As we were packing up to leave, my phone buzzed again and I rolled my eyes. When I reached for it, Julius grabbed it from the hospital table. He saw who it was, then handed it back to me. I looked and saw it was Lucy.
Lucy Bff: I can't wait to meet little Jackson!
Me: He's soooo cute! He looks like Julius.
Lucy Bff: I thought you said you couldn't tell.
Me: His features are coming in now.
Lucy Bff: Oh when you coming back, I have an ultra sound appointment.
Me: In three days.
Lucy Bff: Yes!
I put my phone away, kissed Julius, and then we headed out with our baby in tow.
Chapter 42: Natalia
We would be flying back to South Carolina in a couple days, and a part of me couldn't wait. We didn't leave right away, because the airline said Jackson needed to be at least two weeks old.
I finished feeding my baby, and put him in the little cheap crib we bought. It was just to tide him over until we got home to his real room. Frank had finally stopped bothering me, but I still felt bad. He was always there for me, and I felt as if I shitted on him yet again.
Julius had to return to South Carolina, because he had business to handle. He wasn't going to go, but I assured him that I would be okay. I didn't want him missing anything important, when Jackson and I would be coming in a couple days anyway.
I was beat, so I decided to go ahead and take a nap while Jackson was asleep. I learned from my friend Paula back in South Carolina that it's good to have the same sleep schedule as the baby. I took my baby monitor to the bedroom, and sat it on the dresser after turning it all the way up. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I was out like a light.
***
"Wake yo ass up!"
I opened my eyes and realized I was staring down the barrel of a gun. I jumped back, and saw it was Greg holding it.
AND FOR YOUR SURPRISE….
HERE IS AN EXTENDED SAMPLE of
KEISHA & TRIGGA 2: A Gangster Love Story by Leo Sullivan & Porscha Sterling
THE FULL- LENGTH NOVEL WILL BE OUT OCTOBER 7TH!
An Exclusive Excerpt Of
Keisha & Trigga 2
A Gangster Love Story
LEO SULLIVAN
PORSCHA STERLING
ONE
Keisha sat staring at the space Trigga had been before he disappeared behind the doors of the elevator. There was an eerie silence that hung in the air. Then suddenly, it was like an explosion went off in her head as a million thoughts erupted in her mind. But one thought was loudest of them all.
BITCH, RUN!
Unwilling to waste anymore time, Keisha bolted over to where she’d left her purse on the glass dining room table and snatched it up quickly. She checked inside to make sure that she had her cellphone and then charged towards the elevator. Although it was only about a thirty second wait until it came up, it felt like an eternity. As soon as the doors opened, she jumped inside and mashed the button to the lobby. Then she pounded the button to the second floor. If she went straight to the lobby, she might run into Trigga on his way back up. She would go to the second floor and then take the stairs down. That would also give her time to call Tish for a ride.
Once the elevator doors opened wide enough for her to slide her slender body outside, Keisha ran out with her cellphone in hand as she dialed Tish’s number. Taking turns looking from the phone to her surroundings, she breathed heavily while trying to focus her mind.
“Hello?” Tish said groggily once she answered the phone.
“TISH! I need you to pick me up. I just sent you the address,” Keisha told her. Grabbing the door to enter the staircase, she took one last look behind her before she went in and started stumping down the stairs.
“What the hell you talkin’ about, Keesh? Pick you up…why?”
“Because I don’t trust Trigga right now. I—I don’t know what’s goin’ on and I need time to get my mind right and think this shit through. I’ll explain it to you later. Just get your ass up and come get me!” Keisha hung up the phone before Tish could answer. Now she was at the base of the stairwell and facing the door to the lobby.
Opening it just enough to peek outside, she peered out the door to check for Trigga. He was nowhere to be found. It was late but there was still a lot of activity out of the doors. The restaurant in the hotel was still open and had a person playing live music as a few patrons swayed back and forth at the bar.
Keisha closed the door again and took a deep breath. Before walking out she wanted to do one last thing. She pulled out her phone once more and called Tish.
“I’m on my way,” Tish said as soon as she answered the phone. “I’ll be there in five minutes.”
“Thank you so much,” Keisha responded. “I’ll explain everything to you later.”
“You safe?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Good,” Tish told her. “I’ll text you when I get there.”
Keisha ended the call and took a deep breath. Her brain was still filled with thoughts of Trigga. She didn’t think that he wanted to kill her anymore because if he did, he could have. But he had a lot of shit that came with him. His own twin brother was in on the ambush. He’d almost killed her and even came to the hospital and to Lloyd’s condo to finish the job. All this stuff she was going through was due to her connection to Trigga. He was sexy and they had a connection but he wasn’t worth risking her life for. At the end of the day, she didn’t really know him at all.
Pulling the door open, Keisha scanned the outside once more before stepping out. She walked briskly through the lobby, her eyes searching around frantically with each step. She was so preoccupied with looking for Trigga that she didn’t realize when she ran straight into an older man holding a glass of wine.
“Oh, damn it!” the man exclaimed as he looked at the red wine droplets that spilled on the front of his beige shirt when Keisha collided with his arm.
“I’m so sorry,” Keisha muttered to him as she rushed away towards the door.
The man shot her an angry scowl and opened his mouth to complain once more. Before he could, Keisha took off in a run and darted out the lobby doors, afraid that she would cause more attention to herself if she stayed a second longer.
***
Trigga sat down in a small armchair in the lobby as he tried to get his thoughts together. Too much was happening all at one time and he needed a minute to think it through before he went up to his room to face Keisha again.
Mase was tryin’ to kill me? he thought to himself. Why would Mase—my brother…why would my brother try to kill me?
No matter how much he tried to create a reasonable explanation for that, it wouldn’t fit. He and Mase didn’t have the best relationship but they had love, if nothing else. Or so he thought. They’d never been close but that was Mase’s fault. No matter how much Trigga had tried to reach out to him, he would reject it. On top of that, they were polar opposites. Mase wanted to do nothing but party, drink and chase pussy while Trigga was more focused on bigger goals. He worked hard to stack his bread because he didn’t want to be doing this shit all his life. At some point he wanted a wife, kids, a dog…normal shit.
“Young people are so damn disrespectful!” an older man barked in the middle of the lobby, interrupting his thoughts.
Trigga looked up and followed the man’s stare to the hotel lobby doors. When he did, he saw a woman running out the doors. A woman who looked an awful lot like Keisha. Trigga jumped up from his seat by the elevators and took off running towards the door. The older man turned towards him when he heard the heavy sound of his footsteps approaching and Trigga knocked right into him.
“Hey!” the man yelled out. He staggered backwards right into a chair which made his knees buckle. Waving his hands in the air as if he were drowning on the deep end of the pool, he flopped into the seat and then scowled at Trigga as he continued moving.
Trigga didn’t bother to say anything. His focus was on the door wh
ere he’d seen Keisha run through. She was trying to leave and he couldn’t let her do that just yet. He had too many questions that he needed answered.
***
“Damn, Tish, please hurry,” Keisha mumbled to herself as she ducked off on the side of the building. She was standing in what looked like an alley under a flickering lamp while she batted gnats away from her face.
The streets were dimly lit by the streetlights but the one that hovered over the area she stood was just barely shining its light and cast a long, dark shadow over her. It was both a blessing and a curse; she could barely be seen from her position in the alley but if someone tried to bother her, she wouldn’t be able to wave for help.
Keisha jumped when her cellphone chimed. It was a text from Tish.
Pulling up now.
OK, Keisha texted back. I’m around the corner from the bldg. In the alley.
Keisha waited about two seconds and then she saw Tish’s hunter green Camry pull into the alley. Her heart leaped in her chest and she ran to meet her. Her heel fell into a rocky hole in the asphalt, but she recovered quickly and headed to the passenger side with only a mild twinge of pain radiating through her ankle.
“Keisha! Where the fuck you goin’?”
Keisha froze at the sound of Trigga’s voice. She turned slowly towards where she had heard his voice and focused in on his face. He didn’t look angry at all; only confused. Seeing that she had halted in her escape, he ran over to where she was and stood right in front of her face.
“Where are you goin’?” he asked again with a deep frown on his face. His grey eyes seemed almost black as he glared at her. “You leavin’?”
“I’m goin’ home! I don’t want nothin’ more to do with this bullshit!”
“Bullshit?” Trigga looked at her incredulously. “You just told me that my brother tried to kill you! To kill me! You just told me that and now you tryin’ to run your ass up outta here and you think that shit is okay?”
“Ever since the day I met you, I been pulled up in your shit! I’m tired of it! I don’t want to have to fight for my life or be involved in some shit that don’t have nothin’ to do wit’ me!”
Keisha could feel the hot tears streaming down her face as she spoke. She was tired, frustrated and scared. She wanted to get to know Trigga…she was intrigued by him but they could never be. He was a bad boy and no matter how much that fascinated her about him, she wasn’t cut out for that life any longer. She wanted to go to college and be a normal college student. She wanted to live her life.
“That day at the club wasn’t the first time you met me,” Trigga said to her slowly.
Keisha frowned at him and used her hand to rub the tears from her face. Trigga’s expression changed suddenly and went totally blank. She couldn’t read him. Before she could say anything, he continued.
“The first time I saw you, Keesh, you were high as fuck. You were standin’ between some buildings wearing a fuckin’ pair of mismatched shoes, lookin’ like a damn junkie. I don’t know if you had got hold to some really good shit or some really bad shit, but either way your ass was gone. I tried to help you and you kicked the shit out of me until you passed out. I looked in your purse and found a keycard and piece of paper with your hotel room number on it, took you back to your room.” Trigga stopped there and watched Keisha’s face as understanding slowly seeped in.
“It was you?” she reached into the top part of her dress and pulled out a small wrinkled up piece of paper from her bra. Unfolding it, she held it up for him to see. “You wrote this note?”
Trigga squinted at it as he tried to decipher the smudged words on the paper. Then he nodded his head slowly.
“Yeah, I left you that. I wanted you to get yourself together.”
“So all this time…all this time you’ve been keeping that from me! You knew and didn’t mention it?”
Keisha started to get angry but it was more so from her embarrassment at knowing that Trigga had been the man who’d found her when she was at her all-time worse. He was the one who had pity on her. He was her savior but just thinking of how she must have looked and acted that day mortified her.
“Whoa, hol‘ up…I didn’t know who you were until you started flippin’ out on me again in the room. You don’t look the same as you did that night. Excuse my words, but you looked like shit. Plus, your hair was longer,” he added. “Being clean did some wonders for your ass because I could tell you was cute and all but I had no idea you could turn into all this.” Trigga looked pointedly at her to stress his words.
“Oh…” was all Kiesha could utter. She had no other words to say. This night had revealed so much to her that she felt like her brain would overload on the information. “Well, I still want to go home.”
Trigga looked down and didn’t say anything for a moment. Then he nodded his head. “Okay. You can go.”
Keisha took one last look at him and then opened up the passenger door. Trigga grabbed the handle from her fingers and pulled it open for her as she got inside. Once she was in the car, he closed it firmly behind her and walked away. Keisha watched him through the side door mirror as he trekked back to the hotel. Then, feeling as if someone was staring a hole through the side of her head, she turned towards Tish.
“Bitch, you got some explain’ to do,” Tish muttered as she gazed at Keisha through sleepy eyes. “Y’all muthafuckas done dragged me out the bed then had a lover’s spat in the middle of the damn street. This shit better than the damn movies.”
Keisha shook her head and laid her head against the window as they drove off.
TWO
“Keesh…um, I think you gonna wanna see this.”
Keisha groaned and rolled over in her bed at the sound of Tish’s voice. It was the next morning and she could tell by the sunlight seeping through her blinds that she’d definitely overslept and was late for class. But she didn’t intend on going anyways after the night she’d had so it didn’t matter much. It was a good thing that she had made a friend who she shared three classes with and could get the assignments from.
“What, Tish?” Keisha asked, pulling a pillow over her head.
“Get your ass up and come see!”
Keisha groaned once more and pushed the pillow off her head before sitting up in the bed. After blinking a few times to focus her eyes, she saw that Tish was standing in her room with her head to the blinds as she peeked out the window. Instantly, Keisha was jarred awake as the feeling of alarm took over her body.
“What is it?” Keisha asked in a hushed whisper. She pushed the covers off and crawled to the foot of the bed where Tish was. She turned towards the blinds, opened them a small amount and peeked out.
There, sitting right in front of her apartment, was an all-black Porsche SUV. Trigga was there.
“What the hell is he doin’ here?” Keisha asked as she snatched away from the window.
Tish ran a hand through her hair as she pulled away and turned to Keisha. Then she sighed.
“I guess he’s lookin’ out for you. He’s been there all night, I think, because he’s in Gladys’ parking space and she gets in ‘round 2 a.m. but you see she had to park over on that side. I know she’s mad as hell.”
Keisha turned on her heels and grabbed a robe from the hook on her door and wrapped it over her body. She walked into the kitchen, poured some coffee into a mug and grabbed some creamer out of the refrigerator then poured some into the mug. As she stirred the hot liquid, Tish gawked at her.
“A nigga stalking this bitch and she tryin’ to get her caffeine fix. I done seent it all!” Tish exclaimed with sarcasm.
“I’m makin’ him some coffee before I go out to talk to him,” Keisha informed her and rolled her eyes as Tish scoffed. She placed some toast in the toaster and then turned around to look at Tish.
“About what? This nigga is caught up in a lot of shit! His own brother was in on that ambush…what the hell you got to talk to him about?”
Sighing, Keisha grabbed an egg ou
t of the refrigerator, cracked it on the counter and watched it as the inside spilled out slowly onto the heated frying pan she’d placed on the stove. The egg started to fry, she grabbed a spatula and poked at it.
“I need to know how he’s going to handle it,” Keisha answered. “Based on that, I’ll make my plan on whether I can stay here or if I need to move. Even then, I don’t know where the fuck I’ll go. I don’t have anyone.”
“Heffa—”
“EXCEPT you,” Keisha corrected herself. “I have no one but you.”
She grabbed the toast out and started to place butter and jam on top of the lightly toasted bread. Then she scrambled the eggs and placed light seasoning on them. After thinking for a second, she decided to sprinkle some cheese on top.
“What about tellin’ the cops?” Tish asked as she watched her.
Keisha shook her head and placed the toast on a plate. “I don’t trust them. At the hospital, when I didn’t speak up about what they wanted, they started lookin’ at me like I had parts in that shootin’ shit. Plus, snitchin’ on everyone would put me in a worse position. And it would implicate Trigga.”
“Yeah, but you barely know that nigga. Maybe his ass needs to be implicated,” Tish said giving her a shrug. Keisha looked out through the thin curtain on the kitchen window and focused in on Trigga’s ride. The windows were tinted but she knew he was in there.
“No,” was all she said. “He doesn’t.”
***
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Trigga jumped suddenly at the sound of the knocking on his window. He couldn’t even remember falling asleep. Glancing at the clock on the dash, he checked the time before looking out the window. It was Keisha and she was holding a plate of food and a coffee mug.
“Hmph,” Trigga laughed a little to himself as he looked at her. It was early but she still was beautiful. Chicks was always talking about “I woke up like dis” and knew damn well they woke up looking like a swamp creature from the depths of The Everglades. But Keisha actually did wake up flawless.
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