gotten far away from Rain and Marcus before Nick asked, “What are you doing here?”
“I’m having lunch. What are you doing here?”
“I’m looking for Black.”
“I talked to Mike this morning. He should be in Nassau by now,” Wanda said to Nick with an attitude, but her eyes were on Rain.
“What’s really goin’ on, Wanda? You fuckin’ this nigga now?” Nick asked quietly.
“You still fuckin’ that low-life bitch?” Wanda said and pointed at Rain. Only she said it loud enough for Rain to hear.
“Excuse me a minute, Marcus,” Rain said politely and stepped q
uickly to Wanda. “Who the fuck you callin’ a bitch,” Rain said and slapped the shit outta Wanda.
Wanda grabbed her cheek and Marcus rushed to her side.
Nick picked up Rain.
“You fuckin’ lucky my man is here, bitch or I’d be kickin’ your bitch ass right now,” Rain shouted as Nick carried her out of Cuisine.
She was barely speaking to Black because when she told him about it, he had the nerve to take Rain’s side, or at least that’s how Wanda saw it. “You’re right, Wanda. Rain had no business puttin’ her hands on you, but maybe you shouldn’t have called her a low life bitch loud enough for her to hear it.”
“Good night, Mike,” Wanda said.
“Good night, Wanda,”
“And maybe if she wasn’t such as low life bitch, I wouldn’t have to call her one,” Wanda said and slammed down the phone. She hadn’t had much to say to him since.
Now she was on her way to Cynt’s to meet with Cynt, Doc and Grant. They each run gambling houses for Black and had the organization and the influence to help Wanda in what she planned to do. Her plan was simple. Destroy Nick Simmons and take control of the organization away from him.
Although she originally supported Black’s decision to put Nick in charge after Freeze was murdered, she didn’t agree with it. And had Black consulted with her first, she would have told him so. At that point she knew her power was slipping away from her. When Black left the country and eventually married Cassandra, she was the boss, Freeze and everybody else answered to her and she liked it that way.
When Black came back to the city, he let Cassandra play like she was in charge, but everybody knew that she was just a puppet mouthing the words Black was putting in her mouth. When Cassandra was brutally murdered, Black was distraught and put Freeze in charge. But Freeze always turned to her for advice and counsel, so she still had power. Then Freeze was murdered.
Wanda always thought it was too soon to put Nick in that position. He wasn’t ready for it. But she went along with it because at the time, she was in love with Nick and knew that she would still have influence.
If she chose to be honest with herself, and at the moment, she didn’t, she would have to admit that she still was in love with Nick and that’s what all this was really about.
But none of that changed the fact that Nick wasn’t ready to lead the organization. “But Black is so fuckin’ loyal to Nick that he can’t see that. Men can be so blind.”
Nick had only just returned from a ten-year absence and was just getting back into things. He ran off and joined the army when Bobby Ray threatened to kill him over Camille Augustus. And then he stood by and let Freeze get killed. Wanda knew that there were more than enough people in the organization that blamed Nick for Freeze’s death, and just as many who were dissatisfied with the way Nick ran things. She was going to meet with three of them now.
James parked the car in front of Cynt’s and got out to open the door for Wanda. “Thank you, James. I’ll be about an hour.”
“Do you want me to wait?”