Trembling she nodded in agreement.
He tightened his grip and said, “I could kill you right now and not give it a second thought, you selfish, spoiled bitch. You're going to forget we ever met, or I swear to God I will make sure you spend the next twenty years behind bars.”
“Please don't,” she whispered. “I can't go back to that place.”
He pushed the gun harder against the side of her head and whispered, “Try me.”
With tears streaming down her face, she repeated over and over that she was sorry.
Ramsey tightened his grip on her neck and said, “If you have any more DVDs with me and you in compromising positions, you'd better destroy them, because if any more come to light, I will kill you.”
He released her, and she slid to the floor, trembling and crying hysterically. When she got the nerve to look up, he was gone. It was as if he was never there. She pulled herself off the floor and sat on the side of her bed to try and compose herself. She walked over to the mirror and inspected her neck. As expected, Ramsey's tight grip had left a dark bruise around her neck. Her head was tender where he had shoved the barrel of his gun against it as well. It was then that Andria realized how easily he could've killed her, and she also realized that she was trying to hold on to someone who didn't give a damn about her. She wiped the tears spilling out of her eyes and then pulled her cell phone out of her purse and confirmed her flight before gathering her belongings and walking out the door.
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Several hours later, Ramsey returned home and found Keilah pulling Neariah around in the baby pool on a float in the shape of a frog. He quickly changed into his swim trunks and joined them in the pool.
“Da-dee!” Neariah yelled.
He slid down in the pool and gave both his ladies a kiss. “Sorry I'm late. I got held up longer than expected.”
“I thought the trip to Atlanta was going to be a quick trip,” Keilah said.
Ramsey couldn't tell his wife that after leaving Atlanta, he flew to D.C. and threatened his former lover with death if she ever contacted him or his family again. It was obvious that Andria wasn't going to allow them the luxury of peace, so he did what he needed to do to stop her, and if she didn't, he would made good on his promise of jail or death, whichever he felt was necessary. After the trauma of Neariah's kidnapping and losing the baby, he wanted his wife to relax and start enjoying their early retirement.
“It was going to be a quick trip, sweetheart, but the seller tried to convince me not to pull out of the deal. He started throwing all sorts of incentives at me. I stayed to hear him out but ultimately told him we were no longer interested,” he lied as he pulled Neariah's frog float across the pool.
Neariah screamed and clapped as her father played in the water with her while Keilah snapped pictures and videos. Keilah climbed out of the pool, and Ramsey's eyes followed her over to her chair. He admired her luscious body in the lime-green bikini as she toweled off.
“You want something to drink?” she asked as she wrapped the towel around her hips.
“What I want is under that towel.”
She giggled and said, “You can have it anytime you want, babe. Now, do you want a drink?”
“Yeah, you can bring me a club soda.”
She walked over to their outdoor lounging area and pulled a couple of club sodas out of the refrigerator. She handed one to her husband, who continued to play with his daughter. Keilah took a sip of hers and knew this was the life she wanted with her husband. It had been a tough year personally, but it seemed like they could finally exhale and enjoy life.
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Andria stepped off the plane in Cabo and gave Rico a hug. He could see that she was upset, so they went to the bar to have a few drinks before heading to the hotel. While there she told Rico about Ramsey's unexpected visit. It wasn't long before the sting of the ordeal had diminished and she started feeling more relaxed and liberated.
“
Now
are you done with him?” Rico asked.
She held up her glass and said, “Yes, I'm done.”
“What about that dude your dad introduced you to? You should give him a chance.”
Andria shook her head and said, “He's nice, but he's not my type.”
Rico smiled and said, “Oh, I get it. You want a classy man with a little thug in him, huh?”
She held her drink up to him and, before draining it, said, “Okay? You know I need him to be a gentleman in the streets and a freak in the sheets. Now I'm ready to have some fun with my best friend. Let's get out of here so we can party.”
“Now, that's what I want to hear from my homegirl,” Rico stated as he took her suitcase and they exited the airport and made their way out to a waiting cab.
Epilogue
Two months later Kyle and Tori joined Ramsey and Keilah at their Florida home, along with Xenia, who by now was nearly four months pregnant, and her husband, Keith. All were in town to help celebrate Ramsey's birthday. Tori was off crutches, but when she walked, she had a slight limp, which was expected to diminish after a few more weeks of therapy. She and Kyle were planning a destination wedding in Jamaica with close family members and friends since they eloped, and everyone was looking forward to sharing in their joy. Kyle had taken family leave so he could care for his injured newlywed, and he was enjoying being out of Washington, D.C., for a while. It had been nearly two years since he had taken a real vacation, so he was enjoying becoming a beach bum with his best friend, Ramsey, and the rest of his family.
The Stones felt like they had finally arrived at their destination and couldn't be any happier than they were right now. They kept in touch with friends and family via webcam, which also came in handy when participating in meetings with their managers and brothers at their agency. The business was still flourishing, and they had received several lucrative offers to purchase their agency. The Stones were seriously considering selling, but they had to think about their loyal employees and what would happen to them if they did. They didn't want the reputation and name they had worked so hard to build to be mishandled in any way, so they were careful about which offers to take seriously.
After enjoying Ramsey's birthday celebration, Keilah received an e-mail from Michael saying that he and his fiancée had gotten married in a lavish ceremony in Washington a few weeks after they last spoke. He attached a wedding photograph to the e-mail and revealed that any day they would become parents to the orphaned child he wanted to adopt.
Andria and Rico were back in D.C., trying to get their lives on track after spending several weeks in Cabo San Lucas. She decided to invest in Rico's dream of being a business owner, so after he graduated from barber school, she became a co-owner with him of his very own barbershop. Andria was still trying to find herself and move forward. Even though she was lonely, she was sick of being defined by the men in her life, so she stepped out on faith and decided to open a designer boutique two doors down from Rico's barbershop, and both were an instant success. She seemed to have found a purpose providing quality items to shoppers who loved doing what she lovedâshopping.
Three years would pass before Ramsey and Keilah would welcome the newest member to their family, and in keeping with the Chance family's tradition, they gave their son, who weighed in at nearly nine pounds, the biblical name Isaiah Christopher Stone. It was also the same year that Ramsey decided to do something he had wanted to do for a long time. He knew his hands would be full helping Keilah raise Neariah and Isaiah, but now was the perfect opportunity for him to mentor young people and coach high school football. Ramsey had been a star linebacker in high school and college, where he majored in criminal justice. Even though he could do it if he wanted to, he wasn't the kind of a person who lay around and did nothing all day.
Keilah was in love with being a mother and a wife. She was happy not to have to work long hours in risky situations. If she got bored, she would travel to visit family and friends, and if that wasn't enough, she planned to take art, flower arranging, and cake decorating classes, partaking in the simple joys of life. A slow pace of life was what they both wanted, and they were going to savor every minute enjoying their precious stones.
Urban Books, LLC
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Precious Stones Copyright © 2012 Darrien Lee
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All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without prior consent of the Publisher, except brief quotes used in reviews.
ISBN: 978-1-6228-6023-4
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This is a work of fiction. Any references or similarities to actual events, real people, living, or dead, or to real locales are intended to give the novel a sense of reality. Any similarity in other names, characters, places, and incidents is entirely coincidental.
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