It's been three days since my meeting with The Salamander. I was too sick to move, so Wendy and I stayed in the motel day in and day out. Wendy always took care of me when I wasn't well, I had a feeling this girl would do great things as a doctor or nurse because she had a healing quality to her. If I got too warm, she'd bring me a cold cloth and put it on my head. If I puked, she'd clean me up without being fazed by the vomit and would lay my head in her lab and pet me until I fell asleep. She wasn't just like a daughter to me, she was also the mother I lost and the sister I never had. We had a perfect little family going until I ruined it with drugs. Now she took care of me more than I took care of her.

I had spent the past three days feeling like death. I was always either sleeping or puking, and when I was awake I shook violently with chills and was always drenched in sweat. Wendy had stripped me down to nothing but my bra and underwear because she said I was burning with a fever. She tried to give me medicine but I refused her orders. I told her, "It's my body getting rid of the drugs."

She just gave me a concerned look, then quickly bowed her head as a way to respect my wishes. She was ecstatic that I was quitting cold turkey so she avoided arguing with me.

I slipped back into sleep but awoke sometime later to a loud banging on the door. Wendy was in the bathroom, probably taking a bath (she was always in the bath when we were at the hotel since she rarely got to take them when we left) so I rolled myself off of the bed. I landed on the ground with a loud thud and winced in pain for a moment. But then a knock came again, more urgently this time."I'm comin', I'm comin'..." I muttered when I finally got to my feet.

I shuffled over to the door, ready to yell at Habiki for trying to sleep with me when Wendy was around but came face to face with a tall man dressed in a suit with long, spiky orange hair. The man's jaw dropped and he grunted in surprise while fixing his already perfect tie.

"What do you want?" I barked in irritation, the look he was giving me pissed me off.

He stuttered a few times, "I-I-Uh-a-am.." He cleared his throat and looked away from my body to make eye contact with me. "Ms. Heartifilia, will you please get dressed and come with me? The Salamander would like to speak with you."

"Get dressed...?" I asked with a confused tone What the hell could he mean? I looked down to my body and jumped in surprise at my still half naked form. I forgot completely that Wendy made me take everything off.

My cheeks turned a bright red color as I attempted to cover my chest and womanhood. I ushered the man into my house and slammed the door behind him. I shyly turned from him and started searching for my clean clothes. They had gotten washed thanks to Wendy and Habiki, he let her use the wash machine for the hotel's towels. I slipped on a sports bra, tight fitting skinny jeans, a loose zip up sweater and slipped my feet into stilettos. I made sure to hide my knife in my sweater.

While I dressed myself, Wendy poked her head out of the bathroom door to see what the commotion was about and squealed when she saw a man in the room with a half naked me. She gave an embarrassed apology and slipped back into the bathroom before I could explain to her.

She had thought he was one of my clients..

Once I was dressed, I turned to the calm faced man and ordered, "Stay put, I gotta go talk to my girl." Before he could object, I strutted up to the bathroom door and opened it. I slipped inside the bathroom and laughed when I saw Wendy with a bubble beard. "Hey Wendy," I sighed when she refused to make eye contact with me. "It's not what you think, he's not here for that.."

Her eyes shot up to meet mine and she questioned, "What is he here for then? Drugs?!"

I shook my head quickly and made note that this young girl was tough for dealing with my whoring around and getting fucked up all the time. I answered her in a soft voice, "No, hunny, he is just taking me to meet the man who told me to get clean. I'll be back soon so stay here and don't let anyone except Habiki into the room, okay?"

She looked back down to her bath and swept her hand through the bubbles. She was silent for a moment before giving a slight nod. I could tell she wanted to cry and argue but she held her tongue.

I nodded back and slipped back out through the door. I looked at this strange man and told him I was ready and we made our way out of the hotel.

On the way to meet the Salamander, I was questioned by this man. He asked me stupid questions, fillers for the silence that filled the cab we sat in. I gave short answers, not really caring to know this guy. He kind of came off as a douche bag and I didn't like to deal with men like him unless they were paying me.

He grabbed my hand and pulled it to his lips, whispering, "By the way, my names Loke. It was a pleasure to meet such a beautiful woman like yourself," then his lips brushed over the top of my hand.

I pulled it from his grasp, a tad bit annoyed with his playboy attitude. "Yeah whatever," I replied, turning my body so I could look out the window. I recognized the grimy streets we passed and noticed he was taking me to the projects I met this strange group.

Loke took my unattentivness as a opening to move closer to me in the cab.

I pulled out my switch blade and gave a quick turn of my wrist so the blade would pop out. I pointed it to Loke and asked with wide eyes, "You wanna get cut, pretty boy?"

He held up his hands and laughed at my threat. He tsked, "Now, now, missy. No need to get mean." In a moment he had a knife of his own pulled out and he had in against my throat. I could feel a small drop of blood run down to my collar bone. "You really wanna give it a go? Be my guest."

His sudden change in character made me laugh. I laughed maniacally for a few minutes and he joined in. We both sounded crazy, I could tell from the worried glanced in the rear view mirror that the cab driver gave us. I withdrew my blade and slumped back against the seat, fully relaxed while my body trembled with laughter.

"I can tell I'm gonna like you," I said when I finally sobered.

Loke let his arm fall around my shoulders and he whispered close to my ear, "I know I already like you."

I tensed when his breath hit my ear but relaxed when I realized the cab was pulling over. Loke grew weary and pulled his arm away from me, he also put an enormous amount of space between us in the cab. Wonder why he moved away so quickly. "I'm sure you know where we are so let's go," Loke said then started gritting his teeth.

I nodded and jumped out of the cab while he payed for our ride. The walk up to room 259 was quiet, Loke seemed distraught but I payed no mind to it. I was focused on how my meeting with this sexy gangster was going to go. I hoped it was good because I had a great feeling about this.

Even though last time you had a good feeling, you ended up living in the streets taking care of a 9 year old... my mind reminded me. I shook my head and held my breath as Loke knocked on the door.

The door opened and I recognized the woman who guided us into the dingy apartment. "Hello, Ms Heartifilia," Erza acknowledged me with a nod of her head. She turned to Loke and her eyes blazed up in anger, "Loke, Salamander isn't happy that you took so long."

Loke laughed her anger off and replied, "She was hard to find, not to mention the man at the front desk wouldn't tell me her room number until I threatened his life." That statement cause Loke and Erza to start chuckling while I grew worried. I hope Habiki's okay...

When their laughter died out, Erza turned back to me and stated, "The Boss is waiting for you in that room, knock and wait for him to answer before walking in." She and Loke then turned their attention away from me and to the two girls who now sat at the coke table. It seemed like the pile of drugs hadn't died down one bit.. I'd really love to get a bump or two.

I shook my head to clear that thought from my head. I don't need drugs. I don't need cocaine. I'm clean now. I repeated in my head as I walked up to the door Erza instructed me to go to. I knocked three times and waited for a response.


Sorry for the cliff hanger! Next chapter will be really long but I've decided to update every other day so I can update my other story Guns Magic too.

Well thankya for reading, hope ya liked it(:

xoxo

-Bean