Page 128

Simone didn’t care either, because Fiona was on the clock. A fact that wasn’t lost on Jackie and Travis each afternoon when the courier arrived to pick up Simone’s money. Family was family, but this was business. Fiona had them turned out, but she was expensive.
“And worth every penny,” Travis said.
“I agree, but we can’t keep on paying Simone out the ass like this,” Jackie said, and Travis agreed. But one thing they knew for certain, they were keeping Fiona.
Fuck Simone, and Jada West.
Therefore, needless to say, Jackie wasn’t going to be much help to Rain. At least not for the next couple of days.
Chapter Nine
Rain and Carter walked back to his car and got in. They drove away from Conversations talking about taking some earners from Doc since his crew was unaffected by DP’s play and giving them to Ed Weather to rebuild his crew. Then Carter asked Rain where she wanted to go.
Her response was, “You’re driving.”
When Carter explained that he wanted to go check out Mar Y Tierra to see if Damián Custodio, the head of El Decreto de Guerra, was there. He ordered the hit that killed Reese and injured Smoke and Geno. He and Chao Hassan had been going by there every once and a while.
“You know, just to see,” Carter said, and Rain laughed.
“You’re driving.”
When they got there, Rain and Carter walked in the front door, looked around for a second or two and then headed toward the bar to get a drink. Since Carter had been there a few times, it had been no big deal, but the first time, that wasn’t the case. In addition to the stares that he and Hassan received, the bartender claimed not to speak English, so Carter ordered their drinks in Spanish. Since then, he and Hassan have been coming there, having a few drinks unnoticed, like any other customer. But …
“There’s something different tonight,” Carter said as they got to the bar.
“What’s different?” Rain asked as she leaned against the bar.
“Look around,” Carter suggested.
Rain straightened up and scanned the room. “We do seem to be the center of attention.”
“And that is not good for us,” Carter said as he made eye contact with the bartender. When he looked away, Carter was sure that something was not only different that night, but whatever it was, they would find out soon.
“You think that means he’s here?”
“I think someone knows we’re here.”
“What you wanna do?” Rain asked, but before Carter had a chance to answer, two men came out of the back of the club, took aim and opened fire at them. Some of the people in the bar hit the floor, while others took cover under the tables.
Rain and Carter returned fire on them as they ran for cover along with the rest of the customers. Once they found cover, they kept firing as two more men in the front of the club opened fire with automatic weapons and sprayed the bar with bullets. Now both exits were cut off.
“I think we should get outta here,” Carter yelled over the sounds of gunfire.
“What?”
“You asked me what I wanted to do. I said, I think we should get outta here,” Carter said with a straight face and then he and Rain both laughed.
“You stupid. But you’re right, we gotta get outta here,” Rain said and readied her weapons.
She and Carter fired back and then quickly took cover, as all four shooters continued firing at them.
“We need to separate,” Rain said and reloaded her guns. “I’ll move around to the two at the front. When I get set, I’ll take out one and you get the other.”
“Right,” Carter said and hoped that it actually went the way Rain planned.
“Cover me,” Rain yelled, and Carter rose up enough to fire at the shooters. He emptied the clip, but it gave Rain enough cover and time to crawl along the floor, so she could make it to a spot where she could get a clear shot at the shooters.
When she did, Rain stood up and hit one with two shots to the chest. When the man went down, Carter took aim and shot another one of the shooters and quickly took cover. The remaining two shooters began firing at Rain and Carter.