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BEFORE EPIFANIA CALLED the next morning, Alex and I were already up, already showered and caffeinated, and already dressed and packed so that we’d be ready in the event we needed to get on a plane as soon as possible.
Instead of choosing a jet from Wenn Air’s fleet, Blackwell had secured a private plane with a different company to take us to Las Vegas—just in case Rowe somehow learned that we’d left the city, and tried to find out where we were going.
Because we weren’t using one of Wenn’s jets, nobody would be able to tell him where we were because only Blackwell and Tank would know. Blackwell would just blink her eyes at him and say nothing in typical Blackwell form, which would infuriate Rowe to his core. And since Tank was coming with us and no longer worked for Wenn, he was out of Rowe’s sights completely. With a careful hand, we’d forged a plan that appeared as foolproof as possible to us. There was no reason to be concerned that Rowe would somehow find out that we were planning to visit his mistress in person.
Unless Epifania doesn’t come through, I thought. And as well-intentioned as she was last night, that’s still a big if...
When she did call at six, Alex and I gave a start, we looked at each other over the kitchen island, and then he grabbed the cell next to him and put it on ‘speaker’ so I could listen to the conversation.
“Hello?” he said.
“Alex, it Epifaaaaniaaah,” she said in a cheerful voice.
“Epifania,” he said. “Thanks for calling. I hope you have good news for us.”
“Oh, Epifania about to bring on the great news. Here what I found out last night, the cookie. Yanis for sure now living in the city of the sin, which makes the perfect sense to the me. Apparently, Rowe and his hoitsy-toitsy wife, Meredith, own some super fancy penthouse at the Donald Trump’s Turnberry Towers there, which Yanis said was just off the Streep. She tol’ me that no one is supposed to know anything about it. It all supposed to be hush-hush. ‘Just like our relationship,’ is what she said. And believe me, when she said that, it was with an edge.”
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “And then Yanis went there. Then everything get to the personal.”
Alex shot me a concerned look. “What did she say?” he asked.
“She spill the beans, that’s what Yanis did.”
“What kind of beans did she spill?”
“Let’s just say that those beans were fried and refried to the point that they smelled like the sheet.”
“Can you elaborate?”
“What that mean? I don’ know what that mean.”
“Can you tell me more?”
“Cookie, I’m here to tell you everything. Look, Yanis tell me that she been out there alone for two weeks—give or take. I can’t remember. Doesn’t matter. Something like that. What matters is that Yanis is peesed off because she feel that Stephen abandon her. He barely call her anymore. He say he busy. He say she need to understand. But according to Yanis, what he need to understand is that she has no friends out there. No one to talk to. No one to hang out with. He also put her on an allowance, which she feels is beneath her since he never put her on one before. Even though she in Vegas—with all the sparkly lights, the nice shopping, the good food at the great restaurants—she a New York City girl at heart, and she bored out of her mind living in that desert. She angry as hell about the situation.”
“Is there more to the situation?”
“Oh, sure. About year ago—two years into their relationship, I guess—Rowe tol’ Yanis that he was going to leave Meredith for her. Yanis was super excited! Yanis tol’ me that she in love with Stephen. But who we kidding—Yanis also want to become reech, and Rowe paves the way straight to the money! But now whole year has passed, and nothing has happened. Stephen still with Meredith. And Yanis is starting to feel like she just being jerked around by this guy. She doesn’t know what to do, so I tell her what to do.”
“What does that mean?” Alex asked.
“Look, I know you tol’ me to say nothing to Yanis about your situation or that you wanted to see her, but Epifania see opportunity in Yanis’ rage! So, I tol’ her everything—the whole mess—and that you wanted to meet with her.”
At that, I just closed my eyes and feared what was to come. Epifania had blown it for us—I was certain about it. And by the look on Alex’s face, he felt the same.
“She ask me the why. I tol’ her the why. And guess what? Yanis intrigued! She know that Stephen took your job, Alex. She get it. And like I said, she peesed off at him. We talked and we talked, and by the time it was over, she say she willing to meet you!”
“You’re joking?” I said.
“Yennifer? You on the line, too?”
“I am, Epifania.”
“You look so pretty the last night. That blinged-out sling of yours made the Page Six this morning. Have you seen it yet?”
We’d been so busy getting ready, we hadn’t even looked at the morning papers. Bernie and Blackwell had said it would happen, but my stomach still sank at the thought of it. “I haven’t,” I said. “But now I’m dreading it.”
“Don’t! It all good! They said great things about you and Alex. They say that the prince and princess of New York are alive, well, and back! Because it nearly Gay Pride, they probably waiting to say the word ‘queen’ later on, so don’t take offense! You the city’s prince and princess!”
“Epifania,” Alex said. “When does Janice want to meet us?”
“She expects you today,” she said. “I tol’ her I be calling you at six. She said if you got on a plane by nine, with the five-and-a-half hour flight and the time difference, you’d be in Las Vegas around noon. So, she looking forward to seeing you later tonight. Five sharp her time. You’re to go to the, what is it? Let me check my notes again. The Donald Trump Turnberry Towers. She is in one of the penthouse Dream condos there. Top floor, where I guess she find the dreams. Or the nightmares. Who knows? Ask for her when you enter the lobby, and she call for you. And my cookies, if I know my Yanis, which I do, and if you want information out of her, which I know you do, here’s a big teep—bring your checkbooks just to be safe. Yanis gonna have time to think. Yanis might decide to go all quiet on you—you never know. I think she does want to be with Stephen, and because of that, she might work herself into a white hot frenzy of self doubt about the whole thing. Let’s hope that doesn’t happen. Because if it does, if some part of her still believe that she and Stephen will marry one day, I gotta say it to you—I think you’re going to be the screwed.”
