I woke up to Maximo pulling me to a standing position. “Get up, we are here.” He was pissed. He wouldn’t look at me.
We got off the plane and I saw a familiar face, Tazio. “Hello Ms. Martin, welcome back.” He smiled as he opened the door of the car for Maximo, Ali, and me. I returned his smile.
“Thanks, Taz. It feels good to be back.” I had a flat in New Orleans I stayed at when I was down here. We headed towards the flat. It was a 4-bedroom, 4.5 bathroom flat with a full kitchen, dining room, sitting room, and patio overlooking the city. This is where Ali was going to be living with her daughter while she ran my club. The car pulled up downstairs and I pulled out the keycard from a locked box in the lobby.
“Hello again, Ms. Martin!” A man called from behind the desk.
“Hello, Chris! It’s good to see you!” He looked nervous, noticing the 4 bodyguards and Maximo behind me. “Don’t worry about them, they are here on business.” I gave him a small smile. He returned it and looked back down at the computer in front of him. I turned my head to see Maximo standing close behind me. I could see the gun in his jacket as well as the guns on the guards’ hips. I could see why Chris was scared.
We swiped the keycard in the elevator and pressed the penthouse key. It felt like we were on the elevator forever. I could finally breathe again when the doors opened, and I stepped into the flat. It was as beautiful as I remembered. It had white marble floors, dark plum sofas in the middle of the room, a full kitchen with white marble and white cabinets, a spa off the outdoor deck, and a hallway leading to the 4 rooms. Each bedroom had its own full bathroom. The half bath was off the living room for guests. The guards quickly walked past me surveying the flat to make sure it was safe. I huffed, turning to walk towards the bedrooms. Maximo grabbed my arm. “Where are you going?”
“To freshen up. Is that acceptable?” I pulled my arm back. He had no right to be mad at me. He followed behind me as I went to the last door down the hallway to my room. It was minimally decorated with a king size bed against the furthest wall, a dresser across from it, a full walk-in closet, and an on-suite bathroom. The entire wall facing out over the city was windows. I pulled back the curtains to open the patio door. He laid his gun on the dresser and walked over to me.
“I thought you were going to freshen up?” He hissed and grabbed my arms, pulling me around to face him. He pulled my shirt up over my head and unbutton my jeans. I turned my face away from him.
“I will, but we need to talk first.” He pulled away from me looking straight into my eyes. He sat on the bed, putting his elbows on his knees.
“Okay, let’s talk then.” He looked up at me. I was stiff in front of him. I was nervous.
“Was that your proposal to me on the plane?” He sat up, leaning back. He smirked.
“No that was a statement of fact, Ms. Martin.” His words sent shivers down my spine.
“Okay then. Get up.” I demanded. He got up. I grabbed the remote off the bedside table and pressed the ‘up’ button which lifted the mattress off the frame. Maximo crossed his arms, impressed.
“What exactly is it you are doing?” He questioned watching the bed rise.
Once the bed was all the way lifted, it exposed the safe under the frame. Maximo huffed, smirking. I typed in the code and the safe unlooked. I opened the latch to expose the contents within. Jewelry, important documents, and 1 million dollars’ worth of Wink. Maximo smiled. “Impressive, mi amore.” I smirked at his response.
I grabbed some Wink, changed into a black sequin dress with one long sleeve. It was short and tight, and I paired it with some black velvet heels. Maximo smiled. “You do know how attractive you are, don’t you?” I don’t understand why he was being so nice to me.
“I have my moments.” I responded, applying red lipstick in the mirror. He walked up close behind me pulling my hair to one side and kissing my exposed shoulder. “Let’s go.” I said brushing him off. He sighed and followed me out. James eyed me up and down. I could tell me missed me, I missed him. “Ready?” I called to the room. Ari jumped up. She had changed into a white jumpsuit with red heels. She looked great.
We piled into the limo and took off for the club. We pulled up to an old brick building with a pink neon sign, ‘The Velvet Room’ it read. The limo stopped in front of the door. There was a line out the door. The bouncer, Theo, opened the door and helped me out. “Hello, Ms. Martin.” He kissed the back of my hand.
“Hello, Theo.” I smiled at him. He guided us into the club before closing the door behind us.
The club was at full capacity. Bodies were grinding on each other, people were laughing, and the room smelt stale with spilt drinks. I walked to the bar, asking the bartender to bring a booze cart to Nadia’s office. I led us to the office. Nadia was sitting at the desk on the phone, yelling. She looked up and instantly hung up the phone, standing up quickly.
“Ms. Martin! I had no idea you were coming.” She blubbered nervously.
“Sit, Nadia.” I demanded. She instantly obliged. “I got a frantic phone call from Ari stating she could not reach you when the club was flooding.” I was pacing in front of the desk.
Maximo and Ali had taken a seat on the couch while the guards stood behind them. Nadia opened her mouth to speak but no words came out. “It has come to my attention that your lack of control of your own life has affected my business.”
“Ms. Martin, it is not like that. I was sick when the club was flooding.” She tried to defend herself.
“I don’t care, Nadia. You can answer your phone. You should have been the one to handle the situation and you should have been the one to call me, not some little girl. I have found a replacement for you, so you can gather your things and leave.” Her jaw dropped.
“Ms. Martin, you can’t do this to me!” She screamed, standing up. “You can’t just fire me over something as small as this!”
“With my business, I can do whatever I want, Nadia, now contain yourself.”
She picked up the stapler on her desk and threw it at me, barely missing me. I turned around to face her and walked over to the desk. “I’m going to give you 2 minutes to pack your shit and leave.” I glared at her. How dare she!
“I’m not leaving!” Nadia screamed. It all happened so fast I couldn’t comprehend what had happened. Maximo was standing next to me with his gun pulled. Nadia fell to the ground, blood pooling everywhere.
“What the fuck did you do!” I screamed at Maximo. He holstered his gun and turned to his guards and cocked his head at them motioning to the body. They began to clean up the mess.
“I handled it, mi amore. Nobody is going to speak to you like that as long as I am around.” He stated before pulling me into a hug. James’s mouth was open. He was shocked. He is the one who had found Nadia for hire.
“I guess I’ll take it from here.” Ali said walking over to the desk opening the drawers. She grabbed the Wink out of my clutch and threw it in the desk drawer. Maximo grabbed my hand and pulled me back outside to the limo and we left for my flat.