Assariyah (9 page)

“Open the door now,” Dino yelled, not giving John a chance to answer he broke down the door instantly. Rushing in he grabbed John off me and punched him in the face, John punched him back. The two men began to scuffle until Dino finally overpowered John. Dino kicked John in his balls causing him to fall to the ground in excruciating pain, “You sick fuck, I’m gonna make sure you never forget this day. Come here Rose, imprint your initials on this punk’s forehead,” he handed me John’s knife.

I was trembling all over, I wanted to hurt him so badly but couldn’t. Shaking my head I told Dino that I couldn’t do it. He was furious, “You can’t let him get away with this shit Rose.”

Dino took the knife off me and carved my initials ‘RM’ into the middle of John’s forehead. It was a sickening sight, blood was gushing out of his skin and he screamed out in agony.

“Rose Monet, don’t you ever forget that sick bastard,” I spat on his face before walking out.

Dino carried me out through the back door of the hostel. “I’m so sorry Rose, I promised to never let anything happen to you and I let you down.”

“It’s not your fault D, thank you for coming through when you did.” He tried to convince me to go to the hospital but I insisted that I was okay, I just needed to rest. Dino stayed with me that night, I didn’t want to be alone.

I woke up around noon the next day. My body still ached tremendously and I couldn’t get the images out of my head. I was so jumpy, every sound I heard made me panic. I forgot that Dino had stayed the night and screamed when I heard movements in my kitchen.

“Relax Rose, it’s only me,” Dino said, as he brought me breakfast in bed. I couldn’t eat it and pushed it aside.

“How are you feeling?” Dino asked.

Without saying a word I rested my head on his shoulders, I needed to feel safe.

“Rose I want you to have this. I bought it for you this morning. Make sure you carry it with you on every job.”

I looked down at the Snub-nose .38 special Dino held out for me and told him I couldn’t take it. I no longer felt safe, I had to leave Precision Escorts. What if I wasn’t so lucky next time? I couldn’t deal with this shit anymore.

“Precision won’t be the same without you Rose, but I respect your wishes.”

I smiled and gave him a tight hug, “Thanks D.”

“Look, Rose I want you to have this it will make me sleep better.”

I took the pistol from Dino and hugged him again. He kissed me on my forehead. “Stay beautiful and don’t you ever think twice about pulling that trigger.”

I closed the door behind Dino and fell to the ground weeping. If only I felt as beautiful on the inside as everyone kept telling me that I looked on the outside. That’s the thing about life though, everything is never what it really appears to be but, by the time most people realise this, it is already too late. I was in deep and I knew that I would have to dig deeply to find myself once again. Enough was enough. I would not continue to dance to the beat of someone else’s drum.

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I had made up my mind that I would not do the whole escort thing again. I already
said my goodbyes to Dino and Isabella so the last person I expected to show up on my caller I.D was Isabella. At first when the phone rang I was sure she had dialled my number in error so I left the phone to ring out but then she called for the second, third and fourth time. In the end I picked up to find out what she wanted. I prayed that nothing bad had happened to Dino. John was a psycho, what if he had gone after Dino? All sorts of crazy thoughts were running through my mind.

“Hey Isabella, is everything okay?”

“Aah yes everything is fine darling. How are you holding up?” She didn’t give me a chance to answer, “I’m sorry about what happened to you Rose but business just isn’t the same without you. Won’t you please consider coming back?”

I was shocked by what I was hearing, “I can’t believe you would even ask me that Isabella. In case you’ve forgotten I nearly died on the last job I did for you.” I was so offended.

“Rose I really wouldn’t ask this of you if it wasn’t important. I’m asking you for one last favour please.”

“No way Isabella, I’m staying out the game.”

She pleaded, “At least listen to the details first.”

I knew it had to be pretty serious because Isabella wasn’t the type to beg for anything.

“Two weeks in Miami, all expenses paid, plus seventy grand for each week you are out there.”

“I’m not interested, you’re gonna have to send one of the other girls.”

“Don’t you think I’ve already tried that? The client will not hear of it, he wants you. He saw your profile online a couple of weeks before we took it down and he called to enquire about you. Do this last job my V.I.P doll and you’ll have over one hundred grand behind you. Think about it,” she said and put the phone down promptly.

I listened to the sound of the rain falling against my window pane and reflected on my life. A week had gone by since my last conversation with Isabella. Ever since then I had been in a state of hibernation. I’d stayed in bed watching the minutes run into hours and the hours turning into days. My life was one big mess. I had no friends, no husband or children and had not spoken to my family in months. In hindsight I really had nothing to lose if I took the job. I wanted to cry but couldn’t, I was all out of tears.

Isabella’s proposal weighed heavily on my mind but I still couldn’t come to a decision. I decided to leave it in the hands of fate and tossed a coin in the air. Heads for Miami, tails for London. Fate had decided, I dragged myself out of bed and went shopping. It was wet outside but popping tags always made me feel better so it was a small price to pay.

I stacked up on several luxury pieces but my favourite purchase was a camouflage Rose gown by Alexander McQueen, it was beyond fabulous. The man had been a creative genius. I really couldn’t imagine the fashion world without him now that he was gone. I grabbed my Louis luggage and dumped my new items into them. I was rubbish at packing, more times than not I packed way too much stuff. The travelling light gene definitely skipped me but someone had to show those Americans how we Europeans got down when it came to Fashion.

I had a preliminary meeting with Stephen Richards in the Garden Room at Lanesborough Hotel later on that evening. When I walked in, he spotted me and signalled for me to come over to his table. At a first glance, he left me feeling breathless. He was so handsome, I’m talking about Morris Chestnut eat your heart out type of handsome. Next to Tyler he was probably the second hottest guy I had ever seen in my life.

“Good evening beautiful, what can I get you to drink?” Stephen asked, as he lit a Cuban cigar. Not wanting anything too strong, I ordered a Malibu and pineapple. I sat inhaling the smoke from Stephen’s cigar and wondered why I always got stuck with the smokers. This was probably Shelia’s idea of a joke from up above. It was always a bitter sweet moment whenever I smelt or saw someone light a cigarette in my presence, I couldn’t help but think of her. I imagined what she thought of me at that moment. A sense of shame fell over me, I promised myself this was my last job, hoping that she could read my thoughts wherever she was.

Once my drink arrived, Stephen handed me a briefcase full of money. “I apologise that this is a very brief meeting but I trust that you have all the details you need.”

I nodded my head, I didn’t have time to count the money but from the weight of the case alone I knew it was sound.

“Good, as you know I’m flying out tomorrow night so I’ll be there waiting for you. See you in a couple of days.”

I wished him a safe journey and left.

On my way back home I held on to the briefcase for dear life. I hailed down a black cab which literally dropped me outside my house but that didn’t stop me from looking over my shoulders every five seconds. Carrying all that money had me on edge. When I finally got home I was super relieved. I immediately emptied the contents of the briefcase unto my bed. Brand-new crisp fresh fifty-pound notes scattered all over my bed, Sir John Houblon never looked so good! I grabbed a stack and sniffed it. I loved the smell of money, it made me so excited and I couldn’t stop myself from screaming as I tossed it in the air.

Money over everything I repeated to myself as I counted the money over and over again. Stephen had paid half of the money straight away, the second half would be paid when the job was completed. I counted seventy-three thousand pounds in total. The extra three grand was for me to book my flight. I counted the money one last time and took out Isabella’s deduction, minus fourteen-thousand pounds. Damn it hurt! That was always the most painful part for me, giving her money for my hard work, but it had to be done.

I flipped open my MacBook Pro and searched for flights from London Heathrow to Miami International. I preferred booking my own flights, it was less hassle that way and prevented clients from finding out that my name wasn’t really Rose Monet but Assariyah Jones. The less they knew about me the better, especially now that I was leaving the game for good.

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I looked at my alarm clock, it read 08:30am. It took a while for my brain to register the
time but when it did, I immediately went into panic mode and jumped out of bed. Shit! I had a flight to catch, how could I have overslept? I woke up an hour later than I had planned which threw me completely off balance. I ran around like a headless chicken trying to get all my shit together. I literally just popped out the shower when the chauffeur from Virgin Atlantic arrived to take me to the airport. Ground transfers were part of the perks of upper class bookings.

Luckily I had laid out my airport outfit the night before. I threw on a pair of black skin-tight jeans and a black T-shirt cut out in the shape of a butterfly. I had no time to do my make-up and grabbed my all black Gucci shades from the breakfast table as I was heading out. They were a life saver, they disguised all beauty sins that came in the form of dark circles and bags as a result of sleep deprivation on my part.

The driver put my bags in the car. “Miss Jones, hope you’ve got everything, passport, tickets, money,” he said just before pulling off.

Yawning, I replied, “I’m sure I have.” I was about to lay back and sleep when something told me to look in my bag for safe measure.

“Shit! Oh my gosh turn around,” I instructed the driver. “My passport isn’t in my bag.”

“You’ll need to be quick, if you don’t want to miss your flight. We are running slightly off schedule.”

I hated when people stated the obvious. I replied slightly irritated, “Well there is no point in being on schedule without my passport.”

I ran as fast as the Louboutin open toe booties I was wearing would let me. The front door was double locked, taking double the time to open it. Time was against me and everything just seemed to take
double long. I glanced at my watch, it was 09:30am, the flight was due to depart at 11:15am. Fuck! I had to be super quick. I searched my bedroom frantically, practically turning it upside down but it wasn’t there. I created the same mess in the living room but I didn’t find it there either. The driver was tooting his horn downstairs which wasn’t helping my nerves. I took a deep breath and decided to retrace my steps again.

U-N-F-U-C-K-I-N-G B-E-L-I-E-V-A-B-L-E! The shit was on my breakfast table. It had been staring at me all along. Trust me to remember my shades but leave my passport behind. I was so back to front some times. I couldn’t help laughing at myself and hurried back downstairs.

“Got it,” I said, waving my passport at the driver.

“I’m not sure we will make it on time,” he replied.

I pleaded, “Please try and drive as fast as you can,” and sat back praying for the best.

We didn’t arrive at the airport until 10:30am. I wasn’t sure I’d make it but I had to try. We rushed through Terminal 3 at Heathrow and headed to Virgin’s check-in point. I managed to check my bags in fairly quickly, because I was travelling first class, I didn’t have to queue for hours in line to check in. I thanked the driver for his help and made my way through to security.

The announcements showed that my flight VS005 had already started boarding. I heard my name being called for the flight and ran towards the gate after being cleared by security. I was the last to board so the whole plane was staring at me because I had kept them waiting. I was slightly embarrassed but was more happy that I actually caught my flight. I sat back and wiped the beads of sweat from my forehead. In about nine hours or so I would be in Miami.

We landed around 4pm local time, I was pleased to see that my luggage had also arrived safely. I had too many valuable goods in them and couldn’t afford for anything to go missing. I grabbed a trolley for convenience and was about to call a taxi when I spotted a chauffeur holding a card with my name on it. I totally forgot that ground transfers applied on the other end of the trip too.

I walked up to him and greeted him, “Hello, I’m Assariyah Jones.”

He shook my hand and smiled. “Good afternoon Miss Jones. How was your flight?”

“We had a little turbulence but other than that there is not much to complain about when you’re in first class.”

We both laughed and proceeded to the car. I confirmed that I was staying at the Setai hotel on Collins Avenue, which was situated right in the heart of South Beach. I looked out the window, admiring the beautiful palm trees lined up on the streets as the driver and I engaged in small talk. I was already in love with the place. The sun was shining, with the temperature at 32ºc, Miami was a tropical paradise and I was so glad to be away from freezing London.