Roy Glenn - Commit To Violence

When he heard the alarm followed by the explosions, Monika’s operative started up his Chevy Avalanche and sped toward the gate.

Travis saw the men coming from the barracks as they made their way across the compound. He fired on them as they passed the motor pool.

Black and Bobby continued shooting as Travis set off the C-4 charges they had set at the motor pool. The explosion took most of them out. The ones who survived the blast took cover.

Monika’s operative crashed through the gate. As the truck barreled toward them, Nick rose up and laid down enough cover fire for them to get in the truck, before he jumped in the flatbed and continued firing until they made it out of the compound.

As Bobby drove back to Luke’s house, he looked over at Black. "What you thinkin’ ’bout?" he asked.

"Venezuela," Black said and looked out the window. "Venezuela and the natural order of things."

"What about it?"

"Is that all there is?"

"All what is?"

"The natural order of things; is that all there is? People try to kill us, we kill them. I mean, is that all there is to life?"

"As long as we’re livin’ this life, yeah Mike, that’s all there is. Like I said, it’s the natural order of things."

Rain banged on the steering wheel and leaned on the horn. She had been stuck on the Cross Bronx Expressway for almost an hour and she had barely moved a half a mile. She had made up her mind a half hour ago that she was going to get off at the next exit. At this point she could see it, but getting to it was still a ways off. When she finally was able to get off the expressway, Rain made her way to her destination on the surface streets.

She parked her car down the street from the building and walked down the street. As she got closer, Rain saw four men come running out of the building. They got in a late model, dark colored Chevy Blazer that was double-parked, and sped away. At the time Rain didn’t think much about it; to her they were just in a hurry. She was right about that, but it was the reason why they were in such a hurry that would matter to her.

When Rain got to the apartment the door was cracked opened. Knowing that the door should be closed at all times, Rain took out her gun. She pushed the door open slowly, but really wasn’t prepared for what she saw when she stepped inside.

There was so much blood.

"Damn," Rain said aloud. There on the floor lay three of her men. All with their hands tied behind their backs. Each shot twice in the back of the head.

Even though she knew the effort would be futile, Rain checked to see if the product was gone. She went in the kitchen and opened the freezer. It was empty, just as she thought it would be.

Rain got out of there and went back to her car. As she drove away from the building, Rain took a moment to think about the fact that if she wasn’t stuck in traffic, she would have been there when the shooters got there. Part of her thought that had she been there things would have gone a different way. But the farther she drove, the more Rain realized that had she been there, she’d be dead now.

"Fuck!" Rain yelled and dug around in her purse and pulled out her cell. She dialed Nick’s number.

"What’s up, Rain," Nick said when he answered.

"I need to talk to you," Rain told him.

"I’m listening."

"Not on the phone. Where you at?"

"At Jackie’s."

"Wait for me. I’m on my way."

When she got to the house where Jackie ran a high-stakes poker game, Rain told Nick what she had been doing.

"Damn it, Rain," Nick said and buried his head in his hands. "How long has this been goin’ on?"

"Long enough," Rain told Nick and he gave her a look of disbelief.

How could he been so blind not to know what she had been doing? "Do you realize the position that puts me in?" he said without looking at her.

"This was my thing; I didn’t involve you in it at all. Nobody even knows it was me behind them. Shit, even you didn’t know. It ain’t got nothin’ to do with you."

"It has everything to do with me!" Nick shouted. "With all of this!"

"I’m sorry!" Rain shouted back.

"Sorry don’t matter," Nick said. "Who’s your supplier?" he wanted to know.

"Why you gotta know all that," Rain said defensively. The last thing she wanted to tell him was that she was buying from Stark.

"It don’t matter." He got up and grabbed Rain by the shoulders. "It ends now. Right fuckin’ now, you hear me?"

"I hear you, nigga, shit. But I need your help."

"Help with what?"

"Last couple of weeks four of my spots been hit. They took all the product."

"That’s fucked up, but that’s one more reason why it ends now. So I don’t see what you need my help with."

"’Cause they killed my people. Tied them up and shot ’em in the head."

"That shit sound more like something personal if they killed your people."

"What makes you say that?"

"’Cause it takes time to tie mutha fuckas up and shoot them. Robbers wanna get what they came for and get outta there. Believe me, killin’ mutha fuckas, that’s the kind of shit you do when you wanna send somebody a message."

"How you know?"

Nick sat down on the couch in Jackie’s office. "Me and Freeze were stickup kids. We’d hit two or three a night some times. And the money was good; three, four, five grand a pop for a minutes work. Most times we never had to fire a shot."

"I never knew that, and I thought I had heard every story there was about you and Freeze from back in the day," Rain said.

"Nobody knew it was us," Nick said and thought about it. He had heard about somebody named PR coming up in the game, but since it didn’t concern him he didn’t think much of it. Now he looked at Rain. "Just like nobody knows it’s you, PR."

"What you say?" Rain asked.

"PR, that’s you ain’t it. Purple Rain," Nick said and shook his head.

"What you know about that?"

"I told you, I know everything," Nick told her. "Maybe you ain’t as smart as you think you are, Purple Rain."

"Maybe I ain’t. That’s why I need you to help me get outta this."

"Yeah," Nick said.

There was one other thing. Rain’s reluctance to tell him who she was buying from led him to believe that it was Stark. If that was the case, Stark would have to be dealt with. But for now, that would have to wait. As much as he hated to admit it, Rain was right. He had to help her and do it before Black found out what he was doing.

It was late and detectives Kirkland and Richards had gotten a call about a triple murder. They had worked together on drug-related homicides for the last five years and Kirk was just starting to get comfortable enough with him to let him drive. Taking the lead in their investigations was another matter.

When they got the call, Richards was on the phone with his wife. She called to complain about their young sons. Complaining about how much of a handful they were becoming, and with him working so many crazy hours, it felt like she was raising them alone. He was glad to rush her off the phone.

"So what was it this time, Pat?" Kirk asked.

"Matt took apart the toaster."

Kirk laughed. "Why’d he do that?"

"Same reason he takes apart everything, to see how it works," Richards said as he drove.

"Makes sense."

"Yeah; right up to the part where it comes to putting stuff back together. The parts never seem to all get back in there and they never work right after that. Drives Helen crazy."

Kirk laughed but didn’t comment. He’d learned years ago to stay out of his partner’s marriages. Especially since his track record with wives wasn’t stellar.

"How come you never had kids?" Richards asked.