Payback

'You have any advice for me? ’Cause I really am trying to make money. Yes, I enjoy the game, the tension, the anticipation, the camaraderie, all that good shit, but I need to make money. I ain’t making money like I used to.'

'Then you have to learn some discipline. Get yourself and your emotions under control like you would be when you’re doin’ a job. And the most important thing is that you know how much money you want to make every time you sit down. When you’re gambling, you’re gonna win some and you’re gonna lose some. But if you’re any type of player, at some point during the night, you are going to have in front of you the amount of money you wanna make. Get up and say goodnight.'

'Discipline.'

'Jackie, I’ve seen you with ten, fifteen grand in front of you and then watched you lose it all. Discipline. You see, what the house wants is to keep you there and keep you coming back, because sooner or later, you’re gonna lose.'

With that thought in mind, Jackie made a few changes the next time she sat down at the table; changes not only to her look, but to her attitude. Focus and discipline, baby, ’cause Jackie is here to get paid. She figured that if they were paying that much attention to her face, she would give them something else to look at. Her new 'uniform' became a tight red leather jumpsuit that zipped up the front, which she opened just far enough to give everybody an excellent view of her cleavage. She even wore a push-up bra to make the twins outstanding.

On this particular night, her attire was a black leather jacket and pants. Jackie had on sunglasses, and her hair hung over the frames. When Travis and Freeze approached her, Jackie was raking in a nice-sized pot. Travis tapped her on the shoulder. 'Jackie.'

'What’s up, Travis?'

'Let me holla at you, Jackie.'

Jackie turned around and lookedto look at Travis and saw Freeze standing next to him. 'Hello, Freeze.' Jackie pulled back from the table and stood up. 'This must be something important.'

'Of course it is,' Freeze said and looked around the table. 'Otherwise I wouldn’t bother you.' This stopped any grumbles about Jackie leaving before they got started.

Jackie looked down at the money she had in front of her, trying to decide whether she needed to come back. 'Fellas, as much as I’d love to stay here and continue to take your money, I gotta say goodnight.'

Once they were away from the table, Jackie asked, 'What’s up?'

'I need you to watch my back,' Freeze replied. 'You armed?'

Jackie unbuttoned her jacket and opened both sides to reveal her now signature push-up bra and a 9- millimeter in each holster. 'Always armed and extremely dangerous.'

Travis and Jackie followed behind Freeze until he saw Cynt coming toward him. 'Where they at, Cynt?' Freeze asked.

Cynt looked around her spot. 'There were three of them, but I don’t see them now,' she replied. 'No, wait. There they are.'

'Where?'

Cynt pointed them out. 'The two of them over by the bar,' she said, and Freeze wasted no time heading in their direction.

Travis and Jackie had to walk quickly to keep up with Freeze. As he walked, Freeze took a gun out of his left pocket and held it close to his side. Travis and Jackie took out their guns and Freeze grabbed a bottle off a table as he passed.

'Hey, muthafucka!' Freeze yelled over the music.

One of the men turned toward him. At that moment, Freeze smashed the bottle into his face and pointed the barrel of his gun in the face of the other. 'Thought you dumb niggas woulda learned something from last night. Maybe this will convince y’all,' Freeze said as he cocked the hammer.

As Freeze prepared to shoot, he didn’t see the third man, who Cynt had told him about, pulling out his gun. But Jackie did.

'Freeze! Look out!' Jackie yelled. She raised her weapon and fired twice, hitting him in the chest with both shots.

Freeze fired his weapon and killed one of the men. Travis pointed his gun to the head of the man Freeze busted with the bottle.

'No!' Freeze yelled. 'Don’t kill him.'

With his gun still pointed at the man’s head, Travis took a step back slowly. Freeze grabbed the man’s shirt with one hand and a bottle with the other. 'You tell D-Train to stay the fuck out my spots!' Freeze yelled and smashed another bottle into his face before dragging him out into the street. 'Take those two to the parlor.'

Travis looked at Jackie, who was still standing there with her gun raised. Travis took the gun out of her hand and put his arm around her as they left the spot. 'Don’t worry, Jackie. You did what you had to do.'

Chapter Five

It was after 11 p.m. when Mike and Nick arrived at the airport in Miami. As soon as they got off the plane, Mike turned on his cell phone and it rang.

'I’m at the airport. Where are you?' asked Bobby.

'We just got here. We’re going to rent a car. Meet us there.'

While Mike talked to Bobby, Nick stood by and listened nervously. This would be the first time that he saw Bobby since the night Bobby threatened to kill him. After that night, Nick joined the Army.

He became part of a special operations unit. On their last assignment, they were stationed in South America, working on an illegal drug eradication effort. They were killing drug dealers, blowing up drug plants, and seizing financial records. However, something went wrong on their final assignment, and the plant blew up with the servicemen still inside. Only three members of the unit, Nick, Jett Bronson, and Monika Wynn got out alive.

They were flown back to Fort Bragg, where they were promptly debriefed and processed out. A man who called himself Uncle Felix approached them the day after. He recruited them to do jobs for him that required their special skills. Jett’s specialty was electronic surveillance, and computers. Monika’s specialty was munitions. Nick’s specialty was weapons and special tactics.

Felix set them up in a front business as private investigators. To maintain their cover, they actually did some surveillance jobs. The real money was in doing those little jobs for Felix; hacking into computer systems, some light demolition, and the occasional termination. They would do jobs that couldn’t be done through normal channels.

It was after Chilly’s wife, Gee, hired them for a missing persons case that things started to go wrong for the trio. When it was all over, Felix and their Army commander, the General, were dead, as was Jett and Monika was in the hospital after an attempt on her life. Nick had flown to the Bahamas to recuperate after the ordeal, and that was when all hell broke loose in Black’s club.

And now, here he was standing with Mike, knowing he had no choice but to face Bobby again after all these years. Even though he didn’t think that Bobby would pull out his gun and shoot him on sight, the idea of finally having to confront Bobby made Nick very apprehensive.

Before all the shooting started, he had talked openly about the situation with Shy, more openly than he had with anybody. Shy told him that it was about betrayal. When Nick betrayed Bobby’s trust, she pointed out, 'You said you felt like you betrayed everybody.'

'And?' Nick asked.

'That includes you. You betrayed yourself. And that’s what hurts you,' Shy told Nick. 'So, now that you know the whole story, you’re gonna have to forgive yourself for what happened. You were just a pawn in whatever game this woman was playing. Maybe when you forgive yourself, it will be easier for you to ask Bobby to forgive you.' Nick understood that, and he even pretty much agreed with her.

But that was then. Now Shy had been kidnapped, and Bobby was in Miami to help Mike look for her. Nick would have preferred better circumstances to put this Camille business to rest.