Forever a Hustler's Wife (19 page)

CHAPTER 27

Project Getback

D
es and Yarni were volunteering in the South American hospital the church had adopted. As Lootchee came around the corner to meet Des, he stopped in his tracks, staring in amazement. He thought he was seeing a ghost when he laid eyes on Yarni passing out coloring books and crayons to the children. As he watched from a distance, his first thought was “It couldn’t be.” Then he looked again and was sure it was
her.
He was astonished, and he studied Yarni’s every move for the next ten minutes.

It couldn’t possibly be his ex-fiancée, this woman’s skin tone was about six shades lighter. But then again, money can buy the products to make the skin lighter. He knew if it wasn’t Bambi, then it was someone closely related to her. Surely, this person could lead him to the one woman who betrayed him.

“Small motherfucking world,” he uttered under his breath, a sinister grin spreading across his face. “Small motherfucking world.” The grin turned into a huge smile. The last time he’d seen Bambi she was on BET, discussing the good life her party-planning business enabled her to live. It was a business he had helped her build. But at the time, he was living in what might as well have been a grass hut in South America, paranoid that his freedom would be snatched from under his feet at any given minute. At that moment he chose revenge over money. Bambi, as well as anything or anyone whom she loved or who loved her, was fair game.

Since revenge was best served cold, he stood Des up and vowed that he would fulfill the promise he had made to himself a couple of years ago, when he found out that Bambi had triple-crossed him. Fuck Des and the plane or boat he rode in on. This was the first time in Lootchee’s life that MOB—money over bitches—didn’t apply. The bitterness, anger, and resentment in his heart overrode his golden rule.

Lootchee’s itinerary for the day changed as he quickly devised his Project Getback. But he needed a partner in crime, and only one person’s name came to mind: Unique.

Although this wasn’t Lootchee’s usual day to visit the whorehouse, Miguel was happy to see him. Business had been slow, and as soon as he saw Lootchee, he knew things were about to pick up. To Miguel’s surprise, Lootchee offered to buy Unique. After haggling on the price, they agreed on thirty-five hundred dollars.

When Miguel informed Unique that he had sold her to Lootchee and she was to go to work for him, she felt that her prayers had finally been answered. Unique grabbed her few things and practically ran toward Lootchee’s car, where he was waiting for her.

She ran her hands along the gleaming exterior of his Range Rover and inhaled her first breath of freedom after more than three years of living and working in the brothel.

“Today is your lucky day,” Lootchee said.

“I can never thank you enough,” Unique said as she got inside the car, kissed Lootchee on the cheek, and then began checking out the car before snuggling into the leather, which hugged her body like a glove.

“Don’t worry. Nothing comes without a price.”

“It ain’t nothing.” Unique shrugged, not moved by her new owner’s comment. “I’ve been paying all my life—sometimes a little, sometimes a lot, but something tells me that this is going to cost me, sho ’nuff.”

“Good that you know that.”

There was a moment of silence before they got down to business. “Listen, first and foremost, your loyalty is to me,” he told her.

“Of course. No doubt.”

“You hear what I’m saying? I gotta have unconditional loyalty.”

Unique nodded. “You got that. I promise. You got that.” She ran her hand along his leg. “You got whatever you want,” she said seductively, thinking that he was a completely different person when she had him at her mercy in the bedroom.

“Anything other than that, I’m going to consider treason, and I approach treasonous people with extreme prejudice.”

“You…you don’t have to worry about that,” she said nervously, starting to feel the wrath of Lootchee’s threatening tone.

“I’m going to pay you,” he said.

She interrupted him, shaking her head. “Getting me out of here and giving me freedom is more than I can ask for.”

“That’s nothing. I’m going to pay you beyond your wildest dreams, but you gotta understand that if you cross me, no U.S. laws or South American president, bishop, dictator, ruler, or king can protect you.”

“I get it. I’m on your team,” she said without hesitation; she looked into his eyes to reassure him. “Now, what do you need me to do?”

“There’s an American minister and his wife over at the hospital distributing medicine from the States. I need you to go give them your sob story and get them to take you back to Virginia with them. Once in Virginia, I need you to place yourself in their inner circle.”

“Once I do that, then what?” Unique asked.

“Just keep your eyes and ears open.”

“Is it anything in particular that you’re looking for?”

“No. I’ll know when I hear it.”

“So, that’s it? Listen for information?” she questioned.

“Pretty much.” He looked at her.

“The way you were talking, I thought you wanted someone killed or the president’s daughter kidnapped.”

“What if I had asked you to do that?”

“Then, I would have played my position.” She looked into his eyes again. Though her hazel eyes were beautiful, there was an ugly story behind them. Unique was a trifling, shysty, low-down dirty bitch. In her day, she had pulled off some scandalous and grimy stunts. She would have done any-and everything for money, which was how she had ended up in the whorehouse three years ago. Her then boyfriend, Took, took her on a paradise vacation, but before it was all over, she’d found herself without a passport, and the property of Miguel Villa. Took had sold Unique to him for two chickens, a mule, and a key of coke as a way of giving her a dose of her own medicine. She was a first-class snake, and she would have done anything to get herself out of that hellhole.

“Let’s play ball, then,” Lootchee stated.

“The last dude that bailed me out left me here,” Unique said, almost feeling sorry for herself.

“Well, we’ll have to get him back, huh?” Lootchee smiled, stroking the back of his hand down the side of Unique’s face.

She smiled at him. “That would be lovely, but he’s in the States.”

“It doesn’t matter where he is. Nobody who betrays me or anybody I care about has immunity.”

“Sounds real good, but you don’t have to say that you care to get me to do the job. I’m going to do it.”

“I know that. You’re going to do what I need you to do, or you’ll have to pay me a bigger debt. In return, I’ll protect you and make sure whoever fucked you over gets what’s due to him, plus you’ll get a handsome piece of money in the process. All you have to do is play fair with me.”

Her heart was set on getting back to the United States to try to get revenge on the people who had betrayed her. She had nothing to lose. She said, “There’s only one thing: I don’t have a passport.”

“I can take care of that.”

“All right, then, what else do I need?”

“We’ll play this as we go along, but always know that I’ll never be far away. The main thing you have to do is make them embrace you and welcome you into their world.”

“Done.”

As Lootchee drove Unique to the hospital, he described Des and Yarni and relayed to her all the information he had dug up on them. Unique ran over and over in her head what she would say to the couple in order to convince them to take her back to the States with them. By the time they made it to the hospital, she had her lines down pat.

“Don’t let me down, baby” were Lootchee’s last words to Unique as she got out of the Range Rover.

“Let you down?” Unique asked. “My job is to get you up.” She winked and then disappeared into the hospital.

Upon walking into the hospital, Unique looked around until she found what she was looking for. In a room with several children she saw an attractive black man and a woman who looked perhaps to be his wife. They were surrounded by sick children, and the woman was reading a storybook out loud.

“All right, Unique,” she whispered to herself.
Do your motherfucking thing, bitch!

As disgusting as Unique’s plan was, she really didn’t give a solitary fuck. She had a job to do. And not only did she have to do the job, but she had to do it well.

Unique slowly backed out of the room and went to prepare for her grand entrance. Five minutes later the velvet curtain opened, and it was time for the performance of a lifetime.

“Help me! Oh God, help me!” Unique yelled as she fell into the room where Des and Yarni were with the children, sprawled out on the floor.

“Oh, my goodness,” Yarni said, dropping the book she had been reading to the children and running over to Unique, who appeared to be in excruciating pain. “Des, go get a doctor!”

Des exited the room, passing Unique, who was clutching one arm, out of which blood seemed to be pouring.

“What happened to you, sweetie?” Yarni asked as she lifted Unique’s head and placed it in her lap, getting blood on her designer dress. “Who did this to you?”

Unique just looked up at Yarni with tears pouring out of her eyes. “Just let me die. He’s going to find me and kill me anyway if I live. So just let me die, please.”

“Don’t talk like that,” Yarni comforted her and began to rock her. She looked down at the arm Unique was clutching. Blood was seeping between her fingers. “Somebody help us!” Fear took over Yarni; she did not want this woman dying in her arms. When she looked over at the kids, she realized the situation was scaring them to death. She prayed help would arrive quickly.

Des returned to the room followed by a team of help.

“Let us take her,” one of the nurses said, as they proceeded to lift Unique from Yarni’s arms.

“No!” Unique screamed. She then looked to Yarni, having figured out already that she could play on her emotional strings. “Don’t let them take me.”

“Calm down,” Yarni told her. “Look, I’ll go with you.”

Unique looked to the team of medical personnel around her and then back at Yarni. “Okay,” she said.

“Fine,” the nurse said as they carried Unique out of the room, “but you’ll have to wait outside of the examination room.”

Yarni was satisfied with that. “Des, finish reading to the kids to calm them down,” Yarni said to him. “I’ll be back.” She followed the doctor and nurses out of the room and was directed to wait in an area outside of the examination room where they were taking care of Unique.

A little while later the doctor and nurses emerged from the room. Yarni stood. “How is she?” she asked.

“She’s fine,” one nurse replied. “The wound to her arm, anyway. She’s a bleeder, so the blood made it look far worse than it actually was.”

“You say her wound?” Yarni questioned. “Did something else happen to her?”

The nurse’s eyes lowered. “I know I shouldn’t be telling you this, but we believe the woman was raped as well, although she refused an examination. It’s awful how these women are made to feel ashamed of something they have no control over.” The nurse shook her head. “You can see her now. She looks like she could use a friend.” She smiled and patted Yarni on the shoulder.

A little choked up, Yarni entered the room where Unique was lying down with her back toward the door. Yarni spoke softly, “Hello.” The girl didn’t budge. Yarni walked to the other side of the bed to face Unique. Tears were streaming out of Unique’s eyes.

She looked up at Yarni. “He raped me and tried to kill me” was all Unique said, and she began to cry loudly.

“It’s okay,” Yarni assured her. “You’re okay now.”

“But I’m not. The man who did this to me, he’s going to kill me.”

Yarni’s heart went out to the distraught girl. She was angry at whoever had done this to her and wanted to kill him herself. “No one’s going to kill you. Not if I can help it.”

Unique let out an unconvinced chuckle and said, “What are you going to do? Stay here in South America and protect me? I heard the doctor and nurses talking about the couple from America. You won’t even be around to protect me. You’re a liar just like everyone else in this world who has promised to help me but done nothing but hurt me. So how are you going to protect me? Are you going to take me back to the States with you? Huh?”