California Connection 3

by Chunichi

Genres: Urban Fantasy

Synopsis

Jewel climbed up the heap to become queen of the streets, diva of all divas. But now that she's expecting a baby, she's concerned about just one thing—giving her child a good life, away from the guns, the drugs, and the lies. However, that also means a life away from the glitz and glam that Jewel still craves, and she's not quite ready to give it all up ... not until she's back on top. Flat broke and miles away from her fugitive baby daddy, Jewel will have to put every bit of her street savvy, as well as her sharp business skills, into action to gain back her place and her power.

Release date: December 1, 2011

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 208

Sample

“Baby, how much longer before you get here?” I asked Touch in my sweetest voice.

“About fifteen minutes,” he replied then hung up.

There was a lump in my throat as big as a rock hanging up the phone. I swallowed in an attempt to get it down. With my head hung low, I gently rubbed my stomach and thought about my unborn child.

“Take your positions, guys. He’ll be here shortly!” the head detective instructed his guys to man their posts to prepare for Touch’s arrival.

“Please forgive Mommy, baby,” I whispered toward my protruding stomach. “I just want the best for you.”

My palms started to sweat, my heart was racing, and tears rolled down my eyes. Seconds seemed like minutes, and minutes seemed like hours, as I waited for Touch to come home. I knew as soon as he walked through the door they would sweep him away and I would never see him again. My child would be without a father, and I would lose the love of my life. But I also knew with life comes sacrifices, and this was just a sacrifice I had to make. It was either him or me, and there was no way I was gonna give birth to my child in jail.

“You sure you got this?” the police officer asked me as he escorted me from my bedroom to the living room.

“Yes, officer!” I rolled my eyes, sick of the officers constantly checking to make sure I was down for this.

“You just stay hidden in the bedroom−”

“Oh my God!” I yelled, interrupting the officer mid-sentence. “We’ve been over this too many times.” He’d gone over the instructions time and time again. I had it already!

“Just want to make sure you’re not having any second thoughts or planning to try anything tricky. If this goes wrong, it’s your head, little lady.”

Save your threats, asshole; they don’t scare me, I thought. I definitely wasn’t having second thoughts. At this point it was all about my baby. The only thing I had to worry about was getting the fuck out of dodge when this was all over with because I knew, once Touch realized I was the bitch who got this show in motion, all hell would break loose.

“He’s here,” I heard another police officer announce from the hallway.

I looked out the window to see Touch cautiously walking up to the house. Now I was having second thoughts. The fifteen minutes came sooner than I expected.

The officer quickly whisked me into the bedroom. My nerves were building, and it took all I had to refrain from bursting into tears.

“Honey, I’m home,” Touched yelled as he opened the front door, a huge smile across his face.

Within seconds cops came out from every closet, corner, and room in my house, commands coming from every direction as they rushed Touch with weapons pulled.

“Don’t move!

“Freeze!”

“Hands in the air!”

Touch was surrounded. Taken by surprise, and with no chance to run and nowhere to escape, he stood frozen. Despite all the warning the cops gave me, I couldn’t resist looking out into the living room. All eyes were on him, but his eyes were only fixated on me. There was a cold look in his eyes. A look I’d never seen before. I could imagine it was a look of disgust, hurt, anger, and betrayal. Maybe that’s why I’d never seen this look before because I’d never done such a thing to him to warrant such emotions.

Touch yelled out, “How the fuck could you do this to me? After all we’ve been through, Jewel! You bitch!”

I felt ashamed that I had set him up. I had to keep telling myself it was for my own good, the good of my unborn baby.

With my cover blown, the officers didn’t try and stop me when I walked out of the bedroom. They moved him to the kitchen, and I watched as Touch placed his hands on the counter and the officers patted him down. For a second, I thought I saw a tear in his eyes. Unable to bear the pain, I turned away.

“Answer me!” Touch demanded. “Answer me!”

I refused to give him any explanation. Besides, I knew it would only anger him even more.

“It’s over, Touch. Say good-bye,” one of the officers said.

Suddenly, in one cat-like movement, Touch reached in the kitchen drawer, pulled out a small handgun, and Pow!

An enormous force slammed into me, and I fell to my feet as a stinging pain ripped through my stomach. I looked down to see my white shirt soaked with bright red blood.

“Oh my God!” I screamed out in a panic. “He shot me! He shot me!”

My body jolted, and I shot straight up. I was panting and sweating. I was confused as I looked around the quiet room. Where is the police? Where is Touch?

I rubbed my eyes and gathered myself. It was then I realized I was still in bed. I’d been dreaming. I breathed a huge sigh of relief as I gathered myself. Whew! Why was I having this dream? The vividness of it scared the shit out of me. What did it mean?

The minute I heard I was wanted for conspiracy I disappeared. I didn’t even bother telling Jewel I was getting ghost, I just vanished. Well, not really vanished. I went and holed up at my other girl, Lisa’s house. We never went out together, and I never told any of my boys about her. She was my side bitch, and as long as I kept her lifestyle funded, she never complained.

It had been weeks since my disappearance, and I was really starting to miss Jewel. Not a day went by that I didn’t think of her and my unborn child. I’d spent days wondering if it was a boy or a girl, and who it would look like, if it would look like my other kids, me, or Jewel.

I was excited about having a kid with Jewel because I knew I would always have access to it. Unlike with my other kids. Their mother was a bitch who never let me see my babies, and it hurt. I wanted the best for all my babies, but this new one was going to get spoiled. I already knew that.

I wondered if Jewel was eating right. I was hoping she was seeing the doctor and taking care of herself. Sometimes I even wondered if the stress of all the bullshit would cause her to have a miscarriage.

Life was truly fucked up, and I had no idea I’d be so miserable without Jewel and my unborn child. Being on the run was for the fucking birds!

When I’d unexpectedly caught conspiracy charges, Lisa was my only hope. I had no place else to hole up. I damn sure wasn’t about to go to one of my boys’ houses. Those loose-lipped niggas would have told someone where I was laying my head. And a hotel was out of the question because I wasn’t about to pay some crazy amount of money to get caught on video surveillance cameras. So I had been laying low at Lisa’s crib until I could figure out my next move.

“Have you seen my Ben and Jerry’s mint chocolate chip ice cream?” Lisa asked me, a look of disgust on her face.

Lisa had just come home from work. She hadn’t been in the house five damn minutes, and she was already tripping. Lisa was cool with being my side chick, but lately she was really starting to annoy a nigga. I don’t know what her problem was, but it seemed that since my money had run low, her attitude was all out of whack. I guess my pops was right when he warned me, “Women think you ain’t shit when your paper ain’t right. But as long as you got money, they respect you.”

“Yeah, I ate it a couple of hours ago,” I responded, trying my best to keep my focus on ESPN.

“Well, can you go run to the store and pick me up some more? I’ve had a long day at work, and I was really looking forward to coming home and eating my ice cream,” she expressed with some attitude.

This bitch must be on dope. Is she forgetting I am wanted? I looked at Lisa like she was a damn fool. I didn’t know if it was that time of the month for her or what, but she was really on some shit lately.

I rarely went out the house, and if I did go out, I was dressed in all black, with dark shades, and a fucking rastaman hat with fake dreads. I wasn’t about to go through all that for some ice cream! I wanted to cuss Lisa’s ass out for talking stupid, but I stayed calm in an attempt to keep the peace. I needed her crib to stay and only had about two hundred dollars to my name.

I tried to smooth things over. “When my paper gets right, I will pick up anything you want, baby girl.”

Lisa snapped at me, “Go do something! Get a job! Because I’m tired of you laying around here.”

I already had enough on my plate, so dealing with a nagging woman every day wasn’t something I needed. Waiting for the perfect time to make a move wasn’t easy. It took patience and planning, because one wrong move could easily get a nigga locked up. I was miserable not being able to move around the way I used to.

With the word on the street that I was wanted, nobody was willing to fuck with me on no business shit. I had no connects. I knew in a time like this I needed to be with Jewel. She was a true rider. She would have found a way to make shit right. Lisa, on the other hand, was selfish as hell and stingy with her money and her pussy.

“You know damn well I can’t go get no fuckin’ job! So, for once, will you just shut the fuck up with your smart-ass comments? I’m trying to watch the game.” I turned the volume up on the TV.

“Nigga, please! I pay the cable bill in this house.” Lisa grabbed the remote out of my hand and turned the TV off. “If I have something to say, you damn sure are going to listen.” She then threw the remote back at me.

That was the last straw. This bitch had been riding my ass for the past week. I couldn’t take it anymore. That move sent me into a rage. I grabbed Lisa by the neck and slammed her on the couch. I’d lost it for a minute. It wasn’t until I noticed blood all over her face that I snapped back to reality.

When it was all said and done, I’d choked her and punched her in the face, giving her a bloody nose. Realizing I’d truly fucked up, I quickly let her go. I just couldn’t control my rage sometimes. I had one domestic abuse case on my hands, and I sure as shit wasn’t looking for another.

“You done fucked up, muthafucka,” Lisa screamed and ran to the kitchen. She grabbed a knife and started after me.

I picked up Lisa’s car keys and ran for the garage. My time with her was up. Time to find a new place to crash.

“Get the hell out of my house! And if you take my car, your ass is going to jail,” she shouted as I rushed into the garage and jumped in her car.

I knew what she was saying was probably true, but at the time, I was all out of options. I pressed the garage opener and threw the car in reverse.

Lisa banged on the hood of the car as I was backing out the driveway.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

“Your ass is going to jail!” she shouted. “Stupid-ass nigga!”

I put the car in drive and sped off, leaving her standing in the middle of the street. I looked in my rearview mirror and saw her on her cell phone. I already knew what that meant. That bitch was calling the police. I needed to get rid of her car fast.

I had no idea where to go. I didn’t want to involve Jewel in anymore of my bullshit, so her crib was off limits. It seemed my only hope was Lexi, my baby mother. She and I had ended on a real fucked-up note—with a domestic abuse rap. In fact, I couldn’t stand the bitch, but I had no other choice, so I headed her way.

After twenty minutes of cruising down the highway, constantly looking over my shoulder and making sure to abide by the speed limit, I was at my baby mother’s exit. Two more minutes and I would be at her crib. I couldn’t believe I had made it all the way here.

I was hoping Lexi would let me in. My plan was to drop the car a few blocks away and walk the rest of the distance to her house. That didn’t happen because, as soon as I exited the ramp, blue lights were flashing from every direction.

“Muthafucka!” I yelled to no one in particular.

I wondered how the fuck they had found me. No use trying to figure that shit out now. I needed to figure a way out. My first instinct was to jump out the car and run, but my out-of-shape ass wouldn’t have made it one block, so I pulled over. My plan was to talk my way out of this predicament.

The cop came to the window and asked for my driver’s license and registration. I grabbed the registration from the glove box then began to search for my ID. Damn! I realized I had no identification. I had purposely stopped carrying it on me since I was wanted. I had planned on getting me a fake ID but kept putting it off. Now I was really fucked up.

It didn’t take long for the cop to slam me against the car and arrest me for driving a stolen vehicle, and assault and battery. This is some real bullshit, I thought as I was being hauled off to the city jail.

I’d only been in jail a week, but it seemed like a month. I knew once I got processed and they realized I had those conspiracy charges, there would be no bond in my future. Because of jail overcrowding I sat in a holdin. . .