Some Came Desperate: A Love Saga (35 page)

       Shay began to back up a little.  Jules, however, would have none of that.  “Yes, she’s here,” Jules said.  “But she has a right to know why she’s being arrested.”

       “Are you Serita Rivers?” the officer asked Simone, but Simone, not about to agree to incarceration ever again in her life, shook her head.  The officer then looked at Shay.

       “Are you Serita Rivers?”

       Shay knew when the gig was up.  Instead of cowering in a corner the way she had hoped to do, she stepped up.  “Yeah, so, what’s it to you?” she asked.

       The other officer, the quiet one, immediately removed his handcuffs and took Serita by the arm.

       “You are being arrested, Miss Rivers,” the tall officer said, “for an assault with a deadly weapon on the person of one Hamilton —.”

       “Ham?” Shay said, astounded.  “You got to be jiving?” 

       “You have the right to remain silent,” the officer said as the quiet one began to handcuff her. 

       “But I ain’t done nothing!” Shay insisted.

       “What’s this about, Shay?” Jules asked, astounded too.

       “It ain’t about nothing,” Shay yelled.  “They got the wrong person.”

       “You didn’t attack Hamilton?”  Jules asked.

       “No!  I mean, I hit him, but I didn’t attack him!”

       “You didn’t hit him with a deadly weapon?”

       “What deadly weapon?” Shay said, amazed by the charge.  “I didn’t hit him with no deadly weapon.  I hit that joker with a hammer!”

       Jules looked at Simone and she couldn’t believe what she was hearing.  What was wrong with Shay, she wondered.  Did she have a brain in her head at all?

       “That’s enough, Serita,” Ethan said.  “Just don’t say anymore.”

       “Let’s go,” the officer said and the quiet one began to escort a now handcuffed Shay toward the exit.  The taller officer began again to read her her rights.

       “I’ll take care of everything,” Ethan said.

       “Don’t let them keep me in no jail, Simone!”  Shay yelled.  “Do something, Simone!”

       But there was nothing Simone could do.  The officers left with Shay.

       “That Shay!” Jules said, her anger palpable.  But Simone looked to Nick.

       “Will you go down there and get her, Nick?” Simone asked him.  But Ethan took offense.

       “I got this, Simone,” Ethan said.

       “Nick, will you?” Simone asked, ignoring Ethan.  She knew Ethan was an up-and-coming big shot, but Nick was already one.  And Shay didn’t need a wannabe right now.

       The last thing Nick wanted to do was to help that Serita Rivers with anything.  But for Simone he’d do anything.  “Of course,” he said.  And headed for the exit.

       Ethan looked at Simone with venom in his eyes.  “Don’t you ever embarrass me like that!” he yelled to her.  “You uneducated welfare queen!”

       “Welfare queen?” Jules said, surprised by Ethan.

       “You see the white man and go all ‘yes sur, massa, anything massa,’ to him.  Like he can do more than I can do!  I don’t know why I ever even bothered with some two-bit hoe like you.  You slut!” he said.  And then hurried out of the door after Nick.

TWENTY-EIGHT

It was nearly four hours later.  The party had broken up after Shay’s arrest and Simone decided to go back to her hotel room.  She couldn’t face Jeremy tonight, and eventually he would be there tonight downing Shay for getting arrested at his house and downing Simone for somehow being at fault.  How she could be at fault was anybody’s guess, but Jeremy would blame her.  Which didn’t matter either to Simone.  She just wanted Shay to be all right.  That was one human being who had been dealt a bad hand to begin with, and she needed her to be all right.

       When there was a knock on her hotel room door, Simone, who had been sitting on her suite’s sofa thinking about Shay, and about how crazy Shay could act sometimes, jumped.  And hurried to the door.

       It was Nick.  He looked tired but self-assured.  Only Simone looked past Nick.

       “Where’s Shay?” she asked him.

       “She wanted to be dropped off at Jules place to get her car.”

       “You mean they didn’t keep her?  They set bail already?”

       “Something like that.  May I come in, Simone?”

       Simone was astounded by her bad manners.  “Oh!  Yes.  Please.  I’m sorry.”  She moved aside and Nick walked in, closing the door behind him.  He was so tired he could hardly stand up.  But he was elated to have been there for Simone, too. 

       “So Shay’s at Jules’?” Simone asked as he entered.  “You took her to Jules’?” 

       “Yes, I took her there.  After they dropped the charges.”

       “Dropped the charges?” This surprised Simone.  “They dropped the charges?”

       “Yes.  The state attorney decided against bringing charges.  He cited not enough evidence.”

       “Oh, praise the Lord!” Simone said and immediately ran into Nick’s obliging arms.  “That’s wonderful news!” 

       Nick hugged her gladly, and he still wanted to hold her, but she pulled back.  He would not, however, release her, keeping his hands on her waist.

       “So she’s at Jules now?  That’s where she is?”

       “I doubt it.  She said she had some unfinished business to take care of.  She was getting in her car before I could even drive off.”

       “Unfinished business?” Simone asked, suddenly worried.  “Nick, please don’t tell me that that fool child has it in her head to go visit Hamilton Lucas.  Please don’t tell me that.”

       “I told her she had better not.  I told her that if she did she’d be on her own.  I wasn’t going to help her out of that jam and I wasn’t going to let you help her either, if she’s that foolish.”

       Simone nodded, still worried. “Yeah.  But Shay can be something else.”

       Nobody had to tell Nick about Serita Rivers.  He couldn’t stand Serita Rivers.  She was one female who made his skin crawl every time he was in her presence, especially the way she treated Simone.  Yet every time she got in trouble, it was Simone she was begging to help her.  And Simone, being the saint that she was, as far as Nick was concerned, always obliged.  And Simone was why Nick obliged Shay, too.

       They walked further into Simone’s hotel suite, still talking about Shay and took seats on the room’s sofa.  Nick unbuttoned his suit coat and leaned back.  Simone sat with her legs under her in a sideways recline.  They were both exhausted.

       “Thanks again for helping us, Nick,” Simone said.  Nick looked at her. 

       “I’ll do anything for you, Simone, you know that.  I just hope you don’t let Serita drag you down with her nonsense.  She’s bad news and you need to face that.”

       “I’ve faced it.  Of course I have.  But there’s still that part of me that won’t let the past go, Nick.  There’s still that part of me that believes if I could have been smarter when I was a kid, and could have figured out a way to get Shay away from that social worker, that she wouldn’t have turned out the way she did.  I’ll always believe that.”

       Nick didn’t respond to that.  He’d told her a thousand times that she was a kid herself, only fourteen, and no way could she have been responsible for that scene all those years ago.  But Simone wasn’t hearing him.  He looked down at her legs, at her perfectly smooth, sexy brown legs, and crossed his own. 

       “So,” he said, refusing to spend another second talking about that Serita Rivers, “when do you think you’ll be heading back to Atlanta?”

       Simone sighed at the thought of leaving Miami, although she knew she should have left already.  “Soon,” she said.  “I was trying to wait until after Shay’s deposition, but I don’t know.”

       This caused Nick to stare at her.  Was he going to lose her again?  The thought gave him a physical ache.  “Will you ever come back?” he asked slowly, nervously, and Simone could feel his pain.  She bit her lower lip.

       “Probably not,” she said.  “I mean, Jules doesn’t need me and Shay doesn’t want me so. . . What would I really have to come back to?”

       “Me,” Nick said without hesitation.  Simone, however, shook her head.

       “No, Nick.”

       Nick grabbed her by the hand.  “Simone, listen to me.”

       “No,” Simone said, still shaking her head.  “You’re a married man.  I don’t need to hear anything else.”

       “She hates me, Simone,” Nick said with a tinge of desperation in his voice.  “She blames me for her accident, for what happened to her.  She won’t even let me . . . There’s no marriage.  It never was.”

       Simone didn’t want to hear it.  He had a choice.  Even after Delia’s accident, he had a choice.  And he chose Delia.  Simone knew it now.  She didn’t want to hear any lame excuses.  “I don’t care what she does, and who she blames, she’s still your wife.”

       Nick leaned back and closed his eyes.  He looked so distraught to Simone that she felt suddenly burdened.  She wanted to get away.  Anywhere but here.  But he wouldn’t relinquish her hand.  “Is this my punishment now?” Nick asked, then looked his big, blue eyes at Simone.  His look devastated her.  “Is that what this is?” he continued.  “Was I so terrible a human being because I loved you and didn’t want to hurt Delia that I’m condemned to live like this for the rest of my life?  In this agony!  She hates me.  She won’t even let me touch her.  But I’m supposed to grin and take that?  I’m supposed to believe that I deserve that?  She was cheating on me with every Tom, Dick, and Harry before her accident, Simone.  She insisted that we have an open relationship.  As long as it was open only on her end, of course.  And I allowed it.  I loved her so much that I allowed it.”  Then he exhaled and leaned forward.  “I haven’t been with a woman in seven years, Simone.  Not since that night I was with you.”

       This stunned Simone.  Tears began to strain her lids.  “I haven’t been with another man since you,” Simone said.  “You’re still the only one.”

       Tears began to appear in Nick’s eyes and he couldn’t take it anymore.  He thought about Delia and her hatred.  He thought about all those lonely nights when all he could do was think about Simone and cry himself to sleep.  He thought about all of those long days when he wished sometimes that he could just get into his car and drive to the end of the world.  Only he knew he couldn’t just leave Delia like that.  And he felt like a sucker.  Like the biggest loser this side of living.  And he wanted more. He had to have more.  He looked at Simone.  And he wanted her.  Unlike he had ever wanted another woman before.  He grabbed her violently into his arms.

       “Simone, please don’t leave me!” he begged.  “Please don’t leave me again.  I’ll die if you leave me again!”

       Tears dropped from Simone’s eyes.  Because she knew it was true.  Why did Delia have to have that accident?  Why couldn’t she and Nick be together?  It was so unfair and Simone, like Nick, was tired of it too.  She wrapped her arms around him.

       “Oh, Nick!’ she cried.  “We can’t be together.”

       “Yes, we can,” Nick insisted and began kissing her.  “I can’t live without you, Simone.  We have to be together!” 

       And he lost it.  Because she allowed his kisses.  Because, when his lips touched hers, she didn’t resist him.  But it wasn’t enough.  He had to have her completely.  He couldn’t stop until he had every inch of her inside of him. 

       He began unbuttoning her blouse, his breathing so heavy that it sounded as if he was hyperventilating.  And Simone allowed him to remove her blouse, her bra, every piece of clothing she had on.  And they removed his in a panic-stricken, euphoria.  They were happy and they were terrified.  They were determined and they were desperate.  And when he lifted her and hurried her into the bedroom, refusing to relinquish his kisses, refusing to give her a chance to change her mind, life became like a moment in time.  And this was their moment.  Their one moment.  And when he laid her on that bed and entered her, both of their sex-starved bodies reeling with equal amounts of joy and pain, they could hardly believe their own actions.  But they couldn’t stop.  They felt pulled together by a force of their own creation, and for the life of them, they just couldn’t stop.