by Edwina Fort
“I’m sorry I scared you, but I had to do something, I saw you falling for his silky lies again. It’s the reason why I didn’t tell you before now that he had a woman and you was the side piece.”
My heart!
“What was the reason?” I asked my voice barely over a whisper.
He turned to look at me with sorrowful eyes. Opening his mouth to speak, but seemed to change his mind and shake his head.
He exhaled. “Listen Journey, you’re young and some men prey on that fact. I didn’t tell you because I knew that you loved him so much you wouldn’t believe me. But now that you’ve seen it with your own eyes, please don’t be foolish enough to call your own sight a liar.”
I turned to look out my window so that Kyle couldn’t see just how true his words were. After seeing the ring and hearing Jo declare he loved me and wanted to marry me, I called my eyes a liar for what they claim they saw.
He was right, Jo had played me for a fool. And I would be an even bigger fool to continue to fall for as Kyle say, his silky words. Had I known he had a woman I would have never agreed to this relationship. I would have never given him my heart. It was already too late to walk away from him without being heartbroken, but like my mama always said, time heals all wounds.
I chuckled through my tears. I didn’t know if that was true or not, but I guess I was about to find out. I turned to look at Kyle.
“Yeah,” I whispered. “You’re right.”
Is this the end for Journey and Jo? Was Kyle the better man after all? Find out in…
Coming for What’s Mine - Part Two
BONUS CHAPTER!
Other novel by Edwina Fort
REDEMPTION – CHAPTER ONE
Chapter One
Stolen Innocence
Like everyone else who had come up in the age of the horror film, I believed that Ghost and Goblins that went bump in the night were to be feared. Like any child, I checked under my bed for the Boogie Man and said my prayers each night so that God would keep me safe from the Devil. After all, it was the Devil that was big, bad, and oh so horrible, right?
I could not have been more wrong! You see, in the last few months my eyes had been open to some mind-boggling truths.
Ghost and Goblins were all smoke and mirrors—fluff, basket fillers, entertaining stories to tell around the campfire. Sure, they go bump in the night, but outside of making a lot of noise they had no true power.
The Boogie Man was only as strong as you believed him to be. His power resides in your mind and its ability to imagine the possibilities.
The Devil can only cause damage if invited in. And even so, the amount of destruction he can cause depends on the condition of the environment in which he inhabits. But still, those beings I mentioned were not the most terrible. They don’t have the power to do the things my mind accused my eyes of lying—for seeing. I have learned a frightening and unimaginable truth.
It wasn’t the Devil that caused men to fall to their knees because their mind could no longer send the signal to their legs to stand due to complete and utter dread. It was not the evil ones who had power to crush this world and everything in it in a matter of seconds. I have seen the most vicious and it wasn’t demons. It was the ones who came in the name of The Ancient of Days to carry out his will. They are the most ruthless.
I had to learn that terrible lesson the hard way, taught to me by a man name Gabriel Calhoun, whom everybody called, The Beast of New York; a name in which he had earned. He was not who he appeared to be at first sight, which was ironic because neither was I.
I had been taught since I was a little girl to disguise myself. My granddaddy says my kind of beauty is dangerous. He knew this because I looked just like his mama, and her beauty drove his father insane with jealousy. Until one day, he shot her before turning the gun on himself.
Granddaddy say looks like mine attract beasts. I never would have imagined how true his words would prove to be. I don’t know if Gabe’s and I path were destined to collide, but collide they did—and proved that the age old tale of Beauty and the Beast was not just for white folks.
Only, there was no dancing dishes or pixie dust. There were no talking candlesticks and singing bureaus. It was just me, standing in a high-class strip club that I shouldn’t have been in; dressed in red patent leather boy shorts, a crop-top that barely covered my nipples and a pair of patent leather suspenders that had been taped to the underside of my breast. More scared than I had ever been. That night, I learned the most important lesson of my life.
It was never wise to tempt a beast.
* * * * *
“Yasmin, you’ve got to calm down. You look like you’re about to have a stroke!” Shanice said looking at me through the vanity mirror as she applied her makeup.
I twisted my mama’s ring around my middle finger, as for the hundredth time my eyes landed on the clock that was on the far wall of the dressing room. The second hand had ticked sixty times bringing the hour hand that much closer to landing on ten, and I felt like I was going to be sick. At ten o’clock I had been ordered to go out into a room full of men and show them my body.
“Yasmin!” Slamming her eyeliner down on the table, Shanice turned to look at me.
“I’m sorry, I just… I’ve never done anything like this. I never dress like this!”
“Girl it’s just a little mixing and mingling, it’s not brain surgery.”
She turned back around picking up her makeup brush and began applying concealer to her face.
“Just go out there, dance around a little, have a little chat with a few of the men, and maybe take off your top, easy-peezy.”
I looked at her as if she had gone mad. Easy-peezy? Up until two weeks ago, I had never even been in a room alone with a man, let alone dance topless in front of one.
“I’m sorry… I can’t do it.” I pleaded for her to understand.
I was about to have a panic attack. She whipped back around squinting her eyes at me.
“Oh, you can do it! Cause if you get fired from this job, you are S.O.L. I love you baby, but you can’t stay with me rent free.” She schooled her features and gentled her voice a bit.
“Now, I know you from the country and before your granddaddy died you was used to being real sheltered… but you a big girl now, living in a big city. People around here got to do what they got to do to survive.”
Don’t cry Yasmin! Don’t cry. You can’t show these people any weakness! I bit down on my lip to stop it from quivering.
“Plus tonight, some very rich men are going to be out there.” Her eyes widen as she clapped her hands together. “Girl, The Beast and his whole crew gone be up in here, do you know what that mean. Oh the possibilities!”
Coco another dancer who was applying her makeup at the vanity table next to Shanice turned around to clap hands with her.
“Eww child, if I can catch the eye of The Beast, I ain’t never got to work again.” Coco began.
You would have thought someone had just given her a brand new car with the level of excitement that was in her voice.
“My friend’s sister worked with a girl that used to go out with him, and she say he’s not just a beast in the boardroom and on the streets, but girl… she say he a beast in the bed. Bay-bay, that nigga had her climbing dem walls!”
Shanice squealed like a little girl at Coco’s words before she turned to look at me.
“Yas, girl, you trippin! Now, you can’t handle The Beast, don’t shoot that high. But what you need to do is, try to catch the eye of one of them ballers in his crew!”
I didn’t care about none of what they were saying, my palms were starting to sweat and I was beginning to feel as if I was going to pass out. Why did Shugga do this to me? I knew when I came into work today that this was going to be a bad day because everyone was running around like chickens with their heads cut off.
Shugga’s Place was more a high-class Gentleman’s Club than a strip joint. It was known just as much for its fiv
e-star cuisine than its model like strippers. Your average Joe couldn’t just walk through those doors. You had to be a card holder or straight up VIP. You know, movie stars, famous musician, politicians, that kind of thing. Agents brought athletes here to discuss their contracts. Record labels brought up and coming artist here to sign the deal.
Whoever this guy was they called The Beast of New York, must really be VIP because in the two weeks I‘ve worked here, I had never seen the owner Shugga so frantic. She was running around double checking everything. I looked at Shanice with pleading eyes.
“But… when you got me this job you said I would only be helping the girls with their wardrobes. You never said anything about me stripping.”
She put her hand on her chest. “Is it my fault Cookie called in sick and can’t dance tonight?” Smacking her lips together, she rolled her neck.
“Is it my fault Shugga making you dance in her place?”
“No!” I said under my breath.
“Hell, is it my name on the Marquee? It says… Shugga’s Place, not Shanice’s Place.”
I rolled my eyes looking off to the side. I really hated when she talked to me like that. Just because I’m from the south don’t mean I’m stupid.
“Oh, come on now little country mouse, don’t get mad at me.” She purred, coming to her feet.
Shanice was extremely pretty. With her exotic looks she could have easily had a modeling career, but instead she chose to work here at Shugga’s Place. According to her, the only way she could make money like this in the modeling world was if she was a top-model. She claimed she didn’t have time for all that.
“I’m your friend.” Wrapping her arm around me, she pulled me close. “I’m just trying to teach you how to survive in New York.”
She pursed her red glossy lips. “You ain’t in Sweetwater no more! And your granddaddy ain’t here to take care of you! You’re on your own now. So that mean you got to be a big girl and go out there and make that money.”
Oh! My goodness! I was going to have a heart attack.
“Here, I got something for you. It will calm your nerves a bit.”
I shook my head before she could even turn around. Shanice snorted coke for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I didn’t want anything to do with that. She pulled a pill bottle out of her purse, shook out two pills, then reached down and picked up her cocktail.
“Take these.” She handed me the pills and pressed the glass into my palm.
I eyeballed the pills. “What are these?” They looked like aspirin.
She waved her hand. “Just a little muscle relaxer I got from the doctor for my lower back pain, no big deal.”
“Really?” I couldn’t help the doubt that showed on my face.
Warning bells were going off in my head. Something down in my very being was telling me that this was not a good idea. I looked up at her.
“Just… muscle relaxer?”
She smacked her lips and rolled her eyes before putting her hand on her hip.
“Do you want to be able to do this or not? Come on Yasmin! I don’t have all day. I’ve got to be dressed in fifteen minutes!”
I nodded.
“Well take the pills! It’s just a muscle relaxer, something like Tylenol. Damn girl, you so uptight!”
Coco laughed at me as she pinned up her wig.
“She that uptight cause she ain’t never had a man pry them legs open.”
Shanice shook her head before sitting back down to put the finishing touches on her makeup.
I looked at Coco. “You don’t know what I had, so just mind yo business!”
She laughed harder. I rolled my eyes at her. I can’t stand none of these girls here but Shanice. The rest of them went out of their way to be mean to me, treating me like I was their slave.
“Yasmin, tape this up!”
“Yasmin, fetch that!”
“Yasmin, pick up that!”
“Faster Yasmin!”
“Yasmin, coffee!”
Technically, this was my first job and I hated it. So many times I wanted to tell them where they could put their coffee. But… I couldn’t, because then I would be fired, and shortly after that, homeless. Shanice who had been letting me sleep on her couch for the last two weeks reminded me at least once a day that it was something she could not do for free.
“Pry them legs open.” Shanice said as she fixed her wig on her head.
“Child, that little country mouse probably ain’t never been kissed.”
Angrily, I put the pills in my mouth. I couldn’t lose this job. It was the only place that would hire me without looking into my background or asking for any ID. Plus, it pays five-hundred dollars cash a week.
I choked as the Tequila burned a path down my throat, gasping for breath.
“It’s straight alcohol!”
Both girls laughed at me shaking their heads. Shanice eyes connected with mine through her mirror. She wore a devilish smile on her face.
“Good girl, in no time you’ll be right as rain.”
* * * * *
Shanice had drugged me!
Whatever she gave me was definitely not a muscle relaxer. I felt it moving through my system, changing me. The bass from the music seemed to penetrate my soul. I closed my eyes and moaned as the vibration moved through my bare feet and up my legs to my core.
Shanice pressed another glass of liquor in my hand.
“Drink it Yas, go ahead, it’s going to help.”
I heard her, but it sounded like she was talking from several places around the room. She guided the glass up to my lips and I drank it all in one swallow. It burned, but not as bad as the first time.
I began to move my body to the bass that had somehow become a part of me. They all stared at me, including Shugga who was queen of this palace. She always dressed in button up shirts with real high collars, but she left the whole top half of the shirt open so that her ample breast always threaten to spill out.
She walked over to me, taking in the outfit Shanice had picked out. The little red shorts were so tight I had to force myself to walk normal. The crop top barely covered my boobs. I wasn’t extremely busty like most of the girls here, who according to Shanice had bought their chest. But I had enough for the whole underside of my breast to peek from underneath the shirt.
Somehow, Shanice had used tape on my breast to keep the suspenders in place. She tried getting me to walk in a pair of matching heels but every step I took threaten to be the one that would send me sprawling to the floor.
“You know what, forget the heels, you look good barefoot.” She’d said.
I don’t know if I did or not, but I sure liked being without shoes—always have. When I was a little girl my pa-pa was always finding my shoes in strange places.
Once I was dressed, she snatched the baseball cap off my head and went to take off my wig. However, I put my hand on hers, stopping her.
“Oh yeah, I forgot, you never take off the wig, right?” I nodded.
Shanice thought I wore wigs all the time because I suffered from a disease that caused me to have bald spots. I didn’t bother correcting her, the less she or anyone knew about me, the better.
“Well, let’s fix it up a bit. If I know Shugga, she’s going to put you in one of them cages. Although you a rookie, you look simply mouthwatering and totally tease worthy. You’re far prettier than most of these heffas here.”
She designed my hair and makeup to give me an exotic bird look. The end result is what Shugga was now standing here nodding her head at with approval.
“This is a very important group coming here tonight.” She spoke to the room.
“I don’t have to tell you that this night has the power to make us or break us. Go out there and be more charming than you’ve ever been in your lives. Make those men desire you. Make them have to have you.”
She grinned. “After tonight, some of your lives will never be the same. It was nights like this that opened doors for many great ladies. Put yourselve
s on the map. Go out there and show The Beast of New York what it means to walk into Shugga’s Place!”
All the girls cheered after she spoke. Wow! I felt like I was standing in a football locker room instead of the dressing room at a Gentlemen’s Club. Shugga turned to look at me.
“Damn, if I had known all that was under them overalls and that baseball cap, I would’ve had you on stage before tonight. Put her in the golden cage.” She said, before she turned to leave the room.
I felt so strange.
Shanice put something around my neck that was connected to a chain, a collar.
“Good job Yas, she’s putting you in the golden cage! You go girl! Some of these girls been here for years and ain’t got a chance to dance in the golden cage.”
“Does The Beast have a name?” I asked, blinking to keep her in focus. Her mouth opened in surprise.