by Leo Sullivan
“Sunday, I don’t want to do this to you, but I have no other choice.”
My blood went cold and I found myself taking a few steps back away from him. My breathing accelerated and I suddenly became aware of the fact that I was in a room, alone, with a man who had killed before and looked like he was ready to kill again. I was just about ready to scream when, suddenly, King lifted his hand. I closed my eyes to brace myself for what would come next.
“Are these the men who almost killed you? Do you recognize any of them?”
Confused, I pried my eyes open slowly and relaxed when I saw that he was only holding up a cell phone. Then I tensed up again when I brought into focus the images on the screen.
“My God!”
With my hands over my mouth, I felt tears streaming from my eyes. On the phone was a photo of three men who were bound, bloody and beaten to nearly a pulp. There was no telling how much torture they’d been through, but it was enough to bring them almost to death’s door. Of the three men, neither of them could sit up on their own; they were being held up by anonymous hands for the photo.
“Sunday, I need you to try to remember. It’s important. Are these the right men?”
I didn’t want to, but I managed to force my eyes open slowly, wincing as I stared at the sight. It was hard to make out any distinguishing features on any of the faces, but there was something that drew me to one.
“I know him,” I whispered and slowly lifted my hand.
I couldn’t even bring myself to touch the screen, so I simply hovered over the image of the man with the green eyes.
“He’s the one who shot me.”
Without even bothering to look at the image, King pulled another phone from his pocket and dialed a number. While he waited for the other line to be answered, he kept his eyes on me. I folded my arms around my body, feeling like I was going to lose my mind.
“Finish it,” was all he said, but it was more than enough. By the time he ended the call and placed the phone back in his pocket, I knew it was over.
“It’s done.”
The moment he let those two words escape from his lips, it was like I couldn’t hold back my emotions any longer. All of the tears, frustration and emotions that I’d held back for so long came to the surface and I let them out.
Outside of what I felt for my daughter, I’d pushed everything else away—my anger with Caesar, the guilt that I felt when it came to King and my depression when it came to the lack of control I had over my life. I never even took the time to mourn all the things I’d lost: my life, my eye, my home, my feeling of security, even Kirk, my friend. All of those emotions began to pour out of me, and I was at a loss for how to control it. Before I knew it, I was in King’s arms and he was kissing the top of my head while rubbing my back.
“This ain’t the time for tears. It’s all good now,” he said, trying to calm me. “I took care of it. I’ll always take care of you. Never forget that.”
At some point between crying about what I’d lost, King flipped the script and started reminding me of all that I had to gain. Everything that could be mine if I wanted it. He went from rubbing my back to running his hands over the curve of my ass, cupping it possessively as my tears began to subside. I lifted my head to him and looked deeply into his eyes. He didn’t turn away and, in that moment, we began speaking to each other though there were no words said. It was better that way; I was letting my heart do the talking. Making decisions with my mind had cost me a lot of time already. Had I followed my heart from the beginning, I wouldn’t have ever left King; he would still be mine.
King lowered his head to suck gently on my bottom lip and I allowed him to, not returning the kiss until he pulled me closer into him. I sucked in a breath and he took advantage, forcing his tongue into my mouth. Tasting him brought back memories that I’d fought hard to forget after I’d caught Makita visiting him in prison. My heart was broken, and I tried to erase myself of everything King-related memory.
He dipped his hand further down, nudging the hem of my short dress aside and dipped his fingers into my pussy, working me slowly before speeding up the pace. I parted my thighs, giving him extra room to do his thing. And he did it so well…
“I need you,” I heard myself say. I was so wet that as he fingered me, the sounds of the motion could be heard, arousing me even the more. Reaching down, I satisfied my curiosity as to whether he was just as horny as I was in that moment and grabbed his dick.
God…
It was long, thick and hard; just like I remembered it. My lady lips contracted, gushing even more honey from my folds.
“I want to apologize in advance,” he said, suddenly, whispering against my lips, working each word in between his kisses. “I haven’t felt pussy since the last time I was inside you. It’s been a long time.”
His confession sent tingles down my spine. I felt honey gush from between my legs.
“And you’re apologizin’ for that?”
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I’m apologizin’ because I might be a little rough.”
With fair warning given, he lifted me up and simultaneously snatched at my lace panties tearing them in two. Driving backwards, he forced my back against the wall behind us and before I had a chance to prepare myself, he gripped hard on my sides and dove straight into my middle.
“Shit, King!” I exclaimed, gnashing my teeth as I fought to adjust to his girth.
He was savage with it, and it didn’t take long for me to understand why he’d apologized. King had always been a gentle lover, but not in this moment. The craziest part about it was that I loved every bit of it.
Stifling my scream by biting hard on his shoulder, I gripped him as he drove inside of me, building out my insides to be his custom fit. Caesar could never compare to King. In all ways, he was much less, even when it came to his dick.
“I missed this … I promise you, I missed it.”
I didn’t have to let him know that I felt the same way because, truthfully, my body was saying it for me. I was so wet to the point that I was nearly leaking. My pussy was making it rain.
Out of need and his sensitivity from abstaining for so long, King came fast and so did I, but as soon as the first one was out of the way, he slowed it down. We were so caught up in the moment that we never took the time to make it to the room or the bed. Our surroundings was the least of our worries, my focus was on him and his was on me. He rocked my body, kissing me sweetly as he pulled me into ecstasy. We stayed face-to-face and when we came together for the second time, it was such an emotional moment that I almost cried.
“I want you to come with me. You and Katie,” he said once it was over.
With our clothes half on and half off, we lay on the floor looking at the ceiling with the crowns of our head touching each other’s. Our arms up, with our palms resting on our shoulders and our fingers were laced together.
“Come with you?” I frowned. “Where? What do you mean?”
“I’m goin’ to Cuba. Tonight. The only thing keeping me here this long was finding the men who hurt you.”
My expression steeled and I felt like a boulder had been forced between us.
“Cuba? Tonight? Why didn’t you tell me that before now?”
“I wasn’t sure that I was leavin’ until now. When you told me that you recognized the men in the picture, I decided then. It’s too risky for me to stay. The Feds are on the hunt for me, I can’t trust anyone and—”
“I didn’t tell them about you that day. I heard on the news that someone called them, but it wasn’t me.”
“I know,” he replied without missing a beat. “I don’t know who did, but I know it wasn’t you.”
Silenced passed between us and I forced myself to enjoy it. These were our last moments. King wanted me to go with him but we both knew there was no way. My mother was here, Katie’s doctors were here, and there was no way I could take her away from her father. Even if Caesar hadn’t gotten it together enough to be the f
ather that Katie deserved, he was still present and had the opportunity to change. If I left, he’d never get that chance.
“I can’t go with you,” I told him, voicing the inevitable. “There is just so much here that I can’t leave. My mama and…”
I didn’t want to mention Caesar to King.
“I knew you would say that,” he replied. “But the offer is there, and it stands. If at any point you change your mind, just know I’ll always find a way to bring you to me.”
The emphatic and confident way he put those words together took my breath away.
“I’ve got to go. My phone is probably blowing up… I’ve been here too long.”
He pulled his hands away from mine and started to get himself together. It wasn’t like him to fuck and leave, that was one thing King never did, but I didn’t feel slighted at all. I knew he was leaving because he had to; the way he stared longingly at me as he fixed his clothes let me know that, if he could have it any other way, he would stay.
“Shower before you go?” I asked, biting down on my bottom lip.
He stopped just as he pulled his sweats to his waist and leveled his eyes on me.
“Of course.”
With his lips pressed against mine, King carried me into the bathroom, turning on the shower without once breaking our embrace. When the temperature was just how he knew I liked it, he first peeled off my clothes, then his, and we both stepped in. We made love tenderly in the way that we used to when we knew we had all the time in the world to enjoy each other. Although we were working on borrowed time, King never made me feel like he had to rush. He was a man who had wasted so much time in prison, serving time for a crime he didn’t commit, so he understood that every moment was one to be cherished.
“I love you, Sunday,” he said to me as we stood at the front door.
I fought back my tears and tried to convince myself that this wasn’t a ‘goodbye’. If I accepted that, I would hate myself every day for not leaving with him.
“I love you too, Malik,” I replied.
His eyes lit up with hope, but I couldn’t say what he wanted me to. He wanted me to agree to leave, but I couldn’t. Opening the door, I took a deep breath as I watched him step over the threshold for the very last time. It was dark out and the streets were, thankfully, vacant.
Leaning in one last time, he kissed my lips one more time and then wrapped his arms around my body, pulling me close.
“If you change your mind, text me and let me know. I’ll come back for you. I promise.”
The words were right at the tip of my tongue, but I kept my silence. My selfishness told me that I needed to leave, but it wasn’t just about me. I had Katie and my mama to think of.
Standing at the door, I watched as King got into his car and prepared to leave. He kept his head down, not once looking back in my direction. When he left, I stood there and watched his car until it disappeared down the road and turned the corner. Once that happened, the tears I’d been holding in began to fall down my cheeks. With a heavy exhale, I rubbed the tears from my eyes and started to close the door but hesitated when I saw movement across the street. I gasped when I saw a shadowy figure in the distance, like someone had been watching me.
Caesar?
Squinting, I tried to focus in on whatever or whoever it was in the distance but, after a while, I realized there was no one there.
Maybe I imagined it, I thought, closing the door.
Even still, I locked it and made sure to turn on the alarm as well. I wasn’t taking any chances.
20
King
* * *
It has been a minute since I’d been able to visit my mom’s house. I’d seen her a few times since I’d escaped from prison, but never at her house. Being that I was on the run, I couldn’t take the risk. My mom’s crib was the first place that the Feds would expect to find me at, so I avoided it altogether. Instead of visiting her there, I would pop up at random times in different locations when she least expected it. I had someone watching her residence at all times, so I knew when she was home and, when she left, I knew where she was going.
My mama lived on six acres in Roswell, Georgia. It cost a pretty penny to get that much land so close to the city, but I sprung for it without a second thought. When I had her house built, I made sure to have a secret entrance built that wasn’t part of any of the floorplans available for the property. No matter where I went or how many homes I bought, the one my mama lived in would forever be home base, a refuge for me when I desperately needed it.
This night I was using that secret entrance because I had to see her. For all I knew, it could be the last time she laid eyes on me for a very long time.
There was a house about a mile away from my mama’s crib, a small shack that looked like it probably belonged to a lady who lived inside with twenty cats. The entrance to the secret entrance to my mom’s crib was in the closet in the master bedroom of that shack. Once inside, you entered a long underground hallway that dead-ended at a staircase that allowed entry into my mom’s backyard. There was a key to her backdoor in the shed, but only I knew it was there.
With the key in hand, I unlocked the back door and stepped inside, right I through the kitchen.
“What in the world?”
It was my mama’s voice. Standing completely still, I waited for her to come and investigate. One thing I’d taught her was to always stay strapped, so she had enough guns stashed in her house to supply a small army.
“Ma, it’s me,” I said, to avoid a bullet directly to the gut.
“Malik?”
“King, is that you?”
I frowned deeply. I definitely wasn’t expecting the second voice.
Before I could answer, my moms came from around the corner with Makita right behind her.
What is she doin’ here? I thought, looking hard at her.
“Malik! My god, boy!” she exclaimed and ran over to me. She wrapped me in her arms and held me tight like it was the first time since I’d escaped death row.
“Makita was telling me ‘bout how important it was for you to leave. She said that the Feds came to her house lookin’ for you. She showed up here askin’ where you were, and I got so scared when she told me why. You weren’t answerin’ your phone… I was so scared!”
I cut my eyes at Makita, unable to shield her from the fury in my eyes. I’d always been clear about leaving my mama out of things because I didn’t want her to worry. Makita telling my mom’s about the Feds at her crib was a power play; she was doing everything she could to convince me that I needed to skip town and now she had my mama on her side.
“Ma, I need to talk to you for a moment. Let’s go out back.”
Ignoring Makita’s presence, I wrapped my arm around my mama’s shoulders and ushered her out to the back deck. There was something about Makita that I just didn’t trust. She’d always been loyal and, for as much as I could tell, she’d never done me wrong, but my instincts were telling me differently. A jealous woman could be the ruin of a man and Makita was exactly that. It was no secret that I was in love with Sunday and that I would always be.
When Makita first showed up at the prison to see me, I’d told her that then and she’d convinced me that it wasn’t a factor to her. According to what she told me, her sole intentions were to get me out, to help me avoid a death sentence for a crime that I didn’t commit. She started to smuggle drugs into the prison for me deal on the inside so I could make money while I was locked up. She had no idea that I’d been sending every dollar back to Sunday. In fact, she had no idea that Sunday and I were still together.
Makita would come to visit me and pass the drugs over through a kiss. One of the guards was in on the scheme so he would pretend to look away so we could make the exchange. Makita would tongue-kiss me with so much passion that I knew it was more about the kiss than the drugs for her; she was enjoying herself. Then one day, Sunday suddenly stopped visiting me and I was devastated. I made the mistake of venting ab
out my heartache to Makita and she swooped in to stake claim on me once again. I flirted with her every now and then, said things I knew she wanted to hear, but it was only because I needed her company. With Sunday gone, I didn’t want to be left completely alone.
“Ma, I gotta leave. Tonight,” I started once we were outside. “You already know that if you want to come with me, I can—”
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “I know you have to leave, and I will miss you more than you’ll ever know, but I can’t.” She spoke with strength in her voice, but there were tears in her eyes.
“Your sister—Nikki—she has those two babies to take care of and I’m the only one helpin’ her with them since their father was killed.”
Looking back at my moms, I didn’t blink an eye. I knew that she, and Nikki, both suspected that me and The JDBs were behind the murder after Nikki’s baby daddy snitched on me. We were, but I’d never admit it.
“You didn’t offer to bring your sister along. Is something going on between you two? You know she asked Andre not to talk to the police. She hated that he did that, but she had to forgive him for the sake of the kids. He was their daddy.”
I couldn’t respond how I wanted, and I knew my mama would never understand how I felt. My attitude now and forever would be “Fuck Andre”. May he rest in piss.
Hood rules said that you didn’t snitch, period. Why should I give a damn that he was my niece and nephews father when he didn’t give a damn about lying to give their uncle a death sentence? That muthafucka didn’t even snitch with the truth; he made up some shit for the Feds to use against me. That was slimy, no matter how you split it.
“A nigga named who knows the ones that tried to kill Sunday, said that someone close to me, a chick, was fucking the nigga who set me up and ordered the hit on her and her baby daddy as some kind of revenge kill or some shit. The only person I can think of who fits that criteria is Nikki. I haven’t heard from her since I been free. I know she blames me for what happened to Andre.”