Page 5 of Dominated By Love

“Please, K. I can’t deal with the lecture from either of them right now. Just please come get me.”

“You know I got you,”I repeated.

“Thank you.”

“Sit tight, sweetheart. I’m coming.”

I let her end the call first as I raced through the deserted streets to the location that had been pinging with her picture for the last hour. Sage had no business in jail. I didn’t give a damn what they thought she’d done.

It took twenty-five minutes too long for me to get to her. My mind raced with the possibilities of what led to her being behind bars in the first place. Just a few hours ago, we were sitting ather son’s basketball game, and now she was locked up. Where in the world were JJ and his daddy? She mentioned that Jaylen’s flight had been delayed. Either he hadn’t made it in yet or he was locked up too. I just hoped little man was OK.

When I made it to the station, I parked in the first spot I came to and jumped out of the car. I rushed up to the door and pushed it open. Once I was inside, I headed to the desk, ready to demand that they let Sage go. I actually had to calm myself down because somebody had me fucked up. My baby didn’t deserve?—

“How can I help you, sir?” the lady behind the desk asked, stopping me from spiraling out of my mind.

Two whole hours later, I looked up and spotted Sage walking out of the building hugging herself like she was cold. I slid out of the driver’s seat and walked over to meet her. The closer that I got, the more I could see how rough she looked. Sage was beautiful on a bad day, but she didn’t look like her usual radiant self. Her hair was a mess, she was dressed in pajamas, and her eyes were red and puffy. It didn’t matter how much she tried to hold herself together; she knew she couldn’t get much of anything past me. When our eyes connected, she dropped her eyes to the ground.

“What the hell, Sage? Breaking and entering and vandalism? What the hell were you thinking?”

“K, please, not right now,” she said, shaking her head without looking up at me.

“It’s three o’clock in the morning, and I just bailed you out of fucking jail. I’m pretty sure that warrants some kind of explanation.”

She sighed as she finally looked up at me. “Not right now.”

“Is JJ still at his friend’s house?” I asked, changing the subject.

“Yes.”

“Good,” I said, leading the way to my car.

I opened the passenger door and stood aside to wait for her to get in. When she was in the car, I closed the door and walked around. Once I was inside, I pulled out of the parking lot, driving toward my rental property. I didn’t know if she wanted to be alone right now, but I wasn’t leaving her like this.

“It was Jaylen obviously,” she mumbled, looking out the window as she spoke.

His name made my spine stiffen, but I tried not to go straight into defense mode. Well, it was too late for that, but for the sake of Sage, I kept my voice even.

“What did he do?”

“Hmph, where do I start?”

“Start wherever you need to,” I suggested.

“He’s been super flaky lately, absent from home more. He’s checked out, even when he’s there. I’ve tried to give him time to tell me what was going on with him. It’s been months, maybe longer. Tonight, I found out exactly what it was.”

When she stopped talking, I gave her room to process her thoughts. I glanced over at her in time to see her swiping away tears. Silently, I prayed that those were the last tears I ever had to witness from her.

“I called him all day today, thinking something bad might have happened when he never showed up after his flight landed. I’m so tired of making excuses for him. I do it so much that now JJ beats me to the punch. Jaylen hasn’t shown his face at even one of our son’s games all season long. I’ve been calling, texting, and leaving voice messages for him all day long.

“A few hours ago, his assistant decides to send me a text message telling me that I need to move on because they’re starting a family. That bony, little heifer is having his baby,” she said. The way her voice broke almost made me wreck my car. That fuck boy didn’t deserve her tears. He never had.

Waving her hand as if it would delete what she’d just said, she shook her head. “No, I’m not going to speak ill on that lady just because she took my man. She was never my friend. She wasn’t the one who lived with me for years and refused to man up and tell me he was fucking someone else.”

“I’m still missing something here. How did you end up in jail, Sage?”

“Well, when she kept sending pictures of him in her bed asleep and showing me their house, I was devastated. There she was, playing on my phone and showing off their house when I’d just discovered a fucking foreclosure notice on our door. I cried myself to sleep wondering what the hell is going on. The whole time, he’s over there sleeping soundly next to another freaking woman. I was livid, K. I knew what I was doing was crazy, but I didn’t care.

“I saw the street name on one of the pictures she so graciously sent me. So, I went right over there and wrecked shop. No, I’m not proud of what I did, but he had it coming. I fucked up his whole memorabilia room. Bitch-ass nigga had me thinking he put his stuff in storage to renovate his man cave. Whole time he’s moving it into his new home. Like just tell the freaking truth for once! He owes me that much, KD. You know he does. My only regret is I didn’t beat his ass while I was at it.”