Trouble In Paradise (20 page)

“No
of course not I just don’t see the reason to continue when we know it won’t go any farther than this.”

He took a step back and arched his eyebrows a frown spreading across
his lips.

“Really, I didn’t know that.  This is news to me.”

She rolled her eyes.

“Oh come on now, you cannot be serious.”

“So you’re admitting that you just used me for a booty call,” he said pointing at her. 

She gasp
ed and started to laugh,

“I didn’t,” she said.  “Why would you say that, it’s not like that,” she sputtered, “you trippin’ now.”   

“You just openly admitted that you used me for a booty call.” 

“No I didn’t,” she said. 

“Ok,” he said waving his hands at her, “if you didn’t then what makes you think this won’t go any farther than this.”

Victoria felt queasiness in her stomach. 

“Why are you playing games?” she said.  “Are you trying to tell me you were looking for a girlfriend and you want me to be her because that’s the only other thing that could come out of this without it being a booty call.”  

“I want you, can’t you tell baby?  I’ve bumped into you on more than one occasion.  We have a lot in common; you’re so beautiful and relaxed.  I like you and I want you to let me love you.” 

He put his arms around her and pulled her closer.  Vi
ctoria’s heart fluttered for a moment.  She was completely caught off guard.  This guy was serious and what was this fluttering about, she seriously needed to snap out of it and get it together.  He kissed her in the same order he kissed her last night on her left cheek then her right, then her lips.  She kissed him back could still feel the fluttering.  Pulling away from him she took a deep breath. 

“Listen,” she said, “I like you and everything but I have a lot going on right now, I can’t start anything because I haven’t had closure on my current relationship, I’m not trying to lead you on or anything and I don’t want you to lead me on . . . .”

“Shhh,”

He put
his finger up to her mouth. 

“Calm down, I understand but I just want you to know you’re not a booty call, you’re everything else.  I’ll give you the time or space that you need to get things together, I’ll be here when you need me and my offer still stands.  When you’re ready to let me love you,”

He kissed her,

“
Then let me and I will.” 

He kissed her again and she melted in his arms.

What am I going to do with this man?

Chapter 24

The guard walked up to the metal door and stuck a key in the lock, it made a loud buzzing noise and the door to solitary confinement opened.  Danielle was hovering in a corner of the dark musty room that was the size of an elevator.  A single ray of light had shown in the room when the guard opened the door.

“Let’s go Shumaker!” the guard yelled. 

Danielle stood up and walked to the door in quick strides, she was exhausted.  There was no way she could sleep in that room. She had been hovering in that corner for twelve hours.  It wasn’t her fault, some girl actually had the nerve to try her and she took out all of her frustrations on the girl sending her to ICU; she had to be airlifted and everything.  Danielle almost added another murder charge to her long list of charges.  The lawyer suggested she be put in a cell by herself and to be funny the correctional officers put her in solitary.

“Sissies
,” she said out loud just thinking about it. 

“What you say?” the guard asked in an authoritative tone.

  Danielle didn’t look at him, she didn’t answer him either.  He stopped walking,

“Open Cell Block D,” he said. 

The door buzzed then slid open.  Danielle stepped into the cell.  She was the only one in there, but she knew she wouldn’t be for long before they threw someone in with her.  The door buzzed then closed.  She turned around. 

“Hey.”

She reached
out through the bars at the officer,

“C
an I get a shower?” 

She stunk; and
needed to take a shower.  They left her in the hole four days with no shower, fresh clothes or anything.  They had the tough guards on her because she had become a nuisance since she’d been there. 

“You won’t need one,” the guard said, with a hard stare.

“So you did all this for a man, must have been rocking the boat big time.”

Danielle’s face softened and turned into a sexy smile,

“I’m sure more than you’ve ever had baby besides no real man can wear pants that tight.”

She batted
her eyes referring to his union pants. 

The guard shot her a crazy look,

“Yeah, whatever,” he said and walked off. 

“Punk
,” she said.

Danielle sat down on the lower bunk and groaned.  What had she gotten herself into?  In jail with a murder charge and not only that, assault with a deadly weapon charges, resisting arrest charges, and who knows what else charges.  There was a felon on her record already so she wasn’t even supposed to be around guns. She dropped her head into her hands and squeezed her temples. 

“What am I going to do?” 

Taking another look at her surroundings the hard plank she was sitting on was supposed to be a bunk bed type of structure but the mattress was so thin it might as well have not been there. The cell had one toilet in it sitting in the back left hand corner and it smelled like it needed to be flushed. 

“Ugh, gross,” she said. 

The place had an iron musty smell, it was sickening.  She threw up so many times in solitary confinement there was literally a pile in the corner of the cell.  She had run out of vomit and a yellow liquid was the only thing coming out.  The only person she could contact was her lawyer.  They fed her through an opening in the door and she had been eating it and throwing it up.  There were no choices in here she would starve to death if she didn’t but the food tasted like mush.  After the first couple of meals Danielle decided to just eat the bread and mashed potatoes.  No way could she drink the milk or eat the spaghetti, the brown sauce they called tomato sauce was everything but.  The moment she tasted it on her tongue she gagged.  It was horrible.  The mashed came up after so long so all in all she was just drinking her juice, eating the bread, and the small amount of veggies that were on the plate.  Starving was an understatement.

When she spoke to her lawye
r she told her it was an accident she hadn’t tried to kill Leon, he was her friend, and she loved him.  He walked in the room startling her, she jumped and the gun went off. 

“I wasn’t trying to kill Leon,” she pleaded.  “I wasn’t trying to shoot Joshua either.” 

She closed her eyes tight and bit down on her bottom lip.

“I didn’t want to shoot my baby.” 

Tears started to stream down her face. 

“He was confessing his love to me, he reached for the gun and it went off again.” 

She thought about Leon and started to cry some more.  She had killed Leon.  This is not happening.  I never saw this coming.  It was never meant to hurt anyone, just scare them that’s all.  This is a nightmare I have to wake up from this. 

“You said Joshua saw you jump when he came through the door.  Ok, that would indicate that you were in fact startled like you say you were but Joshua was shot by you and I haven’t been able to reach him.  I think he has his hands full and besides he’s the one that’s pressing charges against you.  I don’t see why he would help you. 

Her eyes widen at the mention of Joshua betraying her again the first time when he had the detectives waiting for her and now this. 

“He’s pressing charges against me?” Danielle asked getting to her feet. 

“Yes, you shot him. You got all these innocent people in the middle of this, one is dead and one had been shot pretty badly.   We’ll be lucky if we can get you down to manslaughter and get you maybe a ten-year do five-year deal.”  

Danielle was in complete shock and silence at this point.  Her lawyer had explained it like it was a cake walk in the park. 

When Danielle finally spoke she said,

“So that means I’ll have to do five hard years and be on papers for the rest right?” 

Her lawyer had shaken her head yes and Danielle started to cry. She jumped in her face,

“You’re
fired!” she screamed at her attorney. 

“Excuse me?” 

“You heard me, your fired get out of here!  I’m paying you top dollar and the best you can do is ten years! Off with your head trick!” Danielle screamed.

Her lawyer wasn’t surprised, this girl was obviously out of her mind and didn’t have all her nuts and bolts tightened.  .

“Calm yourself, a decision hasn’t be made yet, I’m still negotiating with them to make sure we can get the best deal.  I’m also trying to get the charges dropped to accidental, we’ll see.” 

Danielle gave her a piercing look. 

“If you can’t do it, let me know and I’ll find someone who can.  There is no way I’m doing any time.  Get me off.  I don’t care what you have to do just do it.” 

How are they treating you in there?” she asked. 

“Like the bottom of the floor how do you think?” Danielle said bluntly.  “They’re treating me like that because they think I’m a piece of crap.  They feed me rat food.  There has to be a law about the way their treating me in here,” she huffed. 

“I will get right on that,
I will be back here tomorrow we need to discuss some things.  See you then.”

That was the last time she spoke to her before being locked in solitary confinement.

Danielle stood up banged against the cell door. 

“Can I make a phone call?” 

It was fairly quiet because everyone was eating chow so no one was trying to use the phone. 

“The phones are on,” the guard said.

She picked up the phone in her cell and tried Joshua’s phone.  She knew it was a long shot but it wouldn’t hurt to call.  To her surprise he answered and accepted the call. 

“Hello?” he barked.  

“Joshua, hi.  Baby I’m so sorry, I never meant to hurt you or Leon it happened so fast I was only there to . . . .”

“Save it Danielle,” Joshua snapped.  “I didn’t accept this call for you to ramble on and on about you being sorry trust me I know how sorry you are.  How are they treating you in there?”

“Um,” she said confused as to why he would ask after he just bit her head off.  “Not so good, actually they’ve been kind of pushing me around.” 

“Good,” he said. 

There was short silence. 

“Excuse me?” Danielle said. 

“You have single handedly ruined my life.  I cannot believe I have been with a woman like you.  Who are you, not the woman I’ve known since high school, you are someone else.  I wish I never met you.  I hope you rot in that jail cell you hear me!  My fiancé has left me, my house is officially a crime scene and my arm is in a cast because I’ve been shot.  I will not let you get away with this Danielle.  I will see to it that you rot and if you ever, and I mean ever by the grace of God get out of there, you better not come anywhere near me because I will kill you myself and that’s a promise!”  

Danielle’s mouth dropped open.  She could not believe this was her Joshua, the love of her life, the man she always saw herself with.  When she looked at him everything else was insignificant.  She knew he was mad but she was about to break. 

“I’m SORRY!” she screamed cutting him back off in the middle of his rant, “I just love you, is that such a crime Huh?”

“If you were in love with someone and you saw them being taken away from you do you know how you would react?” 

He did know because at that very moment he was unable to reach Victoria and he was ready to tear down the city of Chicago.  Unbalanced as ever since he woke in the hospital the next day and realized Victoria had not come back and no one could get in touch with her. 

“Yeah, I understand,” he said, “but I would never take it to the extreme that you have Danielle.” 

“How do you know, huh?  You haven’t been put in this situation.  You know me; you know what type of person I am.”

Joshua was shaking his head. 

“No, I knew you, but this person you are now I don’t know her and I don’t want to.” 

“That’s a lie!
” she screamed, “you do know me, I am a woman scorned.   The love of my live has run way with someone else and I am trying to figure out why I am not enough for him!  On top of that he will not even have a decent conversation with me.  I keep getting railroaded and avoided, how much better do you think that makes this situation?” 

“You have one minute remaining,” the automatic voice said. 

“Baby listen to me,” she said, “I love you forever.  You know I would never do anything to hurt you on purpose.  I need you to believe me, you have to believe me you know me, please don’t shut me out.” 

“Danielle, you have messed
up so bad.  You have killed somebody!  Someone innocent who came down here to support you I don’t believe there is any coming back from that.  I’m sorry.  This is over.  I hope you have a good lawyer,” he said before disconnecting the call. 

Danielle slammed the phone down.  She l
ooked around and picked the phone back up redialing Joshua.  This time he didn’t answer. 

  She hung u
p and thought for a second.  Danielle needed someone on her team and no one was coming to mind and then January popped up she might as well call her mother if she wanted that headache.  Massaging the sides of her temples was a temporary relief, calling January was all she could do.  After the call was connected January went into an immediate rant. 

“Girl what
are you doing locked up?” 

January started laughing. 

“Ahhh ha ha ha,” she laughed uncontrollably. 

Danielle pulled the phone away from her ear and looked at it. 

What was this girl laughing at? 

“What
is so funny?”  Danielle said. 

“Y
ou went down there and that man called the police on you.  Dang girl, what you do try to kill somebody?”

January continued to laugh hyster
ically.  Once the laughter subsided January said,

“So you need help huh?” 

“January, are you through laughing?” 

January cracked a smile and said,

“Yea, I’m sorry I couldn’t help myself I mean the last time I talked to you, you were getting ready to go see if you still had love with this man and now you’re calling me from jail.  It’s funny but its ok girl you know I got your back.  You’re lucky I’m a stay-at-home mom or I would be at work around this time.  Want me to call your mom?” 

“NO!” Danielle screamed.  “If I wanted to call her, I could’ve called her on my own.”

“I’ve been calling you since you’ve been up there and you haven’t been answering my phone calls, I figured everything must have been ok because you didn’t have the time to return them.  I knew eventually you would call though.  I’m sorry to say it’s from a jail cell.” 

January started to laugh again.  Danielle let her get all of her jokes out before she laid it on thick because she knew January wouldn’t have a thing to smile about once she told her what had transpired since she’d been in Chicago.

“This is serious January.” 

January’s smiled turned into a frown. 

“Ok, ok,” she said, “I’m all ears girl, as long as you didn’t kill nobody you’ll be ok.”