“What’s up, Miles,” I asked.
“I need to see you, Rain,” Miles said.
“How you doin’, Miles?”
“I don’t have time for this, Rain. I need to see you.”
“Look, Miles, today ain’t really a good day for me. I’ll try to make it out there tomorrow.”
“No!” Miles shouted. “It can’t wait until tomorrow, Lorraine! I need you to come out here today.”
Anytime Miles calls me by my name, I know it’s something serious, ’cause he knows I hate being called Lorraine. “Okay, Miles. I’ll be out there today, but I got shot and I just got outta the hospital.”
“Yeah, me too.”
“What? What was you in the hospital for?”
“We’ll talk about that when I see you,” Miles said and hung up the phone.
The last thing I wanted to do was ride out to Rikers. I was tired and my chest hurt. I probably did too much last night. Rollin’ wit’ Nick and gettin’ some dick this morning didn’t help. I wanted to do what my man told me to, and get some rest, but Miles needed me and that means I’m goin’.
When Miles came out, the first thing I noticed was the bandage on his face. “What happened to you?”
“Two guys jumped me in the shower. One of them held me, while the other cut my face.”
My first thought was this was some jail-house pretty-boy shit. My brother was a pretty nigga, so I laughed a little. “What they do that for?”
When he pulled the bandage off and I saw that they’d cut an E in his face, I knew I was wrong. “They said the Easely family sends their regards, then he sliced me.” I knew this was my shit. This was because I killed Jay Easy. I sat there and looked at Miles. “What did you do?” Miles asked me.
“I can’t say right now, but I’m sorry this had to touch you.”
“I knew this was your doing, Rain.”
“I’ll take care of it; you can be sure of that,” I said and started to leave.
“Wait!”
“What?”
“If they came after me, they might go after Lakeda and the kids. When was the last time you checked on them?”
“It’s been a minute.”
“Why?”
“You know I can’t stand that bitch. Shit, she’s the reason you’re in here.” Lakeda found out that Miles had been cheatin’ on her, and that’s why Jeff Ritchie arranged to have the woman killed.
“No she isn’t. I’m in here because I killed Jeff Ritchie for having Zakiya Phillips killed.” I looked at Miles and wondered if I should I tell him how it really went down. I guess he knew I had something to say. “What, Rain?”
“There’s something you need to know.”
“What’s that?”
“It wasn’t Jeff Ritchie.”
“What you talkin’ about, Rain?”
“I knew something wasn’t right about her story. Lakeda wouldn’t talk to Jeff Ritchie about you having an affair. Her and Jeff wasn’t cool like that. But she would talk to daddy.”