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But now, Mobley and Barnes were dead, Hawkins was on the run so he might as well be dead too, and Rain was shutting down the rest of their operations.
The strategy of responding with superior force was never a deterrent and was therefore ineffective. Now Rain was going hard at them. Black told her that there was more than enough responsibility to go around over how they got where they were, and to a certain point, she agreed. But despite that, none of it mattered to Rain. This war was her fault and it was her responsibility to end it.
Now that Mobley and Barnes were dead and Hawkins was in the wind, Rain was on a mission to end the war. Still operating from the list of money-making spots that Baby Chris provided them, Rain, along with Carter and Jackie, were hitting their remaining spots and executing Rain’s plan.
Kill everybody and burn the bitch to the fuckin’ ground.
Mas Que Nada’s was a bar and grill that served Brazilian food and played MPB which stood for Popular Brazilian Music, a post-bossa nova trend in urban popular music of Brazil. Baby Chris told Rain that Hawkins liked the food and the music at Mas Que Nada’s. So, not only did he do business, he was also known to work out of there sometimes.
Rain walked in the front door, dressed head to toe in purple leather. Of course, she was vested up and she had a gun in each hand. As soon as she stepped inside, two men rose from behind the bar, took aim and opened fire at Rain with automatic weapons. When the shooting started, the restaurant’s patrons began running for the exits, hitting the floor, or others took cover under the tables and hoped to survive. Rain raised one of her weapons and shot one of the shooters while he was reloading, and Carter took out the other.
As the DJ continued to mix music, two more men emerged from the back of the restaurant and opened fire with automatic weapons on Jackie and Carter. They returned fire on them as they sought better cover as Rain began firing at them. Once Jackie and Carter found cover, they began firing so Rain could make it to cover.
“They’re better armed than Baby Chris said they’d be,” Jackie commented as she reloaded. “Probably stepped it up after Barnes got killed.”
“We may need to think about buggin’ outta here,” Carter said and returned the shooters fire as two more came charging out the back and opened fire. Now, all four men stood in the middle of Mas Que Nada and sprayed the place with bullets.
“Spread out!” Rain shouted over the sounds of gunfire as she reloaded. “I’ll cover you!”
When Rain stood up and she opened fire with her HK433, while Jackie and Carter crawled along the floor and tried to make it to a spot where they’d have a better angle on the shooters so they could get a clear shot. When Jackie made it to a spot where she had cover and a clear line of sight to the shooters, she slammed in a fresh clip, stood up and hit one of the gunmen with two shots to the chest. The man went down and Jackie took cover as his partner began firing at her. With his attention diverted, he was easy prey for Rain, and she shot him in the back of the head.
Now that there were only two shooters remaining and they were suddenly outgunned, they headed toward the rear of Mas Que Nada’s firing shots as they moved. Carter had worked his way around and was at the back door to greet them. He opened fire and forced them to seek cover.
As the remaining shooters returned Carter’s fire, they turned around and attempted to make it out of the front door, but by that time, Rain and Jackie were blocking their path. With the shooters in a crossfire, the three opened fire and their adversaries’ bullet-ridden and bloody bodies crumbled to the floor to the beat of the music.
When the shooting stopped, instead of leaving, Rain looked around the room and delivered a message.
“Any of you fucks see Hawkins, you tell him that I will find his mutha fuckin’ ass and he is gonna fuckin’ die,” she said and had started to walk out of Mas Que Nada’s when one of the shooters raised his weapon and pointed it in Rain’s direction. She fired two shots to his head and continued out of the restaurant.
Chapter Two
“Where to next?” Jackie asked when they got in Rain’s car and drove away from Mas Que Nada’s.
“I don’t give a fuck. You choose,” Rain said, as she reloaded the HK433. “Better if it was someplace where Hawkins scary ass might be hiding.”
“I don’t know what hole in the ground that nigga got his head stuck off in, but we’ll find that ass.”
“He’ll come up for air, someplace sometime and we’ll get him. He can’t lay in the cut forever, he’s got to surface, even if it’s just to get out of the city,” Carter said.
“I do have a spot for us to go hit,” Jackie began.
“I’m listening,” Rain said as Jackie drove.
“One of my contacts had told me that since we killed Mobley, most of his street-level dealers had scattered,” Jackie said as she headed toward a warehouse that she had been told that some of Mobley’s people hung out. “Some of his crew got on with other players in the game that will be looking to step into those markets.”
“Markets we opened up,” Carter said. “The elimination of Barnes and Mobley changes everything in the streets. It’s about to get wild out here.”
“All the more reason that we need to do what we need to do out here and let these mutha fuckas battle for corners and shit,” Rain said remembering her early days working the corners with Ronnie King. “Fighting these dope boys is bad for business.”
“Tell me about it,” Jackie said.
“So, where you taking us?” Carter asked.
“A few of Mobley’s old crew got on with Stanley Hogan,” Jackie said.
“I heard of this nigga,” Rain said and put a clip in her nine. “They ain’t ready for us.”
“Not at all,” Jackie agreed. “They’re trying to regroup and move the program forward.”