Life After a Balla (3 page)

In a strangled voice, he asked, “You gonna cum with me, baby?”

“Yes,” she whispered.

“I want to feel it on my dick.” Skye’s pussy muscles suddenly contracted. “Yeah baby, I feel it, cum for me,” Cruze said.

Her legs started to tremble as Skye’s orgasm approached. “Oh shit,” she said, breathing uncontrollably.

Cruze released a deep moan as he wrapped his hands around her waist and dug inside her harder and faster. Seconds later he released.

“I love you, Skye,” he whispered in her ear.

“I love you, too.”

****

Several hours later, Skye looked out the back window of the cab at the rows of beautiful palm trees while making her way toward the financial district in the heart of downtown. Being back in
The Magic City
Skye realized she truly missed portions of her old life. The only thing she didn’t miss was getting her ass beat by Sandino on a daily basis and dealing with all his hoe’s trying to disrespect her.

After arriving at Sandino’s lawyer’s office, Cruze decided not to join the meeting so Skye could have her space. Not to mention, he was afraid that he might hear something to set him off. Cruze knew Sandino well enough to know he would always try to control or have the upper hand on Skye whether he was alive, in the hospital or dead. He just hoped Skye was prepared, because without a doubt, Sandino always had a hidden agenda.

Cruze decided to go across the street to the Sports Bar he saw when they pulled up. As soon as he entered, he saw a crazy looking woman sitting at the bar staring at him like he was a piece of meat. He walked to the opposite side hoping that she caught the hint that he didn’t want to be bothered. He sat down and told the bartender he wanted a Hennessey and Coke. The bartender nodded his head and reached under the bar pulling out a tiny glass. The woman obviously didn’t catch the hint as she headed over and sat beside him.

“Damn, you’re the best thing I’ve seen all day. I need to take you home,” she said with a huge smile.

It never seized to amaze Cruze just how forward the Miami women could be. He didn’t respond but was glad when the bartender came over with his drink.

“That’ll be ten dollars,” the bartender said.

Damn, for that little ass drink
, Cruze thought as he reached inside his pocket and pulled out the money.

“Cat got your tongue good looking,” the woman said, attempting to reach over and grab one of his dreads.

Cruze caught her hand and pushed it away.

“I’m not interested,” he told her and smoothly slid off the bar stool leaving her sitting there.

“Well, fuck you then. Your ass must be gay or one of those down low brothers,” she stated loudly.

“I think you’ve had enough to drink,” the bartender said to her.

“Mannnn, fuck you, too,” the woman spat, getting up from the bar. She took two steps and fell flat on her face causing the dingy red dress she was wearing to fly up above her waist.

Cruze turned his head when he realized she didn’t have any panties on. He couldn’t help but laugh at the woman as she got up and staggered out the door a few seconds later.

“You probably shoulda called her a cab,” Cruze told the bartender.

“She lives two blocks away, so she’ll be alright. I deal with her ass almost every night.”

Cruze shook his head and ordered several more drinks. While sipping, he sat thinking about how he sometimes felt bad about betraying his once best friend by shooting him and falling in love with his wife. But then again, he would always think back to how Sandino started treating all the people who really loved him. Sandino seemed to forget that Cruze was the one in the streets making all the money back in the day and helped Sandino while he was in college. Once Sandino left home for school, Cruze made sure that he never had to go back to his dysfunctional home life, which included his drug addicted mother Peaches. Cruze took care of Sandino, buying him clothes and giving him money. They were like brothers. When Sandino got signed to the NFL, he promised Cruze that he would return the favor and take care of him, but the money, fame and drugs changed him. It always puzzled Cruze why Sandino didn’t appreciate what he had, a beautiful wife and three wonderful kids, and a best friend who would’ve had his back no matter what. Sandino even turned his back on Cruze when he got into some trouble and spent a short time in prison.

That nigga definitely got some fucked up ways, Cruze thought. He turned his back on me way too many times, but that’s okay though. I got something out of the deal that could never be replaced.

For the first time in his life, he was in love. No other woman could even make him cheat on Skye. In fact he’d cut all of them off. Skye completed him, so Cruze knew in his heart she was the one. He even wanted to marry her one day, which was why he constantly pushed the divorce issue. He also had plans of talking Skye into having his child since he didn’t have any kids. Cruze was in it for the long haul. However, he knew that there was one small issue. If Skye knew he was back in the streets she would be pissed. Cruze didn’t like keeping secrets from her, and even though he was doing this for them, for now, he had to make sure she didn’t find out he was involved in any illegal activities.

“I’m not gonna lose her like Sandino did,” he said to himself.

A few seconds later his attention was directed to one of the large flat screen televisions on the wall. It was an important news break about a bank robbery gone bad and the two suspects were shot dead by police. Cruze almost jumped out his seat when one of the suspects was Sandino’s boy, Black.

Damn, Black, what the hell you doing robbing banks? I guess not having Sandino and being strung out on that shit finally caught up to your ass
, Cruze thought taking his drink to the head.

Cruze was on his fourth drink when his phone rang, thinking it might be Skye telling him she was finished he glanced at his phone. Realizing it was the business call he’d been waiting on, he quickly answered.

“Yo, what up Duke?”

“What up, nigga,” Duke responded.

“I’m at the Bleu Moon Sports Bar downtown on Bayshore Drive. Can you be here in like twenty minutes? I know how you’re always late, nigga. I don’t have all day to wait.”

“Be easy, man. I’m on my way,” Duke said ending the call.

Now that he was back in the streets getting money, he didn’t like dealing with dudes in Georgia. He preferred to deal with the connect he’d met in Miami years ago. Not to mention, Miami had some of the best coke in the world.

Cruze tapped the huge bulge of money in his pocket that Skye and even TSA had managed not to catch onto.
I wonder how Skye is going to react when I tell her we have to drive back to Georgia instead of flying
.

CHAPTER 3

Skye sat for what seemed like thirty minutes twiddling her thumbs looking out of the huge glass window inside the conference room. She looked around admiring the décor. The huge black oval conference table had small marble specks that matched the high-back leather chairs. The trendy room had a calm and private ambience. Skye especially liked the well-crafted wooden floors. They added to the overall look and feel of the room. Looking at the sign on the wall that read,
Toni Vaughn and Associates
, Skye had heard the name often, and knew the top notch lawyer definitely came highly recommended in the Miami area.

Tired of flipping through the outdated magazines, her mind drifted to what the woman on the plane said to her. “God has a plan for you.”

As the statement replayed over and over in her mind, Skye wondered what the plan was. Moments later, a woman rushed into the conference room and threw her gold Louis Vuitton Alma bag on the table. When she walked over and apologized for being late, then introduced herself, Skye was totally shocked, to see that Toni Vaughn was actually a female. She expected to see some white stuck up lawyer wearing a boring grey suit come in carrying a worn down leather briefcase. Instead, she was exchanging a handshake with a well respected black female sports attorney who represented several NFL players. Toni was a beautiful woman, with a gorgeous mocha complexion, and long chocolate brown hair that was pulled back in a neat ponytail. Skye admired her well-fit Marc Jacobs pant suit and Sergio Rossi peep-toe pumps. Now, it made perfect sense why Sandino never bothered to introduce them. Skye couldn’t help but wonder if the two of them had ever fucked.

Knowing him, I’m sure they did
, she thought.

“It’s good to finally meet you, Ms. Vaughn,” Skye stated with a suspicious glare.

“Nice to finally meet you, too, Mrs. Washington. I can’t believe I’ve been representing Sandino all this time, and we’ve never met. Oh, by the way, call me Toni.”

“And you can call me, Skye. I no longer wanna go by Mrs. Washington.”

Toni gave Skye a questionable look. “Will do.”

The two immediately got better acquainted by Toni asking about Skye and the kids well-being. Once that small talk was out of the way, Toni then decided to ask Skye if she knew anything about Sandino’s condition. When Skye told her that she refused to look at the news or listen to anything dealing with his shooting, Toni decided it was time to bring her up to speed on Sandino’s prognosis. She looked at Skye funny, wondering why she didn’t know what was going on with her own husband.

“So, you don’t know anything? It’s been back and forth on the news since the day it happened,” Toni mentioned.

“Listen Toni, let me explain something to you. I went through a traumatic experience at the hands of that man. He abused me for years and I’d finally left him and moved away. He found us and came to my house with a gun trying to kill himself. Since that night, I’ve been having trouble sleeping and been taking medication all because of him. I didn’t want to know anything about his condition. I just wanted to move on with my life and try to get over the pain I endured all these years. But if you feel it’s necessary to discuss, go ahead,” Skye said.

“Well, let’s start at the beginning, I guess,” Toni said, sitting down. “I believe it’s still amazing to everybody how Sandino survived this type of gunshot wound. I still find it hard to believe that he came to your home threatening to kill himself. It seems so unlike him.”

Suddenly, Skye became a bit nervous, but tried to play it off. “Well, Toni I’m sure there’s a lot about my husband that you will never know. He wasn’t exactly the man everyone thought he was.”

Hearing the tone in Skye’s voice told Toni not to touch the obviously sensitive subject.

“From what I’ve been told the bullet passed through his head without crossing the midline of the brain, where the most critical injuries typically result. The penetration was nearly fatal, and he’s lucky. After finding out that your son was the one who called 911, he actually saved his life. If Sandino hadn’t gotten to the hospital just in time, he surely would’ve died.”

Skye sat listening to Toni thinking,
yeah…yeah…yeah, I already know all this shit. I had to keep up with his progress to make sure he wasn’t coming after me again or telling the police the truth. I know that after the doctor’s performed an emergency surgery to extract skull fragments and a small amount of tissue from his brain, and that part of his skull was removed to avoid further damage. Shit it’s because of that surgery that saved his sorry ass life. They should’a let ‘em die
.

After the surgery, Sandino was placed in a medically induced coma to allow his brain to rest. Surprisingly he ended up beating the odds by surviving several life threatening infections and later started making progress towards recovery. Four months later, he was transferred to one of the best rehabilitations centers in Miami.

Skye continued listening to Toni as if the information was all new to her.

“One of the first steps in Sandino’s rehabilitation is to help him try and regain the ability to take care of himself. Although he’s made some amazing progress, the brain injury did cause paralysis on the left side of his body and severe memory loss. The right side of his body doesn’t respond well either, so he’s taking occupational and physical therapy and he’s also working with a speech therapist.” Toni explained.

Skye was relieved to find out that Sandino had a lack of memory. “So, can he talk?”

Toni shook her head. “Not that well. He mostly mumbles things, but he can manage to say yes and no every once in a while.”

At that moment, Skye reached inside her purse deciding this was the perfect time to give Toni the divorce papers. When she slid them across the table, Toni looked at the papers then back at Skye.

“I think you might wanna hold off on this until you hear what I have to say,” Toni replied.

Suddenly, their conversation was interrupted by Toni’s assistant knocking on the door. “Excuse me Ms. Vaughn, I just wanted to remind you about your 2:00.”

Toni looked at her watch realizing she was running behind. “Okay, Erin thank you.”

“Alright Skye since we need to wrap things up, I’ll start off by telling you, I have some good news and some bad news to discuss. Which do you prefer to hear first?”

“I’ll start with the good news.”

Toni flipped through the papers and looked over at Skye. “Your husband has appointed you as his POA.”

Skye looked confused. “POA? What does that mean?”

“A Power of Attorney which is authorization to represent or act on your husband’s behalf in regards to handling his bank accounts, private affairs, business, healthcare, real estate etc, in the event that he should become disabled or legally incapacitated.”

“So, who is his Power of Attorney now?”

“For now I am, but of course that’s just temporary. Normally a spouse would automatically become a POA, but Sandino has a written and notarized document that says you couldn’t become his until you agreed to his terms.”

“He’s such a fucking asshole,” Skye vented. “How much money does he have left anyway?”

Toni looked down at the paperwork she’d recently got from Sandino’s accountant. “When you add up Sandino’s football pension and all the former endorsement money he had rolled into a separate account over the years, he’s still worth a whole lot of money. We’re talking about fifteen million.”