The Devil wears Armani

Winter

Logan

Vivaldi' Four Seasons, CD lies face down next to me , the concerto is playing loudly, 'Winter' , the melody carries me over all the chaos in my head that threatens to take me to the brink of madness.

I listen to the first violin solo, I close my eyes and let the gust of wind lead me to my peaceful place. An erratic knock on my door brings me out of my blissful stupor annoyed I yell "who is it ?", "It’s me sir ",I recognize my body guard s voice, " its open , come in" ,a big man walks in ignores my glaring ,he already knows I'm in a foul mood. He walks over and seats on the couch that is right opposite me, I'm still lying on the bed, the music has stopped. I look at him , "what’s the status update do you have the location secured", "Everything is in order sir we booked the La memoir and we will have a minimum stuff in attendance ",

"Did you place extra cameras as I instructed?"

"yes sir everything is in order"

"Good, because I don’t want any mistakes, this deal is important to my father, so if anything goes sour you know he will have both our heads ,You can live'.

I walk into the spacious bathroom I check to see if the hotel stocked the cabinet with extra towels that I requested, i walk to the mirror I remove what remained of my suit, I peel off the blood stained shirt a reminder of today s drama ,it falls to the floor. I stare at the scars on my chest I run my fingers over them, a flood of memories come rushing to my mind, so I drop my hand and turn away from the mirror.

if only It was that easy to turn away from memories of past injustices. I turn on the shower jets to almost scalding hot hoping to burn away some of my sins .I go over the plan in my head; there is absolutely no room for mistakes.

La memoir

Mr Rover walks in to the break room where everyone was told to be gathered. "Okay guys gather up, If I call up your name walk over to my left,Sarah, Natalia, Emily,Tom and Josh that will be all the rest of you can go home". Rod one of the bar tenders raises his hand ,"yes what is it" how many guest will be coming in today? , Mr Rover glares at him," well Rodney not that it's any of your concern ,but we will be hosting at least 50 guest tonight " Rod nods his head, then raises his hand again, " sorry sir but how are 5 people supposed to attend to 50 guests , Tom and Josh will obviously be in the kitchen which leaves just 3 on the floor Mr Rover ignores him , "now everyone else whose name was not called, kindly go home I will not have you loitering like hungry cats and embarrass me these are very important guests and we stand to boost our reputation by hosting them.

Everyone rushes out except for those that were called out. "Come on Natalia", Sarah barks out lets freshen up before the highly esteemed guest arrive, "is that a hint of sarcasm that I’m hearing from you Sarah" Mr Rover remarks , I don’t think our guest will appreciate that amount of sarcasm from you" she bows dramatically "my apologies your highness I did not mean to offend you".

We giggle as we head to the stuff changing room. As soon as we get there we touch up on our makeup we even had new uniforms assigned black pants and black shirts and heels which was not favorable since we were meant to be up and about what with us being short stuffed for the night.

half way through applying my lip gloss I stop and look at Sarah "why do you think they want so little staff for this I mean we hardly survive when we are all here what more with just the 3 of us in there and two in the kitchen", Sarah is silent for a minute then suddenly she starts laughing, "honey if you could only see your face right now, why are you even thinking about it ,I mean we are going to be looking like the man in black what could possibly go wrong?" I just have a bad feeling about this I mean, I don’t know maybe it’s in my head, Sarah walks up to me holds my shoulders at arms length "hey honey ,look it’s just like any other night when we have guest except this time it’s just the 5 of us it’s No big deal don’t over think it okay". "Okay fine I will smile and wave",

"Yes Hun just smile and wave."

Hotel

I walk out of the shower , i grab one of the towels and start to wrinse my hair as I walk back to the bedroom rivulets of water dripping down all over the floor. Towel drapped over my head I walk over to the couch to look at the documents that had been dropped off for me while I was in the shower .

I go through the documents before me; I had asked to get all background checks on the stuff that is going to be in attendance during this deal. Every tiny detail has been noted down to when they take bathroom breaks.

Hmm Sarah Alina Mikhailov age 26 she is beautiful has very big alluring eyes, Father is Russian and Mother Italian interesting ,she is very far from home. I flip through the rest of the files Tom, Emily, Josh, everything seems to be in order , I open the last file that belongs to a Natalia Alvarez , age 26 there is a picture of her but it is blurry, I flip over to the next page, "blank" , I am instantly annoyed. I walk over to my bed to retrieve my phone I dial Vince , the man responsible for this current mess.

Vince picks up on the second ring , "did I not make myself clear? , I said everything on the stuff in attendance,"Yes sir you did" , "Then why am I staring at nothing on a document that has a name Natalia Alvarez on it ?" , he stammers for a second , "Sir I am still digging on her it’s a dead end, she seems to be off the map like a ghost or something" I pinch the bridge of my noise ,

'I thought you were the best at this Vince",

"I am sir but",

"no buts, I want EVERYTHING on her, you better make good on your word young man" I hate walking into a room and know nothing do I make myself clear, he stutters, do I make myself clear or do I need to make it clearer in person, I hang up before he has a chance to reply.

I walk up to the study area and I fix myself a scotch whisky neat, Laphroaig 10 year old to help soothe my now flailing mood. I walk back to the bed where I had previously disposed of all the files , I pick up Natalia's file and stare at the only picture there is of her. Who are you and why are you hiding . I flinch a little while staring at it and goose bumps form all over my arm I shake it off and go prepare for the evening.

I walk into the closet to select what I'm going to wear for the evening's adventures,I opt for a black turtle neck and over it I put on my shoulder holster and insert a 9mm pistol, to cover it up I wear a single breasted Armani charcoal grey suit paired off with Magnanni double buckle monk shoes .I stare at my reflection as I add on the last piece , my grandfather watch given to me by my mother on her death . I could never quite figure out why my mother kept this since the old man hated her so much that he would always exclude her from almost all family gatherings with exception to only her offspring .

At exactly 7.30 my driver calls in to announce his arrival, with one last look in the mirror I head to the elevator,

"let the games begin"