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He was going out of his head trying to think of a way to get back to her. But the finality of her words, it’s over between us, made him feel like it was useless. That no matter what he did, it would never be enough and this time, it really was over between them. The Family would always come first and to make matters worse, she knew that he had fucked Fantasy. If she ever found out that he was fucking Yarrisa too, she’d be heartbroken. Carter knew that the best thing that could happen for Mileena was for him to leave her alone and let her move on with her life.
But despite all that, there were moments when Carter still believed that there was some hope.
I’m sorry.
Those two words were what he based his hopes on. To Carter, if she felt sorry, then she still felt something. And if Mileena still felt anything for him at all, then there was still a chance.
“A slim one, but I’ll take it,” Carter said softly. He would take whatever he could get.
And do what with it? He asked himself.
“What you say?” Jackie asked as she parked the car in front of the bodega that Kerwin Miller hustled his product for Barnes.
“Nothing. I was just thinking out loud,” Carter said and checked his weapon thinking, You’ll just end up breaking her heart again. “Let’s go do this.”
“I’ll take the back,” Jackie said and went around to the back of the store.
The second Rain and Carter walked through the door, a man behind the counter fired at them. Carter and Rain ducked in an aisle for cover and they pulled their guns. As Rain returned fire, Carter dropped behind the shelf for cover and he opened fire. When one of the shooters stood at the end of the aisle and sprayed it with shells, Carter and Rain ran for better cover.
“Where’s Jackie?” Rain asked.
“I don’t know, but she needs to get in here,” Carter shouted as he stuck his head out to take a look and was immediately shot at. “We gotta make a move. We won’t last long here.”
“Cover me!” Rain shouted.
Carter fired his gun at the shooter before following Rain down the aisle. That was when Miller came out of the back room and opened fire at them with a semi-automatic. When a third man emerged from the back of the store firing, Rain hit the floor for cover and Carter took a couple of shots before he dropped for cover too. They were taking heavy fire from all sides.
Neither Carter, Rain nor the three shooters noticed that Jackie had come out of the back room. She saw that a fourth man had gotten around behind Rain and Carter and was ready to shoot. Jackie came up behind him and fired two shots to the back of his head. With the shooter down, Jackie stayed low and moved toward Carter and Rain.
“Everybody all right?” she asked.
“There are three more of them. All of them blasting with heavy weapons,” Rain said as she reloaded her weapons. “I’m going after Miller. You two work your way toward the front of the store.”
Rain came up firing at the shooters with the HK433 and it forced Miller to move for better cover. Once Rain moved out in pursuit of Miller, Jackie and Carter both stood up and fired at the other two shooters. They moved to either side of the store and returned their fire.
With her back against the wall, Rain moved through the store looking for Miller. Fuckin’ store ain’t but so fuckin’ big, she thought and peeked around the corner. When she didn’t see him, she moved out. When she did, the shooter that Jackie was pursuing came out of the next aisle and raised his weapon.
“Look out!” Jackie yelled and fired and hit the man in the back.
Just then, Carter saw Miller heading toward the back. He fired at Carter and then Miller ran through the back door.
“I got him!” Carter yelled and followed him.
When he reached the doorway, he stepped in and opened fire on Miller the second he saw him. Miller stopped, turned, and fired at Carter. He took cover behind some boxes and continued firing back. He took cover and returned Miller’s fire. Carter fired a couple of shots blindly at him. Miller fired back as Jackie and Rain reached him. Rain reached in her pocket and came out with a concussion grenade.
“Cover your eyes,” she said and tossed it.
The sudden burst of bright light and sound forced Miller to stop firing. When Miller staggered out from cover, Carter fired at him and hit Miller in the chest with three shots.
With the shooting concluded, there was just one thing left to do. While Carter cleared the bodega and the stores nearby, Rain and Jackie set explosives throughout the store and blew the place up when they were done.
Chapter Four
While Rain, Carter and Jackie wrapped things up at the bodega, Black and Bobby were at JFK to pick up Wanda. Earlier in the evening, they had arranged to meet Rain at J.R.’s, but after the coast-to-coast flight, and knowing that she needed to fly out again for Nassau in the morning, Wanda decided that she would forgo the trip uptown and she would stay at a hotel in midtown for the night. Now that there was a change in the agenda, Black called Rain.
“This Rain,” she answered.
“Change of plan,” Black said.