Man Enough For Me (22 page)

Jules sat up in bed suddenly, her heart beating faster.

“Davis, no. I told you this in confidence because you’re my brother and I knew I could trust you.”

“Jules, this ain’t no kid stuff,” Davis said. “You can’t expect me to sit on this. In fact, you knew I wouldn’t. That’s why you told me, because you’re too scared to do something yourself.”

“I promised him, Davis.”

“I can’t believe this,” Davis muttered. “You still have feelings for him, don’t you?”

Jules didn’t answer. She didn’t have to.

“Jules, this is insane.”

“He said it would all be over by the end of this week.”

“And what if something happens before then?” Davis asked. “What if one of those guys jumps you in the street? You’ve seen their faces; you’re a liability now.”

“Davis, I said no,” Jules said quietly. “I gave my word.”

Davis sighed in frustration. “Jules, this is not up for discussion. If something happened to you, I could never live with myself, knowing that I could have stopped it. One of us is going to make that call. If you don’t, I will.”

Jules bit her lip, knowing that she had no choice. The best she could do was to talk to Davis’s friend herself. It was the only bit of control over this situation she had left.

“Give me your friend’s number,” Jules said quietly after a long moment. “I’ll call.”

Even though her heart was already beating faster at the thought, Jules knew that she would have to be the one to take care of this. She grabbed the notepad from her bedside table and scribbled down the number as Davis rattled it off to her.

“Promise me you’ll call him today, Jules.”

“I’ll call him.”

“Today, Jules,” Davis insisted. “I’m calling him first thing in the morning tomorrow, and if you haven’t told him by then, I will.”

“I promise I’ll call him today,” Jules said, though she didn’t see the value of it. From the looks of things, her promises didn’t seem to be worth that much anyway.

“R
emind me why I’m doing this again?” Jules asked, emptying another box of CDs and tapes on top of the huge pile that had already accumulated on the floor of Triad’s basement.

“Because you’re trying to get me to forget about that crazy stunt you pulled with Truuth’s launch a few weeks ago,” ‘Dre said as he opened another dusty box to reveal more CDs.

“Excuse me? That ‘stunt’ is what helped your artist sell over fifty thousand albums in the first three weeks,” Jules said. “You should be helping me clean out my basement.”

‘Dre smirked. “You don’t have one.”

“Technicality,” Jules shot back. She stuck out her tongue at ‘Dre and ended up sputtering disgustedly as dust particles fell on her mouth.

‘Dre laughed, and Jules swatted at him.

The truth was, Jules was glad ‘Dre had asked her to help him out. It was just what she needed to distract her from the pathetic mess that had become her life.

She hadn’t told anyone, other than Davis, about her leave of absence. Maxine had found out because of the memo that had gone out to the hospital about departmental changes, but Jules had sworn her friend to secrecy and so far Maxine hadn’t said
anything to anyone. Jules knew her friends would be sympathetic, but she really didn’t feel like being pitied. So she spent most of the hours when she would have been at work, holed up in her apartment. When ‘Dre called, it took all that Jules had to act unenthused. It had only been a few days, but she was already going stir crazy being off work. She was glad for the opportunity to get away from her home, even if it meant cleaning out Triad’s filthy basement. But there was no way she would let ‘Dre know that.

“You know, you owe me big time for this,” Jules said, laughing. “Nobody else would help you do this, not even Tanya.”

“You know Tanya has asthma, Jules,” ‘Dre said. “If she came anywhere down here, we’d have to hook her up to a ventilator for a week.”

“Yeah, down here is pretty much a dust bin,” Jules said, looking around at Triad’s forgotten second basement.

It was initially supposed to be a storage space, but now it looked more like a garbage space that had become the permanent resting place for demo tapes and dead tracks. All the discarded music that Triad had accumulated in the last few years was scattered before them. It probably would have remained down there for another three years if ‘Dre hadn’t decided to turn the space into a much needed second studio. Jules had suggested that the artists who would be using the new studio be the ones to clean it out, but somehow she and ‘Dre had ended up stuck with the task.

“So are we tossing all of these or what?” Jules asked, looking around at the piles of music.

“I don’t know,” ‘Dre said. “There are a lot of memories in here.”

He riffled through the pile on the floor and pulled out a CD that looked so old, it was probably one of the first compact discs ever made.

“This was my first demo, from when I wanted to be a gospel singer,” ‘Dre said, as he held up the disc.

Jules laughed. “You’ve got to be kidding. You wanted to be a gospel singer?”

“Yeah,” ‘Dre said. “And I was good too.”

Jules grabbed the disc from his hand and slipped it into the CD player they had brought downstairs with them. “I have to hear this for myself.”

Only moments later, ‘Dre’s scratchy, wobbly voice wafted through the speakers, doing a poor rendition of an old Kirk Franklin song.

Jules burst out in laughter. “Oh, no, ‘Dre, please tell me you didn’t send this to actual record producers.”

“I did,” ‘Dre said, grinning. “I sent it to some execs at Integrity Records.”

“Ho-lee!” Jules exclaimed, covering her face in empathetic embarrassment. “What did they say?”

“Nothing,” ‘Dre said, trying not to laugh. “They didn’t even write me back.”

Jules tried to contain her laughter. “I can imagine. What made you think you could be a singer?”

“I don’t know?” ‘Dre said, smiling. “I knew I loved music. I thought that being a singer was the only way to go. I didn’t know anything about producing or artist development yet.”

He looked thoughtful as he remembered the early days. “It was actually Tanya who put me on to all of this.”

“Really?” Jules asked. She hadn’t known that.

“Oh, yeah,” ‘Dre said, throwing a couple cracked CDs into a half-full garbage bag. “She was the anchor that prevented the whole idea of Triad from drifting off to sea.”

He smirked. “Sometimes I used to think that it was all her baby, and I was just the front man she needed to make it happen. But even with all her business smarts, she never doubted my ideas.

“If we were at an event, and I heard someone singing, and I said, I want to produce that artist, she would say, ‘Okay, let’s do it.’ She never said, ‘ ‘Dre, we don’t have a studio,’ or ‘ ‘Dre, we don’t have the money,’ or ‘ ‘Dre, we’ve never done this before.’ She always just … made it happen.”

Jules leaned back on her elbows and watched the pure admiration flow over ‘Dre’s face as he talked about Tanya. It was almost
as if he had forgotten Jules was there. She smiled. Maxine was right. They were perfect for each other.

“You have a crush on her, don’t you,” Jules said when ‘Dre had stopped talking.

“On who? Tanya? What—No,” ‘Dre said, looking all flustered. He began pulling random discs from the pile and tossing them into the garbage bag without looking at them.

Jules smirked. He had a crush all right. A big one.

“‘Dre, please,” Jules said, rolling her eyes. “Listen to yourself. You talk about her like she’s a gift from God, and you know you couldn’t go two days without seeing her.”

“That’s ‘cause she’s part owner of my business,” ‘Dre replied. “A business that is the sole representation of my entire financial worth. You bet I’m gonna keep an eye on her.”

“That’s not what I mean ‘Dre, and you know it,” Jules said, sitting up. “I bet half the time you and Tanya are together, you’re not even talking about Triad.”

‘Dre shifted uncomfortably and refused to meet Jules’s eye. “Maybe.”

“And she’s the only girl who has the passwords to your BlackBerry, right?”

“That’s just in case of emergency …”

“And when you signed your first artist to a major recording label, who did you buy a custom-made Tudor watch, inset with white diamonds? Who, ‘Dre?”

“She was a big part of making the deal happen. She deserved it,” ‘Dre said defensively.

Jules cocked her head to the side and looked at her friend. “You do have a little bit of a thing for her, don’t you,” Jules said coaxingly. ‘Dre tried to keep his face neutral, but couldn’t stop the smile that curved his lips.

“I knew it! I knew it!” Jules exclaimed, falling back on the ground.

“Jules, you can’t say anything, please,” ‘Dre said seriously.

“But why? You guys would be great together,” Jules said, propping her head up on one arm so she could look at ‘Dre.

“Come on, Jules, have you seen Tanya? She’s beautiful, and
smart and funny, and she has this personality that just lights up a room. What would she want with me?”

Jules was amazed. The way ‘Dre talked, you would think he was a hunchback. But ‘Dre was no slouch. He was a good height at six feet, with even, caramel-toned skin, and finely chiseled features that easily went from pretty boy cute in one moment to business sharp in the next.

In addition, all that running around, setting up venues and lifting speakers, seemed to have done wonders for his physique. In fact, if Jules had been into light-skinned guys, she probably would have been interested in him herself. But he wasn’t her type. And it was a good thing too, for even though he didn’t know it yet, ‘Dre’s heart already belonged to Tanya.

“She’ll want the same thing that every other girl wants with you,” Jules said knowingly. “Plus, you’re honest, trustworthy, and a good, God-fearing brother. And in case no one told you, those are pretty hard qualities to find.”

“I hear you, Jules, but I’m not too sure about that,” he said. “Just promise me you won’t say anything to her about it.”

Jules looked up to the ceiling. Enough with the promises.

“Okay, I promise,” she said. “But you’ve got to promise me that if the opportunity comes, you’ll go for it.”

“I don’t know, Jules….”

“Promise! Or I’ll leave you alone down here to die in this dungeon of bad music and dust.”

‘Dre laughed. “Okay, I promise. Now can we get back to work?”

“No, I think it’s time for a pizza break. And since I’m doing all this for you, you can pay.”

‘Dre shook his head as he followed Jules up the stairs to the kitchen.

As soon as they got to the top of the stairs, the phone rang. While ‘Dre went to get it, Jules went in search of the phone book.

“Yeah, I’m near one…. Okay, I’m turning it on now.”

Jules shuffled back to the living room when she heard ‘Dre turn on the television.

“What channel did you say?”

‘Dre flipped the station to channel eight, to the nine o’clock news. The sound was down, but the images showed a raging fire taking place downtown. As Jules peered closer and recognized the location, her heart stopped.

“Oh, my God,” she whispered, as she watched the Sound Lounge burn.

She took the remote from ‘Dre and turned up the sound.

“… This popular lounge near Dundas Street and Parliament Street downtown was the scene of a violent confrontation between drug dealers and the police. Despite the damage, no one was hurt. However, the police did arrest several men on charges related to drug trafficking. The arrests were part of an ongoing investigation by the police to crack down on major drug dealers in this area of the city….”

Jules’s blood ran cold through her veins, and she reached for the couch to steady herself.

“Jules, that was Truuth,” ‘Dre said, returning to the room, with his and Jules’s jackets in hand. “We’ve got to go.”

“Where are we going?”

“To the police station.”

Jules tapped her fingers on the armrest, as ‘Dre weaved his way through the evening traffic to the police station on Dundas Street.

“You okay?” he asked, glancing at her.

“I’m fine,” Jules said, with more edge than she intended.

She didn’t want to admit to herself that Truuth wasn’t the only person she was worried about. She kept replaying her conversation with Davis’s friend, Detective Hansen, in her mind. She had told him everything Germaine had told her, and he had said he would have some officers look into it. He was supposed to give her a call in a couple days to let her know if their digging had turned up anything useful. He hadn’t called, and she had hoped that had meant he hadn’t found anything. So much for that.

A few moments later they pulled into the station yard. They found Maxine leaning against Truuth’s car, waiting for them

“What happened, Max? Where’s Truuth?” ‘Dre asked.

“He’s inside,” Maxine said. “He said I should wait out here—didn’t want me in there, with all that was going on.”

“I’m going in,” ‘Dre said, already moving toward the door. “Both of you wait out here.”

“Hey, you can’t tell me what to—”

“Jules, please, just wait out here. I’ll be back in a minute.”

Before she could offer any further protest, he was gone. Jules was about to ignore his orders and follow him inside when Maxine grabbed her arm.

“Hold up, there’s something you should know before you charge in there.”

Jules stopped and turned to look at Maxine.

Maxine looked around the parking lot before meeting Jules’s eyes. “Germaine is in there.”

Jules shrugged. “I figured he might be. Did they arrest him?”

Maxine nodded.

Jules sighed and joined Maxine in leaning against Truuth’s car. “What happened?”

Maxine frowned. “I’m not exactly sure. Truuth called me, said something went down at the Sound Lounge, and I should come pick him up at the police station.

“When I got here he came out and told me they busted some drug dealers at the store. I’m not sure how the fire got started, but they caught them anyway. I don’t know what Germaine has to do with it, but he’s in there.”

Maxine looked like she was about to cry. “I know I told you to talk to him, but … I’m sorry. You could have been in there. You could have been hurt….”