Beneath The Surface by Roy Glenn

and was on top of the robbery, made Rain feel a little better; but she still wondered why he hadn’t been to see her in the hospital.
    “Rain,” Rose said meekly. “There’s something you need to know.”
    “What’s that?”
    “Nick is waiting outside.”
    Rain smiled, and then she thought about it. “You call him?”
    “No. He was with me in the office when you called.”
    “He tell you not to tell me?”
    “No. It may just be ’cause you’re in the hospital, but he’s been acting kind of strange since it happened. I just don’t want you walkin’ into nothing blind.”
    “Thanks Rose. I’ll be all right,” Rain said, feeling that she was safer with Nick than anyplace else in world. Rain walked out of her hospital room and Rose followed.
    Nick waited outside, leaning against a limo. As he saw Rose come out of the front door with Rain, he recalled the conversation he had with Black. “She don’t get anymore chances, Nick. Next time she dies. So unless you want her to meet Monika, you keep her in check.”
    The closer Rain got to Nick, the better she felt. And he came to pick me up in a limo , Rain thought. She threw her arms around him. It felt so good to be in his arms again. But she could tell by the way he was acting with her, that something was wrong.
    No matter what he did not to think about her, Nick couldn’t get Wanda out of his head. Her last words to him before she left his apartment that morning rang in his ears. “I really did love you, Nick, even though I never said it before now. I really did love you.”
    He always felt like Wanda loved him, but it would have been nice to hear her say it. For those to be her last words to him, ate at him, and wouldn’t let go. He looked at Rain and knew that he didn’t feel for her the way he felt for Wanda. He had waited his whole life to feel for a woman the way he felt for Wanda; and now she was gone, and Rain was the consolation prize.
    After they put Rose in a cab, Rain got in the limo with Nick. As the driver took off, Nick turned to Rain. “How do you feel?”
    “My chest hurts, but I’m fine, Nick.”
    “You want a drink?”
    “Patron?”
    “For sure,” Nick said and reached for the bottle.
    Rain looked at Nick’s face as he poured her drink and handed it to her. “What’s wrong?”
    “Nothing’s wrong.”
    “Don’t lie to me. Me and you are too close for me not to know when something ain’t right.”
    Nick looked at Rain and thought about what he would tell her. He decided to tell her the truth. “Stark and Moon are dead, and you would be too, but—”
    “But it’s gonna take more than one bullet to kill this bitch,” Rain interrupted and laughed.
    “But Blue shot you before I did,” Nick said and looked Rain dead in her eyes.
    “You were gonna kill me?” Rain asked; and that made her chest hurt.
    “What did you tell Kirk?”
    “Do you even gotta ask me that?”
    “No. I don’t. But I’m askin’ anyway. What did you tell Kirk?”
    “Nothing,” Rain said quickly. “But you was right about that mutha fucka. He knows everything; he can’t prove nothin’, or I’d be in jail now. All they really got is that Taurus, but it ain’t in my name, and there wasn’t any prints in it.”
    “Nothin’ but Jay Easy’s blood in it. But the police don’t have the Taurus,” Nick said and poured himself a shot of Patron.
    “They didn’t impound it?”
    “They did, but my people drove it out of the impound lot that same day.”
    Rain smiled because her man had her back. “Then they ain’t got shit.”
    “No.”
    Rain put down her drink and moved closer to Nick. She touched his face gently and kissed him on the cheek. “I understand why you felt like you had to kill me. What I did was wrong. I should never do shit behind your back. And I swear on my father’s soul that it will never happen again. I’m all for you now, baby.” She kissed him again. “I’m ready to be whatever you need me to be.”
    “You don’t