I'll Be Down for You: A Bay Area Saga (5 page)

Friday, June 13, 2014

Like clockwork every morning, twenty-three-year-old Shay walked the San Leandro Marina with her mini doberman, Jada Pinkett, skipping alongside her. It was cold this particular morning, but that didn’t stop Shay from making the drive from her modest two-bedroom condominium in San Lorenzo, to get her juices flowing. Ever since the guy she had dated last got her into working out, Shay had become addicted to some kind of physical activity in the morning before she started her day. Her schedule consisted of getting her early morning half run/half jog in, heading back to the condo to shower, get dressed, drop Jada Pinkett off to the dog sitter, and head off to whatever the day’s appointments were. This day she had major preparations in the hair, nail, and Brazilian wax department, for her upcoming rendezvous with one of Vanity’s star clients. He was her sugar daddy, Carl, a rich white guy from Miami who traveled to the Bay Area once a month on business, and who always exclusively requested her company when he did.

Shay hadn’t ever intended to get involved in escorting because she always thought of prostitutes whenever escorting came to mind, but it wasn’t until she started working for Vanity, on a fluke, that she changed her whole tune. She loved her job. The money was phenomenal, the people she got to meet had afforded her some of the better things in life—trips to Brazil and Paris, to name a few. Places she had only ever dreamed about or seen in movies. She had a nice condo that was already paid for, and she had both a 2012 Chevy that she’d bought for herself, and a new 2014 Mini Coupe sitting in her garage, courtesy of Carl. She had squealed so loudly when he had it sent to her from the lot, and when he arrived later that night for one of his visits, she had fucked on his pink dick until he fell fast asleep. She did have to admit that she had grown a soft spot for the man. He treated her like royalty; and that was something she never in her life thought would happen to a little chick from the Lower Bottoms in Oakland.

At twenty-three, she had it going on, living a life that most young women will never see. The last few times that Carl had come out for his dates, he had been approaching the subject of taking Shay back to Miami with him to live. She didn’t know how all that would go over with his family, him playing house with some young, black chick, but he didn’t care, and the more he grew on her, the more she didn’t care either. For once in her life, Shay knew that she would be taken care of—not advantage of. It put a smile on her face that lit up both her dimples. She pushed her earbuds into her ears a little bit tighter when they started to slip out, and as she neared the end of her run, she sang along to Nicki Minaj’s “Your Love”.

When Shay heard her puppy’s little bark, and the tugging against her leash, she removed one of the earbuds from her ear, and stooped down to her pup’s level. “What’s up, Lil’ Mama?” she asked affectionately, of the puppy she took everywhere with her.

“Hey girl,” a man’s voice said from beside her. Shay petted Jada’s head, and then rose to look up at the stranger. Smiling in relief, she now realized just what Jada was barking at. Jada was super territorial and didn’t like strangers of any kind.

“Hey,” she replied, as she got back into pace. The stranger followed close behind her.

“Gettin’ your workout on, huh? Lookin’ good.”

“Thank you,” she responded, with a smile, as they neared her car. But Jada Pinkett wasn’t as friendly. She kept right on barking at the nice looking stranger.

Shay wasn’t alarmed because men stopped her all the time trying to get her attention. It was the thick frame that she sported. The hips alone were a man magnet, and she knew it. Besides that, there were more than a few joggers out and about as always.

“I see you out here all the time keeping that body nice, and I just wanted to speak and see if maybe I could get your name.”

“I’m Shay,” she said, offering her hand to him to shake.

“Shay, I’m Nick. You stay around here?”

“Kinda. Not too far.” She sized the stranger up: Light-skinned, sandy brown tapered hair, small mustache, solid frame probably somewhere around 5’11”/180.
Nice
, she thought to herself.
A little young for my taste, but nice
.

The entire time that they were walking, Jada was barking and not letting up. Had Shay been paying closer attention, she would have noticed that the bark was an alarming one. Dogs knew danger a little too well, but Shay hadn’t yet caught on; probably because the stranger was so handsome and she never grew tired of getting attention from a man that looked good. 

“Cool. I’m not too far from here myself. Means we’re kinda like neighbors. I think it’d be kinda proper if we could exchange numbers, Shay. What you think about that?” he asked, licking across his lips. When she hesitated, he threw out a bargaining chip. Arms spread, he smiled wide, and said, “
Awww
, you got me out here in the cold, early morning. I walked you to your car like a gentleman and all that. I can’t get a little reward? I ain’t greedy either; I think at least seven of them numbers’ll do.”

“That’s cute, Nick!” she giggled. “It’ll be ten though because my area code isn’t 510.”

“Shit, ten…fi’teen…twenty…I ain’t trippin’. Whatever numbers put you on the other end of that line, a nigga cool with.”

“I don’t know,” she said, flirtatiously. “Jada Pinkett doesn’t seem to like you too much,” she kidded, leaning down to pick her pup up.

“She just has to see more of me,” he hinted. “She might just smell my Rott on me, that’s all. I’m harmless. And I could show her mom a good time if she lets me.”

Shay contemplated for a few seconds.
What harm could it bring giving out the number for a few conversations and maybe a meet up for lunch or something
? Carl hadn’t said when he wanted them to leave for Miami, and she hadn’t even given him a final answer yet. So she went ahead and obliged her new friend. “Okay, let me get her in the car real quick.”

She turned away from the stranger to put Jada Pinkett in on the passenger side, and when she turned back toward the stranger, his demeanor was very different than it had been during their flirtation.

“Get in and don’t make no damn noise either,” he demanded, poking her in the side with what she knew to be a pistol.

Shay was suddenly alarmed and fear immediately rocked her body and sent something like a warm chill through her. She couldn’t believe what was happening. All she knew was that she didn’t want to die. She had too much to live for.

He reached into the side of her jacket pocket and snatched her cell phone out, threw it to the ground and stepped on it until it broke into a few pieces. Shay’s fear heightened. She knew that couldn’t mean anything good.

God, please
, she silently begged.
Please spare me
.

“Now, walk around to that passenger side
quietly
, and get in.” He was situated on the passenger side with the door open. “I’ma stand right here while you do. Don’t even think about trying no funny shit.”

“What do you want from me?” she asked horrified, as she complied with his demand. Once they were both inside the car, she posed the question again. “What is it that you want? I can get you
anything
you want. Is it money?” she asked, her voice quivering with fear.

“Start the car up and go to ya house.”

“Okay…” she started, her hands shaking as she pressed the button to activate the engine. “Please don’t hurt me. Please don’t,” she whispered, while silently praying that she’d make it through the ordeal.

Fifteen minutes later, they were pulling into her driveway, and when she slowed the car to park, he chuckled. “Nah, click that Genie and drive up in the garage.”

She reluctantly did as he asked; Jada Pinkett hadn’t barked at all. Shay was glad because she knew that her nerves would shoot through the roof if she had to listen to that
and
strategize against this person who obviously came to do harm to her. She tried her best not to look down at the gun he had across his lap, but she couldn’t help it as her fear increased tenfold.

“What…are…you…
uhh
…what…” she stuttered. “What are you—”

“Grab ya bitch, get out, and get in the house.”

Shay tried reasoning once again. “Nick, I can give you
anything
you want,” she repeated, as she reached in the backseat for Jada. “I really can. You see my car. The one in the driveway is mine too. I have the means.”

“I already been paid, so I don’t need nothing you got.”

“
Paid? By who?
” she fearfully asked. She walked inside with him on her heel, and then turned to look at him, tears in her eyes. “By who?” she questioned again. She couldn’t think of anybody who would want to hurt her, or worse…want her dead. “There has to be some kind of mistake.”

“The only mistake is the one
you
made. Y’all hoes don’t think nothing about safety when a pretty ass nigga tryin’ to holla. That’s a damn shame. I saw that shit all in yo’ eyes, and yo’ demeanor,” he said, with a cocky smirk. “You want this dick, and I might give it to you before I put yo’ ass to sleep.”

All Shay could think of was that Carl wouldn’t be there until tomorrow. But she hoped with everything in her that he would come sooner as a surprise, like he had done so many times in the past.
Please Carl! Please be on your way, baby
. Her survival instincts kicked in and she knew that all she really needed to do was keep the guy talking—and maybe even “busy”, so that she might be able to save herself, or at the very least have help fighting him off once Carl did arrive.

But many hours later, even with all her propositions and pleas to spare her life, Shay lay in the middle of her fluffy white living room carpeting. With every breath she managed to breathe, she had renewed hope that she had been lucky enough to survive the man’s brutal attack. She figured that breathing easy might help to preserve a little bit of energy that she might be able to use to crawl to her phone or the front door.
Fight, Shay
…
you have to fight
, she told herself. Yet, she quickly realized that it was a challenge to herself that she wouldn’t be able to fulfill. Weakness was upon her. There was no one to save her as the life slowly left her body.

Her last thoughts were of her attacker and the look in his devilish green eyes as he raped her repeatedly, and then now how he stood above her naked body and shot her once through the chest. When her eyes bulged in horror at what he had done, there was no remorse present on his face. Not a single trace.

Fight, Shay
…
you have
…
to
…
fight
.

I ran to my bedroom, changed out of the clothes I wore to my uncle’s funeral, pulled my hair up into a messy bun and snuck out while the crowd was still huge at the house. I brought the iPhone with me that I had found in my uncle’s desk drawer and made it to Dublin in half an hour. I had agreed to meet Dani at a midway point. When she walked into the large café at Barnes & Noble, I was already seated at one of the tables and watching the door. I knew her immediately. My uncle had a type and she was definitely it. Pretty, thick, and a lighter shade of brown. She was about five-five and wore her hair in some immaculate ass human hair braids that cascaded in rippled waves down her back and around her face in a wild hairstyle.

Shit
, I thought.
I can braid my ass off, but whoever hooked her shit up, did the damn thang
.

I stood to greet her and she instantly reached out to hug me, holding on to me like we had known each other for years. “You’re so pretty,” she complimented almost in a whisper. She had been crying; I could tell. The whites of her eyes were bloodshot red and she had a few pieces of balled up tissue in her hand, and before we both took a seat, she put an entire packet on top of the table.

“Thank you, Dani. You’re pretty too.”

She started to say something but then she began tearing up. My heart immediately went out to her. The woman sitting across from me was broken and trying her best to keep it together—I knew the feeling. I reached for her packet of tissue and pulled out a few sheets for her, wondering when I would need a few of them myself.

“Here you go,” I said, offering her the tissue.

“Thank you. And, I’m sorry, Honey—”

“Please call me, Jazz,” I instructed her. I wasn’t ready to hear ‘Honey’ rolling off of anybody’s tongue just yet.

“Oh, okay,” she agreed, appearing slightly taken aback. “No worries, Jazz. I was just gonna say that I know your hurt runs way deeper than mine. I just—”

“It’s okay. I’m guessing you and my uncle meant something to each other.” She suddenly looked up at me, dabbing her eyes with the tissue that I’d given her. I took notice of a pretty ass purple butterfly tattoo on the top of her hand. “I’m right, huh?” I asked her taking my focus away from the tattoo. She sat quietly and fought with giving me direct eye contact.

“He was the love…” she paused, to gather her words. “He…was the love of my life. I didn’t see past him,” she said, choking back her words and almost making me cry along with her.

I was trying my best to be strong because I knew I had many more painful moments to look forward to. “I’m gonna go over and get me one of those sweet teas,” I announced, rising from my spot. “Do you want anything?”

“No, thank you,” she whispered.

“Alright, I’ll be right back.”

I needed to get away from her for a few minutes because the longer she took to tell me what the situation was between her and my uncle and the more she neared tears, the more I wanted to cry. I damn near wanted to leave because I didn’t come to keep this girl company; I came to see what the hell the deal was. Not to be insensitive but I didn’t even know her like that. After I got my tea, I returned to the table and she looked up at me.

“I’m sorry, Jazz,” she apologized as soon as I sat back down. “I loved him. I mean, I
love
him. I just can’t believe that he’s not here anymore. That’s a hard pill to swallow. Can you tell me what happened? Or is it too hard right now?”

I was silent for a minute. I wanted to speak my words slowly. “It’s always gonna be hard,” I responded. “But basically, what we know so far is that some punk bitch ass niggas with a death wish ambushed him on the freeway and killed him when he was on his way home.”

“Ambushed him?”

“Yeah, they were on motorcycles and apparently…yeah.”

“Damn,” she gasped. She closed her eyes for a few seconds, then opened the back up. “They have to pay for this.
They have to pay for this
,” she reiterated.

“Absolutely. And they will. Trust me on that.”

“You said it happened in the evening, right?”

“Yes, it was evening and he was coming from out your way, apparently.”

“I already pretty much figured that it was the night he left my house because that was the last time I talked to him and he was supposed to text me the next day and I…never…heard from him.”

“That’s when you started calling him?”

“Yeah. Because it wasn’t like him to not call or text me. I literally heard from him every day.”

I pulled the phone out of my purse. “I’m glad I was in the right place at the right time because with all the calls and text messages, there was only like eighteen percent juice left in the phone. So, if the phone had died, I wouldn’t even be here.”

“I’m glad, too, because I don’t even know if it would’ve made the news out where I am and I wouldn’t have known. I have no idea how I would’ve found out. This is all so fucked up,” she acknowledged staring off into space.

“So, you don’t have contact information for anybody else that my uncle deals with? No business contacts or anything like that?”

“I do, but I don’t really like that person in our business, so I didn’t even bother.”

“Oh, who is that?”

“Just my cousin is all.”

“Oh, okay. Yeah, I can understand keeping people out of your business.”

Dani sighed heavily, simultaneously playing around with a piece of tissue. “I don’t even know how to feel or what to say. The person I tell everything to, the person who’s been there for me since the beginning…”

“What exactly is it that y’all had going on? I mean, I know it was something if he told you my nickname. He’s the only person that called me, ‘Honey’.”

She smiled wide. “He loved me. We were together. We’ve been together for the past year.”

“Wow…” I sighed leaning back into the seat. “A year?”

“Yeah. I know what you’re thinking. That I was his side chick, but I wasn’t. We were about to start a life together.”

“How?” I inquired. “You do know he—”

“Eva, right? I know about her.”

“Okay,” I said, hunching my shoulders. “So, how exactly was all this about to go?”

“He already bought us a place in Castro Valley. I’ve been living there for the past month.”

Shit, my uncle had a whole other fuckin’ life that I didn’t even know about.
Shit is crazy
. A whole other woman in a whole other city!

“I’m tripping off of why the phone was at home instead of with him since that’s the phone y’all talk on.”

“I guess he just forgot it. That’s all I can think of.”

I looked at her point blank and expressionless while my mind started to wander. I didn’t know if I trusted this person. I mean, for all I knew she could be there trying to find out if the job was really done and shit. She seemed nice enough, but crooked muthafuckas roamed the earth just like dinosaurs once did, in fuckin’ droves! My entire demeanor changed and my guards went way up.

“So, Dani…since my uncle had a woman at home…but was about to live with
you
, did you have a man, too, that you’re fuckin’ with? Maybe a man who might be
salty
about you fuckin’ around on him with another dude?”

“
Absolutely
not
, Jazz. I’m not that woman. That’s not who I am and especially not who I would’ve been with Derrick. He was my world and the only man that I wanted. I recognize that things are crazy right now and trust issues are probably running really rampant. But, I’m the last person you’d ever have to worry about. I’m suffering a huge loss of a great man and I live for the day that the people who took him away meet with a fate much worse than the one they dealt him.”

I searched her face for something that I could dissect. I searched for seconds on end without blinking. And while I stared her down, she did the same until all I could do was nod in her favor.

“That answer’s good enough for me, Danielle.”