CHAPTER 3: GINA MEETS AN OLD FRIEND

Gina POV

After work I went home to have a quick shower before my meeting with my client tonight. I get dressed in some casual wear, I grab my bag with my equipment in and I head out by the door. As I arrive at Capri, I look around for the woman that I'm supposed to meet. I see a woman sitting alone at the far end of the restaurant and I immediately knew that it was her. She is looking down at her phone,

I start approaching her. I notice that she is wearing a sweater in this heat. How is she not feeling the heat? I think to myself. She looks up just as I walk over to her table. I immediately recognize her. An old friend of mine from highschool. “Tatiana?” I ask her. “Gina? What are you doing here?” She asks as she hugs me. “I'm here to meet with a client. Are you Tatiana Martins now?” I ask her.

“Yes. That’s my married name now. So you're the P.I that I'm meeting with tonight.” She say as we both sit down at the table. I knew her as Tatiana Vargas back then and she looks different now. “Yes I am. I took over the business from my mom 3 years ago.” I say. “That’s great. I'm glad that you're going on with Rossi P.I.” She says to me.

Tatiana and I were friends in high school. She moved to LA to live with her grandma after her parents were killed in a car accident when she was fourteen.

I take a quick look at her and I see how thin she is, she definitely doesn’t look like the vibrant girl I knew back in high school. “So tell me what happened to you? I mean you left without saying goodbye.” She says. "I'm sorry about that. I came to NY to study fashion designing." I reply. The waiter comes over to our table to take our drink order. After the waiter leaves I turn my attention back to Tatiana. I tell her everything about my day job but I don’t tell her that I am the owner of Rossi designs.

“I saw your picture in the file that was given to me and I didn’t recognize you until now so tell me what happened to you?” I say. She looks down at her hands before she starts speaking.

She tells me that she went to Princeton to study marketing and that is where she got her degree. After college she went to work at this big marketing company in NY where she met her husband, Toby. They started dating two months after they met and were married six months after that.

"He was sweet at first but after we got married, that is when his true colors came out. He didn't want me near anyone else, he started coming home drunk, he brought his whores into our house and he had sex with them right in front of me. He threatened me that he was going to kill me if I don't quit my job but I was still going to work and then he started threatening that he was going to kill my grandma if I don't do as he says. So I quit my job and he has been the sole provider in house ever since." Tatiana says.

I was angry when she started telling me this story but now I'm really pissed off. “Last week when I was cleaning the house, I came across some files that he had left open in his office. I looked through them and I noticed that they are financial statements from the company that he is currently working at as a finance manager. I noticed that the numbers aren’t adding up so I managed to get into his computer files and that is when I saw all of the transactions that he made.He was stealing from them.” She says.

“Do you have these files with you?” I ask her. “No but I'm sure that I can get them. Why?” She asks me. “Because if we're going to put your husband behind bars then we'll need all the evidence that we can get.” I say. I take out a USB memory stick from my bag. “Here use this. Save everything that he has on his computer and I'll have someone come and fetch it from you tomorrow while your husband is at work.” I tell her as she takes it from me.

“Do you know where your husband is right now?” I ask her. “Yeah he's at a club called The Lounge. He goes there every Thursday night. He won’t be home until after 12am.” She says.

“Oh God I know this place. It a shady place where all illegal dealings are made. Mostly the cartels use it as a meeting spot.” I say. “I know and that is why I'm asking you for help. He has been involved with the Mexican Cartel for a while now. I overheard him talking to someone on the phone the other night about some drug deal.” Tatiana says.

“Your husband’s name is Toby Martins, right?” I ask her. “Yes.” She replies. I make notes in my notebook about our conversation about what I think Toby is doing.

“You know Marcus came to my house looking for you.” She says. “When?” I ask her. “The summer that you left LA.” She says and I could not believe my ears.

“Look I don’t know what exactly happened between you two but I know that he was looking for you for a long time. He never stopped loving you.” Tatiana says. “That was a long time ago and as you can see I moved on. And clearly so did he.” I say as I get up from the chair.

“You should go home now in case he comes home earlier. I'll go to the club and see if he is there.” I say to her.

Tatiana walks out of the door before me and she raises her hand in order to call for a taxi. “Hey you don’t have to do that. Dax over there is one of my guys and he will make sure that you get home safe.” I say as I point to a black Mercedes standing on the corner. She looks at the car. “Okay” She says.

“Here is my number. If you need anything then just call me.” I tell her as I hand her my business card. “Thank you. I'll let you know about the evidence tomorrow. Thank you for taking on my case. Maybe if he is behind bars, I might just be able to divorce him and move on with my life. I should start looking for a job first.” She says and that gives me an idea.

“The fashion company that I work at has an opening in their marketing department. I think that you should email them your resume.” I say. I take the business card and I write down Glenda’s email address. “Thank you so much. I will do that as soon as I get home.” She says.

“You take care of yourself. And if that bastard tries anything with you tonight then you call me. I will come straight to your house.” I say as I hug her. “I will.” Tatiana says as she climbs into the back of the car. I walk over to Dax. “After you drop her off, I want you to stay close to her house and keep an eye on her.” I whisper to him and he nods at me. “Sure thing boss. I will let you know if anything happens.” Dax replies before he drives off.

I head on over to my car. Dax would accompany me on these things. He stays close by just in case there’s a lot of trouble. “Lounge club, here I come.” I say as I get in and I drive towards the location of the club.

I park right outside before climbing out to open my trunk where I look through the clothes that I have in there. I get dressed in the skimpiest skirt that I could find now.

I gather all of the equipment that I need. I climb out of the car and I walk straight up to the bouncer. He knows my face already and he also knows that I will kick his ass if he doesn’t let me into the club. He opens the door for me as soon as he sees me walking up to him. “Thank you Pedro.” I say as I walk past him.

This club that is filled with strippers and married men. I walk over to the bar to order a drink so that they would'nt get suspicious of me. As I am drinking my drink, I feel someone touching my ass. I grab the man’s hand and I twist it around. “Wrong girl to fuck with.” I yell at him before I release his hand. “You hurt my hand bitch!” He yells as he grabs his injured hand. The bouncers come and stand behind him.

“You will pay for this.” He says before he walks away. “Bring it on asshole.” I say and then I turn around to look for the person that I came here for. I spot him at a table where he is sitting at with some stripper on his lap. The booth right next to them is open so I make my way over there.

I sit down at the table and I take out my gear. I also brought a recording device with so that is the first thing that I put on. It is recording their whole conversation. “I swear I am not lying. The company is going bankrupt so I don’t know where I am going to get the money from now.” Toby says to his friends. “Well you better figure it out. You owe us 50k for the drugs that you bought from us and the boss wants the money soon.” One of the other guys say.

“That bitch of yours will be a good addition to this club. Maybe we could force her to come here and work off your debt.” Another man says. “Hey you leave Tatiana out of this. She is mine. I will come up with the money myself so don’t you worry about that.” Toby says.

While the recorder is doing its job, I take pictures of Toby and the bitch that’s on his lap as well as those that are sitting at the table with them.

I hear someone getting up at the table behind me. “Sorry boys but I am going home early tonight. My wife is waiting for me.” Toby says as he gets up. “Aww but I thought that I was going to spend the night at your house again?” The stripper asks him. “Not tonight sweet cheeks.” Toby says as he grabs her head and he kisses her. I watch him as he walks away.

I don’t know why Tatiana would ever get involved with him but I sure as hell was going to help her get away from him. I take out my phone and I send a text message to Dax.

‘Heads up the husband is coming home early tonight.’ I then send him the text. A second later he replies. ‘Got it boss, I will keep an eye on him.’ He sends back. ‘If he does anything to her then you get her the hell out of there.’ I text him back.

As I'm walking back to my car, some guy grabs me from behind. I then hit him in his stomach with my elbow before I throw him over my shoulder and I slam him down on the ground hard. It is the guy that grabbed my ass at the bar.

He stands up to his feet. “You think you are tough huh? Well I'm about to show you who you are dealing with bitch.” He says. He tries to punch me in the face but I duck out of the way. He storms right past me. I kick him hard in the face with my stilettos. He falls on the ground. “I told you in there already. I am the wrong girl to fuck with.” I say as I punch him in the face a few more times until he is knocked out cold.

I grab my purse that has fallen on the ground and I get up.

“My father did not teach me how to defend myself for nothing.” I say as I get in my car and I drive off to my house that is just outside of the city.

When I get home I go straight upstairs to get ready for bed. My phone rings and I see that Dax is calling me. I knew that something must have happened with Tatiana.

“Dax is everything alright?” I ask him “No boss something did happen. He came home and he started beating her so that is when I went in and I got her out. The bastard is knocked out cold on the floor.” Dax says.

“Take her to the safe house. I will be right there.” I say.

I drive over to our safehouse outside of New York. As I walk inside I see Dax standing in the hallway. “Where is she?” I ask him. “On the couch in the living room.” Dax says.

I walk straight into the living room where Tatiana is sitting on the couch drinking a glass of water. I can see that her hands are shaking. “Tatiana what happened?” I ask her as I sit next to her.

She looks at me. I see that she has a black eye and her lip is busted open. “He came home and he just started beating me for no reason.” She says. “He was about to rape me again when Dax intervened. He beat Toby up. Then he got me out of there.” She says just as Dax walks in.

“Thank you so much. If it weren’t for you then he would've done much worse to me.” She says to him. “My pleasure, it is part of my job to protect women like you.” Dax replies before he looks at me. “Joey and Sam will be here in a few minutes.” Dax says.

“Tatiana some of my other guys are going to stay here with you. They are the best so I can assure you that nothing will happen to you.” I tell her. She reaches into her bag and she takes out the usb stick.

“I managed to get the evidence that we need from his computer.” She says as she hands it to me. She also gives me some papers as well. “And here is the rest.” She says.

“Thank you, I will put everything together before I contact the authorities tomorrow morning. Right now I think it is best that you get some sleep.” I say. We get up and I walk with her to the room.

The house is equipped with everything that a person would need. At least there are some clothes here that she could wear because I know that she didn’t bring anything with her.

While Tatiana is in the shower, I receive a call from Pavlo, the manager at Rossi P.I in LA.

“Pavlo how are you?” I ask him as I answer the call.

“Boss I am sorry that I am calling this late. But I have case here in LA that I think would be more suitable for you.” Pavlo says.

“I’m listening.”