Crazy In Love

Book 1: Crazy in Love

by Yoshe

Genres: African American Urban; African American Women's Fiction; African American Romance

Synopsis

To some men, Corrections Officer Sean Daniels would be considered the luckiest guy in the world. He has two gorgeous ladies vying for his attention.

Corrections Officer Yadira Cruz is a feisty hot tamale with a history of failed relationships. After a bad breakup with her daughter’s father, she sets her sights on Sean. The sex is sizzling, but is Sean ready to give her the commitment she’s looking for?

Brandi Wallace is a single mom whose nineteen-year-old son, Shamari, is serving time at Rikers Island. On the outside, Brandi is poised, polished, and a knock-out! On the inside, she’s hiding a violent past. Sean feels a connection with Brandi, and the need to protect her.

Sean might think he’s having some harmless fun as he toys with their affections, but what he doesn’t know is that each of these women is playing for keeps, and neither one is willing to lose. When Yadira and Brandi learn that Sean’s been playing them both, a deadly game begins. The stakes are high, and Sean is the prize. In the fight for his heart, will these two kill each other, or will Sean become the next victim?

Release date: September 16, 2012

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 304

Sample

Correction Officer Sean Daniels scanned the visit area with the eye of a hawk. His job was to make sure that no smuggled goods of any kind were passed to an inmate from a visitor. He knew that he was unable to catch every time this was done, but as long as they knew better than to pass it in front of his face, then it was fine with him. Working in visits, he saw attractive female visitors everyday. He even, on occassion, goofed off with them in order to break the monotony of the tedious work he was paid handsomely to do. He also got offers from the women, who were attracted to his rugged good looks and, of course, his uniform.

He was single and available, with limitations, of course. He had to be careful, though, because he knew that he could have easily been swayed, which sometimes got him into trouble. He had caught himself checking out a few of the women who came to visit their inmate boyfriends. It was unauthorized for female visitors to wear revealing clothing but the women would dress in the skimpiest clothing they could get away with. Sean was a man first before he was a correction officer, and he loved the opposite sex. On the other hand, he didn’t take his profession with a grain of salt, because, after all, his paycheck did pay the bills.

As Sean walked around the visit floor, talking to various people and making sure that everything was going okay, he looked up at the female CO who was banging on the glass that encased the visit control room. Sean smiled and walked over to the window. The CO smiled back.

“Hey, Cruz,” he beamed. “You just got to work, didn’t you?”

She sighed. “Yeah, Devin was usin’ my car,” replied Cruz, referring to her boyfriend of seven years. “I will be so glad when he gets his truck out of the shop.”

Sean frowned. “What happened to it? I mean, damn, his truck has been in the shop for weeks now. He needs to go get it if using your car is makin’ you late for work.”

Cruz rolled her eyes. “I dunno, Daniels.” She quickly changed the subject. “Well, I just wanted to let you know that I was here, just in case you were lookin’ for me,” she said with a flirtatious smile.

Sean looked Cruz up and down. It was no secret that they were attracted to each other. “Oh, yeah? Well, you better stop flirtin’ with me, girl. You ain’t ready for Sean Daniels!”

Sean secretly fantasized about getting Yadira Cruz into his bedroom. He chuckled to himself as he imagined her long, wavy hair lying across her mocha-colored 34Ds, while he had his face submerged in her garden of love. Sean stood by the window for another moment and watched Cruz’s silhouette shuffle around the visit control room, even though it was dark inside. It was dark in the control room, thereby preventing the visitors and inmates from looking inside to see if someone was in there watching them. For the times that Sean may have his back turned and there were culprits who thought they were being slick, the control room staff would serve as a back up.

Yadira Cruz was the only daughter and the youngest of three children born to a Dominican father and an African-American mother. Sean thought that Yadira, or Yadi, as everyone called her, was drop-dead gorgeous. With her five feet five inch hourglass frame and her flawless cocoa complexion, she made heads turn, women and men. Her killer body and face had men wishing that her boyfriend, Devin, would drop off the face of the earth so that they could have a chance with her. Men never tried to pressure her, though; for fear that she would only push away. Therefore, they just settled for being a confidante or acquaintance, whatever it took to be near her.

There were many women jealous of Yadi, and upon meeting her, it wasn’t hard to understand why. Yadi seemed modest about her looks, as if she was no threat to any woman, and with her overt kindness, she seemed like a great person to have around. Unfortunately, her warm and inviting outer personality was only a diversion from her underlying problems. Yadi was a woman whose insecurities had her on the verge of obsessive behavior and it was almost uncontrollable, targeting the men with whom she was romantically involved. She painted a rosy picture, but once men got to know her, the rose petals quickly withered away.

Yadi walked into the small room and placed her lunch into the refrigerator in the back. She hugged her partner and her best friend, Vanita Garrett. Vanita was a patient and understanding woman, who reluctantly stood by as she watched Yadi go through her difficulties with Devin. Understandably, Vanita wanted her friend to be happy but she concluded that Yadi had to want what was best for her.

“Look at how Sean looks at you, Yadi,” Vanita announced, with a smirk on her face. “Looks like he wanna take a dip in the puddin’, girlfriend!”

Yadi laughed. “Oh, please,” she replied. “That man isn’t thinkin’ about me. Sean looks like he likes those spontaneous, wild women. He knows that I am the complete opposite, and of course, he knows I have a man.”

Vanita rolled her eyes up in her head. She had grown weary of hearing about Yadi’s no-good man. Devin was a correction officer with the Emergency Service Unit. They had one daughter, Jada, who was four years old. After witnessing the drama unfold between the two, Vanita told Yadi many times that she needed to move on from Devin. Of course, her suggestions were ignored. It was then Vanita figured out that Yadi was weak when it came to a man.

“Yadi, Sean likes you and he is fine as hell, too,” Vanita insisted. They both watched Sean patrol the visit floor. “I mean, look at his sexy, caramel ass. I’m not one for the men with braids but he keeps them neat. They look good on him. And that body is built like steel and his back . . . mmm, what a back!” Vanita said, secretly fantasizing about having Sean in her own bed.

Yadi laughed. “Yes, he is some eye candy, I can’t deny. But, Nita, I can’t, with anyone that works for the Correction Department. My man is on the job, too . . . remember?”

Vanita waved her hand and returned to her duties. “Yadi, I’m not even gonna entertain that bullshit right there. You can do whatever you want. Personally, I am sick of you stressin’ Devin’s tired-ass I don’t think that he’s worth the damn pussy he came out of. Then again, I don’t have to deal with his sorry-ass. That is your problem, child,” Vanita said, all while operating the gates on both sides of the control station.

Yadi didn’t know whether to cuss her friend out or cry, but she knew Vanita was right. It did seem as if she was invisible to Devin. They barely talked anymore. This had been going on for quite some time. Devin would make her feel like she was walking on eggshells with him, so Yadi didn’t know if she was coming or going most of the time.

Therefore, Yadi worked overtime to try to recapture Devin’s interest and worked even harder to hold his attention. Whether it was good or bad attention, she didn’t care, as long as she got some type of reaction from him. She couldn’t deny that she was partly, if not fully, responsible for his change of behavior. She was afraid to question Devin’s actions, for fear that she would have to take responsibility for some of the things she had done to him, and even worse, he would walk out on her for good. In addition, as bad as she thought he treated her, the reality that he was no longer in love with her would push her over the edge.

After some deep thought about the present state of her chaotic relationship, Yadi finally regained her senses. She gathered the visit registration cards that sat in a pile on top of the desk. She then walked out of the control room to call out the names of the inmates waiting for a visit.

Yadi carefully scanned the room of visitors. The waiting area was filled with mostly downtrodden women, whose main goal in life was to ride or die with their incarcerated boyfriends. A lot of the female visitors couldn’t stand female officers, especially good-looking ones like Yadira. She ignored the women’s dirty looks and got down to her business.

“People, please make sure that before you step onto that visit floor you have permissible items only! Now, listen up for the name of the inmate that you’re visitin’ today,” Yadi began. The room was silent while everyone anticipated hearing their inmates’ names being called.

“Fowler, Ramirez, Epstein, Shelton, and Wallace! Please line up over here and walk through the double gates! Put your right hand under the light and proceed to the visit desk where your card will be time stamped and you will be seated!”

The visitors walked through the metal sliding doors into a sallyport area. They put their hands under a light to display their stamped hands. Once that was done, a second gate opened. As the visitors filed through the open gate to the visit area, Yadi’s voice was drowned out by the loudness of the people already on the visit floor.

Meanwhile, on the visit floor, Sean made sure everyone was seated in their proper places. Some of the things that he observed on a day-to-day basis, people would have to see to believe.

While walking around, Sean zeroed in on a couple in the corner of the large room. The female visitor had her hand in the grey jumper of the inmate that she was visiting. Sean could tell by the inmate’s face that she was jerking him off. They thought no one was looking. He sighed as he tried to figure out why the women who came to visit degraded themselves for the incarcerated losers.

Sean walked over to their table. The female pulled her hand back when she saw him. The inmate sat there with a hard penis and a dumb look on his face.

Sean pointed at the young woman. “Get up, say your good-byes and get out,” he said calmly.

They said good-bye to each other. The inmate began to say something, as he watched his girlfriend leave. “Yo’, c’mon, Dee,” he began. “Why you kicked my chick out?”

Sean frowned. “Man, get your ass off this floor! Say somethin’ else and you will be in no contact visits for a month!” Sean replied.

The inmate walked off the floor and through the metal door that was opened for him. Sean shook his head and continued to patrol the floor.

“These chicks will do anything for love,” Sean said to himself. Little did Sean know that he had sealed his own fate. He was going to find out just how far women will go for love in the weeks to come.

Sean Daniels stood at the visit desk, conversing with a few of his coworkers. When he looked up, one visitor in particular instantly caught his attention. Sean normally kept his libido under control when he saw an attractive female visitor, but this one was different. He could tell that she wasn’t the normal, run-of-the-mill, ghetto chickenhead who frequented Rikers Island’s visit areas. The woman was dressed in what looked like an expensive business suit, which was tailored to fit every curve of her voluptuous body to a tee. Her hair was stylishly cut very short at the nape of her neck and her lips were shined up with lip gloss. Sean was mesmerized as he watched her sweep her extra-long bang out of her face to reveal the most beautiful eyes he had ever seen.

Wanting to be respectful, Sean didn’t let his thoughts get out of control. The woman looked like a fish out of water, which was a surefire sign that she wasn’t a regular. She stood there looking like she was unsure of what to do next, making Sean conclude that it was her first time there. He wondered who she had come to visit. Sean crossed his fingers, hoping that she wasn’t there to see a boyfriend, husband, or a baby daddy.

Sean continued to watch the woman while she got her registration card time stamped. She cautiously wavered over to the table that was marked with a number sixteen on it in permanent magic marker, and slowly lowered her rear end onto the seat. Seemingly upset, she impatiently squirmed in her seat while waiting for her inmate.

Sean wanted to talk to her but he knew that wasn’t going to happen. Talking to her was something that couldn’t be done without inmates and officers zeroing in on his every move. Sean had no other choice but to keep his cool. He couldn’t let that woman leave the facility without him getting to know her. Sean walked to the other side of the visit area, positioning himself so that he could keep her within his eyesight.

“Damn, I hope the dude she’s comin’ to visit is her cousin, her brother, anybody but her man,” he said to himself.

When the heavy metal door slid open, Sean held his breath for a moment, as some inmates filed to their respective tables with their visitors. This was when he observed a lanky young man about six feet tall walking over to the table where the woman was sitting. She instantly stood up to greet him with a smile and a warm hug.

The young man looked much younger than her, but these days, a person could never tell what floats someone’s boat. Sean encountered some older professional women who were definitely into young thugs nowadays, thanks to the rapper 50 Cent dating Vivica Fox. They both sat in the chairs and began chatting with each other. Figuring that that was the time to make his move, Sean worked his way toward their table. He walked around for a brief moment, trying to play it off by talking to the other visitors. No one knew that he had an ulterior motive.

When Sean arrived at their table, he noticed that the young man, who was looking dead at him, had a scowl on his face. Sean ignored the nasty look and greeted him anyway.

“Hey, what’s up, youngblood?” Sean stated. “Everything is a’ight over here, right?”

“Yeah, we’re straight, old head, we’re good over,” the young man replied, looking at Sean, up and down, with a suspicious look on his face.

Sean looked at the woman, who smiled at him. “Oh, yes, officer, we’re fine. I’m just here visiting my son. You have to excuse his attitude. He’s a little overwhelmed by all of this,” she added, giving the young man a dirty look. She looked at Sean’s nametag. “Um, Officer Daniels.”

Sean extended his hand to the mother and to the defiant son, who looked at Sean up and down but ended up reluctantly giving him a pound anyway.

“Ma’am, not to worry, he’s in good hands. I’ll make sure I look out for him while he’s here.” Sean looked at the young man. “What housing area you in?”

The young man sucked his teeth. “I’m in Five North.” Sean nodded his head.

“Oh, yeah, yeah, you good then. That’s my old steady housin’ area right there. I’ll put the word out and tell the officers up there to hold you down.”

The young man impatiently shifted in the chair. “Look, CO, you ain’t gotta do for me! I don’t fool with too many of these cats in here anyway, so trust me, I’m gonna be okay. Oh, and I damn sure don’t fuck with the police!”

The woman had a sour look on her face. “Shut the hell up, Shamari!” she said loudly. “That’s why your ass is in the trouble you’re in now,” She looked at Sean apologetically.

“Officer Daniels, I apologize for my son’s ignorance. He always had a problem with authority and now this is where he ends up. He’s only nineteen years old and he doesn’t belong here because I didn’t raise him like this. On the other hand, this is just a pit stop before death. I don’t know what it’s going to take for him to get it right!” Her eyes began to get watery.

Sean felt uncomfortable, dying to comfort the distressed mother, but he had to remain professional. He reassured the woman by telling her that everything was going to be okay. Sean glanced at the teen, wanting to whip his ass for making his mother cry and wondered if the boy’s father was still around. It was then he figured that it was time to walk away, half hoping that he would have an opportunity to talk to the woman before she left the facility.

“Well, I’m sorry for interruptin’, so I’m goin’ to do what I get paid to do. Enjoy the rest of the visit,” Sean stated before quickly walking off. After the brief interaction, he spent the next twenty minutes pretending to be busy. He still was unable to keep his eyes off the woman. Sean laughed to himself and figured that if anyone was going to pass some drugs, the time to do it would be while the mystery woman was there keeping his eyes and thoughts preoccupied. Sean sat in a seat alongside the desk, leering at her from afar. Suddenly, the inmate’s mother got up from the seat and was about to walk out. Sean immediately walked over to the table to stop her.

“Um, ma’am, is there a problem here?” he asked, as he summoned her to sit back down.

“Yes, it is!” she replied angrily. “I’m leaving! I have to go to work this morning and my son obviously does not appreciate me coming up to this disgusting place to visit his ungrateful ass!”

Shamari sucked his teeth. “Ma, c’mon, cut it out, you—” he said.

She gave him a stern look and pointed a well manicured finger in his peach-fuzzed face.

“Shamari, I’m gonna tell you this and I’m not gonna tell you anymore. I gave you the best years of my life so that you wouldn’t have to go through this. I was sixteen years old when I gave birth to you. I made all kinds of sacrifices trying to provide you with everything that you needed so that you would not be out in these streets trying to steal, cheat, and rob, and this is how you repay me? Then when I come up here to see you, you talk to me like I’m one of those hoochies you like to run around with. Remember I’m your fucking mother! When all the smoke clears, who do you come running to? Me! Not your friends, not your uncles, not your grandmother, nobody else but me! So don’t ever disrespect me like that again!”

Shamari wore a smug expression on his face while some nearby visitors and inmates stared at him. Shamari sat there with his arms folded, never answering his mother. She almost walked out at first but Sean explained to her that the inmate had to leave the visit area before she did and that it was procedure. Shamari stomped out of the visit area like the spoiled brat he was and walked through the metal door with an attitude without so much as a good-bye to his flustered mother.

It took everything in Sean’s power not to snatch Shamari out of his jail-issued jumpsuit for being insolent to the one woman who loved him so much. He was going to be handled, but right then, Sean was more concerned about the mother, who was very upset. When she finally was able to leave, Sean took the time to walk her to the visit registration area. He waited patiently while she removed her personal items from the locker and took a seat.

There were a few visitors in the area waiting for the visit bus. It was the bus that transported visitors back to the main registration building. It was there the visitors would catch the Q-101 bus to the parking lot on the other side of the Riker’s bridge or Queens Plaza for the subway.

“Thank you, officer, for everything. I want to apologize again for my son’s behavior,” she said with a forced smile.

Sean could tell that she was still upset about her son’s behavior. “Oh, it was no problem, sweetheart,” Sean replied. “I’m still gonna look out for him, though. Don’t be too upset, Ma. He was just tryin’ to be hard. I been doin’ this for a while now and he’s probably just scared to death.” He paused. “Oh, by the way, what’s your name, Miss?”

She giggled. “Oh, shoot, forgive me. All of this newness and I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Brandi Wallace. That’s ‘Miss’ Brandi Wallace.” She made sure she stressed the fact that she wasn’t married.

“Brandi. What a beautiful name.”

Brandi quickly placed a business card in his hand with her information on it. She walked briskly to the other side to line up for the bus. As she walked away, she put an imaginary phone to her ear and mouthed the words, “Call me” to Sean and put on a megawatt smile. Sean stood in that one spot and watched Brandi until she was out of his sight.

Sean looked around for any nosey officers who may have been watching him talk to Brandi. Lucky for him, everyone seemed to be too busy working to notice him. Sean knew that fraternizing with visitors who came to see inmates was against the rules, but looking at Brandi’s sexy ass, he knew that his mind was made up. He was about to break that rule and he didn’t need anyone to remind him of that.

Approximately an hour later, Brandi was driving her champagne colored Lexus IS 300 on the FDR Drive and singing along to a Keyshia Cole CD. Even though she was excited about meeting Sean Daniels, she felt emptiness. Her only child was locked up in a jail cell on Rikers and there wasn’t anything that she could do about it. She desperately missed Shamari but she also realized that it was time for him to grow up. Brandi knew that Shamari didn’t have the type of street smarts that she had growing up. In those days, they were called survival skills. Fortunate enough to have never done any jail time, Brandi had been careful to hide her own criminal past from Shamari.

Brandi was the so-called “gangster bitch,” the ride or die chick every thug needed and wanted in their lives. With the exception of drinking and drugging, there was nothing that Brandi had not done on a street level. Never knowing what it felt like to actually struggle, Shamari was sheltered. He was protected from the mean streets by his mother; she knew that the streets would only swallow him up and spit him out.

When Shamari’s father, Maleek, was murdered in 1993, Brandi decided that it was time to finally straighten up her act. She thanked God for her mother, who looked after five-year-old Shamari while Brandi went back to school and got her GED. She eventually went to college and succeeded in getting her master’s degree in sociology, although now it seemed ironic that she chose the major when she couldn’t even understand her own child’s problems.

Brandi remembered the day she first met Maleek. It was 1986 and she was attending Boys and Girls High School at the time. A rebellious teenager at fifteen, Brandi stood in front of the school on Fulton Street, cutting last period, accompanied by her best friend, Sheba. They were standing around talking shit with a few other girls and chain-smoking Newport 100s when she noticed Maleek. He was leaning against his black Saab convertible, with Rakim’s lyrics coming through his booming system. He was with three other guys D,ollar, Gator, and Peeto, who were all just as fly as him. They were sporting expensive truck jewelry and velour FILA sweat suits with the sneakers to match. Brandi used to see Maleek around the way all the time, but he was always on the move and Brandi never had a chance to catch him alone. This was probably her one opportunity to get with him and she was not going to miss it for the world.

As Brandi and Sheba stood nearby, they watched closely as Maleek talked to one of their female schoolmates. Brandi and Sheba were extremely popular with the student body at Boys and Girls. They were known for being unruly and disobedient to most of the administrative staff and whomever else they didn’t like. They were boosting at the time, so sporting the latest gear was nothing for the duo, who thought that the world revolved around them. Brandi, being the tough . . .