“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?”