Entangled with the Mafia Don

SIX

CHAPTER SIX.

A stomp on her fingers was what woke Melissa up. She pretended to still be out cold as she saw the two men she now realized we're her pursuers from the necklace theft, walk through her living room and out the front door, the tin that contained the diamonds in their possession. Melissa struggled to contain the loud sob that threatened to give her consciousness away. It was until she stopped hearing their footsteps thunder down the passage and the stairs, that she finally stood up.

She looked around her apartment and the disarray the men left it at. Her kitchen cupboards lay askew and her front door was crooked, barely hanging onto its hinges. Just the state of her house, which had managed to stay normal after all the craziness for the past days, was enough to make Melissa hunker down, her arms folded over her head as the tears came.

Melissa sat there for a very long time, till her rear started to feel numb. Truthfully speaking, she didn't have any will to go through today. Marcus wasn't even an okay reason for her to leave the apartment and it might make her a bad person because she loved him so much, but she was so tired. She needed an alone time for herself and she decided that today was it. That she was going to drink away her sorrows and watch cringe worthy Passion Flix and Hallmark movies till she puked on popcorn.

And when tomorrow came with the usual anxiety and worries and Marcus and all the bills she'd have to juggle, she'll face them knowing that she just had a stress free day and that would suffice. That had to be enough.

She took her time putting her apartment to rights, running to the apartment below hers to get the handyman for her front door. It was repaired in a matter of minutes and as she latched the last lock on, she felt self in her space. She went back to cleaning, scrubbing furiously, like she was trying to wash out the men's presence and the fact that they were ever there. It took her the rest of the day to finally make peace with how her apartment felt. And by now, it reeked of heavily applied bleach.

She took a long bath after that, switching on her phone fire to shoot a message to Marcus and Laura, letting Laura know that she was going to reach out to the club. She didn't have the diamonds again and thinking of it, it was really stupid and careless of her to have taken it in the first place. After all, what good man keeps a tin of diamonds in his pocket.

Her thoughts screeched to a halt when she realized that the tin wasn't his but instead hers and that she had found the diamonds in the velvet pouch that she had been too careless to leave behind.

"So that was how they got hold of me." Melissa gave a self depreciating laughter at her foolishness and sank under the bubbles, hoping that they masked her mortification.

She finished off her bath, deciding to shave while she was at it, seeing as she was going to sell her body to any man tonight. She shivered with disgust at that thought but willed her mind to go through the process.

She had just oiled up and wrapped herself in a terracotta dress robe, a bowl of popcorn on her centre table and her laptop already rolling opening credits to a holiday special when she received a call from Laura. She put a pause on the show and hesitated on answering. She let her ringtone play out and was somehow irked to see Laura calling again. Sighing, she slid her finger over the receive icon.

"This better be good."

She heard loud noises behind Laura and had to strain to pick out what Laura was saying. "... You have to come here now!" Laura yelled, enunciating her words so Melissa would hear them over the ridiculously loud metal music.

Melissa had to cover her other ear with a hand. "I don't get you, Laura. Where are you?"

"You said you wanted to contact La'capan and I decided to be there for you. I contacted them for you, Mel. I dropped your name here. Come on!"

"You what?!"

"Oh, Mel. Don't be like that. Just get your ass here ASAP. I'm waiting for you by the bar and you better be fast or I won't be here by the time you show your sorry self."

Melissa had to pull back her phone to look at the screen, shocked at what she had just heard. "You're at the club? Are you stupid or what, Laura? Get out of there. I thought you said it's dangerous."

She heard Laura scoff. "It's very obvious to me that you completely forgot that this is the same club you're wishing to contact to sell your body." Laura laughed out after that statement and Melissa heard a man's voice over the line. Propositioning her. They spent a moment conversing and after they were done, Melissa wished that earlier, she would've poured the bleach into her ears instead of on her floors.

"Did that man just ask you to suck him off?" Melissa couldn't keep the surprise from her voice. She had heard the man's vulgar words and Laura's own reply. Ew. She knew that Laura wasn't going to be there when she got to the club. IF she got to the club, because she was now second guessing the whole thing.

"He did and I'm going after that. Just get here quickly." Laura hung up and Melissa was left staring at her phone in surprise. Her thoughts went to the movie that she was watching and she regretted that once again, she would put self care time aside. Even though she had spent the whole day doing aimless cleaning.

She stood up from her bed, heading straight for her closet and picking the skimpiest piece of clothing she had. It was a two piece, the top made of a sheer mesh material and the shorts of smooth leather. Her shoes were the easiest to pick, seeing as they were the only slutty looking footwear she had. The strap of the stilettos she wore dug into her ankles and she remembered that it had been close to three years since she wore anything remotely high on her feet.

She pulled her hair into a messy knot and tried to make it look easily s*x by pulling a few strands out to frame her face and a lock to trail down the side of her neck. That was the only thing she could do to her hair because it was greasy and this was so last minute, she didn't have the time to rush to the salon to get it primped. So this would have to do.

Her makeup came next. Eyeliner was a go to and it enhanced her siren eyes. The smoky eye shadow she applied added more to the appeal and Melissa decided to go natural with the rest, only applying gloss to her lips. She stared hard in the mirror for a while, loving how she looked but also feeling like she was about to sell her soul.

She checked her phone before she put it into her purse and saw two missed calls from Laura and then a message from her.

'Gn fr d n. Tdls.' Melissa couldn't make out the message but she was sure that it was the drunk Laura that sent it. Thinking hard as she stared at the message, she felt like it meant 'Gone For The Night, Toodles.' But she wasn't sure. For all she knew, she might be making stuff up to deter her from going.

Melissa tried to calm herself down, whispering the needful and engraving it in her mind. Laura would never abandon her in a den full of deadly men. She assured herself that all would be well and soon, she was on her way.

Hailing a taxi wasn't an easy feat every Friday night but Melissa was lucky to get one immediately she stepped out of the complex. She felt goosebumps raise on her flesh and although she wasn't cold, she wished she had grabbed an outer coat, just to give her an extra layer of protection. From the eyes of the men she was about to encounter.

The leather jacket she had on barely did justice to covering any part of her so she pulled the sides tight around her, burying her head in her chest.

"You okay back there?" She looked up to see the driver staring at her through the mirror.

"I'm good, thanks. Just a little bit cold." She smiled to assure him and she warmed a little when he turned down the air conditioning. The ride took so long, Melissa was almost sure it was a sign from above to get her ass back to her flat. But after maneuvering through the condensed traffick, that she later found to be caused by two cars collision at the front of the line, they rolled up beside the club.

Melissa wasn't sure what she expected but she always thought that a club that dealt with 'escorts' would be the height of concealment. But instead, the club sign was lit like the fourth of July and girls in mini clothes loitered the front way and alley. She froze on the street a bit when she saw the expensive cars that pulled up to the doors and dropped off wealthy looking men, some old enough to be her grandfather. The building was higher than she had expected and apart from the girls who stood at the front, the establishment looked secure. Safe.

The horn from her taxi jerked her into motion and she quickly paid the driver, running across the street. She steeled herself just as she approached the bouncers stationed at the front of the building.

"Uh, Melissa Juan Gomez." She pulled at the hem of her shorts and watched as the bouncers followed her movement, their eyes heating as their eyes rod over her figure. The one holding the clipboard came out of his trance and looked at the list. After two pages flips, he looked at his partner, then at her. Nodding at her, they clipped the stanchion open and moved aside to let her in.

Melissa chose to ignore their eyes on her back as she walked up to the door and pulled it open. What she saw inside had her mouth hanging out and her eyes going wide. "Wow."