“That’s all there is, Rain, I swear.”
“I don’t believe you, but it don’t matter.” she stood up and looked at Donavan and Brandon and they left the room.
“Did you know Nick was in the army? Of course you do. Like I said, you been around a long time. While he was in the army he traveled all over the world. He likes to tell stories about the things he did and about the different people and their cultures. Did you know that in some cultures they cut the hands off of thieves?”
Pegram’s eyes got big.
By this time, Donavan and Brandon had returned and were standing on either side of the table. Each one had a machete in his hand.
“You got one more chance to tell me where the rest of the fuckin’ money is before these niggas cut your hands off.”
“I told you, Rain, that’s all there is. Please, Rain, please don’t do this,” Pegram begged as Donavan and Brandon raised their machetes.
“All you gotta do to stop it is tell me where the rest of the money is,” Rain said calmly.
“There is no more fuckin’ money!” Pegram yelled at the top of his lungs.
“You’re a fuckin’ thief and a liar!” Rain yelled back. She looked at Donavan and Brandon. “Cut them off.”
“No!” Pegram screamed in terror as the machetes came down.
Pegram screamed as the blood oozed out.
“Stop all that fuckin’ noise!” Rain yelled and took out her gun. She stepped to Pegram and shot him in the head.
Later that night, they dumped his naked and beaten body, along with his hands in front of the bar they took him from. It didn’t take long before word got around.
Rain had sent a message.
There was a knock at the door. Nick picked up the remote and flipped on the monitor to see that it was one of the guys in security.
“Come in,” Nick shouted.
“Sorry to bother you, boss, but there is a woman here that says she needs to see you. Says to tell you it’s important.”
“She got a name?”
“Mercedes.”
“Bring her up,” Nick said and security left the office.
Mercedes was a dancer who worked at Cynt’s and for a short time was involved with Mike Black. He grew tired of her when he realized that she had as much brains as a box of rocks. When Black left her alone, Mercedes gravitated toward Nick. She wasn’t afraid of Rain. Too stupid to be afraid, Nick thought. But Nick kept her around, one because she was beautiful and two, she kept him informed on what was going on at Cynt’s. One thing he learned from Freeze is that, “you can’t be everywhere at once, so you gonna make sure you got people everywhere that will keep you up on what’s goin’ on,” Freeze told him on more than one occasion. Nick got up and went to the safe in the office. He counted out five one hundred-dollar bills.
There was another knock at the door and security showed Mercedes in and left them alone. “Hey, Nick,” Mercedes said and sat down.
“What’s up, Mercedes. What you got for me today?”
“Something is going on.”
“What makes you say that?”
“Grant and Doc were at the club today. I think they were meeting with Wanda. I didn’t see her, but that guy that drives for her, he was there.”
“You know what it was about?”
“No, but I heard Doc tell Grant that he hope they know what they’re doin’, because you weren’t gonna go down without a fight.”