A Mob Boss Christmas: The Pregnancy (15 page)

When Jazz closed the door of her room, it was only
then did Trina realize how dark and dingy the room was.
 
Only one
window,
and
it was narrow and faced a brick wall.
 
Talk about a dead end, Trina thought.

“I would tell you to have a seat but I know the wife
of Reno Gabrini wouldn’t want to sit on anything in here.”

Trina, however, sat down on the sofa Jazz was
referencing without even batting an eye.
 
Jazz snorted.
 
“So much for that
theory,” she said.

Jazz sat down, too.
 
“Want something to drink?
 
They
have a vending machine on the first floor.”

“No, but thank-you.”
 

Then silence ensued.
 
Jazz rubbed her thighs and stared at Trina.
 
Trina looked around the tiny room.
 
It was cold and drafty and smelled of
mold.
 
There was another couch, against a
dingy wall that undoubtedly doubled as a bed, a broken down chair, and a tiny
room-sized refrigerator.
 
Everything
about the room, and even the surrounding neighborhood was depressing.
 
And that defeatism showed all over Jazz’s
once pretty, but now distressed dark face.

“So you’re back from Georgia,” Jazz said.

“Yeah, we came back.”

“Reno missed the PaLargio, didn’t he?”

“No, I wouldn’t say that was the reason we came back.
 
It was just time to come back home.”

Jazz looked as if she didn’t believe it, but Trina
couldn’t worry about that.

“What about you?” Trina asked.
 
“I hear you’re no longer working at
Boyzie’s.”

A sad look came over Jazz.
 
“That’s right.”
 
She hesitated.
 
“He fired me.”

“Why did he fire you?”

“Because I was acting a fool.
 
I got into it with one of the customers and
we were rolling on the ground fighting, child.
 
The customer deserved her ass whopping, don’t get me wrong.
 
But I was out of line.”

Trina was surprised she admitted it.
 
Usually Jazz had every excuse in the
book.
 
“You were arrested?”

“Damn right, I was.
 
They took my black ass straight to jail.
 
Gave me ninety long-ass days.
 
But you know what
was the
most amazing thing about that whole experience
?
 
I never dreamed how much you could lose in
just ninety days because when I got out of jail, I had lost everything.
 
My apartment, my little
car, my income, everything.”
 
Jazz
exhaled.
 
“And now I’ve got to figure out
a way to get it all back.”
 
Then another
distressed look came over her face.
 
“At my age.”

“Why did you move here?”

“I had nowhere else to go,” Jazz said.
 
“I was grateful they let me stay here.”

“The people okay around here?”

“Hell no.
 
The men keep bothering me for sex and the
women are just a bunch of crack heads.
 
I
wouldn’t ordinarily be caught dead in a hole like this.
 
But beggars can’t be choosy.
 
And I don’t have shit.
 
I’m on the critical list, girl.”
 
Then Jazz shook her head.
 
She wore her hair natural now, in a short,
man-cut Afro.
 
“I still can’t believe how
stupid I’ve been,” she said.
 

There was a long period where nothing else was
said.
 
Trina was at a loss for
words.
 
What could she say, anyway, to a
friend who had nothing left?
 
Could she
just stand up and walk out?
 
Nice to see
you, wouldn’t want to be you?
 
Maybe some
people could.
 
Trina was not one of them.

She stood up.
 
She owned a hotel for goodness sake.
 
“I want you to come with me, Jazz,” she said.

“Come with you?” Jazz asked.
 
“Come with you where?”

“To the PaLargio.
 
I want you to stay there as my guest until
you can sort things out.”

Jazz’s heart began to soar.
 
Could it be possible?
 
She stood up, too, staring at Trina.
 
Trina quickly realized how all of Jazz’s
swagger and defiance was gone.
 

“Are you sure, Tree?” Jazz asked her.

Trina nodded her head.
 
“Yes, I’m sure.
 
You’re my oldest friend in this town.
 
You’re coming with me.”

Jazz began to leap for joy.

“So get your things together and let’s go.
 
I don’t know about you, but this place here, it
gives me the willies, girl.”

“You?”
Jazz said as she
hurried behind the sofa and came out with a fully packed suitcase.
 
Trina was surprised.

“What’s that?” she asked her.

“My things.”

“You’re packed already?”

“I never unpacked.”

Trina smiled.
 
“Don’t tell me. You just knew I was coming.”

“Hell yeah I knew your ass was coming,” Trina
laughed.
 
“No, I didn’t know,” Jazz
admitted.
 
“But I knew I wasn’t planning
on staying here long. I didn’t know where I was going, but I knew I was getting
out of here.”

“Let’s get out of here then.”

“You don’t have to tell me twice,” Jazz said,
hurrying, with her luggage, for the front door.
 
It reminded her of those good old days, when she and Tree were
tight.
 
But then she thought about Tree’s
other half and stopped.
 
She looked at
her.
 
“Are you absolutely certain you
wanna be fooled up with me?” she asked her old friend.

“Yes, Jazz.
 
I
told you yes.
 
No friend of mine is
living in a place like this.”

“But Reno’s not gonna like it.”

Boy did Trina know that. “Let me worry about Reno,”
she said, knowing that she was asking for trouble.
 
But what could she do?
 
Jazz needed a serious helping hand, and she
was in a position to lend that hand.
 
It
wasn’t somebody else’s responsibility.
 
It was her.
 
In a lot of ways
Trina felt as if she was her sister’s keeper.
 
“Got everything?” she asked Jazz.

“Yeah,” Jazz said.
 
But as they began to leave, tears appeared in her eyes.
 

Trina went up to her.
 
“What’s the matter?”

“Nothing’s been going right for me.
 
Everybody I called said I deserve what I got
and nobody had anything but criticism for me.
 
I know I messed up, but they act like they never did anything wrong
before in their entire lives.
 
And then
you show up, two days before Christmas, and I have
hope
again.”

Trina’s heart swelled with emotion.
 
“We’re friends, Jazz.
 
We’ve been through a lot together.”

“Yes.
 
Yes, we
have.”

“I don’t like a lot of your ways and I’m sure you
don’t like a lot of mine.
 
But you were
there for me when I first came to town and didn’t have a friend in sight.
 
You were real good to me then.
 
I’ll never forget that.”

She and Trina embraced.
 
Then Jazz wiped her tears and hurried out of
that hellhole that was masquerading as Jazz’s home.

Two young men were leaned against Trina’s Bentley by
the time they made their way outside.

“Look at them fools,” Jazz said as soon as she saw
them.
 

“Fools
is
right,” Trina said
as she walked toward her car.
 
“Because
they’re the fool of fools if they think they can intimidate me.”

“Oh, no,” Jazz said, hurrying up behind the fast
walking Trina, “Reno has rubbed off on you!”

Trina would have smiled if she wasn’t so upset.
 
But she was too upset.
 
“May I help you?” she said to the two men,
particularly to the one who was leaned against the driver’s side door.
 
Trina didn’t know it but thanks to Reno she
had back-up all around the area.
 
And was
about to have Reno himself.

“Did I ask for your help?” the young man
replied.
 
They were clueless.

“Apparently you’re asking for something because
you’re leaned against my automobile.”

“
Your
automobile?” the young man asked.
 
“Now
that’s news to me.
 
I thought this was
my
automobile.”

“Boy, if you don’t get your stank ass away from my
car,” Trina said as she brushed past him and began opening her door.
 
Just as she did, Reno’s Porsche drove up
behind them.
 
And just as he did, the
young man pushed Trina away from her car door, causing her to stumble.

“What the fuck?” Reno asked angrily when he saw the
man push his wife.
 
He couldn’t get out
of his seatbelt fast enough.
 
Jimmy was
shocked too.

But Reno wasted no time.
 
He reached into his glove compartment, pulled
out his gun, and hurried out of the car.
 
He held his gun by his side.

Jimmy got out, too, but Reno was already at the young
man’s side.

The young man was about to go for Trina again, and
Trina and Jazz both were about to go for him, but Reno, to Trina’s shock,
suddenly was upon them and grabbed the young man from behind.
 
He then slung the young man on his back and
onto the hood of the car.
 
Then he placed
the gun, not against the young man’s face, but deep into the young man’s
mouth.
 
The kid nearly pissed in his
pants when he felt the barrel near the back of his throat.
 
The other young man took off running.
 
The men on the stoop stood up, but not one of
them had any interest in interceding.

“Who do you think you’re playing with?” Reno asked
the troublemaker.

The boy was shaking his head as if to say nobody, but
Reno wasn’t trying to hear an answer.
 
He
cocked his gun inside the man’s mouth.

“Reno, no!”
Trina yelled.

“Who do you think you’re playing with?” Reno asked
the young man again, ignoring Trina.
 
“That’s my wife you’re fucking with!
 
That’s my wife you motherfucker!”

Jimmy could hardly believe his eyes.
  
But he would have done the same thing, he
believed, if some dude would have pushed his wife.
 
Jimmy moved toward Trina, and began pulling
her back, protecting her.

The boy began to piss in his pants.
 
Reno saw the circle of wet appear at his
crotch and frowned.
 
“You nasty
motherfucker!” he said, and pushed the young man away from him.
 
“Get your punk ass out of here!”

And the young man took off running, too.

Reno exhaled.
 
He was tired of this shit.
 
Then
he headed back toward his car.
 
He
glanced at Jazz and then looked at Trina.
 
“Get in the car,” he said to her.

“I’m going to drive the Bentley.”

“You’re going to get your ass in my car right now,
Katrina,” Reno said angrily, correcting her.
  
“Jimmy Mack?”

“Yes, sir?”

“You drive the Bentley.”

“Yes, sir,” Jimmy said, moving toward Trina to get
the keys.
 

Trina knew not to dispute Reno, not when he was this
upset.
 
She gave her keys to Jimmy.

“Jazz,” she said to her friend as Reno all but forced
her toward the Porsche, “you ride with Jimmy.”

Jazz had no idea who Jimmy was, but she got in the
Bentley with him just the same.
 
When she
looked back, Reno was slinging Trina down on the passenger seat in his Porsche,
and slamming the door behind her.
 

Jazz turned back around.
 
Her heart began to hammer.
 
She needed Trina right now, she needed her friend
badly.
 
And she knew Trina would fight to
help her.
 
Trina was a strong-willed
woman, maybe one of the strongest Jazz had ever met.
 

But Reno ran that household.
   

CHAPTER SEVEN

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Reno yelled at his
wife as he drove her back to the Strip.
 
“I told you to take somebody with you at all times, or at least let me
know where you’re going while you’re pregnant like this.”

“Don’t even try that, Reno,” Trina said.
 
“You wouldn’t let me go anywhere by myself since
we’ve been back from Georgia, don’t try to act like it just started since I
became pregnant.
 
You’ve been like this
ever since we got back from Crane!”