What Lies Ahead

By TJ Atkins

Teresa is fed up with the constant disrespect by men in her life. She hastily decides that a change has to be made. Choosing to live the life of a player - she treats men any way she wants and only thinks of herself. When she finds stacks of money in an unusual place, she makes no exception and keeps the money for herself.

Luke is living the good life. His life of crime has him set for life and he can finally leave it behind. But forces beyond his control bring his world crashing down around him. Luke vows to make those responsible pay with no less than their lives.

As Luke and Teresa's worlds collide, is either one of them prepared for what lies ahead?

• Language: English
• Publisher: TJ Atkins
• Release date: Oct 1, 2011
• ISBN: 9781393778233

Book preview

Chapter 1

Teresa

HONEY YOU SO SWEET. Sugar, gone a long way to catch you. You so sweet...

The sound of Erykah Badu interrupted my sleep. It was the ringtone I had given to my current friend. I looked at the clocked and cursed, three in the morning. You have got to be kidding me, I said aloud as I fumbled for my cell phone on my nightstand. Hello.

Come open the door, said the baritone voice on the other end.

Are you shitting me? I buried my face into the pillow.

Woman come open the door! the voice insisted. I told you I was coming over here when I got off work.

Ugh, I’m coming. I ended the call, dragged myself out of the bed and went down the short hall of my one-bedroom apartment to the front door. I unlocked the door and swung it open to reveal Sean standing there with a duffel bag in his hand. I didn’t know if any other man could make a police uniform look any sexier, which was probably why I hadn’t been able to shake him. The sex was good, but that’s all we had between us. We were basically on opposite schedules. My schedule as a librarian had me getting off work at six o’clock p.m., just in time for him to be heading into work. I’d been telling him that I didn’t like it when he came over this early, but it hadn’t registered in his head. I guess I wasn’t going to make him understand by opening the door for him every time he called. Truth be told, I needed Sean, probably more than he needed me. My list of men had dwindled down from five to one in the past two months. When I thought about it, Sean only counted as half a man because we never went out on any dates. I guess Betty Wright said it best when she said, having a piece of man is better than having no man at all.

Why you always take so long to answer the door? Sean said as he made his way into the apartment. He walked into the kitchen and pulled a bottle of water out of the refrigerator.

Maybe because every time you come over, I’m right in the middle of a deep sleep? I shot back.

You should stay awake when you know I’m coming, he said after he drained the bottle.

What do I look like staying up until all hours of the morning waiting around on you? Knowing you’re going to keep me awake another two hours with your sexcapades. He smirked at me. I have to get some type of sleep or I’ll be dead to the world when I go to work. I walked back to my bedroom and Sean followed.

It’s not like you do anything all day anyway. Sean started to laugh. Nobody would even notice.

You know - I don’t like you, I said rolling my eyes at him.

Aw baby, you know I’m just playing. Sean started hugging on me and guided me towards the bed.

Whatever. Just because I’m not putting my life on the line every day, doesn’t mean I don’t do anything at work, I said as I lightly punched his arm. He started kissing me on my neck and we fell into the bed. All I could think was that there had to be something better out there.

MY EYES BURNED AS I opened them. I’d already hit the snooze button three times and I knew if I didn’t get out of bed, I was going to be late to work. I rolled out of bed and the cold air hit my naked body causing my nipples to stand at attention. I could feel a dull ache between my legs. I knew it was only going to hurt more when I walked. Sean was a rough lover and, surprisingly, I enjoyed that. I guess it was the naughty librarian in me. Sean was laying there without a care in the world and I was more than happy to burst his bubble.

Get up Sean. You have to get ready to go, I said. I poked his shoulder, but he didn’t budge. I have to take a shower and I don’t have time to fool with you while I’m getting ready. I’m already running late. He stirred a little bit under the covers, but still didn’t make a move to get out of the bed. I yanked the comforter and sheets off his body. That made him move.

Sean reached for the sheets. Just leave me your key and I’ll bring it to your job later.

How many times do I have to tell you that I’m not putting my business out there like that? Nobody at work needs to see you giving me my key and they know I’m single.

Why are you trying to keep up appearances? Those people don’t care about what you do and who you do it with.

I really wished that were true. The people I worked with were some of the nosiest folks I’d ever met in my life. I worked at a public library in Houston and most of the librarians there had no life. Anything they could find out about someone else’s life was welcome because it would add excitement to theirs. Not that my life was all that exciting either, I just didn’t want them in my business. Not to mention the customers that thought because you work in a public library, your life is an open book. They were always asking me where I lived, if I was married, where I’m from, if I had children, and on and on. If they saw me talking to a man they’d never seen before, I wouldn’t hear the end of it.

Look, you don’t worry about what I’m doing. Just get up and get ready to go, I said as I walked into my bathroom and turned on the shower. Thank heavens for good pipes. The water was hot immediately and it felt so good hitting my body. I fantasized about soaking in a tub full of hot water and bubbles, but there was no time for that right now. I stepped out of the shower and grabbed my gold colored bath size towel to dry off. I heard Sean moving around in the bedroom. I was surprised he hadn’t come in yet. He usually tried to get in the shower with me and make me late. I guess this morning he knew I wasn’t playing around.

I took a look at myself in the mirror and was disappointed at what I saw. I had really let my body go over the last few years. I would be turning thirty years old soon and I was nowhere near the body I had when I was twenty-five. I wasn’t really fat. I guess you would say I was thick, as Southern men liked to call it. It was actually one of the reasons Sean liked me. He disliked skinny women and preferred a woman with a little meat on her bones. Anytime I started talking about exercising or going on a diet, he was telling me how sexy I was. I was going to have to start doing something because all of my clothes were beginning to fit a little tight and I didn’t have the money for a new wardrobe.

I came out of the bathroom with my towel wrapped around my body. Sean was sitting on the bed putting on his shoes. You can’t be walking around half naked if you want me to leave, Sean said looking at me and licking his lips. I had to give it to him, he was sexy as a hell and it took everything in me not to drop my towel and jump his bones. But I had to get to work and I quickly started to concentrate on my closet. Pretending like I didn’t know I was going to put on my standard black slacks and button-down shirt. Sean got the picture from my silence and got up to leave.

I guess I’ll talk to you later, Sean yelled down the hall before he walked out of the front door.

No kiss goodbye. No hug. No nothing. I should have been used to it by now, but it still hurt every time. I got dressed and headed downstairs to my car.

I HATED DRIVING TO work. Houston traffic was ridiculous and I moved nowhere fast. I turned off the day-old entertainment news on the radio and started my audiobook. The chipper male voice started, the key to your happiness is all in your head. If you decide you want to be happy, then you’ll be happy. I laughed out loud.

The key to my happiness is money and a man, I said to the radio. Anyone who saw me probably thought I was a crazy lady talking to myself. I turned the book off and switched to my Brian McKnight mix CD. He was the only one who could put a smile on my face. I don’t know why I had gotten that stupid book anyway. I was at my wits end. I felt like I was heading towards depression and wanted to nip it in the bud before it started. I tried convincing myself that I had nothing to be depressed about, but I knew I was just lying to myself. Not only was the age thing bothering me, but I wasn’t where I thought I would be in life by this time. I wasn’t in a serious relationship and, honestly, I was never going to have one if I kept up this thing with Sean. To top it off, I’d just gotten passed up for a promotion at work. But hey, the happiness was all in my head. I arrived in the parking garage of the main library about five minutes after I was supposed to be sitting at my desk. I gathered my bags and headed toward the staff elevator.

Hey, Ms. Teresa.

A blue Buick LaSabre pulled up on the side of me. Behind the wheel was a customer that came to the library everyday to use the computers, Tony. All he did was sit at a computer on Facebook and call me over for help so that he could tell me how good I smelled or looked. He was an absolute weirdo and I suddenly felt very vulnerable standing in an underground parking lot with no one around but us. What the hell was he doing here anyway? The library didn’t open for another forty minutes. These were the days I wish we had a private staff parking lot.

Good morning, I said picking up my pace towards the elevator and clutching my bags closer to my body.

Where’s the fire? he said as he drove on the side of me. You running late or something? The library doesn’t open for a little while.

Actually, I am late. We have to be inside before the library opens. He stopped his car as I came to the elevator. I swiped my badge and pressed the button. This was the one day I wished this elevator wasn’t so slow. He stopped his car by the elevator.

You sure are looking nice today, he said grinning and showing a mouth full of gold teeth. He made me feel so dirty. I just knew he could see through my clothes.

Thank you, I said half-heartedly.

I gotta work on my resume today. Are you gonna be on the third floor to help me?

I don’t know where I’m going to be today, I said with as much attitude as I could muster. Unfortunately, he didn’t seem to notice. I heard a car door close in the distance and prayed that it was a coworker. Tony heard the car door too.

Alright then. I’ll just look for you, he said and drove off.

The one thing I disliked about working with the public is that you never knew what you were going to get. I became a librarian because I enjoyed helping people. Sometimes my kindness towards them was interpreted as flirting or trying to make friends. They didn’t get that I was just doing my job. I did meet a lot of nice people at the library, but it was the weirdos, like Tony, that scared me. He just seemed to come out of nowhere. He could have been stalking me for all I knew. Uncertainties like that made me second guess my career choice at times.

The elevator finally came. The doors squeaked as they struggled to open. It was a frightening experience just getting in, but I was accustomed to it by now. I had been working at the library for five years. I hated to think of how much time had gone by in my life. Five years gone by and I still hadn’t found happiness in my career or my personal life.

The elevator doors took as long to close as they did to open. In that time two other people walked on. Lucky dogs. How is it that I had to wait, but they time it just right to get on the elevator immediately? This was my life – never in the right place at the right time. One of the women was Linda Pearson. For some reason, I didn’t particularly like Linda. When I thought about it, I didn’t like most of the librarians that I worked with. It was weird, but it was like an old boys’ club for women. Even though thirty wasn’t young, it was young in the library world. Most of them looked at me as a threat because they knew I was smarter than they were and adapted easily to all of the changes that were being made. Little did they know, I had no intentions of aging and dying in the library. It was my worst fear – being the typical librarian that never marries, never has children, and ends up having only cats to keep her company. I refused to be sixty years old and still looking at those books.

Linda wasn’t the typical librarian, but I was jealous of her. It’s a shame, but that’s why I didn’t like her. She had everything I wished I had. She was in her mid-forties and married with children. Problem was, she wanted everyone to be just like her, so she pushed a little too much. She was always asking me when I was going to get married and trying to find men to fix me up with. She never really realized that I didn’t want her help.

Hey, Teresa. Who were you talking to? Linda asked smiling as she got onto the elevator.

That was just that customer Tony who is always bothering me, I said annoyed.

Oh, the one with golds? she said pointing at her front teeth.

Yeah, that one.

He has potential. Have you two been going out? she said as if she’d just found out a juicy secret.

It’s sad that she thought he had potential. She thought that any black man that came into the library had potential to be my future husband. No, we are not going out Linda. I am not that desperate. The other lady in the elevator snickered. I didn’t know who she was, but she would probably think of me as the desperate librarian every time she saw me.

No one is saying you’re desperate, Teresa. You just need to stop being so picky.

I wanted to go off on Linda right then and there and tell her that she didn’t know me like that. I stayed professional in spite of my true feelings. Linda, can we talk about something else. At that moment, the doors opened to the fourth floor and we both got off.

I guess we’ll talk later, Linda said as she walked to her cubicle in the opposite direction of mine.

I put my bags away in my cubicle and turned on my computer. I grabbed my coffee cup and headed toward the break room. No coffee was made, so I had to make it. It was amazing how many times I ended up making the coffee when I was always late. I started the coffee and headed back to my desk to check the schedule for where I would be for the day. Of course, I was working the third floor for the first two hours of the day. I just placed my head on my desk. It was going to be one of those days.

Chapter 2

Luke

I EASED MY FOOT OVER to the brake as the green light changed to yellow. The Ford Focus behind me honked, upset that I didn’t run through the yellow light. Unfortunately for her, I always avoided breaking any traffic laws. I was already driving a Cadillac Escalade with twenty-inch rims on it and that was enough reason for HPD to want to pull me over. I didn’t need to give them any more reasons.

I wished I could say that I didn’t warrant any attention. In truth, I was a criminal. Not the stealing, killing, and raping