FORTY-EIGHT

EVANGELISTA'S POV

There was a lot of confusion in Zuri's camp. Among themselves, they fought and failed to understand each other. Voices were raised, tempers flared. When I realized that all the people in the house seemed to be troubled, I guessed that it was going to work in my favour. It seemed like at that moment people had forgotten about me, so I made myself believe that maybe I could escape. The thought of being used as a sex worker made me sweat in fear.

I silently walked down and went back to the room where I slept. Quietly I sat down and after a long time of thinking and calculating on what to do, and still failing to come up with a solution; I felt extremely frustrated. I failed to sleep at all, and before I knew it, I heard movements and voices in the hallway. That made me guess that it was morning already, although the people in Zuri's camp did not necessarily need it to be morning first before they started moving around in that house. I stood up and crept up softly towards the stairs to my usual corner; where I always stood to listen in.

The voices were a bit lower than usual, and I heard Zuri saying, "have you done a search on Israel Bassard?"

"His profile is not easy to penetrate. We only know that he had a brother; Vice Bassard….."

"Enough of that nonsense!" Zuri shouted. "Are you telling me that you researched on that? Who doesn't know that Vice was Israel's brother; and he's long dead? Vice worked for me. I want new information!"

Oh, Vice worked for Zuri? I never knew that. It dawned on me then, that I did not know my brothers, both the living one and the one who was long gone. All I knew was that Israel always made sure that I was well taken care of. I never ran out of money or food, Israel made a vow to take care of me, and he kept his word. That was all I knew, for sure. Staying in Zuri's camp showed me that I neither knew Israel nor Vice, both of them my brothers.

"Boss. G…g…give us a bit more time, we will look for more information on Israel", a man stammered.

"We don't have time! Find me the information now!!" Zuri screamed out in anger.

"Bring me that stupid girl!" she called out.

I ran very fast, going back to my room, and I pretended to be asleep on the bed. The door was pushed open and I was dragged into a bathroom where a woman "bathed" me, if I can call it a bath. She literally poured a bucket of cold water on me, while I stood naked, and threw a towel on me. I clutched on to the towel and shivered in the cold.

"Dry up yourself!!" she shouted. I quickly obeyed the command, and she threw a bottle of lotion at me, which I quickly applied to my body.

Without saying a word, she dragged me to a room and gave me some new clothes to wear. The dress was black and so short that I wondered whether it was made to be a dress or a shirt. It barely covered my thighs. It had a frill which hung just at my hips, exposing a part of my pant.

"Fix your hair and look beautiful!" the woman said in an annoyed tone.

"Wh…what is going to happen to me?" I gathered the courage to ask.

"Don't you dare speak!" she warned me.

"I want to know. Am I going to be a s…sex worker?" the words felt heavy on my tongue. Sex worker. What on earth!

"You can't wait, can you?" she gave me an evil smile.

"I don't want to be a sex worker!" I stamped my foot angrily.

The woman laughed and threw herself on the bed in the room. "Do you think anyone volunteers to become one? Well, yes, some do, but most don't. once you get used to the game, you will love it!"

"I will never love selling my body for money!" I continued to cry.

"Trust me you will," she chuckled. "You don't really have a choice, and if you co-operate, it will work out better for you. I mean, you don't want to be fighting the men, do you? If you fight, it will seem as if you're being raped. You better just co-operate and enjoy the moment."

I looked at her in disbelief. My lower lip quivered and hung low. The woman, seemingly amused by my facial expression, proceeded, "Let me give you some tips. Please those clients. Normally the payment is given to The Capo. He is the one who will pay you a percentage of everything that you're going to make. But if you make the client happy, they may give you some extra cash."

She tossed her head to throw the hair off her face before she carried on with her "advice"; "not that the money will help you much, anyway. You will hardly leave the house. But there's no harm in having some money with you, I guess." She let out a low chuckle.

The tears fell down. The image of myself as a sex worker broke my heart into pieces. I felt the pain, the anger, the fear. I dressed up and on her command, followed her up the stairs until we got to the well decorated room in which Zuri was sitting, looking as ruthless as ever. The woman who was behind me pushed me into the kneeling position.

"You will be transported today!" she spoke with her eyes fixed on mine.

"Me? T...to where? Please I don't want to be a sex worker. I beg you!" I began to cry.

"Why not? Why can't you be a sex worker?" she sneered. "What's so special about you! you're just a silly girl whose name I can't even recall! What's your stupid name again?"

At that moment I opened my mouth to announce that my name was Evangelista Bassard, but my brother's words struck me in the face: "never reveal your identity!"

"I…my name….is …is Leah." I spluttered the words in a trembling voice.

At that moment, I was faced with a matter of life and death, and I wanted to live. After what I had heard from Zuri and her team in their talks, I knew very well that my brother Israel was a treasure that they wanted; and it seemed that they also feared him in a way. That gave me more reason to make sure that I never exposed my real identity.

"Please please I beg you. I cannot be a sex worker; I want to go to university and study! I can do anything for you if you let me go, I beg you Zuri. Troy? Troy please, help me!", I cried, yet all my cries seemed to fall on deaf ears. Zuri did not flinch or move an inch, she remained seated in her chair with a cold expressionless face. Troy did not even spare me a glance.

When I saw that my cries were not working, I had to use the last dangerous trick up my sleeve. I could not bear to be taken in as a sex worker. I'm very sorry my brother, but you started this. I have to do what I have to do to survive, I made up my mind. Standing up to my feet, I gathered all the courage that my soul could ever hold, faced Zuri in the eyes and said,

"if you agree to let me go, I will lead you to Israel Bassard!"

I said the words with a voice full of confidence, and my words drew the attention of everyone in the room. Even the bodyguards who usually stood motionless as if they were statues, at that moment looked at me. Disbelief, doubt and all sorts of emotions were written on all the faces in the room. There was dead silence; one could have heard a pin drop.

"What!!" Zuri broke the silence.

"What did you say?" Troy asked me.

"Let me go and I will bring you Israel Bassard" I repeated my sentence with more confidence. In my heart I cried, I am sorry my brother, but I have to sacrifice you. I cannot be a sex worker. You know the life of the mafia, I believe you will be able to stand up for yourself and fight your way to freedom.

Zuri stared at me for a long time and then let out a loud laugh. Troy joined in as he laughed too. A few other people joined in the laughing. The room was momentarily filled with the mocking glees of the thugs, but I maintained my very serious face.

"Do you even know who Bassard is?", Zuri ridiculed me.

Some of them were still laughing, so I waited for silence to prevail. The giggles started to die down, with some sighing in great derision. I wanted all of them to be silent first before I spoke, so that they would all hear what I was going to say. Since Zuri was already silent, it did not take long for all of them to become silent too, and I broke the silence with, "Lend me a phone. One phone call will bring Israel Bassard here."

"Is this a joke?" Zuri was beginning to see that I meant what I was saying. I could tell from looking at her face that she was sitting on the fence, failing to know whether or not to believe me.

"I am dead serious" I tried to match the seriousness of her tone.

"You will get Bassard here? You?" she opened her eyes wide and pointed at me doubtfully.

"Yes. Me." I remained firm on my word.

"Israel Bassard??"

"The one and only Israel Bassard." I stood my ground.

Zuri stood up and came to stand before me. Since she was tall and heavily built, I stood in her shadow, looking up into her eyes, and I dared not show that I was scared of her. Of course I was scared, but that was not the time for me to show such emotions.

"Girl, who the hell are you? And don't tell me that you are Leah. Tell me who you are!" she gritted her teeth.

I don't know from where I got the courage, but somehow I found myself also gritting my teeth and stating, " I am the girl who can bring Israel Bassard here by just one call!"

Oh...who said that? Was it me? What was I thinking? Was I trying to anger Zuri? Only heaven knows what that woman was capable of. After I witnessed her mercilessly killing people as if she was smashing a mosquito, I should have known better than to speak to her in such a tone.

I was about to apologise when Zuri spoke, "Troy, we're calling The Capo now to let him know about this new development."

"Yes boss," Troy nodded in agreement.