Addicted to You

by Porscha Sterling

  “Aw, man!”

  I chuckled at that. Sage had no idea but the affect she had on my daughter only made me even more certain that she was the one for me.

  “How about this? You pay your respect to Mommy and I’ll come over later on so we can make cookies.”

  In no time, Tamiyah had dropped the sulking and was hooting and hollering loudly in celebration.

  “I think you won somebody over,” I said, laughing to myself as I watched Tamiyah fist-pumping in the back seat.

  “Just trying to make the princess happy.”

  “And I’ll think on how I can satisfy the queen,” I replied with all seriousness.

  “Sounds like a plan,” was her only response but I could hear the smile in her tone.

  She was always close-lipped when Tamiyah was in listening range. That was another thing that I liked about her. She was more worried about the well-being of my child than she was about me sometimes.

  “I’ll see you later on tonight. But you can always hit me up whenever,” I told her, hoping that she would.

  “Well, I didn’t want anything else really. Was just calling to see what you were up to. I didn’t realize how much work was taking up my time. Now that I don’t have that to worry about, I hope I’m not becoming a bugaboo.”

  “Aye, I’ve had a few chicks bugging me in the past. None quite as awesome as you though, so feel free to bug me at any time.”

  The laughter that followed on the other end almost made me forget what I was going through. Sage was the type of woman who knew how to make a man feel like a man. She was the softer, more compassionate side that I needed; she completed me in so many ways. I was happy to finally be able to call her mine, but I needed more than that. I wanted to deepen our bond. She was riding with me through the worst time of my life and not once did she allow the opinions of others to sway her. In so little time, she had become my best friend and the only person in the world I could depend on. Indie and Kale were pretty much gone but Sage still remained. If nothing else told me that she was the one, her dedication did.

  “Can you talk?”

  “Hell yeah, I can talk when it comes to you. What’s happening with my case?”

  “A lot.”

  Standing a few yards behind her to give her some privacy, I watched my daughter pay her respects to her mother. She was sitting down in front of the memorial that we constructed, with her legs up and her arms wrapped around her knees, talking to Tami as if she were sitting right in front of her. It was therapeutic, even for me. I had only said a few things just to make sure that Tamiyah was comfortable, but I was surprised at how saying those few things gave me some sort of peace. Not much because I still had no idea where her body was or who killed her, but at least I’d allowed myself to say goodbye.

  “So, what’s happening now?” I asked, feeling on edge. I knew Elshire to the point that I could pick up his vibe, especially when it came to bad news. Dyano wasn’t as easily read.

  “I know you’re not going to like this but I’m going to file for a speedy trial. I want to get your case settled ASAP and, from what I’ve heard, the judge is more than ready to try your case. Election year is coming up and, depending on the outcome, your case could work in his favor.”

  Exhaling, I rubbed at one end of my brow and took my time replying back.

  “I don’t know about speeding this up. It’s not looking too good for me right now and—”

  “Trust me,” he said, interrupting. “I know my stuff and I’m very connected here in this city. Your prosecutor is playing to the media, holding interviews and such every chance he gets in hopes that he can sway public opinion against you, but it’s all circumstantial evidence. There is no body and it’s hard as hell to pin a murder charge on anyone without one. They found a butcher knife at your house that they are claiming to have been the murder weapon, but they can’t prove how she was killed other than some specialist who claims he saw a blade print in the blood. It was found under a bush—anyone could’ve put it there. The videos of you arguing could describe any couple in America on the verge of divorce. The sperm on the dress, it’s yours, but who can say for certain that it was from that day?”

  I sighed and ran my hand over my head as I listened. What he was saying sounded good, but I still wasn’t completely convinced.

  “You’re a loving father and you were fighting on video about maintaining custody of a child who isn’t even yours biologically. That in itself shows character. You have a past but you’re not a killer. I even pulled your file from when you served time in prison. Your record was impeccable. Plus, the girl who accused you of assault, I looked her up. She is married to a Black teacher now and her father disowned her once she got engaged. If it comes to it, which it won’t, I can probably get her to testify on your behalf.”

  I had to give it to him, Dyano really did know his shit.

  “Man, listen, I still haven’t gotten a bill, so I don’t know how much you charge but I have a feeling it’s expensive as hell and for good reason. So, I’m going to go ahead and trust that you know what you’re talking about. How soon do you think I could go to trial?”

  This time, he was the one to exhale. “Well, I hope you meant what you said about trust because I’m about to make you prove it. I was invited to a dinner party that Judge Carmichael, the one assigned to your case, is also attending. If all goes well, I’m hoping to get the trial slated to begin in a couple of weeks, a month at most.”

  “Weeks?”

  Snapping my head up, I looked over at Tamiyah who was now skipping around the memorial, while giggling and singing as loud as she could. She was having more fun with Tami now than when she was alive.

  “Yes, weeks. The prosecutor is using the media to poison the pool of jurors against you the longer that we delay. If we have any hopes of having an unbiased and impartial jury, we have to act fast. I’m going to try for getting it on the docket for the first of next month.”

  I squeezed the bridge of my nose, took another look at my daughter, and then nodded. The faster I could get the over with, the better my chances at getting her back to living a normal life.

  “Okay, I’ll be ready.”

  And just like that the timer for my freedom was officially set.

  “Breaking news: This has just come in not even an hour ago. In what appears to be a freak accident, Cindy Conway has died. According to police reports, Ms. Conway was found dead in her home by a neighbor who came to check on her after not seeing her for a few days. The cause of death is carbon monoxide poisoning. It seems that the gas on Ms. Conway’s stove wasn’t properly shut off and she died in her sleep. No foul play is suspected. The City of Atlanta mourns for Cindy Conway, who was known as the ‘Voice of the Voiceless’…

  As the reporter continued covering the story, I listened intently. Of course, they took the opportunity to mention me in their coverage since my case was the last thing that she’d had all of her attention on. The last thing I wanted was my name to be said in connection with another story about some dead woman.

  “Damn,” I said, looking at a photo of Cindy on the screen. “You see this?”

  “Yeah.” Sage nodded her head and looked up from her book. “Yeah, I heard that she was dead earlier today.”

  “You couldn’t have. They just found her body less than an hour ago. Her neighbor checked on her after not seeing her for a while and said that her door was unlocked. She went in and found her.”

  I looked over at Sage who didn’t seem at all surprised, but I didn’t think anything of it. Like me, Cindy had been also making her life hell, putting pressure on her executive board members to remove her and her homeowner’s association to kick her out of her neighborhood. She was a nightmare that was finally over.

  “Oh,” she replied, looking up at me from over her glasses. “Maybe it was something else I’d heard. But wow… that’s kinda crazy, huh?”

  I nodded. “Yeah, it is. But I can’t say I’m mad. I wanted to kill her ass when she w
as over here talking sideways to Tamiyah that one day. The old me would’ve snuffed her ass out on the spot.”

  “Snuffed her out? You mean like kill her?”

  I almost wanted to laugh at the way she asked, like she was excited at the thought. It was a natural thing: good girls always wanted a little thug in their lives.

  “I did a lot of shit back in my day, especially when it came to earning my reputation in the streets. I don’t know anyone who has been able to make a name for themselves in the dope game without ever taking a life. It’s part of the game; how a lot of niggas earn their respect. Or to protect the ones you love.”

  Those were things that I didn’t want to dive too deeply into. It wasn’t that I was running from my past; it just wasn’t me anymore. There was a lot that I did in my old life because I thought there wasn’t another way to make it. Now, I knew better.

  “That’s pretty dope. Knowing that you’d do anything to protect your loved ones… including me.”

  Her lips spread into a sneaky smile, then she dipped her eyes back into the pages of her book. For years after that moment, I would replay the conversation over and over in my mind.

  “What’s that book you’re reading?”

  “It’s called Innocent, about a man who is wrongly accused for a crime. He’s a twin, his brother is in the streets, but he’s a college kid who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

  My brows raised and I leaned over, slipping the book from her hands.

  “Hey!” Reaching forward, she tried to snatch back her book, but I moved out of her way.

  “Yo, this sounds too much like my life right now. Minus the twin. I might need to read it.”

  “It’s a good book,” Sage said, leaning over to extend her reach. I pulled the book back and she lost her balance, falling into my lap.

  “Aye, come here. Let me hold you for a minute.”

  Placing the book on the end table on my other side, I wrapped my hands around her waist and pulled her onto my lap. She was facing me, straddling her legs over mine, and I swore that I could feel the heat of her sex. My dick began to get hard.

  “You sure that holding me is all you want to do?” She eyed me suggestively and then lifted her hips to reach underneath. She ran her hand lightly over my erection, applying just enough pressure to make me lose my train of thought.

  “Hell nah, it ain’t all I want to do.” I licked my lips. “But fuck it, I don’t even wanna do that anymore. Not just that anyway.”

  Holding her steady, I rose up and carried her in my arms the entire way to the guest room. It was where I had been sleeping instead of the basement. I couldn’t sleep in Tami’s room and hadn’t been inside of it since she was living in it, and probably wouldn’t ever make it mine. If everything went right with my trial, the first thing I would do was move.

  “I hope you ain’t gotta go somewhere in the morning. I have a feeling that tonight is gonna be a long night.”

  “Oh yeah?” She smiled and cocked her head to the right to look at me sideways. Her energy was so addicting that I couldn’t understand how the hell I’d lucked up and met her while she was still single. Women like her rarely didn’t have a man trying to soak up their time. Unless they didn’t want one which, based on her success, was possible. Relationships took time and ambitious women didn’t have a lot of that to give to anyone. For whatever reason, she was willing to put her work and life on hold to spend time with me and it happened to be at the moment when I needed someone the most.

  Taking her in the room, I lay her down on the bed and then pulled away. Suddenly, I had a thought about doing some romantic shit, like lighting candles, pouring wine, and running bubble baths. However, when she dropped her knees on opposite ends, spreading her legs wide to tease me with a sight of her pussy, I caved.

  With her skirt pooled around her hips and her red panties sporting a dark red pussy stain that showed just how wet she was for me; I was unable to hold back from being inside her. I slipped my fingers inside of the moist material and grazed her exposed clit with the back of my fingers. Pinching the rounded tip of it between two fingers, I squeezed lightly on her sensitive spot and felt my dick throb when she opened her mouth and let out a gasp. Within seconds my fingers were drenched in her juices as she wound her hips against me, indulging herself. I allowed her to do it for a little bit but then pulled away. I was a pleaser and I wanted to take charge when it came to her desires.

  “Pleassseee,” she whined, writhing her body sexily on the bed. “I don’t want to wait any longer.”

  “I won’t make you wait,” was the last thing I said before I dropped my mouth down over her lower lips.

  31

  Sage

  * * *

  “Where do you think we should go after all of this is over? Like, for vacation. I think we owe it to ourselves.”

  Turning, Ink took a moment to look at me, not speaking for a second. I guess it was a weird thing to ask something like that the day before his trial was set to begin.

  We had been avoiding the topic all day but, in the end, there was no escaping it. Every time I looked at him, I could see it in his eyes. And in the moments where I caught him gazing off into the distance at some unseen place, I knew that the thoughts he wouldn’t voice to me ran rampant in his mind. Depending on how this trial went, his life could change forever—all of ours could. In every moment of happiness that we had, any laugh and with every embrace, the thought at the forefront of his mind was that those moments could be the last ones for a long time.

  Ink didn’t want to spend the time that he had making us feel sorry for him or sad, so he avoided the topic altogether and I understood that. But I wasn’t hesitant at all when it came to speaking about our future because I knew we would have one. Together.

  “I can’t really think about all that right now. I don’t know if I’ll even make it to that point. If it were up to Stanson, I’ll be taking an extended vacation at the pen,” he replied with a sigh, referencing the State’s Attorney and lead prosecutor.

  I rolled over in the bed onto my stomach so that I could look him right in the eyes.

  “It’s not up to him. I’m not going to let you be taken away from me for something you didn’t do.”

  For the first time that day, I was able to get a smile out of him that didn’t look like it was being hindered by some competing thought in his head.

  “I can dig your confidence,” he said.

  I smiled and then flipped back around on the bed, joining him with my arms positioned behind my head and my eyes to the ceiling.

  “It’s easy to be confident when I know what I know.”

  We fell into a thoughtful and comfortable silence, wrapped in our own separate thoughts.

  “Do you ever think about who did it? I’ve been so caught up trying to prove I’m innocent that I never really took the time to think about it. She was murdered… but by who?” He shrugged his shoulders and sighed.

  “What about Dyano’s theory about Kale? He had a motive, too. He was in love with Tami for a long time. They had a secret relationship going on behind your back and he lied about it.”

  He blew out a breath and waved his hand, as if to bat the thought away.

  “Nah, I don’t believe that shit. He’s done a lot of foul shit, but he cared about Tami. Fucking her is one thing but killing her is another. And to be honest, I can’t even say I’m completely surprised about that. There were always signs about how he felt about her.”

  “It’s not for us to believe it. The jury just has to. All you need is to give them a shred of doubt. What’s wrong with that?”

  Ink sat up on one elbow and pierced his eyes into mine.

  “Because it’s stupid and I ain’t ’bout to flip this on Kale just to get off. I look guilty as hell and I can’t provide any kind of explanation about what actually happened because I don’t remember shit. For the first couple of weeks, I actually thought that maybe there was some way I murdered her and didn’t know it.
When I woke up that morning in the basement, I had blood on my hands. My fuckin’ clothes had blood on them, and I don’t know why. That’s how bad this shit is, Sage. What person in their right mind wouldn’t say I murdered her after all of that?”

  Another response began to bubble up in my mind but as soon as I opened my mouth, I closed it back shut. He was right; I couldn’t argue with that.

  “It’ll all work out fine. You’ll see,” I said, wrapping my arms around him.

  For the rest of the night, that’s how we were; my head on his chest and our bodies fully touching as we lay in each other’s arms.

  “Hello, this is Shine Moore with WSB-TV, reporting live from the courthouse here in Atlanta where the trial to determine whether Dom ‘Ink’ Richardson is innocent or guilty of the murder of his late wife, Tami Richardson, will take place. We will be live tweeting as well as giving you the latest developments as soon as they come in. Now, I want to turn to the crowd behind me and get their opinions and hopeful outcome as it concerns this case…”

  “Don’t listen to that,” I said to Ink and covered the screen of his phone with my hand. “You should try to keep your mind clear. It’s hard enough as it is without paying attention to what other people have to say. They don’t matter. You had a lot of people show you love today… focus on that.”

  The day had been a whirlwind and, to be truthful about it, my head was still spinning. The coverage of Ink’s trial was insane but, surprisingly, he’d received a lot of support from celebrities, both major and up-and-coming. His fans had flooded his Instagram page and his name was the #1 trending topic on Twitter.

  Thanks to Dyano, a lot of public opinion had swayed in Ink’s favor. Clips of Tami’s behavior prior to her murder had ‘all of a sudden’ shown up online, including a video of her grinding up on more than a couple men at the club as they felt her up. Ink had suspicions that Dyano was behind the leaks, but he denied it every time because he knew that Ink wouldn’t go for it. I, on the other hand, knew that there was no limit on what Dyano would do to look out for his client and win his case, especially one as big as that one, so I had no doubts that he was instrumental in the leaks.