Chapter 7

 The Journey

When Billy caught wind that I bought a puppy he was pissed. He wanted me to get rid of him. But there was no way. WaChee was now bonded with me and Clung to me. He guarded me wherever we went. It limited me going to hotels so now I had a Ace up the sleeve as to why I couldn’t be bounced everywhere.  Scrotum hated it but loved it at the same time. Now I was only at Eddie’s or Lisa’s and while I was at Lisa’s I would raid the box of cash here and there. I never took much,but I’d snatch a hundred here and there saying it was for food or whatever but I was starting to slowly save money. Everytime they handed me money for anything I’d take out whatever wouldn’t be missed and pocket it. $5 here, $50 there, whatever I could do. I’d say I needed clothes and went to the thrift stores just to pocket as much of the cash as I could. Finally I think scrotum started to catch on, though he never came out and said it. He had us go back to Vegas one day and started working with me in the shop again. It was almost a month later that one of the other guys, Glenn (that was around Billy in the past) came to the house finally and was genuinely surprised to see me with the guys sitting there eating dinner. He confided in us that Billy was pissed and looking for us saying that we took off with his money and drugs and put a price on my head. Without knowing, Scrotum had shifted me under the radar to Vegas without his knowledge and was trying to help me without anyone in on the plan, including me. I couldn’t wrap my head around it. Billy, my own father, laid a price on my head. Scrotum explained to me that he couldn’t take seeing me so unhappy anymore. He knew he had to act and help remove me from his reach. He explained that he did take some money but not enough to really be anything crazy. He had lied to my father about where I was to try to give me a chance to find normalcy and Joe had helped. In the time that I was in Vegas they both had basically played hide a bitch and kept WaChee and I in the shadows. Glen was cued in and asked to keep quiet until we figured everything out.

I was humbled. Here both of these guys had risked everything to give me a life back. Ariel even helped and would play offense with the guys. This was it. The moment I needed to realize that I needed to take my life back for myself. Billy thought I was gone along with the money. I didn’t want the guys to have to pay for freeing me in the long run because god only knew what he would’ve done to them. It was that night that I jumped into action. I told no one. By morning I had a car rented and bags packed. Ariel came to the house just as I was packing the last few things. She saw my flustered hurry to just get gone and decided she wasn’t gonna let me go alone. I didn’t even tell Joe and scrotum. I wrote them both individual letters. To scrotum I explained that I didn’t want him taking the fall for me and that I truly appreciated him sticking his neck out for me but I wouldn’t be the reason anything would happen to them. I told him to lie and say that he had heard I went to Vegas so he went there searching for me and found me the same night that Glenn did. To Joe the letter was about the same but more detailed in how I truly loved and appreciated him in all our time together. I explained that I would be going home and that they both needed to keep a distance from Billy until I cleared up some things and it wouldn’t be long so they just needed to give me less than a month to make sure they would not be in danger. Now it was time to save them like they saved me.

I left Vegas early afternoon on July 11th. That day is forever burned into my mind as My Independence Day.  That was the day I took my life back and decided I would never again let anyone else think their life was worth more than mine.I left that day and the weight of everything melted away as I put more miles between me and the city.

Ariel sat shotgun while WaChee lounged across the back seat of the red Volvo station wagon I had rented. Windows down and a wine cooler in hand we cheered to freedom and traveled the road.

That drive into the desert was the biggest breath of fresh air I had been able to have in years. Ariel and I turned up the radio and tuned into the expanse of the road ahead. That night we rolled into a cheap little hotel and slept truly comfortably knowing that not a single soul knew where we were.

The next morning I woke up to my 20th birthday and I started making calls to people I knew were safe in my corner to find out numbers of friends along the route. I had 2 buddies from high school that had gotten into a college in the heart of New Orleans.  I decided we needed a good pit stop to collect our thoughts and plan. Ariel wasn’t privy to my plan yet and I didn’t want her to know so she couldn’t talk me out of it. A part of me was giggling at the fact that I just stole my father’s girlfriend away and that was going to be just the start. The whole drive to New Orleans I felt as light as a feather. I had gotten the boys number and they were excited to see me since in high school we were thick as thieves and hadn’t seen each other in almost 3 years now.

It was almost 2 and a half years, I had been on the run and bouncing for 2 years strong.. 2 long and crazy years. It felt like a decade. The day I landed I told Billy he had 1 year to clear everything up and he only made it worse. Only by the end of the second year, he wanted his own daughter dead.  The realization that all the boundaries were off to him really hit home. This man that was supposed to be a father had lied, gotten me into a life of hell, tried feeding me to a known rapist, set me up to be a mule, constantly set me up to be the distraction and money courier and now wanted me dead because he thought I skipped town with supposedly 50 thousand.

Talk about fucking Daddy issues.. Yep it was time to take my life back.

The visit with my friends in New  Orleans was just what I needed to reset myself into a mindset of living.  Ariel loved it cause both of them were smitten with her. We spent 2 days before we hit the road again. We stopped to visit a friend of hers along the way and while she was distracted I started getting to my plan.

It took us a week to pull into my grandmother’s driveway. Pat was happy to see me and acted like she knew nothing, which she may not have. I used it to my advantage. The morning after we arrived I ate breakfast like nothing was going on and waited until both Ariel and Pat were relaxed and went off to their ways for the day. Ariel went for a shower and that’s when I made my move.

I had accumulated every hotel and their numbers that Billy had ever stayed at under every alias he ever used. I picked up the phone and started dialing and calling every single one from my grandmother’s phone. I had already been warned to never call her before because Billy suspected her phone was tapped and he wasn’t wrong. I could hear the clicking on the line the night before when I called a friend to let her know I was safe and to test the theory. 

I called every number I had in every state and asked every front desk if he was there. He wasn’t and I knew it but it would give the crew on the other end a starting point and that’s what I banked on.

Did I know if this would completely work? No, but I hoped it would, and that would give me time to figure out the next move.

I played it safe with my grandmother and kept my last 2 years of activities under wraps for the first few days basically just telling her I was visiting and trying to figure out the next move.

3 days.. that was all it took. 3 days and Billy was found in a house in Bel Aire with over 1 million dollars in cash and drugs. This from a man that constantly lied and said he didn’t have much money.

I got the call 2 days after that from Joe. I had told him in the note Pat’s number in case he needed to get in touch with me. He had left a quick message and I called him back to hear what was going on. Him and Scrotum were keeping low when they got the news and now they were trying to figure out what was the next move. I told him it was my time to help them. It was time for them to live the life they wanted.

Pat didn’t know yet what was going on and I decided it was time to set myself up to get into working. I immediately started looking for a mechanic job and got one almost instantly doing wiring. I decided I would take some of the money I had squirreled away and go to night school for diesel mechanics. And so I started working while Ariel and I played in my off time with WaChee on the ranch.

It was about 2 weeks later that I broke the news to Ariel and I could visibly see the relief in her body the instant it sunk in. She started planning her next move and I couldn’t be happier for her. It was a few days later that I took Ariel to the airport, I gave her a hug and a few hundred Dollars to help her once she landed and Said goodbye.

I never saw her again. I hope she’s living her best life to this day somewhere and being treated like the amazing woman she was.

It was about a month later of me working and doing school when Joe came out to visit me.

Joe stayed with me for almost 2 weeks. He was happy and mostly relaxed. I still had nightmares but they weren’t as consuming as they were before so having him to curl up every night helped me to relax. Pat would comment here and there like he was my boyfriend and up to this point was just happy that I was there but we finally had to break it down about Billy.

She didn’t believe a word I said. She laughed it off when I told her that he was dealing major drugs. She tried gaslighting me telling me that there was no way it was true and that Billy told her I was working his coffee carts out in California. Coffee carts?!?! It didn’t matter that Joe was confirming what I said, or that I told her there were no coffee carts. She believed the lie he said over what her own granddaughter was telling her with a back up person confirming it.

She called me delusional. My mother even came in on the conversation and completely added that I was lying and had chosen to go with Billy instead of being pushed into the whole ordeal by the Columbians.  They both were now on a gaslighting mission and even Joe was flabbergasted. No matter what I said they called me delusional and a compulsive liar. My mother even recommended therapy and suggested group therapy because it was cheaper. My face must have said it all that day in the kitchen because Joe took one look at me and instantly shut up. I lost it completely on both of them, telling them how I would totally go to group therapy and that the first thing they would look at was my family and let’s really look at that shit show. I told them how I would walk into group and tell my story and then I could imagine every person in the room getting up and walking out because they all agreed I needed more help and their lives were not nearly as fucked up as mine. Both my mother and Pat sat there in shocked silence and then looked at each other in disbelief.

I couldn’t hold it anymore. I straight out started laughing like a mad woman, I wished it was all a dream or a made up lie but this was my hell.

My fucking hell that my own family wouldn’t even look at or knowledge even to see my point of view. “Fuck this” was all I could hear in my head over and over again.

I stormed out of the kitchen and up to my room to pack my things when Joe came in behind me. I was in tears.. I felt like I was crazy but he was here to remind me how crazy I wasn’t and his eyes screamed how sad he was for me. I hated that everyone always looked at me like a wounded puppy dog when they saw my family for who they were. It always made me angry that others got supportive families and here mine was just making my life a bigger Shitshow.I was constantly reminded of how corrupt and immortal they were.

I couldn’t do this normal shit with them because they weren’t normal. I needed to find my own space. Joe had to calm me down and took me out of the house to get some space from them.I called my friend Tamara to exit Pat’s as quickly as possible.  I was trying to brainstorm a new place to stay when she recommended a guy she had met that needed a roommate. Joe wasn’t staying long and urged me to do it and keep him updated on everything.  He left only a few days later and the minute he was gone I left my grandmother’s.

I met the guy looking for a roommate and instantly hit it off. The moment he answered the door I was more hit by his appearance. Mike was this 6’4” well built tanned adonis. He was in jeans with no shirt and long blonde hair that was disheveled from sleeping after working the night shift. Who wouldn’t want a hot roomate to eye from time to time. He was nice and very cut and dry about the room to rent. His dog was super sweet and he liked that I had my own dog that could give her company.  I moved in 3 days later. I was working in a marina keeping my head down and doing school but the schooling wasn’t looking like it was going to be a good fit.

The school had hired a director of a parts department to be the teacher and this man didn’t know anything except what parts went to what. It wasn’t very long before I was teaching electrical to the class myself and that’s when I decided to leave and stop wasting my money. During the days I was turning a wrench and afternoons my roommate and I would cross paths long enough to order a pizza and chat about our day.

In my now free nights I decided to get a job at a local diner that was open all night as a waitress.

I started inserting myself back into social gatherings only this time still staying in the shadows. I didn’t want to be fully in the light yet because I still needed to get my other issues cleared that dealt with Billy.

I still had no idea if I was being hunted by the people he fucked over and all I knew was Billy was not on the board at the moment and I needed to figure out the next move.

While working at the diner the late nights were perfect, most of the people that came in were drunk and leaving the bars or were the truckers that were waiting for the port to open. Once in a while there would be a table of a few beautiful girls that weren’t drunk but always dressed nice and they always tipped well.

I overheard them talking about their Jobs for the night and realized they were escorts. After about a month of working there I finally asked the girls about it one night and they told me how much they made and they loved that they could do whatever during the days so no one knew. At this point I was killing myself trying to save money. Every paycheck I would pay bills and stash away as much as I could. I had pulled my grandfather’s car out of storage when I returned. It was my car when I had to leave years before. My grandmother had put it in storage after it was cleared. When I returned, I was driving it only a few days, when someone tried to steal it and destroyed my steering column. I was working to get everything fixed so that I could re register it and have my car back. The night I got it back from the mechanic on my way home, a woman ran a red light and plowed into me. I couldn’t catch a break. I had 3 friends in the car that I had picked up to take to their place so I could drop my car and go out for the night with them. Thankfully no one was hurt. Except my car. Now the windows had shattered, the front driver side was totaled and all my money was a waste. When the cop arrived on scene, they understood that I was getting it back from the mechanic to go register it again. She ran my information and the registration came back to me but the title was now in Billy’s name . It was another stone in the bucket. She informed me that it showed in my name years prior but that he had switched it to him 2 years ago. I was livid. All the cop could do was give me two options. Option#1 she towed it back to my place and I would have to clear it all up myself. Option#2 she could tow it to the impound and find Billy since it’s technically his car. Fuck it, I went with option #2. I explained the situation and she probably thought I was crazy but took it all in. Once the car was on the lift she told me the only bad side was no one could claim anything if we were injured. The upside, I was never in an accident. No points, no insurance fees, nothing. I took the win with the loss, said goodbye to my grandfather’s car with all the memories and goodbye to any connections left to Billy.

I ran into that same officer 3 weeks later, she gave me the update that she had tracked Billy down through the DEA(that’s where I told her to find him since I knew they busted him) and when she told him about the car he was more angry about the car than my welfare. She said he actually replied,” what good is the car to me now that it’s totaled?” The officer was as aghast as I probably would’ve been with him. She conveyed how he had no care about me and my well being and only cared about the currency lost instead. Yep.. That’s what I figured he would worry about. Fuck it. He could have it.. what was one more thing for him to steal from my life. I’d already lost 2 years, my life before, my relationships, my family and my sanity. The car was just the cherry on top. 

I was talking to Joe on the phone weekly and he and scrotum were still in Vegas working in the warehouse and they always talked about missing me, honestly I missed them. I had decided I was going to save as much as I could, get my own truck and drive back to Vegas. I hated that I still looked over my shoulders, I hated that people around me still expected me to be who I was before everything and I hated trying to tell anyone what I went through. I was surrounded by people that had expectations of me being the same, when I’m reality I was nowhere mentally close to the old person.

I was at a park one day when I heard someone call my name. I froze.. Up to this point I was going by my alias and was still scared to have a trail. It was some kids from my public high school years before. They were rambling about how they were so amazed to see me because they had heard that I was killed by the mob. That confirmed what I figured. People were talking. I guess the disappearing really made the gossip corners.  I didn’t recognize the kids at all and I felt bad that I didn’t recognize them because I always tried to remember who was who. Now I found myself really looking at my life before the whole ordeal. How far off from the ideas I had in high school about how my life would be at this time.

My roommate Mike was a motocross rider and a worker for the electric company. As far as he knew I worked days at the marina and nights waitressing. He was a guy that my friend Tamara had been with but he was totally new to Florida and that was the appeal to being his roommate. We would occasionally cross paths going to and from work and play and his dog played well with WaChee. On occasion we would both bring home engines, me with my marine, him with the motorcycles and we would order a pizza and work on them brainstorming while we ordered pizza and drank.

When I  decided to do escorting I never told Mike. I had asked the girls what agency they worked for and they gave me the card and told me that I would definitely get hired.  They were right. Being 5’8″with blonde hair and a curvy body definitely paid off. Now I was by no means one of those drop dead girls you see but I also wasn’t turned down very often. Even when I gained weight I still never had a lack of suitors.

Not gonna lie I was scared the first time I walked into the office, but once I sat down and another girl walked in and she started a conversation I relaxed a little. I asked her all about her time working while I waited to be sent on a call. She was super nice and basically told me that I could always walk out if I didn’t like the vibe of any of the jobs.  When I finally got my first call I was relieved to find it was actually a guy that just wanted company and was wanting someone to talk to while he pampered my feet. I felt more at ease and welcome in my calls and at the office than I did with my own family.. that should speak volumes.

I don’t remember every call I went on but I will say that while working there I started to look at relationships differently. Yes, you got the normal calls where the guy wanted to be pleasured, but a lot of the time they wanted to just pleasure me. Whether it be pedicures, body rubs, bathing me, having me decorate the house topless, sometimes even just taking me out for dinner and a movie or shopping, it was always interesting to see what they would pay for. I heard so many stories and I didn’t have to talk about me at all. It was perfect for me while hiding away but still trying to feel like I was social. I made friends with the other girls that worked with the agency and we would occasionally hang outside of work. The girls were like a whole case study to me. Each one came from different backgrounds. Some were single mom’s, some were students putting themselves through college, some were dancers, and you’d get the occasional wild card. It was fascinating to me. I enjoyed the knowledge I got from it while being able to still hide.

I was able to screen the calls I went on so that I never got anyone I knew from the club and family circle of friends (which did actually call for girls occasionally).

I eventually quit the marina because the money was so good and I didn’t want to always be tired.

I told my roommate Mike that I worked at a call center and he never questioned it. That was until one night when it was a girl’s night out. A bunch of the girls and I had decided to have a girl’s night and so as I got ready, Mike for the first time saw me dolled up. I had put on a dress that one of the girls lent me and when I came to ask him how I looked, his jaw hit the floor. It gave me a good laugh considering I had a strict no shitting where I eat law. He just about fell over himself asking me why we never hooked up when the doorbell chimed .When I answered the door to see the girls and let them in I didn’t think his eyes could get any bigger. Each girl that walked in was beautiful. There was a girl for every type. He stammered at one point and excused us into the other room to grill me on where In the hell I worked because these were the most beautiful girls he had ever seen. All I could do was smile.

It wasn’t until the next day that I broke the news to him that they were all escorts. You would’ve thought he turned into a lap dog. He wanted to know each girl and when he could come by the office. It was like telling a kid he could look but not touch the candy in the store. Mike became more talkative with me after that night. Before that we were just roommates that hung out with the engines and talked shop, now he wanted to know more.

During this time I was still talking to Joe weekly and I had told him of my plans to save money and possibly go back to Vegas. He was seeing Martha more but still staying in Vegas even though she lived in another state. He still enjoyed our talks and agreed that it would be awesome to have me move back. Scrotum had even said he couldn’t wait to be roommates again. I had confided in Joe about my new job and he actually loved hearing the details of my experiences. We would talk about how interesting it was and how crazy some of that world could get especially when you got into the dominatrix world. That was a whole nother experience I never expected to see, but it was educational to say the least.

After 8 months I had saved almost 5 thousand and the lease was about to be up when Mike informed me that his ex and him were getting back together and he was moving in with her. I called Joe and sent him money to secure a place.  The last night of my work I was ready to spend the next 3 days packing when I met Sarah. The instant click of energy with her was like a total sideswipe.