Page 124 of Lavish
“I know you not talking. Wasn’t you just busting it open on a yacht?” Laurene glared at her.
“My coochie only gets wet when his bank account has several zeros and commas in it. Nothing less. I’m highly expensive.” Gigi blew her a kiss.
“We’re talking about me.” I pointed to myself.
“Rude, but y’all in there hunching, don’t lie.” Gigi shot me a look.
I sighed and nodded. Laurene and Gigi screamed their heads off.
“Yes!” Gigi said. “Tell Reese to run me my money.”
“I swear, I told G you were glowing,” Laurene gushed.
“Get a life,” I said, shaking my head.
I rolled my eyes up to the ceiling, and Gigi went back to the rack and searched again. I didn’t realize the polo match had a strict dress code, and I needed to shop for something new.
“You’re almost thirty, Serena. Should you really be dressing like Hillary Clinton and Kamala Harris with all those pantsuits?” She plucked a dress off the rack—a sleek yellow number with a plunging neckline—and held it up against me. “Show some ass.”
“She is showing ass.” Laurene gave a devilish smirk.
I shouldn’t have told them anything.
“You gotta use them repressed feminine wiles. You have amazing legs, Rena, don’t hide them.”
This was not what I came here for.
My mind was on Jenese. That manuscript still sat like a ticking bomb—coded names, thinly veiled stories, and just enough truth to set fire to everything I’d built. I’d gotten distracted by Miles but I had to get it together.
There were gaps in her story.
The last time I saw Jenese was in New York. Right after our failed sting. I knew she’d been hanging out with a man, but she wouldn’t tell me his name. A reverse image search got me the name Roman Tolland. Hedge fund billionaire.
Gigi waved a short orange dress in my face.
“What about this? Too obvious?”
I blinked. “Huh?”
“You didn’t hear a word I said.”
What was the shocker last night was I found an old photo of Roman with Jenese on his arm. It was at some charity gala. Next to them was a couple. A lovely younger woman.
And Dante Castillo.
Jenese fucking knew Dante.He knew her.
“And you need to give me your perspective on what went down at the family dinner. Lu said shit went left. Was Erik about to fight Miles?” Gigi looked at me with wide eyes.
“Erik didn’t fight Miles. They just had…a disagreement.” I shook my head. “Again, not your business.”
She plucked another dress off the rack, this one a bold red, and held it up with a critical eye. “Ooh, this one might actually make you look like a woman instead of a walking corporate PowerPoint presentation.”
The second job for Jenese, the damn blackmail, I’d been hoping to forget it. But I couldn’t. The suffocating weight of it all—it was eating me alive. And I knew I couldn’t let this continue. If I let her goad me into this, what else would she want?
“Talk to me, Rena. I mean I know y’all just think I’m here for fun and my looks, but I can be deep,” Gigi said.
Laurene finally put her book down. “We all wanna know how you’re handling being married to Miles.”
