you done with the complaints?” Andre asked with a smile.
“Boy, I ain’t playing with you,” Jazz said as she pulled a
cigarette out of her bag. “What you
got?”
Andre didn’t like her tone. In fact, he liked nothing about Jazz Hannity. Except her proximity to the Gabrinis. Except for the fact that she could get them
in the door. “I told you I was going to
make it happen,” he said. “Didn’t I tell
you that?”
“It just better be worth it,” Jazz responded, lighting
up. “That’s all I’m saying.”
Andre handed her his cellphone. She began swiping through a serious of
pictures. “Are those worth it?” he
asked.
Jazz was smiling. The
more she swiped, the more she liked what she saw. “When did you take these?”
“Tonight. They left
before you could get here. But they were
right here, Jazz.”
Jazz was stunned. She
looked at him. “They were here? In Shady’s ?”
“In Shady’s, girl. I
was shocked myself. Big wigs like them
think we’re too stupid to know who they are. That’s why they run to places like this to have their little affairs. But I know Reno Gabrini. I’d know that fucker anywhere.”
Jazz puffed on her cigarette and looked at more
pictures. She felt as if she had just
won the lottery and, if she played her cards right, would collect
handsomely. “This could be our ticket,
Dre.”
“Ticket my ass,” Dre said. “This could be our passport out of this bitch forever. We do this right, we can make a fortune,
Jazz. A got damn fortune! But that’s
only if your calculations are right.”
“They’re right. That’s
why I asked you to follow him. I knew
sooner or later his ass would mess up. I
knew sooner or later the real Reno Gabrini would stand up and prove me right.”
“And that’s what I call standing up,” Andre said. “All hugged up with her like that? All intimate like that with a woman that
ain’t his wife? But will it be enough?”
“No,” Jazz said bluntly. And handed him back his phone. “Not for Trina. She thinks Reno
can walk on water. We’ll have to damn
near catch him in the act before she’ll believe it.”
“But these pictures are some damning shit,” Dre said. “You saw how close they were. That ain’t no friendship kind of close. That’s fuck buddy close. This Trina will have to be a fool in love to
think it’s anything but what it is.”
“I know that and you know that. But you don’t know Tree. She’s stupid loyal to his ass. She wasn’t loyal to me, and I was her friend
before she knew Reno existed, but she’s loyal like a crazy woman to him.”
“What we need,” Andre said, “is for the woman in these pictures,
his lover, to cooperate with us. If what
you’re saying is true, we’ve got to catch him in the act.”
“We’ve got to catch him in the act,” Jazz said again, nodding
her head. She had lost considerable
weight from her younger days, but was still voluptuous. “That’s the only way Tree will believe
it. But why in the world would that
woman cooperate with us, Dre? What’s in
it for her when she’s got the prize in her bed already?”
“We’ve got to hope she’s no fool,” Andre said. “We’ve got to hope she understands that she
might have Gabrini in her bed for a minute, but his wife has him in her heart
forever. If she understands she’s just
another one of his hoes to be exposed and dumped, she might just play ball.”
Jazz still seemed unconvinced.
“Just let me check her out,” Andre said. “I’ll see just how badly she can use a big
payday too. Because if we can get her on
our side?” he shook his head. “ Got damn, Jazz. The sky would be the limit for us.”
“It’s a win-win for me, Dre, you just don’t know. Me and Tree used to be closer than
sisters. We were tighter than tight when
we worked at