Previous chapter:
Now, I only needed to find one of those bloodsuckers, and I also knew in which hole I had to look to find one.
Calina's pov
Tired.
That was how my body felt, but with time, I got used to all the shifts and hard for work I was doing for my baby and I, to have a good life.
And I'd keep going as I didn't want to disappoint my baby, or the people around me. I wanted to show them that I could fix my problems myself, and be independent.
Sighing tiredly as it was a long and exhausting night, I changed my clothes in the locker room. It was three in the morning now and I started my shift at ten in the morning yesterday.
Officially, I worked seventeen hours after willingly taking Emma's shift, but the day, or the night, wasn't over for me yet.
As much as I wanted to go home and take a long nap, I had to collect my baby's surgery money as I had an appointment with Mr. Wright this afternoon where I would sign the consent form he'd prepared for my baby's surgery.
And after that I immeasurable wanted to pay the money for my baby's surgery, like I had agreed to do when we scheduled her operation.
When I got changed, I left the locker room, heading off the hospital. Then, I went to my car and drove home as I needed to change again.
My clothes were not suitable for the place I wanted to go to collect my baby's surgery money.
*****
As I finally got home, I parked my car in front of my house before getting out of the car and heading home.
When I walked into my house, I didn't turn on the lights. I knew that Zia sometimes woke up at night when she slept at their place because she missed her bed, our bed. If she was awake and I opened the light, she would jump off her bed there and run home.
Therefore, I went to my bedroom in the dark. When I entered my bedroom, I went to my closet and grabbed a tight black dress, knowing the hotter I looked the less I had worry about waiting to enter the place I wanted to visit.
After wearing the dress, I put on my long over-knee boots. Then, I wore my leather jacket before putting on a little makeup. I didn't have to cover the purple bruises on my legs and upper body with makeup because my clothes were already covering my bruises.
I left my long hair open. My hair was naturally straight and looked good, so I didn't mind styling it.
After taking one last look at my reflection in the mirror, I left home and headed back to my car. I lived for almost three years in the US now, and I knew which places to visit at night, and which ones not.
But tonight I wanted to visit the places I'd usually avoid. So, I drove to the residential area where there were a lot of clubs.
As I arrived, I parked the car and headed to a club which was looking fancy and offered many services, from strippers to poker games, probably also drugs, just not over the counter from a bartender, but from under the table from a drug dealer.
Looking confident, I walked past the queue until I was right in front of the bodyguard at the front door.
"Hello," I said with a charming smile, moving closer to him before leaning closer to his ear, resulting in him looking at me with a frown.
"If you don't keep me waiting and let me in, I'll wait for you until your shift ends for some fun." I tried my chance. I didn't want to wait the long queue until it was my turn to get in, that was also why I dressed up, to prevent the queue by flirting with the guard.
He looked me up and down before nodding his head and letting me in with a grin. "Thank you, handsome," I said with a wink as I walked past him, cringing inwardly at my own words, taking note to use the exit to avoid him when I would leave.
And if there was no other way out and he was intrusive, I would take him to my car, sedate him and kick his unconscious body into a dark alley.
When I went in, the smell of sex and alcohol hit me right away. Cringing my nose at the stench, I went to the bar and sat in one of the chairs before ordering sex on the beach.
"Thanks," I said to the bartender as he served me my drink. "You're welcome, beautiful," he winked at me before serving another group their drinks.
Sipping my drink, I looked around the club for drug dealers. Drug dealers worked for some drug lords, who would be happy to lend me some money if I promised them I would pay them back with high interests.
I smiled as I saw the type of man I was looking for. He stood in a corner while his eyes roamed the crowd. He was dressed all in black and had a blank face. He was looking for junkies, addicts to tick off his goods.
Good thing I found my prey, or I had to go to another club to find one. Finishing my drink, I got up from my chair and approached him.
"Hello," I said, touching his arm as I was right next to him, "do you have something relaxing for me?"
"You are new here?" he asked me with a frown. "I've never seen you here." Biting my lip, trying to look sexy, I nodded my head.
"Yeah, I've never come to his club until I heard that there are good-looking men who sell good stuff," I said, giving him my best smile.
Smirking, he cocked his head and leaned closer, asking me, "What kind of stuff are you looking for?"
"I take everything, what do you have to offer" I asked him, tracing with my fingers his chest. "You don't seem like a junkie," he said as he checked me out.
Rolling my eyes, I said, "Do I have to look like a junkie to be one? I have money. You have weed. Let's make a deal out of it."
"You're not a cop, are you?" he asked me suspiciously, raising a brow. I chuckled, shaking my head, saying, "I just want weed, get high, and have fun."
He looked at me for a while before nodding his head, believing that I wasn't a cop. "Not here. This club has cameras. Follow me out," he pointed to the exit.
"Is there another exit we could go through?" I asked him hesitantly. "Why?" he asked me back with a frown.
"I made a promise to the tall man on the front door to get in, but I'm in no mood to keep it," I said with a sigh.
"What did you promise him?" he asked me with a dirty grin on his face. "Something nasty to avoid the queue," I said, scrunching my nose.
"Okay, bad girl, then follow me to another exit of the club," he said close my face wink before turning around and walking the other direction of the exit.
I rolled my eyes, cringing inwardly as he called me bad girl, but didn't tell him to fuck off with his grins and winks, instead I followed him.
Normally, and smartly, I didn't follow strangers, but I needed his help. If he led me somewhere secluded to try something, I would just sedate him and cut his dick off. Problem solved.
We went out from a different exit. Then, I followed him into an alley. As we came to a street where nobody was, he stopped and looked at me.
"What do you want? I have weed, crack and heroine," he said, putting out his wares. "I want weed," I said, taking fifty pounds out of my purse. I wasn't a drug expert, but a weed shouldn't cost more than fifty pounds, right?
"Thanks, you can have the exchange," I claimed and gave him the money when he gave me my weed. "It was nice doing business with you, pretty lady," he said with a grin.
As he turned around and was about to leave, I called after him, "Wait!" My words stopped him, he turned back with a smile on his face, asking, "What? Do you want more, pretty lady?"
"Yeah, I want more. I want to know who your boss is, I want to know whose stuff this is," I claimed, pointing to the weeds in my hand.
His smile faded and he approached me before leaning closer, saying near my ear, "Don't ask questions where the answers could lead you to a dirty drain with no way out. Enjoy your weed, get high, and have fun, good night pretty lady." Then, he pulled back, turning around, leaving me.
"I can't enjoy anything, since my daughter is sick, I need fifteen grands for my child's operation until tomorrow. And I'm pretty sure you know someone who would willingly lend me fifteen grands if I would pay a generous interest in return," I told him desperately, telling him the truth, hoping he'd help me by taking me to his boss.
If he still wouldn't help me, I'd try the hard way, which was attacking him, sedating him, dragging his unconscious body over to my car before driving him into the woods, tying him to a tree, and beating him with the baseball bat in my car until he would give in and take me to his boss.
But I guess that won't be necessary as my words made him stop in his tracks, and he looked at me reluctantly before saying warningly, "You should know that my boss is a dangerous man, pretty lady. Are you sure you want to borrow money from a dangerous man?"
"I wouldn't be here if I wasn't sure. And don't worry, I didn't expect a drug lord to be sweet like sugar. I know what I'm getting involved into, am I happy? No, but I really need the money until tomorrow, or my baby's surgery will be postponed, so please," I pleaded him desperately as tears ran down my face, "take me to your boss."
He turned to me with a blank expression and looked at me for a while before saying, "Okay, I'll take you to him."
"Thank you," I sighed in relief, wiping my tears away. "You can thank me later. And I really hope you know what you're getting yourself into, pretty lady," he said seriously.
"I know," I muttered as I really knew the world I was going to step into, again, before, hopefully, leaving it after paying back the interest, and never return there again.
"Then, let's go," he claimed, gesturing me to following him. Nodding my head, I followed before he pulled out his car keys, unlocking a car nearby the streets.
"What's up with your daughter?" he asked me him to a car, telling me to get in. He unlocked the car before we got in. Usually, I wouldn't get into a car with a stranger I just met, but if the matter was my daughter, I'd do everything, and I needed to get into this car to go and get her surgery money, so I did.
"She has an atrial septal defect," I said with a sigh, leaning my head against the window as he started the engine, driving away.
"She has an atrial septal defect," I said with a sigh, leaning my head against the window. "What the hell is that?" he asked me confused while driving.
"She has a whole in her heart," I clarified, "and I was given to two options, doing nothing, and seeing if it will close itself while she's growing, which would let her not to be able to do some things in life because of her condition, or I can fix her condition with surgery, let the hole in her heart closed, which would result for her to live her life without limits and do everything she desires, I've chosen the latter one, that's why I need the money."
"I guess you have chosen the right thing to do, you're a good mother," he muttered, looking at me before quickly looking back at the streets. "I try my best to be a good mother," I muttered dryly.
"You're, otherwise you wouldn't be here," he told me, before frowning, looking at me curiously, "where is her father? Isn't he with you, or did the fucker send you to borrow some money from drug lords instead of collecting the money by himself?"
I smiled at the thought of Raphael being afraid of someone. I couldn't even imagine it. He liked to scare people. He loved to intimidate them. He was the definition of evil. People called him evil. And if you would add a d in front of the evil, it would make him the devil. And I doubted that the devil would be afraid of anyone.
"I am a single mother," I told him. "Must be tough, huh?" he asked me. "It's not, I earn good, I am a doctor," I said, not wanting him to pity me.
"A doctor? And you couldn't save fifteen grands for bad times? Or are they not paying you well? Damn people are greedy as hell these times," he snorted.
"No, my salary is pretty good, but I was stupid enough to spend every penny recklessly, not thinking I'd be in an ill situation like this ... I didn't take into account that we would get sick."
"You are sick too?" he asked me in surprise. "I have cancer," I muttered. "You have cancer? Damn it, life really pulls you through some shit," he said with a snort. If he only knew what life pulled me through, he'd be surprised that I was still alive.
"Very true."
"Where is here father? Why don't you ask him for the money? Was it a one night stand?" he asked me.
"He fell to his death." After ruining me and my sanity.
"Well, I am sorry --"
"Don't," I cut him off, "because it's the best thing that could ever happen to me."
"So, you don't feel bad that your husband is dead?" he asked me raising a brow. "No," I mumbled, shaking my head, "I'm glad I got rid of him."
"Why? Why are you hating him? Was he cheating?" he asked me.
"I have my reasons," I muttered shortly, not wanting to tell him my past I still tried to forget and move on.
"Secretive, aren't we?" he asked me, raising a brow. "Curious, aren't we?" I asked him back, making him chuckle.
"Touché, I like your comebacks, feisty," he muttered with a smirk. "Be careful, I can be more than feisty," I warned him.
"Shall I be scared ... what's your name, pretty lady?"
"Candice Hooker," I told him before he started laughing. "No, I'm sorry but with that name you can't expect me to fear you," he chuckled, "no offence, but have you ever thought about changing your last name?"
I huffed. Seriously now, my name was the least of my worries, considering all the shit I still had to fix in life.
❤️❤️❤️vote and comment❤️❤️❤️