Joy cried harder when she recognized Rob’s voice. He looked in her direction and removed his mask. On the left side of his face he had stitches from his ear all the way under his chin. Joy grimaced.
Rob walked over to her and got close to her face. “I’ma finish what I started, bitch.” He grabbed her by her hair and lifted her to her feet. “Where you want it at? Living room?” “No? Okay, the bedroom it is.”
He kicked open the door and dragged her along behind him. He threw her on the bed and got on top of her. Rob noticed her turn her face away. “Oh, you don’t want to see what your boyfriend had done to me over you, bitch? If they would have approached with this plan to rob Shawn before this,” he said, pointing to his scar, “I would have killed them both. Since he crossed me for you, I get to get revenge. And after I’m done fucking you, I’ma stick my nine in that pussy and let you go out with a bang.” He laughed.
Joy kicked and screamed. “Get the fuck off me!”
One of the other masked men came behind Rob and pulled him off. “Yo, we didn’t come here for all that. We got the money. Come on.”
Rob backed off and blew Joy a kiss before saying, “I’ll be back.”
And they were gone.
Joy waited until the door slammed and went into the bathroom. Shawn laid slumped in the tub, a gunshot to the head and one in the chest. His eyes were wide open. To her left, the cabinet under the sink swung. The wall was missing, the safe he put in there open and empty. She looked at Shawn one last time and felt no love lost. She knew that the cops would be here soon if someone called. She went to the phone and dialed each number one at a time. She took a deep breath and waited as it rang.
“Nine-one-one, what’s your emergency?”
“Help us, they broke in and shot my boyfriend.”
“Are you hurt, ma’am? Are they still in the house?”
“You have to help us,” Joy screamed and dropped the phone.
She sped to the bedroom and threw on a shirt. Fifteen minutes later the police burst through the door. Joy stood outside the bathroom door.
An officer approached her. “Ma’am, are you hurt?”
Joy shook her head but didn’t say anything. She pointed to the bathroom. Paramedics rushed by and into the bathroom. Ten minutes later they came back out, pronouncing him dead at the scene. Cops were all over, some took pictures, others collected evidence. The officer had the paramedics look at her swollen face. They gave her some ice but Joy didn’t feel the pain.
Joy was led into the bedroom by a female police officer, where she was allowed to get dressed. She was then led to a waiting police car and taken to the police station. When she arrived at the station, Joy was taken to one of the interrogation rooms.
Two detectives walked in, introducing themselves as Detectives Martin and Green.
“How are you?” Detective Green asked.
“What do you mean? The man I love was murdered.”
“I know. I’m sorry.”
“Can you tell us what happened?” Detective Martin asked.
“Shawn had to go out. I was lying down in the bedroom. I heard him leave, but then the door opened back up, like he came back.” Joy paused to wipe the tears running down her face, then she broke down crying. She was given tissue and a glass of water. Wiping her face again and blowing her nose, she continued. “When I went to the door it hit me in the face. I was held in the bedroom by one of the guys. They were all wearing masks. I didn’t see Shawn no more until I found him in the bathroom.” Joy looked at both of the detectives, who stared at her. Tears continued to run down her face. She reached for the glass of water and took a sip.
“Is there anything else that you remember? Any names mentioned?”
“No. I didn’t see anyone other than the one who held me in the room.”
“Do you know if Shawn was involved with any illegal activity?”
“None as far as I know. He told me that his grandma left him money when she died.”
“Do you know what was taken from the apartment? Did you notice anything else missing?”
“No, like I said, I was held in the bedroom.”
“Do you know anything about this? Detective Green asked, throwing to Ziploc bags full of peach color and off white colored pills.
“No. What are they?” Joy said faking like she was shocked. She knew that had to be Xanax.
“These were found in the apartment you shared with Shawn Daniels, in another safe in the back of the closet. So, you still want to tell me you don’t know anything?” Detective Green said.
“No.”
“Listen here, you little bitch, you’re going to jail for all this if you don’t start giving us some answers.” Detective Green yelled in Joy’s face. Detective Martin pulled him back and whispered something in his ear, which made him leave the room. Joy watched him until he was out the door.
“I’m sorry about that. My partner is very passionate when it comes to drugs.”
“I really don’t know anything about it. So much has happened.” She said as tears ran down her face.
“Okay. We don’t have any more questions at this time. Do you have a place to stay tonight?”
“Yeah.”
“Thank you for your time. A car will take you back to your apartment to get your things.”
………………
Joy was relieved to be out of there. As she rode in the car, she thought back to the day Shawn told her about his stash.
“Come here for a minute.”
“What is it?” Joy asked as she followed Shawn to the bathroom.
“In case you need something, or I need bail,” he joked as he told her the combination.
Joy looked down at the stacks of money in the safe and then back at Shawn, a plan formed in her head. “Okay, but I don’t see me needing anything else. You give me so much.” She smiled.
Later that night, when Shawn was asleep, she came back and opened the safe. She stared inside of it for hours. She had never seen so much money in her life.
The next day she was nervous. She needed help to pull off taking the money. If not, Shawn would know it was her and come for her head. Not knowing anything about how his business operated, she didn’t want to be looking over her shoulder for the rest of her life. She approached the one person she knew could help her, and he came through for her, no questions asked.
………………
She felt better once back inside packing her stuff. She heard her cell phone ring and located it on the dresser.
“Hello.”
“Yeah, you ready?”
“Yeah.”
“I’m outside.”
“Be out in a minute.”
She hung up the phone, put it in her jeans pocket, grabbed the suitcases she found in Shawn’s closet, filled them with her stuff and left. She opened the door of the waiting car and climbed in.
“Hey, sexy.”
“What happened with Rob and the other dude?”
“I’m shot them and left them in the car we stole.”
“Are you sure they’re both dead?”
“Yeah.”
“Good.”
“How much did we get?”
“A little over five hundred thousand.”
She smiled, leaned over to kiss Dre before he pulled off.
“Where we going?”
“Miami,” Joy replied, putting on her black Juicy Couture shades.
Chapter 1
For three months Joy and Dre stayed at the Miami Beach Resort & Spa. Since their arrival Joy loved everything about Miami. She was most exited to see the Atlantic Ocean out her front room window. Everything around her fascinated her, having been nowhere other than NY, Jersey and Philly. The room had a living area as large as her apartment with blue and white suede furniture. There were two bedrooms, one room had the largest king size bed Joy had ever seen. The sand on the beach was white and Joy stared at it for a longtime, running her fingers and toes in it.
Joy’s days were filled with going to the Spa every morning and activities like snorkeling, Jet skiing, deep sea and surf fishing, scuba diving, parasailing, and windsurfing. She played golf, tennis and beach volley ball.
After a few weeks Joy did everything more than once and began to venture out and take cabs to shop at South Beach. She went in every store on the “Fifth Avenue of the South” strip. She had more bags from Gucci, Prada, and Dolce & Gabbana then she carry. She needed help from the bell boy when she got back to the hotel.
Joy and Dre became close over the few months they had been in Florida. He became like the brother she never had. Joy let her guard down. She respected Dre because he never came at her wrong and always was nice. But lately, he’d been acting stranger and stranger by the day. He refused do any of the activities with her. She begged him ride to the Miami Metro Zoo. She wanted to share the experience with him because she never had the opportunity when she was little. She ended up going by herself. Dre slept that all day, went out that night and didn’t return until dawn the following day.
Joy got tired of the eating out and chllin’ by the pool. She wanted to leave and try to get an apartment somewhere in Miami. Dre said that would make them hot. Joy tried to reason with him that someone would be willing to take cash no questions asked. She was worried about the money they had going out, with nothing coming in. Sooner than later they would need more money.
………………
Joy sat in the living room with a duffle bag in front of her. The money that her and Dre stole was divided into 167,150 a piece and left in the bag. The bag now held a little over 20,000. Joy knew that she didn’t spend that much money on clothes and activities. She kept all her receipts and minused what she spent on a piece of notepad paper. The room was a packaged deal that they paid on arrival and only had to pay a small fee for each additional week. So only extra money needed was at the spa, for food and tip.
The anger and rage inside of Joy boiled in her chest everytime she looked down into the bag. At first, she tried to reason that maybe he put it up so that in case housekeeping found it, it wouldn’t be a total lost. This surprised and anger her more. She couldn’t trust him she told herself. “If it was so honest, why wouldn’t he let me know.” She said out loud to herself. What if he left and wasn’t coming back?
She got up and began to pack her stuff. She went to the hotel gift shop and brought three suit cases to pack her new clothe. She cursed herself,. After that was finished, then placed bags in the second room under the beds where she knew that Dre wouldn’t look.
As soon as she closed the door behind her, Dre shot through the front door. He was sweating and out of breath. He plopped down in one of the chairs. He closed his eyes and opened them to find Joy staring.
“What?”
“Whatchu mean what?”
“Why you looking at me like that?
“Wassup wit you?”
“What you mean?
“You come running in here, looking all crazy.”
“Ummm, I took the stairs because it was so many people waiting for the elevator.”
Joy sat down in the seat she was in earlier, where the duffle bag laid. Dre followed her with his eyes to the duffle bag. His eyes widened and he looked like he was about to bolt.
Joy asked, “Dre where’s the rest of the money?”
“Oh, it’s in the hotel’s safe. I meant to tell you, I was worried about some one stealing it from the room.”
“How could you not tell me. Maybe I don’t want them holding my money.”
“Joy, it’s cool I will get it tomorrow.”