by Kiki Swinson
After hours of no words being spoken, he finally broke the silence. “You know after I take you to a safe place, I gotta go back to the States, right?” he asked me, still stroking my head lightly.
“Why? You might not be safe now,” I said, concerned. I had gotten him involved with the Chisholm mess, and now I was worried about his safety.
“Yoshi, I got a career to think about. I gotta stack my dough some more before I can retire. I’m trying to be like the rest of these cats ’round here. I want my empire to be worth a billion before I decide to retire and settle down,” he explained. His words cut through me like a knife, because I wanted nothing more than for him to ride off with me into the sunset and never turn back.
“I understand,” I said softly. I really did understand where he was coming from. It was unfair for me to expect him to just drop his life for me. I was more than grateful for what he was doing for me already.
“Maybe one day, when I’m ready, I’ll be back for you,” he said as he continued to stroke my chopped-up hair.
“I hope so,” I said, closing my eyes, letting the tears fall down my face. I was physically and mentally exhausted, and after days I finally let sleep take over me.
Stay Down
Lance and I sailed for an entire week. I had gotten used to his company and had finally started to feel at ease with the fact that I’d made it out of Miami alive. We made love over and over again, and each time I felt closer to him. The reality that he was going to leave me was still looming in my mind. He finally docked the yacht in Barbados—our favorite place in the Caribbean. He showed me to his mansion on the beach; the same one we had stayed in the first time we were there. In his neighborhood Rihanna had a house, and so did a few other celebrities. I would be living amongst the stars, in luxury once again.
“Yoshi, this is yours now. You stay here for as long as you need and you’ll be safe,” Lance had said, placing his keys in my hand. He had made me feel so good.
“I wish you could stay with me,” I said sadly. I had left everything I knew back in Miami, and when Lance left, I knew I’d be alone.
“I’ll be back to check on you, ma. Don’t stress it,” he said.
“Thank you for everything,” I said, grabbing him and hugging him tightly.
“It’s all good,” he said, kissing me on my forehead. For the first time in my life, I felt like I wanted one man in my life. At that moment I would have given up everything I had left to have Lance all to myself.
Lance left and returned to the States, which was the hardest thing for me to accept. After spending more time with him, I was wishing he could be there every minute. Once he was gone, I tried to make myself comfortable in my new surroundings. He had given me his vacation home to use. The house was absolutely gorgeous. There were six huge bedrooms, and six bathrooms as well. A beach house was attached and a bathhouse, with an outdoor shower. The house sat on its own half-mile-long portion of the most beautiful white-sand beach. He had told me that he owned just a small swallow of the ocean, and now I believed him. I guess I could get used to living like an island girl.
Each day I found something new to do. Of course I had already hit Bridgetown again. I shopped and purchased an entire set of David Yurman jewelry, twelve pairs of high-end designer shoes, three pairs of shades, and six bags—including a Hermès Birkin bag. I had to replace the things I’d left behind in Miami. Indulging in the finer things again made me feel almost whole, but not being able to practice law still had me missing my old life.
Every day I thought about Lance. He’d called a few times after he left, but he was on tour now, so his time was limited. I occupied myself with other things in Barbados, too. I strolled the beach, sunbathed, learned to ride a Jet Ski, read books, and even made a few new Bajan friends. Nothing, however, beat the hustle and bustle of my career and Miami.
It had been a month since the last time I saw Lance face-to-face, but like clockwork he would call me every morning to check on me. He always wanted to know if I was alright. And after I would assure him more than a dozen times, he’d blow me a couple of kisses through the phone and then we would hang up.
This morning I woke up to the early morning sunrise, got me a cup of hot tea, took a seat on the patio recliner, and watched the waves coming in on the shore. I looked at my watch at least fives times, because I knew that at any moment Lance would be calling me to check in. I turned when I heard Lana, his housekeeper, approach me.
“Excuse me, ma’am, there’s a call for you,” she said and handed me the cordless phone.
Shocked that I would be getting a call on the house line, I asked her who it was before I took the phone out of her hand.
“It’s Mr. Wallace’s manager,” she told me, then she walked away to give me some privacy.
I put the phone to my ear and said, “Hello.”
“Yoshi. This is Mike.”
“What’s up, Mike?”
“I don’t know how to tell you this, but…”
“Tell me what?” I interjected.
“Lance was shot last night while we where leaving the night club…”
My heart fell down in the pit of my stomach and I screamed. “He was what? Where is he?” I cut him off.
“Yoshi, he was rushed to the hospital right after the shooting, but he didn’t make it out of the surgery.”
I screamed even louder. “No, he can’t be dead! Not Lance.”
“Yoshi, I am sorry. The doctors tried everything,” Mike said. He continued on, telling me that Lance had had a heated argument inside the club with some cats so the bouncers escorted them out of there. Lance thought everything was all good until he exited the club and bullets started flying. Everybody ran for cover, but Lance wasn’t so lucky because the first couple of bullets hit him directly in the chest and the other ones hit him in the shoulder and the leg. While I was listening to Mike paint the picture of Lance’s murder, I sat on the patio chair in shock. My ear was plastered to the phone while the tears fell from my eyes. It seemed like everyone I held dear was being taken away from me.
“Does anyone know who shot him?” I said, wiping the tears from my eyes.
“No, we don’t. But we’re assuming that it was the guys he had beef with inside the club.”
“Did anyone give the police that information?”
“Yes, we did. As a matter of fact, me, Calvin, and Alonzo are on our way down to the Miami-Dade police department to give a statement and look at some mug shots.”
Realizing he’d just said that he was on his way down to the Miami-Dade police department gave me the fucking chills. At that point I wanted to sever all ties for fear that my name would pop up. I was sure that Mike and the rest of his crew knew that I was on the run from the Feds and that the Haitians had a bounty on my head, so I knew I couldn’t take any chances at getting caught up behind somebody’s greed. From what I’ve heard the Feds were offering a half million dollars for any information about my whereabouts. In addition to that, Sheldon put out a $250 thousand dollar bounty on my head. Since Lance was no longer alive to keep those chumps on the payroll, they could turn on me at the drop of the hat and I wasn’t about to give them a chance to do it.
I said a few more words to Mike and then I got off the phone. I was too weak to get up from my chair, so I called Lana to help me. She sprinted back out to where I was and immediately helped me get back to my room. After I sat down on the bed, an eerie calm came over me. When I looked up at her, Lana asked me what was wrong. I wanted to answer her, but my mouth wouldn’t move. I must’ve been in shock because my mind went completely blank and I couldn’t get a word to come out of my mouth. I heard her talking to me, but it was like she was talking in slow motion. Lana grabbed my arm and started shaking me until I snapped out of it. My skin felt hot and my legs felt numb. My heart began to race and it seemed like everything was spinning.
“He’s dead, Lana,” I finally said.
She panicked. “Ms. Aoki, what are you talking about? Who’s
dead?”
“Lance is dead!”
Lana’s mouth hung open, but she didn’t say one word. I started crying hysterically. “Oh my God, I can’t believe he’s gone! What am I going to do now?”
I searched Lana’s eyes for an answer of my own.
She took a seat on the edge of the bed beside me. “I don’t know,” she finally said, her voice barely audible.
I needed to clear my head and think of how I was going to make my next move, so I decided to take a walk. I told Lana I would be right back, then I tried to stand up, but my legs wouldn’t cooperate. The next I knew, I’d fainted.
I could hear voices around me, but I couldn’t seem to open my eyes. They were murmuring about me, and every now and then I felt someone touch me. When I came to, I was in my bed, Lance’s bed. Lana had placed a cold compress on my head and I awoke to the doctor taking my vital signs. “What happened?” I asked, my voice crackly.
“You passed out, Ms. Aoki. I called Dr. Leonard because I was scared,” Lana explained, concern riddling her face.
“Hi, Ms. Aoki. I’m Dr. Leonard. I came right over when Ms. Lana called me. You looked pretty sick,” the doctor stated. I just stared at him blankly.
I tried to sit up, but I still felt light-headed. Finding out about Lance’s death was too much for me to handle. I knew right then I needed to get the hell out of this country before anyone realized that I had been hiding out here. After the doctor talked with me for a few minutes, he packed up his things and left. I lay in the bed for another ten minutes and then thought about what I was going to do. I knew leaving would be the best thing for me, since this house didn’t belong to me. Everything around here was in Lance’s name, so whoever was the executor of his estate would be coming out here soon enough to collect and in the process they would kick my ass out.
Slowly, I began to pull my plans together. After leaving that check with Scott to cover my bail, and spending like crazy down here in Barbados, I had a couple hundred thousand left in my account. I knew that wasn’t going to take me very far, being as I was on the run. Everyone, including Sheldon, the DEA, and all of Miami-Dade police, were looking for me. It wouldn’t surprise me if I was on America’s Most Wanted, and if that was the case, then my chances of moving around without being seen were slim to none. Unless I went to Virginia like I had planned to do a while back. No one out there knew me except for my family, so I should be fine. The only thing I needed to worry about was how in the hell I was going to get from here to there.
Meanwhile, I got Lana to help me pack. I stuffed everything of value into five large pieces of Louis Vuitton luggage, and everything else I left behind. I figured those things could be replaced at a later date, so I’d be alright.
I waited for the taxi downstairs in the foyer of the house, and while I was waiting, Lana stood next to me, begging me not to leave.
“I’m sorry, but I’ve got to go,” I told her. “Lance is not coming back, so I have to move on.”
“Why don’t you wait until his family comes first?”
“No, Lana. That won’t be a good idea.”
“But I’m sure they would want to meet you.”
“Maybe some other time,” I said. And before she was able to weigh me down about staying, my taxi pulled up. I got her to help the driver with my bags, and after everything was loaded into the car, I got into the backseat and waved her off. “Take me to the airport,” I instructed the driver.
“Okay, no problem,” he told me, and then he took off.
When we arrived at the airport, I was kind of leery to approach the counter to purchase a ticket, for fear that someone might recognize me. But then I figured, how in the hell else was I going to get out of here? I had to take my chances. I pushed my sunglasses back and went for what I knew. And as soon as the woman asked me for a picture ID, I handed her my passport that said Yoshi Aoki. My nerves were running me ragged while I waited for her to process me into the system.
“Where to?” she wanted to know, while she was keying my information in.
My lips were numb. I honestly didn’t know what to tell the lady. But then the words “Houston, Texas,” spewed from my mouth without me even realizing it. I believed Lance and Maria were subconsciously telling me I needed to take a detour to get to Virginia. So that’s exactly what I intended to do. After the airport attendant printed out my baggage labels, she attached them to my bags and handed me my ticket. Once those tickets were in my hand, I let out a sigh of relief and walked off toward the gates.
But I wasn’t in the clear yet. I still had to go through security in order to get on the plane, so that was the next hurdle I had to jump. The airport was really crowded. Everyone was busy trying to get everything situated so they could board their flight. I watched how security handled each and every person who had to go through their checkpoint. When it was my turn to go through, I damn near had a panic attack. But somehow or another I managed to hold myself together. When one of the airport security officers asked me for my passport and boarding ticket, I handed them both to him and smiled. He looked down at them and then back up at me. “Houston, huh?” he commented.
Barely audible, I said, “Yes.”
“You have family there?” he pressed on.
“Yes, I do,” I lied.
He smiled. “Have a safe flight,” he told me, then handed me my passport and boarding pass.
It felt like I was holding my breath, waiting for someone to notice me. As soon as I walked aboard the plane, I let out a sigh of relief. I was almost home free.
What’s Next?
My plane landed safely and my arrival to Houston’s airport was not as scary as I thought it would be. My main concern was getting back on United States soil without getting caught, and so far I had managed to do that. Swiftly, I walked into the baggage claim area and retrieved my things without anyone breathing down my neck. Then I hobbled over to the rental car area of the airport with my luggage in tow and waited in line for the next available representative. The process of getting a car took less time than expected—I was out of the airport and in my vehicle in about fifteen minutes.
As I drove down highway 76, I knew I was home free. I turned on the radio and tuned in to an old joint, “Where I’m From” by Jay Z. I was bopping my head, feeling the hell out of this jam. I mean, hey, I was on the freeway heading right to VA where my family was. No one was on my heels keeping me from getting there, so I was happy as hell. I didn’t know what to expect when I got there, but I guess I’d have to cross that bridge when I got there. As far as the DEA and Miami-Dade police detectives were concerned, I was on the run. But the way I looked at it, I was running for my life. I hadn’t done any of the shit they had penned on me. The only thing I was guilty of was having a fucking coke habit, and that shit went out the window a while ago. It was time to start a new life, but at the same time I had to play low-key and get on the level of the people in Virginia or else I would stick out like a sore thumb. I couldn’t have that. My freedom was too valuable. I just hoped my family wasn’t as shiesty as the motherfuckers I left back in Miami, because if they were, I was going to be fucked up all over again. I guess I would find out soon.
A READING GROUP GUIDE
PLAYING DIRTY
Kiki Swinson
ABOUT THIS GUIDE
The following questions are intended to enhance your group’s reading of PLAYING DIRTY.
Discussion Questions
How did you feel about the main character, Yoshi Lomax?
Were the methods she used to win her cases necessary?
If you could change one thing about Yoshi, what would it be?
Because of what Yoshi brought to the table, did you feel like she should have made partner at the firm?
It wasn’t guaranteed that Mr. Alvarez would have sought out Yoshi as his counsel after the DEA busted him. Do you think Yoshi was wrong for going behind Maria’s back to tell Mr. Alvarez that he had an informant in his midst just so she could gain a big paycheck
?
Maria did not have any proof that Yoshi blew her agents’ investigation. Was she wrong for turning her back on Yoshi?
Do you think Yoshi was going in over her head when she took Sheldon’s case and promised him an acquittal?
What do you think was Yoshi’s downfall?
When Yoshi found out that Paul and Mr. Santana had plotted to turn her life upside down, do you think her actions in getting revenge were justified?
After everything that happened to Yoshi, do you think she learned her lesson?
Want to know what happens to Yoshi Lomax?
Don’t miss the sequel to Playing Dirty
Notorious
Available in September 2009 wherever books are sold.
Until then, enjoy the following excerpt….
Life in VA
I crossed a lot of state lines to get to my father’s hometown, but I made it.
When I stepped foot into the state of Texas, I saw my picture plastered across the cover of several newspapers. Believe me when I tell you, I got the hell out of there really quick. I rented a Toyota Highlander from Enterprise, stuffed all my things into the back of it, and drove the rest of the way to Virginia. It took me approximately twenty-two hours to get to my destination. Along the way, I prayed that my father’s people hadn’t heard about my brush with the law and the reward that they were offering. It had been a long time since we had been together, so I was like a stranger to them, which would make it easy for any one of them to turn me in. I had to keep my eyes and ears open, and the first time I sensed that something wasn’t right, I was going to haul ass without even looking back.