Forever a Hustler's Wife (7 page)

“You’ve never heard how I devour the courtroom?” he asked, almost in shock.

“No,” she lied. She had indeed heard of him. Lawyers knew lawyers and especially black lawyers. There was a small fan club of female attorneys who kept the chatter going on about Marvin Sledge.

“Well, basically, I know my stuff, and I know it well,” he started. “In the courtroom, pardon my comparison, if I took a dump in the middle of the floor, my shit wouldn’t stink…and that just about sums it up.”

Yarni moved the phone away from her mouth so he couldn’t hear her laugh.
Hmm, a minute man,
she thought.
Didn’t take him long at all to get his off.

“I hope I haven’t come on too strong, but you asked, and usually my work should speak for itself; but on the rare occasions I have to defend it, I suppose I can seem a bit sure of myself. But like I said, I know my stuff, and I know it well.”

“As do I, Mr. Sledge. As do I.” She put him in check because the cockiness was coming through the phone, but after looking at the photo on his résumé, she knew she shouldn’t have been surprised.

They continued to talk, and Yarni knew Marvin was full of bullshit, but she liked it because he was slick with it. She found his charisma and confidence in himself appealing, and she knew that he had the kind of game that would enable him to sell ice to an Eskimo. He had the ability to push the verdict he wanted over on a jury. She needed that on her team.

“Well, Mr. Sledge, I’ve enjoyed speaking with you, but, in all fairness, I have a couple more candidates I need to interview before I make any final decisions,” Yarni said.

“Understandable,” he agreed. “So I should look to hear back from you by—”

“Soon,” Yarni cut him off.

“Well then, I must say it has been my pleasure, and I look forward to working with you,” Marvin threw in.

Yarni shook her head at his level of confidence as she saw Des enter her office and sit down in the leather chair in front of her desk. “Yes, Mr. Sledge, just as soon as I conduct these last interviews I’ll be making a decision, and I’ll give you a call back then,” Yarni said before she hung up the phone. She smiled. Her mind was definitely already made up. “You ready, baby?” She quickly called Joyce to check on the baby as she pitched the other résumés in the trash. She walked from behind the desk and into Des’s arms.

CHAPTER 6

Get Money

Y
arni and Des barely noticed the food on the plates in front of them as they sat across from each other in the quiet restaurant, gazing into each other’s eyes. He had never seen his wife look more beautiful, and it took everything in him not to take her right there on the floor of the private room he had booked for their intimate night out together.

She had been to see the doctor the day before for her six-week checkup, and he knew with all she had gone through bringing their daughter into the world, he had to take his time and make it like their first time, but better.

After leaving the restaurant, and leaving behind barely eaten food, they headed toward the next private setting that awaited them for the night. Just as they reached suite 1064, Yarni’s cell phone rang. She answered it, and it was her sister, Bambi.

“Oooh, I am so happy!” Yarni screamed in excitement when she heard Bambi’s news. Yarni covered the phone and told Des, “They dropped the charges against Lynx.”

Des smiled. “That’s great.”

“B, how about I plan a little dinner at my house for him?” Yarni suggested.

“How are you going to be the event planner? That’s my job,” Bambi reminded her sister.

“I know, but we got the same blood. I’m sure I can pull it off. So let’s do it next week, once Lynx is settled and y’all have caught up.”

“I’ll think about it,” Bambi teased. “Where’s my niece?”

“At home with her YaYa.”

“Where are you?”

“At the Jefferson.” Yarni kicked off her shoes and lay across the bed next to Des.

“Getting your freak on, huh?”

“Trying to, but you holding me up. Cock-blocking just like a lil’ sister would,” Yarni added.

“Well, let’s definitely do breakfast, or lunch, or maybe even dinner, depending how he put it on you.”

“You mean how I put it on him,” Yarni said, giving Des a sexy smile.

“A’ight, kill it,” Des told Yarni, no longer trying to control his excitement at being with his wife again. “You can jabber with your sister on your own time, not during our quality time. No cell phones allowed.”

“Well, call me in the morning or whenever,” Bambi said. “Go handle your B-I.”

As Yarni was finishing the call with her sister, Des’s cell phone rang. “You need to turn your phone off while you making demands on me,” she said.

Des looked at the caller ID on his phone. “Baby, let me get this. It’s Sister Khadija giving me the nightly update.”

Sister Khadija was Des’s personal assistant. Her husband, Ahmeen, had been Des’s cellie, and she kept things in order for Des. She was organized and extremely loyal to Ahmeen, who was doing life in the penitentiary, and she was also loyal to Des. Des looked out for a bunch of guys in the penitentiary, men who didn’t have any business being incarcerated in the first place and weren’t leaving there unless someone broke them out or pulled a legislative Houdini. Des knew that he had been spared from the system by the grace of God, but some of the brothers he met were doomed, and one of the things he vowed after doing a dime in the joint was that he wouldn’t forsake them.

From the first day his lungs inhaled the sweet taste of freedom, he had kept true to his word. That was part of how Sister Khadija came into play. She kept up with the inmates’ kids’ birthdays and made sure Des sent birthday cards, paid for parties, or supplied whatever a specific situation called for. She reminded Des what needed to be taken care of. She kept up with the new addresses when his comrades were moved to other prisons as well as got money orders to ensure his friends’ inmate accounts were plentiful. That was the lightweight part of her job.

The heavyweight part was making sure that Des’s boy, Slim, kept his girls in check. She made sure that the cars were serviced and that there were rides and wake-up calls for the girls who smuggled his drugs into the penitentiary, an endeavor that generated a net profit of over $150,000 a month. Then there was Des’s ghetto philanthropy work and the money he blew on attorneys to work on his loyal comrades’ dead-end, sometimes hopeless cases. Thanks to Des, some little white boy was able to go to private school because Des was pouring money into the hands of his appeal-fighting father. Keeping up with the attorneys and their caseloads was all Sister Khadija, too.

Yarni had no problem with Sister Khadija, mainly because she was the ultimate Muslim woman. She kept her head wrapped and was always so pleasant and so submissive to her husband. There were days that Yarni felt she could learn a few things from her.

Des answered and listened as Sister Khadija filled him in on the work that was supposed to be done at the shop. “Brother Des, I forgot to tell you that the phone company is coming tomorrow to transfer the lines over to digital.”

“I’ll be there first thing in the morning,” Des informed her, then hung up.

“You gonna cut our date off early?” Yarni whined.

“Sister Khadija just called and said that they were going to be digging up around the office, and I need to be there.”

“I understand but—”

Des cut her off with a passionate kiss. “We’ll deal with that tomorrow,” he said. “Right now is about you and me.”

Yarni smiled. She placed a gentle kiss on his lips and whispered, “I’ll be right back.”

Yarni grabbed the overnight bag that she always kept at her office and hurried into the bathroom. She returned a few minutes later wearing a short, red see-through nightie and red high heels.

Des felt his breath catch, and his heart stopped for a minute. It was like he had stepped back in time and was reliving the first night he and Yarni made love. She posed and turned around for him. Like fine wine, she had definitely gotten better with time. In spite of just having had Desi six weeks ago, she was almost back down to her prepregnancy weight, but the little bit of extra that remained definitely looked good on her.

He grabbed her hand and pulled her so she was standing between his legs.

“You know how much I love you, right?” he whispered.

She nodded before placing gentle kisses on his hairy chest. Des lay back, ready to enjoy the ride. He closed his eyes as Yarni straddled him, and he ran his hands up her thighs. Des moaned at the thickness and softness of them. He then allowed his hands to cup her butt, drawing her closer to him.

She started fondling his nipples, and Des took in a ragged breath. She knew that drove him crazy, and he felt himself about to go over the edge. It had been entirely too long since he had been wrapped up in her womanhood. He made his way to her clit, a spot he’d played with many times before, but that night it felt like the first time. She smiled at him, seeing what he was thinking in his eyes. It did feel like their first time, but it was so much better. She was no longer an inexperienced little girl. She was a grown woman, and she knew how to please her man.

She slid down his body until she met his erection. Slowly she took him into her mouth and loved him until he thought he couldn’t take any more. Just as he was about to explode, she kicked things up a notch by sitting on top of him and riding him, surrounding him with her warmth, until he thought he would pass out.

He flipped her over onto her back and held her close as he buried himself deep inside her, finding their perfect rhythm before finally letting go.

“You okay?” he asked a short while later, as he was still trying to catch his breath.

Yarni nodded before giving him a shy smile.

“I was planning on us taking things slow since this was your first time since the baby, but I see you had other ideas.”

“You got that right,” Yarni said. “Six weeks is a long time. I don’t know about you, but tonight I plan to make up for lost time.”

She went to the bathroom and returned with a small bowl of warm water and a washcloth. Gently she cleaned him, all the while placing soft kisses across his chest and sucking on his nipples. Once she finished the sponge bath, she reached over to put the bowl on the nightstand; before she could turn around, she felt him planting himself inside her from behind. Never one to back down from a challenge, Yarni tightened herself around him, and before the night was over, he was calling her name.

The next morning, Des dropped Yarni back off at the law firm so she could pick up her car. “Thank you for an amazing night,” she said. She opened the door to get out, but he grabbed her and pulled her back inside, kissing her until she was breathless.

“Thank you for an amazing life,” he said. “I’ll see you when you get home.”

“No problem, baby,” she said, and she tried not to think that one day it could all be snatched away from them.

CHAPTER 7

The Monster-in-Law

Y
arni headed for her car, ready to go home to see her daughter. It was the longest she had ever been apart from her, and she was missing her terribly. She decided to hold off for a few minutes longer, when she realized she had to go back into the office to get Marvin Sledge’s résumé so she could check his references before she secured his position on the team. She knew there was a lot of ground that needed to be covered, and she was certain that Marvin Sledge would have the know-how, the drive, and the ups on how to put in the footwork to get on top of the Samuel Johnson case.

As she walked in the door, her paralegal handed her a stack of messages, including one from Des’s attorney, Mark Harowitz. He wanted to meet with her and Des at 3:00
P.M.
Yarni looked at her watch. It was only nine o’clock. It was still early, but she knew she had a busy day ahead of her and the time would fly. She needed to go home to see the baby, shower, and change clothes. She hadn’t had a chance to shower at the hotel since she and Des had been running late. Then she had a noon conference call at the office before meeting her sister for lunch. It was doable, if she left immediately.

“Layla, confirm this appointment,” Yarni said, handing the other woman the message from Harowitz as she rushed out the door. “Oh,” she said, swinging around, remembering how efficient her paralegal was. “I’ll call Des to let him know.” Then she ran out the door.

She called Des on her way home. “Hey, boo.”

“Hey, baby,” Des said, happy to hear from her. “What’s going on?”

“Harowitz called, and your discovery came back. He wants to discuss it with us.”

“Cool,” Des said into the phone, a bit preoccupied. “What year is that?” he asked someone at his shop.

Yarni carefully spoke, “Boo, I don’t have to go to the meeting, if you don’t want me to.”

“Why wouldn’t I want you to go? I don’t have anything to hide from you.”

“I know, baby, but I respect client/attorney privacy.” In her most sincere tone, she said, “Just so you know, I would not be offended at all if you wanted to hear the evidence alone.”

Des was silent for a minute, and Yarni knew him well enough to know that he thought he was talking to Yarni the lawyer. His silence indicated that he felt there may be doubt in her mind about his innocence. “Look, baby, I ain’t got shit to hide from you. Whatever evidence they got is bogus.”

“I know it’s BS, baby,” she said, assuring him that she believed in his innocence, and realizing that Des knew her all too well, “but you know whatever they got stacked against you, I’m going to have your back, baby.”

“No doubt, so come by here and scoop me when you’re on your way to Harowitz’s office.”

“Okay. See you later, baby. I love you.”

“I love you, too.”

Yarni hung up the phone and thought about what outfit she was going to change into after she showered. Once she arrived at the house, Joyce greeted her.

“What are you doing here?” her mother-in-law asked.

Yarni bit down the urge to say something she would regret. “I came home to take a quick shower and change before I head back to the office. I have a busy day today,” Yarni replied. “Where’s Desi?” She looked around, surprised Joyce wasn’t holding the baby.

“She’s in her nursery. I just put her down for a nap, so you shouldn’t disturb her.”

Yarni ignored her mother-in-law and went directly to the nursery. She immediately noticed that things had been changed around. All of the Pampers were gone.

“Joyce, did you move all the Pampers to the garage or into the attic?” she asked while picking up Desi.

Joyce casually answered, “No, I donated them to a good cause.”

“What cause? And why would you do that?”

“A charity,” she said, kissing little Desi. “My granddaughter doesn’t need to wear those Pampers. I told you she needs to wear cloth diapers, just like her daddy did.”

“Didn’t I tell you”—Yarni took a deep breath—“neither Des nor I have the time to deal with those diapers.”

“That’s why I got a diaper service,” Joyce said calmly. “They come twice a week to pick up the diapers and bring you clean ones. I’ll pay for it myself. It’s way cheaper than those Pampers anyway.”

“But we already had the Pampers. They were paid for already.”

“Well, I wanted to do it for my baby, and it ain’t costing you a thing, plus it’s much better for her.”

Yarni took another deep breath. “Look, you don’t do something like that without asking us. This isn’t your baby. I’d appreciate it if you’d stop making decisions as if Desi was your daughter.”

Joyce dropped her head, looking like she was about to cry.

Joyce’s wounded feelings did not evoke any pity from Yarni, nor did they make Yarni bite her tongue this time. Enough was enough. “I don’t appreciate you coming in here doing whatever you want to do. This isn’t your baby,” she said brazenly. “The last time I checked, this was my and Des’s baby.”

Joyce quickly transformed from a cub to a lion. “I just want to help,” Joyce shot back. “Since neither one of y’all know how to take care of a baby, never had one before, I thought I was doing y’all a favor.”

Yarni ignored her comment. “Look, Joyce, by all means we do appreciate you, but either you are going to respect what we ask you to do or we can hold interviews for a nanny.” Yarni stared her mother-in-law in the eyes, refusing to back down.

In the midst of the argument, Desi dumped a load. Once the smell hit her, Yarni turned her nose up at the baby.

Joyce immediately took control. She looked at her watch. “I thought you were in a hurry. From the smells of it, you don’t have time to change her. You need to get into the shower.” Joyce took the baby out of Yarni’s hands, and if Yarni wasn’t grateful for Joyce at any other time, she was then. She watched as Joyce talked to Desi, making fun of her stinking up the place. She smiled as she listened to Joyce and shook her head. What was she going to do with her mother-in-law? She couldn’t live with her and damn sure couldn’t live without her.