Her heart pounding and flesh tingling, Aisha pushed herself away from him. “Hold on, Kyle. This is not what I’m about. You’re, you’re out of line,” she said, finally mustering up enough control over her body and emotions.
The sound of her voice awoke him from his lust filled state of mind. He sat upright on the chaise, pressing the wrinkles out of his shirt with his sweaty hands. Though he was physically attracted to her, at the same time he was sickened at the thought of her profession. Whatever he once hoped and thought they could have together was gone. It took every fiber of his being not to do to her what he’d been forced to do to Tracye. The longer he looked at her, the more infuriated he became. He abruptly stood up and looked down on her. Fear rose in the base of Aisha’s throat. What’s going on inside his mind? she thought. I hope he understands that when a woman says no, she means no. He’s fine as all get out, but I’m not going to give up my virginity unless it’s my choice, certainly not by force. And there’s not enough money he can pay to make me either. Her eyes revealed her fear. Fear he’d seen in the face of his ex-fiancé that fateful day. And just like with Tracye, seeing Aisha’s fear was Chandler’s pleasure.
“You really don’t know do you?” He asked her in a rough voice.
“Know what. What are you talking about?”
He grabbed hold of her wrist and squeezed it tightly. Aisha winced and tried to break loose from him. He loosened his grip only after he remembered that the undercover maid was in the house. “Call your ride and tell him I’m finished with you,” he ordered and stormed out of the bedroom. He turned and took one last look at her and said, “Get out of my house now. Go wait for your ride outside. You’re no better than the rest. A two bit…” He stopped in mid sentence. He huffed and the feeling he had for her was swallowed up in the thought of how he had been deceived yet again. Thoughts of Tracye’s betrayal flooded his mind. He was fast approaching the breaking point of self-control. There was no telling what he would do if she didn’t leave his house pronto. “Get out,” he roared.
Aisha moved away from the chaise and dashed madly out of the house. She felt the wind of the door close behind her. Calling Jason on her cell she told him to come and get her. Out of all the clients she’d entertained, she’d never been so humiliated and treated so disrespectfully as she had just been treated by Kyle Taylor. The limo finally pulled up some twenty five minutes later she jumped in it before it came to a full stop.
“What happened?” Jason asked her, obviously furious at the thought that Aisha had somehow displeased Kyle. “What did you do?”
“What did I do? Aren’t you going to ask me why I’m standing outside? Aren’t you going to ask me if I’m okay?”
“Don’t tell me you acted like some uptight religious prude. Don’t even go there. Because if you did, you’re going to pay dearly.” Jason said furiously. “Now tell me what happened.”
“Why don’t you go and ask that fool inside. I guess he thought he had himself more than a private dancer tonight. But baby I’m not the one and I’ve told you that before.” Aisha screamed and climbed inside the limo. She slammed the door before Jason had a chance to say another word. Jason went inside and talked to Kyle. After waiting in the limo impatiently for him to return, Aisha was fuming. She watched as Kyle stood in the doorway while Jason exited the house.
Instead of Jason taking her side, he chose to totally ignore her. On the way back to The Lynx he refused to say anything to her. She suddenly became sick of the whole thing with The Lynx. For the first time she understood that Kyle, Jason and any of the rest of them, didn’t care the least bit about her or her wellbeing. They were all about self gratification.
God, I’m tired of this, she prayed within. I’m sick of living a lie. I’ve gotten myself in way too deep and I don’t know how to get out of it. When the limo pulled up in front of The Lynx, Jason hopped out of it so fast it was like a whirlwind had come and swooped him up. Aisha grabbed her purse and yelled at him.
“You wait just a minute,” she yelled. “I don’t know what just happened back there and why you have a major attitude with me But I did what you wanted me to do so give me my money and I’ll be out of here,” she said in a raised voice.
“Every penny you deserve is in the limo,” Jason grumbled and walked inside The Lynx.
Aisha whirled around and opened the door to the limo. A brown envelope was lying on the seat next to where Jason had been sitting moments before. The driver sat motionless as if nothing had occurred. Aisha opened the envelope and counted thirty, one dollar bills instead of the thirty, one hundred dollar bills she was supposed to have been paid. Slamming the door with all of her force, she mouthed a string of expletives while each step led her closer to the main entrance of The Lynx. Just as she was about to open the door, she stopped and then turned around. She was no match against Jason or anyone else inside The Lynx. And if she had gone inside, she would be stepping into God knows what. She went straight to her car, jumped in and sped off.
As she neared her apartment, her cell phone rang. She looked down and saw an unfamiliar number. “Hello. Helloooo,” she said again but no one answered. She glanced at the caller ID but it all it showed was an unfamiliar number. “Look I don’t have time for games. If this is you Kyle, you know where you can go.” she yelled and hung up the phone. It was almost three o’clock in the morning and she needed to change and get back to the hospital. She thought about calling Elisa to tell her what had happened but decided to wait until later in the morning. Her cell rang again. “Hello,” she screamed. The whimpering sound over the phone reminded her of a crying baby. “Who is this?” “Aisha.”
Aisha pulled over on the shoulder of the road and screamed. She didn’t need to hear anything else her mother had to say. The sound of her mother’s grief stricken voice on the other end told her everything she dreaded to hear. Her father was dead.
When she arrived at the hospital and saw her father’s lifeless body lying in the bed, she wanted to be the one lying there instead of him. Her mother watched her with rage as she entered the hospital room.
Without warning, Sandra Carlisle bolted out with a tirade of seething anger. “Get out of here, get out of here now. You’re too late!” Nurses in the room tried to calm her down but she was out of control. The words spewing from her mouth dripped vile and vicious accusations against her only daughter. Aisha’s tears erupted like a volcano. She placed her hands over her ears to drown out the condemning words coming from her mother. She hated the words her mother spewed against her. But within Aisha believed every word her mother said.
“You are so selfish. You always have been selfish,” her mother said pointing at her and reaching towards her like she wanted to tear Aisha apart. “He was asking for you, Aisha. He took his last breath with your name on his lips. You were always his favorite. I had to compete with you. Selena had to compete with you. But you always won. Didn’t you?. And in the end, you were the one who let him down!”
“Momma, please, please,” Aisha begged mercifully. “Please don’t say that. I don’t know what I’m going to do without my daddy. Mother,” she kept repeating. A male nurse entered the room and led Sandra Carlisle away. The doctor ordered a sedative for her and then returned to check on Aisha. Aisha stood in the room frozen, watching as they prepared to take her father to the morgue. She held on to the side of the bedrails screaming.
One of the nurses told Tameria what was going on. She and Chase rushed to CCU. The sight of Aisha ripped at Tameria’s heart and she couldn’t control her own tears of pain. She ran up to Aisha to try to settle her down but there was no consoling her.
“Aisha, come on honey. Come on now,” Tameria repeated while she and Chase led her out the room.
“Noooo, Tameria. I can’t leave my daddy. I can’t.”
“Shhh, it’s going to be okay.” Tameria cried. “It’s going to be okay.” Tameria leaned over to tell Chase that she was going to take Aisha home as soon as her shift ended in about half an hour.
“Aisha, come on, I want you to lie down for awhile. I’m going to take you home in just a few minutes, okay?” One of the resident doctors approached Tameria and told her that he would work the remainder of her shift so she was free to leave. Chase gave Aisha a sedative before he took her downstairs to Tameria’s car.
“Where’s Mrs. Carlisle?” Tameria asked one of the nurses. “The wife of the deceased patient?”
“She’s down the hall. We had to administer a tranquilizer. She was inconsolable. Some people are here from the CCU waiting room area. I think they’re friends or church members. They said they would make sure she gets home or she’ll spend the night with some of them.”
“Okay, that’s good. I’m going to go and check on her. Then I’m leaving to take Aisha home.” Tameria was relieved to walk in the room and see the faces of several of Mr. and Mrs. Carlisle’s friends and church members She walked over and hugged the distraught woman and kissed her on the cheek. “Momma Carlisle, I’m so sorry.” Tameria hugged her again. “I’ll call and check on you a little later. I’m going to take Aisha home, okay? If you need anything, you just call me or my mom and dad. You know we’ll be here for you.”
“I don’t have a daughter anymore, Tameria. I don’t.” A man dressed in a dark suit with a white Nehru collared shirt approached Sandra and Tameria. Tameria assumed it was the minister from Mr. and Mrs. Carlisle’s church. Kneeling beside the grieving widow, he took her shaking hands inside of his, then looked over and nodded at Tameria.
“Sister Carlisle, everything is going to be all right. Brother Carlisle is resting in the bosom of Abraham. He’s with God now. One day you’re going to see him again.” Sandra fell against his chest. This time quiet tears of pain trickled from her eyes.
CHAPTER 27
For the fifth day in a row, Chandler’s cell phone had gone straight to voice mail. Aisha hadn’t heard from him since the night her father died. She scrolled through her caller ID on both of her phones but Chandler hadn’t called. The last time they’d seen each other, things were great. She reminisced about the kindness and compassionate he’d shown when he came to the hospital to sit with her. What could have happened? She hoped he was all right. She became agitated and worried. It wasn’t like Chandler not to call. Was he sick? Maybe he had gone out of town and forgot to mention it to her. Picking up her purse and her cranberry parka, she stepped outside and met a zesty breeze. Pulling her parka in closer, she jogged the short distance to her car. She tried Chandler’s number for the umpteenth time while she waited on the car to warm up. She’d left a message on his phone telling him that her father had died but he hadn’t shown up at the funeral nor had he sent any flowers. Not even a card. That further indicated to Aisha that something was terribly wrong. She’d driven over to his apartment a couple of times but his car wasn’t there either time. The only thing left for her to do was to go back over to his apartment and knock this time. She hated it when people came to her apartment unannounced. But she felt she had no other choice.
Turning down Ross Avenue, she drove the next few blocks with the radio playing a rap song by Kanye West. There was a time not long ago when you couldn’t pay her a million dollars to listen to rap, but here she was now, moving in rhythm to the beats.
She pulled up in front of his apartment and searched around to see if his car was in view before she stepped out of the car. There was a car parked a few spaces away from his apartment that looked similar to his but she couldn’t be sure that it was. She went upstairs and knocked on the door of apartment 104. After knocking on the door several times she finally gave up and left.
Chandler peeked through the side blind and watched Aisha as she returned to her car. He just couldn’t stomach her right now. Everything about her had been based on a bold faced lie and at that moment he felt nothing but disgust towards her. How could she be involved with drugs and the trafficking of young girls? How could she live her life knowing that men were raping and abusing these girls? Girls whose parents were probably at home crying their hearts out because they didn’t know what happened to their daughters. How could she? He became even more determined to shut The Lynx Association down. And women like Aisha could burn in hell for all he cared. Soon everything was about to come to an end anyway. He had managed to gain young Hallie’s trust. She had told him everything she knew about The Lynx including the name of the owner, Ronald Shipley. When Chandler first heard the name it hadn’t meant anything to him. It was just another name. But after further investigation and background checks he quickly surmised that busting The Lynx was going to make national news when it was revealed that Ronald Shipley was the fraternal twin brother of none other than the renowned Donald Shipley, Senior Pastor of Greater Faith Community Church.
Hallie told Chandler that at least once every couple of months that Daddy-O, the name they were forced to call Ronald Shipley, sent Elisa and Jason to different cities to bring in new girls. The members of The Lynx provided funding for these excursions, as Hallie had heard them call the mysterious trips. She didn’t see Daddy-O very often and she was lucky for that, she told Chandler. Daddy-O could be quite brutal and sadistic. Not to be called to his private suite was a blessing to Hallie.
Over the course of his undercover investigation Chandler arranged with Jason for Hallie to come to his room on a regular basis. He informed Jason that he wanted exclusive rights to the girl. Of course Jason was glad to oblige. Chandler made sure whenever she came to his suite that she relaxed, watched TV and ate. He allowed her to be the young girl that she was. For a short time she didn’t have to think about the hell hole she was being held in against her will. Chandler promised Hallie that he would get her out of The Lynx and back to her mother and sisters. He was going to make sure her father was prosecuted to the fullest extent for selling his own daughter.
Hallie had managed to find out more than Chandler could have hoped. His investigation had netted him enough evidence on Shipley, Jason and Elisa to put them away for years. But Hallie pleaded with him to let Elisa go. She told him that Elisa was the one who looked out for the young girls and tried to make sure they were taken care of. But Kyle made her understand that Elisa was in this for her own selfish reasons and keeping the girls safe wasn’t one of those reasons. He further explained to the girl that if Elisa really was on their side, then she would never have been part of manipulating and kidnapping innocent girls and bringing them to The Lynx in the first place. Hallie’s green eyes grew large like Rockwell figurines. Tears formed in each corner when she realized that Elisa was going down with the rest of them. As for Aisha, it appeared that she just so happened to be naïve and stupid. Chandler didn’t think she realized what kind of mess she was in by being linked to The Lynx, but she was about to find out. He was definitely going to see to that. But first he had to cut all ties with her as Chandler Larson. He couldn’t and wouldn’t take any chances of his cover being blown.
It was a total surprise to him when she came to his apartment unannounced. He never would have known had he not decided to stop by just to check up on things. A prick of sympathy had tugged at his heart when one of her voice messages told him about her father’s death. But Chandler’s sympathy didn’t last for long. He remembered saying to himself before erasing the call, what goes around comes around, Aisha Carlisle
Peaking out of the window one last time to make sure Aisha had left, he shuffled back to his bedroom to relax for a couple of more hours until it was time to become Kyle Taylor yet again.
CHAPTER 28
Ever since her father’s death three and a half weeks ago, Aisha had retreated into an impenetrable shell. She hadn’t been to her dance studio or The Lynx. She refused to answer her phone calls or listen to messages. Not even the sound of Elisa and Jason pressing down on her doorbell day after day could bring her from her self induced reclusiveness. Only Tameria was able to get in the apartment and that’s because the two of them kept a key to each other’s apartments for emergencies.
When Tameria arrived
she moved slowly around Aisha’s apartment. Garbage overflowed from the trash can. The bathroom had a stench that had begun to permeate out in the hallway. The bedroom made Tameria think of a militarized war zone.
Aisha was sprawled across the bed with her head face down and her arms dangling over the side.
“Aisha, come on girl, get up. You need to take a shower or a bath. It’ll make you feel better. Please don’t make me call Chase to help get you in the tub,” Tameria threatened her. To Aisha, the words coming from Tameria sounded like the glob, glob, glob of the character Charlie Brown’s parents.
Aisha’s mother hadn’t talked to her since the funeral. She was swallowed up in her own grief and still blamed Aisha for not being at her father’s side when he died. She believed Aisha had put her mysterious part time job before everything, including her dying father and she refused to have anything to say or do with her daughter. One week after her husband died, Sandra packed her bags, closed up the house and moved back to her home town of Little Rock, Arkansas. She wanted to be as far away as she could from the painful memories, not to mention the daughter she believed had betrayed Benjamin.
After much poking and prodding, Tameria managed to convince Aisha to take a hot shower. While Aisha was in the bathroom, Tameria started to clean up her room. She started by pulling the dingy covers from Aisha’s bed. Her eyes became glued to the brown glass vial lying underneath Aisha’s pillow. She looked over her shoulder to see if there was any sign of Aisha before she opened the vial and poured out a tiny portion of the white powder. After placing some of it on her tongue, within seconds the tip of her tongue started to become numb. Oh my God, no, not Aisha, she whispered to herself when her suspicions were confirmed. No wonder she’s lost so much weight and barely eats. She’s using drugs. Tameria fell back on the bed and silent tears fell from her eyes. She hurt at the thought of what Aisha had gotten herself involved in. Losing her father had been tough on Aisha. The two of them had been thick as thieves. But why had she turned to drugs? Tameria couldn’t understand any part of this whole nightmare she’d stumbled on to. Aisha had always been the strong minded one. Her Christian convictions were rigid and she used to put nothing before God. But Tameria began to look back over the past few months. There had been a serious change in Aisha. They used to talk all the time but when Aisha had to get another job their conversations became sparse and with Tameria’s medical rotations, the two of them just couldn’t spend time together like they used to. The first time Tameria had noticed a physical change in Aisha was when she came to the emergency room to see her father. Aisha looked like a ebony version of Olive Oil. But she didn’t want to believe that Aisha could be on drugs. Now she was faced with the truth. Things were worse than she had imagined. Tameria went to the door of the bathroom and knocked lightly.
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