Page 43 of Queen of the Pole

We stepped inside, entering the foyer. I walked us further into the house, which led to the living room space. Because it was almost one in the morning, with the big floor-to-ceiling windows that were in here, you could see the way the entire Miami was lit up outside.

I walked us over to the staircase, and when Deja saw that we were going to have to walk up, that’s when she let go of my hand.

“Can I just sleep on the couch?” she asked me.

“It’s a guest bedroom up there. I was going to put you in there,” I responded.

“I can’t walk up the stairs though,” she said.

That’s when I sat her purse down on the table that was behind me, and like it was nothing, I lifted her up, carrying her up the stairs. Instead of going in the direction of my bedroom, I went for the guest bedroom. I never really had guest come over to my house. I can’t tell you the last time that this bed was slept in. Looking around at the gold, black, and white color scheme going on in here, you could tell that this room was just for decoration, and that it wasn’t lived in.

I sat Deja down on the bed. The Dior tennis shoes she was wearing, I took them off for her. I removed the socks for her too, stuffing them in the shoes, and placed the shoes against the wall. The throw blanket that was at the foot of the bed, she picked it up and wrapped it around her body. Within seconds, her head hit the pillow, and she looked at me. Her eyes were misty, but she didn’t cry.

“I’m not in my right mind. I have drugs in my system, that’s messing with my thought process. I don’t go home with men. Don’t violate me, please. Please, just let me fall asleep, okay?” she asked me.

It was sad that she even had to say that shit to me. With the profession that she’s in, there’s no telling the things she’s witnessed, or the stories she’s heard, so I’m sure that’s why she just said that to me.

“I’m the last nigga to ever violate you. I got way too much to fuckin lose,” I said.

“How come you’re so nice to me?” she wanted to know.

“You haven’t given me a reason to be mean to you. Get your rest. I ain’t going to do shit to you, and I won’t let shit happen to you,” I concluded.

I took a seat on the ottoman that was in front of the bed and just watched her. She fought it for a few seconds but eventually fell asleep. As much as I wanted to stay in here, and just watch her sleep, mainly because I had that feeling of needing to protect her, I had to step out. Every time I saw her face, saw the swelling in her eyes, the busted lip, and all the other scratches and shit, it would infuriate me all over again.

I know that I didn’t have any say so in Deja’s life, but if she went back to that nigga after this, I wouldn’t even be interested in her anymore. Shit would turn me the fuck off. That nigga could have taken it a little further and killed her ass tonight. He could have really snapped and taken her life. That wasn’t the kind of nigga that you ran back to. A man like that, you gotta leave his bitch ass alone because if she chose to stay with him, whatever he did to her the next time, that shit was only going to be worse.

CHAPTER 12

JAVARIS ‘HITTA’ MITCHELL

“Ay, call one of your girls at the club and ask them if Deja is scheduled to come in tonight,” I said to Joy, as I walked inside of her bedroom.

I knew she was going to be pissed with me for the request that I just put in, but I didn’t give a fuck. A nigga was stressing. My bitch ran out on me, and I haven’t been able to get a hold of her. I was driving by her apartment, keying in her code at the door, walking through that bitch like I lived there, but I haven’t been able to get a hold of her. Every time I called her, my calls kept going straight to voicemail. My messages weren’t delivered either. I wasn’t blocked.

She just had her phone cut off. I knew that I was dead ass wrong for putting my hands on Deja. She said some foul shit to me, hitting under the belt, pulling up my old trauma, and it caused me to snap. I should have been man enough to walk away. At the most, I should have thrown her trauma in her face. Probably said some fucked up shit about the toxic relationship that she had with her mother or even brought up the fact that her daddy never wanted anything to do with her. I could have done anything else, other than putting my hands on her.

Deja had a slick ass mouth, and over the years, I’ve always threatened to put my hands on her, but I’ve never stooped so low and did it. I was fucked up behind that shit. It’s been two days since it happened, and I was still feeling sick to my stomach about it.

“Hitta, why the fuck would I do that? You know damn well that I don’t like that bitch!” she snapped at me, giving me an answer that I knew she would give me.

I was so fuckin annoyed. It’s because of her ass that I lost Deja in the first place. I should have never stuck my dick in her to begin with.

“Why the fuck every time I say something to you, you always got to have some sort of slick ass come back? Pick up your fuckin phone and call one of them hoes down at the club and ask them is Deja scheduled to come in! You make shit so damn difficult bruh!” I shot.

She rolled her eyes at me as if she was annoyed and then grabbed her phone that was sitting not too far away from her, and I watched her as her fingers started moving. Seconds later, the line rang as she put a facetime call in. It rang about six to seven times before the call connected.

“What’s up boo?” I heard a feminine voice on the other side of the phone say.

“Hey. You working tonight?” Joy asked.

“Yes. Girl, I’m sitting in the parking lot right now. I’m trying to get my mind right for the night we’re getting ready to have. Poison hasn’t been to the club these past couple of days. You know when she doesn’t come, Blue gets to losing his fuckin mind. He expects us to work ten times harder, so that we could all make up for the money he’s losing with her not being here. He could put one hundred of us out there on the floor, and we still wouldn’t make what Poison makes in one night. I hate when he puts all that added fuckin pressure on us,” her girl vented.

“Why hasn’t she been coming to the club? She’s booked somewhere else?” Joy wanted to know.

It wasn’t unusual for Deja to have callings at different clubs. If the price was right, she would dance somewhere else for a night, but Playground is what she called home.

“I’m not sure why she hasn’t been coming. She’s not going to be here tonight, either. Blue already put it in a group chat this morning. I don’t know where her ass is, or what she has going on, but she needs to come back because for the past couple of nights, large crowds have been coming to the club, asking for her, and when they find out that she isn’t coming, girl, they’ve been turning around, and leaving,” she went on.