Into The Deep End - A Roman Reigns Story

47

"I like the way you work it, no diggity, I got to bag it up bag it up," Sasha sang along to the song that was blasting out of a car somewhere as she shimmied her way across the restaurant's parking lot. A couple of steps behind her, Joe watched the little show his girlfriend was putting on. "That's the last time I ever order you Mai Tais, woman," he jibed, "Stick to your sissy Mojitos from now on."

"I'm not drunk if that's what you're implying, just a little tipsy," Sasha defended herself.

"Drunk, tipsy, it makes your singing worse and that's saying something," said Joe, intently watching her backside roll around in that tight dress he wanted to peel off of her body so badly. "On the bright side, I can watch you dance like that all night long. How the hell do you move your ass like that?"

"You can thank my Caribbean roots. And shut up about my singing. Ain't like you any better."

"You sure about that?" Joe taunted her, laughing when she turned and stuck out her tongue at him. They neared his Range Rover, and just as she was rounding the vehicle towards the passenger's side, Joe drew her back to him and pressed her against the side of the SUV. He gave up a long time ago on trying to keep his hands off her for more than ten seconds. He simply could not. His smoldering eyes locked onto hers. "You are so damn gorgeous, baby girl," he whispered gruffly, his hands gliding down her curves appreciatively. "The things I wanna do to you in this sexy fuckin' dress."

Flashing him a seductive smirk, she pulled him closer by his leather jacket – which he looked extremely sexy in – and ran her brightly-colored thumbnail over his lips. "Well, you can show me later tonight," she whispered back, as his fingers tangled in her curly hair. "Your place or mine?"

Without replying, Joe leaned down and kissed her, her face firmly in his grasp, his big body pressing hers insistently against the car. Oh yeah, she was getting it tonight. Their embrace was getting hotter and heavier when her phone went off in her purse, throwing her off balance. Sighing with annoyance, Sasha pulled back and retrieved the pesky phone. "It's Pam. Hold that thought," she grumbled, brushing past her boyfriend to get to the passenger's side of the car. "What up, trick?"

"Sasha! Sasha, where are you?"

At the sound of her best friend's hysterical tone, the mother-of-two froze, confusion and fear settling over her. "I'm still with Joe," she answered. "Are you crying? What's wrong?"

"You have to come to the hospital."

"The hospital? Why? Are you okay, Pam?"

Pam cried harder. "They shot him!"

Something inside Sasha plummeted like an anvil. "What? They shot who? What happened, Pamela?"

"Ty...baby, Ty got shot!"

And with those three words, Sasha felt the world and everything around her disintegrate into a pile of dust. "Wh-what?!" she said, barely able to force the word out of her mouth.

"They said they found him bleedin' out a couple of blocks from your place. I don't know all the details but...oh Sasha, please get to the hospital now!"

The hand holding her phone had slipped down from her ear. Suddenly the world was spinning, much too fast. She couldn't breathe; her lungs seemed to have locked up, blocking all the air from circulating, and she had to place her hands on the hood of the SUV to steady herself. The three words rang over and over in her head.

Ty got shot...

Ty got shot...

Ty got shot...

"Oh god," she gasped, her vision blurred by tears, "Oh my god...Ty...my baby..."

With narrowed eyes, Joe climbed back out of the Range Rover and approached her. "Babe? Sasha, what's going on?" he asked, taking in her devastated expression. All of a sudden her legs buckled, and he bolted forwards, catching her before she hit the ground. "Sasha!" he exclaimed, the concern on his features converting into alarm. "What is it? What happened? Talk to me!"