The Secret Lives of Baltimore Girls

by Katt

Genres: Women's Fiction

Synopsis

Charlie Dixon never had it easy. Growing up in a loveless home, she gave the saying "looking for love in all the wrong places," its meaning. Failed relationship after failed relationship have led Charlie to give up on love; that is, until Damon Williams crashes into her life-literally. Charlie never expected to find love with Damon, but when she starts falling, her childhood hangups threaten to destroy her last chance. Will Charlie learn to accept love and finally be happy, Oo will the odds stay stacked against her? Emerson Dayle is finally coming into her own as a career woman. After a devastating divorce from her childhood love, Mason, Emerson had to pick up the pieces of her shattered life one shard at a time. With a newfound love of self, she swears off the days of sacrificing herself for the sake of her husband. As a new entrepreneur and wildly successful internet influencer, Emerson feels like she's finally made it. But when a secret from her past threatens everything she has worked for, her life quickly changes. Can Emerson keep her past mistakes out of the limelight, or will everything she's worked for fall apart right before her eyes? Mikayla King has a secret she guards carefully. Her children, Kai and Zuri, are the only people keeping Mikayka grounded, until her relationship with her children is threatened too. Mikayla would rather continue suffering mental and physical abuse at the hands of her husband, professional sportscaster Charles King, than go back to being poor and subject her children to the life she lived as a child. But when Mikayla's deepest secret is revealed, life as she knows it crumbles to pieces. It is not long before she turns to substances to ease her pain, just like her mother. Can Mikayla overcome her demons to save her children, or will she see her worst fear realized?

Release date: September 24, 2019

Publisher: Urban Books

Print pages: 288

Sample

Six Months Earlier

Sweat rolled down Charlie’s back, causing her T-shirt to stick to her skin. Even her air conditioner couldn’t help the heat that her body generated on its own. The heat of the moment. The heat of anger. The heat, period. It had taken over all of her senses. She beat her nails against her steering wheel impatiently and gnawed on her bottom lip.

“I’ve been a fucking fool for the last time out here. These niggas keep trying me,” she grumbled to herself.

The traffic in downtown Baltimore was horrendous, bumper to bumper, and Charlie certainly didn’t have time for this while anxiety crept into her mind. The call she’d received had sent her spiraling. Just the thought of it made Charlie’s skin crawl like a million spiders were on her. She laid on her car horn again. Even that sound ground her nerves down to a pulp.

“Oh, my God, fucking drive!” Charlie screamed as if all of the stopped cars could somehow hear her. Traffic only inched forward. “Ugh! Come on! Fuck!”

Charlie had been here before, in a crazed-mind state over a dude. It was the story of her life—meet a dude, fuck a dude, find out dude ain’t shit, get heartbroken by dude. Charlie shuddered just thinking about it. She couldn’t understand why this had become her life script. Was she just totally unlovable? She’d asked herself that time and time again. What was it about her that made her an easy target? Charlie wasn’t sure she even knew the definition of love. Even her mother hadn’t ever told her she loved her. Charlie hadn’t received hugs or kisses or love as a child. Emerson, one of her best friends, had once told Charlie that she was so desperate for love because she’d been lacking it all of her life. Charlie had dismissed it, but now she was thinking maybe it was true. She was never going to find real love.

This time though, Charlie had thought her new man, Jace, was the one. He had all the makings of the perfect guy for Charlie. Jace was tall, dark, handsome, and paid. He was a music producer and he drove not one but two luxury cars. Charlie had been immediately smitten when she’d met Jace. He’d approached her like a perfect gentleman, and once Charlie had noticed his blinging Rolex watch, she was all in right then and there.

Charlie had tried her best not to chase Jace, a mistake she’d made in the past. Charlie had even switched it up. She’d waited six whole weeks before she gave Jace some ass. Emerson and Mikayla had applauded her for waiting so long. Well, so long for Charlie’s past record. But now Charlie was crushed. She’d taken off a day of work just like Jace had asked. Charlie had bathed in her special almond-scented shower gel. It was Jace’s favorite. She’d ordered some breakfast from Corner Bakery for them and set a good romantic scene for them. Jace worked at night, so Charlie often saw him early in the mornings. Charlie had changed her sexy lingerie four times before her cell phone had rung. Dancing to Monica and Keyshia Cole’s song “Trust,” Charlie had picked up her phone and answered slightly out of breath.

“Hey, baby,” she had said. She’d seen Jace’s pet name, New Bae Forever, on the screen.

“This ain’t your baby,” a woman’s voice filtered through Charlie’s cell phone speaker.

Her heart had jerked. “Hello?” Charlie replied incredulously.

“Are you fucking Jace?” the woman’s voice had barked in Charlie’s ear. “Because I’m his girlfriend, and I find it strange that your number comes up in his call log even though he has you saved as ‘client four.’”

Client four! Charlie’s legs had threatened to give out, and she flopped down on her oversized couch. Her insides felt like a grenade had gone off in the center of her chest.

“Jace never told me about you,” Charlie said too weakly for her liking. She had felt weak as soon as she said it because there was nothing stronger to say. It had happened again. A dude had duped her. This was not the first time Charlie had been in this hood bullshit situation with some bitch calling her about a man.

“Well, I’m telling you about me, bitch,” the woman had barked in Charlie’s ear.

Charlie was back on her feet and bouncing like a boxer. “What? Don’t call me a bitch because you can’t control your dog-ass man!” she retorted. “How stupid do you sound calling me? You should be asking your man about me, bitch!”

“I will fuck you up! Straight up, I’m from West Baltimore proper, not Baltimore County, you bird bitch!” the woman shot back.

“Oh, a’ight. You think you fucking with a weak bitch! I’ll be right there to see just how fucking bad you are, bitch!”

“I’m waiting, too!” the woman shot back.

“Wait then, bitch! I’ll be there in a flash!” Charlie had screamed.

Charlie had spun in circles trying to find something to put on. Fighting clothes. She hadn’t worn fighting clothes in years, maybe since her early high school days. Charlie’s heart was crushed and her ego was bruised, so she wasn’t thinking straight.

Now just thinking about that earlier conversation and then looking out into the traffic made her blood pressure rise. “Fuck!” Charlie screamed again.

Charlie’s phone rang again. When she saw Jace’s pet name appear on her car’s screen, Charlie’s head felt like it would explode. She hit the answer button.

“Listen, bitch,” Charlie answered, her voice quivering with anger. Jace’s voice came through the speakers and filled Charlie’s car. Charlie felt her scalp itch like someone was stabbing her with little pins. She narrowed her eyes as she listened. Just hearing Jace’s voice reminded Charlie of the earlier call from his woman.

“Listen, Cee,” Jace said evenly, calling Charlie by the nickname he had given her. “I . . . I can explain this whole thing.” The car speakers vibrated with the sound of Jace’s voice, and Charlie thought her head would explode.

“Explain? Nigga, you’re a piece of shit!” Charlie exploded, biting into the side of her cheek. Charlie wished she were in front of Jace right then. She would’ve loved to give him the world’s biggest bitch slap across the face.

“It’s complicated,” Jace whispered, which told Charlie his bitch was still there.

“Oh, well, it’s about to get much more complicated. I’ll be there in a few minutes because nobody, I mean nobody, makes me out to be a punk bitch,” she said through clenched teeth.

“You can’t come here,” Jace said. “Just don’t. It won’t go well for you.”

Charlie slammed her fists on the steering wheel. She felt like Jace had reached into her chest and snatched her heart out. She was crushed. But she needed to see him one last time. Charlie didn’t know if she wanted to spit in his face, punch him in the face, or just lay eyes on his face.

That’s how she was. She always needed closure no matter how painful it was. Seeking closure had cost Charlie lots of painful experiences over the years. With the end of this relationship, Charlie would be right back where she’d started when she met Jace—alone, depressed, dickless, and with her biological clock ringing the alarm. The mere thought of it made Charlie want to get to Jace and his bitch even more.

“I hate you,” she grumbled under her breath. Her thoughts spurred her actions on even more. Charlie swerved her car out of the lane she was in to try to maneuver through the gridlock. She didn’t care anymore. She needed to get this ass whooping she was about to hand out over with. Charlie hit the gas, swung right, and accelerated forward. A horn sounded from somewhere, and Charlie hit the gas again just as her car collided with another with a loud bang.

Charlie screamed as her body flew forward. She felt like someone had kicked her in the chest. Charlie was shaken up. She felt like she’d just taken a beating before she’d even gotten a chance to get to the fight. “What the . . .” she huffed, her head immediately spinning.

Suddenly, Charlie heard loud screaming and banging. She blinked her eyes, trying to get them to focus. She couldn’t seem to locate the source of the noise. Maybe it was the pain stabbing through her head or the tightness taking over her chest.

“What the fuck are you doing? You stupid-ass bitch!” A large, scowling, man-looking woman came into focus in front of Charlie’s windshield. The woman’s facial features were hard, and she looked like she was out for blood. Charlie heard more banging and noticed there was another woman banging on the other side of her car. The women pounded on Charlie’s car hood and screamed profanities at her. Her heart throttled up.

“Now you just fucked us even longer in this traffic!” the big woman boomed. “And you fucked up my car!”

Charlie’s heart leapt into her throat when the driver’s side door of her car suddenly flew open. Before she could react, Charlie felt herself being forcefully dragged from behind the wheel by the two women. She tried to hold on to the steering wheel as her anchor, but her grip was too weak. Her body was pulled from the car like she weighed nothing.

“Get off of me! Get the fuck off of me!” Charlie shrieked, swinging her arms wildly to defend herself. She was prepared for a fight, but not this kind of fight. Charlie tried to duck back into the car, but the first woman gripped her tightly while the other one got in her face. Charlie wasn’t prepared or else she would’ve grabbed her stun gun from the car’s middle console.

Charlie kicked her feet and caught the first woman in the gut. Charlie’s kick didn’t do anything. It wasn’t like when she’d learned to kick men in the balls. A man hit in the balls would fold like a house of cards, but a woman who looked like a man . . . well, the kick didn’t do a thing.

“You stupid bitch!” the second woman snarled, grabbing a fistful of Charlie’s hair.

“Get the fuck away from me!” Charlie howled, punching the second woman somewhere close to her chin. That caused the woman to let Charlie go. The smaller woman hadn’t bargained for all five foot nine inches and 170 pounds of Charlie Dixon. She’d learned really young in the hoods of Baltimore how to defend herself.

“You fucking hit my car!” the first woman spat.

“And now I’ma fuck you up!” Charlie screamed. “Get the fuck away from me!” Charlie bounced on wobbly legs, with one sneaker missing, trying to compose herself. She smoothed down her T-shirt with her trembling hands and reached up to her hairline to assess the damage to her head. The impact of the accident and these chicks had her head spinning. Charlie got into a fighting stance, and that backed the two women up a little bit, but it didn’t do much to send them back to their car.

“What the fuck were you doing coming over to my lane?” the man-looking woman growled, jutting an accusing finger in Charlie’s face. “You should learn how to fucking drive, you dumb ho!”

With sweat beads running a race down her back, Charlie shifted her weight to the foot with the sneaker still on and stood her ground. Her lips curled upward, and she put her hands on her hips. “I was trying to get you fucking pussies to drive out here! You think somebody got time to sit in traffic? I got somewhere I need to be! You want to look like a man, act like one and drive, bitch!” Charlie said indignantly, not letting these women intimidate her. She even ignored the pain in her head and chest.

“Somebody needs to shut that big mouth of yours,” the other woman said, putting her hand up in Charlie’s face.

“It won’t be neither one of y’all,” Charlie snapped back, boldly swiping the woman’s finger from her face. The woman curled her hands into fists and moved in on Charlie. The other woman moved in too, like Charlie should know they planned on taking her down together.

Charlie steeled herself, lowered her stance, and put her fists up like a mixed martial arts fighter. She was waiting for those bitches to flex. She’d taken hits in her lifetime from dudes bigger than them. Charlie was fearless. She clenched her jaw, waiting for the first blow. She’d set out an hour earlier ready to fight anyway. These chicks didn’t know just who the fuck they were messing with. Charlie had all kinds of angry energy coursing through her body at that moment.

“Charlie?” a man said from behind her. “Is that you?”

Charlie recognized the voice but only slightly turned her head toward it because she didn’t want to risk the two women sneak attacking her.

“What’s going on here? You all right?”

“Mason. Oh, my God. Can you believe these bitches are trying to jump me?” Charlie said, her words coming out on puffs of relieved breaths. Her body relaxed a bit at the sight of Mason. “This man-looking bitch actually dragged me out of my car, and now they both want to fight me!”

“Were the two of y’all really going to jump on a lady half y’all size?” Mason asked the two chicks. “BPD. I’d back it up if I were the both of you,” Mason said, flashing his Baltimore Police Department badge.

“Yeah, back it up.” Charlie smirked, feeling vindicated in the moment. Mason wasn’t in uniform, but still his authority could be felt. It wrapped around Charlie like a warm blanket. It was an odd feeling, but it lingered with her for a few minutes. It was kind of like the feeling of being saved by a knight in shining armor.

“She . . . she hit my car,” the big bull woman stammered, her voice a low murmur. It was a much softer tone than she’d used with Charlie just seconds before. Charlie loved how that little tin police badge reduced the Big Bad Wolf to a baby pup.

Charlie rolled her eyes. Punk bitches! If it didn’t make her look simple, she would’ve stuck her tongue out at the women. “How fast our tune changes,” Charlie mumbled with attitude.

“Why don’t we just get you two to exchange information for insurance purposes and handle this civilly before a bunch of squad cars show up and everyone gets arrested? I’ll take all the information and create a police accident report when I’m back at work. You’ll both get a copy. No harm, no foul,” Mason said calmly, clearly commanding the situation.

Charlie smiled a little. Who knew Mason was like this? Mason Dayle had been married to one of Charlie’s besties, Emerson, for years, but Charlie had never really paid him close attention until now. Charlie had listened to Emerson complain about Mason over the past year, but in that moment, Charlie wasn’t seeing any of the things Emerson had been bitching on her husband about. From Charlie’s vantage point, Mason was really a strong man’s man. He was kind of sexy, too.

Charlie shook her head a little. What was she thinking? She couldn’t be attracted to Mason! Mason? He’s Emerson’s soon-to-be ex-husband, for God’s sake! Charlie had known him for years but never really knew him. He was like a brother to her, just like Emerson was like her sister. Charlie shook her head again. Mason can’t be sexy in her eyes. Those were the rules of the girl code she shared with Emerson and Mikayla. Period.

After the information exchange, Mason offered to drive Charlie’s beat-up car to the nearest repair garage. He said she could follow in his car, but he warned her not to wreck his car. They both laughed.

“Thanks so much, Mason. Either I was about to get laid out or those two bitches was about to get dragged together, and ultimately we were all going to jail,” Charlie joked.

“It’s what I do, keep the peace,” Mason said, winking at her. They were both probably thinking the same thing: just not at home.

There was a minute or two of awkward silence between Charlie and Mason. It was like something unknown hummed around them. It was strange, but Charlie shook it off. She was used to that, too, pretending her feelings didn’t matter or just ignoring that she could feel altogether.

Charlie cleared her throat to help herself swallow the crazy lump that had developed in it.

“I can give you a ride to wherever you were headed before the accident,” Mason offered.

Suddenly, Charlie remembered that she was on her way to kick Jace’s girlfriend’s ass. Her face lit up red with shame. She shook her head in shame and bit her bottom lip.

“What? What did I say?” Mason asked, noticing.

Charlie let out a long sigh, still shaking her head. “Promise you won’t laugh if I tell you.”

Mason raised his right hand. “Promise.”

“No, like double promise,” Charlie said, hands on her hips.

Mason chuckled. “Well, damn. Okay. I doubly promise not to laugh.”

“I was going to beat a bitch up,” Charlie said, almost whispering.

“Huh? I can’t hear you,” he said, leaning in toward her mouth.

“I said, I was going to beat a bitch up,” Charlie said louder. She closed her eyes and shook her head.

Mason busted out laughing.

“Oh, my God! You said you promised,” Charlie whined, half laughing too.

“I’m sorry,” Mason said through his laughter. “Are you serious? You were in your car, driving to beat a bitch up?” he asked, repeating the last part of what she said verbatim.

Charlie rolled her eyes. “Crazy, right?” she mumbled. “I need a damn life.”

“Join the club,” Mason said, exchanging a long stare with Charlie. They both knew what he meant by that.

Charlie lowered her eyes to her one sneaker. What are you doing, Charlie? What are you doing?

Emerson lay on her side in the dark, staring out of her bedroom window at the night as she had done every night for the past few months. She hadn’t gotten much sleep since she and Mason had separated and decided to get a divorce. Emerson was so used to him coming in and climbing into bed at night that she didn’t realize how hard it would be to sleep without him. The divorce was in the process of being hamme. . .