by A'zayler
“Well, I would come, but you already know how I feel about this shit.”
“Nah, you don’t need to be there anyway. I appreciate it though.”
“I think I’mma put in for an early retirement tomorrow. This company doesn't care about you for real.”
Demoto laughed for the first time in days. “Yeah, you should, because they don’t.”
“This shit got me so fucked up. Like who the fuck do these people think they are?”
“Some rich muthafuckas with nothing else to do with their money, so they use it to dictate the lives of others.”
Jacko and Demoto sat in his office talking about Double O and all of its leaders for another hour before Jacko left. He hugged Demoto, told him he loved him, and that he respected his decision before leaving. He didn’t want to be anywhere near Double O at the moment, and definitely not when six o’clock hit.
Across town, Taryn had just picked Ayo up from daycare when her phone rang. She strapped Ayo in and got into the car before grabbing her phone from her purse. It was a missed call from Kia. She was about to call her back, but her phone was already ringing again.
“What’s up, girl?” Taryn asked, as soon as her phone picked up on Bluetooth.
“Girl, you need to get to Double O right now. Deon just called me crying, talking about my daddy was fussing and crying and shit about Demoto getting himself killed.” Kia’s voice was a mix of fear and tears.
“What?” Taryn screamed. “What does he mean getting himself killed?” Taryn sped out of the parking lot in route to Double O.
“I don’t know. I keep calling Jacko, but he’s not answering.”
“Okay, I’m on my way there.” Taryn didn’t even bother to hang up the phone, she just drove.
She could tell something had been wrong with him that morning before she left the house, but she figured it was just because her contract expired tomorrow. As careless as it may sound, she hadn’t been worried about it anymore because she figured he would handle it like he always did. There hadn’t been one problem that had risen in her life that he hadn’t handled, and she figured this would be the same.
When she finally got to Double O it was five forty-five. She grabbed Ayo from his seat and ran in the building as fast as she could with her belly in the way. She didn’t even bother to stop at the desk, she ran straight for the elevator. People who knew her gave her weird looks as she ran, but she couldn’t worry about that right then.
The door to his office was closed when she finally got there, so she checked every other door on his floor and they were all locked. Taryn felt like she was slowly losing her mind as she turned in a complete circle in the empty hallway. When she couldn’t think of nothing else to do, she called Buck. He didn’t answer, so she called Jacko.
“Pretty-Lee, what’s good?” His voice sounded a bit muffled.
“Where’s Demoto? I’m at Double O but I can’t find him. Why isn’t anybody at work? Kia said he was getting himself killed. What’s going on Jacko?” Taryn screamed, frantically.
He was quiet, and she thought he wouldn’t answer, but he did. “He’s just doing what he has to do, Taryn.”
“No, Jack! I don’t want to hear that shit. Where is he?”
“Just meet me at your house and I’ll tell you everything.”
“Nooooo! No! No! No! Tell me where he is right fucking now.” Taryn screamed.
Ayo jumped every time she yelled.
“The basement.” Jacko sighed.
Taryn took off running with Ayo still in her arms. She was barely making it, but she got to the elevator. When it took too long to come, she decided to take the stairs. There were six flights she had to get down. She stumbled a few times and almost dropped Ayo, but she finally made it. Being that there was only one room in the basement, she knew exactly where to go. The large digital clock hanging on the wall let her know it was five fifty-seven as she passed.
“Oww Mommy,” Ayo said, as he began falling again.
Taryn fixed him back on her hip and kept moving. The long, cold hallway seemed like it stretched for miles, but she had to push through. Whatever Demoto was doing, she needed to stop him.
“Ah shit!” Taryn screamed as she nearly slipped on a puddle of water on the floor.
When she looked down, she noticed her legs were wet as well. Out of all the time in the world, her water chose to break right then.
“Hold your horses, little girl. We have to get your daddy first.” Taryn kept running with Ayo.
He was sliding down, but she could see the door. When she finally reached it and stepped inside it was as if time had stopped. Demoto was on his knees in the middle of the floor with his head down. There were three other people in the room as well. Two she didn’t recognize, and the other was Bradley. He was seated in the corner. His face was red and wet with tears. He jumped to his feet when he looked up and saw Taryn.
“You can’t be in here, Taryn.”
Demoto’s head snapped up and turned in her direction. “Taryn, get out!” He yelled with more force than she’d ever heard. He never spoke to her like that, but clearly right now was different.
“No!” she yelled back at him.
“Papa.” Ayo reached for Demoto.
When Taryn wouldn’t let him go to Demoto, he began to kick and scream. She was having a hard time holding him because he was moving so much, but she managed to get him back upright on her hip.
“Taryn.” Her name was a breathless plea on his lips. “Please, just leave. Go home and take care of our kids, baby.”
“Mr. Youngblood, it’s time.”
Demoto looked at Taryn and held his head down. He didn’t want her to see this, but she wouldn’t leave.
“Taryn, get out! Get out!” He yelled from the floor. Tears were now running down his face. “I don’t want Ayo to see this. You have to go.”
Taryn ran toward him and fell down on the ground next to him. As soon as she was next to him, Ayo grabbed onto his neck and wouldn’t let go. It was almost as if he knew something was wrong. Taryn tried to pull him away, as did Demoto, but he wasn’t budging. Every time they would remove his hands from one thing, he grabbed something else.
“Demoto, get up. Please, please, please don’t do this.”
He leaned his head toward Taryn’s. “It’s the only way, baby girl. It’s the only way.” He kissed the side of her wet face.
She had been crying just as long as Ayo had been.
“Mr. Youngblood,” one of the men spoke.
“Give him some fucking time. Don’t you see his family is here?” Bradley yelled in frustration.
The pain in his voice only wounded Taryn more. She grabbed Demoto’s shirt and kissed all over his face. “Baby, please.”
“Taryn, don’t do this.”
“You don’t fucking do this Demoto! You don’t do it. We need you, baby. My water just broke. You have to see Azmera,” Taryn said whatever she could to get him to change his mind. “Don’t you want to see her?”
“I do, baby, but I can’t. I just can’t, Taryn.” He pushed her hair out of her face. “You remember when I told you that I would give my life for you?”
Taryn nodded.
“Well the time has come for me to do that.”
Taryn shook her head wildly. “No. You can’t.”
“Mr. Youngblood.” The man’s voice interrupted them again.
“Just fucking kill us!” Taryn yelled. “Kill all four of us. I’m not getting up, and I’m not leaving my husband here to die alone. No!” Taryn yelled.
She had given all she had and Demoto hadn’t moved. The same way that he said he would give his life for her, she would do the same for him. There was no life for her without him. He was her life and had been since the first day she met him. If she was going to die one day anyway, she’d rather it be with him. Taryn looked Demoto in his eyes so he could see just how serious she was. They would die, there, together, as a family.
“Taryn, please get up.”
> “No. We’re staying with you.” She held onto half of Ayo’s body, being that he was still holding on to Demoto’s neck, and bowed her head.
Defeated, Demoto grabbed her hand and squeezed it in his. Taryn looked at him and Ayo one last time before closing her eyes. “I love y’all.”
“I love you, too.” Demoto said to her.
She was a rider. She was down to ride with Demoto until the end, no matter what. As she kneeled in the middle of the floor with her head down waiting to be killed, the only thing that circulated in her mind was maybe real riders really didn’t die.
Epilogue
“Jacko, get her before she falls,” Kia screamed as Alice stood on the sofa with her arms in the air.
He was seated on the floor in front of the sofa, so he reached behind him and grabbed her. She laughed and squealed with joy as he tickled her little stomach.
“She’s ticklish.” Izzy smiled at Alice.
“You used to be the same way,” Kerry told her.
They were all sitting in Kia and Jacko’s living room watching TV. They had been to church and now they were just waiting for the food to get done. Kerry and Izzy had been going to church faithfully every Sunday since she’d been released from rehab. So when she asked Jacko would he, Kia, and baby Alice to come to her baptism, they readily agreed. It felt good to see her getting her life on track.
“What time is y’all mama and daddy getting here?” Kerry teased them.
Buck and Deon being together had been the biggest joke for the last couple of months. Kia nor Jacko found any of it to be funny, but everyone else did.
“My daddy just text me and said they’re outside.” Kia scooted off the sofa the best she could.
“Let me help you, big mama.” Jacko pulled her the rest of the way.
“Get your hands off of me.” Kia smacked his hands away.
She was almost nine months pregnant with their second child. They would be welcoming a son in another few weeks, making Jackson Jr. and Alice only eighteen months apart. They hadn’t wasted any time after Alice was born. Jacko slapped her butt as she wobbled to the door. When she opened it, she screamed and covered her mouth.
“What are y’all doing here?”
Taryn and Demoto walked in with Azmera and Ayo in tow.
“We came to surprise Kerry, but our flight got in late.” Taryn grabbed Kia in a hug.
“Why y’all didn’t tell me y’all was coming?” Kia was still surprised.
She kissed Azmera, who was in Demoto’s arms, before giving him a hug. She didn’t get a chance to hug Ayo because he was already on the floor playing with Izzy.
“Bitch, is that baby making you go deaf? Didn’t I just say it was a surprise?” Taryn kissed Kerry who had just stood up to hug her.
“I’m just happy, that’s all.” Kia sat back down on the sofa.
“Well, be mad with your husband because I told that nigga.” Demoto pulled the gold bracelet on Azmera’s wrist out of her mouth.
Kia looked at Jacko.
“Surprise, baby.”
She threw a pillow at him just as the doorbell rang again. Everyone had already gotten settled in their seats, so they all looked around at each other to see who was going to get the door. When nobody moved, they all laughed.
“Come in,” Jacko yelled.
In walked Buck and Deon with Theresa behind them. Once everyone got their greetings out of the way, the women went into the kitchen while the men sat in the living room with the kids watching TV.
“So how’s Cameroon, Queen Taryn?” Deon smiled at her.
“It’s growing on me. I still miss Georgia, but we needed a break after everything happened. I’m just now getting my sanity back. I was having nightmares for months.”
“I don’t blame you. Hell, I don’t even see how you did it. I love Jacko and all, but I don’t know if I would have been ready to die with the nigga.”
They all laughed before Taryn started talking.
“You say that now because you aren’t in that position, but when I tell you I wasn’t even thinking, I wasn’t. All I cared about was being with Demoto.”
“In life or death, huh?” Theresa smirked.
“Yes, girl, life or death. I was so serious. Sometimes I wonder would they have killed all of us for real if Buck hadn’t burst in the room with that confirmed kill contract and insufficient payment statement.”
Kerry shook her head and touched Theresa’s arm. “Girl, God used you in a major way that day.”
“I’m just glad I was able to get it done in time. I was sweating bullets running through the airport trying to get back here.”
Deon smiled at her. “Well, you did good, baby.”
“Thank you. Now I have the cutest, chocolate god-baby as a reward.” Theresa smiled at Taryn.
Azmera was the cutest little baby. She was chocolate just like Taryn, with a head full of jet black hair. It was silky and had grown so long so fast, she mostly wore it in a large curly fro. She had such silky hair they actually had to be going somewhere for Taryn to comb it. Other than that, there was no point because her bows would slide right off.
“Girl, you saved our lives that day. I thought twice about naming her little butt after you instead of my mama.”
When the laughter subsided again, Taryn looked up and saw Demoto at the door. He nodded his head at her and she got up. After telling them she would be right back, she followed him out of the kitchen. He didn’t say anything as they walked to the back of the house. When they got in Kia and Jacko’s room he closed the door. Taryn was about to say something, but was cut off when he grabbed her and kissed her.
He stuck his tongue so deep in her mouth she was sure he was trying to touch her tonsils. His hands held on tightly to her neck as he transferred all the passion and love he had for her through his lips to hers. When he finally let her go, she smiled.
“What was that for?”
“Because I love you. I love you more than anything.”
“Being home makes you emotional, doesn’t it?”
He smiled and nodded.
“I know. It makes me the same way.”
“You want to move back?” he asked.
“Maybe in a few months. I still need some time,” Taryn admitted.
She and Demoto had moved to Cameroon and took their royal places after that day at Double O. He, Jacko, and Buck had all quit and moved on to different things. After seeing just how little regard they had for the lives of their employees, neither of them had the desire to be associated with something like that. Jacko now did the budget for the army. Mr. Buck said he was too old to find another job, so he spends his time with his grandkids.
Demoto stared at her face for a long time before his eyes got misty. He wiped them quick, but Taryn still saw it.
“I can’t believe you was about to die with a nigga.”
“Kill your kids and all. We a family, ride together, die together.”
“Bad boys for life.” Demoto laughed as he finished the quote they’d stolen from Will Smith and Martin Lawrence on the Bad Boyz movie.
“You silly, man.” Taryn kissed his cheek.
“Real Riders Never Die, huh?” Demoto asked, as he opened the door so they could leave.
Taryn wrapped her arm around his stomach. “Well they probably do, just not right now.”
“Well what do they do right now?”
Taryn looked at all of her family and friends sitting around the living room. “They live happily ever after.”
The End!
Join our mailing list to get a notification when Leo Sullivan Presents has another release!
Text LEOSULLIVAN to 22828 to join!
To submit a manuscript for our review, email us at [email protected]
On Sale Now From Leo Sullivan Presents
Order Your Copy Today!
Love is a strong drug, and Khalil Bradford is battling demons that not even his best friend can help him fight...
In What
The Heart Wants: An Urban Love Story, Journey returns to her hometown of Detroit where she rejoins forces with her best friend, Khalil, as if they never separated.
Journey’s focused on perfecting her craft in hopes to one day become the next big thing in the fashion world. Khalil doesn’t have much to look forward to in life, the only good thing in his world is her. He becomes her number one cheerleader and supporter. But as beautiful as she is and as much as she wants him, Khalil remains oblivious to her advances. So, with Journey feeling rejected she runs back into the open arms of her grimy boyfriend.
Hustling is all Khalil knew, and the streets were the only place he felt superior. Due to the stress that comes along with being a boss, and loneliness, he turns to prescription drugs to numb the pain. Khalil is so lost that he begins to spiral out of control and is unaware that his team is plotting against him.
Will Khalil’s habits lead to his demise? Does Journey find solace with her ex? Will she leave Detroit chasing after dreams and leave Khalil behind? What The Heart Wants is an urban love story that is guaranteed to leave you captivated and mesmerized after turning every page.
Get Your Copy Today!
“You know it’s to the death, I hope it's obvious to ni**as…”
Aiden’s sickness has opened a window of opportunity for some ugly truths to be revealed. With both sides of his surviving family forced to give blood to save him, those truths threaten the bonds of everyone involved. Can those secrets be forgiven or overlooked? Or will they be enough to break the bonds and relationships of those involved.
Can Kee continue to fight for Ash like she’s always done, or is she finally tired of being sick and tired? She’s torn because giving up on Ash has a lot of consequences which she is not sure that she’s ready to deal with. If she puts her foot down, is she capable of accepting all that she could possibly lose? Or will it prove to be too much for her?
Cris thinks that she has finally found the one, but unfortunately, his past has managed to threaten Cris’ happily ever after. This sets the stage for some major issues in both of their lives. Will Cris care enough to tough it out, or will she get fed up, move on, and let it go. Her heart is telling her to stay and fight, but her mind is begging her to walk away before she gets deeper into the web.