No More Tears in the End Read Online Free PDF Page A

got me that, but this is cool.”
    While they enjoyed their meal, Wanda went over the state of their business. First she went over the legitimate business, telling her partners how strong profits were and gave a very optimistic outlook for the future. However, when she went into the state of their gambling operations, the report was not as good.
    “So what you’re sayin’ is money is down across the board?” Bobby asked.
    “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Wanda said and took a sip of her drink.
    “What are you really sayin’, Wanda?” Black asked.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Stop it, Wanda,” Bobby said. “You know exactly what he’s askin’ you. If you been in his ear, like you been in mine, all I can say is I feel sorry for you, Nick.”
    Wanda looked around the table, and slowly the corners of her lips curled into a smile. “What?” her smile turned to laughter.
    “Go ahead and say it, Wanda. You think we need to get out,” Black said without looking at her while he cut his filet. “I mean, that is why you got us all together to tell us the same shit you’ve been tellin’ all of us individually for months. Or did you just want to go out to dinner?”
    “He’s right.” Nick turned to Wanda. “You have been beatin’ us all over the head with that club.”
    “Traitor. I’ll deal with you later,” Wanda whispered to Nick. “Yes, I think we should consider it seriously. Or at least we all could discuss it.”
    “Okay, counselor.” Black put down his fork and knife. “Since you already made the point that we’re making more money on the legit side of the house, go ahead and make your case.”
    “For one thing, we used to need a bigger table to have these meetings.”
    No one said a word.
    No one had to.
    Since she had everyone’s attention, Wanda continued to drive her point. She reached out and held Black’s hand. “It seems like we’re moving backwards instead of forward. I mean look at the two of you. Mike, you had left all this behind you. You and Cassandra made a life for yourselves in the Bahamas. You were out. Then you let her talk you into staying here. You lost your wife and Michelle lost her mother. Which one of you is gonna be next? I’ll be honest; I don’t want to go to anymore funerals for a long time. I don’t want to lose anymore friends. And the fact is we don’t have to live like that anymore.
    “And Bobby, while Mike was gone, you were so busy being a faithful husband and a father to your children that I had to practically drag you out of the house.”
    “True that,” Bobby had to admit.
    “And look what happened when you did,” Wanda added.
    “You had to go and throw that in.”
    “Well, it’s the truth. And now Freeze is dead. Hasn’t this life cost us enough?”
    Black looked at Wanda for awhile without speaking. She was right, as usual. Actually, he had been thinking the same thing lately. It was as if life had come full circle for him. He was back in New York, back running Cuisine. He was seeing a stripper or former stripper at this point, along with a few others. Everything was like it was before he met Cassandra.
    He thought about Michelle.
    “All right, now that you’ve killed my appetite, I have two questions,” Black said.
    “What’s that?” Wanda asked.
    “Since we are still making money on gambling and our other businesses, if you do get out, how do you plan on replacing that income?”
    Now it was Wanda who was looking at Black without speaking. She hadn’t expected him to ask that, so she didn’t have an answer ready. “I haven’t given that any thought,” she was forced to admit.
    “What’s the second question?” Nick asked.
    “How do we get out? I mean what do we do, just walk away from it all? Do we make everybody buy us out?”
    “I hadn’t thought of that either,” Wanda admitted quickly. Now her appetite was gone.
    “When you have an answer to both of those questions, we’ll talk about this again.”
    “Yes,