The next afternoon Mike asked everybody to meet him at Cuisine. Freeze arrived first. "What’s up, Black?" he asked and sat down at the table with Mike.
"What’s up?"
"Chillin’," Freeze said.
"What about that thing for Paulleen; what’s up with that?"
"I got that. I am gonna take care of it today," Freeze said.
"I don’t want you goin’ alone, so wait for me or take Bobby with you."
"If I can find him," Freeze commented.
"What’s up with him and this chick anyway?"
"Black, the shit is out of control. I know I should have told you about it sooner, but I gave Bobby my word. But that bitch is crazy! I’m sorry I introduced him to her. She’s a bad bitch, but I didn’t think Bobby was gonna lose his fuckin’ mind over her. It has gotten to the point that Pam knows about it."
"How you know that?"
"Cause Pam be callin’ me lookin’ for that nigga," Freeze said excitedly. "Pam be callin’ me talkin’ ‘bout, where’s Bobby? Is Bobby with you at the club? He said he was at Cynt’s, but I just talked to Cynt and she ain’t seen him. I’m gettin’ fuckin’ tired of that shit. You need to talk to him, but I don’t know if that shit will do any good, as far gone as that nigga is, Black."
"I’ll talk to him," Mike said as Bobby walked in. "You handle what you gotta handle, but watch your back, you know what I’m sayin’."
"You know what a careful guy I am," Freeze said and thought about Paulleen. If he had been more careful that day. . maybe.
"How’s Nick’s partner? What’s her name again?"
"Monika. She’s doin’ a’ight for somebody who took five shots. She coulda walked out of the hospital, but they made her use the wheel chair."
"She with our friend in Mount Vernon?" That was Mike’s way of asking if Monika was with Perry. He was a part of the crew until Bobby paid for him to go to medical school. Now he ran a small practice in Mount Vernon with his wife.
"He’ll take good care of her."
"You talk to her?"
"A little," Freeze said.
"What you think of her?"
"She’s Wanda with guns."
"Who y’all talkin’ about?" Bobby asked.
"Nick’s partner, Monika," Freeze told him.
At that moment Wanda and Nick got there and sat down. "The big question is why the DEA settin’ up meetings in my club?"
"I’ll tell you what I think," Wanda said. "I think it was to make it look like you and more importantly, Shy, a known drug dealer with a warrant for conspiracy to distribute, was involved in the meeting."
"Exactly," Mike said. "Julio was shooting at another DEA agent. They had an operation up and running."
"That’s why the DEA never sent an investigator to the club," Wanda said.
"Because they were there. That agent wouldn’t be in there without backup," Mike said.
"But if that’s true Mike and there were other agents there when the shooting started, why wouldn’t they get involved?" Wanda asked. "Especially after their agent was killed."
"Because Sal Terrico and his friends weren’t the objective. If Black was the objective, an undercover operative gettin’ killed wasn’t a reason to blow the operation," Nick said. "If Black were there, maybe then they would have waited until the shooting stopped and arrested him."
"See, I knew you were smart enough to follow me," Mike said. "Wanda, I need to know for sure if the DEA is on us. And find out exactly why they’re on us."
"I’ll make some calls first thing in the morning."
"Nick, you stay on this thing with Marshall. See if you can find out the real deal with those damn papers. And if he is responsible for that reporter’s death, I wanna know about it."
"What about Kirk?" Nick asked.
"Stay away from Kirk, but I think Kirk is working the same thing from a different angle."
Bobby turned to Mike. "We need to think about where we wanna go from here. They’re coming at us from all sides now. D-Train tryin’ to take us one way, DEA might be at us and who knows what Diego’s sneaky-ass is up to. Maybe it’s time for us to get out."
Mike looked at Bobby. He was thinking the same thing. "Maybe it is," Mike said quietly.
"And if that’s what’s gotta happen, then that’s what’s gonna happen," Bobby said.
"Or we could kill them all," Mike said. "And then get out. But somehow, Bobby, I don’t think just killin’ Diego is gonna satisfy me."
Wanda rolled her eyes. "I’m just gonna throw this out there. I know we need to find Shy, but after that we don’t need to do this. We’re making almost as much money in our legitimate businesses as we do with everything else that we have going on." Wanda looked around the table. "Everyone at this table is a millionaire. I think Bobby is right, it’s time for us to get out."
"I just don’t like the idea of gettin’ pushed out like this," Bobby said.
"I’m not sayin that either of you are wrong, in fact, I agree with you. We don’t need to live like this, but we can’t just walk away. Not from this. Sure we can let D-Train have the houses and Diego can do whatever he’s up to. But we can’t just walk away from the DEA. If we do nothing they’ll still come."
"But if we’re not involved in anything what will they have?" Wanda asked.
"We’re not involved in anything now and here they are. No, Wanda, we got to get the DEA off us."