Crazy in Love 2

by Yoshe

  Dollar smiled at the sound of Brandi’s exaggerated professional voice. “Damn, your voice is like music to my ears,” he complimented her. “What’s up, boss lady? How are you?”

  Brandi giggled. “Hey, Dollar! What’s shaking?”

  Dollar paid for the parking space then stood in front of the parking garage and waited for the attendant to bring his truck. “No, the question is what’s up with you, Bee? I was your knight in shining armor Saturday and now I can’t get a phone call? What’s good?”

  Brandi sighed. “No, no, Dollar, it’s not like that! Don’t think that I don’t appreciate what you did for me the other night. It’s just that I got caught up and didn’t have opportunity to call you.”

  Dollar cut her off. “Keep it real. You just ain’t feeling a brother.”

  “Please, Dollar,” Brandi began. “Where did you get that from? I am feeling you! I do have my reservations and everything but I am feeling you.”

  “Reservations, huh?” he asked. “Look, Bee, it sounds like we need to talk. What about you taking some time off from your busy schedule and hang out with ya boy for the rest of the afternoon? And don’t worry about the loss of income, baby. Dollar got you.”

  “Hmmph. I think that I’m going to take you up on that offer. I hate Mondays anyway.”

  Dollar smiled and tipped the attendant for bringing his truck to him. “That’s what I’m talking about, girl! Hop in a cab and meet me at this parking garage on Thirty-fifth Street and Lexington. I’m gonna be sitting in my truck waiting for you.”

  “Will do,” Brandi said.

  It wasn’t too long after they hung up the phone when Brandi appeared in a Yellow Cab in front of the parking garage. She walked right up to the driver side of his truck and knocked on the window. When Dollar saw Brandi, he rolled down the window and gave her a soft kiss on the lips.

  “Come on to the other side and let me take a good look at you, gorgeous,” Dollar said, as he watched her walk to the passenger side of his truck. She looked stunning in her color block cashmere coat, stylish short haircut, and high-heeled knee boots. Dollar got out and opened the door for her. He took the leather briefcase out of her hand and helped her into the truck.

  “You really are a beautiful woman,” Dollar said, giving Brandi another kiss on the lips before he closed the door.

  “Oh, boy, stop,” Brandi said, playfully hitting him on his arm. “You always know what to say.”

  “Of course I know what to say when it comes to you.”

  Brandi gave him a flirtatious look. “I bet you do.”

  Dollar got back into the vehicle and they were on their way. He took Brandi to one of his favorite restaurants located in the West Village for some delicious Italian food. He watched as Brandi enjoyed the chicken marsala dish she ordered. She gave him a wink when she caught him staring at her, along with a seductive smile. Dollar couldn’t wait to finish the meal. By the time they were done it didn’t take too much convincing for Brandi to come back to his condo with him.

  When they walked into Dollar’s condominium, Brandi did a twirl. She looked as if she was surprised to see that he had such exquisite taste. “I love your place. I didn’t expect all of this!” she said, looking at the white leather furniture and colorful paintings on the pale white walls.

  Dollar looked around at the same décor that he saw every day. “Yeah, I’m blessed, Brandi,” he said, with a sigh. “But you look like you didn’t expect for me to be living this good. It’s obvious that you really don’t know how I get down.”

  Brandi pulled off her boots before stepping onto the white area rug that was in the center of Dollar’s massive living room. As he took her coat to hang up in the closet, Brandi didn’t see his eyes roaming her shapely form.

  “So what did you want to talk to me about, Dollar?” she asked, after he walked back into the living room.

  But Dollar didn’t want to talk. He walked over to Brandi, making her stand up and face him. He began kissing her, placing soft, juicy kisses on her lips. She reciprocated and wrapped her arms around his broad shoulders. She sucked on his lips and tongue, softly moaning as they ground against each other.

  Dollar wasn’t able to wait any longer. He lifted Brandi up and proceeded to carry her into his spacious bedroom. Once they were in there, he slowly began undressing her. He unbuttoned her shirt dress and instantly was turned on by the hot pink lingerie she wore underneath her clothing.

  Brandi pulled Dollar’s Hermès sweater over his head, unbuckled his belt, and jeans. He let them fall to the floor and kicked them to the side, as Brandi ran her fingers over his six pack and chiseled arms.

  “Damn,” she mumbled under her breath, while admiring his frame.

  “I’ve always been in love with you,” Dollar whispered.

  Brandi eyes widened. That was the first time she had ever heard that from Dollar. “In love with me?”

  He ran the back of his hand against her right cheek. “Because you were dealing with Maleek at the time, babe, and he was my friend, it wasn’t the time.”

  Brandi got on her knees, pulled Dollar’s underwear to his ankles, and started giving him head.

  “Damn, Bee,” Dollar moaned. He watched as she sucked and licked on his rod. “I didn’t know you got down like this.”

  It was around seven o’clock in the evening when Brandi and Dollar finally got out of bed. They had spent most of the afternoon there, reminiscing about Brooklyn and laughing at some of the crazy things they used to do back then. Dollar even talked about growing up in different foster homes and how he used to ask God to find him a loving family to live with.

  “I’m telling you, Bee,” he said. “I can’t count the number of foster mothers I had. I’m talking about from the time that I was a small child. My first foster mother had me from when I was a year old and she died from a heart attack. I was about six years old then. She had no real family so I had to go back into a foster care. After that, I was done off.” Dollar went into a zone. “I was seriously fucked up, Bee. Because of my behavioral problems, I was unbearable to deal with and I had to be shuffled from home to home. The only place I ended up finding real brotherly love was from my friends and the old heads around the way. But I still regret not ever finding my biological mother and that shit still fucks with me to this day.” Brandi kissed Dollar on the cheek. “So what’s your story, Bee? What made Brandi the woman she is today?” he asked.

  Brandi sighed. She started talked about her wayward brothers and how it felt to grow up without her father: a man her mother never seemed to want to talk about.

  “For me, Maleek was my father figure. And for a long time, I did whatever it took to please that man. He practically raised me, which wasn’t a good thing. But after he was killed, it was like I was released from those reins and I got my shit right. My son is to thank for that, though. I felt like, shit, my son done lost one parent to the streets. I damn sure didn’t want him to lose another one, you know what I mean?”

  Dollar nodded his head. “I know what you mean. It was too bad that I didn’t form a tighter bond with my son. But that’s what happens when you impregnate a fucking stripper. My son’s mother was all about that money; that was her only love. It wasn’t until she saw me getting my life right that she decided to shape up but by then me and my son’s relationship was fucked up. She kept him from me so much that I just gave up. I didn’t want to have to deal with her.”

  After their talk, Dollar realized that he and Brandi had so much in common. But he still had his worries. Dollar’s biggest fear was losing her to someone else and the thought of that had him feeling a tad bit insecure.

  Brandi looked him in the eyes. “Listen, I love you, Dollar. I always had the utmost respect for you. And trust me, I ain’t going nowhere this time,” she said, after he expressed his uncertainties.

  Dollar breathed a sigh of relief. “But what about them other cats you fuck with, Bee? What you gonna do about them dudes?”

  Brandi got up from the
bed and slid into her panties and bra. “I have to admit that I’m scared of commitment, Dollar. I’ve been working through these damn issues but the truth is that it’s hard for me to trust any man,” she replied. “After Maleek, I just never been able to trust anyone.”

  Dollar had prompted her to come back to bed where he held her in his arms. “I’m not gonna tell you what to do, Bee,” he said, kissing her on the forehead. “But sooner or later, you’re gonna have to make a decision to settle down. We ain’t getting no younger and I want you in my life. I ain’t playing no games here.”

  Dollar kept replaying their candid talk as he watched Brandi put on her boots. He put his Timberland boots on too. “I want you to sleep on what we discussed today. I ain’t gonna pressure you into doing nothing but I want you to remember something. Dollar has no patience and he hates waiting.”

  Brandi grinned at the comment. “Yeah, I know, man.”

  On the ride home, Dollar and Brandi continued to act like love-struck teenagers. When they pulled up in front of Brandi’s building, they shared a sweet kiss. After the walls came down, it was like they couldn’t get enough of one another.

  “I really enjoyed our time together,” Brandi said, as she was getting out of Dollar’s truck.

  Dollar smiled at her. “I did too, Bee,” he replied. “But when am I going to see you again?”

  Brandi paused. “How about this Friday? We can spend the weekend together.”

  “I can’t wait, baby girl.”

  On his drive back home, Dollar couldn’t stop thinking about Brandi. He couldn’t believe that she was the young girl he fell in love with the very first time he saw her. Then Maleek turned her into a wildcat. He knocked her up at sixteen years old and then threw her to the wolves; the streets was nowhere for a girl like Brandi to learn her life lessons. Dollar couldn’t stand Maleek for doing that.

  Even though Brandi was all grown up now, Dollar could tell that she still had some of her old ways. She wasn’t exactly an honest and upfront woman. She hid behind a smokescreen of lies but insisted that the men in her life come clean about their indiscretions.

  Little did Brandi know, Dollar knew her truth.

  He knew that she set up Maleek to be killed. He even knew that she had sex with his right-hand man, Peeto, back in the days. Then there was her involvement in the drug game. Brandi was no different from Dollar. They had committed some of the same crimes. She had robberies, kidnapping, and even murder under her belt.

  But Dollar wasn’t going to judge Brandi, for he had a few deadly secrets of his own. He was going to take those secrets to the grave with him and kill anyone who couldn’t keep them.

  Chapter 23

  It was Monday afternoon when Kane was awakened by the smell of grits, eggs, and turkey ham being prepared in the kitchen of his sister’s home. He arose from the bed and slowly limped up the stairs from the guest room in the basement. When he walked into the kitchen, he smiled. Najah, his twenty-one-year-old niece, was standing over the stove and preparing the food. ”Hey, Najah,” Kane said, greeting her with a big kiss on the cheek. “I didn’t know that you were here.”

  Najah flipped the turkey ham over in the frying pan. The tantalizing scent of the food tickled Kane’s nose.

  “Good morning, Unc,” she said, with a smile. “Yeah, I’ve been here for the weekend but now I’m ready to head back up to school in another two hours or so.” She turned the eggs off and put them onto their plates. “Mommy told me about the fire, Uncle Kane. I’m sorry to hear about the house but I’m so glad that you got out of there in one piece.”

  Kane sat at the table and tightened the Ace bandage that was wrapped around his hurt ankle. ”Thank you, baby girl. I sure appreciate that. And I’m glad that I’m okay too. It’s a blessing that I was able to escape with just this busted ankle. I truly have to thank God for that, man.”

  Najah fixed Kane a plate and put it in front of him. Then she poured a glass of orange juice in a tall glass and handed that to him, too. Kane kissed his niece’s hand.

  “Thanks for the food, baby girl,” he said. “Got your old Unc feeling really special this morning.”

  Najah made her a plate of food and sat down across the table from Kane. “It’s not a problem, Unc. Me and Mommy are just glad that you made it out of that house alive!”

  Kane looked at his sweet niece and smiled. Now that his living situation was in order, he was ready to get to the bottom of things. The mysterious fire wasn’t just some kind of coincidence. He was convinced that someone was trying to take him out. And once he found out who that person was, he was going to deal with them accordingly.

  After seeing Najah off to her car, Kane took a refreshing shower and got dressed for the day. He slid into the same clothes that he wore from the night of the fire, only they were freshly washed and pressed, thanks to Tabitha. Within minutes, Kane had his coat on and was heading out to Brooklyn to meet with an Allstate insurance adjustor. He didn’t want to be late.

  On the ride back to his house, Kane kept replaying the images of the fire in his head. There were a few suspects who came to mind when he thought about the fire. Dollar was one of those suspects for obvious reasons and Sean was the other. Sean might have been a correction officer but he had a violent history. He hadn’t always been the most upstanding and law-abiding citizen he portrayed for the Department of Corrections. After their little run-in about Brandi, Kane didn’t know what Sean was capable of doing.

  When Kane arrived onto his block, his chest began to tighten up. He was experiencing the stress of everything that he was about to go through: the rebuilding of his home, a slight financial setback, and living with the fear that someone was really trying to kill him.

  Kane parked his car in the driveway and breathed a sigh of relief. On the outside, the house didn’t look as bad as he thought it would. But he was not prepared for how it looked on the inside. Kane walked into his two-story home and looked around in amazement. The sparkling hardwood floors squeaked as he walked throughout the bottom level of the house. Family portraits and other personal artifacts were strewn all over the place and his living room furniture was finished. Some of the items were burnt up and the rest had water damage.

  After inspecting his things, Kane became overcome with emotion. He started throwing items around and kicked waterlogged debris all over the place. Finally, after a few minutes of letting off some steam, Kane continued his inspection. When he walked into the kitchen, he was happy to see that there was minimal damage. With the exception of the soot-covered cabinets and appliances, everything was intact.

  Kane took a deep breath and slowly walked up the stairs to where the bedrooms were located. Thankfully, there wasn’t much damage up there, either. That gave him some temporary relief. The insurance adjuster calling his phone interrupted his thoughts.

  “Hello?” Kane said.

  “Hello, Mr. Porter? This is Mr. Varick, the insurance adjuster. I’m standing outside of your house.”

  “Okay, great. I’ll be right down to let you in.”

  It was the evening hours by the time Kane headed back to his sister’s house on Long Island. The meeting with the insurance adjuster had gone even better than how he’d expected it to. And after being told that a check would be sent to him by the end of the week, Kane felt much better. His beloved home was well on its way to becoming habitable again.

  Just as Kane was about to get on the parkway, he started missing Brandi. She didn’t live too far from the parkway. He called her phone to see if she was home but the call went straight to voice mail. Naturally, he was aggravated because of this.

  “I’m so tired of this broad!” Kane screamed, getting angrier at Brandi by the minute. Kane decided to pay Brandi another surprise visit. Instead of continuing onto the parkway, he got off the exit and headed to her house instead.

  Kane arrived in front of Brandi’s building and parked his car. Just as he about to get out, though, he noticed a truck idling a few feet away from his BMW. Th
e slightly paranoid Kane quickly got back into the driver’s seat. He was curious to see who was in that truck before he made another move toward the building.

  It didn’t take long for Kane to see exactly who was inside of the truck. It was Dollar.

  “That’s the motherfucker from the other night,” Kane said to himself. “I never forget a face.”

  He felt his blood boiling as soon as he saw Brandi getting out of the passenger side. Kane rolled down his car window, desperately trying to overhear their conversation from where he was parked.

  “Okay, Dollar baby,” Kane overheard Brandi say. As luck would have it, she was talking a little louder than usual. “I really enjoyed myself with you today.”

  She walked to the driver’s side of the truck, stepped onto the running board, and gave Dollar an intimate kiss through the open window. Not too long after that kiss, Brandi sashayed up the path leading to her building and Dollar pulled off as soon as she walked inside.

  Now Kane didn’t know what to do. He didn’t know who he should be more upset with: Brandi, Dollar, or himself for caring too much. But he didn’t ponder that thought too long. Kane hopped out of his vehicle and walked toward Brandi’s building. When he walked into the foyer area, he saw Brandi standing by her open mailbox and looking down at her mail. Kane knocked on the glass to get her attention. Brandi looked up at Kane with a surprised expression on her face, slowly walking over to the door and opening it for him.

  “Um, hey, Kane. What are you doing here?” she asked, giving him a bland kiss on the cheek.

  “Trying to come see you,” Kane replied sarcastically. He made an attempt to smile but the image of Brandi kissing his enemy, Dollar, kept running through his mind. “Let’s go upstairs. We need to talk.”

  Brandi seemed a little hesitant but she gave in. “Oh, okay. Just let me close my mailbox.”

  When they walked into Brandi’s apartment, she took off her coat and walked to her bedroom to put down her belongings. When she came back to the front, Kane was still standing by the door with a sour look on his face.