Saved By His Thug Love: A Hood Love Story

© 2018

Published by Leo Sullivan Presents

www.leolsullivan.com

All rights reserved.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. Unauthorized reproduction, in any manner, is prohibited.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Also by Jessica M

Prologue

Grace

Hope

Chaz

Merci Trouble Means

Grace

Nic

Hope

Trouble

Gigi

Chaz

Grace

Trouble

Nic

Grace

Gigi

Trouble

Trouble

Nic

Gigi

Chaz

Trouble

Grace

Chaz

Nic

Grace

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Acknowledgments

Life can become overwhelming and demanding at times but with the right support system it’s easier to pick up and keep pushing. Thank you to the select few that God chose to be in my life during the good, bad and the ugly times. I’m blessed!

First to God, thank you for my gift, but also thank you for the helpmate you sent my way to help mold me to the woman you would have me be. Chico, you are not only my husband, but my lover, my friend, my pastor and my biggest supporter. I know you don’t prefer to read urban fiction LOL, but for me, you do. You always get me. You find the messages in every one of my books without being told. It’s because you are the ying to my yang. We in this for life bae. Love you so much!

To mama, thank you for not just reading my work, but giving feedback. I love our talks about my books and what you get out of them. It means the world to me. Thank you for your unconditional love. I appreciate you!

To my sister, my friend, Kimitra, if you get a friend that you can share your life with that loves you through your flaws and all, then you are truly blessed and that’s how I feel. There have been women to come and go and that’s fine because some are only for a season, but when God sent you to me He knew exactly what I needed. We laugh, we cry and we fuss but we know it’s all out of love. I love you and appreciate you so much. Thank you for being here. I also want to tell you I’m so proud of the person you’ve become. A mother of five, a full time student, with a fulltime job is something to praise about. I’m here to give you your flowers while you still have blood running through your veins. I love you sis and I’m sooooooo happy about the things God is doing in your life. Stay encouraged!

To my LSP family, it’s a pleasure to be a part of one of the hardest working teams in the book world. I’m grateful!

Last but not least, I shout out my old hood Phyllis Goins Courts of Spartanburg, S.C. where I was born and raised. Growing up, I heard gun shots, saw drug deals, witnessed fights among a host of other things kids shouldn’t witness, but the hood wasn’t all bad. It was where I learned a since of family. It was where people actually stuck together, where they actually looked out for one another without always trying to bring the next person down. It was a place where neighbors fed one another kids without someone talking down on them. The hood was home to many. You could be from the hood without being hood.

I thank the Lord for my experiences, the good, bad and the ugly because they made me who I am. Most wouldn’t know I lived in the hood my entire childhood and teenage years but that’s because I made sure the hood didn’t make me. Use every experience good or bad and turn them into a positive thing. In the end, it’s our choices which make our lives what it is.

Much Love,

Jessica M.

Also by Jessica M

A NO GOOD LOVE AFFAIR

RISKING IT ALL FOR LOVE 1-3

I NEED A BOSS IN MY LIFE 1-3

I STILL NEED A BOSS IN MY LIFE (FOLLOW-UP)

CATCHING FEELINGS FOR A BOSS 1 & 2

FEENIN’ FOR HIS THUG LOVE 1 & 2

AN URBAN LOVE STORY GONE WRONG 1 & 2

SHAWTY FELL IN LOVE WITH A SAVAGE 1 & 2

LOVE UNDER FIRE 1 & 2

Prologue

Grace

T hanks for working out with me, boo. I hugged my friend and old neighbor, Denise, as she headed out of the YMCA.

My sister, Hope, was supposed to meet me to work out, but her lazy ass bailed on me at the last minute, claiming some work shit came up. Using my sweat rag to wipe my sweaty forehead, I took a sip from my water bottle and jogged down the stairs of the YMCA.

Heading out to my charcoal gray G-Wagon, I felt my phone vibrating in my purse. Once inside, I pulled it out and noticed a million notifications from my man, Chaz, who had not only called a million damn times but had texted a few times too, which was unlike Chaz.

Chaz and I hadn’t been communicating too well lately, so the missed calls and texts were a surprise. I knew if it were about our son, he would have said so, but the text only asked how long I would be out and when could he expect me back home.

Shrugging it off, I pulled away from the YMCA to head home to see what was up with him. My initial plan was to work out and then run on the trail at the park, which was my daily ritual. I was tired as hell today for some reason, so the trail run was a no go. Plus, I had to figure out some shit with my business tomorrow and needed all my rest.

On the ride to the crib, all I could think about was that lately, Chaz and I hadn’t been hitting on shit. We loved each other, but right now we didn’t like each other very much. We were into it about every fucking thing, and it was annoying. If I watched something on television that he didn’t like, he spoke on it. If I didn’t pull my car into the garage exactly the way he thought it should be, he spoke on it. If my phone rang too long without me picking it up, the nigga wanted to know why I hadn’t answered it yet. Even with all of that, I prayed we got back on track because our son deserved a family.

Chaz and I had been an item for the past three years. He was what we called hood. He sold dope, ran guns, and all that other good shit, but he covered it up by owning his own barbershop. I was born and raised in the projects of Spartanburg, South Carolina, while he was born and raised hours away in the hood on the East Side of Knoxville, Tennessee. I was attracted to Chaz’s mind before anything when we first met at USC Columbia. He was smart as shit, which surprised me in the beginning, but once I got to know him, I found out he had a lot to offer. He just chose to do illegal things to make money.

I really believed that the blow to his basketball career took him for a loop, and he gave up on everything. Basketball was his life. Chaz and his illegal dealings were another constant argument that we had. But, anyway! I loved everything about Chaz, from his dark chocolate skin covered in tats, all the way to his muscular build and dreads that touched his shoulders.

After our son, Chad, was born last year, I put a little weight on, and we went even further downhill. When we got together I was petite at about 5’5" and weighing around one hundred and twenty pounds. Well, we all know what a baby can do for you mentally and physically. No matter how much running and working out I did after giving birth, I just couldn’t seem to get the weight off. I was now at one hundred and fifty pounds, and even though I still thought I looked good and felt good too, Chaz didn't feel the same. Even when he didn’t voice it, I could tell.

Chaz never verbally spoke on my weight, but he made sure to ask if I was going to work out today or he might say, what you eat today and be sure to watch those carbs. Not saying anything technically about my weight, but the nigga still said something about my weight, if you get my drift.

At first, I didn’t want to believe that he was so childish to let my weight get in our way, but when he stopped wanting to have sex with me or would turn down the lights when we did have sex, I felt some type of way. Now, as more time passed, we were even more distant with him crashing in the room with our son or even on the sofa.

We stayed together to bring Chad up in a two-parent home; that was important to both of us, and the one thing we did agree on. I wanted us to get back to where we were before the baby, before the weight, and before his injury.

When we met three years ago, he helped pull me out of a funk. My father had just passed away from prostate cancer, and my mother hit a state of depression. Finishing college at USC Columbia was a struggle until I bumped into Chaz, who just happened to not only be the star of the basketball team, but he was just what I needed. He was not only easy on the eyes, but Chaz knew how to treat a woman. That was until life hit us both, and our relationship took a downward spiral. He fell at a game one Saturday night and blew out his knee. Then, to make matters worse, I found out I was pregnant.

Finally, with both us finishing our degrees and graduating with degrees in business, we decided to move back to my hometown of Spartanburg since I had more family than he did. Chaz’s mother was a crack addict, and his father was never around. He wanted no parts of returning to Tennessee, and I was fine with that. I preferred to be around my mother to help her cope with the loss of my father anyway, and to also be around my younger sister, Hope.

Hope and I were only eleven months apart, which not only made us close in age, but also close in spirit. She was my baby until my own son, Chad, came along.

Turning into my subdivision, I whipped into my driveway and noticed my sister’s car parked out front. I was elated to see her there but surprised since we hadn’t talked. Nonetheless, I was happy she was there so we could catch up. With me getting my dance studio off the ground and her staying with our mama and helping her get through our father’s death, we weren’t able to hang out like we used to. Sometimes I felt bad that I allowed my baby sister to stay home with our grieving mother instead of myself.

Hope swore that college life wasn’t for her, and she wanted me to go ahead with my plans. However, even with Hope’s blessing to move forward with my education, guilt still consumed me at times for leaving the burden for her to bear alone.

Shit, now that I thought about it, we hadn’t even talked on the phone. Every time I went to visit Mama the last few times, Hope was either at work or out with her new man as my mama called him. Hope and I never had secrets, but she had yet to tell me about this new nigga she was dating. Whoever he was, according to my mama, he was getting a lot of her time. Hope never was into boys like I was, so, for a long time, I thought she liked pussy. She swore she just hadn't found the right nigga, so I let it go. I would get on her ass about her secret nigga when I got inside.

Snatching up my Nike workout bag from the passenger seat, my bottled water, and my phone, I headed to my front door and unlocked it. When I walked in, I didn’t hear any laughing like I normally did when Hope was around. She was the jokester of the family. Her ass kept tears falling from my eyes and made my stomach hurt because she joked so damn much.

Peeping into the den, then making my way down the narrow walk way to the kitchen, there was still no sign of Hope or Chaz. Still not thinking anything about it, I tossed all my shit on the bar of my kitchen and noticed that my patio door was slightly ajar.

I forgot this hoe loved my pool.

Heading that way with a big ass grin on my face, I slid the patio door open. As soon as I stepped outside, rage swept over my body as I ran full force in the direction of my man and my sister. My vision was cloudy, but my body felt like a bull ready to attack my prey. My chest heaved up and down, and my breathing was labored.

Hope had a red and black two-piece bikini top on, but the bottoms were missing. Looking down next to the lounge chair, I spotted the bottoms underneath like they had been tossed off. Chaz had a fierce grip on her hips as she rode my nigga like her life depended on it. They were so engrossed in their sexscapade that no one even noticed me until I snatched her long