I had 20 missed calls from Maximo from when I was sleeping. Oh god, I thought. A text message from him had just came through, reading, “When you’re finished with everything up there, make sure you come back to me. I will be waiting. Remember, we get married in 6 days.” Wow, kind of sweet. I don’t think I can forgive him from all he has done to me but the thought that he was thinking of me was sweet. I had 6 days to find more security guards, stop by the club in Chicago and talk with the new manager, and get James on his feet.
It was raining when the plane landed in St. Louis. I had not flown commercial in so long, this was humbling. I was ushered off the plane before everyone else, my mom’s security guards were waiting for me when I entered the terminal. “Ms. Martin, good to see you.” Miles, a tall, buff, middle age man, smiled to me.
“Hi, Miles, good to see you.” I smiled back.
“We will get your bags later, lets get you to Chicago. James is waiting at the Cortez there.”
We left the airport and headed towards Chicago. The ride was peaceful. I watched the rain drizzle down the windows. Miles and Danny sat in the front making small talk. Miles kept looking back at me. I know he noticed the marks on my face and wrists. He was always so protective of me, I had known him for 15 years, he was practically my brother.
We pulled up in front of the Cortez Hotel and Miles ushered me inside. He was talking to the cute blonde behind the desk and got the extra cards for the suite James was staying in. We walked to the elevator, I noticed Hermie’s door was closed for his office. I missed him, but I’m sure he didn’t want to see me. He ignored all of my texts and phone calls after Jesus had him and my mom removed from Mexico. We made it to the 4th floor and James was waiting by the elevator when we got off.
I ran into his arms. He pulled me close. “I am so sorry.” He whispered into my ear, pulling me oven closer. He pulled his nose into my neck. I missed him so much.
“You look much better than I thought you were going to.” I said backing up to look at his face. He smiled. The swelling had gone down but you could still see the bruising and stitches over his eye. His blood vessel must have cleared up because his eyes looked fine. We headed towards the room, Miles entered first and did a sweep before letting me walk in. I went to shower and change into my night dress. James never entered the room. I was disappointed but understood why. I could still feel the repercussions from the last time.
I got out of the shower and looked at myself in the mirror. I was less bruised than yesterday, but you could still see the shadows all over my body. I dried my I need to get it cut. I put on my makeup. A dark red lip, lashes, and my traditional winged eye liner. I pulled on my dress. It was long-sleeved and off the shoulder, dark red velvet, it hit the floor but had a slit from my left foot to my hip. I paired this beautiful gown with black pumps. I sprayed my perfume on my wrists and base of my neck. I threw my hair down my back and grabbed my clutch.
Miles smiled when he saw me. I had on a full face of makeup, and you couldn’t see my bruise anymore. James didn’t dare to look at me. I don’t know how he was going to protect me if he refused to even look at me. I brushed it off and headed towards the door. Miles beat me to it and opened it for me. “Thanks.” I smiled at him. He walked out ahead of me towards the elevator. I waited until he was out of sight and took off for the stairwell. James and Danny had stepped out of the room after I rounded the corner. I found the stairwell and ran down it. I made it to the lobby when James called me. I ignored it and jumped into the car, “Go!” I screamed. The driver took off as Miles, Danny, and James had got off the elevator, running outside.
I had business to attend to, and I needed to do this alone. The car pulled up outside of the club and Josh opened my door for me. “Ms. Martin, it is good to see you.” He was not as warm towards me as he usually is. I’m sure he was mad at me about getting the Russians involved with my business.
“Josh, what is going on?” I answered quickly, noticing his frustration.
“The Russian’s ma’am. They kicked out Sarah and took over the club. It has been a disaster.” He was upset. He ushered me inside and I headed towards the office. I didn’t knock, I just walked in. I saw a man sitting at the desk, one sitting on the sofa, and 8 naked girls that did not look old enough to be naked in the presence of grown men.
“Get out.” I motioned to the girls. They looked at the man sitting behind the desk nervously. He nodded and they put on robes and ran out of the room, a group of guards pulled them down the hallway and out of sight. “Felix, I see you have misunderstood the terms of our agreement.” I walked towards the desk noticing the man sitting on the couch was a younger version of him, it must be his son. I stood in front of the desk and leaned over, placing my hands on the desk.
Felix smiled. “No, Ms. Martin, I understood the terms of our agreement, but I didn’t like them, so I decided to enforce what I wanted. I want your club.” He smiled, showing his yellow teeth. He leaned back and crossed his hands over his chest. “Why don’t you have a seat and we can rediscuss the terms of our agreement.” I stood up and turned around, walked over to the sofa, and sat down as far from the man as I could. I crossed my legs and arms.
“You are not getting my club. I told you that you could run your girls through here as long as you kept my secret, ran security, and my drugs. You agreed. You only wanted a wash for the girls. I gave you that, now you retract our deal because you want, what, power, money?” He cut me off.
“I want you, Ms. Martin. I want what you have. I want to profit like you.”
“We could have discussed compensation if that is what you wanted, but instead of calling me, you improvised an overthrowing?” I sat up, uncrossing my arms. “I saw the books; the club profits are down 10 percent since you kicked out Sarah. That means you are not profiting. So if money is what you want, I have nothing to offer you, as you are ruining my business.” He frowned and stood up, then smiled.
“Have you met my son, Iven?” He pointed to the man sitting on the other side of the sofa. I looked over to him then back at Felix. I stood up and before I knew it, Iven had grabbed me and pulled me to the sofa. He held me down, pulling my dress up. I pushed him, trying to get him off me.
“Get the fuck off me!” I screamed, gaining my confidence I punched him as hard as I could in the nose. He groaned and backed from me just enough for me to get out from under him. I pulled the gun out of my clutch and held it to Iven’s head, looking at Felix, he smiled. “Felix, lets come to an agreement before this becomes an incident.” He laughed. He walked out from behind the desk towards me, he had pulled out a knife and tried to lung at me, I moved out of the way, and he fell towards the sofa. He turned around and tried to lung at me again. I pulled the trigger. Felix fell. The bullet hit him right between the eyes. Iven yelled and came towards me, he reached towards my throat but I grabbed his arm and pulled it behind his back, pushing his head towards the ground.
“You bitch!” Iven yelled, trying to break my grip. I laughed, for the first time I felt powerful, strong.
“Oh, loosen up Iven, since your father is out of the picture it looks like we have business to discuss.”
“I’m not doing business with a whore like you.” Iven said through his teeth. This bothered me. I thought for a minute before I took the butt of my pistol and slammed it against his temporal lobe. He fell on the ground. “You bitch!” As he stood up and swung on me, James and Miles had kicked open the door.
“Get back, Fallon!” Miles yelled as James tackled him to the ground. I lifted my gun pointing it at Iven. “Fallon, don’t.” Miles said calmly. My dress was torn where Iven had tried to take it off of me earlier. “Fallon, lower the gun.”
“He doesn’t deserve to live.” I said coolly.
“We all know that, but you don’t want to run your business this way.” He responded calmly. “Make a deal with him, if you don’t someone worse will take over. Use him the way his father used you.” I listened intently to his words. I looked at James.
“Break his shoulder.” James looked at me for a moment before complying. Iven screamed in pain. Miles gasped. “Sit him on the sofa.” Iven yelled as Miles and James picked him up and threw him on the sofa.