White Lines III Read Online Free Page B

for the buyers today. She was high off a mixture of adrenaline and angst.
    Her cell phone buzzed, and a crazy international number displayed on her caller ID. She sent it to voice mail, unaware that it was Sunny calling. She turned off her phone and tossed it into her Bottega Veneta bag. Whirling around to face the buyers, she flashed them her most alluring smile.
    â€œSo, guys, is it a yes?”
    *   *   *
    Malcolm stifled a yawn and glanced at his watch. He had sent his secretary home hours ago, and now it was so late that even the associates and paralegals had gone home for the night. It was nearly nine o’clock, and he had been working since seven o’clock that morning. In an effort to get Sunny off his mind, he had worked the whole day as if his life depended on it. It was the only way to distract himself from the feelings of self-loathing that crept up on him whenever he was idle. He had left her, the woman he loved, in Mexico with no one to help her. He felt terrible, having allowed his fear to take over. While he had been there in Mexico, being questioned mercilessly and threatened with jail time, all he had been able to think about was his career; how he could lose everything because of Sunny’s crazy ass. She had deceived him into thinking that she was clean. But the truth was that even as they vacationed—a trip that Malcolm had imagined as a precursor to the honeymoon he imagined they would enjoy someday—Sunny had been getting high the whole time. Now there was a dead man on the side of some Mexican dirt road, and Sunny was under arrest for cocaine possession. He had gotten the hell out of there as fast as he could.
    But now guilt had set in. Malcolm couldn’t face himself. It didn’t help that she had called the office three times that day for assistance—surely desperate for answers—as she faced the music all alone in Mexico. He hadn’t answered any of the calls from the international number, knowing that an angry Sunny was on the other end. Malcolm felt torn. Part of him believed that whatever happened to her would be justified. After all, she had killed a man. She had been buying and using cocaine while he had been oblivious. She had lied to him. She deserved to pay for those things. But, the other part felt horrible for abandoning her. He loved her. And instead of sticking around to help her, he had fled as soon as they said that he was free to leave.
    He had turned off his cell phone hours ago, after Sunny’s third call. He glanced at it now, made up his mind that tomorrow he would change the number. He stuck it in the top drawer of his desk, turned off the desktop lamp, and pushed back his chair. He stood up, stretched, and willed himself to think of anything but her. Malcolm grabbed his briefcase, and headed home for the night, telling himself that he had done the only thing he could. He had saved himself.
    *   *   *
    Jada lay in bed, not sleeping, but only half awake. She had tried everything from meditating to masturbating, and nothing seemed to bring her enough relief from her thoughts of Born. She thought about calling him, but worried that Sheldon might overhear her. She resented Sheldon for the distance she had been forced to put between her and the man she loved. Each night after dinner, Jada turned off the ringers on all the phones so that the noise wouldn’t disturb Sheldon while he slept. If Born tried calling her late at night after studio sessions with DJ, Jada usually missed the calls as a result. She hated this. Still, she didn’t dare to risk upsetting the calm that had finally settled in her home. Jada wanted her son to be happy, even if it meant sacrificing her own joy.
    She tried, for the thousandth time, to think of a way that they could all be a family. She kept coming up empty. The thought of it made her weary. It seemed that no matter how badly she wanted things to work out, there was no way.