In a Cold Sweat (5 page)

“You know what?
 
Fuck you,” Bobby said and got up. “Fuck you and this self
doubtin
’ bullshit. You lettin’ that dream shit get to you.”

“How so?”

“Okay, you say in the dreams you don’t save Shy, never save her. As hard as you try, no matter what you do, Bart always kills Shy. Dream or not, what do you think all that ‘I can’t’ shit rollin’ around in your mind is doin’ to you?”

At first, I looked at Bobby like he was a fuckin’ fool. But then I thought about the dream I just had.
You had a plan the last time and he still killed me.
“In my dreams lately Cassandra’s starting to doubt me. Maybe she represented the part of my sub-conscience that is starting to doubt myself.” I looked at
Bobby,
he was looking at me like I was a fuckin’ fool. “Did that make any sense?”

“A little.”

“I could drive myself crazy tryin’ to figure that out. All I know is that I will find the mutha fucka behind it all, and I am gonna kill them.”

It was past midnight when Jackie left Travis’s house. She got in her Porsche Cayman S and drove down Bronxwood Avenue on her way to meet Freeze. It had been almost a week since Travis announced that he was done.

“Damn,” was all Jackie could say every time she thought about it. How could he just up and quit like that? Quit on her?

Jackie wasn’t selfish. She understood that he had just gotten shot. “If the situation were different,” she said out loud as she drove. “I’d probably be talkin’ that same shit myself.
 
But damn.”

Jackie had allowed herself to believe that once Travis started feeling better he would change his mind, or at the very least, agree to do one last big job. At least that way she would have a stake to go forward with. But that wasn’t the case. Travis was already up and around and had shown no signs of backing down.

At this point, Jackie knew that she was on her own and would have to come up with a plan if she was going to survive. She had briefly given some thought to trying to get a job as a chemist. After all, she had graduated from Rutgers University with a degree in chemistry and had worked for a few years at Frontier Pharmaceuticals before she was fired for insubordination after refusing to work on a project for Jake Rollins, her former boss on her own time. But that was years ago, before she became part robber, part gambler.

“Maybe I’ll put together my own robbin’ crew?”

That was definitely a possibility, but she didn’t have the planning skills that Travis had. She considered bringing somebody in to plan the job, but quickly abandoned that idea for one simple reason. “If they planned the job, what would they need me for?”

No, she would have to plan and control the job to run her own crew.

“If then else, Jackie. It’s just the logical progression of events,” Travis told her once when she asked how he came up with his plans. “If condition is true, the statements following are then executed. If condition is false, each else-if, if there are any, is evaluated in turn. When a true condition is found, the statements following the associated are then are executed. If none of the else-if statements are true, or there are no else-if clauses, the statements following else are executed. Put simply, if this happens, then
do
this, if that ain’t workin’, what else can you do?”

“It can’t be that simple,” Jackie had questioned.

“The key is to anticipate every possible condition and plan for it.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Yes you can. I know you can. You play poker, right?”

“Yeah, but that’s different,” Jackie reasoned.

“It’s no different. When you’re playin’ poker or any card game for that matter; you gotta always keep the objective in mind, naturally.”

“Naturally?”

“You have to look at what you got to work with and anticipate based on that to determine what the other players have. That dictates how you're gonna bet or how you play your cards. Same shit I do when I’m plannin’ a job.”

“But when I’m playin’, I’m doin’ all that shit on the fly, in the moment.”

“Okay, it’s different, but it’s the same. You just have to have discipline,” Travis told her that day.

Jackie knew that was the one thing she had none of; no discipline what so ever. A loyal slave to her passions was what Jackie was. If she saw it and she wanted it, she had to have it. And that included men… and women.
 
And the Porsche she was driving;

Jackie was out on the island in Huntington driving down Jericho Turnpike when she saw the car on the lot. Jackie took in the Cayman with her eyes and immediately fell in love with its curves. The salesman told her, “The Cayman S is armed with 3.4 liters of total swept volume and a maximum of 295 horsepower at 6250 rpm.
 
Maximum torque is 251 lb.-ft. at 4400 rpm.”

“What’s the top speed?” Jackie asked excitedly.

“One hundred and seventy-one miles per hour.”

“I’ll take it,” Jackie stated, not even questioning the price tag on the vehicle. All she knew was that she wanted it, therefore had to have it; no matter what the price.

Lately she’d been thinking that the move might have been just a little impulsive, but she loved that car and the idea of selling it was out of the question.

Now, her plan was simple; talk to Freeze and convince him to let her into the poker game that Mylo ran. Jackie knew that Freeze was a creature of habit. She knew that Freeze would be at the house or on his way there. So when Jackie suggested that she could meet him there, Freeze was agreeable. She had to get in that game. She had fifty thousand dollars, which was fifty thousand less than it took to buy in. Jackie was hopeful that once she explained her situation, Freeze would still let her in the game.

When Jackie drove past the house she saw that Freeze’s Navigator was parked a little ways down the street. She quickly parked her car and set the alarm. Once she told the doorman that she was there to see Freeze, she was allowed in the house.

Jackie entered the room where the game was being played and took it all in. She didn’t see Freeze anywhere, and naturally all of the players turned to check her out, dressed as she was in tight blue leather.
 
But quickly, they turned their attention back to their cards. Jackie’s eyes were focused squarely on the pile of chips that sat in the middle of the table and wondered how much money that represented.

 
Mylo came out of the office and walked straight towards her. Jackie knew Mylo well enough to speak to him, but they had never really talked. She just never liked the way he looked at her like she was a pork chop sandwich. “What’s up, Mylo?”

“You Jackie, right?” he asked, looking at her in exactly the manner which she couldn’t stand.

“Yeah.” She knew if she planned to be in this game, that Mylo was somebody she would have to deal with, so she would have to get used to it. “I’m here to meet Freeze. Is he here?” she asked even though she knew he was there.

“He’s back here waitin’ for you. Follow me.” Mylo then said quietly, “with your fine ass,” as he led Jackie into the bedroom that served as an office.

When Mylo opened the door, Freeze was sitting on the couch, talking on the phone. He looked up when he saw Jackie follow Mylo into the room. “I’ll get with you later, Tanya,” he said and pressed end on his cell phone.

Jackie smiled to herself when she heard Tanya’s name mentioned. She knew her very well. One night, several months ago, Jackie was at Cynt’s, one of the gambling houses that
was
run by Black’s organization, when Freeze came in with Tanya on his arm. At the time, she was barely holding her own in the game when she looked up and saw Tanya looking at her. Jackie smiled back at Tanya. When Freeze went into another room to talk to Cynt, Jackie cashed out and went to talk to Tanya.

“Hi, I’m Jackie.”

“Tanya.
 
How you doing?” she said in a sweet and sexy voice that made Jackie want her even more.

Jackie took a step closer. “I’m doin’ just fine tonight, honey.”

“I saw you playing; how did you do?”

“Not too good tonight, but I held my own.”

As the conversation continued, Jackie said, “I haven’t seen you here before.”

“Well, that’s because Freeze doesn’t like me to be around this stuff,” Tanya said.

Jackie understood all too well why that was. Freeze’s former girl friend, Paulleen, used to be around all time and used to be into everything and everybody. In fact, her former partner, Ronnie Grier, used to mess with her. Travis believed in his heart that it was Freeze that killed Ronnie. He remembered Freeze telling him one time when they were talking about how out of control Ronnie was and how that was bad for business. Freeze said, “Whatever I do is always business. Never personal, even if it seems that way. Remember that. And it will never have anything to do with you and me. Understand?”

Jackie wasn’t as convinced as Travis was that Freeze killed Ronnie, but she had no intentions of asking. She looked at Tanya and understood why Freeze kept her on ice and far away from predators like herself. Tanya was a very attractive woman with a body the begged for attention.

Jackie recalled how
her
and Tanya had agreed to go see
The One
at Impressions. They had a good time together and went out a few times before Jackie seduced her.

Jackie hadn’t told Travis that she was sexing Tanya because she knew what he’d say.
“Ronnie was fuckin’ Paulleen and he died for it. What you wanna mess with another one of Freeze’s women for? It’s a death sentence.”

Now she stood before her lover’s other lover about to ask him to do her a really big favor. “Jackie,” Freeze said and got up from the couch to greet her. “What’s up?”

“I’m good, Freeze, I’m good.”

Freeze gave Mylo a look that told him that his presence was not needed. “I’ll be out here if y’all need anything,” he said, and after waiting briefly for a response from Freeze or Jackie, which didn’t come, Mylo left the room and closed the door behind him.

“How’s Travis?” Freeze said and sat down.

“He doin’ a lot better. When I left to come here he was up and around.”

“I’m glad to hear it. Now, what the fuck were you niggas doin’ for Travis to get shot?”

“We were stealin’ some computer processors and shit went south for us.”

“How come I didn’t know anything about this?”

Jackie was puzzled by the question. She knew that Freeze liked to be on top of everything that went on and insisted that Travis brief him before they did anything. But since he was asking the question, she knew that wasn’t the case. “It was a job that Monika turned him on to. He’d been doing some jobs with her.”

“I know that.”

“Well,” Jackie said and took a step back. “Monika passed on the job because she thought it was too much of a risk, but Travis felt that he could do it, so we went for it.”

“Maybe next time somebody tells you some shit like that, y’all should listen,” Freeze told her definitely.

“
That’s
not gonna be an issue anymore. After he got shot, Travis said he was done.”

“No shit?” Freeze asked.

“Yup, that’s what he said,” Jackie replied and sat down next to him on the couch.

“I wouldn’t worry too much about that, Jackie. Once he starts feeling better and starts missin’ that paper, he’ll be back.”

“I thought that too, but he says he
don’t
need to do this no more. That he got enough money saved and his house in Connecticut is paid for, and since the economy is gettin’ better, he could live
good
with a job and the money he got saved.”