“My stepfather just died less than a week ago, and you come here to ask me to go meet with one a’ yo’ tricks? What the fuck? ” I said, as I grew outraged!
“I know, and you know that I wouldn’t even have come here if I didn’t need you! Please, it’ll only be this once! Come on girl, what do you say?” Iesha asked with all the nerve of a ghetto pit-bull.
“Let me get this straight, I’m less than one year away from earning my masters degree, I am in love with the man of my dreams. For the first time in my life things are really lookin’ up for me, and you are askin’ me to do what? Why the fuck would I wanna do some dumb shit like that,” I said. I could not believe what the fuck I was hearing!
“Let me make myself clear about something. I’m trying to be nice, but I’m not askin’ you, I’m tellin’ you!” Iesha said.
“I thought you were my supposed to be my girl! You ain’t my friend. You couldn’t be if you tryin’ to make me do some shit like this! You gotta’ be outta’ yo’ mind. Get out! Just get the fuck outta’ my sister’s house!” I said growing more upset. I was about six seconds from stickin’ my foot in her ass.
“Look. I’m running’ outta’ patience. This is a client that I can’t afford to lose and I told you, it will only be this once. Rayqelle, you know I wouldn’t ask if I didn’t really need you. I’m not tryin’ to fuck up yo’ game wit’ that nigga! Please. I’m all for a bitch comin’ up. I respect the game, shit, I was the one who schooled yo’ lil prissy ass! Remember?” Iesha shouted.
“What game? First of all, I ain’t runnin’ no goddamn game! Those days are over! What I got wit’ Chance is real, and for the first time, I ain’t gamin’ anybody and ain’t nobody gamin’ me. I ain’t about to fuck that up!” I shouted back.
“Do you even realize what would happen if Chance found out? I’m not doin’ that shit! That might work out just fine for you, but that ain’t even how I roll no more” I added.
“Rayqelle, Rayqelle, never kiss, never tell”, she smiled and paused. “So, what ‘chu sayin’ Bitch? You better than me now? You musta’ forgot who you was, but I ain’t forgot! You better remember where you came from! I seem to recall a time when yo’ ass woulda’ been more than happy to lay on yo’ back fa’ twenty or thirty minutes to get broke off a quick stack! But, now you got cho’ self a rich nigga and suddenly you Miss Goody Goody! You ain’t nothin’ but a ho’! An expensive piece of pussy and I’m finna’ prove it to you!” Iesha said as she quickly stomped over to the table in the corner of the living room and grabbed her Prada purse. She hastily opened it, reached in and pulled out a business card. When she walked back over toward me, my heart started to pound out of control!
“Be at the Airport Sheraton Hotel by LAX. tomorrow! You remember where that is don’t you? You should, you turned enough tricks there” she said sarcastically.
“That’s all the way in L.A.” I said.
“That’s right, very good. You do remember. Make sure yo’ ass is there by four o’clock, and don’t be late! I promise you. It’s gonna be some drama if you are! I would hate to have to call Chance lookin’ for you, and end up sayin’ some shit that’ll break his heart. Feel me? Oh, and fix yo’ self up and do something wit’ cha’ hair. I can’t have you makin’ me look bad.” Said Iesha smugly as she threw the business card in my face, “Oh and here’s little something for your nerves in case you get jittery,” she said as she tossed me a small vile of white powder, before she turned walking away toward the door, cracking it open just a bit. The card belonged to a Dr. Sadaaf Deepak, a neurologist from L.A.
“Who the fuck is this?” I asked.
“It’s the client I was tellin’ you about. Don’t fuck this up, I’m dependin’ on you!” Iesha said as she turned her head slightly, looking at me from the corner of her eye.
“Sadaaf Deepak? What? Is he an Arab or somethin’?” I asked as if it really made any difference.
“No, Indian” She responded coldly as she walked out of the door, leaving it standing wide open behind her. I immediately dropped to my knees and began to cry. I cried so hard that I started to gag and vomit. And since I hadn’t eaten in days, the only that came up was bitter acid from the very pit of my stomach. I was shakin’ like a leaf, scared to death of what this bitch was about to drag me into.
I thought to myself. “Why would she want to pull me back into this shit? All we ever talked about was how one day we would get as far away from that life as possible.
Iesha knew where I came from and why I even started hustlin’. She knew it really didn’t have a whole lot to do with the money, not necessarily. It was really a sickness, a twisted desire inside me to control somebody who thought they were controlling me. You see, what we used to do was find a guy with a lot of money, usually a hustla’ that thought he was the shit and had money to burn or sometimes a doctor or a lawyer. Usually it was just about sex, other times they would really want a date, but the night almost always ended with sex, it was already set to go down that way.
Tico would hook it up. He had a team of ho’s workin’ for him, at first I was just one of ‘em. I didn’t actually become his woman until later. And even though I was his woman, I still had to pull my weight, just like the other ho’s and I was so in love with the nigga that I woulda’ did anything he told me to. And he use to always say “Pussy ain’t shit! These mutha’fucka’s can have yo’ pussy, cuz I got’ cho heart!” What he really meant to say was that he had my mind, and he knew that once he got control of a bitch’s mind, the gamin’ was easy.
The game was to meet mutha’fucka’s wit money, get inside their of heads and then get inside of their wallets. My job was to meet ‘em, impress ‘em, then feed ‘em some bullshit story about how hard it is out here, and how I would not even be doin’ this if I had a man to take care of me. Then that’s when they usually turned into “Captain Save a Ho” and started talkin’ ‘bout how they could rescue you from yo’ misery. The shit makes me sick on the stomach to think about it!
I tried to think of anything I could to get out of this fucked up predicament that Iesha had put me in, but I also knew Iesha’s potential for treachery, so I knew she wasn’t bluffing about what she would say to Chance.
CHAPTER 19
The next day I arrived in L.A. at the Airport Sheraton hotel. I walked up to the front desk, told them my name and asked for room 2021. The clerk gave me a key card and pointed the way to the elevator. As I got in and closed the door I felt the butterflies in my stomach going crazy, I was about to come face to face with my worst nightmare! I was about to become a whore again! Everything I worked for, all I had been through, was all for nothing. In just a few short minutes I would be at the point of no return.
My hands shook nervous as I dug through my purse looking for my compact to powder the sweat from my nose. Then, I saw the small vile of white powder that Iesha gave me, incase I got jittery. I had never been more nervous!
I had never fucked wit’ cocaine before, it was the one thing I said I would never do, but then again, I also said that I would never turn another trick. Yet, there I was. So, I opened the small glass bottle, tipped it, dumping a little onto my pinky nail, and I snorted it, just as the elevator doors spread apart.
I arrived on the 20th floor and I stepped out, making my way down the long quiet hallway. I walked slowly and painfully, like I was on a Nazi death march. When I got to room 2021, I stopped, took a deep breath and knocked lightly on the beautiful cherry wood door. I had hoped to knock softly enough that who ever was on the other side might not hear even me and then I could just leave, but the door opened almost instantly. A woman answered.
“I’m sorry; I must have the wrong room. I was looking for Dr. Sadaaf Deepak.” I said nervously, thinking that I had disturbed the wrong person.
“I am Dr. Deepak”, the woman said, as she smiled with the most gorgeous set of blinding-white teeth I had ever seen before in my life!
“But, you’re a…” I said, stumbling over my words.
“A woman?” She replied, as she smiled again, sensing my embarrassment.
“Did you not know that you would be meeting a woman today?” She asked, with the most beautiful accent.
“Well, uh… no, but I guess you did.” I replied.
“I hope this does not change anything. I was and still am greatly looking forward to…well, you know” She said, as we both blushed uncomfortably.
“Please, come in” She said, politely.
She was absolutely breath taking! She looked like an Indian goddess. She wore a beautiful red silk robe, the kind worn by Japanese geisha girls in the movies. Her perfume was soft and unfamiliar. Her skin was a flawless dark caramel, almost darker the mine and she wore hair up in a simple twist, held together by a beautiful, long, golden hairpin.
She couldn’t have been more than twenty-nine or thirty years old, but she was a stunner! My heart pounded inside my chest like the kick from a bass drum, as she held the door from me to come inside.
“You must be Rayqelle. You are even prettier than Iesha described!” She said, as I entered the huge luxury suite. Her voice was as smooth as silk, and her accent was like a cross between the queen of England’s and a south-east Asian princess. I had been around all different kinds of people rich, poor, intellectual, uneducated and I hardly ever let anybody intimidate me, but I knew class when I saw it, and for the first time in along time, I felt out classed.
“Make yourself comfortable.” She said. “You can change in the bedroom... I’ll be out here... I have a few phone calls to make... So take your time”, she added, giving me a provocative stare, as I went the other room to change.
I don’t know if it was her soothing presence, or the coke, but I was starting to mellow out as I changed into my sexy lingerie.
When I came back out, all the lights had been turned down, and in each corner, four softly scented tea candles burned. Sadaaf stood silently beside the sofa.
“Come here” She whispered.
My stomach quivered, as the butterflies started up all over again.
I wore a white satin negligee with nothing underneath. She reached out her hand, as I walked over toward her. She touched my hand, and slowly untied my robe as she gently slid her other hand around my waist. Sadaaf moved closer and pressed her lips against mine, slowly working her way down to my breast. She massaged me while softly sucking and pulling at my nipples. Her tender touch soon made my pussy wet. My clit started to swell and thump, as I felt her reach between my legs.
We kissed again before she led me into the bedroom, holding one candle in her hand to light our way. She set the candle on the stand next to the bed, and turned toward me.
“Please lay down on the bed”, she said softly, getting behind me to guide me by the small of my back onto the huge king sized canopy bed.
She had taken full control of me, slowly turning my nervousness into a burning desire. I leaned back on the soft Egyptian-cotton sheets as she spread my legs, running her fingers along my inner-thighs, following closely behind with soft kisses, until she reached my wetness. Her touch made me feel so good. I could feel her desire as it overflowed!
She took her first two fingers and spread my pussy lips apart. Lightly flicking her tongue against my clit. Sadaaf moved slowly, but my climax came fast. I reached down and ran my hands through her silky, black hair as she steadily sucked and kissed my swollen clit, until I exploded.
Then I pulled her up toward me, squeezing her full, beautiful breast. They looked like two ripe peaches that had been dipped half way in chocolate. My mouth watered, as I gently sank my teeth into her, and she moaned.
Her robe fell from her shoulders and onto the bed. I ran my fingers from her belly button down to her hairy treasure. She had taken her time to thoroughly pleasure me, so I felt it was only fair that I spend the rest of the evening doing the same in return. Especially since this evening was costing her two thousand dollars.
CHAPTER 20
Though Iesha promised that this would be the one and only time I had to this, she actually came back to me several more times over the next few weeks with the same pressure ploy. She was like a freight train that was speeding out of control. I could see her coming from a mile away; but I was tied helpless to the railroad tracks, unable to do a damn thing about it.
I had not talked to Chance more than once or twice in that two weeks and I knew that he was growing more and more suspicious. I had become an emotional and physical wreck! I had been taking tranquilizers during the day to help me sleep and cocaine to balance me out at night. This was so that I would be numb, but still alert enough to do what ever she wanted me to do. Letah was the only person who knew what was going on and it was tearing her apart. I now had her lying and covering up for me when I was out with a trick or when I was too sleepy or coked-out to deal with anybody, like Chance or Lynn. She would just say that I was still having a tough time getting over Davis’s death and that I was resting.
Another reason that I probably chose to hide behind the drugs was finding out that Davis had secretly been molesting Letah and that he was probably the person who had given her HIV. Not Tico like she had said earlier. In fact she may have actually infected him by accident when she ran away from home after I went away to grad school. So luckily I was never even exposed to the virus.
I never even had a clue. All this time I’d believed that Davis was the last good man on earth. I felt so guilty that I had left her behind to suffer like that; Letah told me that the abuse started right around the time I started staying at grandmas. She said that she never told Lynn what was going on either, because he had her so full of fear that if she did tell anybody the courts would come along, split us all up, and take us away. We would never see each other again. Lynn still didn’t know, and there was no way to gage how she was going to react; after all that was her daddy so we had both decided that it would be best to wait. Lynn was still way too weak for any kind of drama and we didn’t need anything sending her into a relapse.
It was all too much to deal with. Things couldn’t have gotten any worse, at least that’s what I thought. By this time I had started to spiral downward and shit seemed more and more out of control. I hadn’t seen Chance in weeks! I could barely even talk to him because I was so guilty about letting Iesha trap me into trickin’ again. I couldn’t eat, I had lost almost fifteen pounds, and I had dark circles underneath my eyes. At this point I was snorting so much coke that I was starting to bleed from my nose, but I couldn’t stop cuz if I wasn’t high on something my hands shook constantly! My mind and body were both falling apart and my soul was aching! I had done a lot of stupid shit when I was younger, and I don’t deny that. But the one thing I never did was fuck around with hard drugs. I drank and smoked weed here and there depending on who I was around. Maybe Iesha and I might pop some “X” at a party but I swore never to do anything hard like coke or heroin, because I saw the effect that it could have on people. I knew better or so I thought. Yet here I was, in two weeks I had become a stone-cold junky. A coke-head! I was on the verge of losing everything. Every trick had promised to be the last, but Iesha always had just one more trick for me to turn, just one more thing to do. She was never gonna stop! I had spent all those years perfecting the art of the hustle, only to end up as the one being hustled. Iesha had orchestrated a brilliant plan. She was using what I used to be in the past to destroy all that I had become. I was caught between the proverbial rock and the ultimate hard place. Everything I had accomplished was at stake, and I could only see one way out. Iesha had to be dealt with! She needed to be dealt with before I fell completely apart and before she got bored with this little game of cat and mouse and decided to tell Chance about my past. The past that she had again made my present.
I missed Chance like crazy, but I avoided talking to him as much as possible. I was growing more distant as each day passed. It was evident that something was wrong and he was getting more and more concerned and suspicious since I was normally too fucked up or depressed
to hold any kind of meaningful conversation with him at all. Not to mention the fact that Letah was quickly running out of excuses. This was a man that I had spent everyday of the last three years of my life with and wouldn’t have been apart from him for anything in the world. Now I was dodging him like I owed him money. I missed his touch, and the sexual encounters I was having brought me no personal satisfaction or pleasure. Ain’t no love in trickin’! No matter how attractive they were, how nice or how rich… At the end of the day it was just business and I was just a whore and Iesha had made herself my pimp. The very thing I was fighting to hold on to was slipping right through my fingers. My Chance was slipping away!
Another week or so had passed and I was still avoiding Chance like the plague. I had only spoken to him once and I was so high on tranquilizers that I could barely hold the phone. Letah was still covering my ass with excuse on top of excuse and she and I both knew that time was running out. She said that the last time she had spoken to Chance he sounded really anxious and she could tell that he was getting really fed up with excuses about why I was never able to come to phone and when I did we didn’t talk for more than a minute or so. Letha said that she hated lying to Chance because she really liked him but she knew everything I had been through and that I had finally found something real with him. Something that I was about ruin with all my lies.
CHAPTER 21
It was Friday night around eight o’clock. I had just woke up and was still trying to pull myself together. Iesha was throwing a party with some niggas from the Lakers, a couple of rookies with way too much money to burn. I was super groggy from all the pills I had taken earlier that morning to get some sleep. So, I stumbled over to the dresser to get a baggy of dope to get me started. My hands were shaking outta’ control. I needed a hit so bad. I thought to myself, “If I could just keep my hands steady enough to line it up on the damn mirror!” The doorbell rang. I about jumped outta’ my goddamn skin! I was so jittery that I must have jerked and knocked the mirror on the floor with my coke on it. All the shit fell into the shag carpet, “aww, shit!” I shouted as my stomach started to cramp. I went into an immediate panic. That was the last bag and Iesha said she wouldn’t be able to get any more until tomorrow, but I had to get through tonight. So I got down on my knees and drug my nose back and forth against the nap of the rug, trying to snort up what I could. Then Letah frantically busted in the door screaming like a maniac, “Bitch, what the fuck are you doin’? Get up off the floor! Chance is here. He is down stairs right now! You better get yo’ shit together and get it together quick! He’s …” she shouted quietly before coming to a complete and awkward pause as she looked back, stunned, with her jaw dropped wide opened. Chance had been standing behind us in the doorway the whole time. I guess he was so excited to see me that he didn’t wanna wait so he decided to follow Letah up the stairs. She must have been so shaken up that she didn’t even notice Chance following right behind her.
Rayqelle's Revenge ---Book 1--- Special Holiday Edition (Ratchet) Page 9