“Soooo?” I asked, wanting to know.
“I fuck with it now. I like her. She seems to really care about you, so that’s what sold me. That, and her success stories. I just wonder how you going to deal with that pain though. Free, andTommie already told you that having a baby feels like death. You cry from cramps. You don’t like pain,” he said, and I laughed because no lie, I had been thinking the same thing.
“That’s where you come into play. You gotta help me. I’m going to need you probably more than I’ve ever needed you before when it’s time for me to start pushing,” I said, and with a smile on his face, he nodded his head.
“I gotta prepare myself for the theatrics. I know you about to get on my fuckin nerves with that crying shit,” he said, and I took a hand from around his neck, so that I could slap him on his chest.
“I thought you said that you like that I’m emotional. Let me find out that you were lying to me,” I said.
“Emotional and being a brat is two different things. I hate it when you start acting like a brat. A nigga be ready to body slam your ass,” he joked, dropping his hands, putting them on my ass, so that he could squeeze my ass cheeks.
I just rolled my eyes at him, choosing not to engage. I was glad that he was on board for the water birth. I’m sure that I was probably going to work everyone’s nerves when that day came for me to bring my baby into this world. I’m sure my dramatics were going to be through the roof, but at least they were prepared for it, and nothing that I was going to do would come as a surprise to them.
Chapter 9
Rico Briggs
Crossing That Line
The sports attorney that was representing me was Donavan. Cool dude. He knew his shit too. I couldn’t say that I was surprised that he was good at what he did because he worked for Alecia’s firm. Alecia was the one that put me in contact with him, telling me that he worked well with these kinds of cases. What sold me was the fact that I wasn’t the first client of his that he had to defend for some bullshit like this. He did tell me, however, that I was the first client of his that had shit going on in the sports industry, and then just a few weeks later, my name was being called in a murder.
My name is hot right now. Usually, I would be trending for some good shit, like my talent that I had on the field, fashion because I loved to put that shit on, or the jewelry that I rocked because I loved to blow money on jewelry. This was the first time in my career that my name was getting dragged through the mud like this, and to cope with that shit, I’ve been staying off social media, and I didn’t watch the news whenever I was home.
As far as me being a person of interest in Toby’s murder, that was no longer a thing. The detective went on record to clear my name from that. The world knew that the case was now closed, and to them, I didn’t have shit to do with it. Of course, everyonearound the world had their theories on what really happened, and no lie, a lot of them weren’t too far from the truth. It wasn’t proven, but back when I was on social media, I did see where people were giving their think pieces, saying that I did kill Toby, since he exposed me for the part that I’d played in sports gambling with him. Mind you, Toby sent that shit to the league anonymously, but Miami people were smart, so they cracked the code.
Motha fuckas could think what they wanted to, but I wasn’t charged with that shit at the end of the day.
I had about fifteen minutes left in my meeting with Donovan. We were discussing a hearing that I had coming up. He was talking to me, telling me the route that we were going to go in once I had my day in court, when there was suddenly a knock on the glass door. Donovan let whoever was at the door know that they could come in, and it was Alecia.
She walked in, and just like I had been staring at her in awe the last couple of times that I was around her, I found myself doing that same thing today. That burnt orange pants suit that she was wearing was made for her body. It was clinging on her. I swear I couldn’t get enough of looking at her fine ass.
“Hey. I just got back from court. I have a few minutes until my next meeting. I’m going to sit in. I just want to hear where you are,” Alecia spoke.
She had a way of doing that shit so classy, yet she was assertive. You could tell that she wasn’t the type to fuck around with her staff because when she walked in, it’s like Donavan sat up straighter, and he stuttered when he responded back to her, letting her know that it was fine for her to sit in.
She didn’t come where we were. She chose to sit on the other end, and she had her notebook in her hand, in which she opened, and she kept her pen in her hand, more than likely going to write down important things that she heard us say during the meeting.
“Okay, where were we again?” Donavan nervously asked me, and I laughed because this fine ass woman had really come into the meeting, and she had this nigga stumbling, and choking on his words, forgetting what he was supposed to be doing.
“We were talking about the fact that I’m so perfect, and I never did anything like this before, so they could help a brotha out, and let me get back on the field,” I replied, and when I said that, Donovan shook his head, and I heard Alecia scoff from the other side of the table.
One thing I learned about her is that she was going to speak her mind. Her ass be cursing too. She didn’t care what came out of her mouth, and lowkey, I loved that shit too.
“And that’s where your wrong, Rico. A perfect man wouldn’t have gambled with his career the way you did. A perfect man would have been made aware the opportunity that was in front of him, along with the other influx of opportunities that was ahead of him and wouldn’t have been doing the goofy shit that you were doing. You were illegally gambling, while you were knowingly under contract. So no, lets remove the angle that you were a perfect man. The wording that you need to be saying is that you were… coachable, probably valuable, and fans will say that you were likable too. You can throw in smart too because I bet your ass is smart enough to not do it again!” she snapped, and like she wasn’t sitting across the table from me, reading a nigga, I smiled at every word that she said. I’ll get cursed out from her in any lifetime. She cursed a nigga out so beautifully.
Donovan and I got back to work, and he discussed everything that we talked about during our meeting to Alecia, and she nodded, gave pointers where she felt the need to, any corrections, and that was pretty much it. He worked under her, and I knew that it was important for her that all her attorneys win their cases, so any direction that she could give to him tohave us get the outcome that she wanted, she was going to do that.
It was now over, and I stood up, along with Donovan, so that I could shake his hand. He let Alecia know that he was going to take his break, and then he walked out of the room, leaving just the two of us inside.
“You believe in God?” Alecia asked me, as she stood up from the chair that she was sitting in.
She grabbed the notebook that she had been writing inside, held it in her hands, right along with the pen.
Her question caught me off guard. It made me wonder where she was headed with that question. She asked me that for a reason, and I was standing here, trying to figure out what that reason was.
“I do. Why? What’s up?” I inquired, wanting to know.
“I know detective Bryant. I know him personally. He’s been in the game long before I became an attorney. He’s damn good at what he does. I’ve seen him give justice to families that have lost their loved ones over the years. One thing that I know about him is that he doesn’t just close cases without finding out who did it. He’s too cocky in what he does, his accolades stretch too far for him to not get to the bottom of a murder. I just want to put something heavy on you and let you know that if you did kill Toby, if he wanted to dig deeper, and put that murder on you, he could have,” she voiced, and her words were enough to give a nigga chills.
