Chapter 1

Daphnée’s phone alarm rang, waking her up. She groaned hearing it and reached her arm out to shut it off. Stretching her limbs, she yawned, complaining, “I didn’t sleep enough.”

“Bitch, me too,” her best friend complained as he walked into the room.

She opened her eyes and looked at him. He was holding a cup of coffee in one hand while he drank from the other.

She sat up on the bed. “I swear, our days and nights are both short.”

“You can say that again. A queen needs her rest and I ain’t getting none of that,” Gerald said, sitting down beside her and handed her the cup.

“Thank you, you always know what I need,” Daphnée thanked him and took a sip of her black coffee.

“Bitch, you sleep too much,” he complained, and they both laughed.

“I don’t want to go to work, I’m so tired, my feet can’t handle it anymore,” she said to him as she took her phone and scrolled through her notifications, “Oh wow, my post just got so many likes.”

“Yeah, guys these days actually like women with fat asses,” he said with a smirked.

“Child, if they weren’t after d*ck, I wouldn’t be single. How’re things going with your man?” She asked him and he rolled his eyes.

“He was in some other man’s guts two nights ago and he thought I wouldn’t find out. I sent him a long text about how short his d*ck is and that he could never please me in bed,” he answered with a smirk.

She shook her head, “Even though you were screaming your lungs out whenever he was in YOUR guts?”

“What? He does have a small d*ck, he just knew how to hit my spots,” Gerald said and burst out laughing.

“Alright, let me get my fat ass in the showers and we’ll head to work, are you driving because I do not want to catch a cab this late at night,” she asked as she got up from the bed and made her way to the bathroom.

“As long as you pay for gas,” he called out to her and made himself comfortable in her bed.

BANG BANG BANG

“Oh fuck me,” Gerald complained and got up from the bed.

“Who is it?” Daphnée yelled.

“I’m not there yet, you overgrown female!” Gerald yelled back at her. He arrived at the door and looked through the peephole.

Groaning inwardly, he opened the door and let his ex in. “What do you want?” He asked his ex.

Kevin turned to him and asked, “So my d*ck never pleases you in bed?”

Gerald rolled his eyes and smirked, “You know how we were in bed, so what is your excuse this time?”

“Gerald, you know I am weak,” Kevin said as he took Gerald’s hand in his.

Gerald looked down at their hands and chuckled, “Boy, shut up.” He pulled his hands back and walked off to get his coffee. Kevin took a seat on one of the couches and yelled, “Is there something to eat?”

“And he let your ass back in here?” Daphnée asked, walking into the kitchen.

Kevin smiled at her and nodded. “Well, it’s not like I am going to leave.”

“I swear, the toxicity between you two is everything,” she said and walked to the fridge. “There is no food for you here.”

“But why? I pay rent,” Kevin complained with a frown.

Daphnée took last night’s leftover chicken lasagne that they got from work out and started heating it up, saying, “You pay rent for the free ass you get and you know that is non-negotiable.”

Gerald walked into the kitchen and saw Daphnée eating the chicken lasagne and said, “You better save some for me or else you ain’t getting from tonights left overs.”

“In the fridge,” she waved him off and continued eating. Her eyes rolled back as the cheesy white sauce glided against her tongue. She licked her fingers and turned to Gerald, who was digging in the fridge and waited for him to come up.

He hand the chicken lasagne in his hands along with the potatoe bake and closed it with his foot.

“Why are you looking at me like that?” He asked her.

“Well, I just don’t understand why you let him into the apartment. I thought his d*ck was small,” Daphnée questioned him.

Gerald put everything into the oven, warming it up, and turned to her. “We need a ride to work and back. After that, I’ll leave him for sure.”

She stared at him worriedly and shook her head. “You know, you just can’t resist him.”

“I can and I will, just not now,” he answered.

She smirked and turned around as she muttered under her breath, “The D must be that good.”

“You wouldn’t know,” he smirked.

“And I do not want to,” she answered back.

Gerald walked over to Kevin with a plate of food and tried he tried to kiss Gerald but was given the cold shoulder. Daphnée scoffed when she saw that, then went inside to get dressed.

She walked out wearing a white blouse with a red vest over it and a black skirt with black pumps on. She did her hair up neat. She looked at Gerald and said, “It’s four pm. Let’s go, you can leave your dog behind. No one cares about him in this apartment.”

“LET’S GO! Come, Kevin, my ass needs to go to work,” Gerald said and made his way to the door.

Kevin got up and followed them out. As usual, traffic got the better of them, but they arrived at work fifteen minutes early.

“Well, I’ll see you later, love,” Daphnée waved him off since they worked in different areas of the restaurant.

Midnight arrived, and so did Daphnée’s yawn. Charlie walked over to her and said, “You’re standing against the wall again.”

Daphnée looked at him with a tired smile. “Is it that obvious?”

“No, but you are welcome to join the clean-up crew. The restaurant will close in a few minutes,” Charlie said.

Charlie Murphe was the area manager, and he sort of liked Daphnée. To him, she was pretty and very hard to approach and she was fun to talk to. He just wished that she would accept his advances.

Daphnée saluted him and walked off to the kitchen. When she stepped in the head chef, Marco Valdier said, “Daphnée, Gerald has already asked me to gather all the leftovers for the two of you.”

“I swear, my lord, I will get fatter than I already am,” Daphnée said with a smirk. She was thrilled that she did not need to cook.

She walked over to the trash and said, “I will take the trash out to the alley.”

She tied the black bags up, then pulled them out towards the door. The door slammed shut behind her as she took the bags to the square cans outside and chucked them inside.

She dusted her hands off and yawned, almost closing her mouth with her dirty hands.

From the shadows behind her, two men with pistols at their waist walked up to her. They looked at each other, then one man called, “Daphnée Elodie Lefebvre?”

Her eyes widened in disbelief. She turned around and said, “Who the hell just called my government name?”

The men looked at each other again, and Daphnée’s sixth instinct started reacting. She turned around and was about to run away but was grabbed by one of them and a cloth with medicine on it was put over her mouth.

As she inhaled it while struggling to get free, the medicine made her lose her senses as well as consciousness.

The men dragged her to the black SUV, struggling slightly because of her weight. They climbed into their seats after securing her. The one in the passenger seat said, “Off to the airport we go.”

The driver sighed and nodded his head. It had been a long night and finally it was time to go home now.