Life After a Balla

LIFE
AFTER
A BALLA

The Sequel To: MARRIED TO A BALLA

By: Jackie D.

Life Changing Books in conjunction with Power Play Media

Published by Life Changing Books

P.O. Box 423 Brandywine, MD 20613

This novel is a work of fiction. Any references to real people, events, establishments, or locales are intended only to give the fiction a sense of reality and authenticity. Other names, characters, and incidents occurring in the work are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, as are those fictionalized events and incidents that involve real persons. Any character that happens to share the name of a person who is an acquaintance of the author, past or present, is purely coincidental and is in no way intended to be an actual account involving that person.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data;

www.lifechangingbooks.net

13 Digit: 978-1934230374

10 Digit: 1-934230375

Copyright © 2012

All rights reserved, including the rights to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to Leslie Allen, the best editor/operations manager in the entire world. As I said before...words can not express how much I appreciate you. You only cursed me out once during this project when it should’ve been many more. LOL! You knew I had a lot on my plate this time, so thank you for being so understanding and for all of your help.

Also...to my one and only son, Emanuel “Poobie” Chapman, III...I love you boy!!

Acknowledgments

To all my friends and family, thanks for the love and support! To Azarel, thanks again for allowing me to publish another book with such a wonderful group of people. You’re the best! To all my fellow LCB Authors, Danette Majette (my BFF for life), Tiphani Montgomery, Tonya Ridley, CJ Hudson, J.Tremble, Ms. KP, Carla Pennington, VegasClarke, Kendall Banks, Capone, Mike Warren, Chris Renee, and any one else on the team that I missed. LCB FOR LIFE!!

To Joy Avery, thanks for everything. A special thanks to all the distributors and independent book stores that helped promote my books; The Literary Joint locations, The Urban Knowledge locations, DC Book Diva, The Books-A-Million locations that are still open, Black and Nobel in Philly, Novel Tee’s and the rest of the book stores that showed me love. Thank you.

To the test readers Ashundria and Tasha, thank you so much for your input. Last but not least...To all the people that purchased this book as well as my other two, I really appreciate all the positive messages on Facebook and Twitter expressing how much you loved reading my work. From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

Check me out at:

http:// www.facebook.com/loveheist

twitter.com/therealjackied

Peace and Blessings,

Jackie D.

CHAPTER 1

“Didn’t I tell you bitch…till death do us part!” Sandino roared in Skye’s ear. He grabbed the back of her head and rammed her face into the head board.

“I’m sorry, Sandino please stop!” Skye pleaded in pain as blood from her busted nose trickled down the right side of her face.

“It’s too late for apologies. I told you if you ever left me I would kill you,” he said, ripping her panties off and pinning her arms above her head. “And then you go fuck some other nigga!”

Skye screamed in horror when she felt excruciating pain between her legs. She wondered what type of object Sandino was raping her with as he became more and more aggressive. When she felt something running down her legs, she lifted her head and looked down. Her eyes widened when she saw a huge puddle of blood on the sheets and Sandino holding her son’s basketball trophy covered in blood. She became hysterical and tried to kick him off the bed, but he didn’t budge. She was no match for Sandino’s muscular frame.

He gave her an evil glare then started yelling once again.

“This will teach your ass for givin’ my pussy away!” he yelled, shoving the trophy inside her again. “Here I was searchin’ for you and my kids while your ass was out fuckin’ another dude.”

“Please stop…you’re hurting me,” Skye pleaded as tears immediately began to stream down her face. “I promise…I didn’t sleep with anyone else!”

“Stop lyin’ bitch, I can tell when somebody’s been in my pussy,” Sandino belted, then rammed the trophy again. “You were with that nigga, Justice!”

The pain was excruciating. “Sandino, I haven’t been with anyone but you!”

“Shut the fuck up!”

When Skye saw Sandino attempting to push the trophy inside her once again, she started screaming and pounding him in the chest. Laughing, Sandino dropped the trophy, but instead of stopping, he attacked her again, delivering a quick hard blow to her abdomen.

“That shit was for me having to look for your ass when you left me!”

Skye screamed out in pain and curled up in the fetal position, but he wasn’t finished. Moments later, Sandino grabbed Skye by her hair, dragged her off the bed and swung her body up against the wall like a rag doll.

“And that was for me getting shot!”

Completely hysterical and bleeding, Skye attempted to crawl on all fours trying to make it to the door when suddenly she felt a plastic bag over her head. Panic-stricken, she immediately started gasping for air, squirming and grabbing at his hands. She couldn’t breathe. It felt like she was suffocating. This was not the way she wanted to die. She started grabbing for the bag, but just couldn’t seem to get a grip. It felt like she was slipping into unconsciousness.

“Noooo!” Skye yelled out as all three of her kids faces flashed before her eyes.

Suddenly, someone started tugging on her right shoulder. “Skye, wake up,” she heard a male voice say.

When Skye slowly opened her eyes, she was still clawing at her neck. With her heart racing, it felt like she was seconds away from a heart attack.

“Baby, are you okay?” Cruze asked in his raspy voice trying to comfort her. She was relieved to see her handsome boyfriend as he leaned over and placed his arm around her. At that moment, Skye realized she’d fallen asleep on the plane. “I guess you had another nightmare, huh?”

Skye covered the lower half of her face then shook her head back and forth. She was still shaking and the palm of her hands were soaking wet.

“Damn, it seemed so real, like he was really trying to kill me. I thought these nightmares were a thing of the past.”

“Yeah, me, too,” Cruze agreed. “You haven’t had one in weeks.”

“This trip back to Miami must’ve triggered them again.” Skye went into her purse and pulled out her Ativan. For the past eight months, she’d been on the medication that was prescribed to control her panic attacks.

“I know you’ve been through a lot, but I’ll be glad when you get off that shit,” Cruze replied with a concerned tone. “I told you I looked it up on the internet. Ativan can be highly addictive.”

Instead of responding, Skye continued to turn the top on the prescription bottle. A few seconds later a male flight attendant walked over. He was tall, about 6’3, and obviously gay by the way he switched over wearing a ton of foundation, heavy eye liner and clear lip gloss. His long hair was pulled back into a ponytail and his uniform was way too tight.

“Excuse me. Is everything alright?” he asked after hearing the commotion.

“Yes, she’s fine. Can you bring her something to drink?” Cruze answered.

The flight attendant stared at Skye for a second with his hand on his hip. “That type of disturbance can alarm the other passengers. Are you sure everything is okay?”

Cruze turned and looked at him with an attitude. “Look, RuPaul, I told you she was good, now can you please go do your job.”

It looked as if the flight attendant wanted to come back with some type of catty response, but instead he rolled his eyes and sashayed away.

Cruze looked over at Skye. “How much longer can we keep this up? I’ll be so glad when you divorce Sandino’s ass and put the past behind you for good. It’s been almost a year and a half since you left him. You were just starting to be yourself again, smiling, happy and enjoying life. Now, Sandino and his bullshit ass lawyer are trying to pull you back into the madness. I refuse to let anyone hurt you again,” he said, squeezing her tight.
I still can’t believe that muthafucka didn’t die the night I shot him
, Cruze thought.

It came to a complete surprise to everyone that Sandino had managed to survive a gunshot wound to the back of his head. With the amount of blood he’d lost, they assumed he was dead that night. That is until the paramedics rushed in and announced that he still had a pulse. They later found out that he had surgery and survived. Keeping up with his condition had become top priority to both Cruze and Skye. They wanted him dead, he needed to be stopped but Sandino had proved once again that he wasn’t going anywhere.

Cruze rubbed Skye’s arm delicately. “I love you so much.”

When Skye looked at Cruze her heart fluttered. She loved the way his big arms felt around her because he made her feel so safe. She grabbed one if his dreads and twirled it around her fingers. They were growing really fast. Although he’d picked up weight and didn’t have the once rock hard one hundred and eighty pound body, Skye still found him irresistible. But who was she to talk. She no longer had her toned one hundred thirty five pound body either. All the good eating and loving contributed to both of their weight gain. Luckily she’d gained it in all the right places so she still was able to turn heads whenever she entered a room.

“Are you sure you up to this meeting?” Cruze asked.

Skye could still remember the first time she received the phone call from Sandino’s lawyer’s relentless assistant. Every time the assistant called she insisted that Skye meet with Sandino’s lawyer to discuss a very important matter, one that couldn’t be discussed over the phone.

What the hell was so important that it couldn’t be discussed over the phone
, Skye wondered.

The thought made her nervous. She should’ve followed her first instinct and not come at all, but she felt she had to. If for nothing else, to strangle the assistant for calling her every day for a month straight. Skye never once talked to Sandino’s lawyer, which seemed quite odd.

“I might as well get the shit over with. I wonder how they even got my damn number? I have to admit though. I do have some concerns.” Skye lowered her voice to make sure no one could hear what she was about to say. “What if this meeting is because they suspect that Sandino didn’t really come to my apartment that night threatening to commit suicide? What if they don’t believe that when Kareem and I tried to stop him the gun accidently went off? What if they try to charge me with attempted murder? This could be a set up,” Skye whispered.

“Lawyer’s are crooked as hell. They have ways of getting phone numbers. Baby just relax, the way we decided to cover everything up that night already convinced the police months ago,” Cruze whispered as well. “They have no idea that I shot Sandino, got rid of Justice’s body or was even in your apartment that night. If that was the case, the police would be calling you, not his lawyer. Everything will be alright, trust me,” he reassured her.

Thoughts of how Cruze and Kareem had thrown Justice’s body out the back of Skye’s first floor bedroom window, then managed to get the corpse into the car without being seen still shocked him. If Skye had lived in a more upscale neighborhood and the police would’ve arrived in a more timely manner, things may not have gone so smoothly. Even the neighbors didn’t come outside until the police arrived.

“Are you sure no one saw you that night? You know…putting Justice in the car?”

Cruze shrugged his shoulders. “I guess not. But even if they did, you know the code in the hood. No snitching.”

“I just wish Sandino had died and wasn’t still hanging on in some damn rehab center. Sometimes I feel like that man will always be a thorn in my side,” Skye said.

“Not as long as I’m here, he won’t be. I should’ve never stood back all those years without helping you. That’s why I shot him that night he came after you. I couldn’t let him hurt you and the kids anymore. But let’s forget about that night. We’re moving forward,” Cruze said, kissing her on the lips.